Pilot Trial of Acceptance-Based Behavioral Weight Loss and Neurocognition Among American Indians

Acceptance-based behavioral therapies (ABTs) for obesity may be superior to standard behavioral therapies but have not been adequately tested with American Indians (AIs). Neurocognitive function is also unexamined in relation to behavioral weight loss among AIs despite findings that neurocognition predicts outcomes in general samples, may help explain some of the benefits of ABTs, and may be relevant to marginalized groups. The primary objective of this pilot was to examine the feasibility/acceptability of ABT in an AI sample. Exploratory analyses examined the relationship between neurocognition and weight loss. Forty-eight AI adults with overweight/obesity (ages 43.3 ± 10.3 years, 85% female; baseline body mass index = 36.8 ± 4.4 kg/m²) enrolled in a 6-month open ABT weight loss trial. Feasibility indices, including screening/enrollment, session attendance, retention rates for posttreatment assessments, and program acceptability were examined. Percent weight loss (%WL) was assessed as well as fluid and crystalized neurocognition (National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery [NIHTB-CB]). We enrolled 79% of the eligible sample and retained 75% (N = 36) at posttreatment assessments. Program completers lost an average of 5.2 ± 4.9% of initial body weight (d_z = 1.14), whereas intent-to-treat analyses show a mean loss of 4.1 ± 4.7%. Participants reported high satisfaction, effectiveness, and cultural appropriateness. Exploratory analyses of neurocognitive domains suggested that crystalized cognition was higher among completers, and higher baseline cognitive flexibility predicted greater %WL (β = .34, p = .05). ABT resulted in clinically significant weight loss in an AI sample. A controlled trial of ABT in a larger, more diverse sample is warranted to determine whether (a) the findings are robust, generalizable, and/or superior to other treatments and (b) neurocognitive factors moderate outcomes.     

Maternal Power Assertive Discipline and Children’s Adjustment in High-Risk Families: A Social Domain Theory Approach

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The goal of the present study was to examine associations between maternal use of power assertive parenting across different discipline contexts and...     

Impact of End-of-Life Circumstances on the Adjustment of Bereaved Siblings of Children Who Died from Cancer

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of end-of-life (EoL) circumstances on grief and internalizing symptoms among bereaved siblings. Bereaved families (N?=?88) were recruited from three sites 3–12 months (M?=?11.57, SD?=?3.48) after their child’s death from cancer. One sibling per family aged 8–17 years (M?=?12.41, SD?=?2.64) was randomly selected to participate. Families completed measures of siblings’ grief and internalizing symptoms, as well as a structured interview about circumstances surrounding the death. Mother and sibling reports of EoL circumstances were generally concordant, except there was a discrepancy between mothers and children about whether or not children expected their sibling’s death (t(75)?=?1.52, p?=?.018). Mother reports of sibling internalizing symptoms were above the normative mean (t(83)?=?4.44, p?≤?.001 (M?=?56.01?±?12.48), with 39% (n?=?33) in the borderline/clinical range. Sibling opportunity to say goodbye was associated with greater grief-related growth (t(79)?=?? 1.95, p?=?.05). Presence at the death and wishing they had done something differently were both associated with greater grief (t(80)?=?? 2.08, p?=?.04 and t(80)?=?? 2.24, p?=?.028, respectively) and grief-related growth (t(80)?=?? 2.01, p?=?.048 and t(80)?=?? 2.31, p?=?.024, respectively). However, findings were primarily unique to sibling report, with few mother-reported effects. The adjustment of bereaved siblings may be affected by certain modifiable circumstances surrounding the death of their brother or sister. A proportion of bereaved siblings had elevated internalizing symptoms irrespective of circumstances at EoL. Further work is needed to understand predictors of adjustment among bereaved siblings to provide better support and optimize their outcomes.

     

Three Sibling Survivors’ Perspectives of their Father’s Suicide: Implications for Postvention Support

Journal of Child and Family Studies - This qualitative case study describes three adult siblings’ experiences and their perceptions of support connected with the time before and after their...     

Teacher beliefs,teacher characteristics,and school contextual factors: What are the relationships?

Background. There is a plethora of research around student beliefs and their contribution to student outcomes. However, there is less research in relation to teacher beliefs. Teacher factors are important to consider since beliefs mould thoughts and resultant instructional behaviours that, in turn, can contribute to student outcomes. Aims. The purpose of this research was to explore relationships between the teacher characteristics of gender and teaching experience, school contextual variables (socio‐economic level of school and class level), and three teacher socio‐psychological variables: class level teacher expectations, teacher efficacy, and teacher goal orientation. Sample. The participants were 68 male and female teachers with varying experience, from schools in a variety of socio‐economic areas and from rural and urban locations within New Zealand. Method. Teachers completed a questionnaire containing items related to teacher efficacy and goal orientation in reading. They also completed a teacher expectation survey. Reading achievement data were collected on students. Interrelationships were explored between teacher socio‐psychological beliefs and the teacher and school factors included in the study. Results. Mastery‐oriented beliefs predicted teacher efficacy for student engagement and classroom management. The socio‐economic level of the school and teacher gender predicted teacher efficacy for engagement, classroom management, instructional strategies, and a mastery goal orientation. Being male predicted a performance goal orientation. Conclusions. Teacher beliefs, teacher characteristics, and school contextual variables can result in differences in teacher instructional practices and differing classroom climates. Further investigation of these variables is important since differences in teachers contribute to differences in student outcomes.     

Change detection by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and pigeons (Columba livia)

Two monkeys (Macaca mulatta) learned a color change-detection task where two colored circles (selected from a 4-color set) were presented on a 4 × 4 invisible matrix. Following a delay, the correct response was to touch the changed colored circle. The monkeys' learning, color transfer, and delay transfer were compared to a similar experiment with pigeons. Monkeys, like pigeons (Columba livia), showed full transfer to four novel colors, and to delays as long as 6.4 s, suggesting they remembered the colors as opposed to perceptual based attentional capture process that may work at very short delays. The monkeys and pigeons were further tested to compare transfer with other dimensions. Monkeys transferred to shape and location changes, unlike the pigeons, but neither species transferred to size changes. Thus, monkeys were less restricted in their domain to detect change than pigeons, but both species learned the basic task and appear suitable for comparative studies of visual short-term memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Demand characteristics and research into drug use

Abstract

Health research makes frequent use of verbal reports; and such reports are usually assumed to be the surface indicants of measurable entities such as attitudes, beliefs, intentions, etc. which reside inside the person. It is our assertion that verbal reports themselves are motivated and variable; they are functional and context-dependent and their meaning and significance are localised. Consequently discourse cannot be treated as if it were fixed and categorical data to be retrieved from memory by asking questions that appear objective or disinterested. A method is postulated, using a social perception analogy with signal detection (SD) theory. The method allows for the assessment of subject criterion, and permits an examination of signal-strength in terms of the researcher's motivation. Data are evaluated in terms of their “robustness”, a measure which derives from the variability of response in different contexts, and under different elicitation procedures. The method requires few assumptions to be made about the “truth” or “falsity” of verbal reports. It focuses on the types of social activities that are performed by utterances and thus on the contextual variability revealed by asking questions in different situations and in different ways. This procedure does not presume a direct correspondence between verbal reports and mental representations.