Sex and age group differences in the associations between sleep duration and BMI from adolescence to young adulthood

Objective: We examine concurrent and longitudinal associations between sleep duration (SD) and body mass index (BMI) from adolescence to young adulthood, controlling for physical activity and internalising symptoms. Sex and age group differences (early adolescent group ages 12–15 years and late adolescent group ages 16–18 years) are examined.

Design: A randomly selected community-based sample of youth (N = 662; 48.3% males) were surveyed biannually from 2003 (T1) to 2014 (T6).

Results: We found sex and age group differences for the concurrent and longitudinal associations between SD and BMI. For males, shorter SD at baseline was concurrently related to higher BMI. For females, shorter SD at baseline was associated with longitudinal increases in BMI, for the late adolescent group only.

Conclusion: Findings show that the association between SD and BMI, previously shown in childhood, continues to be significant in adolescence and young adulthood. Developmentally appropriate and sex-specific strategies for motivating and supporting healthy sleep habits in adolescence that may help to prevent weight gain into young adulthood are discussed.     

A Simple, Exact Test for the Holland Hexagon

A method is presented for testing the full circumplex model implied by Holland's (1992) theory of vocational interests. The procedure is based on the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient applied to the hypothesized ranks among correlations defined by the hexagon. In keeping with Holland's stated preference for simple measures and techniques (Holland, 1992, pp. 6–7), the method is easy to compute and apply and, unlike existing techniques, is readily amenable to comparing the fit found in several matrices and for use in meta-analysis.     

Clinical Assessment of Child and Adolescent Sleep Disturbance

This article provides guidelines for counselors interested in developing their own assessment procedure to evaluate child and adolescent sleep disturbance. The guidelines include reviewing the developmental and medical history, screening for parental psychopathology, obtaining a child behavior rating scale and sleep diary, and conducting a semistructured clinical interview to identify the sleep history and specific concerns. Considerations for referring clients for additional evaluation such as an overnight sleep study are discussed.     

Timing accuracy of PC programs running under DOS and Windows

The time in which to press a key and the video retrace interval were measured under various conditions of MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. All the measurements were obtained with the same program running on a single Pentium 300 computer. In all, samples of 1,000 timing measurements were obtained in each of 96 different conditions. Standard deviations of the times ranged from about 0.0006 msec under DOS 6.22 to almost 40 msec under Windows 3.11, representing an increase in timing error of up to 6,000,000%. Researchers requiring millisecond timing accuracy are recommended to use DOS only.     

A Multicontextual Model of Counseling: Bridging Brevity and Diversity

Practice trends in counseling have emphasized the values of brevity and diversity in the delivery of services. In this article the author reviews central elements of brief therapy and multicultural counseling, highlighting the tension created by their differing developmental assumptions. Drawing on recent science and practice literature, the article outlines and illustrates an integrative, multicontextual model of counseling that bridges these important trends by intervening at the interface between individuals and their physical, social, and cultural contexts.     

Schedule-induced polydipsia suppresses pituitary-adrenal activity in rats

The effects of schedule-induced polydipsia (SIP) on pituitary-adrenal activity, as indicated by plasma levels of corticosterone, were examined in a series of experiments. Male (Experiments 1 and 3) and female (Experiment 2) rats were reduced to 80% of their free-feeding weight and given daily sessions on an intermittent-feeding schedule (fixed time of 60 sec). Half of the subjects in each experiment had water available during experimental sessions and the other half did not. Animals with water available in the experimental chamber exhibited SIP in all three experiments. In Experiment 1, blood samples were collected following (a) food consumption in the home cage, (b) a session on FT 60 sec, and (c) a session with pellets available in a cup in the experimental chamber. In Experiment 2, blood samples were taken prior to and following an FT 60-sec session, and following a session with pellets available in a cup in the chamber. In Experiment 3, pre- and postsession samples were obtained as in Experiment 2 (Part A). Subsequently, the opportunity to drink during sessions was removed, and the effect on corticoids was examined (Part B). The results indicate that (a) schedule-induced drinking suppresses pituitary-adrenal activity, (b) corticoid suppression may become a conditioned response to drinking in the chamber, and (c) corticoids return to presession levels following removal of water from the chamber. In view of these findings, it is hypothesized that SIP may serve an arousal-reducing role in intermittent-feeding situations.     

The effects of interactive staff training on staff programing and patient aggression in a psychiatric inpatient ward

Interactive staff training (IST) uses principles of organizational psychology to help line-level staff members design and implement social learning programs for severely mentally ill inpatients. IST is a training package that includes assessment of staff perceptions regarding programatic needs, selection of appropriate social learning strategies to meet these needs, appointment of a program committee from within the ward to champion development of the social learning strategy, and participative decision making about aspects of the social learning strategy. Staff on an extended care ward at a state hospital participated in IST for 15 months as part of a pilot study of its effects. Ongoing examination of ward programing showed that IST significantly increased staff and patient participation in rehabilitation programing and decreased the rate of physical restraints and aggression-related. Changes in staff attitudes about rehabilitation programing were noted on a subsample of IST participants. Implications for more controlled research into IST are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Patterns of Association Between Prosocial Behavior, Personality, and Externalizing Problems

This study examines whether prosocial behavior and personality have independent or overlapping associations with adolescent externalizing problems. A total of 128 female and 103 male early adolescents (M = 13.6 years old) completed personality inventories. Prosocial behavior was assessed by peer nominations (N = 663). Composite aggression and delinquency scores were derived from maternal and self-reports. Path analyses indicated gender differences in patterns of association. For girls, links between prosocial behavior and both aggression and delinquency were fully mediated by agreeableness and partially mediated by conscientiousness. For boys, prosocial behavior, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were independently and negatively associated with aggression and delinquency. The findings suggest that personality and prosocial behavior are uniquely related to boys' behavior problems but cannot be readily disentangled when it comes to girls' behavior problems.     

Neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of reflexive and volitional saccades: evidence from studies of humans

This review provides a summary of the contributions made by human functional neuroimaging studies to the understanding of neural correlates of saccadic control. The generation of simple visually guided saccades (redirections of gaze to a visual stimulus or pro-saccades) and more complex volitional saccades require similar basic neural circuitry with additional neural regions supporting requisite higher level processes. The saccadic system has been studied extensively in non-human (e.g., single-unit recordings) and human (e.g., lesions and neuroimaging) primates. Considerable knowledge of this system’s functional neuroanatomy makes it useful for investigating models of cognitive control. The network involved in pro-saccade generation (by definition largely exogenously-driven) includes subcortical (striatum, thalamus, superior colliculus, and cerebellar vermis) and cortical (primary visual, extrastriate, and parietal cortices, and frontal and supplementary eye fields) structures. Activation in these regions is also observed during endogenously-driven voluntary saccades (e.g., anti-saccades, ocular motor delayed response or memory saccades, predictive tracking tasks and anticipatory saccades, and saccade sequencing), all of which require complex cognitive processes like inhibition and working memory. These additional requirements are supported by changes in neural activity in basic saccade circuitry and by recruitment of additional neural regions (such as prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices). Activity in visual cortex is modulated as a function of task demands and may predict the type of saccade to be generated, perhaps via top-down control mechanisms. Neuroimaging studies suggest two foci of activation within FEF - medial and lateral - which may correspond to volitional and reflexive demands, respectively. Future research on saccade control could usefully (i) delineate important anatomical subdivisions that underlie functional differences, (ii) evaluate functional connectivity of anatomical regions supporting saccade generation using methods such as ICA and structural equation modeling, (iii) investigate how context affects behavior and brain activity, and (iv) use multi-modal neuroimaging to maximize spatial and temporal resolution.