Psychosocial Factors Associated with Quality of Life Among Individuals Attending Genetic Counseling for Hereditary Cancer

The aim of this multicenter study was to explore associations between psychosocial factors (general self-efficacy, perceived availability of social support, cancer-related distress) and health-related quality of life, among individuals at risk for hereditary cancer. One-hundred and twenty one participants with a family history of breast-cancer or colorectal cancer answered a questionnaire 2-4 weeks prior to genetic counseling. The two dimensions of the health-related quality of life measure, mental and physical health were both used as outcome variables. Multiple regression (linear) analyses revealed that increasing degrees of cancer-related distress was related to decreasing degrees of mental health whereas increasing degrees of self-efficacy and social support were related to increasing degrees of this outcome variable. Self-efficacy, self-esteem support and tangible aid seemed to moderate the relationship between cancer-related distress and mental health. These results suggest that self-efficacy and certain resources of social support buffer the negative association between cancer-related distress and mental health, and might be suitable for interventional efforts. Implications for genetic counseling practice are discussed.     

Prenatal androgens and gender-typed behavior: a study of girls with mild and severe forms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Gender-typed behaviors and interests were investigated in 26 girls, aged 2-10 years, affected with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and in 26 unaffected girls matched for age. Girls with CAH were more interested in masculine toys and less interested in feminine toys and were more likely to report having male playmates and to wish for masculine careers. Parents of girls with CAH rated their daughters' behaviors as more boylike than did parents of unaffected girls. A relation was found between disease severity and behavior indicating that more severely affected CAH girls were more interested in masculine toys and careers. No parental influence could be demonstrated on play behavior, nor did the comparison of parents' ratings of wished for behavior versus perceived behavior in their daughters indicate an effect of parental expectations. The results are interpreted as supporting a biological contribution to differences in play behavior between girls with and without CAH.     

Infant food refusal and parental social support

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between various aspects of social support and maternal and infant outcome variables in a group of families having infants showing food refusal compared to a control group. In the case of early food refusal, the results indicated that access to emotional support and satisfaction with support were related to maternal psychosomatic health. The relationships were interpreted as showing that social support has moderating effects on negative outcomes of food refusal.     

Infant–mother social referencing interactions: Description and antecedents in maternal sensitivity and infant irritability

The purpose of the study was to describe naturally occurring infant and maternal behaviours in terms of social referencing in a stranger wariness situation, and to explore antecedents to such behaviouts in early maternal sensitivity and infant irritability. One hundred and ten 10-months-old infants and their mothers were videotaped. Infant social referencing behaviour was defined as puzzled looks directed at mother's face after the infant had discovered the stranger. Almost half of the infants looked with a puzzled expression at their mothers immediately after discovering the stranger, and a majority of the mothers sent a positive message back to the infants. Twenty per cent of the infants never looked at their mothers and 20% of the mothers did not respond when their infants turned to them. Infants whose mothers had responded positively to the referencing look showed positive responses to the stranger to a higher degree than infants who did not reference or those who were not responded to. Antecedents to infant and mother interactive behaviours were sought in maternal sensitivity (general sensitivity, physical contact, responsiveness, intrusiveness, response to distress, and effectiveness in comforting) and in infant irritability as observed when the infants were 4 months old. It was found that infants who did not reference their mothers for information at 10 months had experienced less sensitive mothering 6 months earlier and had also shown more irritability.     

Interactions between mothers and infants showing food refusal

This study examined the interactional patterns of mothers and their infants who showed food refusal (N = 24) and of mothers and infants in a control group (N = 24) during feeding and play. The observations revealed significant group differences in both infant and maternal behavior. Infants in the case group rejected food more often and showed less clear communication signals than control infants, and mothers of case infants were less sensitive, less cooperative, and had more verbal teaching/control behavior than the control group. These differences pertained to both feeding and play situations. The findings have implications for the development of appropriate and efficient intervention strategies for infants showing food refusal.     

Risk Perception,Worry and Satisfaction Related to Genetic Counseling for Hereditary Cancer

In this multi center study, genetic counseling for hereditary cancer was evaluated by assessing patients’ worry, perceived risk of developing cancer and satisfaction with genetic counseling. An overall aim was to identify characteristics of vulnerable patients in order to customize genetic counseling. In addition, agreement between patients’ and counselors’ scores was measured. A total of 275 Norwegian patients were consecutively recruited, and 213 completed questionnaires before and after genetic counseling. Patients’ perceived risk decreased after the genetic counseling session. There was incongruence between risk perception expressed as a percentage and in words. Patients were significantly less worried after counseling. Higher levels of worry were predicted by low instrumental satisfaction with counseling, high degree of perceived risk of developing cancer and younger age. In conclusion, counselors met the patients’ psychological needs to a satisfactory degree during counseling. However, patients did not fully understand their risk of developing cancer.     

Emotion processing facilitates working memory performance

The effect of emotional stimulus content on working memory performance has been investigated with conflicting results, as both emotion-dependent facilitation and impairments are reported in the literature. To clarify this issue, 52 adult participants performed a modified visual 2-back task with highly arousing positive stimuli (sexual scenes), highly arousing negative stimuli (violent death) and low-arousal neutral stimuli. Emotional stimulus processing was found to facilitate task performance relative to that of neutral stimuli, both in regards to response accuracy and reaction times. No emotion-dependent differences in false-alarm rates were found. These results indicate that emotional information can have a facilitating effect on working memory maintenance and processing of information.     

Dialogue in a learning process: problematization of gender and gender equality in higher education

The overall aim with the study was to describe the knowledge building that was developed in a group of students who were trained nurses enrolled in a Swedish higher education programme. With a point of departure in an interactive research approach, the authors applied the dialogue seminar as method and pedagogical model. When the students in close to practice talks, shared their thoughts about how gender and gender equality could be experienced and understood, the dialogue seminar became useable. At the analysis of the stories which the students shared at the dialogue seminars, it became clear that most of the students had an ambivalent approach to gender equality. When they reflected on gender relations, they brought out the hierarchical and separate gender relations which they experienced as existing within healthcare. Furthermore, their professional lives seemed to be embedded in gender-related practices. An important conclusion is that the students’ reflections oscillated between critical reflection on conditions and critical reflection on processes within their own practice in healthcare. Another finding was that the students’ reflections in dialogue form became important in a learning process, not least in the light of that gender relations and gender equality only to a limited degree had been included in their nurse’s education at the basic level.     

Affective and cognitive attitudes, uncertainty avoidance and intention to obtain genetic testing: an extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

To ensure successful implementation of genetic screening and counselling according to patients best interests, the attitudes and motives of the public are important to consider. The aim of this study was to apply a theoretical framework in order to investigate which individual and disease characteristics might facilitate the uptake of genetic testing. A questionnaire using an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour was developed to assess the predictive value of affective and cognitive expected outcomes, subjective norms, perceived control and uncertainty avoidance on the intention to undergo genetic testing. In addition to these individual characteristics, the predictive power of two disease characteristics was investigated by systematically varying the diseases fatality and penetrance (i.e. the probability of getting ill in case one is a mutation carrier). This resulted in four versions of the questionnaire which was mailed to a random sample of 2400 Norwegians. Results showed genetic test interest to be quite high, and to vary depending on the characteristics of the disease, with participants preferring tests for highly penetrant diseases. The most important individual predictor was uncertainty avoidance.     

Relations between inhibition, executive functioning, and ADHD symptoms: a longitudinal study from age 5 to 8(1/2) years.

The present study examined whether inhibition measured as early as preschool can predict more general executive functioning and ADHD symptoms at school age. In contrast to previous studies, the present study focused specifically on ADHD symptoms rather than general disruptive behavior problems, and boys and girls were studied separately. The main result was that inhibition was strongly related to ADHD symptoms both in school and at home for boys, but only in the school context for girls. Early inhibition was also significantly related to later executive functioning, and concurrent relations were found between executive functioning and ADHD symptoms, although in both cases only for boys. Besides this, inhibition added significantly to the variance, beyond that of executive functioning, which meant that for boys, inhibition and the other executive functioning explained about half the variance in inattention problems. The stronger relation between inhibition, executive functioning and ADHD symptoms for boys compared to girls could suggests that either the predictors of ADHD are different for the two sexes, or girls are more often equipped with some factor that protects them from developing ADHD symptoms, despite poor executive functioning. However, it is also possible that relations are just harder to demonstrate for girls due to their lower incidence of disruptive problem behaviors.