No abstract

Acne prevalence and sequelae were more common in those with darker skin types, suggesting that acne is a more heterogeneous condition than previously described and highlight the importance of skin-colour tailored treatment.

The cross-sectional design precludes conclusions about progression of acne with age. Participation was restricted to women. The photographic nature of the study imposes general limitations. Techniques used in this study were not sufficiently sensitive to identify cases of subclinical acne. More than a quarter of women studied had acne, which peaked in the teens but continued to be prevalent through the fifth decade.

The theory-of-mind abilities of twins, children with nontwin siblings, and only children were compared to investigate further the link between number and type of siblings and theory-of-mind abilities. Three- to 5-year-old children with nontwin siblings outperformed both only children and twins with no other siblings, twins who also had other siblings outperformed twins who did not, and children with at least 1 opposite-sex sibling outperformed children with only same-sex siblings. Twins performed significantly better when asked about the false beliefs of their twins than they did when asked about the false beliefs of their friends. Results are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms that may account for the twin and sibling effects.

This study examined whether books that are typically read to preschool children contain theory of mind concepts. The parents of 47 preschool children recorded books read by or to their child over a one-week period. The books were analyzed for theory of mind content. It was found that 78% of the books contained internal state language, 34% contained false beliefs, and 43% contained personality descriptors. Thus, theory of mind concepts appear to be an integral part of the literature read to preschool children. These results are discussed in light of recent work on individual differences in theory of mind development. Bruner (1990) argued that people use narrative as the basic form of human meaning-making and understanding; that is, people use narratives to explain or make sense of the actions of those around them. Bruner claimed that, in these narratives, people make sense of events by appealing to the subjective states of the participants, such as their hopes, desires, beliefs, feelings, etc. In other words, people use a folk psychology or theory of mind in a narrative form to understand others. Furthermore, Bruner proposed that "while we have an 'innate' and primitive predisposition to narrative organization . . . the culture soon equips us with new powers of narration through its tool kit and through the traditions of telling and interpreting in which we soon come to participate" (Bruner, 1990, p. 80).If the narrative form is basic to human meaning-making and if mental state ascription is essentially a part of that, we might expect that the narratives a culture provides its children would be richly endowed in culturally relevant instances that feature mental and emotional referents and explanations. One major source of these narratives for children is children's literature. Narratives read to children may provide important "training" for children in the task of understanding others' behaviors through the ascription of mental states. Therefore, it seems important to investigate systematically the nature of the narratives