Ambulatory group treatment for cocaine dependent patients combining cognitive behavioral therapy and motivational interviewing

Psychological interventions in cocaine dependent patients have demonstrated efficacy. Remarkable approaches are Contingency Management (CM) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Lack of treatment adherence is the most important limitation. Motivational Interview (MI) has been shown to be an adherence enhancer. The objective of this study is to evaluate retention and abstinence in a combined CM and CBT group treatment in patients who have reached maintenance stage according to Prochaska and DiClemente's transtheoretical model (1982). Therefore, a longitudinal study was carried out with cocaine dependent patients with or without concomitant mental health disease. A 12-session open group was conducted weekly. Nineteen patients were included (78.9% men, mean age 36.6 years), 95% consumed intranasally and 47% had another psychiatric comorbidity. Treatment retention was 84%. During treatment and the first month of follow-up, all patients remained abstinent whereas at three months, 3 patients relapsed. These data confirm that using combined CM and CBT group therapy in cocaine dependents undergoing maintenance treatment enhances adherence and is effective to achieve abstinence.     

Development and validation of a scale to assess positive youth development values

This paper describes the development of a self-report scale for adolescents to assess positive youth development values. It presents a substantial number of psychometric results performed on a sample of 2,400 adolescents (1,068 boys and 1,332 girls) from 12 to 17 years ( M = 14.73, SD = 1.25), who were studying secondary education in Western Andalusia. The results provide evidence of the psychometric quality of items, cross-validity of a structure of eight first-order factors and three second-order factors, obtained through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and adequate reliability. This study concludes that the scale presents adequate evidence of validity and reliability that allows assessment, especially in school contexts, of a broad set of values of particular relevance to positive youth development.     

Spanish adaptation of the EAS Temperament Survey for the assessment of child temperament

Better understanding of child temperament is essential, as it may predict subsequent development of psychopathology. Questionnaires which have been adapted to Spanish population include a rather restricted age range. The Emotionality Sociability and Activity (EAS) Temperament Survey has been widely used in child temperament genetic research. A Spanish version of the scale was administered to a sample of 229 mothers and to their children at 18 and 42 months of age. Its psychometric features were examined. Results showed accuracy indices akin to that obtained in prior studies. Findings suggest a three-factor structure for the assessment of temperament.     

Exposure to severe urban air pollution influences cognitive outcomes, brain volume and systemic inflammation in clinically healthy children

Exposure to severe air pollution produces neuroinflammation and structural brain alterations in children. We tested whether patterns of brain growth, cognitive deficits and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with exposures to severe air pollution. Baseline and 1 year follow-up measurements of global and regional brain MRI volumes, cognitive abilities (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, WISC-R), and serum inflammatory mediators were collected in 20 Mexico City (MC) children (10 with white matter hyperintensities, WMH⁺, and 10 without, WMH⁻) and 10 matched controls (CTL) from a low polluted city. There were significant differences in white matter volumes between CTL and MC children - both WMH⁺ and WMH⁻ - in right parietal and bilateral temporal areas. Both WMH⁻ and WMH⁺ MC children showed progressive deficits, compared to CTL children, on the WISC-R Vocabulary and Digit Span subtests. The cognitive deficits in highly exposed children match the localization of the volumetric differences detected over the 1 year follow-up, since the deficits observed are consistent with impairment of parietal and temporal lobe functions. Regardless of the presence of prefrontal WMH, Mexico City children performed more poorly across a variety of cognitive tests, compared to CTL children, thus WMH⁺ is likely only partially identifying underlying white matter pathology. Together these findings reveal that exposure to air pollution may perturb the trajectory of cerebral development and result in cognitive deficits during childhood.     

Assessment of Needs in Residential Care: Perspectives of Youth and Professionals

The evaluation and identification of needs profiles for youth in residential care, through qualitative and quantitative methodologies involving different stakeholders, are still relatively uncommon, even though they are essential in developing specific and effective services. This article will present two studies, one with youth and another with professionals. To assess needs from the standpoint of youth, four focus groups were held with youth in residential care (n = 21). To identify needs profiles of youth from the standpoint of professionals, 47 professionals evaluated a sample of youth in residential care (n = 110) using the RCYNA questionnaire. The results of the study with youth point to needs in three main areas: living situation, social and family relationships, and education. The results of the study with professionals reveal three needs profiles with distinct risk levels: low risk, without emerging needs; intermediate risk, with needs in terms of the economic and living situation; and high risk, with needs in terms of relationships, behavioural, psychological and emotional skills, and education and employment.     

Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe

This paper explores the relationship between social capital and happiness both in Europe as a whole, as well as in its four main geographical macro-regions—North, South, East and West—separately. We test the hypothesis of whether social capital, in its three-fold definition established by Coleman (Am J Sociol 94:S95–S120 1988)—trust, social interaction, and norms and sanctions—influences individual happiness across European countries and regions. The concept of social capital is further enriched by incorporating Putnam (Making democracy work—civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993) and Olson (The rise and decline of nations—economic growth, stagflation, and social rigidities. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1982) type variables on associational activity. Using ordinal logistic regression analysis on data for 48,583 individuals from 25 European countries, we reach three main findings. First, social capital matters for happiness across the three dimensions considered. Second, the main drivers of the effects of social capital on happiness appear to be informal social interaction and general social, as well as institutional trust. And third, there are significant differences in how social capital interacts with happiness across different areas of Europe, with the connection being at is weakest in the Nordic countries.     

What chance-credence norms should be

Synthese - Multiple realizability says that the same kind of mental states may be manifested by systems with very different physical constitutions. Putnam (1967) supposed it to be...     

The Combined Contribution of Fear and Perceived Danger of COVID-19 and Metacognitions to Anxiety Levels during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Despite a wide base of research suggesting a major role for dysfunctional metacognitions in contributing to anxiety, their role in...     

Interparental Conflict Appraisals and Adolescents’ Maladaptation in Siblings: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The aim of this study was to evaluate dyadic effects among siblings by testing an actor–partner interdependence model of associations between...