THE JOCRXAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH 395

RESEARCH OF I N T E R E S T JAMES HUMPHREY. P H . D

I I

Walker, Richard N., Body Build and Behavior In Young Children: IT. Body Build Child Development, 1963, 31.

Body builds of 147 preschool children were rated for crirrent appearance on variables similar to Shrldon’s endomorpliy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy. The children’s mothers rated their behavior on 68 descriptive adjectives and phrases. Two thirds of predictions previously made concerning probable direction of associa- tion of each behavior item wit,h each physique variable were confirmed. For boys only a chance number were confirnied a t statistically significant levels; for girls, many predictions were confirmed at significant levels for endomorphy and ectomorphy. None of the relat,ions approached t,he high values reported by Sheldon. Individual items and more general cluster scores summed from Prveral items depicted the endo- morphic girls as cooperative and cheerful, as low in tenseness and anxiety, and as socially extravert. The mesomorphic girl was depicted as energetic; the meso- morphic boy as energetic, cheerful, and social. The ectomorphic girl was depicted as uncooperative, not cheerful. anxious, and aloof. At a lower level of confirmation, t,he ectomorphic boy w-as depicted as similarly unsocial but a? cooperat,ive and unaggressive. The sex diflerences may arise in part from differences in response of mothers to boys and girls. A graphic approach to pat,tern analysis suggested further physique-behavior associations.-Author’s Summary.

Prader, A., Tanner, J. Rl . , & Von Harnack, G. A. Catch-up Growth Following

Children whose growth has been slowed by illness show a great,er than normal rate of growth upon correction of the disorder. rowth may continue until the child has caught up to its pre-illness, or normal grow& curve and is, therefore, called “catch-up’’ growth. Five examples of this are presented in which the cause of the slowing was starvation renal disease, Gushing’s syndrome, celiac disease and hypothyroidism. During the catch-up the child may grow in height at up to 4 times the average rate for his chrono!ogic age or 3 times the average rate for his skelet,al age. Skeletal maturity is nearly always retarded when height. growth is slowed, its acceleration during the catch-up may also be relatively less, so that. the final relation of height to bone age may be returned to normal. The auxologic methods used in the study of growth disorders are discussed and the phenomenon of the ratch-up related to its place in the general biologic field of develop- rncntal canalization. The mechanisms which control the organism’s homeorhesis, or tendency to remain in and return to its path of growth, are unknown a t present.

Fulginiti, Vincent A. & Kempe, C. Henry, Measles Exposure Among Vaccine

In the interval of 1961-1963, more than 5,000 children were immunized by one of t,hree measles vaccine schedules: (1) live measles virus vaccine administered simultaneously with y-globulin ( L G G ) , (2) three monthly doses of inactivated (killed measles virus vaccine (KKK), or (3) two monthly doses of killed vaccine followed in one month by live measles virus (KKL). In ?,he ensuing 20 months, 632 vaccinees were exposed to natural measles. This report details the results of this exposure. Of 303 exposed 1,-GG vacinees, 26 (8.6%) developed unmodified measles, Illness after exposrirc. Unmodified measles oceured in 13 (6.6%) of 198 KKIC vacinees after exposure. In additional 32 (16.2%) developed modified illness, and the remainder remained free of illness after exposure. No instance of unmodified measles occurred after exposure of 131 KKL recipients, but 17 (13%) developed modified measles. The results of exposure among the t,hree groups of vaccinees are discussed in relation to the rate of successful primary immunization, the interval between .initiation of immunization and exposure, and the serrim antibody status of the vaccmecs. . . -Authors’ 8rirnnia1~y.

and Parents’ Rat,ings.

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Illness or Starvation. Journal of Pediatrics, 1963, 62.

This rapid phase of

-Authors’ Summary. * * * * *

Recipients. American Journal of the Diseases of Children, 1963, 106.

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396 THE JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH

Vogel, W., & Lauterbach, C. G., Relationships Between Normal and Disturbed Sons’ Percepts of Their Parents’ Behavior, and Personality ilttributes of the Parents and Sons.

72 8 s (the father, mother and behavior problem adolescent son in each of 24 families) were administered the MMPI, from which were derived indices of parent- son identification, psychopathology, and internalization of psychological conflict. In addition, the sons were given the mother and father forms of Schaefer’s Report on Parent Behavior Inventory (RPBI). The performance of the sons of the RPBI was compared with the performance of a group of 85 normal sons of the same age; it was found that the problem sons had more idealized views of their mothers’ behavior but more hostile perceptions of t~heir fathers’ behavior than did the normal sons. The RPBI performance of the disturbed sons was investigated in relation to (a) t,he age of the sons, (b) the degree of identification of the sons and their parents, (c) the degree of psychopathology shown by the sons and their parents, and (d) t,he tendency of the parents and sons to internalize psychological conflicts. It was found that the age of the sons was the most important factor influencing their perceptions of parental behavior. The extent of tlhe problem sons’ psychopathology and the fathers’ tendency to internalize conflict were also significantly relat,ed to the sons’ percepts of parental behavior .-Authors’ Summary,

Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1963, 19.

* * * * * Nickols, John E., Jr. Changes In Self-Awareness During The High School Years:

A Study of hlental Health Using Paper-and-Pencil Tests. Journal of Educational Research, 1963, 56.

The primary purpose of this project wa.8 t,o explore the effects of the high school years upon mental health scores and related self-awareness. The cross-sectional study utilized mat,ched groups of 30 freshmen and 30 senior girls. For the longitudinal study, 22 of the freshmen tested originally were followed up three years later. The evaluative criterion consisted of two basic males. The California Mental Health Analysis (CMHA) was used to obtain objective mental health scores. A rating scale was devised to obt,ain self-appraisals on ten variables which might correspond t o the assets and liabilities of the California Scale. The reliability coefficient of .59 for total scores obtained with the CMHA over a three-year period was disappointing, particularly in view of the fact that the personalit,y questionnaire of only 11 items had a coefficient of .52. The fact that an average correlat,ion of over .70 was found between total ChlHh scores and summations for the self-ratings suggests that scores on the California Scale are strongly influenced by subjective attitudcs about thc self. Implications are discussed.-Authors’ Summary.

* * * * * Jemrn. ArThur, Learning Ability In Retarded, Average, and Gifted Children. Merrill-

Junior high school children rlnssificd as “educationally mentally retarded” and also having Stanford-Rinet IQs from 50 t o 75 were compared on a selective learning task with averaqe (IQs 90-110) and gifted (IQs above 135) children in the same school. The task consisted of learning, by trial-and-error, to associate five or SIX different stimuli (colored geometric forms) with five or six differmt responses (an array of push-buttons). There were highly significant differences between the groups, and the rate of learning correlated with I& even within the retarded group. Variability was much greater among the retarded. who also showed much greater improvement with practice on successive forms of the learning task. Some of the retarded Ss learned as fast as the gifted. Adding verbal reinforcement and requiring Ss t o verbalize (by naming the stimuli) while learning resulted in marked improve- ment of the learning rate of some Ss. The results were discussed in terms of hypoth- eses involving as yet undiscovered “dimensions” of learning ability, and in terms of the facilitative role of discriminative and mediating verbal behavior in learning.

Palmer Quarterly, 1963 9.

-Authors’ Summary.

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