Developmental Predictors Research Articles

Psychosocial variables related to quantity of alcohol consumed at a single session by young Czech males.

SummaryResults based on interviews with a representative sample of 1,050 men aged 22–33, all residents of Prague, Czechoslovakia, are presented. The number of drinks consumed during the last drinking session was the dependent variable in a hierarchical stepwise multiple regression using 32 developmental, social, psychological and situational measures as independent variables. In the stepwise procedure, 17 variables were accepted as statistically significant predictor of the last session's consumption. Undisciplined behaviour in childhood is the strongest developmental predictors of high consumption, tolerant drinking norm of friends is the best social predictor, an appreciative attitude toward intoxicating drinking is the primary psychological predictor, and the context of drinking (social versus nutritional) heads the situational predictors. In summary, the more or less enduring individual characteristics explain 17% of the consumption variance and the situational variables explain an additional 11%.

Cognitive Development and Television Comprehension

The objective of this study was to determine whether several key concepts related to child development could be extended to existing theory and research concerning the comprehension of television by kindergartners and early primary school children. Much of the current research in the effects tradition has concentrated on the role of television in eliciting aggressive behavior. A neglected area is the function of television as a teacher of such things as appropriate social behavior, the ways by which characters resolve problems and the motives of individuals. During a one-year period several groups of young children were observed to determine how information from television programs was incorporated into their play, and to what extent developmental predictors such as role-taking, narrative recall, and liking for programs mediated the process of learning. For a more rigorous investigation, ninety children of three grade levels were given several cognitive developmental tasks to assess the specific instances of problem resolutions and motive content extracted from a popular television program. Results indicate that role-taking and program-liking are significant predictors of program comprehension, but narrative recall is not. Overall analysis of results suggests that individual differences among children partially explain the amount and kind of social learning from the medium, while chronological age is the most accurate index of content-learning.

A three-year posthospital follow-up of adolescent and adult schizophrenics.

A follow-up of 81 well-educated, voluntary, intensively treated schizophrenic patients, divided into three groups according to age of first hospitalization, revealed that adolescents had the most unfavorable outcome, older adults the most favorable. Developmental, social, diagnostic, and psychometric predictors of outcome are discussed, as well as theoretical and practical implications.