A study of the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory‐II,the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale,and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample from a healthy population

The objective of this study is to evaluate internal consistency and psychometric properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Beck Depression inventory‐II (BDI‐II) and the Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) for screening for major depressive episode (MDE) in a selected sample from a healthy population. Participants answered the BDI‐II and the HADS questionnaires and were interviewed with MADRS. The Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)‐IV Axis I Disorders‐Clinician Version (SCID‐CV) was used to diagnose MDE. Current MDE was diagnosed in 20 (6%) of the 357 participants. All three scales including the depression sub‐scale for HADS had high area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) (AUC) (0.84–0.87), and internal consistency was also high for all scales (0.75–0.89). Optimal cut‐off for MDE was ≥ 12 for BDI‐II, MADRS ≥ 8, HADS total ≥ 9, and HADS‐D ≥ 4, which all resulted in sensitivities = 85% and specificities > 78%. Diagnostic accuracy was low on all depression scales (Cohen's kappa = 0.20–0.40). Reports of the properties of depression scales in a healthy population are limited. We found BDI‐II, HADS and MADRS to be acceptable as screening instruments for MDE in a selected sample from healthy population with recommend cut‐offs as mentioned above.     

Heterosexual Allies? Understanding Heterosexuals’ Alliance with the Gay Community

Prevailing wisdom is that increased visibility of gay men and lesbians reduces levels of sexual prejudice, but less is known about who is more likely to ally with the gay community and how interaction with the gay community influences attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Using data from 873 heterosexual college students in the US, we examine how alliance with the gay community, a typology which combines measures of personal contact and community contact, relates to attitudes towards gay men and lesbians. Membership in each alliance category differed by gender, race/ethnicity, size of place, traditional gender role and authoritarian attitudes, religiosity, and political conservatism. Approximately one-third of the sample are allies of the gay community with both personal contact and community contact and lower levels of sexual prejudice. By contrast, another 30 % of the sample has no contact (personal or community) and higher levels of sexual prejudice toward the gay community. We conclude that more complex models of heterosexual contact with gay community are more useful than dichotomous models for understanding differences in attitudes towards gay men and lesbians.     

Dissociation between the behavioural and electrophysiological effects of the face and body composite illusions

Several studies have reported similarities between perceptual processes underlying face and body perception, particularly emphasizing the importance of configural processes. Differences between the perception of faces and the perception of bodies were observed by means of a manipulation targeting a specific subtype of configural processing: the composite illusion. The composite face illusion describes the fact that two identical top halves of a face are perceived as being different if they are presented with different bottom parts. This effect disappears, if both halves are laterally shifted. Crucially, the effect of misalignment is not observed for bodies. This study aimed to further explore differences in the time course of face and body perception by using the composite effect. The present results replicated behavioural effects illustrating that misalignment affects the perception of faces but not bodies. Thus, face but not body perception relies on holistic processing. However, differences in the time course of the processing of both stimulus categories emerged at the N170 and P200. The pattern of the behavioural data seemed to be related to the P200. Thus, the present data indicate that holistic processes associated with the effect of misalignment might occur 200 ms after stimulus onset.     

More than One Way to Get There: Pathways of Change in Coparenting Conflict after a Preventive Intervention

This study explored pathways of change in the levels of conflict couples experienced after Supporting Father Involvement, an evidence‐based, prevention‐oriented couples and parenting intervention that included a diverse low‐income and working class group of participants. Pathways of change were examined for couples with baseline conflict scores that were initially low, medium, and high. The growth mixture model analysis found that the best‐fitting model for change in couples' conflict was represented by three distinctly different change patterns. The intervention was most successful for High‐Conflict couples. This finding contributes to a growing literature examining variations in how relationships change over time and the process of change, especially for couples in distress. This study supports further investigation into the impact and costs associated with universal interventions versus those that target specific groups of higher risk families.