Depression is associated with the escalation of adolescents' dysphoric behavior during interactions with parents

Though much is known about the stable mood patterns that characterize depressive disorder, less attention has been directed to identifying and understanding the temporal dynamics of emotions. In the present study, we examined how depression affects the trajectory of dysphoric and angry adolescent emotional behavior during adolescent-parent interactions. Adolescents (72 depressed; 69 nondepressed) engaged in video recorded positive and negative interactions with their parents. Depressed adolescents showed a linear increase in dysphoric behaviors throughout the negative interactions, while the incidence of these behaviors remained relatively stable across the interactions among nondepressed adolescents. A similar linear increase was not found in angry behavior. These findings show that depression in adolescence is associated with greater escalation of dysphoria during conflictual interactions between adolescents and their parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Exploring the Impact of Parental Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation on Evidence-Based Parenting Interventions: A Transdiagnostic Approach to Improving Treatment Effectiveness

Parenting interventions, particularly those categorized as parent management training (PMT), have a large evidence base supporting their effectiveness with most families who present for treatment of childhood behavior problems. However, data suggest that PMTs are not effective at treating all families who seek services. Parental psychopathology has been identified as one important factor moderating their effectiveness, yet few PMTs pay explicit attention to the role of parental psychopathology in treatment. Given growing support for a transdiagnostic model of psychopathology, which posits that disruptions in emotions and emotion regulation (ER) may underlie various forms of psychopathology, one way to address the impact of parental psychopathology on PMT may be by targeting parental ER. This paper will review the available literature on PMT and parental psychopathology, as well as existing evidence on relations between ER and both parental psychopathology and parenting behaviors. The limited research on PMTs that include explicitly parent-focused components will be reviewed, and suggestions for augmenting existing PMT curricula by including intervention around parental ER will be presented.     

Are Christian/religious people poor tippers?

A web‐based survey was used to assess the relationships of religious faith and frequency of church attendance with tipping under conditions of good and bad service. Results indicated that Jews and those with no religion tipped more than Christians and members of other religions, but that the vast majority of Christians tipped at or above the normative 15% of bill size. Worship frequency also significantly interacted with service quality such that the tips of those who frequently worship vary with service quality less than the tips of those who worship less frequently. The practical implications of these results for service workers and restaurants or other service businesses with a large religious clientele are discussed.     

Individual and Environmental Predictors of College Adjustment: Prevention and Intervention

In this study, an ecological model was used to expand the current understanding of what contributes to college adjustment. Individual and environmental variables, and their relative contributions to college adjustment, were explored. This study also included the additional feature of the examination of environmental variables as possible mediators between the individual variables and college adjustment. The sample included 240 college freshmen at a large urban university. As predicted, both groups of variables accounted for significant proportions of variance in college adjustment. Further, the combination of both groups explained a greater proportion of variance than did either group alone. Maladaptive coping and perceived university environment were the most essential to college adjustment. Surprisingly, social support and gender were not essential for college adjustment. However, the environmental variables proved to be significant partial mediators between the individual variables and college adjustment. Finally, possible interventions and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

Logit Model to Predict Outcomes of Litigated Employee Obesity Cases

Purpose  

Given that there are no specific legal protections for obese employees, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the litigated case characteristics and case outcomes when an employee is subjected to negative consequences in the workplace and subsequently sues the employer.     

Interest as a Motivational Resource: Feedback and Gender Matter, but Interest Makes the Difference

This study tested the hypothesis that interest in a certain topic enables children to sustain their intrinsic motivation in topic-related tasks when positive feedback is absent. Ninety-one Israeli children in the seventh grade completed a questionnaire assessing their interest in the topic of logic questions. Later, in individual sessions, children worked on logic questions, and either received positive feedback or no feedback on their performance. Then, they completed a questionnaire assessing their intrinsic motivation to participate in a similar task. As expected, children with a high level of interest reported more intrinsic motivation than did children not high on interest. Among children with moderate interest, absence of positive feedback was associated with decreased intrinsic motivation for boys, and increased motivation for girls. This gender-related pattern was interpreted as suggesting that girls with moderate interest perceived the positive feedback as an attempt to control them. The findings support the view that interest may serve as a personal resource that helps children to cope with non-optimal learning conditions.     

Understanding Gang Joining from a Cross Classified Multi-Level Perspective

The present study seeks to address the gap in our understanding of the role of community- and school-level factors on individual-level gang joining. We assess our research question by bringing together data from a statewide survey of more than 35,000 school youth who were enrolled in more than 250 schools and resided in more than 300 communities. We first use multilevel modeling techniques to examine the independent relationship of community and school on the likelihood of individual youth gang joining. Second, while controlling for individual-level risk and protective factors, we examine the simultaneous relationship of community- and school-level conditions on gang joining. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that both community- and school-level characteristics play a role in gang joining. The results of the cross-classified model suggests that community structural characteristics may serve as protection against gang joining. Individual-level risk and protective factors remain important for understanding gang joining. A variety of factors are related to gang joining. Though individual-level factors are important, community- and school-level factors are meaningful in the understanding of gang joining.     

Disease Rarity,Carrier Status,and Gender: A Triple Disadvantage for Women with Fabry Disease

Fabry disease is a multi-systemic X-linked genetic disorder which has progressive and deadly consequences for those it afflicts. Fabry disease symptoms are widely recognized as a substantive burden for affected males. In comparison, female heterozygotes have traditionally been viewed as relatively symptom-free, though a debate continues about whether and how much they suffer with the disease. Previous research suggests that females with Fabry disease may be triply disadvantaged in healthcare settings owing to: (1) disease rarity, (2) devalued carrier status, and (3) gender. The combined effects of these three factors suggest that female heterozygotes may suffer substantially with Fabry disease symptoms. A qualitative analysis of a brief disease-specific questionnaire provides supportive evidence. The female Fabry disease participants described experiencing significant symptoms that interfered with their lives. They also described unsatisfying experiences with healthcare professionals related to disease rarity, carrier status, and gender. The results of this study corroborate the suggestion that this triple disadvantage exists and may preclude appropriate management and treatment of females with Fabry disease. The role of healthcare professionals, including genetic counselors, in remedying this disadvantage is reviewed.