Veterans’ Offspring’s Personality Traits and the Intergenerational Transmission of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Following war and war captivity, many combat veterans and former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) may suffer from posttraumatic psychopathologies, and these may be transmitted to their offspring. Though there are considerable individual differences between offspring in this respect, the mechanisms underlying such differences remain unclear. The current longitudinal study examined the role that veterans’ offspring’s Big Five personality traits may play within this intergenerational transmission. One hundred and twenty-three dyads consisting of veterans (79 ex-POWs and 44 combat veterans) and their adult offspring were examined. Fathers’ posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and global psychiatric distress (GD) were assessed 30 and 35 years after the war, and offspring’s PTSS, GD, and Big Five personality traits were assessed 40 years after the war. Findings indicate that veterans’ psychopathologies were associated with those of their offspring. Furthermore, analyses revealed significant positive associations between offspring’s psychopathologies and their Neuroticism, and negative associations with their Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Finally, a mediation effect was found wherein the fathers’ PTSS and GD were related to their offspring’s Neuroticism levels, and the offspring’s Neuroticism was related to their PTSS and GD levels. These findings suggest that offspring’s personality traits may indeed play a role in the transmission of posttraumatic psychopathologies from veterans to their offspring, and may explain individual differences in this respect. Specifically, high levels of Neuroticism may place offspring at risk for secondary traumatization. Possible explanations and limitations are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

Children’s Reward and Punishment Sensitivity Moderates the Association of Negative and Positive Parenting Behaviors in Child ADHD Symptoms

Atypical reward processing, including abnormal reward responsivity and sensitivity to punishment, has long been implicated in the etiology of ADHD. However, little is known about how these facets of behavior interact with positive (e.g., warmth, praise) and negative (e.g., hostility, harsh discipline) parenting behavior in the early expression of ADHD symptoms in young children. Understanding the interplay between children’s reward processing and parenting may be crucial for identifying specific treatment targets in psychosocial interventions for ADHD, especially given that not all children benefit from contingency-based treatments (e.g., parent management training). The study consisted of a sample of kindergarten children (N?=?201, 55% male) and their parents, who completed questionnaires about their parenting practices, their child’s behaviors and participated in an observed parent-child play task in the laboratory. Children’s reward responsivity and sensitivity to punishment were positively associated with child ADHD symptoms. However, children with high reward responsivity had more symptoms of ADHD but only under conditions of low negative parenting (self-reported and observed) and high self-reported positive parenting, compared to children with low reward responsivity. Children with high sensitivity to punishment had more ADHD symptoms relative to children with low sensitivity to punishment, but only under conditions in which observed praise was infrequent. Results provide evidence that individual differences in sensitivity to reward/punishment may be an important of marker of risk for ADHD, but also highlights how children’s responses to positive and negative parenting behavior may vary by children’s sensitivities. Clinical and treatment implications are discussed.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Parental and Children’s Depressive Symptoms in the Context of Interparental Relationship Functioning

Using longitudinal, multi-informant data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study tested associations between trajectories of parental and child depressive symptoms from ages 11 to 15 years. Consistent with predictions, changes in mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms were positively associated with change in children’s depressive symptoms over time. In addition, youth characteristics of sex and pubertal development moderated the trajectories, with children more advanced on pubertal development showing higher initial levels of depressive symptoms, and girls demonstrating steeper slopes of depressive symptoms over time. The context of interparental relationship functioning (i.e., marital conflict, marital conflict resolution) moderated both the trajectories of child depressive symptoms and the interplay between parental and child depressive symptoms in ways largely consistent with hypotheses. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of treating youth depressive symptoms with a consideration of the broader family context, including parental and interparental functioning.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Children’s Trauma Memory Characteristics and Their Relationship with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - While trauma memory characteristics are considered a core predictor of adult PTSD, the literature on child PTSD is limited and inconsistent. We...     

The Role of Fathers’ Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Dyadic Adjustment in the Intergeneration Transmission of Captivity Trauma

This study aimed to assess the longitudinal associations between the 1973 Israeli-Arab War ex-prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) and dyadic adjustment (DAS) and their adult offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS. A sample of 124 Israeli father–child dyads has been examined (fathers at 2003 and 2008; offspring at 2013–2014). Results show that fathers’ PTSS and DAS mediated the link between war captivity and offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS, respectively. The intergenerational transmission of captivity trauma is indirectly explained by the long-term effects of the fathers’ PTSS on their offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS.     

Context Sensitivity in Canadian and Japanese Children’s Judgments of Emotion

Previous studies showed that East Asians are more sensitive than North Americans to contextual information, and that the cultural differences in context sensitivity emerge in preschool children. Yet, little is known about whether this generalizes to children’s emotional judgments. The present study tested Canadian and Japanese preschool children and examined cross-culturally the extent to which facial expressions of surrounding people influence judgments of a target person’s emotion. Japanese children were more likely than Canadian children to judge an emotionally-neutral target as more negative (positive) when the background emotion was negative (positive), demonstrating an assimilation effect. Canadian children, however, showed a contrast effect: judging the target person’s neutral emotion as more negative when the background emotion was positive. These data extend extant understanding of emotion recognition by illuminating nuances in perceptual processes across developmental and cultural lines.     

Parental Acceptance and Children’s Psychological Adjustment in the Context of Power and Prestige

On a sample of 313 nine- through 16-year-old Spanish children this study explored the question: Is the relation between paternal versus maternal acceptance and the psychological adjustment of offspring significantly affected by the level of interpersonal power and/or prestige of each parent within the family? The relationship between perceived parental acceptance and children’s psychological adjustment depends on which parent was perceived by children to have higher interpersonal power or prestige than the other. This trend was especially strong in families when mothers were perceived to have both higher power and higher prestige than fathers. The strongest overall contribution to children’s adjustment, however, was made in families where fathers were perceived to have both the highest power and the highest prestige.     

Severity of Children’s ADHD Symptoms and Parenting Stress: A Multiple Mediation Model of Self-Regulation

The goal of the current study was to determine the extent to which the perceived self-regulation deficits across behavioral, cognitive, and emotional domains seen in children with ADHD explain the association between the severity of ADHD symptoms and parenting stress. Participants for this study included 80 children (mean age = 10 years, 9 months) with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD confirmed by a comprehensive clinical diagnostic assessment. Parents reported their own stress levels as well as the severity of their children’s ADHD symptoms, aggression, emotional lability, and executive functioning difficulties. Results indicated that the severity of children’s hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms but not their inattention related to parenting stress. Multiple mediational analyses indicated that the association between hyperactivity/impulsivity and parenting stress was explained by children’s perceived comorbid aggression levels, emotional lability, and executive functioning difficulties. No significant differences in the strength of the mediators were found. The current study provides initial data showing that the perceived impairments in children’s self-regulation across emotional, cognitive, and behavioral domains are what parents report as stressful, not simply the severity of ADHD symptoms. Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study and shared variance from relying solely on parent report, it will be critical for future research to replicate our findings using longitudinal and multi-informant data such as teacher reports and standardized assessments.     

The Role of Religious Orientations in Youth’s Posttraumatic Symptoms After Exposure to Terror

This study examined the effect of religiosity on youth’s posttraumatic symptoms resulting from exposure to terror. Participants consisted of 1,973 Israeli high school students. Objective and subjective exposure (fear) to terror were positively associated with posttraumatic symptoms. Intrinsic religiosity was negatively associated with posttraumatic symptoms and found to decrease the effects of objective exposure. Personal extrinsic orientation and social extrinsic orientation were positively associated with posttraumatic symptoms, having no mediating effect. Theoretical implications regarding religiosity as a coping mechanism in light of exposure to terror are discussed.     

Parent Alcoholism Impacts the Severity and Timing of Children’s Externalizing Symptoms

Although previous studies show that children of alcoholic parents have higher rates of externalizing symptoms compared to their peers, it remains unclear whether the timing of children’s externalizing symptoms is linked to that of their parent’s alcohol-related symptoms. Using a multilevel modeling approach, we tested whether children aged 2 through 17 showed elevated mother-, father- and child-reported externalizing symptoms (a) at the same time that parents showed alcohol-related consequences (time-varying effects), (b) if parents showed greater alcohol-related consequences during the study period (proximal effects), and (c) if parents had a lifetime diagnosis of alcoholism that predated the study period (distal effects). We used integrative data analysis to combine samples from two prospective studies to test these hypotheses. Distal effects of parent alcoholism on increased child externalizing symptoms were large and consistent. In addition, proximal and time-varying effects of parent alcohol symptoms were also found. Implications for preventing escalations in externalizing symptoms among this high-risk population are discussed.     

Memories defining the self in Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT

There is a debate over the extent to which personal identity or the self is preserved in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Autobiographical memory deficits at early stages of AD could contribute to altering patients’ self. However, the nature of the relationship between autobiographical memory deficits and the self in AD has not been much investigated experimentally. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the integrative meaning of self-defining memories (SDMs) in early stages of AD and to analyse its relationship with the self-concept. The results showed that, when compared to the control group, AD patients less frequently extracted meaning from their SDMs and the meaning was less frequently tied to the self. Patients exhibited some altered aspects of the self-concept (i.e., complexity and strength), though some other components still persisted (i.e., valence and certainty). Correlation analyses showed that the impaired integrative meaning in the AD group was correlated with some changes in self-concept. We suggest that integrative meaning may act as a bridge between autobiographical memories and the self-concept, with reduced integration abilities appearing as a potential mechanism for the deterioration of the self-concept in AD.     

Association between Sexual Victimization History,Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms,and Women’s Decision Making in Risky Social Situations: the Moderating Effect of Ethnicity

This study evaluated the association between sexual victimization history, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and women’s decision making in social situations, and whether ethnicity moderated these associations. Participants were 334 undergraduate women between ages 18 and 24. The sample was diverse ethnically (Non-Hispanic white, n = 177; Hispanic, n = 157) and composed primarily of freshman, single women. Stimuli were written vignettes describing social situations that varied in their degree of victimization risk. Participants completed tasks that assessed their ability to generate and select responses to the situations, as well as their perceived efficacy in executing responses. They then completed the Sexual Experiences Survey to quantify the severity of victimization experiences and the PTSD Checklist – Civilian Version to measure symptoms of posttraumatic stress. Structural equation modeling (SEM) of women’s decision making revealed that more severe victimization history and greater posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with less effective response generation, and greater posttraumatic stress symptoms was associated with reduced perceived efficacy in executing effective responses. Ethnicity also moderated the effect of victimization history on perceived efficacy. For Non-Hispanic White women, more severe victimization history was related to less effective response generation and perceived efficacy when considering responses, while for Hispanic women, victimization history was unrelated to both decision making processes. This study emphasizes the importance of decision making as it relates to women’s victimization risk. These processes, as well as the influence of ethnicity on women’s decision making, appear relevant to consider when developing preventative interventions for college women.     

Test-Retest Measurement Invariance of Clinic Referred Children’s ADHD Symptoms

This study examined the test-retest measurement invariance of ratings of the ADHD symptoms. Mothers of a group of 217 clinic-referred children (boys?=?169, girls?=?49; age range?=?7 to 17 years) completed ratings of the ADHD symptoms presented in a modified version of the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-Symptoms and Normal Behavior Scale (SWAN-M) twice, 12 months apart. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of their ratings at both time points provided more support for the bifactor model of ADHD [orthogonal general and specific factors for inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) symptoms] over the 2-factor oblique model (factors for inattention IA and HI symptoms). For the bifactor model, measurement invariance testing using multiple-group CFA indicated support for configural and full scalar test-retest invariance when the chi-square difference test was applied. For metric invariance, all but one symptom showed invariance. When the differences in approximate fit indices were applied, there was support for full measurement invariance (configural, metric and scalar). The findings indicate that observed scores (based on maternal ratings of the SWAM-M), twelve months apart, are comparable as they have the same measurement properties. Several practical, theoretical, research and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Aristotle’s Notion of ‘Place’ in the Context of Present-day Physics

The article deals with Aristotle’s conception of ‘place’, which is of cruсial importance for his theory of motion. It is shown that in the physics of Aristotle there is no concept of spасe; instead, there is the notion of ‘place’ of a body (topos). Aristotle considered ‘place’ as the first boundary of a body embracing (containing) the body in question. The author shows the incommensurability between the spatial ideas of the Stagirite and the similar ideas of Newtonian physics. The article states that in order to give an adequate reconstruction of Aristotle’s concept of ‘place’ we need to take into account two different levels of consideration: local and global. Places locally separable (from bodies) cannot be separated on the global level. In Newtonian physics, bodies are separable from places on both levels. The nature of parallelism of ideas between Aristotle’s conception of ‘place’ and the notions of space in present-day physics is analysed.     

Client Versus Clinicians’ Standards of Clinically Meaningful Change and the Effects of Treatment Expectations on Therapeutic Outcomes in Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

There is limited research on the concordance between client perceptions and clinician standards of the degree of symptom change required to achieve meaningful therapeutic improvement. This was investigated in an adult sample (N = 147) who received trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined whether clients’ benchmarks of change were related to actual outcomes and the relationship between client expectations and their treatment outcomes. Clients completed measures indexing the level of symptom reduction required (in their view) to reflect a benefit or recovery from treatment and treatment expectations. Actual PTSD severity was indexed pre- and posttreatment via self-report and clinician-administered interview. Results demonstrated that the amount of change clients said they required to experience a benefit or recovery was significantly larger than typical clinical research standards. Nonetheless, the majority of client benchmarks of change (79.7–81.8%) were consistent with clinical research standards of what constitutes benefit or recovery. Client benchmarks were generally positively correlated with their actual outcomes. Clients’ belief that treatment would be successful was associated with greater reductions in PTSD symptoms. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the standards used to determine clinically significant change are somewhat consistent with clients’ own perceptions of required symptom change.     

Maternal Expectancy Versus Objective Measures of Child Skill: Evidence for Absence of Positive Bias in Mothers’ Expectations of Children with Internalizing Disorders

Parents of anxious children are thought to be more attuned to threat, which might translate into less positive bias in parental report of child coping and ability, unlike parents of non-anxious children. Maternal expectancy bias was examined in a sample of 43 clinically anxious (51 % female), 30 clinically anxious/depressed (50 % female), and 44 non-clinical control children (46 % female), 8–14 years of age. When compared to an objective observer’s ratings of the children, mothers of non-clinical children demonstrated a positive bias (i.e., over-rated their children’s performance) for both ratings of expected speech performance in absolute terms and relative to peers. Mothers in the clinical groups did not exhibit this positive expectancy bias. Moreover, mothers of clinical children reported lower expectations in absolute terms and relative to peers than mothers of non-clinical children. The data suggest that mothers of clinical children held accurate expectations for child performance when compared to the gold standard of an objective observer.