„Psychopathy“ im Kindes- und Jugendalter

The term psychopathy is defined as a severe personality pathology, which is characterized by extreme aggressive, antisocial and violent behavior as well as affective and interpersonal deficits. In recent years, research into the construct of psychopathy has often focused on the incidence and detection of such pathologies in children and adolescents. In this context, a point of interest is to explore the course and stability of psychopathic personality dimensions throughout youth. Results demonstrate clear evidence for the occurrence of personality traits characteristic for psychopathy in early childhood and adulthood, which facilitates early detection with the aid of age-specific diagnostic instruments.The distinct correlation between psychopathy and severe, repeated and largely treatment refractory violence, which results in substantial public damage, calls for further research in children and adolescents in order to define the construct of psychopathy more precisely, to further illuminate underlying pathologies and consequently develop more specific typologies and effective treatment strategies. To that end, it is of particular importance to correctly capture dimensional factors of psychopathy in youth and to examine their stability throughout stages of adolescent development.     

Depression in early adolescence: Contributions from relational aggression and variation in the oxytocin receptor gene

Interpersonal stress arising from relational aggression (RA)—the intentional effort to harm others via rejection and exclusion—may increase risk for depression in youth. Biological vulnerabilities related to the hormone oxytocin, which affects social behavior and stress responses, may exacerbate this risk. In a community sample of 307 youth (52% female; age range = 10–14 years), we tested whether (1) the association between RA and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated through social problems and (2) a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs53576) in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) moderated this indirect association between RA and depression, where GG homozygotes are predicted to be more sensitive to the effects of social problems than A‐allele carriers. Youth‐reported RA and depressive symptoms were measured using a structured interview and a questionnaire, respectively. DNA was extracted from saliva collected with Oragene kits. Consistent with the interpersonal theory of depression, the association between relational aggression and subsequent depressive symptoms was mediated by social problems. This indirect effect was further moderated by rs53576 genotype, such that GG homozygotes showed a stronger mediation effect than A‐carriers. These results suggest that rs53576 variants confer vulnerability for depression within the context of interpersonal risk factors, such that youth with the GG genotype may be particularly sensitive to the social consequences resulting from RA.

     

Developing a cortex specialized for face perception

Recent developmental functional magnetic resonance imaging studies provide evidence that the cortical specialization for face perception observed in adults emerges only gradually over the first decade of childhood. These developmental results provide a middle-ground view on the long-standing debate in the literature from adults about the specificity or otherwise of face-sensitive areas of cortex. According to this developmental perspective, certain cortical regions become specialized for face perception in adults, partly as a result of a decade or more of experience and partly as a result of initial biases.     

Forced choice reaction time paradigm in children with separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and nonanxious controls

Cognitive distortions refer to cognitive processes that are biased and therefore yield dysfunctional and maladaptive products (e.g., interpretation bias). Automatic aspects of information processing need to be considered and investigating these aspects requires forms of assessment other than self-report. Studies focussing on the specificity of cognitive biases across different types of anxiety disorders in childhood are rare. Thus, a forced choice reaction time paradigm with picture stimuli was used to assess the interpretation bias in anxious children online. The study investigated disorder-specific interpretation bias in 71 children with separation anxiety disorder (SAD), 31 children with social phobia, and 42 children without mental disorders, aged 5–13 years. Results indicated that children with SAD rated ambiguous separation pictures as significantly more unpleasant and more arousing than nonanxious children. However, no support was found that children with SAD and social phobia interpret ambiguous separation or social pictures in a more negative way than nonanxious children. Furthermore, no group differences were found in reaction times to all picture categories.     

Die Vorhersage der Rückfälligkeit entlassener Sexualstraftäter mittels des Sexual Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG) und dessen Screening-Version (SORAG-SV): Darstellung der differentiellen und prädiktiven Validität

The Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG) is one of the most important actuarial risk assessment instruments for sexual offenders. In the meantime, the application of actuarial instruments in recidivism risk assessment for sexual offenders is regarded as state of the art. In addition to results about interrater reliability and concurrent validity we present results about the differential and predictive validity of the SORAG and a screening version of the SORAG (SORAG-SV), which relies only on file information. In order to examine the predictive validity, we used a representative sample of 519 male sexual offenders released from a prison sentence served in one of Austrian´s prisons with a mean follow-up period of 3½ years. Furthermore, we tested the differential validity by dividing the whole sample in different subsamples regarding age, index offense type, and degree of antisociality. Both SORAG and SORAG-SV showed predominantly good predictive accuracy which, however, varied depending on offender subgroup and recidivism category.     

It's not my fault,it's theirs: Explanatory style of bullying targets with unipolar depression and its susceptibility to short‐term therapeutical modification

Depression is one of the most frequent psychic impairments prevalent among bullying targets. It is typically characterized by an internal, global, and stable explanatory style. However, whether bullying targets with depression would apply this style to explain their social conflicts at work was unclear. Therefore, individuals who had been bullied and developed depression were compared to individuals with depression who had not been bullied. Both groups differed significantly regarding their explanatory style, as individuals with bullying experience made more external attributions to explain social conflicts they had experienced both at work and in their private lives. This preference did not change over the course of a 6‐week in‐patient psychotherapy programme.     

Das Asperger-Syndrom bei Erwachsenen

Herr F., 35 Jahre alt, wendet sich per E-Mail an die Kinderklinik mit der Frage, ob eine diagnostische Abkl?rung bei uns m?glich sei, da er im Erwachsenenbereich keine Ansprechperson gefunden habe. Durch eine Internetrecherche sei er auf das Asperger-Syndrom gesto?en. Seit seiner Kindheit habe er sich bereits gefragt, was bei ihm nicht stimme, warum er ,,anders“ sei und warum es seinen Mitschülern immer so leicht gefallen sei auf andere zuzugehen, ,,Small Talk“ zu führen oder Kontakte aufrecht zu erhalten. Er hingegen habe damit immer massive Schwierigkeiten gehabt, habe soziale Zusammenh?nge oft nicht begriffen beziehungsweise die Gedanken, Absichten oder Gefühle anderer nicht entschlüsseln k?nnen. Obwohl er dies erkennt, konnte er es bisher nicht bewusst ?ndern, was in weiterer Folge zu einer depressiven Verstimmung mit Rückzug geführt hat. In der weiteren Exploration stellt sich heraus, dass Herr F. alleine wohnt, aber immer noch finanziell beziehungsweise im Alltag von seinen Eltern unterstützt wird. Derzeit hat er keine Beziehung, die vorangegangene Partnerschaft ging wegen Kommunikationsproblemen in die Brüche, worunter er sehr leidet. Aufgrund seiner speziellen Interessen studierte Herr F. Astrophysik und technische Mathematik und schloss beide Studien mit Auszeichnung ab. Seither hat er in etwa 20 verschiedenen Jobs gearbeitet, die meist nicht seiner Qualifikation entsprachen. Das Arbeitsverh?ltnis wurde jeweils beendet, da Herr F. von den sozialen Anforderungen massiv überfordert war. Seine Freizeit verbringt Herr F. alleine, bet?tigt sich im Internet in Chatrooms, liest Fachliteratur und hat eine vollst?ndige Sammlung an Sportfachzeitschriften seit dem Jahr 1995, die er in einer bestimmten Ordnung aufbewahrt und deren Inhalte er so gut wie auswendig kennt.     

Psychological response to test results in an ovarian cancer screening program: a prospective, longitudinal study.

To identify the psychological impact of receipt of an abnormal yet benign screening test result, the authors examined the response to a transvaginal ultrasound screening (TVS) test for ovarian cancer (OC) in asymptomatic women (N=540) undergoing an initial TVS screening test. Interviews were conducted prior to undergoing TVS screening and at 2 weeks and 4 months following this baseline. Women receiving an abnormal yet benign TVS test result (n=33) reported elevated OC-specific, but not general, distress at 2-week follow-up. Distress returned to baseline levels at 4-month follow-up. Consistent with the monitoring process and cognitive-social health information processing models, response to an abnormal TVS result was moderated by a monitoring coping style, low optimism, and a family history of OC.     

The adaptation dynamics of chronic functional impairment: what we can learn from older adults with vision loss

This study used vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration to learn about adaptation processes related to chronic functional impairment, focusing on Horowitz and Reinhardt's (1998) concept of Adaptation to Age-related Vision Loss (AVL) as the outcome. We hypothesized that impacts of visual acuity on AVL are mediated by perceived functional vision losses and functional abilities, and tested for "adaptive" weakening of this impact with ongoing loss. Longitudinal data covering a one-year interval from samples with age-related macular degeneration gathered in New York (N = 361) and Heidelberg (Germany, N = 90) were used. We analyzed the hypothesized causal structure by modeling latent change scores, and checked if those with low, medium, and high levels of vision loss at baseline differ in the relations between one-year change scores. Results confirmed that impacts of vision loss on AVL are mediated by decline in functional ability. However, under the most severe levels of vision loss at baseline, functional decline showed only a minor impact on AVL change not explained by a lack of further decline in vision. Findings confirm the effectiveness of adaptation in terms of reduced reactivity to functional losses across increasing level of chronic impairment. Thus, adaptation, weakening the impact of chronic functional impairment on psychological outcomes over time with disease progression, deserves consideration in the study of psychological consequences of chronic physical health conditions in old age.