Pediatric Parenting Stress and Its Relation to Depressive Symptoms and Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Parents of young children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) maintain full responsibility for their child’s daily diabetes self-care and thus may be vulnerable to experiencing parenting stress. This study examined several psychological correlates of pediatric parenting stress in parents of young children with T1DM. Parents of 39 young children with T1DM (ages 2–7 years) completed measures of pediatric parenting stress, mealtime behavior problems, depressive symptoms, and fear of hypoglycemia. For parents of young children, higher stress frequency and difficulty were associated with higher parental depressive symptoms and fear. Regression analyses identified that 58% of the variance in stress frequency was associated with parental depressive symptoms. For stress difficulty, 68% of the variance was associated with parental depressive symptoms and fear. Pediatric parenting stress is common in parents of young children with T1DM. Stress and the psychological correlates measured in this study are amenable to intervention and should be regularly assessed in parents of young children with T1DM.     

The Heteroscedastic Graded Response Model with a Skewed Latent Trait: Testing Statistical and Substantive Hypotheses Related to Skewed Item Category Functions

The Graded Response Model (GRM; Samejima, Estimation of ability using a response pattern of graded scores, Psychometric Monograph No.?17, Richmond, VA: The Psychometric Society, 1969) can be derived by assuming a linear regression of a continuous variable, Z, on the trait, ??, to underlie the ordinal item scores (Takane & de Leeuw in Psychometrika, 52:393?C408, 1987). Traditionally, a normal distribution is specified for Z implying homoscedastic error variances and a normally distributed ??. In this paper, we present the Heteroscedastic GRM with Skewed Latent Trait, which extends the traditional GRM by incorporation of heteroscedastic error variances and a skew-normal latent trait. An appealing property of the extended GRM is that it includes the traditional GRM as a special case. This enables specific tests on the normality assumption of Z. We show how violations of normality in Z can lead to asymmetrical category response functions. The ability to test this normality assumption is beneficial from both a statistical and substantive perspective. In a simulation study, we show the viability of the model and investigate the specificity of the effects. We apply the model to a dataset on affect and a dataset on alexithymia.     

Neuropsychological Sequelae of PTSD and TBI Following War Deployment among OEF/OIF Veterans

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are highly prevalent among Veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. These conditions are associated with common and unique neuropsychological and neuroanatomical changes. This review synthesizes neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies for both of these disorders and studies examining their co-occurrence. Recommendations for future research, including use of combined neuropsychological and advanced neuroimaging techniques to study these disorders alone and in concert, are presented. It is clear from the dearth of literature that addiitonal studies are required to examine and understand the impact of specific factors on neurocognitive outcome. Of particular relevance are temporal relationships between PTSD and mTBI, risk and resilience factors associated with both disorders and their co-occurrence, and mTBI-specific factors such as time since injury and severity of injury, utilizing comprehensive, yet targeted cognitive tasks.     

Eyewitness Memory for Typical and Atypical Weapons in Cognitive Context

The present research addressed eyewitness memory for weapons, specifically for a modern semi‐automatic pistol and an antique flintlock, in order to address the influence of weapon novelty on recall for the given weapon. Additionally, the effect of explanatory backstory was examined in the same context; respondents were given prior information, which was either consistent or inconsistent with the presence of the flintlock in the scene, in order to gauge the influence of appropriate or inappropriate explanatory cognitive context. Finally, the effects of these variables on line‐up identification of the ‘suspect’ holding the given weapon were addressed. The results showed that weapon type did not influence recall accuracy for given weapons, although explanatory backstory did have a significant effect here, as initially predicted. Both weapon type and explanatory backstory produced significant effects on weapon recall errors, with the exotic weapon and the more prosaic backstory producing larger numbers of mistakes. Neither of these variables was associated with significant differences in line‐up performance. These results indicate the importance of prior cognitive context, as well as the physical appearance of weapons, in a full understanding of eyewitness processing of scenes involving firearms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shared Decision-Making Among Caregivers and Health Care Providers of Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

The present study aimed to examine perceptions of shared decision-making (SDM) in caregivers of youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Interview, survey data, and HbA1c assays were gathered from caregivers of 439 youth with T1D aged 3–18 years. Caregiver-report indicated high perceived SDM during medical visits. Multivariable linear regression indicated that greater SDM is associated with lower HbA1c, older child age, and having a pediatric endocrinologist provider. Multiple logistic regression found that caregivers who did not perceive having made any healthcare decisions in the past year were more likely to identify a non-pediatric endocrinologist provider and to report less optimal diabetes self-care. Findings suggest that youth whose caregivers report greater SDM may show benefits in terms of self-care and glycemic control. Future research should examine the role of youth in SDM and how best to identify youth and families with low SDM in order to improve care.     

The Effects of Religiosity on Psychopathology in Emerging Adults: Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Religiosity

Recent research has suggested that religion may play an important role in determining mental health. Although research has examined the effects of religiosity on specific types of psychopathology, less research has examined psychopathology broadly in the context of particular aspects of religion. Thus, the current study examined intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity and a range of psychopathology in 486 emerging adult college students. Results of a MANOVA indicated a main effect for intrinsic religiosity on a range of psychopathology and an interaction effect between intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity on antisocial personality problems. Implications and limitations of the current study are discussed.     

The Coping Paradox: Work,Stress, and Coping in the U.S. Army

The military environment has unique stressors. This study investigates the types of stressors, appraisals, and coping responses of U.S. soldiers and their leaders. A qualitative analysis of interviews indicates that the traditional coping buffers of social drinking and seeking social support from fellow soldiers, family, and leaders can potentially serve as sources of stress. While this paradox may be a result of the unique types of stressors in the military work environment, these results should direct researchers to better understand individuals' perceptions and appraisals of stress, with a focus on the meaning of stress, given contextual factors inherent in the workplace. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature on the impact of stress on physical and psychological health.     

Socioeconomic variation in attitudes to eating and weight in female adolescents.

This study was stimulated by J. Sobal and A. J. Stunkard's (1989) theory that differences in deliberate weight control could underlie the socioeconomic gradient in adult weight. Female adolescents (N=1,248) completed measures of socioeconomic status, social norms for weight, weight ideals, attitudes to weight, and weight control behaviors. Higher socioeconomic status adolescents had greater awareness of the social ideals of slimness and had more family and friends who were trying to lose weight. They also defined a lower body mass index as "fat" and were more likely to have used healthy weight control methods. The results support the idea that socioeconomic differences in weight-related attitudes and behaviors may mediate the development of a gradient in weight.