A Safety and Coping Planning Intervention for Suicidal Adolescents in Acute Psychiatric Care

Transitioning from an acute psychiatric care setting to a less restrictive environment after a suicidal event is arguably the most critical period of suicide risk for adolescents, making comprehensive safety and coping plans for this population ever more critical. In this paper we provide theoretical and empirical rationale for the need for developmental adaptations to current safety planning procedures for suicidal adolescents, as well as the standardization of pediatric safety plans for broader use across settings that provide acute psychiatric care to adolescents. We describe how we developed the Adolescent Safety and Coping Plan (ASCP) using qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 adolescents and their parents, explain the specific components of the ASCP, and give a case example of the ASCP being used with a young adolescent and her parents. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the barriers and facilitators of the use of the ASCP in settings that provide acute psychiatric care, as well as the need for future research to test the ASCP with diverse adolescent and family populations and settings.     

Effects of prior agonistic experience on risk assessment and approach behavior evoked by familiar or unfamiliar conspecific odors

Risk assessment and appetitive behaviors in response to familiar and unfamiliar conspecific odors were measured in mice rendered dominant or subordinate by a series of resident-intruder encounters. Subordinate mice showed elevated levels of risk assessment in response to the odors of both familiar dominant and unfamiliar males. These behaviors were almost totally absent among dominant males exposed to familiar subordinate or unfamiliar male odors. Subordinate mice showed a marginally significant elevation in latencies to approach familiar, but not unfamiliar, dominant odors. Dominant and subordinate mice spent comparable amounts of time in the cage area containing familiar antagonist odors, however, and the durations of subordinates were mildly elevated, rather than decreased, when unfamiliar conspecific odors were present. There were no group differences in any of the appetitive behaviors. These findings suggest that apparent preferences for conspecific odors may arise from quantitatively and/or qualitatively differing emotional states. The inclusion of risk assessment measures is suggested to be a useful adjunct for studies of olfactory preference/rejection. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Sea lions and equivalence: expanding classes by exclusion

Experiments have shown that human and nonhuman subjects are capable of performing new arbitrary stimulus-stimulus relations without error. When subjects that are experienced with matching-to-sample procedures are presented with a novel sample, a novel comparison, and a familiar comparison, most respond by correctly selecting the novel comparison in the presence of the new sample. This exclusion paradigm was expanded with two California sea lions that had previously formed two 10-member equivalence classes in a matching-to-sample procedure. Rather than being presented with a novel sample on a given trial, the sea lions were presented with a randomly selected familiar member of one class as the sample. One of the comparisons was a randomly selected familiar member of the alternative class, and the other was a novel stimulus. When required to choose which comparison matched the sample, the subjects reliably rejected the familiar comparison, and instead selected the unfamiliar one. Next, the sea lions were presented with transfer problems that could not be solved by exclusion; they immediately grouped the new stimuli into the appropriate classes. These findings show that exclusion procedures can rapidly generate new stimulus relations that can be used to expand stimulus classes.     

Long-term memory for concepts in a California sea lion (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Zalophus californianus</Emphasis>)

An adult California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) with extensive experience in performing discrimination learning tasks was tested to evaluate her long-term memory for two previously learned concepts. An associative concept, that of equivalence classification, was retested after a retention interval of approximately 1 year. The sea lion had originally shown emergent equivalence classification with nonsimilarity-based classes of stimuli in a simple discrimination repeated-reversal procedure as well as in a matching-to-sample procedure. The 1-year memory test revealed no decrement in classification performance in either procedure. A relational concept, that of generalized identity matching, was retested after approximately 10 years. The sea lion had originally received trial-and-error exemplar training with identity matching-to-sample problems prior to transferring the concept to novel stimulus configurations. In the 10-year memory test, the sea lion immediately and reliably applied the previously established identity concept to familiar and novel sets of matching problems. These are the first reports of long-term conceptual memory in a nonprimate species. The experimental findings are consistent with a variety of observations of sea lions in natural settings, which indicate that natal sites, feeding areas, and individuals may be remembered over long periods of time. Electronic Supplementary Material is available if you access this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10071-002-0153-8. On that page (frame on the left side), a link takes you directly to the supplementary material. Electronic Publication     

Estimation of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III index scores with the 7-subtest short form in a clinical sample

A 7-subtest short form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) previously demonstrated good comparability in estimating Full Scale and Verbal IQ summary scores, with adequate comparability in estimating Performance IQ. In a mixed clinical sample of 295 patients, the current study assessed the equivalence of the index scores generated from the full and prorated WAIS-III. The results revealed correlations corrected for redundancy of .90, .86, .87, and .75 for the Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Perceptual Organization (POI), Working Memory (WMI), and Processing Speed (PSI) indexes, respectively. Although the 7-subtest short form of the WAIS-III was not designed to estimate index scores, adequate estimates are viable for VCI, POI, and WMI when the goal is to obtain group, rather than individual, data points.     

Observations on the factor structure of the WAIS-R

Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) revealed 2 important characteristics of the standardization data of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised. One finding was that Digit Symbol fit better on an attentional factor in younger groups, but fit was better when Digit Symbol loaded on a visual-perceptual factor in older groups. A second observation was that specifying correlated errors or a fourth factor to explain covariance between Block Design and Object Assembly improved model fit in all age groups except 70- to 74-year-olds. The results illustrate the value of CFA and have implications for investigating other samples and other Wechsler tests.     

Development of upper limb proprioceptive accuracy in children and adolescents

This study was designed to determine differences in the proprioceptively guided movements of children (8-10 years) and adolescents (16-18 years). Participants were blindfolded and asked to actively match passively determined target positions of the elbow joint under three matching conditions. Overall, children were less accurate than adolescents in all matching tasks and utilized different kinematic strategies for making the matching movements. Specifically, children made larger absolute errors and utilized matching movements which, compared to adolescents, were of shorter duration and less irregular in terms of their velocity profiles. An assessment of limb asymmetry was also performed revealing a non-dominant arm matching advantage but only for children and only in the task requiring interhemispheric transfer of a memory-based model of limb position. The proprioceptive differences observed in this study are likely the result of experience-driven refinement in the utilization of somatosensory feedback throughout childhood and into adolescence.     

The relative effectiveness of various instructional approaches in developing anticipation skill

The relative effectiveness of explicit instruction, guided discovery, and discovery learning techniques in enhancing anticipation skill in young, intermediate-level tennis players was examined. Performance was assessed pre- and postintervention, during acquisition, and under transfer conditions designed to elicit anxiety through the use of laboratory and on-court measures. The 3 intervention groups improved from pre- to posttest compared with a control group (n = 8), highlighting the benefits of perceptual-cognitive training. Participants in the explicit (n = 8) and guided discovery (n = 10) groups improved their performance during acquisition at a faster rate than did the discovery learning (n = 7) group. However, the explicit group showed a significant decrement in performance when tested under anxiety provoking conditions compared with the guided discovery and discovery learning groups. Although training facilitated anticipation skill, irrespective of the type of instruction used in this experiment, guided discovery methods are recommended for expediency in learning and resilience under pressure.     

The Relative Contribution of Sibling Deviance and Peer Deviance in the Prediction of Substance Use Across Middle Childhood

This study investigated the quality of sibling relationships and sibling deviancy in a sample of children at-risk for substance use and antisocial behavior. Based on a history of empirical and theoretical models suggesting strong associations between children's development in the context of relationships and the emergence of delinquency and drug use, this research extends previous efforts by including sibling relationships in this developmental model, linking siblings with later substance use. Sibling relationship quality as well as peer deviance were examined using a multirater, multimethod assessment procedure. We tested 3 constructs (deviancy, warmth, and conflict) related to sibling behavior. Only sibling deviance and peer deviance directly predicted substance use. When both sibling deviance and peer deviance were examined as predictors of changes in substance use over time, only sibling deviance was significant. Implications for the development of substance use behavior in middle childhood are discussed.