“Almost There”...Why Clients Fail to Engage in Family Therapy: An Exploratory Study

A great deal of clinical research has sought to describe and suggest remedies for the client dropout phenomenon. However, few studies have addressed the equally pervasive, yet often ignored, non-engagement problem. An exploratory study was conducted to understand why many clients fail to engage in family therapy services after they have completed the initial intake. The results of the study suggest that therapist gender and experience level, clinic policies regarding videotaping sessions, family concerns, and changes in the presenting problem prior to the first session, had an impact on potential clients’ decision to engage in therapy. Implications and future research are discussed.Meng-ning Wang, MA, a doctoral student, and Jonathan Sandberg, PhD, a faculty member in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Syracuse University at Syracuse University are co-first authors. Amy Zavada, MA, Tziporah Rosenberg, MA, Aaron Jeffrey, MA, and Justin McPheters, MA, are doctoral students, and Mona Mittal, PhD, and Anne Gosling, PhD, are faculty in the same program.     

MTHFR and ACE gene polymorphisms and risk of vascular and degenerative dementias in the elderly

Focal lacunar infarctions due to cerebral small vessel atherosclerosis or single/multiple large cortical infarcts lead to vascular dementia, and different genes and environmental factors have been implicated in causation or aggravation of the disease. Previous reports suggest that some of the risk factors may be common to both vascular as well as degenerative dementia. Among genetic factors, role of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and methylene-tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) genes as putative risk factors has been examined but the outcome of these studies remain inconclusive. Present study attempted to see the importance of ACE alu insertion/deletion and MTHFR C677T polymorphisms as genetic predisposers to dementia. The study comprised of 80 vascular dementia patients, 90 degenerative dementia patients and 170 age matched controls. All were genotyped for ACE, MTHFR and APOE polymorphisms using PCR-RFLP method. Frequency of ACE D allele was seemingly high in dementia cases (26.7%) when compared to controls (11.2%). However, after adjusting for age and APOE E4^*, none of the ACE alleles showed good correlation. MTHFR genotypes or alleles also did not show any correlation. Our study suggests no true correlation of ACE or MTHR genes with dementia in elderly.     

Consuming as a family: Modes of intergenerational influence on young adults

• Parents inevitably shape their young children's consumption during early years; does this influence endure as the offspring mature? We explore this phenomenon—known as Intergenerational Influence (IGI)—with survey data from 265 young adults and their parents for four product categories. Our specific focus is on two research questions: (1) By what modality is IGI transferred, and (2) does family relationship quality (FRQ) moderate IGI outcomes? Results show IGI to be present in differing degrees across products—more for utilitarian and, likewise, shared products, less for individually consumed and stylistic products. As to modality, we explore active indoctrination by parents versus passive learning by mere observation by the offspring, and find the latter to be the dominant mode. We also find a strong moderating role of so that all IGI outcomes are stronger among high FRQ than among low FRQ families. Of import to theory as well as practice, these findings confirm and extend current literature on IGI and suggest directions for future research.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Delay of Gratification in Two- and Three-Year-Olds: Associations with Attachment, Personality, and Temperament

Delay of gratification in young children has been linked to long-term behavioral and academic outcomes. This study explored temperament, personality, and child–parent attachment as possible associates of delay ability. The sample consisted of 50 2- and 3-year-old children and their primary caregivers. Two laboratory tasks, the Preschool Strange Situation and the newly created Gift Delay Task, were conducted on separate occasions to assess child–parent attachment and delay of gratification, respectively. Parents and preschool teachers completed child temperament (EASI-III) and personality (California Child Q-Set) questionnaires. Based on the award-oriented behavior in the Gift Delay Task, children were classified into three groups: Delay (20 %), Touch and Go (i.e., approached the gift, but demonstrated some delay ability; 46 %), and Non Delay (34 %). Reports on activity, impulsivity, decision time, negative emotionality, over-control, and affect were found to be associated with delay ability. The association between child–parent attachment and delay was not statistically significant, but an interesting trend emerged. A larger percentage of Non Delayers were rated as Insecure-Ambivalent (“C”), and more Delayers were rated as Securely attached (“B”). Implications for behavioral interventions focused on parental support and scaffolding are discussed.     

Mechanisms that underlie coordination in children with developmental coordination disorder

The authors examined potential mechanisms underlying motor coordination in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Because children with DCD experience difficulty processing visual, auditory, and vibrotactile information, the authors explored patterns of choice reaction time (RT) in young (6-7 years) and older (9-10 years) children with and without DCD by using a compatibility-incompatibility paradigm and different sensory modalities. Young children responded more slowly than older children to visual, auditory, and vibrotactile stimuli. Children with DCD took longer than typical children to process visual and vibrotactile stimuli under more complex stimulus-response mappings. Young children with DCD responded more slowly than typical children to visual and vibrotactile information under incompatible conditions. Children with DCD responded faster than unaffected children to auditory stimuli. The results suggest that there is a developmental nature in the processing of visual and auditory input and imply that the vibrotactile sensory modality may be key to the motor coordination difficulties of children with DCD.     

Movement abnormalities and the progression of prodromal symptomatology in adolescents at risk for psychotic disorders

The link between movement abnormalities and psychotic disorders is presumed to reflect common neural mechanisms that influence both motor functions and vulnerability to psychosis. The prodromal period leading to psychotic disorders represents both a viable point for intervention and a developmental period that, if studied, could shed light on etiology; however, no published studies have examined the temporal progression of this link. A group with high levels of prodromal symptomatology (i.e., adolescents with schizotypal personality disorder [SPD]; n = 42) and both psychiatric controls (with other personality disorders or conduct disorder [OD]; n = 30) and nonpsychiatric controls ([NC]; n = 49) were recruited. Videotapes of structured psychiatric interviews were coded for movement abnormalities by raters blind to participants' diagnostic status, and follow-up assessments were conducted 1 year later. Controlling for psychotropic medications, the authors found that adolescents with SPD exhibited significantly more motor abnormalities in the face and upper body than did OD and NC controls. At baseline, movement abnormalities were positively correlated with the severity of positive, negative, and total prodromal symptoms. Within the SPD group, baseline movement abnormalities predicted symptom severity 1 year later. Movement abnormalities represent an early risk indicator that may be predictive of later symptom severity and potentially of psychosis onset.     

The attractiveness of enriched and impoverished options: culture, self-construal, and regulatory focus

The authors propose that there is a systematic impact of a person's activated self-construal (interdependent vs. independent) on the evaluation of enriched and impoverished options. This hypothesis is tested using a cross-country comparison of participants from China and the United States (Study 1) and by priming self-construal (Study 2) and regulatory focus (Study 3). Results show that people with an independent self-construal and a promotion focus perceive enriched options as more attractive than impoverished options. Conversely, people with an interdependent self-construal and a prevention focus perceive enriched options as less attractive than impoverished options. Mediation analyses show that the effect of cultural orientation operates through self-construal. In turn, self-construal operates through activated regulatory focus. Analysis of cognitive responses shows that the effect of regulatory focus is mediated by positive/negative thoughts about option attributes.     

Achieving Higher Seat Belt Usage: The Role of Habit in Bridging the Attitude-Behavior Gap1

The Triandis (1977, 1980) model of habit is applied in an investigation of attitude-behavior discrepancy for seat belt use behavior. Habit is conceptualized as automated response, and the measure employed here is shown to be discriminated from measures of intentions and behavior. A case is also made for a distinction between pro-intentional and counter-intentional habits. Data from a random sample of 197 adult respondents show that the two habits (a) are distinct; (b) operate differently, that is, use habit has a main effect whereas nonuse habit interacts with attitude/intentions; and (c) explain belt use behavior nonredundantly with intention and attitude (e.g., their addition to attitude raises R² from 38.8% to 62.9%). Theoretical implications for understanding habit processes and programmatic directions for increasing the belt usage are discussed.     

A comparison of the kinematics of the dolphin kick in humans and cetaceans

Prerecorded video footage of 9 female and 13 male Olympic level athletes swimming underwater by using the dolphin kick was analyzed and comparisons of the stroke kinematics were made with a previous analysis of cetacean swimming conducted by Rohr and Fish (Rohr, J. J., & Fish, F. E. (2004). Strouhal numbers and optimization of swimming by odontocete cetaceans. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 207, 1633-1642). The velocities of the swimmers ranged from 1.12 m/s to 1.85 m/s which corresponded to a range of effort levels. While some swimmers performed the dolphin kick on their backs (dorsal), others employed the prone (ventral) or the side (lateral) position and no distinctions were made between these positions when considering the results. The raw quantities measured were body length L (from the fingertips of the outstretched arms to the tips of the toes), time T(L) taken by the swimmer to traverse a body length, kick amplitude A at the toes, and the number of video frames per kick. These allowed us to determine the average velocity U of the swimmer, the kick frequency f, the reduced or length-specific velocity U/L (body lengths traversed per second), and the non-dimensional quantities kick amplitude A/L, the Strouhal number fA/U (ratio of tip or toe speed to forward speed) and the quantity fL/U (kicks per body length traversed). Trends of these dimensional and non-dimensional quantities were examined for the swimmers and compared to the cetaceans. Results showed that humans and cetaceans have comparable non-dimensional kick amplitudes, but kick frequency in humans was greater than for cetaceans swimming at equivalent speeds. Human swimmers required up to five kicks per body length traveled, while cetaceans require only 1.3. Length-specific velocities reached a maximum of 0.81 for humans and this was about half that of cetaceans. Human swimmers had a mean Strouhal number of 0.80, which was above the range considered optimal for underwater undulatory propulsion.