Stress-management training: Evaluation of effects on school psychological services

School psychologists participated in a cognitive-behavioral stress-management training program. The data showed decreases in self-reported anxiety and increases in job satisfaction of school psychologists as a result of the training. In addition, teacher satisfaction with school psychological services increased after participation in teacher inservice workshops generated as a result of training the school psychologists.     

Modifying CBT for Perinatal Depression: What Do Women Want?: A Qualitative Study

The evidence for the efficacy of CBT for depression during the perinatal period is mixed. This was a qualitative study that aimed to understand the perinatal-specific needs of depressed women in an effort to inform treatment modifications that may increase the relevance and acceptability of CBT during this period. Stratified purposeful sampling resulted in 23 participants selected by pregnancy, socioeconomic, and depression status. Participants completed semistructured interviews exploring their experiences of pregnancy and the postpartum period and its relationship to mood, and perspectives on ideal treatment content. Thematic analysis revealed a number of perinatal-specific themes that were relevant to CBT in three key domains: self, motherhood, and interpersonal. Mothers particularly struggled with: internalization of “motherhood myths,” self-sacrifice, and managing social support during this period. Shifts in women's themes across the perinatal period, and between racial and socioeconomic groups are discussed as are implications for modification of CBT to improve relevance for perinatal depression.     

Visual decentration: from stereometric points to planeometric forms.

19 3-yr.-olds chose to put blocks together to produce good continuation across stereometric edges. 4 mo. later they began to produce good continuation across planeometric edges. A group of 15 4-yr.-olds chose to produce symmetrical forms rather than simply to align edges. Symmetrical form was produced across planeometric surfaces but not across stereometric contours. These data suggest that visual decentration is first a shift from looking at single points touched to single points displaced from touch and, at a still later age, a shift to the organization of many points. The failure of the older group to produce a symmetrical form across stereometric contours could have resulted from the cultural press to attend to planeometric information.     

Pain Intensity,Psychological Inflexibility,and Acceptance of Pain as Predictors of Functioning in Adolescents with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: A Preliminary Investigation

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) is a chronic rheumatic disease associated with pain and maladjustment. This study investigated whether pain, acceptance of pain, and psychological inflexibility uniquely predicted functional disability, anxiety, general quality of life (QOL), and health-related quality of life (HQOL) among adolescents with JIA. Twenty-three adolescents with JIA and pain were recruited from a pediatric rheumatology clinic. Participants completed self-report measures pertaining to the key study variables. A series of multiple regression analyses demonstrated that higher pain uniquely predicted higher functional disability. Greater psychological inflexibility uniquely predicted higher anxiety, lower general QOL, and lower HQOL. Increases in acceptance of pain were found to be uniquely related to increases in general QOL. These data confirm prior findings that pain impacts functioning, and provide preliminary findings that psychological inflexibility and acceptance may be important targets of psychological intervention for youth with JIA and pain to improve functioning and QOL.     

Counselors' Role in Preventing Abuse of Older Adults: Clinical,Ethical, and Legal Considerations

Mistreatment of older adults is commonplace. These individuals are subjected to abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect. The authors present an overview of the literature concerning mistreatment, with an emphasis on clinical, ethical, and legal considerations. Methods are proposed for prevention, including counselor education, advocacy, and counseling opportunities.     

Time monitoring and executive functioning in children and adults

This study examined time-based prospective memory performance in relation to individual and developmental differences in executive functioning. School-age children and young adults completed six experimental tasks that tapped three basic components of executive functioning: inhibition, updating, and mental shifting. Monitoring performance was examined in a time-based prospective memory task in which participants indicated the passing of time every 5min while watching a movie. Separate analyses of the executive functioning data yielded a two-factor solution for both age groups, with the updating and inhibition tasks constituting a common factor and the shifting tasks constituting a separate factor. Both children and adults showed accelerating monitoring functions with low rates of clock checking during the early phase of each 5-min interval. However, compared with adults, children needed more clock checks for obtaining the same level of response accuracy. Executive functioning had selective effects on time-based prospective memory performance. In both children and adults, monitoring performance was related to the inhibition and updating components, but not to the shifting component, of executive functioning. We conclude that difficulties in temporary maintenance and updating of working memory contents may create discontinuities in sense of time, leading to an increased reliance on external cues for time keeping.