Understanding Adult Participant and Parent Empowerment Prior to Evaluation in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network

The burden of living with an undiagnosed condition is high and includes physical and emotional suffering, frustrations, and uncertainty. For patients and families experiencing these stressors, higher levels of empowerment may be associated with better outcomes. Thus, it is important to understand the experiences of patients with undiagnosed conditions and their families affected by undiagnosed conditions in order to identify strategies for fostering empowerment. In this study, we used the Genetic Counseling Outcome Scale (GCOS-24) to assess levels of empowerment and support group participation in 35 adult participants and 67 parents of child participants in the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) prior to their UDN in-person evaluation. Our results revealed significantly lower empowerment scores on the GCOS-24 in adult participants compared to parents of child participants [t(100)?=???3.01, p?=?0.003, average difference?=???11.12, 95% CI (??3.78, ??18.46)] and no significant association between support group participation and empowerment scores. The majority of participants (84.3%, 86/102) are not currently participating in any support groups, and participation rates were not significantly different for adult participants and parents of child participants (11.4 vs. 19.7%, respectively, FE p?=?0.40). Open-ended responses provided additional insight into support group participation, the challenges of living with undiagnosed conditions, and positive coping strategies. Future research will evaluate the extent to which empowerment scores change as participation in the UDN unfolds.     

Control by association: Transfer of implicitly primed attentional states across linked stimuli

Although cognitive control has traditionally been viewed in opposition to associative learning, recent studies show that people can learn to link particular stimuli with specific cognitive control states (e.g., high attentional selectivity). Here, we tested whether such learned stimulus-control associations can transfer across paired-associates. In the Stimulus-Stimulus (S-S) Association phase, specific face or house images repeatedly preceded the presentation of particular scene stimuli, creating paired face/house-scene associates in memory. The Stimulus-Control (S-C) Association phase then associated these scenes with different attentional control states by probabilistically biasing specific scenes to mostly precede either congruent or incongruent trials in a Stroop task. Finally, in the Stimulus-Control Transfer (S-CT) phase, the faces and houses from the S-S phase preceded Stroop trials but were not predictive of congruency, testing whether stimulus-control associations would transfer from scenes to their associated face/house stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 3, we found that learned implicit stimulus-control associations could transfer across closely linked cues, and in Experiment 2, we showed that this transfer depended on the memory associations formed in the S-S phase. While this form of transfer learning has previously been demonstrated for stimulus-reward associations, the present study provides the first evidence for the associative transfer of stimulus-control associations across arbitrarily linked stimuli. This work demonstrates how people can learn to implicitly adapt their processing strategies in a flexible context-dependent manner and establishes a novel learning mechanism supporting the generalization of cognitive control.     

Further evaluation of the use of preference categories to identify novel reinforcers: A systematic replication

Preference assessments are frequently used to identify reinforcers for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Although well‐established procedures have been shown to identify preferred stimuli for individual items that can be used in skill acquisition and behavior reduction programs, little research has been conducted on identifying categories of preferred items. In this study, paired‐stimulus preference assessments were conducted with 4 individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Researchers classified the edible stimuli as belonging to 1 of 4 categories: chocolate (e.g., chocolate chips and M&M's^®), salty/crunchy (e.g., chips and crackers), gummy (e.g., Swedish Fish^® and Starburst^®), or fruit/vegetable (e.g., grape and apple). Preference hierarchies were identified for individual stimuli and for categories of stimuli. For all participants, at least 3 of the 4 most preferred items came from the same category. Novel items (i.e., items not included in the preference assessments) identified by the researchers as belonging to the high‐preference category functioned as effective reinforcers during subsequent reinforcer assessments for all participants. This finding suggests that clinicians could identify likely effective edible reinforcers based on an individual's categorical preference without explicit testing.     

A Brief Alcohol Intervention During Inpatient Psychiatric Hospitalization for Suicidal Adolescents

Alcohol use and suicide-related thoughts and behaviors are common in psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents and each problem can exacerbate the other. Despite knowledge about the functional relationship between alcohol use and suicide-related thoughts and behaviors, inpatient psychiatric units only cursorily address alcohol use because suicide risk is considered primary. In this paper we provide theoretical and empirical rationale for the inclusion of brief motivational interventions for alcohol use in inpatient treatment settings for suicidal adolescents. We give a case example of the brief intervention in practice, including when and how to use specific techniques. Following the case example, we discuss the flexibility of this intervention and how it can be adapted for adolescents with varying risk profiles. We conclude with recommendations for future research, including the development and testing of technology-based boosters following hospital discharge.     

The Structure of Emotion Dialogues: Maternal Reminiscing Factors Differentially Relate to Child Language and Socio-Emotional Outcomes

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Mother–child reminiscing about past emotional experiences is one aspect of emotion socialization that facilitates child socio-emotional and...     

Examining Gender-Specific Modeling in the Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting Style and Physical Child Abuse Risk

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Although research demonstrates intergenerational transmission of parenting attitudes and child abuse risk, greater clarity on the potential mechanisms in this...     

The Adolescent Behavior Checklist: Validation Using Structured Diagnostic Interviews

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity of scores from the Adolescent Behavior Checklist (ABC), a self-report measure of ADHD symptomatology for adolescents ages 11–17 years. Validity was assessed through correlational, univariate, and discriminant function analyses using three groups: (1) adolescents diagnosed with ADHD, (2) adolescents currently experiencing a mood and/or anxiety disorder, and (3) adolescents with no major psychological disorder. Convergent and divergent validity of the ABC factor scores was demonstrated through correlational results with (1) parent and adolescent report of ADHD symptoms during structured psychiatric interviews and (2) scores on questionnaires measuring related and nonrelated constructs. Univariate analyses indicated that the ADHD group obtained significantly higher scores than did the nonclinical adolescents across all ABC factors. Additionally, the ADHD group scored significantly higher than did the psychiatric controls on the following ABC factors: Conduct Problems, Impulsivity/Hyperactivity, and Social Problems. Results from discriminant analyses supported the reliability of ABC scores in correctly classifying participants into groups. Compared to the Youth Self-Report, the ABC was found to be somewhat better at classifying when used in a multiinformant discriminant analysis. Therefore, overall results from the current study suggest that the ABC is a valid and useful self-report screening measure for ADHD symptoms and related difficulties.     

Reactive, but not proactive aggression predicts victimization among boys

Prospective links among reactive aggression, proactive aggression, and victimization by peers were investigated in a longitudinal sample of 238 preadolescents (aged 10-13 years, 52% girls). No predictive links were found between victimization and either type of aggression among girls. Among boys, reactive aggression predicted higher future levels of victimization but was not itself affected by prior victimization. In contrast, boys' proactive aggression predicted lower levels of future victimization and was itself reduced by their prior victimization. Finally, reactive aggression predicted later proactive aggression for both boys and girls. These results are explained in terms of the different reactions that others have to proactive and reactive aggression, the different functions they serve, and to the different types of aggression that are common for boys and girls.     

Word recognition and face recognition following posterior cerebral artery stroke: Overlapping networks and selective contributions

It has been suggested that word- and face recognition rely on a common cerebral network for perceptual processing. To further explore this hypothesis, face- and word recognition were assessed in seven patients with focal lesions after stroke of the posterior cerebral artery in either hemisphere. The aim was to investigate if problems in face- and word recognition would co-occur, if testing was sensitive and patients were not pre-selected based on behavioural symptoms. Patients and matched controls were given a reading test and a delayed matching paradigm with faces, objects, and words. Interestingly, all patients with word recognition difficulties had problems in face recognition, independently of the affected hemisphere, supporting the existence of a bilateral perceptual network for faces and words. However, two patients showed selective face recognition problems after unilateral damage to either hemisphere, suggesting that parts of this network may be more critical for face than for word recognition.