Clinically Referred ODD Children with or without CD and Healthy Controls: Comparisons Across Contextual Domains

This study compares 6–11-year-old, clinically referred boys and girls diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, either with (ODD + CD, n = 40) or without Conduct Disorder (ODD only; n = 136), to a matched sample of healthy control children (HC; n = 69). Multiple informants completed intake diagnostic interviews and self-reports to evaluate constructs examining the child’s functioning and contextual influences on functioning (e.g., parent, family, peer, community). ODD + CD and ODD only children were each distinguished from HCs by greater exposure to delinquent peers and lowered parental self-efficacy. In further comparisons to the HC group, ODD only status was associated with parental use of psychological aggression and more stressful life events, whereas ODD + CD status was associated with greater parental hostility. Relative to ODD alone status, ODD + CD status was comparable on all but one variable (greater parental hostility). Similar findings were reported using a subset of girls only. The characteristics that distinguish children with DBDs from controls and, in particular, ODD + CD from ODD only, bear implications for understanding and treating both CD and ODD.

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Socialization of Emotion and Offspring Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers with Childhood-Onset Depression

This study examines how mothers with and without a history of childhood-onset depression respond to their 3-9 year-old children's emotions. Mother-child dyads included 55 offspring of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depressive disorders and 57 offspring of never-depressed mothers. Mothers with a history of childhood depression were less likely than control mothers to respond in supportive ways to their children's negative emotions and were more likely to magnify, punish, or neglect their children's negative emotions. Magnification, neglect, and punishment of children's negative emotions were concurrently associated with children's internalizing symptoms, and neglect and punishment were associated with internalizing over a one year follow-up. Maternal neglect of children's negative emotion was positively associated with later internalizing symptoms for children who already had higher internalizing symptoms at the initial assessment. Findings suggest that atypical socialization of emotion may be one mechanism in the development of internalizing disorders.     

父母心理控制与ODD症状儿童抑郁、攻击行为的关系

以北京市、山东省和云南省14所小学中的340名有对立违抗障碍(Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ODD)症状的儿童及其158名班主任为被试, 收集了儿童自己填写的父母心理控制、自尊、抑郁量表, 班主任评估的儿童攻击行为量表, 用以考察父亲与母亲心理控制对ODD症状儿童抑郁、攻击行为的不同影响, 以及自尊在其中的中介作用和儿童性别的调节作用。结果发现:(1)与有ODD症状的女孩相比, 具有ODD症状的男孩人数更多, 抑郁、攻击行为问题更为严重, 自尊也更差;(2)父亲对男孩的心理控制显著多于女孩, 而母亲对男孩、女孩的心理控制没有显著差异;(3)父亲和母亲心理控制与ODD症状儿童的抑郁、攻击行为都呈显著正相关且父亲心理控制能显著预测儿童的抑郁和攻击行为, 而母亲心理控制能显著的预测攻击行为;(4)自尊在父亲心理控制与ODD症状儿童的抑郁、母亲心理控制与儿童的攻击行为之间均起部分中介作用, 在父亲心理控制与儿童的攻击行为、母亲心理控制与儿童的抑郁之间均起完全中介作用。     

Pure Versus Co-occurring Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms in Children: The Potential Role of Socio-Developmental Milestones

Co-occurring internalizing and externalizing disorders are moderately prevalent in children, adolescents, and adults (Anderson, Williams, McGee, & Silva, 1987; McConaughy & Skiba, 1994), but much remains to be understood regarding why some children show “pure” versus co-occurring internalizing and externalizing symptoms. One possible influence that has previously not been considered is the failure to attain socio-developmental milestones, which paradoxically may prevent the development of co-occurring symptoms for some children. The present study proposes a model in which failure to attain relevant socio-developmental milestones might explain why some children may not develop heterotypic co-occurring symptoms. Specifically, it is proposed that specific clusters of internalizing symptoms (i.e., high social anxiety, withdrawal, and inhibition) and externalizing symptoms (i.e., high impulsivity, hyperactivity, and emotional reactivity) may be associated with the failure to attain socio-developmental milestones (i.e., poor peer relations for anxious children, lack of self-reflection and evaluation for impulsive/reactive children) that, in turn, may prevent subgroups of children from developing co-occurring, heterotypic symptoms.     

The Mediating Role of Social Skills in the Relationship between Motor Ability and Internalizing Symptoms in Pre‐primary Children

Impaired motor development can deprive a child of constructive engagement in early motor activities and thus diminish opportunities for the acquisition of key cognitive, social and emotional abilities. The aim of the current study was to test a model where social skills mediate the relationship between motor ability and internalizing symptoms in pre‐primary children. A cross‐sectional research design was employed to assess the mediation model using data from 234 boys and 241 girls aged 4 to 6 years. Structural equation modelling provided support for the mediating role of social skills as assessed by the child's teacher. Replication of these findings in longitudinal studies, elucidating how social skills relate to motor impairment, could have implications for the prevention of psychopathology in young children with motor impairment. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Neuropsychological Deficits in Relation to Symptoms of ADHD: Independent Contributions and Interactions

Twelve children with and without Down syndrome (DS) performed eight subtests of an apraxia battery to determine under what conditions children with DS had difficulty performing representational and nonrepresentational gestures. Participants with DS also completed a dichotic listening test. Participants with DS performed just as well as control participants on all aspects of the apraxia battery except a subtest in which they were required to pantomime tool use from verbal instruction. This suggests that children with DS have difficulty generating an action from memory following verbal instruction. Given the sufficient context or visual demonstration, children with DS performed similar to the other participants. As well, there was a great deal of within-group variability for dichotic listening ear advantage. Participants with a greater left ear advantage on the dichotic listening test committed more errors on an imitation test that also included a verbal component than participants with a greater right ear advantage.     

Exploring Criterion Confounding in the Measurement of Binge Eating Symptoms and Negative Affect

Common measures of eating disorder symptoms contain affect-related items. When associations between negative affect and eating disorder symptoms are examined, criterion confounding is possible. The current study explored whether criterion confounding biases estimates of relations between symptoms of binge eating and negative affect. Data were collected from first-year university student women via 14-day web-based daily diaries. The Minnesota Eating Behavior Survey (MEBS) measured daily symptoms of binge eating, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) measured daily negative affect. The inclusion of affect-related items in the MEBS biased mean level tests of negative affect, correlations of negative affect with symptoms of binge eating, and associations between the likelihood of reporting behavioral symptoms of binge eating and same-day negative affect. Converging results demonstrated the need to measure associated features and risk factors separately from problematic eating behavior symptoms.

Intrusive parenting,teacher sensitivity,and negative emotionality on the development of emotion regulation in early head start toddlers

Toddler emotion regulation develops within the context of relationships but is also influenced by toddlers’ individual characteristics. Drawing on transactional and differential susceptibility frameworks, this study examined direct and interactive associations of intrusive parenting, teacher sensitivity, and negative emotionality on toddler emotion regulation development in a sample of Early Head Start families utilizing center-based child care. Latent growth models indicated that, after controlling for a series of family and child care covariates, intrusive parenting at 14 months had diminishing effects on trajectories of emotion regulation across toddlerhood (14 to 36 months), whereas teacher sensitivity in child care was promotive for emotion regulation growth. Toddlers with high negative emotionality were not more susceptible to the effects of intrusive parenting or teacher sensitivity on emotion regulation development, however, results suggested emerging evidence for individual differences in the protective nature of teacher sensitivity in the context of high intrusion at home. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for informing parents and early care and education providers in nurturing relationships with the children who may be the most challenging to care for but may stand to make the greatest gains in emotion regulation development in quality caregiving settings.     

Racial Identity as Mediator of the Relationship Between Gender Role Conflict and Severity of Psychological Symptoms in Black, Latino, and Asian Men

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the extent to which racial identity attitudes mediate the relationship between gender role conflict and psychological symptoms in Men of Color. The mediating role of racial identity was tested in Study 1 with a sample of Black men and in Study 2 with a sample of Asian and Latino men. The results of Study 1 provided support for full mediation, whereas in Study 2 evidence was found for partial mediation. The combination of the studies' findings underscores the importance of considering the extent to which Men of Color identify with their own racial group when examining the relationship between gender role conflict and psychological symptoms.     

Types of Aggression,Responsiveness to Provocation,and Callous-unemotional Traits in Detained Adolescents

The present study investigated differences in the behavioral and psychophysiological responses to provocation and in the level of callous-unemotional traits in boys exhibiting different patterns of aggression. Eighty-five boys (ages 13-18) in a juvenile detention center played a competitive computer task against a hypothetical peer who provided low and high levels of provocation. Youth high on both self-reported reactive and proactive aggression showed different behavioral responses to provocation than youth high on only reactive aggression. Specifically, the combined group showed high levels of aggressive responses without any provocation, whereas the group high on reactive aggression showed an increase in aggressive responding to low provocation. Further, results revealed a trend for the combined group to show lower levels of skin conductance reactivity to low provocation if they were also high on callous-unemotional traits.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Distinction between Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Children and Adolescents

The present meta-analytic review aimed to clarify divergent findings concerning the relation between reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents. Fifty-one studies with 17,965 participants were included in the analysis. A significant correlation between reactive and proactive aggression was found. The strength of this relation varied considerably between studies, from -.10 to .89. Observational assessment and tilt/noise tasks were associated with smaller correlations than questionnaires. Within the large group of questionnaire studies, studies disentangling the form and function of aggression found lower correlations than studies that did not disentangle form and function. Among questionnaire studies, higher reliability was associated with larger correlations. Effect size did not depend on other study characteristics such as sample type, age, and informant type. It is concluded that reactive and proactive aggression are most clearly distinguished with behavioral observations and questionnaires that unravel form and functions of aggression.     

Experiential Avoidance as an Emotion Regulatory Function: An Empirical Analysis of Experiential Avoidance in Relation to Behavioral Avoidance,Cognitive Reappraisal,and Response Suppression

The purpose of the present study was to empirically test the suggestion that experiential avoidance in an emotion regulation context is best understood as an emotion regulatory function of topographically distinct strategies. To do this we examined whether a measure of experiential avoidance could statistically account for the effects of emotion regulation strategies intervening at different points of the emotion-generative process as conceptualized by Gross' (1998) process model of emotion regulation. The strategies under examination were behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression. The specific hypotheses to be tested were (1) that behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression would statistically mediate the differences in measures of psychological well-being between a clinical and nonclinical sample, but that (2) these indirect effects would be reduced to nonsignificant levels when controlling for differences in experiential avoidance. The results provide clear support for the first hypothesis with regard to all the studied strategies. In contrast to the second hypothesis, the results showed the predicted outcome pattern only for the response-focused strategy “response suppression” and not for cognitive reappraisal or behavioral avoidance. The results are interpreted and discussed in relation to theories on experiential avoidance and emotion regulation.     

大学生进食障碍症状的潜在剖面分析及其与抑郁的关系

为了解大学生进食障碍症状的类别特征及其与抑郁和性别的关系,使用进食障碍检查自评问卷6.0和9项患者健康问卷对575名大学生施测,采用带预测变量（抑郁）和分类结果变量（性别）的潜在剖面法进行数据分析。结果表明：大学生进食障碍症状可划分为体形关注组（62.4%）、体像顾虑组（28.0%）和进食障碍风险组（9.6%）;抑郁得分越高,个体被归为体像顾虑组或进食障碍风险组的可能性越大;女性属于体像顾虑组和进食障碍风险组的可能性比男性高。     

Callous-Unemotional Traits,Relational and Social Aggression,and Interpersonal Maturity in a Sample of Behaviorally Disordered Adolescents

The authors examined the degree to which callous-unemotional traits and narcissism predict relational aggression, social aggression, and prosocial skills in a sample of 79 adolescent offenders (13–18 years old; 26% girls; 74% boys) attending a school for youth with behavior disorders in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Narcissism made a significant contribution to the prediction of both relational aggression and social aggression, accounting for most of the unique variance in the prediction of these indirect forms of aggression. Conversely, callous-unemotional traits—but not narcissism—made a significant contribution to the prediction of lower prosocial skills. Furthermore, in contrast to the large number of studies indicating gender differences in the expression of aggression, no significant gender differences in the present study were found.     

Three-way interaction of neuroticism,extraversion, and conscientiousness in the internalizing disorders: Evidence of disorder specificity in a psychiatric sample

It is well-established that neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness are individually associated with internalizing disorders, but research suggests that these main effects may be qualified by a three-way interaction when predicting depression. The current study was the first to examine this three-way interaction in a psychiatric sample (N = 463) with a range of internalizing symptoms as the outcomes. Using two omnibus personality inventories and a diagnostic interview, the expected three-way interaction emerged most consistently for symptoms of major depression, and there was also evidence of synergistic effects for post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Findings indicate that, even in a clinically-distressed and currently-disordered sample, high levels of extraversion and conscientiousness protect against distress disorders for those with high levels of neuroticism.     

More than the Terrible Twos: The Nature and Severity of Behavior Problems in Clinic-Referred Preschool Children

The primary goals of this study are to describe the nature and severity of disruptive behavior problems in clinic-referred preschoolers from low-income environments and to explore the validity of DSM-IV disruptive disorders for young children. We examine the relation between DSM-IV symptoms, standardized behavior checklists, and observational ratings as a means of exploring measurement validity in this age group. Seventy-nine clinic-referred preschoolers (ages 2 through 5 years) from low-income environments were assessed. To examine whether clinic-referred preschool children have symptoms that are consistent with DSM-IV disruptive behavior disorders, parents were administered a semistructured diagnostic interview, modified for developmentally appropriate usage. In addition, parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and children's behavior problems were assessed with observational ratings during parent–child interaction. Nearly half of the sample met criteria for conduct disorder, and three quarters met criteria for oppositional defiant disorder. Preliminary evidence for the validity of DSM-IV disruptive disorders in preschool children was demonstrated through association with CBCL scores, behavior ratings, and significant levels of impairment. Future efforts aimed at validating these diagnoses in preschoolers and implications for prevention are discussed.     

Differential Effects of Anxiety Sensitivity Components in the Relation Between Emotional Non-Acceptance and Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Trauma-Exposed Treatment-Seeking Smokers

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), defined as the extent to which individuals believe anxiety and anxiety-related sensations have harmful consequences, may play an important explanatory role in the relation between emotional non-acceptance and the expression of traumatic stress symptoms among trauma-exposed smokers. This investigation examined whether lower-order dimensions of AS (cognitive, physical, and social concerns) differentially explain the relation between emotional non-acceptance and post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptom clusters (re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal) among trauma-exposed daily smokers (N = 169, 46% female; M_age = 41, SD = 12.3). AS and its lower-order facets of cognitive and social concerns were found to mediate the relations between emotional non-acceptance and avoidance and hyperarousal PTS symptoms. Using a multiple mediation model, the mediational effect of AS cognitive concerns for the relation between emotional non-acceptance and post-traumatic avoidance symptoms was found to be uniquely evident relative to social and physical concerns. All observed AS effects were evident above and beyond the variance accounted for by gender, number of traumatic event exposure types, negative affectivity, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and alcohol use problems. The present findings suggest cognitive-based AS concerns may play a mechanistic role in the relation between emotional non-acceptance and certain PTS symptoms among trauma-exposed daily smokers.     

青少年创伤后应激障碍症状与网络成瘾症状的关系：惩罚敏感性和孤独感的中介及性别的调节

汶川地震9.5年后,对汶川县和都江堰市767名中学生进行调查,考察惩罚敏感性和孤独感在创伤后应激障碍症状和网络成瘾症状之间的多重中介作用及性别差异。结果发现：（1）PTSD症状正向预测网络成瘾症状,并分别通过惩罚敏感性、孤独感的单独中介作用及两者的链式中介作用显著预测网络成瘾症状;（2）女性的PTSD症状显著正向预测网络成瘾症状,并分别通过惩罚敏感性和孤独感间接影响网络成瘾症状;男性的网络成瘾症状仅被PTSD症状正向预测。     

Suicide schema in schizophrenia: the effect of emotional reactivity, negative symptoms and schema elaboration

Suicide risk is thought to increase with a greater potential for activation of suicide-related schemas. Suicide schemas are less likely to be activated with reductions of emotional range associated with certain negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The study tested whether suicide risk would increase in patients with recent onset schizophrenia with increased potential for suicide schema activation as indicated by lower levels of specific negative symptoms that reflected emotional reactivity, namely emotional withdrawal and blunted affect. A logistic regression analysis of baseline data of 278 recent onset schizophrenic patients with a measure of suicide behaviour as the dependent variable and negative symptoms, delusions, hallucinations, depression, gender, episode, ethnicity, education, age, duration of untreated psychosis and substance use as independent variables was carried out. Emotional withdrawal, but not blunted affect was significant and negatively associated, and depression positively associated with suicide behaviour. There was evidence to indicate that restricted emotions are associated with reduced suicide risk as predicted.