Parenting stress among families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Prior research has shown that parenting stress levels can be quite high among families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study investigated the degree to which such stress was related not only to the child's ADHD, but also to various other child, parent, and family-environment circumstances. Multimethod assessments were conducted on 104 clinic-referred children with ADHD. Data collected from these subjects were entered into hierarchical multiple-regression analyses, utilizing the Parenting Stress Index as the criterion. The results showed that child and parent characteristics accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in overall parenting stress. The child's oppositional-defiant behavior and maternal psychopathology were especially potent predictors. The severity of the child's ADHD, the child's health status, and maternal health status also emerged as significant predictors. These findings are discussed in terms of their impact upon the clinical management of children with ADHD.The authors are grateful to Mary Maher and Paula Nevins for their assistance in collecting and coding the data. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Kenneth Fletcher for his helpful comments regarding the statistical analyses.     

Associative regulation of Pavlovian fear conditioning: unconditional stimulus intensity, incentive shifts, and latent inhibition.

Conditional stimuli (CS) associated with painful unconditional stimuli (US) produce a naloxone-reversible analgesia. The analgesia serves as a negative-feedback regulation of fear conditioning that can account for the impact of US intensity and CS predictiveness on Pavlovian fear conditioning. In Experiment 1 training under naloxone produced learning curves that approached the same high asymptote despite US intensity. Shifting drug treatment during acquisition had effects that paralleled US intensity shifts. In Experiment 3 naloxone reversed Hall-Pearce (1979) negative transfer using a contextual CS, indicating that conditional analgesia acquired during the CS-weak-footshock phase retards acquisition in the CS-strong-footshock phase. Experiment 5 used a tone CS in both a latent-inhibition and a negative-transfer procedure. Only negative transfer was blocked by naloxone. Therefore, negative transfer but not latent inhibition is mediated by a reduction of US processing.     

Multivariate genetic analysis of specific cognitive abilities in the Colorado adoption project at age 7

A multivariate hierarchical model of specific cognitive abilities was fitted to data from 7-year-old adopted and nonadopted sibling pairs in the Colorado Adoption Project in order to assess differential genetic influence on specific mental abilities. Model fitting results and Schmid-Leiman (Schmid & Leiman, 1957) transformations reveal significant heritable variation for verbal, spatial, and memory factors independent of general cognitive ability for the eight ability tests examined. In contrast, environmental influences are primarily measure-specific. The results suggest genetic effects in middle childhood that differentially influence mental ability scores.     

Effects of a Communication Skills Training Programme on the Cognitions of Careers Guidance Students

Traditionally, communication skills training has focused principally on overt behaviours that are clearly identifiable. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness that cognitive processes can have considerable influence on behaviour. An attempt was made to establish whether changes in cognitions occurred as a result of a behaviourally-based communication skills training programme in which there had been no explicit attempt to bring about such cognitive changes. More specifically, the study examined whether such a programme resulted in changes in aspects of the personal construct space of students on a Diploma in Careers Guidance course. The results offered some support for the hypothesis that the programme produced changes in the students' personal construct space.     

The desire to lose one's identity

The desire to merge identities with an intimate partner was found to be negatively related to psychoticism but related to other social desires, such as the desire for physical closeness and identifying with the achievements of others.     

Gender and Wellness: A Multidimensional Systems Model for Counseling

An expanded view of health is advocated for assessment and treatment of individual clients in helping them achieve and maintain their maximum potential for high-level wellness. In addition, moderating variables, such as culture, age, and gender differences, have an impact on every dimension of health and wellness. In this article a multidimensional systems model for wellness is described, and gender differences along those dimensions are reviewed. Application of the model and implications for counseling are discussed. Finally, two illustrative case examples, one man and one woman, are described.