Evaluation of the effectiveness of a prison-based drug treatment

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a drug-free unit (DFU) in reducing the use of substances by incarcerated adult offenders, and to analyze changes in the addiction severity index, motivation, and personality caused by the program. This is an external evaluation, with an ex post facto design with repeated measures. Eighty-seven prisoners from the DFU were evaluated during the first year of residence in the program. Most are young men, polydrug addicts and mainly serving sentences for public health crimes and property offenses. There is need of psychiatric treatment at the baseline, with 85% comorbid personality disorders. Motivation for treatment is low, and remains stable over 12 month's duration of the study. The DFU was found to have a significant effect in reducing the use of drugs by offenders and to improve the drug and family composite scores, also reducing scores on personality scales. However, it fails to change medical and psychiatric scores, so that the need for intervention in these areas is underscored.     

Life review therapy using autobiographical retrieval practice for older adults with clinical depression

The aim of this experiment was to examine the efficacy of life review based on autobiographical retrieval practice for treating depression in older adults. Thirty-seven clinically depressed older adults aged 64-83, who were also receiving pharmacological treatment, were randomly assigned to life review therapy or to a placebo condition with supportive therapy. Results indicated decreased depression for both conditions, with no significant differences between the two therapies. There was some indication of greater gain in production of specific memories among those in life review therapy. Patients who produced higher numbers of specific memories decreased their depression scores at a faster rate.     

Expressive prosodic patterns in individuals with Alzheimer's disease

This paper describes a useful technique for quantifying the degree of speech deficits in dementia of GDS 4 Alzheimer's type (DAT). Production of prosodic speech in DAT patients and healthy older controls was analysed using variation in fundamental frequency (F0) measures on a reading task. The prosogram computational model was used to analyze the prosodic contours of the speech samples, using melodic styling of F0 based on perceptual principles and prominence detection of spectral and amplitude fluctuations in the speech signal. Results revealed significant differences in most of these prosodic parameters among the DAT group. Normal pitch variation in speech and variations in syllable timing were reduced in the DAT group, these features cause "flat" speech prosody in these patients. These speech parameters may have diagnostic and prognostic value for Alzheimer's disease and therefore could be a useful aid in clinical trials.     

Assessment of a sexual coercion prevention program for adolescents

This study's focus is to evaluate a sexual coercion prevention program in adolescents. Using a before-and-after design with both a treatment group (n = 93) and a control group (n = 76), an intervention of seven sessions was completed. Said sessions included such content as conceptualizing sexual freedom, sexual coercion and voluntary consent, analyzing different sexual coercion tactics and the contexts in which they occur, empathy toward the victim, and developing abilities to avoid risky situations. Other risk factors for coercive behavior and sexual victimization are explored as well, such as alcohol use, sexist attitudes and inadequate communication, among others. The intervention's results include a decrease in stereotypical beliefs about the opposite sex and increased empathy toward victims of sexual coercion. These changes were maintained with the passage of time. Also, in the treatment group, a more acute decline was observed in the proportion of young people engaging in sexually coercive behaviors, This article emphasizes the importance, necessity and efficacy of such interventions, and discusses and analyzes possible improvements to the program for its future implementation.     

Relationship between schizotypal and borderline traits in college students

The main objective of the present investigation was to analyze the relationship between self-reported schizotypal and borderline personality traits in a sample of 759 college students (M = 19.63 years; SD = 2.03). For this purpose, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B; Raine and Benishay, 1995) and Borderline Personality Questionnaire (BPQ; Poreh et al., 2006) were administered. The results showed that schizotypal and borderline features are partially related at subclinical level. The exploratory factor analysis conducted on the subscales revealed a three-factor solution comprised of the following factors: Identity/Interpersonal, Lack of Control and Schizotypal. The canonical correlation analysis showed that schizotypal features and borderline personality traits shared 34.8% of the variance. The data highlight the overlap between schizotypal and borderline personality traits in nonclinical young adults. Future studies should continue to examine the relationship and the degree of overlap between these traits in community samples.     

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Thougth-Shape Fusion Questionnaire

The objectives of the study were to analyze the psychometric properties, factor structure and internal consistency of the Spanish version of the Thought-Shape Fusion Questionnaire (TSF-Q), as well as to determine its validity by evaluating the relationship of the TSF-Q to different instruments. Two groups were studied: one comprising 146 patients with a diagnosis of anorexia (n = 82), bulimia (n = 33) or unspecified eating disorder (n = 31), and another group of 115 undergraduates with no history of psychological disorder. All participants completed the TSF-Q, TAF-Q, EDI-2, STAI, BDI and SCL-90-R. Differences in TSF-Q scores between the diagnostic subgroups were also analyzed. Two factors were obtained which coincided with the two sections indicated by the authors of the questionnaire: conceptual and interpretative. The internal consistency of the TSF-Q and its subscales was determined by means of Cronbach's alpha, with values ranging between .93 and .96. The correlations with other instruments reflected adequate validity. There were no significant differences between the diagnostic subgroups. The Spanish version of the TSF-Q meets the psychometric requirements for measuring thought-shape fusion and shows adequate internal consistency and validity.     

Risk and protective factors of dissocial behavior in a probability sample

The aims of this study were to know risk and protective factors for dissocial behavior keeping in mind that the self-report of dissocial behavior is biased by the impression management. A probability sample of adolescents that lived in two neighborhoods with high indexes of gangs and offenses (112 male and 86 women) was collected. The 27-item Dissocial Behavior Scale (ECODI27; Pacheco & Moral, 2010), Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding, version 6 (BIDR-6; Paulhus, 1991), Sensation Seeking Scale, form V (SSS-V; Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978), Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS; Barnes & Olson, 1982), 30-item Rathus Assertiveness Schedule (RAS; Rathus, 1973), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1983) and a social relationship questionnaire (SRQ) were applied. Binary logistic regression was used for the data analysis. A third of the participants showed dissocial behavior. Belonging to a gang in the school (schooled adolescents) or to a gang out of school and job (total sample) and desinhibition were risk factors; being woman, perspective taking and open communication with the father were protective factors. School-leaving was a differential aspect. We insisted on the need of intervention on these variables.     

Driving anger and traffic violations: Gender differences

In this work, we examined the contribution of anger-related variables to explaining traffic rule violations with control for the effect of variables such as age, gender and annual mileage. Also, we explored gender differences in driving-elicited anger and its forms of expression with provision for exposure in terms of mileage. In addition, we studied male and female driving habits in relation to individual histories of fines and accidents with a view to identifying the role of drivers’ anger in driving violation behaviours. To this end, we conducted a survey on a sample of 541 drivers (53.9% females, 46.1% males) aged 20–73 years. The results obtained with provision for mileage revealed substantial differences in driving behaviour between genders. Thus, males reported greater number of fines and accidents, and were more prone to violating traffic regulations. There were also gender differences in the specific driving situations causing anger. Thus, males were angrier at police presence and females at traffic obstructions. There were additional differences in anger expression forms, with women exhibiting a more adaptive attitude. The specific contribution of anger-related variables to driving violation behaviours was explored, and its theoretical and treatment implications are discussed.     

How many lives can bloody and shocking road safety advertising save? The case of Spain

At the beginning of the 21st century, the punishment strategies used by the Spanish administration were considerably hardened to achieve a reduction in road accidents. This hardening could also be seen in the mass-media public advertising campaigns, with a marked shift from gentle messages to threat-based advertisements.The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of this radical change in terms of main road accident indicators and the time that the effects last using multivariate unobserved component models set up in a state space framework applied to monthly series for the 1980–2008 period. The main conclusion is that the effect on reducing road accidents is no greater when citizens are subjected to a greater level of threats in advertising campaigns than would on average be achieved using campaigns with a low level of threats. Secondly, the impact of bloody advertising in Spain is limited to the most serious accidents, those that cause deaths, either on highways or in built-up areas. Moreover, the positive effects progressively decrease as the average lifespan for significant effects of medium and high level campaigns on deaths on highways or in built-up areas was 8 months and almost 12 days. The results show that a reduction in numbers of deaths and injuries is always achieved when the level of harshness in the messages is increased after a period of several years of mild advertising.