Identifying empirically supported treatments for phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities

This paper reviews the literature regarding the treatment of phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Criteria for classifying interventions as empirically supported, developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12 Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, were used. For studies employing single case experimental designs, criteria developed by APA Division 16 (Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002; Shernoff, Kratochwill, & Stoiber, 2002) were used to supplement Division 12 criteria. Results indicate that behavioral treatment can be designated as a well-established treatment for phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities.     

Anxiety sensitivity and obsessive--compulsive disorder

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), a cognitive risk factor for anxiety disorders, was evaluated in a homogeneous obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sample. A total of 280 individuals with OCD completed measures. Evaluation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index revealed a latent structure that was congruent with previous studies showing a single higher order and three lower order factors, although greater variance was accounted for by the general factor than in a previous study. AS was significantly associated with OCD symptom severity after controlling for other putative cognitive risk factors, although the additional variance explained was small. Variability in the relationship of AS to OCD symptom severity was found across OCD symptom subgroups. Results suggest that AS might be an important aspect of OCD-relevant cognition for specific OCD subgroups, and the need for experimental evaluation is discussed.     

An investigation of the effects of dog visits on depression,mood, and social interaction in elderly individuals living in a nursing home

The present study investigated the effects of weekly dog visits on depression scores, mood, and social interaction in elderly individuals living in a nursing home. Five elderly residents participated in baseline assessments for 4–8 weeks and then received weekly dog visits for 6 weeks. Assessments, consisting of weekly observations of social interaction and paper and pencil measures of mood and depression, continued during the dog visits. The effect of dog visits was evaluated in a multiple baseline across participants design. Dog visits did not improve depression scores, mood (with the exception of one resident), or social interaction (with the exception of one resident). Residents did interact with the dog during the visits, however, and reported that they enjoyed the visits. These results show that dog visits do not always have therapeutic effects and suggest the need for further research in the area before the beneficial effects of dog visits can be substantiated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making faces: Creating three-dimensional parameterized models of facial expression

Previous studies of the perceptual processing and dynamics of emotional expression in faces have been limited by the lack of realistic yet controlled stimuli. The present work offers researchers a method for creating such stimuli for exploring these phenomena. We describe the creation of the stimuli and a series of experiments testing the validity of these stimuli with respect to emotional expressions in humans. Participants evaluated synthesized facial images and standardized photographs of six basic emotional expressions for intensity and accuracy of perceived emotion. Comparisons of these measures were qualitatively similar for synthesized and photographed faces. A manipulation of the magnitude of the synthesized expressions yielded a significant effect on the perceived intensity of expression. In a subsequent multidimensional scaling study, no systematic differences were uncovered in the derived configurations of the synthesized expressions and the photographs. These results are discussed in the context of possible future research applications.     

Mental representations of attachment in day care providers

Mental representations of attachment of 31 day‐care providers were assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and compared with established observational measures of their behavior with the children under their care. Contrary to expectation, there was no significant association between the caregivers’ mental representations of attachment and their observed behavior. Teacher‐report ratings of aggressive behavior were obtained for 135 children who had been under the care of these providers. Ten of the 13 children who scored in the clinical range for aggressive behavior were known to have been under the care of a provider with a secure mental representation of attachment for an extended period of time (average 14 months), but the average age of first exposure to such a provider in this study was 16 months. For center‐based day‐care providers, standardized observational assessments of caregiving behavior appear to be unrelated to mental representations of attachment. Children who, during the second year of life, were cared for by providers with secure mental representations of attachment were not necessarily protected from abnormally aggressive behavioral outcome.     

Family-based physical activity interventions and family functioning: A systematic review

Family physical activity (PA) can confer multiple health benefits, yet whether PA interventions affect general family functioning has not been appraised. The purpose of this review was to evaluate studies that have examined the effect of family PA interventions, where child PA was the focus of the intervention, on constructs of family functioning. Literature searches were concluded on January 11, 2022 using seven common databases. Eligible studies were in English, utilized a family PA intervention, and assessed a measure of family functioning as a study outcome. The initial search yielded 8413 hits, which was reduced to 20 independent PA interventions of mixed quality after screening for eligibility criteria. There was mixed evidence for whether family PA interventions affected overall family functioning; however, analyses of subdomains indicated that family cohesion is improved by PA interventions when children are in the early school years (aged 5–12). High-quality studies also showed an impact of family PA interventions on family organization. Targeted interventions at specific family subsystems (e.g., father–son, mother–daughter), characteristics (low-income, clinical populations, girls), and broad multibehavioral interventions may have the most reliable effects. Overall, the findings show that family PA interventions can promote family cohesion and organization, particularly among families with children in the early school years. Higher quality research, employing randomized trial designs and targeting specific intervention and sample characteristics (e.g., different clinical conditions, specific parent–child dyads), is recommended in order to better ascertain the effectiveness of these approaches.