Quality of Life and Autonomy in Emerging Adults with Early-Onset Neuromuscular Disorders

Emerging adulthood is an important period in the development of one's identity and autonomy. The ways in which identity and autonomy are viewed by emerging adults and how they impact quality of life (QoL) in individuals with early-onset neuromuscular conditions is not yet known. This study focused on understanding and exploring relationships between self-perceptions of emerging adulthood, autonomy, and QoL. Five previously validated measures were incorporated into an online survey and distributed to young adults with early-onset neuromuscular conditions and unaffected controls. Topics explored included individuals' views regarding their overall QoL, disease-specific QoL, components of emerging adulthood, and autonomy. We found that a sense of higher disease impact was associated with a lower Overall General QoL. Additionally, perceptions of key autonomy factors "negativity" and "instability" were uniquely associated with Overall General QoL in the case group as compared to controls, whereas "attitudinal autonomy" (attaining the ability to plan and follow through with goals) was important to this age group regardless of health status. The specific factors of emerging adulthood and autonomy that were significantly correlated with Overall General QoL can be used for developing targeted counseling and interventions to improve QoL for individuals and their families.     

An Evaluation of the NAMI Basics Program

This brief report describes results from an evaluation of NAMI Basics, a peer-delivered family education program for family caregivers of children and adolescents with mental illness. Over six classes, family members are given information (e.g. education about mental illness and treatments), skills training (e.g. family communication skills) and advocacy support. We report data from 36 caregivers who completed pre and posttest instruments measuring self-care, empowerment, and family problem-solving and communication skills. Results showed significant improvements in self-care, empowerment, and “incendiary” family communication after participation in the program. Results suggest that NAMI Basics may improve both parental functioning and familial processes. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Goal Orientation and Feedback Congruence: Effects on Discretionary Effort and Achievement

This study examines the differential effects of outcome feedback for achievement goal orientations' relationship with effort and achievement. In support of our predictions, learning goal orientation had a positive relationship with task achievement in the absence of outcome feedback and a negative relationship in its presence, while performance goal orientation maintained a positive relationship with achievement regardless of whether outcome feedback was provided. We attribute this to a decrease in task interest when initial task purpose, as determined by personal goal orientation, is incongruent with the subsequent task cues provided by outcome feedback. Predictions regarding task effort and combined goal orientation effects were not supported. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Compensatory nonconformity: Self-uncertainty and low implicit self-esteem increase adoption and expression of minority opinions

The present studies tested whether people, particularly those who are most vulnerable to self-threats as indicated by low implicit self-esteem, adopt and express minority opinions to compensate for self-uncertainty. In Studies 1 through 3, low implicit self-esteem participants who were made to feel uncertain about themselves as individuals (versus uncertain about a self-irrelevant issue in Study 1, certain about themselves in Study 2, or uncertain about their group memberships in Study 3) expressed more disagreement with others' opinions. Additionally, Study 3 demonstrated that this effect is specific to minority opinions and does not emerge on majority opinions. In Study 4, the relation between self-uncertainty and disagreement with others' opinions was strongest among participants with both low implicit and high explicit self-esteem, who respond to self-threats in particularly defensive ways.     

Gradual escalation: The role of continuous commitments in perceptions of guilt

Many immoral acts are the result of gradually escalating behaviors. The present work focuses on observers of immoral acts and the role of continuous commitments in shaping their perceptions of another person's guilt. Across four studies investigating how gradual escalations affect moral judgments, participants read a scenario describing an instance of immoral behavior that gradually built in severity. In Study 1, female participants perceived a perpetrator as less guilty when his behavior gradually escalated to rape after explicitly committing to the appropriateness his initial morally ambiguous behavior. The findings from Study 2 suggest that inducing a categorical mindset can counteract this reduction in perceptions of guilt. Study 3 illustrated the power of the categorical versus continuous mindset by examining how a categorical (versus a continuous mindset) impacts perceptions of guilt even in the absence of gradually escalating behavior. Finally, Study 4 extended the findings from the prior studies to a sample of both men and women and investigated the effect of the mindset manipulation on perceptions. Together, these studies demonstrate that the potency of gradual escalations to induce acquiescence to immoral behavior may inhere in their ability to create initial commitments to and continuous perceptions of morally ambiguous behavior.     

The relationship of positive and negative expressiveness to the processing of emotion information

The tendency to express emotions non-verbally is positively related to perception of emotions in oneself. This study examined its relationship to perception of emotions in others. In 40 healthy adults, EEG theta synchronization was used to indicate emotion processing following presentation of happy, angry, and neutral faces. Both positive and negative expressiveness were associated with higher emotional sensitivity, as shown by cortical responses to facial expressions during the early, unconscious processing stage. At the late, conscious processing stage, positive expressiveness was associated with higher sensitivity to happy faces but lower sensitivity to angry faces. Thus, positive expressiveness predisposes people to allocate fewer attentional resources for conscious perception of angry faces. In contrast, negative expressiveness was consistently associated with higher sensitivity. The effects of positive expressiveness occurred in cortical areas that deal with emotions, but the effects of negative expressiveness occurred in areas engaged in self-referential processes in the context of social relationships.     

Up-regulating positive emotions in everyday life: Strategies, individual differences, and associations with positive emotion and well-being

This research aimed to identify strategies people use to up-regulate positive emotions, and examine associations with personality, emotion regulation, and trait and state positive experience. In Study 1, participants reported use of 75 regulation strategies and trait emotional experience. Principal component analysis revealed three strategy domains: engagement (socializing, savoring), betterment (goal pursuit, personal growth), and indulgence (substance use, fantasy). In Study 2, participants reported state-level regulation and emotional experience. Engagement correlated with greater state and trait positive emotion, and overall greater well-being. Betterment correlated with less state, but greater trait, positive emotion. Indulgence correlated with greater state, but less trait positive emotion and overall lower well-being. This research suggests trade-offs between short-term and long-term emotional consequences of different strategies.     

Birth characteristics and developmental outcomes of infants of Mexican-origin adolescent mothers: Risk and promotive factors

Infants of adolescent mothers are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the high rate of pregnancy among Mexican-origin adolescent females in the US, the present study examined health characteristics at birth and developmental functioning at 10 months of age in a sample of 205 infants of Mexican-origin adolescent mothers. Infants were relatively healthy at birth and had near average developmental functioning at 10 months. The educational attainment of adolescents and their mothers, and infants' temperamental regulation, promoted positive developmental functioning, while the combination of low adolescent parental self-efficacy and high infant temperamental negativity was associated with greater developmental delay. Findings are discussed with respect to implications for prevention with this at-risk population of mothers and infants.     

Gender Dynamics in Mexican American Families: Connecting Mothers’, Fathers’, and Youths’ Experiences

Study goals were to examine the conditions under which congruent and incongruent patterns of parents’ division of household labor and gender role attitudes emerged, and the implications of these patterns for youth gender development. Questionnaire and phone diary data were collected from mothers, fathers, and youths from 236 Mexican American families living in the southwestern US. Preliminary cluster analysis identified three patterns: Traditional divisions of labor and traditional attitudes, egalitarian divisions of labor and egalitarian attitudes, and an incongruent pattern, with a traditional division of labor but egalitarian attitudes. MANOVAs, and follow-up, mixed- and between-group ANOVAs, revealed that these groups of families differed in parents’ time constraints, socioeconomic resources, and cultural orientations. Mothers in the congruent egalitarian group worked more hours and earned higher incomes as compared to mothers in the congruent traditional and incongruent groups, and the emergence of the incongruent group was grounded in within-family, interparental differences in work hours and incomes. Parents’ patterns of gendered practices and beliefs were linked to their youths’ housework participation, time with mothers versus fathers, and gender role attitudes. Youths in the congruent traditional group reported more traditional gender role attitudes than did youths in the congruent egalitarian and incongruent groups, and gender atypical housework participation and time with parents were only observed in the congruent egalitarian group. Findings demonstrate the utility of a within-family design to understand complex gendered phenomena, and highlight the multidimensional nature of gender and the importance of contextualizing the study of ethnic minorities.     

We're all in this together now: group performance feedback to increase classroom team data collection

This study's primary goal was to evaluate the use of performance feedback procedures delivered to a classroom team to increase daily data collection. Performance feedback (PFB) was delivered to four classroom teams responsible for the daily collection of data representing student performance during prescribed instructional activities. Using a multiple-baseline design, the effects of the team performance-feedback were evaluated for the target student, and for generalization to data collection for all classroom students. A secondary question evaluated if student on-task behavior correlated with increased data collection. Finally, social validity was investigated to evaluate team satisfaction with the PFB intervention. The results demonstrate improved data collection across all four classroom teams for the target student in each classroom and generalization within classrooms to all remaining students. Slight increases in student on-task behavior were observed in three of the four classrooms, and teacher satisfaction ratings were high.