Moving From Efficacy to Effectiveness in Eating Disorders Prevention: The Sorority Body Image Program

Although eating disorders prevention research has begun to produce programs with demonstrated efficacy, many such programs simply target individuals as opposed to engaging broader social systems (e.g., schools, sororities, athletic teams) as participant collaborators in eating disorders prevention. Yet, social systems ultimately will be responsible for the real-world delivery of eating disorder prevention programs, suggesting that an important issue has yet to be addressed. Namely, it is unclear to what degree efficacious individual-focused eating disorder prevention programs remain effective when incorporated into critical social systems under real-world conditions. Over the past 5 years, we have collaborated with the campus sororities in the development of a sustainable eating disorders prevention program that is based on the prevention efficacy literature. This paper describes both challenges and helpful strategies that we encountered in tailoring an evidence-based eating disorders prevention program to the needs of a relevant social system.     

Parental involvement in competitive youth sport settings

ObjectivesBased on ecological systems theory [Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the purpose of this study was to examine parents’ involvement in competitive youth sport settings.DesignData were collected through two distinct phases of fieldwork. Phase 1 involved longitudinal data collection with four families. Phase 2 involved observations of youth soccer settings.MethodData were collected from four families via individual interviews and audio-diaries and were supplemented through 120 h of observation. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using grounded theory methodology.ResultsParents’ verbal reactions to their children's sport performance behaviors were placed on a continuum moving from more supportive to more controlling comments. These comments were categorized as praise/encouragement, performance contingent feedback, instruction, striking a balance, negative comments, and derogatory comments. Parents experienced empathy in that they perceived sharing the emotions their children felt in sport, and these emotions appeared to change in relation to dynamic game and contextual circumstances. Parents also thought that they possessed knowledge and expertise of sport, which they perceived enabled them to make comments to their children.ConclusionA series of reciprocal and bi-directional relationships were central to parents’ involvement in competitive youth sport.     

The STEPPS Group Treatment Program for Outpatients with Borderline Personality Disorder

The authors describe a new cognitive-behavioral systems-based group treatment for outpatients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The program is identified by the acronym STEPPS, which stands for Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving. The STEPPS program was developed to address the cognitive distortions and behavioral dyscontrol typical of clients with BPD, and combines this with skills training and a systems component. The latter involves clients with BPD and those in their system including family members, significant others, and health care professionals. The program is fully manualized, and involves 20 two-hour weekly group meetings; specific goals (or lessons) are identified for each session. Preliminary data from the US and the Netherlands have shown that the group achieves high levels of acceptance from clients and therapists and that the model may be effective in helping to relieve the symptoms associated with BPD. Work is now underway to confirm the effectiveness of the model through a randomized controlled trial.     

Adaptive skills and executive function in autism spectrum disorders.

There is active debate regarding the nature of executive dysfunction in autism. Additionally, investigations have yet to show a relationship between deficits in executive function and the everyday behavioral difficulties that may originate from them. The present study examined the relationship between executive abilities and adaptive behavior in 35 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, using two parent reports of everyday functioning, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Results found several relationships: The Initiate and Working Memory domains were negatively correlated with most domains of adaptive behavior. Also, the Communication and Socialization domains of the VABS were negatively correlated with several areas of executive functioning, suggesting that impairments in executive abilities are strongly associated with the deficits in communication, play and social relationships found in children with autism.     

Law enforcement preferences for PTSD treatment and crisis management alternatives

Evidence-based treatments (EBT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain underutilized. Analog research, however, indicates that patients may be more amenable to receiving EBT for PTSD than utilization rates suggest. This study sought to extend previous studies by investigating PTSD treatment preferences among law enforcement individuals (i.e., active duty officers, cadets, criminal justice students). We asked 379 participants, with varying trauma histories, to read a police traumatic event and imagine they had developed PTSD. Participants rated the credibility of six treatment options which they might encounter in a treatment setting, and chose their most and least preferred treatments. Next, they evaluated a widely used debriefing intervention aimed at preventing PTSD. Almost 90% of participants chose exposure or Cognitive Processing Therapy as their first or second most preferred treatment, and they rated these interventions as significantly more credible than the other four treatment options. The sample showed ambivalence regarding the perceived efficacy of debriefing but found the rationale credible. This study supports previous analog research indicating that patients may be more interested in EBT than indicated by utilization rates, and suggests that law enforcement departments should consider offering EBT to officers who develop PTSD.     

Illusional Beliefs in the Context of Risky Sexual Behaviors1

The function and maintenance of illusions were explored. Three groups were selected by comparing perceived risk for contracting an STD or becoming pregnant with reported sexual behaviors: realistic low risk (n - 33), realistic high risk (n= 23), and Illusional low risk (n= 16). Illusional subjects tended to avoid exposure to risk information, deny its relevance, and experience no increase in negative affect when confronted with contraceptive information. In contrast, high-risk subjects expressed interest in viewing contraceptive information, acknowledged its relevance and, among women, experienced an increase in negative affect after viewing the information. Avoidance and denial were ego-protective, primarily for illusional subjects. Implications for research on the self-regulatory effects of illusional beliefs are discussed.     

How human abilities affect component skills in word processing

Even simple tasks such as basic word processing can be quite complex. This paper argues that such tasks can be decomposed into a set of component skills and suggests how user abilities affect performance based on those skills. Special attention is given to spatial memory tests. It is argued that these tests actually assess two separable abilities: visual search and retention of order information. Skill acquisition can be facilitated by taking these abilities into account in system design: The importance of searching is decreased by providing context searches in which the system locates items in a text, and the importance of remembering the order of command sequences is improved by decreasing procedural complexity.     

Dyslexia: saccadic eye movements

This paper describes an extensive study of the parameters of saccadic eye movement in a group of 28 poor-reading children and a comparative normally reading group of 31 children. Ages ranged from 6.0 to 16.9 yr. Poor readers had normal intelligence but were lagging by at least two years in reading ability as compared to their peer age group. Parameters studied in refixation eye movements included saccadic latency, accuracy, velocity, and acceleration, as well as differences in latency for abduct and adduct movements. Shapes of saccades were also studied. It was shown that eye-movement performance in simple saccadic refixation was not distinguishably different for poor readers and normal readers, even though in reading, which requires higher processing, eye-movement characteristics are quite different. Maturational changes for various saccadic eye-movement parameters were also examined for the normal and poor reading groups.     

Early childhood intervention. A promising preventative for juvenile delinquency.

Programs to reduce or prevent juvenile delinquency have been generally unsuccessful. Apparently the risk factors that make a child prone to delinquency are based in too many systems--including the individual, the family, and community networks--to make isolated treatment methods effective. Surprisingly, longitudinal studies of some early childhood intervention programs suggest they may help to reduce future delinquency. These programs take an ecological approach to enhancing child development by attempting to promote overall social competence in the many systems impacting on children. Not engaging in criminal acts is one indicator of competence that is related to others, such as being successful in school and in personal relationships. Evaluators must gather more data to confirm this unanticipated benefit of comprehensive interventions.