Reliability and Validity of the Current Anxiety Level Measure

Professionals interested in assessing state anxiety (in the moment) levels before and after brief activity-based treatments would find limited evidence-based assessments. The purpose of this study was to develop and test the current anxiety level measure, a free, valid, and reliable state anxiety assessment. To establish concurrent validity, the current anxiety level measure was administered (n?=?98) alongside the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results found a strong relationship (r?=?.904, p?r?=?.702, p?n?=?102). Both samples showed the current anxiety level measure to be reliable and valid.     

Enhancing Children's Spatial and Numerical Skills through a Dynamic Spatial Approach to Early Geometry Instruction: Effects of a 32-Week Intervention

This study describes the implementation and effects of a 32-week teacher-led spatial reasoning intervention in K–2 classrooms. The intervention targeted spatial visualization skills as an integrated feature of regular mathematics instruction. Compared to an active control group, children in the spatial intervention demonstrated gains in spatial language, visual-spatial reasoning, 2D mental rotation, and symbolic number comparison. Overall, the findings highlight the potential significance of attending to and developing young children's spatial thinking as part of early mathematics instruction.     

Paternal absence and international migration: stressors and compensators associated with the mental health of Mexican teenagers of rural origin

Mexico-U.S. migration creates situations that may cause psychological distress. The purpose of this research project was to study the impact of father's physical absence due to international migration (FPAIM) on adolescent offspring of rural immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico. Stressors and compensators were studied from the adolescent's perspective and were analyzed using a stress-mediator-consequences theoretical framework. Qualitative (n = 24) and quantitative (n = 310) methodologies were used with a nonrandom sample of adolescents. Results show that the FPAIM is an ambivalent experience for adolescents that has positive and negative elements. Though migrants' children seem to be more vulnerable to psychosocial stress than are the offspring of nonmigrants, gender, not father's absence, appears to be the most important risk factor for psychological distress.     

Grammaticality sensitivity in children with early focal brain injury and children with specific language impairment

Grammaticality judgments and processing times associated with violation detection were examined in typically developing children, children with focal brain lesions (FL) acquired early in life, and children with specific language impairment (SLI). Grammatical sensitivity in the FL group, while below typically developing children, was above levels seen in children with SLI. Age effects were noted with developmental changes in sensitivity extending into adolescence. Developmental delays in grammatical processing were particularly pronounced for children with SLI, who showed sensitivity levels below those of younger typically developing children. Sensitivity to agreement violations was also protracted in the SLI group providing further evidence of the vulnerability of morphology, a pattern not unlike that seen in adult aphasics. Findings for the FL group provide compelling evidence of neural and behavioral plasticity in children with early unilateral brain injury. Moreover, results from these children underscore how very different compensatory organization may be compared to profiles seen in adult aphasics who have comparable lesions. In contrast, although it was expected that the SLI children would perform below the typically developing children, the disadvantage seen with respect to the FL group suggests that the underlying pathology responsible for SLI may be more pervasive and less plastic than the focal pathology of children with early brain damage.     

Modeling dynamic resource utilization in populations with unique constraints: preadolescents with and without Down syndrome

In this study we used a damped inverted pendulum and spring with an escapement function model to compare the global levels of stiffness and forcing used by 12 preadolescents with Down syndrome (DS) and 12 with typical development (TD). Participants walked overground at their self-selected speed and on a treadmill at speeds slower and faster than overground. Children with DS, who are characterized as hypotonic with reduced capacity for producing muscle force, exhibited significantly higher levels of stiffness and forcing (angular impulse) when walking on the treadmill and higher forcing but not stiffness overground, than children with TD. Both groups adapted to imposed speed increases similarly by increasing their global stiffness and angular impulse. We propose children with DS increased stiffness in order to overcome their hypotonia and joint laxity, thus, optimizing on stability, rather than metabolic efficiency. Higher angular impulse values for children with DS may reflect higher energy cost associated with increasing stiffness and their inherent biomechanical and physiological characteristics that reduce efficiency. We conclude that the inverted pendulum and spring with escapement function model is a useful tool for uncovering solutions to movement problems-solutions that reflect the dynamic resources of the individual and ones that are discovered, rather than prescribed.     

The Interface Between the Practice of Medical Genetics and Human Genetic Research: What Every Genetic Counselor Needs to Know

Genetic counselors have historically used human genetic research as an advanced information resource for their patients. Most commonly, this has been via access to information provided by gene identification studies in advance of commercial testing. More recently genetic counselors have been participating in human genetic research studies as part of the investigative team. This review provides a framework to help genetic counselors in research and clinical practice understand the historical perspectives, ethical principles, and federal regulations that govern the current practice of human subject research. Special consideration is given to the IRB process and unique issues in human genetic research. This overview is intended to help improve the ability of genetic counselors to act as advocates for their patients.     

Appropriateness of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale for non-White individuals

Analyses of data collected from 480 university students (approximately 56% White and 44% Black) challenge the utility of the Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency Scale (MAST) for use with individuals of diverse cultural backgrounds. This size sample allowed for an examination of the psychometric properties and cultural relevance of the MAST for non-Whites. Correlations between scores on the MAST, suicide, and depression measures were in the expected directions for Whites but not for Blacks or Latinos. The White sample data fit the four-factor model of the MAST, but the model required several modifications to fit the data from the Black sample. Verification of the cultural relevance of the MAST and a revision of the scale are recommended to improve its usefulness.     

A cross-national comparison of Mexican and Mexican American couples using the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (Spanish)

This study examined psychometric properties of the Spanish translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (MSI-R) in a sample of 71 Spanish-speaking couples in Mexico. Results from this sample were compared to findings obtained from 65 Mexican American couples who completed the MSI-R in Spanish. Both the internal consistency and factor structure of the Spanish MSI-R with Mexican couples were found to be comparable to findings on the Spanish MSI-R for Mexican American couples. Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated no significant mean profile differences between these two groups as a function of nationality, gender, or nationality-by-gender interaction. These findings offer initial evidence toward establishing the appropriateness of the Spanish MSI-R for use with Spanish-dominant Mexican couples.     

Early stage of walking: development of control in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions

The authors examined the changes in bipedal gait of toddlers in the anteroposterior (AP) and mediolateral (ML) directions, as a set, at the onset of independent gait and 1 month after onset. Two groups with distinctly different dynamic resources were studied: 8 toddlers with typical development (TD) and 8 toddlers with Down syndrome (DS). Three-dimensional kinematic data were collected, and gait parameters, such as walking speed, stride length, and stride frequency, as well as the ratio of exchange between potential energy and kinetic energy of the center of mass (COM), were calculated. Displacement of the COM in the AP and ML directions were also analyzed. For some gait variables, toddlers with DS seemed to show more mature values at walking onset than their peers with TD. Those group differences reversed and increased by Visit 2. When the authors considered the motion of the COM of the system, it became clear that the qualitative differences between those groups were characterized primarily by constraints in the ML direction. The authors propose that establishment of coupling between AP and ML oscillations is a key component for the emergence of independent bipedal walking for both populations.     

Review of clinical validation of ADHD behavior rating scales

The purpose of this review is to assess the range of overall accuracies for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) behavior rating scales evaluated in clinical validation studies. Studies were characterized according to the evidence standards of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Studies were excluded due to major design problems such as overfitting by discriminant analysis. The 13 included evaluations of rating scales revealed overall accuracy in the range of 59%-79% with a pooled mean of 69% (+/-7%, standard deviation) and a pooled sample size of 2228 subjects from nine studies. While some of the excluded studies demonstrated higher overall accuracies (>79%), these studies were observed to have factors in experimen tal design and statistics that are known to unduly inflate accuracy. We recommend further research following the full AAN standards, namely well-designed, blinded, pro spective studies of rating scales applied to clinically representative samples evaluated with a clinical standard.