Peer Confederates Research Articles

The Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder - Parent (PSCD-P): Convergent Validity, Incremental Validity, and Reactions to Unfamiliar Peer Confederates.

Youth who experience psychopathy display multiple impairments across interpersonal (grandiose-manipulative [GM]), affective (callous-unemotional [CU]), lifestyle (daring-impulsive [DI]), and potentially antisocial and behavioral features. Recently, it has been acknowledged that the inclusion of psychopathic features can offer valuable information in relation to the etiology of Conduct Disorder (CD). Yet, prior work largely focuses on the affective component of psychopathy, namely CU. This focus creates uncertainty in the literature on the incremental value of a multicomponent approach to understanding CD-linked domains. Consequently, researchers developed the Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder (PSCD; Salekin & Hare, 2016) as a multicomponent approach to assess GM, CU, and DI features in combination with CD symptoms. The notion of considering the wider set of psychopathic features for CD specification requires testing whether multiple personality dimensions predict domain-relevant criterion outcomes above-and-beyond a CU-based approach. Thus, we tested the psychometric properties of parents' reports on the PSCD (PSCD-P) in a mixed clinical/community sample of 134 adolescents (Mage = 14.49, 66.4% female). Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 19-item PSCD-P displaying acceptable reliability estimates and a bifactor solution consisting of GM, CU, DI, and CD factors. Findings supported the incremental validity of scores taken from the PSCD-P across multiple criterion variables, including (a) an established survey measure of parent-adolescent conflict; and (b) trained independent observers' ratings of adolescents' behavioral reactions to laboratory controlled tasks designed to simulate social interactions with unfamiliar peers. These findings have important implications for future research on the PSCD and links to adolescents' interpersonal functioning.

When Adolescents Experience Co-Occurring Social Anxiety and ADHD Symptoms: Links With Social Skills When Interacting With Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescents with elevated social anxiety commonly experience peer-related impairments – particularly with same-age, unfamiliar peers – stemming from their avoidant behaviors. Yet, peer-related impairments are not unique to social anxiety. For example, adolescents who experience social anxiety may also experience symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which also increase risk for peer-related impairments. Relative to social anxiety, peer-related impairments linked to ADHD symptoms more likely stem from hyperactivity (i.e., approach behaviors). These distinct pathways point to adolescents with elevated social anxiety and ADHD symptoms (i.e., social anxiety + ADHD) experiencing particularly high peer-related impairments, which commonly manifest as behavioral displays of low social skills when interacting with unfamiliar peers. We tested this notion in a mixed-clinical/community sample of 134 14- to 15-year-old adolescents and their parents. Adolescents participated in a series of social interaction tasks designed to simulate how adolescents interact with same-age, unfamiliar peers. Trained observers independently rated adolescents on observed social skills within these interactions. Both parents and adolescents completed parallel surveys of social anxiety and ADHD symptoms, which we used to identify social anxiety + ADHD adolescents as well as other combinations of social anxiety and ADHD symptoms (i.e., neither, elevated on one but not the other). Adolescents with social anxiety + ADHD displayed significantly lower social skills, relative to all other groups. Among adolescents, social anxiety + ADHD may have a compounding effect on social skills. As such, therapists working with social anxiety + ADHD adolescents should probe for peer-related impairments and factors implicated in the development and maintenance of these impairments.

Adolescent Safety Behaviors and Social Anxiety: Links to Psychosocial Impairments and Functioning with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates.

Socially anxious adolescents often endure anxiety-provoking situations using safety behaviors: strategies for minimizing in-the-moment distress (e.g., avoiding eye contact, rehearsing statements before entering a conversation). Studies linking safety behaviors to impaired functioning have largely focused on adults. In a sample of one hundred thirty-four 14 to 15 year-old adolescents, we tested whether levels of safety behaviors among socially anxious adolescents relate to multiple domains of impaired functioning. Adolescents, parents, and research personnel completed survey measures of safety behaviors and social anxiety, adolescents and parents reported about adolescents' evaluative fears and psychosocial impairments, and adolescents participated in a set of tasks designed to simulate social interactions with same-age, unfamiliar peers. Relative to other adolescents in the sample, adolescents high on both safety behaviors and social anxiety displayed greater psychosocial impairments, evaluative fears, and observed social skills deficits within social interactions. These findings have important implications for assessing and treating adolescent social anxiety.

Increasing Requests for Information by Preschoolers with and without Language-Based Disabilities

We report two experiments on the emission of questions to request the names of unfamiliar stimuli by preschoolers. In the first experiment, 19 preschoolers with and without disabilities served as participants. Experiment 1 was a descriptive analysis of whether or not the 19 participants asked questions about unfamiliar pictures and objects in one-to-one and group settings. These were dependent variables in the second experiment as well. Four participants, who did not ask any questions in the first experiment, served as participants in the second experiment. During the intervention, the participants observed the peer confederates (1) ask questions (e.g., “What is that?”), (2) receive information from the experimenter, and (3) receive praise and tokens contingent on asking a question. A multiple probe design across participants was used. The data showed that the participants increased the number of questions when we returned to baseline conditions. Results are discussed in terms of where the reinforcement exists for asking questions about unfamiliar things in one’s environment, and whether this truly measures the “need to know”.

Unfamiliar Untrained Observers’ Ratings of Adolescent Safety Behaviors Within Social Interactions with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescents experiencing social anxiety often engage in safety behaviors―covert avoidance strategies for managing distress (e.g., avoiding eye contact)―that factor into the development and maintenance of their concerns. Prior work supports the psychometric properties of the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE), a self-report survey of safety behaviors. Yet, we need complementary methods for assessing these behaviors within contexts where adolescents often experience concerns, namely, interactions with unfamiliar peers. Recent work indicates that, based on short, direct social interactions with adolescents, individuals posing as unfamiliar peers (i.e., peer confederates) and without assessment training can capably report about adolescent social anxiety. We built on prior work by testing whether we could gather valid SAFE reports from unfamiliar untrained observers (UUOs), who observed adolescents within archived recordings of these short social interactions. A mixed clinical/community sample of 105 adolescents self-reported on their functioning and participated in a series of social interaction tasks with peer confederates, who also provided social anxiety reports about the adolescent. Based on video recordings of these tasks, trained independent observers rated adolescents’ observed social skills, and an additional set of UUOs completed SAFE reports of these same adolescents. Unfamiliar untrained observers’ SAFE reports (a) related to adolescents’ SAFE self-reports, (b) distinguished adolescents on clinically elevated social anxiety concerns, (c) related to trained independent observers’ ratings of adolescent social skills within interactions with peer confederates, and (d) related to adolescents’ self-reported arousal within these same interactions. Our findings support use of unfamiliar observers’ perspectives to understand socially anxious adolescents’ interpersonal functioning.

Trained Observers’ Ratings of Adolescents’ Social Anxiety and Social Skills within Controlled, Cross-Contextual Social Interactions with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescents at a high-risk for experiencing social anxiety display elevated distress and social skills deficits in social interactions with unfamiliar peers. However, not all adolescents find the same interactions distressing, necessitating an approach that is sensitive to key aspects of the social contexts in which interactions manifest. Along these lines, socially anxious adolescents may display significant impairments within interactions with unfamiliar peers, and yet a core challenge in clinical assessment involves simulating social interactions with unfamiliar peers. Recent work suggests that one can construct cross-contextual interaction tasks using personnel trained to resemble unfamiliar same-age peers. This study examined the psychometric properties of independent observers’ ratings of adolescents’ social anxiety and social skills within these tasks. Eighty-nine adolescents (M = 14.50 years; 30 clinic-referred; 59 community control) and their parents completed reports of adolescent social anxiety on parallel surveys. Adolescents participated in a series of counterbalanced tasks with trained unfamiliar peer confederates. These tasks assessed adolescents’ reactions to interactions with unfamiliar peers within unstructured versus structured social contexts. Two trained observers independently completed behavioral ratings of adolescents using a well-established coding system, and peer confederates completed survey reports about social anxiety for the adolescents with whom they interacted. Observers’ ratings related to informants’ survey reports of adolescent social anxiety and social skills. Observers’ ratings distinguished adolescents on referral status. Observers rated adolescents’ social anxiety highest and social skills lowest during unstructured social contexts, relative to structured social contexts. These findings have important implications for constructing evidence-based, cross-contextual behavioral assessments of adolescents’ social anxiety.

A Multi-Informant Approach to Assessing Safety Behaviors among Adolescents: Psychometric Properties of the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination

Safety behaviors are subtle avoidance strategies for minimizing distress within social situations (e.g., avoidance of eye contact). These behaviors factor prominently in the development and maintenance of social anxiety concerns, and when patients use these behaviors within psychosocial treatments for social anxiety, this may impede treatment response. Prior work supports the need to include measures of safety behaviors within evidence-based assessments of social anxiety. Along these lines, researchers developed the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE) to assess safety behaviors among adults. However, we know relatively little about the SAFE’s psychometric properties when administered to adolescents. We tested the SAFE’s psychometric properties using adolescent self-reports and parallel parent reports in a mixed-clinical/community sample of 96 14 to 15 year-old adolescents and their parents (33 clinic-referred; 63 community control; 59.4% African American). Adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed moderate correspondence with each other. Both adolescent and parent SAFE reports related positively to well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Both reports distinguished adolescents on referral status as well as cut scores on well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety. Further, both adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed incremental validity in relation to survey reports of adolescent social anxiety, over-and-above survey reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, which commonly co-occur with social anxiety. However, adolescent (but not parent) SAFE reports predicted adolescents’ social anxiety and state arousal as displayed within social interactions with unfamiliar peer confederates. These findings have important implications for leveraging multi-informant approaches to assessing safety behaviors among adolescents.

Interaction Between the μ-Opioid Receptor Gene and the Number of Heavy-Drinking Peers on Alcohol Use.

The presence of heavy-drinking peers may trigger genetic vulnerabilities to alcohol use. Limited correlational findings, albeit mixed as a function of age, suggest that carriers of a μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) G allele may be more vulnerable than noncarriers to alcohol-promoting perceived peer environments. However, research has not yet examined such genetic susceptibility to actual (rather than perceived) peer environments through an experimental, adlibitum alcohol administration design. This study examined whether OPRM1 modulates the effects of heavy-drinking group size on alcohol consumption and explored potential mediators of such OPRM1-based differences. Caucasian young adult moderate to heavy drinkers (N=116; mean age=22years [SD=2.21], 49% female) were randomly assigned to consume alcohol in the presence of none, 1, or 3 heavy-drinking peer confederates. Results showed no significant moderating effects of OPRM1 in the relationship between the number (or presence) of heavy-drinking peers and voluntary alcohol consumption (partial η2 =0.01). This result remained the same after controlling for sex, age, and typical drinking quantity as well as their 2-way interactions with OPRM1 and social drinking condition. In addition, OPRM1 did not moderate the peer influence on any proposed mediating variables, including craving for alcohol and subjective responses to alcohol. Findings suggest no OPRM1-based susceptibility to the number of heavy-drinking peers, adding to the existing mixed findings from correlational studies. Future research on OPRM1-related susceptibility to alcohol-promoting peer environments through meta-analytic synthesis and both experimental and prospective, multiwave designs is needed to resolve these mixed findings.

Multi-Informant Assessments of Adolescent Social Anxiety: Adding Clarity by Leveraging Reports from Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

Adolescent social anxiety (SA) assessments often include adolescent and parent reports, and low reporting correspondence results in uncertainties in clinical decision-making. Adolescents display SA within non-home contexts such as peer interactions. Yet, current methods for collecting peer reports raise confidentiality concerns, though adolescent SA assessments nonetheless would benefit from context-specific reports relevant to adolescent SA (i.e., interactions with unfamiliar peers). In a sample of 89 adolescents (30 Evaluation-Seeking; 59 Community Control), we collected SA reports from adolescents and their parents, and SA reports from unfamiliar peer confederates who interacted with adolescents during 20-minute mock social interactions. Adolescents and parents completed reports on trait measures of adolescent SA and related concerns (e.g., depressive symptoms), and adolescents completed self-reports of state arousal within mock social interactions. Adolescents’ SA reports correlated with reports on parallel measures from parents in the .30s and with peer confederates in the .40s to .50s, whereas reports from parent-confederate dyads correlated in the .07 to .22 range. Adolescent, parent, and peer confederate SA reports related to reports on trait measures of adolescent SA and depressive symptoms, and distinguished Evaluation-Seeking from Community Control Adolescents. Confederates’ SA reports incrementally predicted adolescents’ self-reported SA over and above parent reports, and vice versa, with combined Rs ranging from .51 to .60. These combined Rs approximate typical correspondence levels between informants who observe adolescents in the same context (e.g., mother-father). Adolescent and peer confederate (but not parent) SA reports predicted adolescents’ state arousal in social interactions. These findings have implications for clarifying patterns of reporting correspondence in clinical assessments of adolescent SA.

Establishment and Maintenance of Socially Learned Conditioned Reinforcement in Young Children: Elimination of the Role of Adults and View of Peers' Faces

Prior research has demonstrated the establishment of reinforcers for learning and maintenance with young children as a function of social learning where a peer and an adult experimenter were present. The presence of an adult experimenter was eliminated in the present study to test if the effect produced in the prior studies would occur with only the peers present. Neutral stimuli, metal washers, were first demonstrated not to reinforce maintenance of responding nor learning compared to primary reinforcers determined by pre-intervention functional analyses with three 4-year-old children with slight language delays. In the intervention, washers were delivered mechanically to a peer confederate in the participants’ view as the participants and peers completed a performance task side by side. For several brief sessions, peers received washers via an opaque chute into a transparent plastic cup on the desk in view of the participants for responding, while participants, who also responded, did not receive washers. After the target students demonstrated extinction or criterion for termination of the procedure was reached, we returned to pre-intervention assessments, and participants responded equally under washer and primary reinforcers with effects comparable to prior experiments where the experimenter was present. Washers also maintained reinforcement effects 6 to 10 weeks later in classroom instruction.

Effects of Peer-Mediated Instruction to Teach Use of Speech-Generating Devices to Students with Autism in Social Game Routines

Supporting social interactions between students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and their typically developing peers presents many challenges. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a peer-mediated intervention designed to teach two students with ASD to use speech-generating devices (SGDs) to engage in interactions with peers in a social context at school. Six peer confederates (three from each student with ASD's general education classroom) were taught to support SGD use during game activities. A multiple baseline design was used to examine the relationship between peer-mediated instruction and an increase in total communicative acts (CAs) by the two students with ASD. Results provide evidence that the confederates acquired the skills needed to support SGD use by students with ASD. The results also suggest that the intervention was effective at increasing total appropriate CAs by students with ASD. In addition, social validity ratings by all of the confederates were positive. Results are discussed regarding educational implications, limitations, and future research.

Gender, Contingencies of Self-Worth, and Achievement Goals as Predictors of Academic Cheating in a Controlled Laboratory Setting

This study examined college students' cheating in a controlled laboratory setting in which a peer confederate invited participants to cheat on an academic test. Consistent with past findings, male students cheated more than female students. Moreover, predictors of cheating interacted with gender. For men, basing self-worth on competition and having performance-avoidance goals predicted more cheating, whereas basing self-worth on virtue predicted less cheating. For women, none of the contingencies and goals predicted cheating. In its utilization of a realistic, controlled laboratory setting, the study accounted for problems inherent in observational and self-report techniques.

Social Acceptance and Facial Behavior in Children with Oral Clefts

To examine and compare social acceptance, social behavior, and facial movements of children with and without oral clefts in an experimental setting. Two groups of children (with and without oral clefts) were videotaped in a structured social interaction with a peer confederate, when listening to emotional stories, and when told to pose specific facial expressions. Twenty-four children and adolescents ages 7 to 16(1)/(2) years with oral clefts were group matched for gender, grade, and socioeconomic status with 25 noncleft controls. Specific social and facial behaviors coded from videotapes; Harter Self-Perception Profile, Social Acceptance subscale. Significant between-group differences were obtained. Children in the cleft group more often displayed "Tongue Out," "Eye Contact," "Mimicry," and "Initiates Conversation." For the cleft group, "Gaze Avoidance" was significantly negatively correlated with social acceptance scores. The groups were comparable in their ability to pose and spontaneously express facial emotion. When comparing children with and without oral clefts in an experimental setting, with a relatively small sample size, behavior analysis identified some significant differences in patterns of social behavior but not in the ability to express facial emotion. Results suggest that many children with oral clefts may have relatively typical social development. However, for those who do have social competence deficits, systematic behavioral observation of atypical social responses may help individualize social skills interventions.

Social interaction patterns of children and adolescents with and without oral clefts during a videotaped analogue social encounter.

To examine the social interaction patterns of children with and without oral clefts. Participants were videotaped while interacting with a peer confederate. Oral cleft and control groups were compared on social behavior and several self- and parent-report measures. Thirty-four 8- to 15-year-olds with oral clefts, matched for sex, age, and socioeconomic status with 34 noncleft controls. Data were obtained on social behaviors coded from videotapes and on child and parent ratings of social acceptance/competence and facial appearance. Statistically significant differences were found between groups: children with clefts made fewer choices and more often failed to respond to peer questions; children with clefts and their parents reported greater dissatisfaction with the child's facial appearance; and parents of children with clefts rated them as less socially competent. Significant within-group associations were also found. Parent perception of child social competence and child self-perception of social acceptance were positively correlated for both groups. Children with clefts who felt more socially accepted more often looked a peer in the face. Controls who felt more socially accepted chose an activity less often during the social encounter. Differing patterns of overt social behavior as well as parent and self-perception can be measured between children with and without oral clefts. Such results may be helpful in developing interventions to enhance social skills and parent/child adjustment.

Children's verbalizations and cheating behavior during game playing: the role of sociometric status, aggression, and gender.

The first goal of this study was to investigate sociometric status, aggression, and gender differences in children's verbalizations and cheating behavior during game playing using a fine-grained observational coding system. The second goal was to control for the effects of differential peer treatment and bias on children's behavior by observing children in a standardized procedure with unfamiliar peer confederates. Participants were 111 second-grade African American children, half average and half rejected sociometric status, half aggressive and half nonaggressive based on peer nominations, and half boys and half girls. Rejected children engaged in more cheating behavior and made more negative and argumentative verbalizations than average status children. Boys made more negative and argumentative verbalizations than girls. Aggressive children did not differ from nonaggressive children, in terms of either verbalizations or cheating behavior.

Teaching children with autism to initiate to peers: effects of a script-fading procedure.

A script that was systematically faded from end to beginning was used to teach peer initiations about recently completed, current, and future activities. The effectiveness of the script-fading procedure was assessed via a multiple baseline design across 4 children with autism. During baseline, the children seldom initiated to peers, although all had previously acquired some functional expressive language and sometimes spontaneously addressed adults. When the script was introduced, peer initiations increased, and as the script was faded, unscripted initiations increased. With the minimal written prompts available in the final fading steps, initiations generalized to a different setting, time, teacher, and activity; and for 3 of the 4 children, peer initiations were maintained at a 2-month follow-up. After the script was faded, the participants' levels of peer initiations were within the same range as a normative sample of 3 nondisabled youngsters. The script-fading procedure enabled children with severe social and verbal deficits to practice context-specific, peer-directed generative language that was not prompted by adults or peer confederates.

Effects of a Group Contingency on the Frequency of Social Interactions among Autistic and Nonhandicapped Preschool Children: Making LRE Efficacious

This study was designed to evaluate the use of a group-oriented reinforcement contingency to (a) increase the frequency of verbal interaction between severely withdrawn, autistic preschool children and nonhandicapped peers, and (b) reduce the levels of teacher prompts needed to maintain interaction. After baseline, both handicapped and nonhandicapped children were taught initiation and response strategies and the frequency and types of teacher prompts were restricted. Initially, access to the group reinforcer depended upon all three play triads achieving an established criterion for appropriate interactions. The teacher awarded a token for each appropriate interaction, allowing children to monitor their progress. Marginal increases in appropriate interactions occurred under this condition. In a subsequent interdependent contingency system, differentially reinforcing each triad that met the established criterion produced reliable increases in appropriate social initiations and responses for both peers and handicapped children. Rates of teacher prompts remained low. Withdrawal of the group-oriented reinforcement contingency substantially reduced levels of appropriate initiations and responses by both peer confederates and handicapped children. Reinstatement of the group contingency resulted in immediate and significant increases in appropriate initiations and responses by both peers and handicapped children. The results suggest that (a) peers can be effectively taught strategies to increase the appropriate social behaviors of their withdrawn classmates, and (b) a group-oriented reinforcement contingency is an effective complement to teacher-prompted interventions and may be an effective means of systematically fading teacher prompts.

Factors related to helping behavior in preschool-age children

The present two studies were conducted to assess the prosocial behaviors (comforting and helping) of preschool children as a function of the race and gender of the subjects and peer confederates. Results indicated that black, preschool-age males demonstrated prosocial behaviors more often than did white males and females. These findings were discussed in terms of the confounding between race of child and father absence; that is, a disproportionate number of black children were living in fatherless homes. It was suggested that single parents may turn to their opposite-sex child for both emotional and physical support and thus the child learns comforting and helping behaviors early in life. Support for this suggestion was derived from the finding that the number of household chores assigned to a child was positively related to helping behavior. The present results also showed that comforting and helping behaviors were negatively related, suggesting that prosocial acts are not a function of a general personality trait but are situationally specific. Finally, it was noted that race and gender of the peer confederate were not factors in determining the prosocial responses of the subjects.

Early Intervention for Socially Withdrawn Children

Eighteen studies were reviewed in which single-subject methodology was employed to evaluate treatment of social withdrawal in preschool children. Studies were systematically analyzed for a number of variables, including description of target subjects, type of intervention, length and intensity of intervention, primary intervenor, and several outcome variables, including percent of nonoverlapping data points from baseline to intervention phases and an overall outcome rating based on a 3-point scale. Studies were analyzed for covariation between outcomes and study characteristics. Results indicated that (a) interventions in which target subject interactive behaviors were directly reinforced and measured were the most successful interventions, (b) target subjects' unreinforced responses to trained peer confederates exceeded that of target subjects' unreinforced social initiations to confederate peers, (c) reinforced confederate peer social interactions exceeded unreinforced interactions, and (d) unreinforced modeling had little effect on subsequent social behavior. Furthermore, setting and skill generalization generally did not occur, maintenance was rarely assessed, and information about the characteristics of subjects included in such analyses was extremely limited. Implications for further research are given.

Demand awareness and participant willingness as determinants of aggressive response to film violence.

Ninety male undergraduates participated in an experiment designed to study the relationship between Ss' awareness of E's hypothesis regarding their reactions to film violence and their subsequent expression of interpersonal aggression. Men informed (via a peer confederate) prior to exposure to an aggressive film that E expected their aggression to increase behaved more aggressively following the film than men told their aggression was expected to decrease or men assigned to an uninformed control condition. The effect was strongest for Ss favorably disposed toward participation in psychology experiments. Results indicated that willing participants are concerned about complying with demand characteristics, but only when they think E's hypothesis is reasonable. There was scant evidence that awareness of participation in an aggression experiment was associated with aggression inhibiting evaluation apprehension. Finally, awareness of an expectancy for heightened aggression was necessary for instructions to identify with the film aggressor while viewing the film to enhance aggression.