Portraits of Well-Being: Photography as a Mental Health Support for Women With HIV

Many women living with HIV/AIDS (WL-HIV/AIDS) experience significant mental distress. Although creative arts strategies are well positioned to help support women by inspiring creativity and meaning-making, few arts programs have been implemented and evaluated with this population. The authors conducted a photography project with 30 WL-HIV/AIDS from three United States cities. Participants took pictures to capture their lives with HIV/AIDS and described their photos and stories in group and individual sessions. Using thematic analysis, the authors identified that the project supported women’s mental health in four ways by facilitating empowerment and helping women to express themselves, address their mental health with new tools like photography, and process past traumas. Photography projects may help WL-HIV/AIDS understand and manage their mental health.     

Factor structure and aetiological architecture of the BRIEF: A twin study

Executive function is a broad construct that encompasses various processes involved in goal‐directed behaviour in non‐routine situations (Banich, 2009). The present study uses a sample of 560 5‐ to 16‐year‐old twin pairs (M = 11.14, SD = 2.53): 219 monozygotic twin pairs (114 female; 105 male) and 341 dizygotic twin pairs (136 female, 107 male; 98 opposite sex) to extend prior literature by providing information about the factor structure and the genetic and environmental architecture of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF; Gioia et al., 2000, Child Neuropsychol., 6, 235; Gioia et al., 2000, Behavior rating inventory of executive function, Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources), a multifaceted rating scale of everyday executive functions. Phenotypic results revealed a 9‐scale, 3‐factor model best represents the BRIEF structure within the current sample. Results of the genetically sensitive analyses indicated the presence of rater bias/contrast effects for the Initiate, Working Memory, and Task‐Monitor scales. Additive genetic and non‐shared environmental influences were present for the Initiate, Plan/Organize, Organization of Materials, Shift, and Monitor and Self‐Monitor scales. Influences on Emotional Control were solely environmental. Interestingly, the aetiological architecture observed was similar to that of performance‐based measures of executive function. This observed similarity provided additional evidence for the usefulness of the BRIEF as a measure of ‘everyday’ executive function.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">DRD4</Emphasis> Variants Moderate the Impact of Parental Characteristics on Child Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Exploratory Evidence from a Multiplex Family Design

Parental ADHD symptomatology and related impairments have been robustly associated with youth ADHD across decades of work. Notably, these factors may impede typical development of child self-regulation capabilities through both neurobiological and interpersonal processes. High heritability of estimates for the disorder further suggest that these effects are likely genetically-mediated, at least in part. Variation within the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) has been shown to moderate parental influences on youth ADHD. Use of a multiplex family design (i.e., samples of families that included multiple affected members) may facilitate identification of additional gene variants of interest and advance understanding of gene-environment interplay in regard to parenting. Thirty multiplex families consisting of 114 individuals (66 youth, 48 parents) completed a multi-stage, multi-informant diagnostic and neurocognitive assessment, measures of parenting, and provided saliva samples for DNA analyses. Sanger sequencing of the DRD4 gene yielded 16 rare variants; a polygenic risk score was computed for both parents and youth. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) examined the predictive effects of parental ADHD symptoms, parental neurocognitive functioning, and poor parenting dimensions on youth ADHD as well as moderation of these effects by parental and youth DRD4 variants. Findings indicated that parental DRD4 variants moderated the impact of parental ADHD and neurocognitive functioning on youth ADHD symptoms. Youth DRD4 variants moderated the impact of parental inconsistent discipline on child ADHD. In all cases, stronger associations were observed for those individuals with more risk variants. These exploratory findings highlight the potential utility of a multiplex family design for examining the interplay between parent and child characteristics in predicting youth outcomes.     

Self‐Stigma of Mental Illness and Help Seeking Among School Counselors

The authors reported the findings from a correlational investigation examining the relationship between school counselors' (N = 333) self‐stigma of mental illness, help‐seeking behaviors, burnout, stress, and life satisfaction. The authors used a path analysis to test a hypothesized causal framework that self‐stigma of mental illness contributed to help‐seeking behaviors, which contributed to stress and burnout. The findings showed that the data fit the hypothesized model. The authors discuss the implications of the findings.     

“Tell Me How That Makes You Feel”: Philosophy's Reason/Emotion Divide and Epistemic Pushback in Philosophy Classrooms

Alison Bailey has recently explored the nature of what she calls privilege‐evasive epistemic pushback or “the variety of willful ignorance that many members of dominant groups engage in when they are asked to consider both the lived experience and structural injustices that members of marginalized groups experience daily.” In this article, I want to use Bailey's argument to demonstrate how privilege‐evasive epistemic pushback is facilitated and obscured by the disciplinary tools of traditional Western philosophy. Specifically, through exploring philosophical cultures of justification and case studies, this work will reveal how students engage in privilege‐evasive epistemic pushback by deploying the reason/emotion divide and various philosophical norms and practices it underlies to protect their epistemic home turf. Then, I offer three emotion‐enhancing critical philosophical practices aimed at disrupting the ignorance‐promoting moves of privilege‐evasive epistemic pushback and, instead, engage emotion as epistemically significant.     

Do Parent and Teacher Report of ADHD Symptoms in Children Differ by SES and Racial Status?

Parent and teacher reports of symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children often differ from each other. These informant report differences may occur in systematic ways that vary by child socioeconomic status (SES) and race, but little is known about how SES and race together relate to parent and teacher report of ADHD symptoms in school-aged children. We examined the relationship between child SES, child race and parent and teacher reports of ADHD symptoms in two samples of school-aged Caucasian and African American children being evaluated for ADHD (N = 1056; N = 317). Multivariate regression was used to predict parent and teacher reports of ADHD symptoms from child SES, race, age, gender and interaction terms. The Wald test of parameter constraints was used to test the contrast between the predictors of interest and parent and teacher report of symptoms. In the second sample, we also examined observer report measures of ADHD symptoms during one-to-one testing and in the classroom. In both samples, lower SES was associated with higher levels of inattention symptoms, as reported by teachers, but not by parents. Lower SES was also associated with higher levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms, as reported by both teachers and parents. African American race was associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms reported by teachers than reported by parents. Observer report measures showed a different pattern of associations with SES and race. Investigating how children’s SES and race influence cross-informant agreement on ratings of children’s behavior might lead to the development of better assessment practices and more accurate diagnoses for diverse child populations.     

The timeline of threat processing in repressors: more evidence for early vigilance and late avoidance

Evidence is mixed concerning whether individuals with a repressive coping style can actually selectively avoid threatening stimuli. Recent research (Calvo & Eysenck, 2000) on repressors’ threat processing suggests that it is necessary to take into account the timeline of this bias. A spontaneous trait inference paradigm was used here to test the hypothesis that repressors would, relative to others, be less likely to infer unfavorable and threatening traits. However, if pressured to make trait inferences quickly, it was predicted that they would be less likely than others to infer favorable and unthreatening traits. Repressors and nonrepressors were presented with passages that could have supported positive or negative trait inferences. In Study 1, they were asked to respond to trait words as quickly as possible but were not held accountable for doing so. In Study 2, time pressure was increased to capture uncorrected trait inferences. Results indicated that repressors were more likely to make positive trait inferences than others when simply asked to respond quickly. Under time pressure, this bias disappeared. Results point to the importance of taking into account an important moderator between coping style and threat, namely, the stage of processing at which differences in threat processing are being assessed.     

Effects of emotional valence and arousal manipulation on eyeblink classical conditioning and autonomic measures

Using a classical eyeblink conditioning paradigm, we have previously shown that the rate of acquisition of a conditioned response may be manipulated by engaging subjects in background tasks of varying complexity concurrent to conditioning. To further examine the influence of the background environment on conditioning, a picture set designed to elicit emotional responses, the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), was presented to subjects during classical eyeblink conditioning. The results suggest that eyeblink conditioning does appear to be sensitive to contextual manipulations of arousal. Pictures rated as very arousing were found to engage subjects enough to enhance learning, although not to the point that autonomic functions were significantly altered between picture groups. We suggest that group differences in learning may be a result of either novelty of, or vigilance to, interesting pictures rather than as a direct result of physiological arousal.