Evaluation of a Train-The-Trainers Model for Family Peer Advocates in Children’s Mental Health

Standardized training and credentialing is increasingly important to states and healthcare systems. Workforce shortages in children's mental health can be addressed through training and credentialing of professional peer parents (called family peer advocates or FPAs), who deliver a range of services to caregivers. A theory-based training program for FPAs targeting skills and knowledge about childhood mental health services (Parent Empowerment Program, or PEP) was developed through a partnership among a statewide family-run organization, state policy leaders, and academic researchers. Prior studies by this team using highly-experienced family peer advocates (who were also co-developers of the training program) as trainers found improvements in knowledge about mental health services and self-efficacy. In 2010, to meet demands and scale the model, a training of trainers (TOT) model was developed to build a cohort of locally-trained FPAs to deliver PEP training. A pre/post design was used to evaluate the impact of TOT model on knowledge and self-efficacy among 318 FPAs across the state. Participants showed significant pre-post (6 month) changes in knowledge about mental health services and self-efficacy. There were no significant associations between any FPA demographic characteristics and their knowledge or self-efficacy scores. A theory-based training model for professional peer parents working in the children's mental health system can be taught to local FPAs, and it improves knowledge about the mental health system and self-efficacy. Studies that evaluate the effectiveness of different training modalities are critical to ensure that high-quality trainings are maintained.     

How Does Family Connectedness Contribute to Youths’ Health? The Mediating Role of Coping Strategies

Family connectedness has important implications for adolescents’ well-being, contributing to their physical, psychological, and social health. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying these effects. The present longitudinal study examined the process by which family connectedness, as perceived by adolescents, predicted greater positive and fewer negative health behaviors in adolescents over time. In particular, we sought to determine whether adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies mediated the link between family connectedness and adolescents’ self-reported health status. Data were obtained from 1,774 New Zealand adolescents aged 10–17 years, who completed a self-report survey three times at one-year intervals. With longitudinal mediation path models, we tested whether maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies at T2 functioned as mediators between family connectedness at T1 and overall health, vitality, sleep sufficiency, body satisfaction, substance use, and self-harm at T3. Findings revealed that family connectedness predicted greater levels of adaptive coping, which, in turn, predicted better health indicators but not decreases in ill-health indicators. Furthermore, family connectedness predicted lower maladaptive coping, which, in turn, predicted higher levels of positive health outcomes and fewer negative health outcomes. Results showed that the positive effect of family connectedness on adolescents’ health occurred through increased use of adaptive coping strategies, decreased use of maladaptive coping strategies, or both. These results have important implications for practitioners working with adolescents and parents, as well as for health promotion program developers.     

Sources of History for “A Psychology of Verbal Communication”

There is a standard version of the history of modern mainstream psycholinguistics that emphasizes an extraordinary explosion of research in mid twentieth century under the guidance and leadership of George A. Miller and Noam Chomsky. The narrative is cast as a dramatic shift away from behavioristic principles and toward mentalistic principles based largely on transformational linguistics. A closer view of the literature diminishes the historical importance of behaviorism, shows a prevailing “written language bias” (Linell in The written language bias in linguistics: Its nature, origins and transformations, Routledge, London, 2005, p. 4) in psycholinguistic research, and elevates some theoretical and empirical thinking of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries on language and language use to a far more important role than has heretofore been acknowledged. In keeping with the theoretical and methodological perspective of the present article, it is particularly appropriate that the German philologist Philipp Wegener be “given his due in the annals of linguistic sciences” (Koerner 1991, p. VI*). In his (1885/1991) Untersuchungen über die Grundfragen des Sprachlebens (Investigations regarding the fundamental questions of the life of language; our translation), he began his philological research with the investigation of actual speaking in everyday settings rather than with analyses of purely formal structure. Moreover, he emphasized understanding language and localized this function in the listener. Compatible with Wegener’s own investigations is another aspect of speaking that has been most seriously neglected throughout the history of research on the psychology of verbal communication. For him, as well as for Esper (In C. Murchison [Ed.], A handbook of social psychology, Clark University Press, Worchester, MA, 1935), the basic and primary genre of dialogical discourse was not ongoing conversation, but the occasional use of speech in association with other activities. Both Bühler (Sprachtheorie, Fischer, Stuttgart, 1934/1982) and Wittgenstein (Philosophische Untersuchungen/Philosophical investigations, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1958) have also emphasized the importance of the genre of occasional speaking. The article concludes with a discussion of historical shifts in the relationship between psychology and linguistics.     

Does Psi exist? Lack of replication of an anomalous process of information transfer.

D. J. Bem and C. Honorton (1994) recently presented in this journal a set of ganzfeld extrasensory perception (ESP) experiments conducted by C. Honorton that appeared to support the existence of a communication anomaly. In this article, the authors present a meta-analysis of 30 ganzfeld ESP studies from 7 independent laboratories adhering to the same stringent methodological guidelines that C. Honorton followed. The studies failed to confirm his main effect of participants scoring above chance on the ESP task, Stouffer z = 0.70, p = .24, one-tailed; M effect size (z/N1/2) = 0.013, SD = 0.23. The new studies included replication attempts of 3 out of 5 internal effects reported as statistically significant by D. J. Bem and C. Honorton. Only 1 was confirmed, and the authors found that D. J. Bem and C. Honorton were mistaken in describing the original effect as being statistically significant. The authors conclude that the ganzfeld technique does not at present offer a replicable method for producing ESP in the laboratory.     

Does anxiety affect children's reports of memory for a stressful event?

The study was conducted to explore the effects of anxiety on children's memory for a naturalistic, potentially stressful event. Eighty children of two age groups, 4-5 and 7-8 years, visited the dentist for either a teeth-cleaning check-up or an operative procedure. Anxiety was assessed by a behavioural rating scale, as well as through Likert-scale ratings by the hygienist, parent, and child. Memory for the event was elicited through free recall and specific central and peripheral questions. High anxiety had a debilitative effect on the reports of the older children, but not on young children's reports. However, experience with the dental event mediated the influence of age and anxiety on memory. Although all measures of anxiety were significantly associated with each other, only the behavioural rating scale yielded statistically reliable effects of anxiety on memory. The anxiety-memory relationship is believed to be more complex than previous research with children suggests.     

Does color synesthesia pose a paradox for early-selection theories of attention?

Abstract— P.M. is a synesthete who experiences colors when viewing alphanumeric symbols. Her search for a target differing from distractors by a synesthetic color feature takes the form of a pop-out search. Thus, it would seem that synesthesia can occur preattentively. However, discrepancies between the regression functions of response times observed in target-present trials and target-absent trials, and the fact that fast response times occur only when the target is within a few degrees of visual angle from fixation, indicate that P.M.'s synesthesia does not occur preattentively, but rather is within the focus of attention. We conclude that synesthesia is a genuine perceptual phenomenon that can have substantial influence on visual processing.     

Reactivity to Stress: When Does a History of Medical Adversity Foster Resilience Versus Vulnerability?

Young adults with (or without) a history of medical or physical disorders (MPDs) were exposed to repeated laboratory stress. The effects of MPD status on habituation (as measured by changing levels of cortisol) were found to be moderated by the extent to which respondents reported “attachment feelings” in their relationships (as measured by the Social Provisions Scale). Students in the MPD group who reported attachment feelings showed (a) cortisol increases during their first exposure to a laboratory stressor; and (b) cortisol decreases during a second exposure to the same stressor 1 week later. No equivalent benefit was found for students who lacked this medical history. Findings suggest the extent to which medical adversity—under the right interpersonal circumstances—promotes resilience.     

Does Spirituality Represent the Sixth Factor of Personality? Spiritual Transcendence and the Five-Factor Model

This study reports on the development of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale, a measure designed to capture aspects of the individual that are independent of the qualities contained in the Five-Factor Model of Personality (FFM). Using two separate samples of undergraduate students including both self-report ( N s = 379 and 356) and observer data ( N = 279), it was shown that Spiritual Transcendence: (a) was independent of measures of the FFM; (b) evidenced good cross-observer convergence; and (c) predicted a wide range of psychologically salient outcomes, even after controlling for the predictive effects of personality. Given the long theoretical pedigree of Transcendence in the psychological literature, it was argued that Spiritual Transcendence represents a broad-based motivational domain of comparable breadth to those constructs contained in the FFM and ought to be considered a potential sixth major dimension of personality.     

Spiritual Coping, Family History, and Perceived Risk for Breast Cancer—Can We Make Sense of it?

Differences in spiritual beliefs and practices could influence perceptions of the role of genetic risk factors on personal cancer risk. We explored spiritual coping and breast cancer risk perceptions among women with and without a reported family history of breast cancer. Analyses were conducted on data from 899 women in primary care clinics who did not have breast cancer. Structural equation modeling (SEM), linear, and logistic modeling tested an interaction of family history of breast cancer on the relationship between spiritual coping and risk perceptions. Overall analyses demonstrated an inverse relationship between spiritual coping and breast cancer risk perceptions and a modifying effect of family history. More frequent spiritual coping was associated with lower risk perceptions for women with positive family histories, but not for those with negative family histories. Results support further research in this area that could influence communication of risk information to cancer genetic counseling patients.     

Looking for a Family Man? Norms for Men Are Toppling in Heterosexual Relationships

Gender norms indicate that men should be agentic and work-oriented rather than communal and family-oriented. Yet, this traditional expectation conflicts with findings that communion is highly valued in romantic partners. Moreover, because more women in industrialized countries are pursuing careers, they may increasingly seek family-oriented partners to share the second shift of family tasks. Investigating the attractiveness of communal, family-oriented men, we show that 87 female college students in Belgium evaluate more family-oriented men as generally more attractive (Study 1) and that especially college women in Belgium with high work ambitions seek communion and family orientation in ideal partners (Study 2, n?=?224). Lastly, women in 198 Belgian heterosexual dual-earning couples are more satisfied with their lives and experience less work and family conflict the more their partner indicates that he is oriented toward his close family (Study 3). Together, our findings outline the contextualized nature of norms and add to knowledge on norm change, showing how gender equality may be fed through romantic relationships. Moreover, our findings suggest the importance of exploring men’s family orientations in couples therapy, and they call for counselors, as well as policymakers and Human Resources practitioners, to guide men in times of norm change to enable men to be family-oriented and to offer family-friendly work policies.

     

Systems Theory,Family Attachments and Processes of Triangulation: Does the Concept of Triangulation Offer a Useful Bridge?

This article reviews the usefulness of the systemic concept of triangulation as a bridge between systemic thinking and practice and attachment theory. Traditionally attachment theory has theorized and researched with dyads, parent‐child and adult romantic partners, whereas systemic theory has worked therapeutically with the triangle as the basic human relationship; that is, when any two people interact, their interactions are influenced by their respective relationships with the same third person. Here it is argued, for example, that a child's attachment representations are shaped not only by the relationship with each parent but with the relationship between them. Thus, the process of triangulation in intimate relationships is seen in this article to link attachment theory with systemic thinking, as systemic theory needs a theory of love and attachment theory needs to consider how intimate relationships are nested and interconnected in an attachment network.     

Cochrane Review as a “Warranting Device” for Reasoning About Health

Contemporary reasoning about health is infused with the work products of experts, and expert reasoning about health itself is an active site for invention and design. Building on Toulmin’s largely undeveloped ideas on field-dependence, we argue that expert fields can develop new inference rules that, together with the backing they require, become accepted ways of drawing and defending conclusions. The new inference rules themselves function as warrants, and we introduce the term “warranting device” to refer to an assembly of the rule plus whatever material, procedural, and institutional resources are required to assure its dependability. We present a case study on the Cochrane Review, a new method for synthesizing evidence across large numbers of scientific studies. After reviewing the evolution and current structure of the device, we discuss the distinctive kinds of critical questions that may be raised around Cochrane Reviews, both within the expert field and beyond. Although Toulmin’s theory of field-dependence is often criticized for its relativism, we find that, as a matter of practical fact, field-specific warrants do not enjoy immunity from external critique. On the contrary, they can be opened to evaluation and critique from any interested perspective.     

“Stand Up Straight”: Notes Toward a History of Posture

The essay presents a set of interlinked claims about posture in modern culture. Over the past two centuries it has come to define a wide range of assumptions in the West from what makes human beings human (from Lamarck to Darwin and beyond) to the efficacy of the body in warfare (from Dutch drill manuals in the 17th century to German military medical studies of soldiers in the 19th century). Dance and sport both are forms of posture training in terms of their own claims. Posture separates ‘primitive’ from ‘advanced’ peoples and the ‘ill’ from the ‘healthy.’ Indeed an entire medical sub-specialty developed in which gymnastics defined and recuperated the body. But all of these claims were also part of a Western attempt to use posture (and the means of altering it) as the litmus test for the healthy modern body of the perfect citizen. Focusing on the centrality of posture in two oddly linked moments of modern thought—modern Zionist thought and Nationalism in early 20th century China—in terms of bodily reform, we show how “posture” brings all of the earlier debates together to reform the body.     

Recruiter Evaluation of Candidates for Employment: Does Study Abroad Make a Difference?

This analog study investigated recruiters’ evaluation of candidates for employment in regard to whether study abroad experience advantaged some in being selected for certain positions. Results found that candidates who completed study abroad and a relevant internship were ranked highest, with preference given by recruiters to long‐term Western experiences. However, the data also suggested that recruiter assessments varied somewhat depending on recruiters’ study abroad experience and their own characteristics. Overall, the effect of study abroad on the evaluation of candidates was simply one part of a complex of considerations.