An analysis of social anxiety in anorexic,bulimic, social phobic,and control women

Responses to the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) were examined in 23 women with anorexia nervosa, 54 women with bulimia nervosa, 50 female college undergraduates, and 43 social phobic women. Results indicated that women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa scored comparably high to social phobic women on measures of social anxiety and that these fears were not limited to fears of eating or drinking in public. This study suggests that fears of negative evaluation in women with eating disorders may generalize beyond the fears of scrutiny of body shape and size to more traditional social situations.     

Competence and warmth stereotypes prompt mental illness stigma through emotions

Public stigma toward mental illness subgroups (11 mental illness subgroups and 2 subgroups perceived to have mental illness) was examined. Competence and warmth stereotypes were used to predict emotional reactions posited to mediate behavioral inclinations ranging from passive to active harm or facilitation. Fear mediated the relationship between low competence and warmth stereotypes and passive harm. Anger, and to a lesser extent fear, mediated the relationship between low warmth and active harm. Pity mediated the relationship between warmth and active facilitation. Neither envy nor admiration linked stereotypes to behavioral reactions. Results suggest that emotions share motivational direction with behavior, to approach or to avoid, rather than simply sharing valence. Implications for research on stigma toward mental illness subgroups are discussed.     

Intolerance of Uncertainty and Eating Disorder Symptoms Over the Course of Intensive Treatment

There is a critical need to identify processes that may influence outcome in existing treatments for eating disorders (EDs). Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), which refers to excessive distress regarding uncertain situations, is a well-established feature of anxiety disorders. Emerging work suggests that IU decreases over the course of cognitive-behavioral treatments and may relate to better treatment outcomes. As some literature has suggested IU may functionally maintain ED symptoms, testing whether changes in IU over treatment relate to outcome may result in the identification of novel treatment targets. This study aimed to build upon past work documenting links between IU and ED symptoms by exploring changes in IU over treatment and links between early change in IU (1-month) and discharge symptoms. Participants (N = 274) receiving partial hospitalization treatment completed the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory and Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale at admission, 1-month post-admission, and discharge. Results suggested that IU significantly reduced from admission to discharge and that reductions in IU scores from admission to 1-month related to cognitive restraint, dietary restriction, and body image at discharge. However, this pattern did not hold for exercise, binge eating, or purging. Altogether, these results replicate past work supporting IU as a common feature across ED diagnoses and provide initial data suggesting that targeting IU early in treatment may enhance treatment outcomes.     

Dyadic Anxiety in Youth Sport: The Relationship of Achievement Goals With Anxiety in Young Athletes and Their Parents

The role of achievement motivation on precompetitive anxiety was examined in 73 dyads comprising youth athletes and a parent of each athlete. Participants completed questionnaires assessing achievement goals and anxiety. Actor–partner interdependence models were estimated using Mplus 7.11. Parents’ adoption of performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals predicted athletes’ worry (β_{performance-approach} =.30, p <.01; β_{performance-avoidance} =.25, p <.05). Athletes’ adoption of any goal predicted parents’ concentration disruption (β_{mastery-approach} =.41; β_{mastery-avoidance} =.30, p <.01; β_{performance-approach} =.27; β_{performance-avoidance} =.22, p <.05). Thus, parental definitions of competence held for the child was related to their young athlete's emotional state and vice versa.     

Early language development after peri-natal stroke

Early unilateral brain damage has different implications for language development than does similar damage in adults, given the plasticity of the developing brain. The goal of this study was to examine early markers of language and gesture at 12 and 24 months in children who had peri-natal right hemisphere (RH) or left hemisphere (LH) stroke (n = 71), compared with typically developing controls (n = 126). Parents completed the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI): Words & Gestures (12 month data point), or the CDI: Words & Sentences (24 month data point). Statistical analyses were performed on percentile scores using analysis of variance techniques. At 12 months, there were no differences among groups for Words Understood, Phrases Understood or Words Produced. At 24 months, both lesion groups scored significantly lower than controls on Word Production, Irregular Words, and Mean Length of Sentences, but lesion groups did not differ from each other. In a longitudinal subset of participants, expressive vocabulary failed to progress as expected from 12 to 24 months in the stroke group, with no differences based on lesion side. Gesture and word production were dissociated in the left hemisphere subjects. Findings suggest that early language development after peri-natal stroke takes a different course from that of typical language development, perhaps reflecting brain reorganization secondary to plasticity in the developing brain.