Pet Peeves and Happiness: How Do Happy People Complain?

The present study was designed to investigate the relationships among mindfulness, happiness, and the expression of pet peeves. Previous research has established a positive correlation between happiness and mindfulness, but, to date, no research has examined how each of these variables is related to complaining in the form of pet peeves. Four hundred ten male and female college students listed the pet peeves they had with a current or former relationship partner. They also completed measures of happiness, positive and negative affect, depression, mindfulness, relationship satisfaction, and satisfaction with life. Pet peeves were negatively correlated with relationship satisfaction, well-being, and mindfulness. Consistent with hypotheses, support was found for the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between happiness and pet peeves.     

Spirituality and Optimism: A Holistic Approach to Component-Based,Self-management Treatment for HIV

For people living with HIV (PLWH), spirituality and optimism have a positive influence on their health, can slow HIV disease progression, and can improve quality of life. Our aim was to describe longitudinal changes in spirituality and optimism after participation in the SystemCHANGE?-HIV intervention. Upon completion of the intervention, participants experienced an 11.5 point increase in overall spiritual well-being (p = 0.036), a 6.3 point increase in religious well-being (p = 0.030), a 4.8 point increase in existential well-being (p = 0.125), and a 0.8 point increase in total optimism (p = 0.268) relative to controls. Our data suggest a group-based self-management intervention increases spiritual well-being in PLWH.     

A Dose-Ranging Study of Behavioral and Pharmacological Treatment in Social Settings for Children with ADHD

Placebo and three doses of methylphenidate (MPH) were crossed with 3 levels of behavioral modification (no behavioral modification, NBM; low-intensity behavioral modification, LBM; and high-intensity behavior modification, HBM) in the context of a summer treatment program (STP). Participants were 48 children with ADHD, aged 5–12. Behavior was examined in a variety of social settings (sports activities, art class, lunch) that are typical of elementary school, neighborhood, and after-school settings. Children received each behavioral condition for 3 weeks, order counterbalanced across groups. Children concurrently received in random order placebo, 0.15 mg/kg/dose, 0.3 mg/kg/dose, or 0.6 mg/kg/dose MPH, 3 times daily with dose manipulated on a daily basis in random order for each child. Both behavioral and medication treatments produced highly significant and positive effects on children’s behavior. The treatment modalities also interacted significantly. Whereas there was a linear dose–response curve for medication in NBM, the dose–response curves flattened considerably in LBM and HBM. Behavior modification produced effects as large as moderate doses, and on some measures, high doses of medication. These results replicate and extend to social-recreational settings previously reported results in a classroom setting from the same sample (Fabiano et al., School Psychology Review, 36, 195–216, 2007). Results illustrate the importance of taking dosage/intensity into account when evaluating combined treatments; there were no benefits of combined treatments when the dosage of either treatment was high but combination of the low-dose treatments produced substantial incremental improvement over unimodal treatment.     

Home-Based Early Head Start plus Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up: A Qualitative Study of Implementation Outcomes

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Elucidating factors that promote or hinder successful implementation of evidence-based practices in real-world settings is an essential component of...     

THE EFFECT OF THE AVAILABILITY OF A SIMILAR TOY ON COMPLIANCE WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO SURRENDER A TOY AMONG PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

We evaluated the effect of the availability of a similar toy on compliance with an instruction to surrender a toy among three preschool children. First, high‐preference and medium‐preference toys were identified for each participant. During the treatment evaluation, reversal designs were used to examine compliance with an instruction to surrender these toys when a toy similar to the target toy was added to the environment. The results indicated that, for two participants, the similar toy intervention increased compliance to moderate levels; a consequence‐based intervention was then added to the similar toy intervention and resulted in high levels of compliance. For the third participant, the similar toy intervention did not increase compliance. A separate consequence‐based intervention was necessary to increase compliance and to demonstrate experimental control. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.