Finding Home: A Qualitative Approach to Understanding Adolescent Mothers’ Housing Instability

Many low‐income Latina adolescent mothers face instability in their housing circumstances, which has implications for their long‐term prospects and that of their children. This study used longitudinal, ethnographic data from Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three‐City Study to explore experiences of low‐income, Latina adolescent mothers (N = 15) with unstable housing who primarily rely on their families or the families of their significant others for housing support. Results of analysis employing grounded theory and narrative approaches suggested two types of instability: “Horizontal moves” between family homes and “vertical moves” between family homes and independent living. Although family support often was fundamental in allowing for participants’ pursuit of independent housing (i.e., vertical moves), it also was associated with greater residential mobility (i.e., horizontal moves), most often in the context of intrafamilial conflict and family instability. These results are discussed with respect to inconsistencies in policies to address this vulnerable population.     

Parenting as a Mechanism of Change in Psychosocial Treatment for Youth with ADHD,Predominantly Inattentive Presentation

We investigated whether parenting and child behavior improve following psychosocial treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Presentation (ADHD-I) and whether parenting improvements mediate child outcomes. We analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial investigating the efficacy of a multicomponent psychosocial intervention (Child Life and Attention Skills, CLAS, n = 74) in comparison to Parent-Focused Treatment (PFT, n = 74) and treatment as usual (TAU, n = 51) for youth with ADHD-I (average child age = 8.6 years, range 7–11 years, 58 % boys). Child and parent/family functioning were assessed prior to treatment, immediately following treatment, and at follow-up into the subsequent school year using parent and teacher reports of inattention, organization, social skills, academic competency (teachers only), parenting daily hassles, and positive and negative parenting behaviors (parents only). Both treatment groups improved on negative parenting and home impairment, but only CLAS families also improved on positive parenting as well as academic impairment. Improvements in positive and negative parenting mediated treatment effects on child impairment independent of improvements in child inattention, implicating parenting as an important mechanism of change in psychosocial treatment for ADHD-I. Further, whereas parent-focused training produces improvements in negative parenting and impairment at home for children with ADHD-I, a multicomponent approach (incorporating child skills training and teacher consultation) more consistently produces improvements at school and in positive parenting, which may contribute to improvements in social skills into the next school year.     

Why might poor sleep quality lead to depression? A role for emotion regulation

Disordered sleep is strongly linked to future depression, but the reasons for this link are not well understood. This study tested one possibility – that poorer sleep impairs emotion regulation (ER), which over time leads to increased depressive symptoms. Our sample contained individuals with a wide range of depression symptoms (current depression, N?=?54, remitted depression, N?=?36, and healthy control, N?=?53), who were followed clinically over six months and reassessed for changes in depressive symptom levels. As predicted, maladaptive ER mediated both cross-sectional and prospective relationships between poor sleep quality and depression symptoms. In contrast, an alternative mediator, physical activity levels, did not mediate the link between sleep quality and depression symptoms. Maladaptive ER may help explain why sleep difficulties contribute to depression symptoms; implications for interventions are discussed.     

Efficacy of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with Parents with Intellectual Disability

Parents with intellectual disability (ID) face many parenting challenges that may affect their ability to parent effectively, and such deficits are often associated with various poor child outcomes. Research findings are inconsistent for interventions targeting systematic skills for parents with ID. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported treatment that incorporates performance-based training to enhance parenting ability. This study evaluated implementation of PCIT with parents with ID using a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Results suggest increases in positive parenting behaviors and consistent discipline. However, limitations related to poor maintenance and generalization warrant the need for future research.     

Psychopathic Traits Associate Differentially to Anger,Disgust and Fear Recognition among Men and Women

Psychopathy is characterized by deficits in empathy and violation of the rights of others. Recent data link psychopathy-based lack of empathy to deficits in emotion recognition (ER), in particular fear and sadness. However, questions remain about emotions like anger and disgust and some studies even report a positive relationship between psychopathy and ER. Notably, the overwhelming majority of these studies have been conducted only with men, and studies in the general population suggest that women have better ER than men. To our knowledge, only two small studies have explicitly examined ER and psychopathy among women and they did find deficits in anger and disgust recognition. Therefore, mixed findings about ER and psychopathy may be due to gender differences that need to be clarified. This study aimed at bridging this gap using a large sample of 129 male (49 %) and 132 female (51 %) participants who completed psychopathy self-reports, and a computerized facial ER task. Among women there were deficits and advantages in ER: High social dominance and lack of anxiety traits were related to decreased fear and anger recognition respectively. Traits characterized by impulsiveness and rebelliousness were associated with better disgust and anger recognition respectively. For men, psychopathic traits characterized by ruthless manipulation of others, as well as lack of fear, were related to deficits recognizing anger. These results suggest that among women some psychopathic traits may confer an advantage in ER and give impetus for studies examining gender differences in the neurobiological substrates and manifestation of the syndrome.     

Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in Outpatients with Anxiety and Mood Disorders

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in a sample of 536 outpatients presenting at a specialty clinic for anxiety and mood disorders. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the unidimensionality of the GAD-7. This model did not fit the data well. The CFA solution was respecified correlating residuals among items assessing somatic symptoms. This respecified model fit the data well. A series of multiple-groups CFAs determined that the measurement properties of the GAD-7 were invariant between sexes. Scale reliability estimates of the GAD-7 were favorable for the full sample, and for males and females. Sensitivity and specificity could not be balanced at any cut-point. Findings attest to the value of this instrument as a dimensional indicator of GAD severity rather than a screening tool for the presence or absence of the disorder in outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders.     

Do emotional stimuli enhance or impede recall relative to neutral stimuli? An investigation of two “false memory” tasks

Many eyewitness memory situations involve negative and distressing events; however, many studies investigating “false memory” phenomena use neutral stimuli only. The aim of the present study was to determine how both the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) procedure and the Misinformation Effect Paradigm tasks were related to each other using distressing and neutral stimuli. Participants completed the DRM (with negative and neutral word lists) and viewed a distressing or neutral film. Misinformation for the film was introduced and memory was assessed. Film accuracy and misinformation susceptibility were found to be greater for those who viewed the distressing film relative to the neutral film. Accuracy responses on both tasks were related, however, susceptibility to the DRM illusion and Misinformation Effect were not. The misinformation findings support the Paradoxical Negative Emotion (PNE) hypothesis that negative stimuli will lead to remembering more accurate details but also greater likelihood of memory distortion. However, the PNE hypothesis was not supported for the DRM results. The findings also suggest that the DRM and Misinformation tasks are not equivalent and may have differences in underlying mechanisms. Future research should focus on more ecologically valid methods of assessing false memory.