INCREASING CALORIE CONSUMPTION IN CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS: REPLICATION WITH 2-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Three mildly malnourished children with cystic fibrosis and their parents participated in a behavioral group-treatment program that focused on promoting and maintaining increased calorie consumption. Treatment included nutritional education, gradually increasing calorie goals, contingency management, and relaxation training, and was evaluated in a multiple baseline design across four meals. Children's calorie intake increased across meals, and total calorie intake was 32% to 60% above baseline at posttreatment. Increased calorie consumption was maintained at the 96-week follow-up (2 years posttreatment). The children's growth rates in weight and height were greater during the 2 years following treatment than the year prior to treatment. Increases in pace of eating and calories consumed per minute were also observed 1 year posttreatment. These findings replicated and extended earlier research supporting the efficacy of behavioral intervention in the treatment of malnutrition in children with cystic fibrosis.     

Family psychopathology: Cross training graduate marital and family therapy students in family assessment and psychiatric nosology

The structure of a course entitled Family Therapy with Major Psychopathology taught annually in the Mercer University Graduate Marriage and Family Therapy Program is presented. An epistemological presentation regarding the interface of psychiatric nosology and family systems assessment is discussed. Methods of diagnosing and assessing dysfunctional family systems are presented and training in individual psychiatric nosology is discussed, with particular attention given to family systems dysfunction as an etiological factor in the development of individual psychopathology. Learning techniques are discussed including lecture, discussion, case presentations, readings, and testing methods.     

Couple Identity Gaps,the Management of Conflict,and Biological and Self‐Reported Stress in Romantic Relationships

This study investigates the role of couple identity gaps in romantic partners' communicative and physiological management of stress during a conflict‐inducing discussion task. A total of 118 couples participated in a laboratory study in which they engaged in a conflict‐inducing discussion. Perceptions of intra‐ and extrarelationship couple identity gaps were associated with greater self‐reported anxiety and stress for men and greater negativity for women during the conversation. Extrarelationship identity gaps were also significantly associated with heightened cortisol and (salivary alpha‐amylase) sAA reactivity and delayed recovery, especially for women. The study extends the research on couple identity by introducing the concept of identity gaps into relational contexts to help explain why couples vary in their ability to manage stress.     

Personality and its links to quality of life: Mediating effects of emotion regulation and self-efficacy beliefs

We investigated the relationship between personality and quality of life (QoL) considering emotion regulation and self-efficacy beliefs as mediating factors. A total of 409 participants from the French-speaking regions of Switzerland and from France completed questionnaires on personality, emotion regulation, self-efficacy beliefs, and QoL. Our findings revealed that specific personality traits have significant direct and indirect effects on QoL, mediated by emotion regulation and self-efficacy. Particularly, neuroticism was strongly and negatively related to emotion regulation and QoL, but not significantly linked to self-efficacy, whereas extraversion and conscientiousness were positively associated with all variables. This is the first study to demonstrate that both emotion regulation and self-efficacy are important mechanisms that link specific personality traits to QoL, suggesting that they channel and modulate the personality effects. However, more work is needed to understand these relationships in more detail (e.g., how the personality traits concurrently influence each other as well as emotion regulation and self-efficacy).     

A study named desire: Local focus increases approach motivation for desserts

When we desire something, our approach motivation is high. Recent research shows affective states high in approach motivation cause attentional narrowing (localization) (e.g.; Gable and Harmon-Jones in Psychological Science 19:476–482, 2008; Juergensen and Demaree in Motivation and Emotion 39:580–588, 2015). Does the reciprocal relationship exist? That is, when our attention is narrowed, does our motivation to approach something desirable increase? To test this, we primed participants with either global or local attentional focus before viewing images of desirable items (e.g., desserts) or neutral items (e.g., furniture). Relative to participants primed with global attentional focus, participants primed with local attentional focus demonstrated greater approach motivation to desirable desserts compared to neutral items on an Approach Avoidance Task. Despite greater approach motivation for desserts, participants with localized attention did not subjectively rate desserts as more desirable than participants with global attention. These results suggest that increased approach motivation following local priming is evidenced at an implicit level only: participants appear to be unaware of appetitive images’ increased desirability.     

Child Characteristics,Parent Education and Depressive Symptoms,and Marital Conflict Predicting Trajectories of Parenting Behavior from Childhood Through Early Adolescence in Taiwan

The study examined how child and parent characteristics, and contextual sources of stress, such as marital conflict predict initial status and trajectories of parent involvement, support, and harsh control, over a 4‐year period in families in Taiwan (n = 4,754). Based on Belsky's (1984) ecological model of parenting, three domains predicting parenting were tested, child characteristics (age cohort and gender), father and mother characteristics (education and depressive symptoms), and contextual sources of stress (marital conflict). The study followed two cohorts of children; the younger cohort was followed from first to fourth grade and the older cohort from fourth to seventh grade. Initially, fourth graders reported more parental involvement, support, and harsh control than first graders. However, involvement, support, and harsh control decreased across the 4 years for the older cohort as they transitioned to early adolescence. In the first year, girls reported more parental involvement and support and less harsh control than boys. Across the 4 years, involvement and support increased, and harsh control decreased for boys; whereas involvement stayed the same, support slightly decreased, and harsh control slightly increased for girls. Children whose parents were more educated reported more parent involvement, support, and harsh control in the first year. Children whose fathers were chronically depressed and whose parents were experiencing marital conflict reported decreasing parent involvement and support over the years.     

How do I cope with pain? Let me count the ways: awareness of pain coping behaviors and relationships with depression and anxiety

Patients with chronic pain are often undertreated with medications alone and need alternative ways of coping. Identifying pain coping skills patients use may be beneficial; however, no research has investigated whether patients are aware of their coping skills. The purpose of this study was to determine whether patients are aware of their pain coping skills, whether certain patient characteristics were related to using coping strategies, and whether coping strategies were related to psychiatric symptoms. Chart reviews were conducted on seventy-eight chronic pain patients who completed a semi-structured psychological interview. Patients endorsed using more coping strategies on the measure compared to the verbal self-report. Identifying with certain patient demographics was related to higher use of some coping strategies. Symptoms of anxiety and depression were also related to the use of some coping strategies. Anxiety was negatively related to ignoring the pain and using self-talk coping statements and positively related to catastrophizing. Depression was negatively related to the use of distraction, ignoring the pain, and using self-talk coping statements. Depression and pain severity were both positively related to catastrophizing and prayer. Results suggest that clinicians may need to help patients become aware of adaptive coping strategies they already use and that the use of certain coping strategies is related to lower levels of depression and anxiety.     

Antecedents of daily team job crafting

This study investigated potential antecedents of team job crafting defined as the extent to which team members engage together in increasing (social and structural) job resources and challenges, and decreasing hindering job demands. Mindful of the teamwork literature, we hypothesized that individual employee factors (self-efficacy for teamwork, daily affect), team features (team cohesion, climate) and the organizational context of teams (engaging leadership and organizational resources for teamwork) relate positively to daily team job crafting behaviour. Data were collected among 46 multi-professional rehabilitation teams whose members completed two daily surveys after their weekly meetings. Multilevel regression analyses showed that self-efficacy for teamwork and team members’ positive affect were positively associated with team job crafting behaviour at the individual (within-team) level. In addition, a team climate characterized by a clear vision of the teams’ targets, supportiveness and innovation and connecting leadership were positively related to daily team job crafting at both the within- and between-team levels of the data. Overall, the study offers novel insights into the antecedents of teams’ daily job crafting behaviours. For practice, the results suggest that actions and interventions conducive to positive team processes offer the most promising route to enhancing team job crafting behaviour.