Being a mother with anorexia: A phenomenological study of seeking and receiving professional support for white heterosexual women in the UK

Mothers are currently under-represented in the literature on anorexia, including research on treatment, with most research focussed on female adolescents. This raises questions about how adult women and particularly those who are mothers, experience eating disorder treatment. This study provides a phenomenological exploration of lived experiences of seeking and receiving professional help and interactions with health professionals for six white heterosexual mothers who experienced anorexia while raising their children. Four themes are reported that capture the women's diverse experiences of seeking and receiving support for anorexia: (1) conflict between mothering and seeking help; (2) experiences of feeling blamed, poorly treated or misunderstood by health professionals; (3) positive experiences of seeking and receiving support; and (4) the importance of ongoing support. The women's experiences suggest that healthcare professionals should adopt a more holistic approach that acknowledges the subjective reality of the client (including their mother status) when working with mothers experiencing anorexia.     

The child sexual abuse victim: Assessment and treatment issues and solutions

Particular attention is given in this paper to the assessment process with child sexual abuse victims and recommendations are made regarding practical issues both in the assessment and the treatment phases of therapeutic work with child victims.     

An infrared device to monitor discrete ambulatory and stereotypic behaviors

An electronic device that can detect discrete ambulatory and stereotypic behaviors of animals is described. The system involves a minimum of two infrared (IR) beams, each connected to a set/reset flip-flop or latch. The initial occlusion of an IR beam simultaneously sets a latch, delivers a locomotion pulse output, and resets any previously set latch whose IR beam is not occluded. A set latch causes its associated IR beam to be refractory to further locomotion movements until reset by the occlusion of a second IR beam. All beams are continuously responsive to stereotypic activity.     

Training versus nontraining of mothers as home reading tutors

The effectiveness of training mothers as home reading tutors was assessed using a sample of 42 mother-child pairs. The children were aged 8 to 9 yr. Analyses showed that the amount of time parents spent listening to a child read at home was positively related to both reading accuracy and comprehension scores. A short group-program training mothers as home reading tutors achieved the anticipated changes in mothers' behaviours: delayed intervention, increased use of meaning and contextual cues rather than direct word prompts, and greater use of praise. Children's reading accuracy was marginally improved and reading comprehension was significantly increased as a result of training the mothers as home reading tutors.     

The perception of expressive timing in music

Summary This paper is concerned with the perception of small-scale timing changes in musical sequences. The control and expressive function of these have been studied quite extensively from a production perspective, but not much is known about listeners' ability to detect them. A pilot study and two experiments are reported which investigate the detectability of different amounts of timing change in different sequential positions, different pitch contexts, and against the background of both metronomic and expressive comparisons. The results show that listeners are able to perceive as little as 20 ms lengthening in the context of notes lasting between 100 and 400 ms, and that this threshold appears not to be a function of base duration in this range. Sequential position and pitch structure influence the detectability of timing changes to a limited extent, for which some possible explanations are offered. A case is made for regarding timing in music as both a medium to convey structure and an object in its own right, suggesting that it may be perceptually organized in two different ways — as the consequence of a structural interpretation and as a directly registered quantity.     

A detector of sonic and ultrasonic vocalizations with frequency readout

An electronic apparatus to detect vocalizations between 4 and 50 kHz and to provide frequency readout is described. A frequency-to-voltage converter changes vocalizations to their analog. A peak-and-hold circuit retains and gates the maximal value of this analog voltage while it is accessed by a chart recorder or computer. Provision is made to lock out noise by inhibiting the device’s response to all signals lower than those associated with a selectable cutoff frequency. In preliminary tests of the apparatus, vocal signals of two rats in a common cage were recorded while the animals were subjected to a brief, intermittent bout of faradic shock to the feet. All recorded vocalizations occurred at frequencies below 26 kHz.     

Assessment-based intervention for severe behavior problems in a natural family context.

Functional assessments and assessment-based interventions were conducted with a boy with disabilities and severe problem behavior in the context of two family routines: using the bathroom in the family home and dining in a fast-food restaurant. A multiple baseline design demonstrated the effectiveness of the intervention package as implemented by the boy's mother in the two routines. The results provide a systematic replication and extension of behavior-analytic interventions in natural family contexts.     

Genetic Testing Considerations in Breast Cancer Patients

Genetic testing is now feasible for a growing number of cancers. Although the implications for unaffected relatives have been widely described, the impact of the tests on affected individuals are often not recognized. We present and discuss four cases that highlight some of the issues—for example, feelings of guilt and anxiety, intrafamilial conflict, and support needs—that may arise in testing affected individuals. We offer some suggestions to aid in the approach to such testing.