Improving FASD Children’s Self-Regulation: Piloting Phase 1 of the GoFAR Intervention

ABSTRACT

The initial parent training component of GoFAR, an intervention designed to improve the self-regulation and adaptive living skills of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs), was piloted in a small, randomized clinical trial of 28 participants assigned to either a time-lapsed control group or one of two parent training groups who differed on whether the child’s computerized instruction was congruent or incongruent with the parent instruction. Parental compliance and achievement of therapy goals were indicators of improvement in the child’s self-regulation skills. Children who received computerized instruction consistent with the parent training demonstrated greater self-regulation improvements than those receiving incongruent computerized instruction.     

Parents May Hold the Keys to Success in Immersion Treatment of Adolescent Obesity

This study examined the potential impact of parents on the long-term results of an immersion program for the treatment of adolescent obesity. Teenagers participated in a 4- to 8-week therapeutic camp. Those who continued losing weight 8- to 12-months postcamp were identified as “Losers”; those who regained weight were considered “Gainers.” Parents from both groups were interviewed about their own current lifestyle habits 1 to 1.5 years after camp ended. Results indicate that more of the initially overweight parents from the Loser group lost weight during the follow-up period than the overweight parents of Gainers. Losers' parents also reported better implementation of several aspects of the weight control program. The present results suggest that helping parents adopt lifestyle changes for themselves, even within the context of relatively short immersion treatments, may maximize outcomes for obese teenagers.     

Sleep and Attachment in Preterm Infants

Infants born preterm are at elevated risk for socioemotional difficulties; however, factors contributing to this risk are largely understudied. Within the present study, we explored infant sleep as a biosocial factor that may play a role in infant socioemotional development. Within a prospective longitudinal design, we examined parent‐reported sleep patterns and observed parenting quality as predictors of infant–mother attachment in 171 infants born preterm. Using structural equation modeling, we examined main effect and moderator models linking infant sleep patterns and parenting with attachment security. Sleep patterns characterized by more daytime sleep and positive/responsive parenting predicted infant attachment security. Parent‐reported nighttime sleep patterns were unrelated to attachment in this sample of infants born preterm. These results indicate that daytime sleep and parenting quality may be important for emerging attachment relationships in infants born preterm.     

Personality characteristics and state mood influence individual deck selections on the Iowa Gambling Task

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is commonly used to assess risky decision making in clinical and non-clinical populations, and negative mood and various personality characteristics have been shown to affect the number of advantageous and disadvantageous selections on this task. Recent research has suggested that IGT data should be analyzed at the individual deck level due to differences in frequency and magnitude of losses, and the present study examined how personality characteristics and state mood may affect deck level selections on this task. Participants were 91 undergraduate students (38 male) who completed measures of impulsivity and sensation seeking, behavioral activation and inhibition, state mood, and the computerized IGT. Results indicated that negative mood, drive, impulsivity, and sensation seeking were all positively correlated with Deck B selections, but negatively correlated with Deck D selections. No differences emerged in correlations between Decks A and B or Decks A and D. Results indicate that mood and personality characteristics differentially relate to selections from the individual decks on the IGT. Results have implications for the assessment of decision making, as personality and fluctuations in state-dependent mood could mimic pathological risk-taking if analysis is conducted on the combined decks.     

A Tale of Two Cities: Predicting Homeless People's Uptake of Outreach Programs in London and New York

Two studies involved structured interviews with 203 homeless people to examine the impact of sociodemographic variables, prior behavior, and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intention, on uptake of outreach services. Study 1 was conducted in London, and Study 2 involved a comparable sample in New York. In line with previous research, the psychological variables accounted for more variance than the sociodemographic variables, and there was no evidence that the effects of TPB variables were moderated by sociodemographics. In London intentions and behavior were most affected by perceived control and subjective norms. In New York they were most affected by perceived control and attitude. These differences may be attributable to different institutional structures and opportunities for service uptake in the two cities. Sensitivity of the TPB to social context and implications for intervention strategies are discussed in light of these differences.     

Some Personality and Motivational Correlates of Children's Prosocial Behavior

The prosocial behavior of 76 male and female fourth-graders was investigated by observing their sharing, caring, and helping actions on the playground and by obtaining sociometric measures (peer nomination) of a variety of prosocial actions. Interrelations among all the prosocial acts were examined. Personal characteristics such as assertiveness, empathy, self-concept, value orientation, and moral-motivational reasoning based on role taking were also assessed. The number and pattern of significant correlations obtained among the observed prosocial behaviors, among the peer nominations, and between these two sets of scores indicated that, for girls, prosocial responding was moderately coherent, but that, for boys, caring, sharing, and helping were relatively independent domains. The hypotheses about the associations between prosocial behavior and personal characteristics were at least moderately supported. Sex differences in these relationships suggest that females' predominant prosocial responses reflect expressiveness and caring, whereas males' most salient prosocial responses are more active and instrumental.     

Religiousness and Depressive Symptoms in Five Ethnic Adolescent Groups

This study examined the relation between religiousness and depressive symptoms in African American, Asian American, European American, Hispanic American, and Native American adolescents (N = 13,317) in the United States with self-esteem and school attachment as potential mediators in this link. The data were taken from a nationally represented sample of adolescents in Grades 7 through 12, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Structural equation analyses with measurement and structural invariance across the five ethnic groups and gender supported the model that religiousness, as a composite of internal and external religiousness items, negatively predicted depressive symptoms 1 year later controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. Self-esteem and school attachment partially mediated this link but only for European American and African American adolescents.     

Empirically Supported Treatments for Insomnia

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of fears in Swedish children and to examine the relation of those fears to state and trait anxiety. The purpose was also to do a normative study of FSSC-R (Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised). In total, 550 children between 8 and 16 years of age answered the questionnaires. The results indicate that there are no gender differences in total fear score, factor scores and number of fears. In contrast to earlier results, there was no correlation between fear and trait anxiety; however, a modest correlation was found between fear and state anxiety     

Socially guided attention influences infants’ communicative behavior

For effective prelinguistic communication, infants must be able to direct their attention, vocalizations, and nonverbal gestures in social interactions. The purpose of our study was to examine how different styles of caregiver responses influenced infant attentional and communicative behavior in social interactions, based on prior studies that have shown influences of responsiveness on attention, language and cognitive outcomes. Infants were exposed to redirective and sensitive behavior systematically using an ABA design to examine real-time changes in infants’ behavior as a function of caregiver responses. During the two baseline “A” periods, caregivers were instructed to play as they would at home. During the social response “B” period, caregivers were instructed to respond sensitively to infants’ behavior on one visit and redirectively on the other visit. Results demonstrated that when caregivers behaved redirectively, infants shifted their attention more frequently and decreased the duration of their visual attention. Caregiver responses also resulted in changes in vocal and gesture production. Infants decreased their production of caregiver-directed vocalizations, gestures, and gesture-vocal combinations during in the redirective condition. Results suggest that caregiver sensitive responding to infants’ attentional focus may be one influence on infants’ attentional and prelinguistic communicative behavior.