PSI CHI Journal of Psychological Research
Volume 16.2 | Summer 2011

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Paternal Support of Emergent Literacy Development: Latino Fathers
and Their Children
Jackson J. Taylor, New York University

ABSTRACT: Despite growing evidence supporting the notion that fathers influence their children’s education, few studies have examined the intersection of involvement and emergent literacy development. The present study explored the ways fathers (N = 12) support children’s literacy skills in a low-income Latino community. After completing self-report measures of daily involvement and home literacy, fathers shared a wordless book with their children. Fathers reported engaging in a variety of involvement activities, lending support to the study of fathering as a multifaceted construct. Furthermore, fathers provided rich linguistic environments during book-sharing. Trends among narrative participation scores support past literature suggesting cultural differences in narrative styles. Results provide important contributions to the limited literature on Latino parenting.

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Can Multilingualism Deter the Effect of Implicit Misleading Cues?
Jean-Paul Noel, Gustavus Adolphus College

ABSTRACT: Multilinguals appear better able than monolinguals to suppress implicit misleading cues that lead to misguided associations. This study induced participants (N = 108), weakly and strongly, to misguided association. The hypothesis of the experiment was that monolinguals and multilinguals would not differ in the amount of misguided associations expressed when stimuli induced misguided association weakly, through priming, but that they would differ (multilinguals showing fewer) when it induced associations strongly (through the IAT). The results confirmed the hypothesis, providing evidence for the conjecture that multilingualism does deter the effect of implicit misleading cues. Because of the quasi-experimental nature of this study, its conclusions remain open to further examination.

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Parental Support Mediates the Link Between Marital Conflict and
Child Internalizing Symptoms
Kayla Duncan and Farrah Hughes, Francis Marion University

ABSTRACT: We tested whether the relation between marital conflict and child functioning may be mediated by two important factors: (a) decreases in parental support and (b) lack of authoritative parenting. The present sample consisted of 111 married couples and their adolescent children. We tested a multiple mediator model by using bootstrapping procedures in which support and authoritativeness were evaluated simultaneously as potential mediators. We found that the relation between marital conflict and child internalizing symptoms appears to be mediated by parental support, but not by authoritative parenting. Our findings revealed that parental support was a mediator only for fathers. We outline some empirical and clinical implications of these findings and offer suggestions for future research.

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Prenatal Motherese? Newborn Speech Perception May Be Enhanced
by Having a Young Sibling
Tian Zhao, Christine Moon, Hugo Lagercrantz, and Patricia Kuhl,
Pacific Lutheran University

ABSTRACT: Prenatal experience with infant- and child-directed speech (IDS/CDS) may affect newborns’ speech perception. We examined this possibility using an existing neonatal database from a recent cross-language study (Moon, Lagercrantz, & Kuhl, 2011). Seventy-three American and Swedish neonates (Mage = 32.58 hr, SD = 13.58 hr) were retrospectively coded as either having High (n = 32) or Low (n = 41) prenatal IDS/CDS exposure based on whether there were any children younger than 4 years old in the household during pregnancy. We compared the mean sucks for contingent presentations of prototypes and nonprototypes of vowel stimuli (native or foreign) among groups. A mixed 3-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction: Neonates responded to prototypes and nonprototypes differently in the High IDS/CDS group, whereas there was a lack of differential responses in the Low IDS/CDS group. Future research with well-controlled measurement of prenatal speech is warranted.  

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How Does Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research Measure Up?
Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez, Utah State University

ABSTRACT: Understanding the complexities inherent in descriptions of research journals can take significant time and energy, and in the end leave the average psychologist and psychology student wondering—what does it all mean? Why does this matter? In this column, I attempt to provide information to illuminate how journals are described and why we care. Additionally, I will review how our own journal, Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, measures up on these criteria. In short, Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research is a scholarly journal that is peer-reviewed and indexed. Let’s explore these areas so you will feel very excited about this description!

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