Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised: Child and Parent Versions

The School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised (SRAS-R) is an instrument designed to evaluate the relative strength of four functional conditions of school refusal behavior in youth. Although previous work has shown the scale's child and parent versions to show good reliability, verification of the SRAS-R factor structure remains necessary. The present study investigated administrations of the child and parent versions of the SRAS-R (SRAS-R-C and SRAS-R-P) using confirmatory factor analysis. For both measures, four-factor models were supported following the removal of two SRAS-R-C and three SRAS-R-P items. Three-factor and two-factor models for each SRAS-R version were not supported. Ramifications of these results for use of the SRAS-R are discussed.     

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among Male Adjudicated Adolescents: Psychosocial Concerns,Coping Responses,Diagnoses, and Functions

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) refers to self-inflicted physical injury without suicidal intent. NSSI is particularly common in forensic settings and associated with several psychosocial concerns, coping responses, diagnoses, and functions, but little information is available regarding NSSI in adjudicated male adolescents. The present study examined the frequency and types of NSSI among adjudicated male adolescents (n?=?103) and assessed the relationships between NSSI history, psychosocial concerns, coping responses, diagnoses, and functions within this population. Approximately two-thirds (66%) reported NSSI history. Participants with NSSI history reported poorer social adaptation and greater alienation and boredom, aggression, and emotional lability than controls. Youth with high-frequency NSSI were also more likely to utilize emotional discharge as an unhealthy coping response than controls. In addition, participants with high-frequency NSSI were more likely than controls to meet criteria for a mood or anxiety disorder. Function of NSSI primarily surrounded anxiety reduction/affect regulation, punishment, dissociation reduction, and social/sensation-seeking. NSSI appears to be prevalent among male adjudicated youths, and the findings suggest that the relationship between NSSI history, psychosocial concerns, coping responses, and functions is nuanced and could inform more calibrated assessment and treatment strategies.     

The Role of Language Skill in Child Psychopathology: Implications for Intervention in the Early Years

In this narrative review, we suggest that children’s language skill should be targeted in clinical interventions for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties in the preschool years. We propose that language skill predicts childhood emotional and behavioral problems and this relationship may be mediated by children’s self-regulation and emotion understanding skills. In the first sections, we review recent high-quality longitudinal studies which together demonstrate that that children’s early language skill predicts: (1) emotional and behavioral problems, and this relationship is stronger than the reverse pattern; (2) self-regulation skill; this pattern may be stronger than the reverse pattern but moderated by child age. Findings also suggest that self-regulation skill mediates the relation between early language skill and children’s emotional and behavioral problems. There is insufficient evidence regarding the mediating role of emotion understanding. In subsequent sections, we review evidence demonstrating that: (1) particular kinds of developmentally targeted parent–child conversations play a vital role in the development of language skill, and (2) some current clinical interventions, directly or indirectly, have a beneficial impact on children’s vocabulary and narrative skills, but most approaches are ad hoc. Targeting language via parent–child conversation has the potential to improve the outcomes of current clinical interventions in the preschool years.     

On the interpretation of working memory span in adults

Experimental research into children's working memory span has shown that retention duration contributes substantially to span performance, while processing efficiency need not be related to concurrent memory load (Towse, Hitch, & Hutton, 1998). These findings have been used to argue for a model of working memory span that emphasizes time-based forgetting rather than the popular resource-sharing or tradeoff framework. The present paper considers whether adults perform working memory span tasks in a qualitatively different way. Data from reading span and operation span tasks show that adults' performance can be distinguished from that of children, but also that a task-switching model of working memory span can explain some important aspects of performance.     

VALUE SYSTEMS OF STUDENTS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA AND AUSTRALIA

The Rokeach Value Survey was administered to 12 groups of indigenous respondents fluent in the English language and enrolled in tertiary institutions and training programmes in Papua New Guinea (over 1,100 subjects). Average value systems of these respondents were compared with those of three Australian student groups (secondary and tertiary). Marked differences were found in the relative importance assigned to particular values. Values assigned relatively high importance by the Papua New Guinea groups were discussed in relation to lower-order safety and security needs that may become salient in a developing country, and in terms of the traditional culture and the history of Papua New Guinea, especially the missionary influence, the extended family and wantok (”one-talk”) systems, possible expatriate influence on occupational roles, and present concern with emerging nationhood. Values assigned relatively high importance by the Australian groups were discussed in relation to higher-order needs that might become prepotent in a more affluent society. Factor analyses indicated that all 12 groups in Papua New Guinea were fairly similar in their average value systems.     

Effects of variable fatigue levels on reaction-time components

The effects of varying fatigue levels on reaction-time components were determined for 20 young, adult males. Each subject squeezed a hand-gripping device until strength decrements of 20, 40, or 60% were recorded; then the subject released his tension and then reacted to an auditory stimulus by gripping as quickly and forcefully as possible. Testing was also conducted under a nonfatigued state, and every subject was tested under all conditions. Total reaction time was divided into (a) a promoter component, the time from the stimulus to an alteration in the EMG of the finger flexors, and (b) a motor component, the time from the change in the EMG to the first sign of tension uptake. Analyses of variance failed to reveal any alterations in either reaction time or promoter time; however, there was a significant (p < .05) elongation of motor time when the muscle was fatigued, with motor time tending to increase linearly as fatigue increased. The results suggest that localized fatigue of this nature is primarily of peripheral (muscular) origin.