Side-to-side differences in overuse running injury susceptibility: a retrospective study

Despite the number of studies examining factors associated with overuse running injury, little is known about why an individual gets injured on a particular side of the body. Abnormal levels of several strength, structural, kinetic, and kinematic factors have been attributed to injury susceptibility. However, while most studies have compared the injured limb of injured runners to an arbitrary limb of healthy controls, there is some evidence to suggest that injury risk is related to characteristics on both sides of a runner. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate how bilateral characteristics of strength, structural, kinetic, and kinematic factors relate to overuse injury. The first purpose was to compare these factors between the injured and uninjured limbs of runners with a history of injury on only one side of their bodies. The results showed that hip internal rotation range of motion and peak tibial acceleration were both elevated on the side with a history of injury. The second purpose was to compare asymmetry levels between the injured runners and runners who had never sustained a running-related injury. Asymmetry levels were similar between groups for all variables, which suggests that some level of asymmetry is normal. The final purpose of the study was to compare bilateral values of these factors between the injured and uninjured runners. The results showed that hip internal rotation range of motion, as well as the deviation from normal arch height index, were bilaterally elevated in the injured runners. Although peak tibial acceleration was different between sides of the injured runners, it was not bilaterally elevated compared to the uninjured runners. These results support the notion that injury risk may be related to risk factors on both sides.     

Convergence among multiple methods of measuring positivity and negativity in the family environment: relation to depression in mothers and their children

The present study addressed the following questions: (a) To what extent do different methods of measuring the family environment converge onto a single latent construct? (b) How are the constructs of positive and of negative family environment related? (c) Do the associations among various methods of measuring the family environment differ as a function of children's gender or of risk? and (d) How are the latent constructs of family environment related to depression in mothers and their children? Participants were 240 children (mean age = 11.86 years, SD = 0.57) and their mothers, who varied with regard to their history of depression. Family environment was measured with self-report questionnaires completed separately by mothers and by children, observations of mother-child interactions, and a 5-min speech sample of each mother talking about her child. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that different methods for assessment of the family environment converged and that the constructs of positive and of negative family environments were significantly related to each other and to depression in both mothers and their children. These findings may help inform future intervention efforts by highlighting specific parenting dimensions that are strongly associated with maternal and with child depression.     

Aging affects acquisition and reversal of reward-based associative learning

Reward-based associative learning is mediated by a distributed network of brain regions that are dependent on the dopaminergic system. Age-related changes in key regions of this system, the striatum and the prefrontal cortex, may adversely affect the ability to use reward information for the guidance of behavior. The present study investigated the effects of healthy aging on different components of reward learning, such as acquisition, reversal, effects of reward magnitude, and transfer of learning. A group of 30 young (mean age = 24.2 yr) and a group of 30 older subjects (mean age = 64.1 yr) completed two probabilistic reward-based stimulus association learning tasks. Older subjects showed poorer overall acquisition and impaired reversal learning, as well as deficits in transfer learning. When only those subjects who showed evidence of significant learning were considered, younger subjects showed equivalently fast learning irrespective of reward magnitude, while learning curves in older subjects were steeper for high compared to low reward magnitudes. Acquired equivalence learning, which requires generalization across stimuli and transfer of learned contingencies to new stimuli, was mildly impaired in older subjects.     

Predictors of Categorical At‐Risk High School Dropouts

The authors attempted to identify key contributing factors to school dropout among 3 categories of at‐risk students: those with low grade point averages, those who had been suspended, and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Logistic regression analysis of the data, which were derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth‐1997 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002) indicated that student dropout rates were affected differently by students' membership in the 3 at‐risk categories.     

The time course of perceptual grouping: the role of segregation and shape formation

The time course of perceptual grouping was examined in two experiments, using a primed matching task. In different conditions, elements were grouped into columns/rows by common lightness, into a shape (triangle/ arrow or square/cross) by common lightness, and into a shape without segregation of elements. The results showed an early and rapid grouping into columns/rows by common lightness and into a shape when no segregation from other elements was involved. Goodness of shape (i.e., triangle/arrow vs. square/cross) had no influence on how early grouping was evident, but the relatively poorer shapes appeared to consolidate with time. In contrast, grouping into a shape that involved segregation and required resolving figure-ground relations between segregated units, as grouping into a shape by common lightness, consumed time, regardless of shape goodness. These results suggest that the time course of grouping varies as a function of the processes involved in it (e.g., segregation and shape formation) and the conditions prevailing for each process.     

Psychopathological profile of battered women according to age

In this paper, differential psychopathological consequences in battered women according to age were analysed in a sample of 148 victims seeking psychological treatment in a Family Violence Centre. The younger victims exposed to intimate partner violence suffered more often from physical violence and were at higher risk for their lives than the older ones. The prevalence rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was higher (42%) in the younger victims than in the older ones (27%). Likewise, younger victims were affected by more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem than the older ones. The severity of PTSD in the younger victims was related to the presence of forced sexual relationship but in the older ones, it was related to the perceived threat to their lives. Implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are commented upon.     

Differential course of executive control changes during normal aging

Normal aging has been associated with executive control deficits, but it is as yet unclear whether different executive subprocesses are differentially affected during the course of aging. The present study aimed to investigate age effects on a range of executive control subcomponents. Four consecutive age groups (20-30 years, 31-45 years, 46-60 years, 61-75 years), matched on present state IQ and mood, were compared on tasks of strategic memory processing, verbal fluency, reasoning, inhibition, task management, and self-rating of executive abilities. Deficits concerning the suppression of habitual and experimentally induced prepotent response tendencies and the ability to efficiently divide attention were observed in subjects over 60 years of age compared to the younger groups, while memory, verbal fluency, and reasoning were largely unaffected. Results suggest a sharp decline of executive function after age 60 and a differential course of different executive subcomponents across aging, adding further support to a multi-dimensional model of executive function.     

Externalizing Outcomes of Youth with and without ADHD: Time-Varying Prediction by Parental ADHD and Mediated Effects

Although parental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for multiple negative youth outcomes, it is unknown how change in parental ADHD symptoms over time affects change in child ADHD symptoms; moreover, mediators of these predictions are largely unknown. Parents of 230 5–10 year-old children (68 % male) with (n = 120) and without ADHD (n = 110) were followed prospectively for 6–7 years across three separate waves. Parents self-reported their ADHD and depression symptoms and similarly rated offspring ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms; youth self-reported their substance use. Temporally-ordered mediators consisted of parental expressed emotion (EE), derived from the Five Minute Speech Sample, and self-reported positive and negative parenting behavior. Controlling for key demographics and parental depression symptoms, increasing parental ADHD symptoms were a time-varying predictor of worsening youth ADHD and ODD, although it was unrelated to change in CD and alcohol/substance use. Next, although EE facets (i.e., criticism, emotional over-involvement) did not mediate these predictions, negative parenting behavior significantly mediated predictions of youth ADHD (and marginally in predictions of ODD) from parental ADHD symptoms. These quasi-experimental findings suggest that parental ADHD symptoms are a potential unique causal risk factor for offspring ADHD and ODD; also, preventing negative parenting behavior secondary to parental ADHD symptoms is critical to improve trajectories of youth ADHD and ODD. We consider parental ADHD symptoms and family factors underlying emergent externalizing problems utilizing a developmental psychopathology framework, including implications for intervention and prevention.     

Divergent effects of detachment from work: a day-level study on employee creativity

Detachment from work during non-work time is generally related to a decrease in work-related strain. However, it might also hamper employees’ generation of new and useful ideas about work by completely shutting off work-related thoughts and/or feelings outside of work. In this day-level study, we used a within-person design to investigate the role of cognitive and emotional detachment from work during non-work time in relation to equivalent types of job demands and job resources, in the prediction of employee creativity. Cognitive detachment from work refers to mentally disconnecting from work and no longer thinking about job-related issues, whereas emotional detachment from work refers to affectively disconnecting from work and no longer experiencing job-related emotions. Survey data were gathered over the course of eight consecutive days from 151 health care employees. Multi-level analyses revealed that: (1) cognitive detachment was positively related to creativity, irrespective of the level of cognitive job demands and resources; (2) high emotional job demands in combination with either low levels of emotional detachment or high levels of emotional job resources were positively related to creativity. This day-level study provides insight into the relation between detachment from work and creativity from a process perspective, by showing specific conditions under which different types of detachment from work benefit employee creativity.