The surviving sisters club: Examining social support and posttraumatic growth among FDNY 9/11 widows

This paper examines the relationship between social support and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among a sample of 55 widows who lost their firefighter husbands in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. Data revealed that 73% gathered informally with other 9/11 widows in the years following the attacks and 55% participated in one-on-one therapy. Results found PTG was related to attending an FDNY-sponsored support group (r = .37), one-on-one therapy (r = .37), and socializing with other FDNY widows (r = .29). Qualitative responses suggested the primary benefits of informal peer support were a shared understanding of grief, close companionship, and emotional strength.     

Peer and Teacher-Selected Peer Buddies for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Social,Emotional, and Mentalizing Abilities

This study examined mentalizing abilities, social behavior, and social impact of adolescents who expressed the willingness to become peer buddies for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and adolescents selected by their teachers and peers. Twenty-seven teachers and 395 adolescents from public high schools completed mentalizing abilities, social status, behavioral, and peer buddy nomination measures. Findings suggest that social status and preference play a significant role in the selection of peer buddies by both teachers and classmates. Furthermore, more advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities and the engagement in prosocial behaviors differentiated peers selected as buddies from other classmates. When compared with nonparticipating students, adolescents who expressed willingness to participate were more often girls, and were more prosocial. Agreement between teacher and peer nominations of best peer was moderate.     

Meaning in Life: In Defense of the Hybrid View

According to Susan Wolf's hybrid view about meaning in life, a life is meaningful in virtue of subjective attraction to objectively valuable pursuits. Recently, several philosophers have presented counterexamples to the subjective element in Wolf's view. We argue that these examples are not clearly successful and present a modified version which is even stronger in the face of them. Finally, we offer some positive reasons for accepting a subjective condition on a meaningful life.     

Paranormal Believers' Susceptibility to Confirmatory Versus Disconfirmatory Conjunctions

This study examines paranormal believers' susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy for confirmatory versus non‐confirmatory conjunctive events. Members of the UK public (N = 207) read 16 hypothetical vignettes before judging the likelihood that each constituent and their conjunction would (co) occur. Event type (paranormal versus non‐paranormal), outcome type (confirming versus disconfirming) and level of paranormal belief (in either extrasensory perception, psychokinesis or life after death)—plus relevant interaction terms—were entered into a linear mixed model analysis. As hypothesised, paranormal belief was associated with more conjunction errors regardless of event type with, in general, more errors made for confirmatory over disconfirmatory conjunctions. These trends existed for extrasensory perception and psychokinesis believers with those for life after death believers approaching significance. Consistent with Crupi and Tentori's Confirmation–Theoretical Framework, current findings suggest that paranormal believers are prone to a generic and confirmatory conjunction fallacy. Theoretical implications, methodological limitations and future research ideas are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Youth Development Programs Matter? An Examination of Transitions and Well-Being Among Military Youth

The current correlational study examines the association between internal and external military family contextual factors (e.g., parental rank, having multiple military parents, school changes, living more than 30 min from a military installation, parental deployment, relationship provisions) and military youth well-being outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-efficacy) in a sample of children of active duty military members (i.e., military youth). Data from 749 military youth, ages 11–14, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The model explained a reasonable amount of the variation in the outcomes of interest (r-square statistics for depressive symptoms, anxiety, and self-efficacy were .151, .018, and .086, respectively). Results indicated that military youth who reported more social provisions experienced fewer depressive symptoms and more self-efficacy. Youth who reported certain military risk factors (i.e., parental rank; living farther from the military installation; multiple school changes) were associated with decreased well-being (i.e., more depressive symptoms and anxiety and less self-efficacy). However, findings suggest that participation in military programs may serve a moderating or buffering factor for these youth.     

Posttraumatic stress and depression: potential pathways to disease burden among heart failure patients

Background and Objectives: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are associated with high disease burden. Pathways by which PTSD and MDD contribute to disease burden are not understood. Design: Path analysis was used to examine pathways between PTSD symptoms, MDD symptoms, and disease burden among 251 low-income heart failure patients. Methods: In Model 1, we explored the independent relationship between PTSD and MDD symptoms on disease burden. In Model 2, we examined the association of PTSD symptoms and disease burden on MDD symptoms. We also examined indirect associations of PTSD symptoms on MDD symptoms, mediated by disease burden, and of PTSD symptoms on disease burden mediated by MDD symptoms. Results: Disease burden correlated with PTSD symptoms (r = .41; p < .001) and MDD symptoms (r = .43; p < .001) symptoms. Both models fit the data well and displayed comparable fit. MDD symptoms did not mediate the association of PTSD symptoms with disease burden. Disease burden did mediate the relationship between PTSD symptoms and MDD symptoms. Conclusions: Results support the importance of detection of PTSD in individuals with disease. Results also provide preliminary models for testing longitudinal data in future studies.     

How do Physicians Decide to Refer Their Patients for Psychiatric Genetic Counseling? A Qualitative Study of Physicians’ Practice

Psychiatric genetic counseling (PGC) is an emerging specialty discipline within the genetic counseling profession. A specialist PGC service was founded in 2012 in Vancouver, Canada, and though patient benefits have been demonstrated, many physicians do not regularly refer patients to the service despite awareness of its availability. We conducted a qualitative study involving semi-structured telephone interviews with Vancouver-based physicians who were aware of the PGC service to explore this phenomenon. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analysed for emergent themes. Consistent with a grounded theory approach, constant comparison was employed throughout data collection and analysis. Analyses of interviews conducted with 12 physicians revealed that referral practices were informed by perceptions about the purpose of PGC and interpretation of patient cues. Physicians perceived PGC as an information-focused intervention, and considered referral when patients explicitly expressed desire for information about recurrence risk or etiology that they felt unable to adequately address themselves. Even when physicians identified psychotherapeutic benefits of PGC, patient needs of this nature were not perceived as cues prompting referral to PGC. These data suggest that further work is necessary to position PGC in physicians’ minds as a service that could potentially benefit most individuals with psychiatric disorders and their families, and that it encompasses more than information provision. It is important to increase physicians’ awareness of the complementary role that genetic counselors can play to that of the physician in providing psychotherapeutically oriented counselling about illness etiology.     

Building Buddhism in England: The Flourishing of a Minority Faith Heritage

From the earliest days of Buddhism in Britain, individuals and communities have sought out buildings to provide locations where they might practise and teach Buddhism. In this paper, we focus on this neglected area of the study of minority faith traditions in Britain. Our research, which was commissioned by Historic England, examines how Buddhist communities have used buildings and what this tells us about how a minority tradition is initially established and how it subsequently changes and develops. In this context, we suggest that buildings are more than bricks and mortar and provide a richly rewarding analytical lens to tell stories about migration, socio-economic status, religious diversity and integration and the complexity of processes around secularisation and religious change, as well shifting policy agendas in the UK that have begun to take faith seriously. This contributes to deepening the picture of the migration and adaptation of Buddhism and Buddhist practice across the globe.     

Contextual repetition facilitates word learning via fast mapping

The current study explores whether contextual repetition during fast mapping facilitates word learning. Three-year-old children completed fast mapping and test trials using a touchscreen computer. For half of the children, the non-targets (competitors) repeated across learning trials and for other children there was no repetition. All children received the same test trials. Children who experienced contextual repetition, that is, children for whom the competitors repeated during the initial fast mapping task, demonstrated word learning. These data demonstrate that children's word learning is facilitated by the presence of extraneous yet predictable information in the initial fast mapping task.