Agreement of parent and teacher rating scales with comprehensive clinical assessments of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity

Forty-one clinic-referred children were given the DSM-III diagnosis of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD/H) based on structured diagnostic interviews of the child and mother and on two teacher and two parent rating scales. The degree of agreement between diagnostic classification of ADD/H based solely on criterion scores on each rating scale and classification based on the comprehensive clinical assessments that included use of the same rating scaleswas assessed by comparing the ratings of the 41 children with ADD/H to those of 47 clinic-referred children given other diagnoses or no diagnosis. The accuracy of classification was highly similar across scales. Increasing the cutoff score increased the acing true positives. Using the point of intersection of these two curves to choose the optimal cutoff scores resulted in 70–75% accurate classification and 25–30% misclassification of children given clinical diagnoses of ADD/H. This rate of misclassification suggests that rating scales alone should not be used to classify ADD/H for most clinical and research purposes, especially because the method of comparison used in this study favored finding a high degree of correspondence.     

The Association between Callous-Unemotional Traits and Behavioral and Academic Adjustment in Children: Further Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been associated with problems in behavioral adjustment in past research which has led to proposals to include them in diagnostic classification systems for child behavior problems. In the current study, the factor structure of a comprehensive measure of CU traits was tested in a sample of 540 Italian children in grades 6 and 8. Consistent with past factor analyses in other countries, CU traits could be described as having three subfactors (i.e., callousness, uncaring, unemotional) which load on an overarching general factor. Importantly, this factor structure was invariant across gender and grade. Consistent with past studies, CU traits were positively associated with school behavior problems, bullying, and reactive aggression and this was largely accounted for by the callousness and uncaring subscales. The current results advance past work in showing that these associations extend to cyberbullying and to bullying reported by both self-report and by peer nominations. Further, CU traits were also associated with lower levels of academic achievement, and this was also largely accounted for by the callousness and uncaring dimensions. Finally, although the unemotional subscale did not show consistent associations with problems in behavioral or academic adjustment, it did contribute independently to the prediction (negatively) of peer-reported prosocial behaviors.     

Look Here! The Development of Attentional Orienting to Symbolic Cues

Although much research has examined the development of orienting to social directional cues (e.g., eye gaze), little is known about the development of orienting to nonsocial directional cues, such as arrows. Arrow cues have been used in numerous studies as a means to study attentional orienting, but the development of children's understanding of such cues has not previously been examined. It remains unclear to what extent the social nature of a cue is important for directing attention; further, it is unknown whether symbolic understanding is necessary for young children to be cued by symbols such as arrows. The present investigation explored when and how arrows cue children's attention. Our results suggest that children younger than 5 years of age orient their attention using the perceptual properties of arrows, and it is not until sometime after 5 years of age that children use the conceptual meaning of arrows to orient their attention. Understanding of the directional meaning of arrows may develop through both exogenous and endogenous orienting; we discuss possible contributions of the compression-based and selection-based learning systems.     

Derivation of the antiphase-boundary energy of L1 2 long-range-ordered precipitates from measurements of the minimum size of stable dislocation loops

In an alloy that is strengthened by long-range-ordered particles, a matrix dislocation generates an antiphase boundary (APB) when it cuts through such a particle. The specific energy n APB of this APB has been measured for two fcc alloys with spherical coherent L12 ordered particles: an Al-7.5at.%Li-alloy and the commercial Ni-base superalloy Nimonic PE16. Peak-aged specimens have been deformed and Orowan loops searched for using transmission electron microscopy. n APB has been derived from the radii of the smallest dislocation loops which have been left behind around particles. Such an approach had been used previously, for example, by Raynor and Silcock and by Nembach et al . Here an improved evaluation method has been applied; it is based on the results of computer simulations of the equilibrium configurations of dislocation loops.     

The relationship between the shape of the mental number line and familiarity with numbers in 5- to 9-year old children: evidence for a segmented linear model

This experiment aimed to expand previous findings on the development of mental number representation. We tested the hypothesis that children's familiarity with numbers is directly reflected by the shape of their mental number line. This mental number line was expected to be linear as long as numbers lay within the range of numbers children were familiar with. Five- to 9-year-olds (N=78) estimated the positions of numbers on an external number line and additionally completed a counting assessment mirroring their familiarity with numbers. A segmented regression model consisting of two linear segments described number line estimations significantly better than a logarithmic or a simple linear model. Moreover, the change point between the two linear segments, indicating a change of discriminability between numbers, was significantly correlated with children's familiar number range. Findings are discussed in terms of the accumulator model, assuming a linear mental representation with scalar variability.     

Heritability of antisocial behaviour at 9: do callous‐unemotional traits matter?

A previous finding from our group indicated that teacher-rated antisocial behaviour (AB) among 7-year-olds is particularly heritable in the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Using a sample of 1865 same-sex twin pairs, we employed DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis to investigate whether teacher-rated AB with/without CU traits also shows aetiological differences among 9-year-olds. Furthermore, we assessed whether the differences in the magnitude of heritability would be evident even when hyperactive symptoms were controlled for in the statistical analysis. AB among 9-year-olds was more heritable with than without concomitant CU. The heritability difference was even more pronounced in magnitude when hyperactive symptoms were controlled. CU traits thus appear to index one valid way of sub-typing children with early-onset AB.     

Reduced Sense of Coherence Due to Neuroticism: Are Transcendent Beliefs Protective Among Catholic Pastoral Workers?

In this study, we examined a third variable effect on the relationship of personality traits, especially neuroticism and the salutogenetic concept sense of coherence. Specifically, we were interested in the moderating role of religious trust (RT) and transcendence perception operationalized as daily spiritual experiences (DSE) on the aforementioned relationship among religious individuals. We applied a cross-sectional study among a sample of 8594 pastoral workers using standardized questionnaires. Multiple regression and moderator analysis displayed the relationships between big five personality variables and sense of coherence. Neuroticism was identified as a negative predictor to sense of coherence, indicating impairment on this psychological resource. RT and DSE appear to function as moderators that buffer the negative effects of neuroticism on sense of coherence among religious persons. This is an interesting finding because people with expressions of neurotic personality tendencies often struggle to find helpful methods of coping and may find a helpful resource in the concepts studied here.     

On the survival of humanity

Abstract

What moral reasons, if any, do we have to ensure the long-term survival of humanity? This article contrastively explores two answers to this question: according to the first, we should ensure the survival of humanity because we have reason to maximize the number of happy lives that are ever lived, all else equal. According to the second, seeking to sustain humanity into the future is the appropriate response to the final value of humanity itself. Along the way, the article discusses various issues in population axiology, particularly the so-called Intuition of Neutrality and John Broome’s ‘greediness objection’ to this intuition.     

Findings on Disruptive Behavior Disorders from the First Decade of the Developmental Trends Study

The paper summarizes the first decade of the Developmental Trends Study, a prospective longitudinal study of 177 boys. Initially, they were referred to mental health clinics in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), and Georgia (Athens and Atlanta). Since 1987, the boys, their parents, and their teachers have been followed up almost annually. The study is unique because the cooperation rate of participants has remained very high over the years, psychiatric diagnoses were derived from structured interviews (especially disruptive behavior disorders), and many risk factors were measured over the years. The present paper summarizes key findings on the development of disruptive behavior, especially Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder. The paper also highlights results on risk factors and comorbid conditions of disruptive behaviors.