Distress and Psychosocial Needs of a Heterogeneous High Risk Familial Cancer Population

In order to assess the levels of distress and psychosocial support needs of a high risk population, we undertook a study to look at both the objective and subjective levels of distress and the wants and needs of individuals from a high familial cancer risk population. Three hundred and eighteen individuals (160 affected, 158 unaffected) completed several distress and psychosocial needs questionnaires (including the Brief Symptom Inventory-18). Sixty key informants were also surveyed about their perspective on the support needs of this population. In the largely female (90%), largely HBOC syndrome group (approximately 90%), 20% had significant levels of generalized distress, with no significant differences between affected and unaffected individuals. Generalized distress was also not significantly different as a function of mutation status. Individuals who received inconclusive test results, however, were more likely to indicate somatic symptoms of distress. Those individuals who did not have social support were more likely to be those who had never had cancer and who either had a mutation, received inconclusive test results, or were not tested. Key informants were most likely to indicate that patients need more support. These results provide evidence for the importance of establishing regular psychosocial distress screening, including a focus on somatic symptoms, in such high risk populations.     

Obesity, cardiovascular fitness, and physically active adolescents’ motivations for activity: A self-determination theory approach

Objectives

Overweight and obesity pose significant health problems for adolescents. Rates of overweight and obesity in children have increased 45% in the last decade and have increased three-fold since 1980. Because children who are physically active are at lower risk for the development of obesity, it is important to understand some of the factors that influence children’s physical activity patterns. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between motivation, cardiorespiratory fitness, and weight status, defined as obese or non-obese. We predicted that the association between motivation and weight status would become non-significant when controlling for cardiorespiratory fitness.

Design

The study employed a correlational, cross-sectional design.

Method

Participants included physically active middle school students (N = 82. 51% female) of aged 12–14 years, who participated in the Teen Eating and Activity Mentoring in Schools (TEAMS) study aimed at improving health and preventing obesity among middle school students. Students completed attitudinal questionnaires about physical activity and self-determination on a computer-based system and participated in a number of fitness performance, health behavior, and anthropometric assessments.

Results

Non-obese adolescents showed higher intrinsic motivation scores than obese adolescents. Mediational analyses showed that cardiorespiratory fitness mediated the relationship between motivation and weight status.

Conclusions

The results of this study demonstrate differences in physical activity motivation as a function of adolescent weight status, but only for intrinsic motivation. As predicted, adolescents who were intrinsically motivated for physical activity were more fit and thereby less likely to be obese. The findings are consistent with self-determination theory.     

Escape as reinforcement and escape extinction in the treatment of feeding problems

Given the effectiveness of putative escape extinction as treatment for feeding problems, it is surprising that little is known about the effects of escape as reinforcement for appropriate eating during treatment. In the current investigation, we examined the effectiveness of escape as reinforcement for mouth clean (a product measure of swallowing), escape as reinforcement for mouth clean plus escape extinction (EE), and EE alone as treatment for the food refusal of 5 children. Results were similar to those of previous studies, in that reinforcement alone did not result in increases in mouth clean or decreases in inappropriate behavior (e.g., Piazza, Patel, Gulotta, Sevin, & Layer, 2003). Increases in mouth clean and decreases in inappropriate behavior occurred when the therapist implemented EE independent of the presence or absence of reinforcement. Results are discussed in terms of the role of negative reinforcement in the etiology and treatment of feeding problems.     

Chin prompt plus re-presentation as treatment for expulsion in children with feeding disorders

Expulsion (spitting out food) is a problem behavior observed in many children with feeding disorders. In the current investigation, we identified 4 children diagnosed with a feeding disorder who exhibited high rates of expulsion. Treatment with re-presentation (placing expelled liquids or solids back into the child's mouth) was not effective in reducing expulsion. Therefore, we added a chin-prompt procedure (the feeder applied gentle upward pressure to the child's chin and lower lip) for the initial presentation and the re-presentation. Chin prompt plus re-presentation resulted in low rates of expulsion for all 4 children. The results are discussed in terms of the potential underlying mechanisms behind the effectiveness of the chin-prompt procedure.     

Assessing the Incremental Algorithm: A Response to Krahmer et al.

This response discusses the experiment reported in Krahmer et al.’s Letter to the Editor of Cognitive Science. We observe that their results do not tell us whether the Incremental Algorithm is better or worse than its competitors, and we speculate about implications for reference in complex domains, and for learning from ‘‘normal” (i.e., non‐semantically‐balanced) corpora.     

Stress-buffering effects of social support: A longitudinal study

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of stress and social support in a longitudinal design. A sample of mature female students took part in a study that measured stress, social support, and psychiatric symptoms at two points 6 months apart. The results showed that the Time 1 measure of social support was a significant predictor of Time 2 symptoms when Time 1 symptoms were controlled for. Furthermore, a stress-buffering effect was obtained for Emotional support, but not for Practical support in conjunction with life events that occurred in the follow-up phase. Some of the conditions under which stress-buffering effects should be obtained are briefly considered.     

Factors affecting the acquisition and elimination of children's donating behavior

Thirty-five 6- to 10-year-old children with initial low rates of donating to help a peer either simply received a fine for each failure to donate (n = 7) or also were informed of the contingency between the fine and failure to donate (n = 28). Explanation of the contingency was necessary to increase children's donation rates. Donations continued at high rates during a gradual, unannounced removal of the fine contingency, but decreased when children were informed that fines were no longer in effect, particularly for children who had failed to donate at least once during training and had actually been fined. Overall, addition of a distraction or an inequity procedure did not reduce donating below rate reductions due to the announced extinction procedure alone.