Parental Experiences of Having a Child with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Associations with Clinical Characteristics and Caregiver Adjustment

We examined parental experience of having a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 62 parent–child dyads. Youth with a primary diagnosis of OCD and their parent(s) were administered the CY-BOCS jointly by a trained clinician. Parents completed several measures about their child’s OCD-related impairment and accommodation, emotional and behavioral functioning, parental distress, caregiver stress, and parental experiences of having a child with OCD. Results indicated that parents of children with OCD are considerably distressed about their child’s condition. As expected, negative parental experiences (e.g., anxiety about child’s condition, uncertainty about their future) were directly related to OCD symptom severity and impairment, as well as child internalizing and externalizing problems, family accommodation of symptoms, and caregiver strain. The presence of emotional resources was negatively related to most outcomes, although some of these relationships did not achieve statistical significance. The presence of internalizing symptoms mediated the relationship between parental experiences and parental distress. Given these findings, addressing parental experiences as part of a family based cognitive-behavioral treatment program for pediatric OCD may help reduce parental distress and improve patient prognosis.     

Regulating recognition decisions through incremental reinforcement learning

Does incremental reinforcement learning influence recognition memory judgments? We examined this question by subtly altering the relative validity or availability of feedback in order to differentially reinforce old or new recognition judgments. Experiment 1 probabilistically and incorrectly indicated that either misses or false alarms were correct in the context of feedback that was otherwise accurate. Experiment 2 selectively withheld feedback for either misses or false alarms in the context of feedback that was otherwise present. Both manipulations caused prominent shifts of recognition memory decision criteria that remained for considerable periods even after feedback had been altogether removed. Overall, these data demonstrate that incremental reinforcement-learning mechanisms influence the degree of caution subjects exercise when evaluating explicit memories.     

Genetic Counseling Practice Analysis

The American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) performed a genetic counseling practice analysis (PA) to determine the content of the certification examination. The ABGC-appointed PA Advisory Committee worked with psychometricians to develop a survey which was distributed to 2,038 genetic counselors in the United States and Canada. The survey was also accessible on the ABGC website. Multiple criteria were used to establish the significance of the tasks included in the survey. A total of 677 responses were used in the analysis, representing a 37.1% corrected response rate. Five major content domains with 143 tasks were identified in the PA. New certification test specifications were developed on the basis of PA results and will be used in developing future examination forms. In keeping with credentialing standards, ABGC plans to conduct a PA on a regular basis so that the content of the examination reflects current practice.     

Reference-dependent expected utility with incomplete preferences

An important reason why people deviate from expected utility is reference-dependence of preferences, implying loss aversion. Bleichrodt [Bleichrodt H. (2007). Reference-dependent utility with shifting reference points and incomplete preferences. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 51, 266-276] argued that in the empirically realistic case where the reference point is always an element of the decision maker’s opportunity set, reference-dependent preferences have to be taken as incomplete. This incompleteness is a consequence of reference-dependence and is different in nature from the type of incompleteness usually considered in the literature. It cannot be handled by existing characterizations of reference-dependence, which all assume complete preferences. This paper presents new preference foundations that extend reference-dependent expected utility to cover this case of incompleteness caused by reference-dependence. The paper uses intuitive axioms that are easy to test. Two special cases of reference-dependent expected utility are also characterized: one model in which utility is decomposed into a normative and a psychological component and one model in which loss aversion is constant. The latter model has been frequently used in empirical research on reference-dependence.     

Measuring preschool cognitive growth while it's still happening: The Learning Express

Educators need accurate assessments of preschool cognitive growth to guide curriculum design, evaluation, and timely modification of their instructional programs. But available tests do not provide content breadth or growth sensitivity over brief intervals. This article details evidence for a multiform, multiscale test criterion-referenced to national standards for alphabet knowledge, vocabulary, listening comprehension and mathematics, developed in field trials with 3433 3–5¹/₂-year-old Head Start children. The test enables repeated assessments (20–30 min per time point) over a school year. Each subscale is calibrated to yield scaled scores based on item response theory and Bayesian estimation of ability. Multilevel modeling shows that nearly all score variation is associated with child performance rather than examiner performance and individual growth-curve modeling demonstrates the high sensitivity of scores to child growth, controlled for age, sex, prior schooling, and language and special needs status.     

Psychodynamic understanding and treatment of patients with congenital disability

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - This paper is a follow-up to an article published in 1989 by Cubbage and Thomas. The purpose of that article was to provide a comprehensive analysis of...     

COVID-19 Interconnectedness: Health Inequity,the Climate Crisis,and Collective Trauma

The COVID-19 pandemic brings to the forefront the complex interconnected dilemmas of globalization, health equity, economic security, environmental justice, and collective trauma, severely impacting the marginalized and people of color in the United States. This lack of access to and the quality of healthcare, affordable housing, and lack of financial resources also continue to have a more significant impact on documented and undocumented immigrants. This paper aims at examining these critical issues and developing a framework for family therapists to address these challenges by focusing on four interrelated dimensions: cultural values, social determinants of health, collective trauma, and the ethical and moral responsibility of family therapists. Given the fact that family therapists may unwittingly function as the best ally of an economic and political system that perpetuates institutionalized racism and class discrimination, we need to utilize a set of principles, values, and practices that are not just palliative or after the fact but bring forth into the psychotherapeutic and policy work a politics of care. Therefore, a strong call to promote and advocate for the broader continuum of health and critical thinking preparing professionals to meet the challenges of health equity, as well as economic and environmental justice, is needed. The issues discussed in this paper are specific to the United States despite their relevance to family therapy as a field. We are mindful not to generalize the United States' reality to the rest of the world, recognizing that issues discussed in this paper could potentially contribute to international discourse.     

Uncovering Multidimensional Poverty Experiences in Shaping Children’s Socioemotional Trajectories during the First 6 Years of Schooling

The extant literature has attested to the importance of poverty on child well-being generally using a unidimensional approach. Researchers have yet to establish solid evidence on how multiple dimensions of poverty (e.g., depth, volatility, and spells of exposure) might be associated with children’s socioemotional well-being during their early school years. Building upon Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory, this study used latent class analysis to identify poverty patterns by incorporating multiple dimensions of poverty and investigated the relationship between multidimensional poverty patterns and children’s socioemotional trajectories from kindergarten through fifth grade. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K), a longitudinal dataset featuring a nationally representative cohort of children in the United States (N ≈ 20,090), the analysis identified seven poverty groups. Each group exhibited a unique poverty or economic pattern that incorporates the three poverty dimensions. Growth-curve results indicate that multidimensional poverty patterns were significantly associated with externalizing and internalizing behaviors both at kindergarten and over time by fifth grade. Children with the acutest form of economic deprivation—extreme poverty, volatile income, and multiple spells of poverty exposure—were reported to have the worst outcomes. The significant variations in children’s socioemotional trajectories due to different poverty patterns highlight the importance of poverty reduction and prevention strategies corresponding to those patterns for optimal effect. This study suggests a focus not just on helping families exit poverty temporarily, but on improving their economic security as a way to nurture children’s socioemotional well-being.     

Community group membership protects the well‐being of adults experiencing socio‐economic disadvantage

The present research examined the mechanisms through which community groups improve well‐being in adults (N = 156) experiencing socio‐economic disadvantage. Analysis showed that joining a group improved outcomes by enhancing people's group identification and wider sense of belonging to multiple groups and that this effect was stronger for more socio‐economically disadvantaged participants.