Home-Based Early Head Start plus Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up: A Qualitative Study of Implementation Outcomes

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Elucidating factors that promote or hinder successful implementation of evidence-based practices in real-world settings is an essential component of...     

Public but not private ego threat triggers aggression in narcissists

One line of research indicates that people are more aggressive when they are insulted publicly rather than privately, whereas another indicates that subclinical narcissism predicts aggression. Drawing on these lines of research, we predicted that aggression would be increased among participants who scored higher on narcissism (as opposed to lower), received negative (as opposed to positive) self‐relevant feedback, and did so in public (as opposed to private). The findings supported that prediction and further confirmed that narcissism was only predictive of aggression in the negative‐public condition. The findings thus indicate that aggression is influenced by the interaction of situational and dispositional factors. Copyright © 2011 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: the roles of coping style, self-esteem, and personality pathology

This study examined the relationship between late adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and coping style, self-esteem, and personality pathology. Participants were 302 late adolescent (18-19-year-old) college students who completed questionnaires on self-esteem, coping style, personality disorder symptoms, and NSSI. Participants who engaged in NSSI reported more personality pathology, more maladaptive coping styles, less rational coping, and lower self-esteem than did non self-harming participants. As hypothesized, total NSSI correlated with several personality disorders, emotional coping style, and inversely related to self-esteem and adaptive coping styles. Regression equations tested several mediation models to determine whether self-esteem or coping style mediates the relationship between personality disorder symptoms and NSSI. Emotional coping and self-esteem each fully mediated the relationship between various personality disorders and NSSI in the anticipated direction. Results also indicate self-esteem, rational, detached, and emotional coping partially mediate the relationship between several personality disorders and NSSI.     

Posttraumatic Stress Related to Hyperglycemia: Prevalence in Adults with Type I Diabetes

Prevalence of hyperglycemia-related posttraumatic stress (PTS) was assessed in 239 adults with type 1 diabetes using the posttraumatic stress diagnostic scale (PDS; Foa, Posttraumatic stress diagnostic scale manual, National Computer Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, 1995) by an anonymous online survey. Additionally, this study aimed to identify variables related to hyperglycemia-related PTS. Over 30 % of participants reported symptoms consistent with PTSD related to hyperglycemia with standard PDS scoring, and 10 % with more conservative scoring. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that diabetes self-management behavior and perceived helplessness about hyperglycemia predicted PTSD with standard scoring. Perceived death threat, self-management behavior, helplessness about hyperglycemia, and severity of hypoglycemia in past month predicted PTSD using more conservative scoring. Perceived helplessness, hypoglycemia severity, perceived death-threat, HbA1c, and self-management behavior predicted PTS severity. When fear, helplessness, and perceived death-threat were combined to represent an overall cognitive appraisal factor, this variable was the strongest predictor of PTSD and PTS severity. Scores for PTSD symptom clusters appeared similar to data on hypoglycemia-related PTS.     

Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Risk Taking Interact to Predict Left-Frontal EEG Asymmetry

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) hypersensitivity theory of bipolar disorder (BD; Alloy & Abramson, 2010; Depue & Iacono, 1989) suggests that hyperreactivity in the BAS results in the extreme fluctuations of mood characteristic of BD. In addition to risk conferred by BAS hypersensitivity, cognitive and personality variables may play a role in determining risk. We evaluated relationships among BAS sensitivity, risk taking, and an electrophysiological correlate of approach motivation, relative left-frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry. BAS sensitivity moderated the relationship between risk taking and EEG asymmetry. More specifically, individuals who were high in BAS sensitivity showed left-frontal EEG asymmetry regardless of their level of risk-taking behavior. However, among individuals who were moderate in BAS sensitivity, risk taking was positively associated with asymmetry. These findings suggest that cognitive and personality correlates of bipolar risk may evidence unique contributions to a neural measure of trait-approach motivation. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.