The Moral Injury Symptoms Scale–Military Version–Short Form: Further Scale Validation in a U.S. Veteran Sample

Journal of Religion and Health - This study assessed the Moral Injury Symptoms Scale – Military Version – Short Form’s (MISS-M-SF) factor structure and construct validity....     

Facets of psychopathy, Axis II traits, and behavioral dysregulation among jail detainees

Forensic evaluations of offender populations often consider psychopathy as an integral component of these consultations. Vexing issues remain of whether psychopathic traits should be evaluated consistently irrespective of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender), comorbidity (e.g. other Axis II pathology), or setting (e.g. jail or community). The current study examined gender differences for psychopathy and Axis II traits in a nonreferred jail sample of predominantly nonviolent offenders. Participants with moderate to high levels of psychopathy evidenced substantial comorbidity, especially with Cluster B personality disorders. Facets of psychopathy and Axis II traits varied substantially across both genders. In addition, the research evaluated Lynam's Hyperactivity, Impulsivity, and Attention difficulties (HIA) model of psychopathy. These initial data found little support for the HIA model in this jail sample. In testing competing hypotheses, the HIA model was substantially better at predicting Cluster B traits than psychopathy per se.     

The limits of 'adaptive' coping: well-being and mood reactions to stressors among women in abusive dating relationships

Coping is typically thought to be adaptive if it reduces immediate distress and promotes well-being. However, coping strategies might appear beneficial in a given situation, but when considered in the broader stressor context, those situational benefits may actually undermine well-being. Two studies (N = 473 and N = 80 women) demonstrated that, in the context of psychologically or physically abusive dating relationships, coping orientations were rooted in women's stressor history (prior assault trauma) and elevated emotion-focused and lower problem-focused efforts were predictive of greater depressive symptoms. Yet, in response to a stressor video that acted as a reminder of women's abusive experiences (but not to a stressor video unrelated to abuse), affective benefits (lower hostility, higher positive agency) were associated with abused women's emotion-focused coping endorsements, but were not linked to problem-focused coping. It seems that in some contexts, reduced distress might limit active efforts to alter a dysfunctional situation.     

Using Adult Learning Theory Concepts to Address Barriers to Cancer Genetic Risk Assessment in the African American Community

Utilization of cancer genetic risk assessment can be profoundly influenced by an individuals’ knowledge of risk assessment, attitudes regarding illness and healthcare, and affective reactions derived from social norms. Race and ethnicity play a powerful role in the development of an individual's attitudes and should be considered when attempting to understand a person's openness to cancer genetic risk assessment (Lannin et al., 1998). Until recently, however, cancer screening and prevention programs have been primarily based on data from studies conducted with the Caucasian population, yielding data that are not fully applicable to the African American community. In the last several years, research findings regarding African American's knowledge, attitudes, and feelings about genetic counseling and testing have grown (Matthews et al., 2000; Singer et al., 2004; Thompson et al., 2003). However, to the authors’ knowledge, these data have yet to be presented in a manner that both summarizes the barriers that African Americans have reported regarding cancer genetic risk assessment, while at the same time suggesting methods individual genetic counselors can utilize during community presentations to help address these barriers. This article will first summarize previous empirical findings regarding African Americans’ knowledge, attitudes, and feelings about cancer genetic risk assessment. The article will then apply adult learning theory to those findings to provide genetic counselors with practical, theory based techniques to apply toward community based educational programs with African American groups.     

Maternal and Paternal Perceptions of Social Competence in Children and Adolescents

We examined maternal and paternal perceptions of social competence in children and adolescents. One hundred forty-seven parents rated scenarios depicting children who varied in age, gender, and social competence. Parents also completed questionnaires assessing the amount of time they spend with their own children, their gender identity, their psychological symptoms, and their affectivity. Results indicated that the amount of time parents spend with their own children was related to maternal and paternal ratings, whereas affectivity was related to paternal ratings. In contrast, parents’ gender identity and psychological symptoms were unrelated to their ratings of social competence. Finally, there was an interaction between parent gender and the level of social competence depicted in the scenarios they rated, suggesting that there were differences in maternal and paternal ratings. These findings emphasize the importance of examining the perceptions of both mothers and fathers when assessing social competence in children and adolescents.     

Using the Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic to Delineate Treatment Outcomes in Rehabilitation

Patients undergoing rehabilitation have been evidenced to improve in different ways depending on their coping styles. Amplifiers, Repressors, and Social Copers are examples of patients who present differently in rehabilitation settings and tend to have differing levels of success in their response to treatment. The current study examined the differential treatment outcomes of three coping style groups undergoing multidisciplinary rehabilitation. A sample of 59 patients suffering from injuries associated with chronic pain were assessed using the Multidimensional Pain Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Beck Anxiety Inventory before, during, and after multidisciplinary pain management treatment. Coping style groups derived from the Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic consisting of Amplifiers, Repressors, and Social Copers were compared with regard to reductions in depression, anxiety, pain, functional impairment, and associated outcomes. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that Amplifiers, Repressors, and Social Copers had varying levels of success in the treatment program. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed the coping style groups to have significantly different change curves from pre to post-treatment in depression, anxiety, pain severity, functional impairment, affective distress, life control, social support, and soliciting help from others. These findings support prior research emphasizing the value of tailoring treatments in rehabilitation settings toward patients’ coping styles in order to maximize outcomes. A program (provided in either SAS or SPSS syntax) that will compute MBMD coping style group membership will be provided upon request. Request by e-mail to: dcipher@hsc.unt.edu or by fax to: +1-817-7352270.     

Development of a parent training program for children with pervasive developmental disorders

Parent delivered interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) for children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs) have been evaluated using primarily single‐subject design methodology or small case series. While the results of these evaluations are encouraging, an important next step is to standardize the interventions to allow for replication across sites, in studies with large samples and measures of long‐term, clinically meaningful outcomes such as improvements in children's functioning and their relationships with parents. Accordingly, the Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology and Psychosocial Interventions (RUPP Autism Network) assembled a detailed manual for a structured behavioral parent training (PT) program, developed treatment fidelity and training procedures, and conducted a pilot, feasibility study. The PT program is part of a large scale, multisite study intended to determine the efficacy of combined pharmacological treatment and behavioral intervention to improve behavior and adaptive functioning in children with PDD. This paper discusses the rationale for this project. A companion paper provides the results of our feasibility study on the PT program. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hippocampal CA1 spiking during encoding and retrieval: relation to theta phase

The hippocampal theta rhythm is a prominent oscillation in the field potential observed throughout the hippocampus as a rat investigates stimuli in the environment. A recent computational model [Hasselmo, M. E., Bodelon, C., & Wyble, B. P. (2002a). A proposed function for hippocampal theta rhythm: separate phases of encoding and retrieval enhance reversal of prior learning. Neural Computation, 14, 793-817. Neuromodulation, theta rhythm and rat spatial navigation. Neural Networks, 15, 689-707] suggested that the theta rhythm allows the hippocampal formation to alternate rapidly between conditions that promote memory encoding (strong synaptic input from entorhinal cortex to areas CA3 and CA1) and conditions that promote memory retrieval (strong synaptic input from CA3 to CA1). That model predicted that the preferred theta phase of CA1 spiking should differ for information being encoded versus information being retrieved. In the present study, the spiking activity of CA1 pyramidal cells was recorded while rats performed either an odor-cued delayed nonmatch-to-sample recognition memory test or an object recognition memory task based on the animal's spontaneous preference for novelty. In the test period of both tasks, the preferred theta phase exhibited by CA1 pyramidal cells differed between moments when the rat inspected repeated (match) and non-repeated (nonmatch) items. Also in the present study, additional modeling work extended the previous model to address the mean phase of CA1 spiking associated with stimuli inducing varying levels of retrieval relative to encoding, ranging from novel nonmatch stimuli with no retrieval to highly familiar repeated stimuli with extensive retrieval. The modeling results obtained here demonstrated that the experimentally observed phase differences are consistent with different levels of CA3 synaptic input to CA1 during recognition of repeated items.     

Early identification of mental health problems in schools: The status of instrumentation

When embedded within a continuum of mental health services including both prevention and treatment, school-based mental health identification programs can promote improved academic and mental health functioning among students. This article describes the scientific status of assessment instrumentation that may be used for early mental health identification in schools. Currently available instruments are described in terms of their ability to accurately detect youth with mental health problems. Implications for selecting mental health screening and assessment instruments and integrating them into schools are discussed. Finally, a range of approaches to early identification in schools as well as some of the broader ethical and practical issues related to the integration of these strategies into a school-wide continuum of services are presented.