Delay discounting: I'm a k, you're a k

Delay discounting is the decline in the present value of a reward with delay to its receipt. Across a variety of species, populations, and reward types, value declines hyperbolically with delay. Value declines steeply with shorter delays, but more shallowly with longer delays. Quantitative modeling provides precise measures to characterize the form of the discount function. These measures may be regarded as higher-order dependent variables, intervening variables, or hypothetical constructs. I suggest the degree of delay discounting may be a personality trait. In the end, the ontological status of measures of delay discounting is irrelevant. Whatever delay discounting may be, its study has provided the field of behavior analysis and other areas measures with robust generality and predictive validity for a variety of significant human problems. Research on moderating the degree of delay discounting has the potential to produce substantial societal benefits.     

Number of Children Associated with Mothers’ Perceived Need for Behavior Support: Implications for Parenting Interventions

Researchers acknowledge mothers’ contributing role in influencing children’s behavioral displays of emotion, but there is a dearth in the literature on mothers’ emotion-related behaviors, beliefs, and needs. Urban, Head Start Mothers (n = 114) participated in a quantitative, exploratory investigation to examine child, maternal and community factors that may be associated with level of expressiveness, perceived role in emotional development, and receptivity to behavior support. Findings suggested that, compared to mothers raising two or more children, those raising only one child were significantly less positive in self-reported expressiveness, less supportive of the suggested role of mothers in the literature, and less receptive to parent-focused behavior support. Implications for acknowledging possibly distinct needs of Head Start mothers of singletons as well as seeking input from more experienced Head Start mothers in devising parenting interventions will be discussed.     

System of Care Development in Children’s Mental Health: Lessons Learned from a Process Evaluation

Despite ongoing public calls for reform, the mental health needs of many children with psychological, emotional and behavioral disorders remain unmet. In response, providers continue to seek effective alternatives to institutional treatment by implementing comprehensive systems of care. The Children’s Enhancement Project (CEP) is a collaborative effort to provide holistic, community-based mental health services for children with an individualized, flexible, family-driven approach. We conducted a process evaluation of CEP’s early stage development and implementation utilizing both qualitative stakeholder interviews and quantitative survey components. The current article describes that evaluation and highlights the challenges and potential solutions encountered in developing a system of care. The lessons learned regarding system of care development, including the importance of a shared vision, establishing programmatic guidelines, achieving collaboration, and addressing sustainability concerns, are discussed.     

Children Exposed to the Arrest of a Family Member: Associations with Mental Health

The arrest of a parent or other family member can be detrimental to children’s health. To study the impact of exposure to the arrest of a family member on children’s mental health and how said association may change across developmental periods, we examined baseline data for children (birth through 11 years) entering family-based systems of care (SOC). Children exposed to the arrest of a family member had experienced significantly more 5.38 (SD = 2.59) different types of potentially traumatic events (PTE) than children not exposed to arrest 2.84 (SD = 2.56). Multiple regression model results showed that arrest exposure was significantly associated with greater behavioral and emotional challenges after controlling for children’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, caregiver’s education, parenting factors, and other PTE exposure. Further analyses revealed differences in internalizing and externalizing behaviors associated with arrest exposure across developmental levels. This study highlights some of the mental health challenges for children exposed to the arrest of a family member, while adding to our knowledge of how such an event affects children across different developmental periods. More trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate systems need to be in place at all levels to assist children and families experiencing arrest.     

From Cases to Capacity? A Critical Reflection on the Role of ‘Ethical Dilemmas’ in the Development of Dual-Use Governance

The dual-use issue is often framed as a series of paralyzing ‘dilemmas’ facing the scientific community as well as institutions which support innovation. While this conceptualization of the dual-use issue can be useful in certain contexts (such as in awareness-raising and as part of educational activities directed at the scientific community) its usefulness is more limited when reflecting on the governance and politics of the dual-use issue. Within this paper, key shortcomings of the dilemma framing are outlined. It is argued that many of the issues raised in the most recent debates about ‘dual-use’ bird flu research remain unresolved. This includes questions about the trajectories of certain lines of research, as well as broader trends in the practice and governance of science. This leads to difficult questions about current approaches to the dual-use issue within the US, as well as internationally.     

Young‐age gender differences in mathematics mediated by independent control or uncontrollability

We studied whether the origins of math anxiety can be related to a biologically supported framework of stress induction: (un)controllability perception, here indicated by self‐reported independent efforts in mathematics. Math anxiety was tested in 182 children (8‐ to 11‐year‐olds). Latent factor modeling was used to test hypotheses on plausible causal processes and mediations within competing models in quasi‐experimental contrasts. Uncontrollability perception in mathematics, or (in)dependence of efforts, best fit the data as an antecedent of math anxiety. In addition, the relationship of math anxiety with gender was fully mediated by adaptive perception of control (i.e. controllability). That is, young boys differ from girls in terms of their experience of control in mathematics learning. These differences influence math anxiety. Our findings are consistent with recent suggestions in clinical literature according to which uncontrollability makes women more susceptible to fear and anxiety disorders. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4b_47Y-e_U