Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale: a Psychometric Examination in Chinese Youth

There remains a need for a disorder-specific inventory of children’s depression and anxiety that can reliably screen anxious and depressive disorder symptomatology in Chinese children. The Revised Child and Anxiety Depression Scale (RCADS) is a self-report questionnaire assessing anxiety and depression in children (Chorpita et al., 2000; Piqueras et al., 2017). This study sought to evaluate its psychometric properties in a Mainland Chinese sample. Students from the 4th to 11th grades (N?=?1001) participated in this study. Each of the RCADS subscales, by age and sex, possessed reliability coefficients ranging between .63 and .81. Means and standard deviations for RCADS subscales calculated for the age and sex sub-samples were reported. Participants reported slightly lower levels on five subscales than for Chorpita et al. (2000) normative sample. The scales were significantly and strongly correlated with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) subscales (somatic, withdrawal, anxiety) as well as CBCL internalizing scores. Fit statistics suggested marginal to adequate fit for the six-factor model for the Chinese youth. The present study provides foundational support for the psychometric properties of the RCADS in a large sample of Chinese youth yet indicates that factor structure might be improved through enhanced sampling of culturally relevant symptom expressions.

     

Considering the Knowledge You Have: Effects on Realism in Confidence Judgements

In three experiments, the hypothesis was tested that the realism of subjects' item-specific confidence judgements of their own answers to general knowledge questions would be improved by making the subjects heed content which might be expected to lower their confidence ratings. In each experiment, all subjects answered knowledge questions and then rated their confidence in their chosen answer. Before each question, the subjects in the experimental condition assessed the extent of their knowledge in a knowledge-area encompassing the knowledge question. Experiments 1 and 2 differed only in the design of the knowledge-area assessment scale. In Experiment 3, when making knowledge-area assessments, the subjects were asked to find examples of knowledge they lacked in the knowledge-area. Both Experiments 2 and 3 showed significantly improved realism in the subjects' confidence judgements. An aggregate assessment of the total number of questions believed to be answered correctly, given by the subjects at the end of Experiments 2 and 3, showed underconfidence in the experimental condition, particularly in Experiment 3. The results support the idea that the content active in subjects' memory at the time when confidence judgements are made affects their realism. Furthermore, our results show that the realism of subjects' item-specific confidence judgements can be improved without giving feedback.     

Stability in the metamemory realism of eyewitness confidence judgments

The stability of eyewitness confidence judgments over time in regard to their reported memory and accuracy of these judgments is of interest in forensic contexts because witnesses are often interviewed many times. The present study investigated the stability of the confidence judgments of memory reports of a witnessed event and of the accuracy of these judgments over three occasions, each separated by 1 week. Three age groups were studied: younger children (8–9 years), older children (10–11 years), and adults (19–31 years). A total of 93 participants viewed a short film clip and were asked to answer directed two-alternative forced-choice questions about the film clip and to confidence judge each answer. Different questions about details in the film clip were used on each of the three test occasions. Confidence as such did not exhibit stability over time on an individual basis. However, the difference between confidence and proportion correct did exhibit stability across time, in terms of both over/underconfidence and calibration. With respect to age, the adults and older children exhibited more stability than the younger children for calibration. Furthermore, some support for instability was found with respect to the difference between the average confidence level for correct and incorrect answers (slope). Unexpectedly, however, the younger children’s slope was found to be more stable than the adults. Compared to the previous research, the present study’s use of more advanced statistical methods provides a more nuanced understanding of the stability of confidence judgments in the eyewitness reports of children and adults.     

Evaluations of the Overjustification Effect

The utility of reinforcement-based procedures has been well established in the behavior analysis literature and is commonly used in educational settings. However, the overjustification effect is one commonly cited criticism of programs that use tangible items as reinforcers. In the current studies, we evaluated the effects of tangible rewards contingent on engagement with leisure activities. We further evaluated the amount of engagement after the reward condition was discontinued. In Studies 1 and 2, tangible rewards were delivered for engaging with a preferred activity when only one leisure activity or several activities were available, respectively. Study 1 results did not support the overjustification hypothesis. Study 2 participants showed a decrease in activity engagement following the reward condition. It was not clear whether this was a result of extended exposure or overjustification. Thus, in Study 3, we extended exposure to preferred activities in one context without rewards. Study 3 results suggested that extended exposure to a preferred activity had effects that look similar to the overjustification effect but are probably best described as satiation.     

Overvaluation of shape and weight among overweight children and adolescents with loss of control eating

Little is known about the phenomenology of pediatric loss of control (LOC) eating. Overvaluation of shape and weight, however, appears to be diagnostically meaningful among binge eating adults. We explored the significance of shape and weight overvaluation among children and adolescents with LOC eating. Participants (n = 526) included 149 overweight youth with LOC eating and 377 overweight controls (CON). Participants were categorized as those reporting at least moderate overvaluation (LOC-Mod, n = 74; CON-Mod, n = 106) or less than moderate overvaluation (LOC-Low, n = 75; CON-Low, n = 271), and compared on measures of eating-related and general psychopathology. LOC-Mod evidenced lower self-esteem than CON-Low, and greater behavioral problems than CON-Mod and CON-Low, but did not differ from LOC-Low in these domains. With the exception of LOC-Low and CON-Mod, all groups differed on global eating-disorder severity, with LOC-Mod scoring the highest. Overvaluation of shape and weight appears to be of questionable importance in defining subtypes of youth with LOC eating. However, as overvaluation and LOC eating each independently predicts eating-disorder onset, their confluence may confer even further risk for eating-disorder development. Longitudinal studies should address this possibility. Developmentally appropriate discussion about body image disturbance may be indicated in interventions targeting pediatric LOC eating and/or obesity.     

Race is gendered: how covarying phenotypes and stereotypes bias sex categorization

We argue that race and sex categories are psychologically and phenotypically confounded, affecting social categorizations and their efficiency. Sex categorization of faces was facilitated when the race category shared facial phenotypes or stereotypes with the correct sex category (e.g., Asian women and Black men) but was impaired when the race category shared incompatible phenotypes or stereotypes with the correct sex category (e.g., Asian men and Black women). These patterns were evident in the disambiguation of androgynous faces (Study 1) and the efficiency of judgments (Studies 1, 2, 4, and 5). These patterns emerged due to common facial phenotypes for the categories Black and men (Studies 3 and 5) and due to shared stereotypes among the categories Black and men and the categories Asian and women (Studies 4 and 5). These findings challenge the notion that social categories are perceived independent of one another and show, instead, that race is gendered.     

Fat Women’s Experiences in Therapy: “You Can’t See Beyond…Unless I Share It with You”

Abstract

This article reports the results of a qualitative exploration of fat women’s experiences with weight-related microaggressions in psychotherapy. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 women about their weight-related experiences as therapy clients and asked for their advice to therapists who work with fat women. We used a general inductive approach to code the data into themes and found that common microaggressions included therapists who overly focused on weight, therapists who appeared to be less interested in clients because of their weight, and dissatisfaction with waiting room seating options. Participants advised therapists to allow their clients to initiate conversations about weight. Results suggest the need for increased awareness of: (a) how clients’ weight may impact therapists’ attitudes and choice of interventions and (b) how weight might influence fat clients’ in-session presentations.     

Psychiatric and Self‐Injury Profiles of Adolescent Suicide Attempters versus Adolescents Engaged in Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury

To better delineate the unique correlates of self‐injurious behaviors (SIB), psychiatric profiles of mutually exclusive groups of adolescents who made a suicide attempt (SA) versus those engaged in nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) were examined. Contrary to hypotheses, the NSSI group endorsed earlier onsets of SIB and suicidal ideation (SI), as well as higher rates of depression and anxiety compared with their SA counterparts. Future work is warranted to understand the role of SI, including duration of SI and anxiety in the development of NSSI, and to identify risk and resiliency factors useful in predicting an adolescent's SIB status.     

Error detection processes in statistical problem solving

Problem solvers' error detection processes were studied by instructing 16 subjects to think aloud when solving two statistical problems. The evaluative episodes occurring in subjects' protocols were analyzed into Affirmative evaluation, Direct error-hypotheses, Error suspicion, and Standard check episodes, the last three of which are assumed to cover all main types of error detection processes. Most errors (78%) were found to have contributed to a solution part that triggered some evaluative episode. However, only one-third of the undetected errors had contributed to such a solution part. The Standard check episodes, seen as centrally-invoked, only led to the detection of few errors in proportion to the number of times they were performed. Evidence was found for two types of spontaneous error detections, one occurring abruptly and the other as a result of a more elaborated error detection process, initiated by the solver perceiving the solution as dissatisfying or strange. The perception of a symptom was a fairly reliable source of information about errors. However, subjects often did not manage to detect the error after having noticed a symptom. The closer a relevant Error suspicion episode followed an error, the greater was the probability of detecting the error. Good problem solvers detected a higher proportion of their errors compared to poor problem solvers, probably due to differences in the processes leading up to the triggering of an evaluative episode rather than to differences after the episode had been triggered.