Assessing the Clinical Competence of Psychology Students Through Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs): Student and Staff Views

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a well‐known, reliable, and valid assessment method used across the healthcare sector. In the present study, we applied OSCEs in three units within professional postgraduate psychology courses, with the broad aims of identifying staff and student perceptions of the assessment. At the conclusion of each OSCE, staff and students completed a feedback questionnaire that contained both scaled and open‐ended questions. Results suggest that clinical psychology OSCEs can be stressful for students, but are also well regarded. Both staff and students felt that the OSCEs were realistic, valid, and aligned well with professional practice. Students reported differences in the way in which they prepared for the OSCEs compared with a written exam or other form of assessment, while staff noted that models of OSCE development must be flexible, to adequately assess the objectives of individual units. Further, because they can be a costly exercise, OSCEs need to be applied judiciously within the tertiary sector.     

Dad2K: An Adaptation of SafeCare to Enhance Positive Parenting Skills With At-Risk Fathers

Positive father involvement in the lives of their children is critically important. This article describes pilot data from the Dad2K program, an adaptation of the evidence-based SafeCare Parent-Child Interaction module, which targets positive parenting skills and the prevention of child neglect and physical abuse. Dad2K includes a unique approach to intervention delivery utilizing computer software, and instruction and practice with a home visitor provider. The development process of the Dad2K program is described, and data are presented from four fathers of young children who completed the program. The article concludes with describing the next steps in the examination of the Dad2K program, which includes a large randomized control trial funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities.     

The Effect of War Stressors and Life Events on Gulf War Veterans With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Symptoms

This study examines the association of life stressors and the period when they occur, with the development of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) symptoms in Gulf War veterans. Of data collected from Gulf War Health Registry veterans, 113 met CFS criteria and 441were controls. After hierarchical multiple regression, several negative life stressors were associated with CFS group membership: being wounded, experiencing a traumatic war experience, frequent battle experiences, demotion, and unable to work within 2 years of returning from the Gulf. The positive life stressor of buying a house more than 2 years after returning protected against being in the CFS group. The findings are consistent with etiological hypotheses of CFS incorporating a psychosocial component and are useful in developing programs for veterans returning from war.     

Low Self-control and Deviance: Examining the Moderation of Social Support from Parents

Drawing on self-report survey data from a sample of 425 college students in 2001, this study examines whether parental support can moderate the link between low self-control and deviance. Using multiple measures of low self-control and parental support and item parcels of deviance, structural equation models are developed to arrive at the results. Results reveal that parental support does not completely moderate the link between low self-control and deviance. Importantly, we find that parental support can reduce the link that low self-control has with deviance, suggesting that this is a measure that may be manipulated to reduce instances of deviance.     

A Comparison of the Sources and Nature of Body Image Messages Perceived by Indigenous Fijian and European Australian Adolescent Girls

Australian and Fijian adolescent girls reported on the influence that sociocultural factors, including parents, peers, and the media, had on their body image attitudes. It was expected that messages that promote a thin body would be less prevalent among Fijians, as their cultural traditions place more importance on robust body sizes. An inductive thematic analysis of the girls’ semi-structured interviews indicated that both Fijian (n = 16) and Australian (n = 16) girls (aged 13–17) reported messages from similar sources, which included parents, siblings, and friends/peers. Australian girls consistently reported messages that reinforced thinness. On the other hand, Fijian girls reported messages that emphasized both thinness and robustness. The discussion focuses on the conflict between Western ideals and cultural Fijian traditions and the implications for culturally sensitive interventions.     

Developing a family-based depression prevention program in urban community mental health clinics: a qualitative investigation

Extensive research documents that children of depressed mothers are at a significantly higher risk for developing a variety of socioemotional difficulties than children of nondepressed mothers. Yet, little prevention research has been conducted for this population, and low-income, minority, and urban families are rarely included. To address this deficit, we are developing the Protecting Families Program (PFP), a family-based multicomponent depression prevention program for mothers in treatment at urban community mental health agencies and their school-aged children. To inform intervention development and begin relationship building with the agencies, patient and staff focus groups were conducted in the participating agencies. Eighteen mothers with depression participated, and eight major themes were identified: (1) depression symptoms, (2) generational legacy, (3) parenting difficulties, (4) child problems, (5) social support, (6) stressful life events, (7) therapy and other helpful activities, and (8) desired treatment. In the focus groups with 10 mental health providers, the five major themes identified were parenting difficulties, lack of social support, life stress, current mental health practices, and intervention development. The findings support the multicomponent design of PFP, which focuses on increasing knowledge of depression, enhancing social support, and improving parenting skills. The study helped clarify many of the challenges of conducting research in a community mental health system.     

Behavioral and cognitive correlates of exercise self-schemata

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of exercise self-schemata to both cognitive and behavioral concomitants including exercise self-efficacy, attitudes toward fitness, self-perceptions of fitness, and self-report of exercise behavior. Participants were 161 undergraduate students who subsequently were categorized into groups defined by the authors as "exercise schematics," "nonexercise schematics," "aschematics," and unclassified. Results indicated that exercise schematics reported greater total caloric expenditure, higher frequency of exercise behavior in the past as well as future expectations to exercise, greater self-perceptions of physical fitness, and more favorable attitudes toward fitness than either nonexercise schematics or aschematics. Furthermore, exercise schematics expressed higher levels of exercise self-efficacy than did nonexercise schematics. The results clearly support earlier findings concerning exercise self-schemata and exercise behavior and further indicate that schematics also differ from others in important cognitive-motivational determinants of exercise such as self-efficacy and perceptions of physical fitness. Future research should define the role of exercise self-schemata both theoretically and practically in order to enrich our understanding of and facilitate the enhancement of exercise adherence.     

Prevalence of anxiety and depression in Australian adolescents: comparisons with worldwide data

Data from two Australian studies were combined so that the prevalence of anxiety and depression in a large, normative sample of Australian adolescents could be investigated. The combined sample comprised 1,299 adolescents randomly selected from metropolitan and country schools in Melbourne, a large Australian city. The data were examined in order to ascertain the percentages of adolescents who scored above the clinical cut-off on two self-report instruments--the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (C. R. Reynolds & B. O. Richmond, 1985) and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (W. M. Reynolds, 1986). The results of these analyses were then compared with previously reported prevalence rates from studies worldwide. This comparison revealed striking differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depression across different countries and cultures. Limitations attributable to different self-report measures and imposed-etic approaches are discussed. Issues pertaining to social and political climate are also raised.     

Androgyny as synthetic narcissism: Sex role measures and Kohut's psychology of the self

In Kohut's analysis of narcissism, the self emerges as a bipolar structure characterized by grandiosity at one pole and dependency at the other. Through appropriate developmental processes, grandiosity grows into a mature ambitiousness, and early dependencies are converted into a stable system of ideals. The present investigation predicted that sex role constructs essentially measure these two aspects of the self. Expected relationships between masculinity and grandiosity, and between femininity and dependency, were in fact obtained. Based in large part on Westin's (Self and Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) analysis of Kohut's theory, synthetic, internal, external, and archaic narcissistic self styles were hypothesized to exist and to parallel the androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated sex roles, respectively. Rough comparabilities were in fact evident between these two typologies. Factor analyses also demonstrated that narcissism and sex role measures load on factors in ways revealing the intimate ties between pathological narcissism and the failure to achieve desirable sex role characteristics.