Assessing the Helpfulness of One Parenting Assistance Helpline

This study examined the services provided by one statewide warmline established to assist parents and caregivers of children from birth through adolescence. Warmlines offer telephone-based, non-crisis support for individuals experiencing diverse issues that include parenting questions and concerns. The University of Alabama Child Development Resources collaborated with the Alabama State Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention to institute the Parenting Assistance Line to provide information and support to parents and caregivers of children, age birth through adolescence. Overall, the staff of the Parenting Assistance Line responded to 9487 calls during the 6 years of data reported here. Through a secondary data analysis of calls to the Parenting Assistance Line from June 2007 to July 2013, this study describes the concerns of callers in relation to the ages of the children about whom they are calling and also evaluates the perceptions of the helpfulness of the information and support provided by the warmline. We found that frequently calls involved parent support and parental stress for parents and caregivers of children from infancy through adolescence. The findings suggest that telephone assistance lines offer a viable choice for parents and caregivers seeking affordable and accessible resources when stressed by the responsibilities of caring for children and adolescents and/or seeking information related to parenting issues. The study identified the limitations of research involving secondary data collected for purposes other than research that program administrators and evaluators should consider when planning and implementing services of this nature.     

Behavioral and Psychophysiological Effects of a Yoga Intervention on High-Risk Adolescents: A Randomized Control Trial

The purpose of this study was to conduct a pilot randomized control trial to test whether a mindful yoga intervention had a beneficial impact on substance use and its psychological and psychophysiological correlates in high-risk adolescents. Research on yoga has generated growing evidence for its positive effects on physical and emotional health. However, most studies are conducted with adults, with few controlled studies conducted with youth. We designed a 20-session mindful yoga intervention for adolescents attending a school for students at high-risk for dropping out. The 50-min classes were offered three times a week. The participants (mean age = 16.7 years) were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. Multi-rater (student, teacher), multi-method (survey, cognitive, psychophysiological) data were collected before and after the yoga curriculum. At post-test, students in the yoga condition, as compared to control students, exhibited trends toward decreased alcohol use and improved teacher-rated social skills (p < .10); and showed a non-significant increase in arousal in response to relevant stimuli as measured in skin conductance. Significant effects were not found on hypothesized proximal measures of self-regulation, mood, mindfulness, or involuntary engagement coping. Future research is needed to replicate and expand upon our findings. Studies are also needed with larger samples to further investigate potential mediators and moderators of yoga’s effects.     

Team-level goal orientation: an emergent state and its relationships with team inputs,process, and outcomes

Building on recent efforts to extend the concept of goal orientation to teams, we identify team-level goal orientation as an emergent state, distinct from static trait goal orientations of team members. We reinforce this distinction by developing and testing hypotheses about team inputs, processes, and outcomes as determinants of the development of team goal orientation over time. We test our hypotheses with longitudinal data from 230 participants on 64 teams engaged in a management simulation. We find that team members’ trait goal orientations affect the team’s state goal orientation, but only in the early stages of team functioning. Team process and interim outcomes drive changes in team state goal orientation.     

Negotiating Cultures and Identities: Education and Adaptation Among Young North Korean Settlers in South Korea

This paper examines the formation of diverse identities and the emergence of dynamic changes in cultural forms in the power structures of both newcomers and hosts in the case of North Koreans settling in South Korea. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the formerly homogeneous nation of Korea has been politically divided under two separate regimes: a communist society in the North and a capitalist democracy in the South. In the end of 1990s, the number of North Koreans immigrating to South Korea began to rapidly increase due to severe famine in the North; by 2014, the number of North Korean settlers in South Korea had reached more than 27,000. This qualitative study explores the resulting cultural gaps and issues of conflict, power, and resistance and emphasizes the strategies that young North Korean settlers employ as they shape and position themselves in capitalist society.     

Clinical Correlates of Co-occurring Psychiatric and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Symptom-Induced Impairment in Children with ASD

Although psychiatric symptom severity and impairment are overlapping but nevertheless distinct illness parameters, little research has examined whether variables found to be associated with the severity are also correlated with symptom-induced impairment. Parents and teachers completed ratings of symptom-induced impairment for DSM-IV-referenced syndromes, and parents completed a background questionnaire for a consecutively referred sample of primarily male (81 %) 6-to-12 year olds with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (N?=?221). Some clinical correlates (e.g., IQ?<?70, maternal level of education, pregnancy complications, current use of psychotropic medication, season of birth) were associated with impairment for several disorders, whereas others were correlated with only a few syndromes (e.g., gender, co-morbid medical conditions) or were not related to impairment in any disorder (e.g., family psychopathology). There was little convergence in findings for parents’ versus teachers’ ratings. Some clinical correlates (e.g., season of birth, current psychotropic medication, maternal education) were unique predictors of three or more disorders. Pregnancy complications were uniquely associated with social anxiety and schizoid personality symptom-induced impairment. IQ was a unique predictor of schizophrenia, ASD, oppositional defiant disorder symptom-induced impairment. Children whose mothers had relatively fewer years of education had greater odds for symptom-induced impairment in social anxiety, depression, aggression, and mania and greater number of impairing conditions. Season of birth was the most robust correlate of symptom-induced impairment as rated by teachers but not by parents. Children born in fall evidenced higher rates of co-occurring psychiatric and ASD symptom-induced impairment and total number of impairing conditions. Many variables previously linked with symptom severity are also correlated with impairment.     

The Influence of Perpetrator Exposure Time and Weapon Presence/Timing on Eyewitness Confidence and Accuracy

Crimes can occur in a matter of seconds, with little time available for an eyewitness to encode a perpetrator's face. The presence of a weapon can further exacerbate this situation. Few studies have featured mock crimes of short duration, especially with a weapon manipulation. We conducted an experiment to investigate the impact of weapon presence and short perpetrator exposure times (3 vs. 10 seconds) on eyewitness confidence and accuracy. We found that recall concerning the perpetrator was worse when a weapon was present, replicating the weapon focus effect. However, there was no effect on eyewitness identification accuracy. Calibration analyses revealed that all conditions produced a strong confidence–accuracy relationship. Confidence–accuracy characteristic curves illustrated almost perfect accuracy for suspect identifications at the highest levels of confidence. We conclude that weapon presence during a brief crime does not necessarily result in negative consequences for either eyewitness identification accuracy or the confidence–accuracy relationship. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Counselling psychology in South Korea

Counselling psychology (CP) in South Korea has grown tremendously as it establishes its unique niche in the mental health profession. Diverse practice under the roof of CP is a strength as well as a weakness. In this paper, we describe the characteristics of CP in South Korea in terms of history, credentialing, the service delivery system, organizations, training, distinctive features from other adjacent areas, core values, and the profession’s unique challenges and future directions. Future tasks include the establishment of clear professional identity, achievement of a governmental licensure system, a nationwide accreditation system, development of Korean-specific ways of counselling, protocols for trauma, and increased accessibility.     

The effects of sport dance on brain connectivity and body intelligence

Dancing is characterised by physical movement in accordance with rhythm perception. Twelve sport dancers and 12 age- and sex-matched young adults who had no dance experience (control group) were recruited. Body intelligence and brain activity were assessed in both groups using the Body Intelligence Scale (BIS) and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. BIS scores of dancers were higher than those of control subjects. The dancer group showed increased functional connectivity from the precentral gyrus to the right cingulate gyrus, right occipital fusiform gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right medial frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, right parietal postcentral gyrus, and right frontal lobe compared with control subjects. Sport dancers had increased body intelligence sensitivity compared with matched controls. In addition, the characteristics of dance, including physical movement in accordance with rhythm perception, might be associated with increased brain activity in the somatosensory and rhythm perception networks.