Applying Attention Restoration Theory to Understand and Address Clergy’s Need to Restore Cognitive Capacity

Attention Restoration Theory is applied to explore the causes and consequences of mental fatigue in clergy and suggest practical interventions to restore cognitive wellbeing. Previous research has investigated the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of clergy, but has largely neglected clergy cognitive wellbeing. Due to the demanding nature of their work, clergy are particularly susceptible to mental fatigue and depletion of their capacity to maintain attention. Symptoms include inability to focus attention, inhibit distractions, make decisions or solve problems. Mental fatigue can be overcome, and cognitive capacity restored, by spending time in restorative environments that allow directed attention to rest.     

Trait Forgiveness and Dyadic Adjustment Predict Postnatal Depression

The birth of a first child can be stressful on intimate partner relationships and the women having their first child. Conflict can occur, and hurts might be experienced, which could lead to post-partum depression. Thus, capacity for forgiveness with specific hurts might affect post-partum depression. We investigated women having their first child (N?=?52), and examined whether dyadic adjustment, trait forgiveness, and situational forgiving during pregnancy predicted postpartum depression. This study found that marital forgiveness predicted lower levels of depression above and beyond the effects of general dyadic adjustment. Dyadic adjustment and trait forgiveness predicted postpartum depression while situational forgiving was mixed. Postpartum depression researchers are encouraged to consider the inclusion of positive psychology variables, such as forgiveness, in future research studies.     

Youth with Chronic Pain and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS): Treatment Mediators of Improvement in Functional Disability

Intensive pain rehabilitation programs are effective in increasing functioning for youth with chronic pain (CP). However, the utility of such programs for youth with CP and co-morbid postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is rarely examined. In addition, studies examining mediators of treatment for CP are sparse. This paper compares treatment outcomes for youth with CP (n?=?117) and youth with CP?+?POTS (n?=?118). Additionally, depression and pain catastrophizing were tested as potential mediators of treatment effects. Significant treatment improvements were found for functional disability, depression, pain catastrophizing, and perceived pain intensity but with no differences between groups. Improvements in depressed mood, pain catastrophizing (helplessness subscale), and pain severity partially mediated functioning improvement. Pain severity was not a significant mediator in the CP?+?POTS group. We concluded that depression and pain catastrophizing, especially the helplessness domain, can impact functioning improvement in adolescents with CP and POTS and are particularly important to target in treatment.     

Traits and stories: links between dispositional and narrative features of personality

Dispositional traits and life narratives represent two different levels of personality that have not previously been empirically linked. The current study tested five hypotheses connecting Big-Five traits to life-narrative indices of emotional tone, theme, and structure. Students (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) completed a self-report measure of the Big-Five traits and provided extended written accounts of either ten (students) or eight (adults) key life-narrative scenes, including life high points, low points, and turning points. Content analysis of the narrative data revealed that for both samples Neuroticism was positively associated with an emotionally negative life-narrative tone, Agreeableness was correlated with narrative themes of communion (e.g., friendship, caring for others), and Openness was strongly associated with the structural complexity of life narrative accounts. Contrary to prediction, however, Conscientiousness was not consistently associated with themes of agency (e.g., achievement, self-mastery) and Extraversion was unrelated to positive narrative tone. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary research and theorizing on the narrative study of lives and the relation of narrative research in personality to more conventional, trait-based approaches.     

The effects of healthy aging on the mnemonic benefit of survival processing

A number of studies have shown that information is remembered better when it is processed for its survival relevance than when it is processed for relevance to other, non-survival-related contexts. Here we conducted three experiments to investigate whether the survival advantage also occurs for healthy older adults. In Experiment 1, older and younger adults rated words for their relevance to a grassland survival or moving scenario and then completed an unexpected free recall test on the words. We replicated the survival advantage in two separate groups of younger adults, one of which was placed under divided-attention conditions, but we did not find a survival advantage in the older adults. We then tested two additional samples of older adults using a between- (Exp. 2) or within- (Exp. 3) subjects design, but still found no evidence of the survival advantage in this age group. These results suggest that, although survival processing is an effective encoding strategy for younger adults, it does not provide the same mnemonic benefit to healthy elders.     

Reducing an in‐group bias in preschool children: the impact of moral behavior

How impressionable are in‐group biases in early childhood? Previous research shows that young children display robust preferences for members of their own social group, but also condemn those who harm others. The current study investigates children's evaluations of agents when their group membership and moral behavior conflict. After being assigned to a minimal group, 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children either saw their in‐group member behave antisocially, an out‐group member act prosocially, or control agents, for whom moral information was removed. Children's explicit preference for and willingness to share with their in‐group member was significantly attenuated in the presence of an antisocial in‐group member, but not a prosocial out‐group member. Interestingly, children's learning decisions were unmoved by a person's moral behavior, instead being consistently guided by group membership. This demonstrates that children's in‐group bias is remarkably flexible: while moral information curbs children's in‐group bias on social evaluations, social learning is still driven by group information.     

Changes in Stepparents' Coparenting and Parenting Following Participation in a Community‐Based Relationship Education Program

Studies of coparents typically center on the relationship between parents who share a biological child; limited attention in research on community‐based programs is given to the coparenting relationship within a stepfamily, even though clinicians note the challenges inherent in this relationship. We examined changes in coparenting agreement, parenting efficacy, and parental involvement for 96 stepparents following participation in a coparenting‐focused community education program. A significant main effect of time was found for improvement in coparenting agreement, yet a significant time × gender interaction effect suggests that this is driven by improvements for stepmothers only. Parenting efficacy improved, regardless of gender, race, residence, or curriculum. A significant time × race interaction effect on change in parental involvement indicates increases in parental involvement for European American participants only. Finally, increases in coparenting agreement were associated with increases in parenting efficacy, and increases in parenting efficacy were associated with increases in parental involvement.     

Differential Effects of Self-graphing on Self-monitoring of Early Literacy Outcomes in Kindergarten Students

The purpose of this study was to examine how an early literacy intervention, Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (K-PALS; Mathes et al. Kindergarten peer-assisted literacy strategies (K-PALS): Sopris West, 2001), can be intensified to extend the positive outcomes to students who do not initially demonstrate an adequate response to intervention. K-PALS was intensified by incorporating a self-monitoring package that included self-graphing. An alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of K-PALS with self-graphing alone and K-PALS with a self-monitoring package to baseline/K-PALS for the purpose of increasing student performance on the early literacy measure of phonemic awareness. The results of the study indicate that while the self-monitoring package was the more effective intervention for two of the three student participants, the self-graphing alone intervention also resulted in positive outcomes for both of these participants. There was no change in the phonemic awareness performance for the third participant throughout the alternating treatment phase. Implications for intensifying academic interventions within the context of a Response to Intervention framework are discussed.