Implementation Quality and Positive Experiences in After-School Programs

Data collected during an evaluation of a multi-site trial of an enhanced after-school program were used to relate quality of program implementation to student experiences after school. The enhanced after-school program incorporated a drug use and violence prevention component that was shown to be effective in previous research. Building on Durlak and Dupre’s (Am J Community Psychol 41:327–350, 2008) dimensions of implementation, we assessed the level of dosage, quality of management and climate, participant responsiveness, and staffing quality achieved at the five program sites. We evaluated how these characteristics co-varied with self-reported positive experiences after-school. The study illustrates how multiple dimensions of program implementation can be measured, and shows that some but not all dimensions of implementation are related to the quality of student after-school experiences. Measures of quality of management and climate, participant responsiveness, and staffing stability were most clearly associated with youth experiences. The importance of measuring multiple dimensions of program implementation in intervention research is discussed.     

Emotional context at learning systematically biases memory for facial information

Emotion influences memory in many ways. For example, when a mood-dependent processing shift is operative, happy moods promote global processing and sad moods direct attention to local features of complex visual stimuli. We hypothesized that an emotional context associated with to-be-learned facial stimuli could preferentially promote global or local processing. At learning, faces with neutral expressions were paired with a narrative providing either a happy or a sad context. At test, faces were presented in an upright or inverted orientation, emphasizing configural or analytical processing, respectively. A recognition advantage was found for upright faces learned in happy contexts relative to those in sad contexts, whereas recognition was better for inverted faces learned in sad contexts than for those in happy contexts. We thus infer that a positive emotional context prompted more effective storage of holistic, configural, or global facial information, whereas a negative emotional context prompted relatively more effective storage of local or feature-based facial information     

When to Use Broader Internalising and Externalising Subscales Instead of the Hypothesised Five Subscales on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ): Data from British Parents,Teachers and Children

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widely used child mental health questionnaire with five hypothesised subscales. There is theoretical and preliminary empirical support for combining the SDQ’s hypothesised emotional and peer subscales into an ‘internalizing’ subscale and the hypothesised behavioral and hyperactivity subscales into an ‘externalizing’ subscale (alongside the fifth prosocial subscale). We examine this using parent, teacher and youth SDQ data from a representative sample of 5–16 year olds in Britain (N = 18,222). Factor analyses generally supported second-order internalizing and externalizing factors, and the internalizing and externalizing subscales showed good convergent and discriminant validity across informants and with respect to clinical disorder. By contrast, discriminant validity was poorer between the emotional and peer subscales and between the behavioral, hyperactivity and prosocial subscales. This applied particularly to children with low scores on those subscales. We conclude that there are advantages to using the broader internalizing and externalizing SDQ subscales for analyses in low-risk samples, while retaining all five subscales when screening for disorder.     

‘As in a theatre’: scientific spectacle in Bacon's New Atlantis

Essay review of Reclaiming Reality, by Roy Bhaskar, London: Verso, 1989, 218 pages, pb £10.95.     

A Brief History of Ghosts: Commentary on Paper by Laurel Moldawsky Silber

Although Gerhardt's commentary points to substantial points of agreement between us—the claim that human being is embodied being, the critique of rationalisms, and the resistance to relativisms—we also have important differences. The chief of these, from my point of view, concern (1) the functions of theoretical language, (2) the level of commitment psychoanalysts owe to traditional language for the sake of community and continuity, and (3) the issue of reification. My reply suggests that Gerhardt has confused the functions of expressive and theoretical language; that, for the sake of a “gossipy connection,” she seems to deprive the psychoanalytic community of the self-reflective criticism of its own shared assumptions; and that there is a difference between metaphor and the misplaced concreteness that is sometimes called reification.     

Reminiscence,Ritual, and Beyond Working Through: Commentary on Papers by Joyce Slochower and by Laura Impert and Margaret Rubin

The author examines, contextualizes, and elaborates upon Slochower's psychoanalytic exploration of commemorative rituals and, more specifically, the Jewish tradition of Yitzor as well as upon Impert and Rubin's understanding of embodied nostalgic reminiscences, considering them within a therapeutic context for the mourner entering into the clinical situation. Slochower's experience with commemorative rituals as facilitating environments for the restoration or support of potential space and memorial activity suggests that they can aid in the re-construction and re-shaping of emotional memory, going beyond a notion of “working through.” Impert and Rubin suggest that generative nostalgic reminisces, a soma-sensory based form of memory that holds the potential for activating arrested mourning, may be clinically usefully in awakening dormant or dissociated grief so that patients can access mourning. Extending upon these contributions, the author further considers the possibility that mourning might be more usefully conceived as processes of transformational work for which a fixed resolution or outcome is neither proscribed nor prescribed. This transformational work may be seen, in part, as ongoing cycles of self-surrender to the mourner's swirling constructions of attachments lost, re-found, re-remembered, and re-conceived.     

Recent Adolescent MMPI Norms: T-Score Elevation Comparisons to Marks and Briggs

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inventory (MMPI) norms developed by Marks and Briggs (1967/1972) have served as the standard adolescent norms used for over 10 years. Additional adolescent, norms, have recently been produced by Gottesman, Hanson, Kroeker, and Briggs (1987) and by Colligan and Offord (1989), thereby providing MMPI users with a potential choice of adolescent norms. Our study examines the effects of these adolescent norm sets on single-scale and profile elevations. In addition, we examine the ability of these norm sets to generate T-score values that would serve to discriminate accurately among adolescents in outpatient (n = 100), inpatient (n = 100), and normal (n = 100) settings. Results indicated teat the choice of adolescent norms resulted in important differences in profile elevation. Findings from the discriminant function analyses, however, indicated that these normative sets were roughly equivalent in discriminating among adolescents in the three settings.     

Unique sets of social and mood characteristics differentiate autistic and negative schizotypy traits in a young adult non-clinical sample

While well-established as distinct disorders, new evidence linking autism and schizophrenia has emerged. One line of evidence is the strong correlation identified between the social traits assessed by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ:Social) and the negative traits of schizotypy. To further explore this association, the current study examined whether these sets of traits are convergent or divergent in the degree to which they relate to specific aspects of socio-emotional functioning. Regression analyses conducted on self-report data collected from 284 undergraduate students showed that the social items from the AQ uniquely relate to levels of social anxiety and social skills, while negative schizotypy traits uniquely relate to social anhedonia and depression. Additionally, AQ:Social and negative schizotypy traits were found to share a significant proportion of variance, independent of each of the socio-emotional variables examined. The results thus provide further evidence of shared atypical social function linked to both autistic-like traits and negative schizotypy traits, but importantly also highlight clear differences in the specific socio-emotional profiles associated with these sets of traits.     

Borderline Personality Disorder,Divorce and Family Therapy: The Need for Family Crisis Intervention Strategies

Recent literature reviews, point out the lack of crisis intervention and crisis prevention programs that are in existence to address crises experienced by first-degree and divorced family members of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) probands. The focus of such intervention programs should be to facilitate the improved ability of the first-degree and divorced family members to manage and transcend the unstable family environment. Correlations between personal instability and frequency of psychosocial crises have been examined, as well as the ripple effect of frequent individual crises on family environments. Reviews of current therapeutic interventions, as well as a synthesis of practical family therapy interventions focusing on breaking the cycle of dysfunctional multi-generational family environments are also examined.     

From Good to Great: Examining Exemplary Counselor Development

Some counselors excel in the profession. Few do so while maintaining a balance in life. This article examines the life of one such individual, Samuel T. Gladding. He models for counselors an aspirational process of making significant contributions to the profession while staying personally grounded. Qualities that propel professionals like Gladding from being good as a young professional into prominence as a mature counselor are examined.