Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J C Schwarz

Publications and source records attributed to J C Schwarz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The relationship between parenting types and older adolescents' personality, academic achievement, adjustment, and substance use.

The purpose of the present study was to examine Baumrind's T3 conceptual framework using a multiple informant design and an older adolescent population. With 178 college students and their families as participants, the present study found many of the predicted relations between parents' child-rearing style (Authoritative, Democratic, Nondirective, Nonauthoritarian-Directive, Authoritarian-Directive, and Unengaged) and their adolescent children's behavior in the 4 domains assessed: personality, adjustment, academic achievement, and substance use. The differences between parenting types on the criterion measures were not as large as reported in Baumrind's study, and significant effects were predominantly due to the poor scores from children with Unengaged and Authoritarian-Directive parents. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the Authoritative parenting type, the utility of using a typology, and areas for future research.

Achievement↗

Alcohol and drug abusers subtyped by antisocial personality and primary or secondary depressive disorder.

Our data show that when substance abusers are subtyped simultaneously by antisocial personality disorder and the onset of depression relative to alcohol or drug abuse, groups of people with unique personality and affective profiles are identified. The profiles are represented by measures of affect-related personality variables such as trait anxiety, trait depression, histrionic traits, sensation seeking, and novelty seeking. These measures were chosen in an attempt to show that a "low arousal" personality type may be associated with antisocial personality and may thus indirectly be linked to a certain type (i.e., ASP/nondepressed) of substance abuser. By using a multi-symptomatic typological schema (i.e., a constellation of diagnostic categories rather than just one), we can show that different personality or affective profiles are indeed associated with certain subtypes of substance abusers and that depressed people who use drugs or alcohol are different affectively from antisocial types. We also show that the relationship between "low" and "high" arousal personality profile and subtypes based on co-morbid psychopathology is highlighted even more when we take into account the onset of dysthymia or depression that is primary versus secondary to substance abuse. Our findings are in accord with others' descriptions of the "affective arousal" dimensions of personality and are the first to link these dimensions with subtypes based on ASP and depression.

Adult↗

Dependency conflict, marital threat, and alcohol consumption in a middle-aged sample.

The hypothesis that dependency conflict is associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption when dependency needs are threatened or thwarted was tested with a sample of 672 middle-aged, married adults with college-age children. The subjects' current level of alcohol consumption was predicted based on the present level of threat to the marital relationship (assessed by reports from several family members) and on indices of dependency need and inhibition of dependent behavior estimated from sibship size, sibship density, and sibling position. A multiple regression analysis yielded a significant two-way interaction (p less than .05) between marital threat and subject sex, and a significant three-way interaction of dependency need, inhibition of dependent behavior, and marital threat. High marital threat was associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption in men and slightly lower levels of alcohol consumption in women. Additionally, when dependency need was high, alcohol consumption was generally low, except when both inhibition of dependent behavior and marital threat were high. However, when dependency need was low, the highest alcohol consumption score occurred when marital threat was low and inhibition was high.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Assessing child-rearing behaviors: a comparison of ratings made by mother, father, child, and sibling on the CRPBI.

This study of the reliability and validity of scales from the Child's Report of Parental Behavior (CRPBI) presents data on the utility of aggregating the ratings of multiple observers. Subjects were 680 individuals from 170 families. The participants in each family were a college freshman student, the mother, the father, and 1 sibling. The results revealed moderate internal consistency (M = .71) for all rater types on the 18 subscales of the CRPBI, but low interrater agreement (M = .30). The same factor structure was observed across the 4 rater types; however, aggregation within raters across salient scales to form estimated factor scores did not improve rater convergence appreciably (M = .36). Aggregation of factor scores across 2 raters yields much higher convergence (M = .51), and the 4-rater aggregates yielded impressive generalizability coefficients (M = .69). These and other analyses suggested that the responses of each family member contained a small proportion of true variance and a substantial proportion of factor-specific systematic error. The latter can be greatly reduced by aggregating scores across multiple raters.

Adolescent↗

Depression, guilt, and self-management of pleasant and unpleasant events.

The relation of subjects' depression and guilt to their choice to delay unpleasant and pleasant events was examined. Ninety-one college students chose to receive punishments and gratifications immediately or a week later. Depression, primarily in males, was related to a present orientation rather than a future orientation, namely, the choice of delayed punishments over immediate punishments and of immediate small rewards over large delayed rewards. This result supported the hypothesis that depressed individuals will attempt to correct a current aversive state rather than maximize long-term gains. High guilt in males was related to the choice of immediate punishment. The results are consistent with the view that behavior choices are determined in part by anticipated internal affective consequences.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Transcendental meditation verus muscle relaxation: two-year follow-up of a controlled experiment.

In this questionnaire survey the authors measured the outcome among 20 students randomly assigned to muscle relaxation training and 19 assigned to transcendental mediatation at one year (the number of respondents in each group was 13 and 16, respectively) and two and one-half years (the number of respondents was 18 and 17, respectively). At both follow-ups there were no differences between the groups in frequency of practice or satisfaction. In both groups, less than 25% reported more than moderate satisfaction, and less than 20% practices as mush as once per week. Subjects' expectancies at nine weeks predicted their satisfaction and frequency of practice at two and on-half years. The authors conclude that although some subjects (15%-20%) to enjoy and continue to practice transcendental meditation, it is not universally beneficial.

Anxiety↗