Teaching metaphorical extensions of private events through rival‐model observation to children with autism

The study evaluated the efficacy of observational learning using the rival‐model technique in teaching three children with autism to state metaphorical statements about emotions when provided a picture, as well as to intraverbally state an appropriate emotion when provided a scenario and corresponding metaphorical emotion. The results provide a preliminary evaluation of how an observational teaching strategy may be effective in teaching children with autism to correctly tact emotions when given metaphors.     

Betrayal Trauma,Health Care Relationships,and Health in Patients with a Chronic Neurovascular Condition

Individuals who have been exposed to trauma are at a greater risk of developing a chronic physical health condition and use health services more frequently than individuals who have not experienced trauma. The mechanism by which trauma affects health is not fully understood, but relationships with health care providers could be important in understanding this association. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among betrayal trauma, health care relationships, and physical and mental health in a chronic medical population. Participants (N = 272) diagnosed with a chronic neurovascular condition (cavernous malformation) completed an online survey. Questionnaires assessed self-rated health, instances of betrayal trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms, income, and other demographic factors, and health care relationships. Level of income and the experience of betrayal trauma predicted mental health symptoms (depression, PTSD, or both) and also predicted health care relationships. After controlling for income and previous trauma, mental health symptoms significantly predicted health care relationships. Finally, mental health symptoms, health care relationships, and income predicted self-rated health, although the associations were not straightforward. These results suggest complex interrelations among trauma, mental health, income, health care relationships, and physical health, and a model is proposed for explaining these associations.     

Psychologists' Experiences with the Better Access Initiative: A Pilot Study

The Australian Government's Better Access initiative was introduced in late 2006 to increase treatment rates for people with mental disorders. It provides for reimbursement of psychologists' services through Medicare. The current pilot study examines the experiences of psychologists with this initiative. A random sample of 204 of 4,235 psychologists in private practice was approached and 73 psychologists (36%) were interviewed. The current study suggests that psychologists have had positive experiences with Better Access. They have appreciated the greater security of income and greater variety of work afforded by the initiative, and they have observed flow‐on benefits in terms of increased access and reduced stigma for their clients. Additional research is required to corroborate these findings with a larger sample of psychologists, but the current findings provide indicative evidence that Better Access is assisting psychologists to meet a previously unmet community need for mental health care.     

Do Provocateurs’ Emotion Displays Influence Children’s Social Goals and Problem Solving?

The social goals and social problem-solving of children who varied in social adjustment were examined in the context of hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which provocateurs’ emotion displays were systematically manipulated. Children rated the importance of six different social goals and explained how they would solve the problems. Social adjustment was measured with rating and nomination sociometric procedures. Rejected-aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive, average-nonaggressive, and popular-nonaggressive children showed both commonalities and differences in rating the six social goals, the relative importance of the six social goals, and social problem-solving depending on the provocateur’s emotion display. When provocateurs were happy, there were few group differences, but when provocateurs were angry or sad, rejected-aggressive children: a) rated hostile/instrumental goals more positively; b) rated prosocial goals less positively; and c) made problem-solving responses that were less friendly than those of other children. Results are discussed in relation to Lemerise and Arsenio’s (2000) model of emotion and social information processing.     

Prosocial development in early adulthood: a longitudinal study

Consistency of measures of a prosocial personality and prosocial moral judgment over time, and the interrelations among them, were examined. Participants and friends' reports of prosocial characteristics were obtained at ages 21-22, 23-24, and 25-26 years. In addition, participants' prosocial judgment was assessed with interviews and with an objective measure of prosocial moral reasoning at several ages. Reports of prosocial behavior and empathy-related responding in childhood and observations of prosocial behavior in preschool also were obtained. There was interindividual consistency in prosocial dispositions, and prosocial dispositions in adulthood related to empathy/sympathy and prosocial behavior at much younger ages. Interview and objective measures of moral reasoning were substantially interrelated in late adolescence/early adulthood and correlated with participants' and friends' reports of a prosocial disposition.     

The relations of effortful control and reactive control to children's externalizing problems: a longitudinal assessment

In this study, we examined the role of negative emotionality as a moderator of the relations of effortful control and overcontrol (versus undercontrol) with children's externalizing problem behaviors; we also examined the longitudinal relations among these variables. Teachers' and parents' reports of children's negative emotionality, effortful control, overcontrol and externalizing problem behaviors were obtained at T1 (N=199; M age=89.51 months) and again 2 (T2) and 4 years (T3) later. In addition, children's effortful control was assessed with an observed measure of persistence. In a T3 concurrent structural equation model, effortful control, but not overcontrol, was negatively related to children's T3 externalizing problem behaviors. In regression analyses, the negative relation between T3 effortful control and externalizing problem behaviors was strongest at high levels of T3 negative emotionality. In the best-fitting longitudinal structural equation model, both T1 effortful control and T1 overcontrol negatively predicted externalizing problems at T1, whereas T3 effortful control (but not T3 overcontrol) was significantly negatively related to T3 externalizing problem behaviors when controlling for T1 externalizing problem behaviors.     

Teaching teenagers with autism to seek assistance when lost

Three teenagers with autism were taught to respond to a vibrating pager to seek assistance in community settings when physically separated from their parents or teachers. A multiple baseline probe design across participants demonstrated that, upon being paged, participants successfully handed a communication card to a community member indicating that they were lost. Generalization was assessed in nontraining community sites and on outings with the participants' parents.     

Parent-Child Endorsement Discrepancies among Youth at Chronic-Risk for Depression

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems among U.S. adolescents, particularly among Latinos. Parent-child ratings of the presence and severity of child depressive symptoms show only low-to-moderate agreement. However, research has failed to examine discrepancies in populations with the highest levels of unmet need and little is known about patterns and predictors of parent-child agreement in ratings of depressive symptoms among ethnic minority families in community settings. Using a sample of 184 low-income, predominantly Latino, 5th through 7th grade students (63.6% female) at chronic risk for depression, this study utilized exploratory Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to uncover patterns of parent-child endorsement of core diagnostic depressive symptoms. Overall, children reported higher levels of core (i.e., depressed mood, anhedonia, irritability) and secondary (e.g., sleep disturbances) depressive symptoms relative to their parents. The three latent classes identified include a low endorsement and high agreement class (LH), high endorsement and high agreement class (HH), and high child endorsement and low agreement class (HCL). Multinomial regression models revealed that previous mental health service use and higher externalizing problems were associated with HH class membership, relative to HCL class membership. Findings provide evidence that a substantial number of children may have depressive symptoms that go undetected by their parents. Access to services among children at-risk for depression may be increased with psychoeducation to improve parental awareness and stigma reduction.     

A Multi-Informant Approach to Assessing Safety Behaviors among Adolescents: Psychometric Properties of the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination

Safety behaviors are subtle avoidance strategies for minimizing distress within social situations (e.g., avoidance of eye contact). These behaviors factor prominently in the development and maintenance of social anxiety concerns, and when patients use these behaviors within psychosocial treatments for social anxiety, this may impede treatment response. Prior work supports the need to include measures of safety behaviors within evidence-based assessments of social anxiety. Along these lines, researchers developed the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE) to assess safety behaviors among adults. However, we know relatively little about the SAFE’s psychometric properties when administered to adolescents. We tested the SAFE’s psychometric properties using adolescent self-reports and parallel parent reports in a mixed-clinical/community sample of 96 14 to 15 year-old adolescents and their parents (33 clinic-referred; 63 community control; 59.4% African American). Adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed moderate correspondence with each other. Both adolescent and parent SAFE reports related positively to well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Both reports distinguished adolescents on referral status as well as cut scores on well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety. Further, both adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed incremental validity in relation to survey reports of adolescent social anxiety, over-and-above survey reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, which commonly co-occur with social anxiety. However, adolescent (but not parent) SAFE reports predicted adolescents’ social anxiety and state arousal as displayed within social interactions with unfamiliar peer confederates. These findings have important implications for leveraging multi-informant approaches to assessing safety behaviors among adolescents.