Standards of Scientific Conduct: Are There Any?

The practice of research is full of ethical challenges, many of which might be addressed through the teaching of responsible conduct of research (RCR). Although such training is increasingly required, there is no clear consensus about either the goals or content of an RCR curriculum. The present study was designed to assess community standards in three domains of research practice: authorship, collaboration, and data management. A survey, developed through advice from content matter experts, focus groups, and interviews, was distributed in November 2010 to U.S. faculty from 50 graduate programs for each of four different disciplines: microbiology, neuroscience, nursing, and psychology. The survey addressed practices and perceived standards, as well as perceptions about teaching and learning. Over 1,300 responses (response rate of 21 %) yielded statistically significant differences in responses to nearly all questions. However the magnitude of these differences was typically small, leaving little reason to argue for community consensus on standards. For nearly all questions asked, the clear finding was that there was nothing approaching consensus. These results may be useful not so much to teach what the standards are, but to increase student awareness of the diversity of those standards in reported practice.     

“Like Drawing Into Sand”: Acceptability,Feasibility, and Appropriateness of a New e‐Mental Health Resource for Service Providers Working With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Cross‐cultural considerations and difficulties recruiting and retaining skilled workers in rural and remote regions may contribute to poorer service use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, electronic resources may provide the opportunity for remote workforces to deliver structured, evidence‐based, culturally appropriate treatments with limited training burden. The aim was to develop and determine the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of a new e‐mental health resource (the Australian Integrated Mental Health Initiative [AIMhi] Stay Strong App) for service providers working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory. Eleven semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 15 service providers and managers from a range of rural and remote primary health care service settings in the Northern Territory. All participants were given the resource to trial for at least 1 month before being interviewed about perceived barriers and enablers, acceptability, and feasibility. Thematic analysis revealed support for the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of the resource among service providers. Major themes identified included acceptability, building relationships, broad applicability, training recommendations, integration with existing systems, and constraints to implementation. This is one of the first studies to explore the acceptability of e‐mental health approaches for Aboriginal people among the remote health workforce. It is likely that e‐mental health interventions, such as the AIMhi Stay Strong App will assist services to deliver evidence‐based, structured interventions to improve well‐being for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.     

Help-Seeking Behaviors in Non-Offending Caregivers of Abused Children in the Philippines

The help-seeking process among non-offending caregivers (NOCs) of abused children particularly in the non-Western context has yet to be elucidated. The objective of the current study was to investigate what proportion of Filipino NOCs of abused children sought professional support services within 12 months following child abuse disclosure (T1) and at 12 months (T2) follow-up in the Philippines. Two further aims were to investigate NOCs’ preferred service providers and settings and to explore barriers to help-seeking. A comparison group of Filipino parents without an abused child were also recruited to compare preferences and potential barriers to help seeking for child and family problems. A total of 47 NOCs and 70 comparison parents/guardians completed questionnaires, which assessed help-seeking preferences and barriers as well as parental stress. The majority of NOCs reported seeking help, which was perceived to be helpful. Almost two thirds of NOCs indicated preference for in-person counseling relative to the comparison group of parents. The majority of NOCs preferred seeking help from social workers and psychologists. Almost one third of both parental samples reported being judged as an unfit parent as a key barrier to seeking help for family problems. The findings have implications for psychological and allied health service providers in facilitating the adjustment for families of recently abused children.     

The wane of childhood amnesia for autobiographical and public event memories

We modified Bruce, Dolan, and Phillips-Grant's (2000) threshold procedure for determining the wane of childhood amnesia. In two experiments, undergraduates labelled childhood events (e.g., your first permanent tooth came in) as know or recollect memories and estimated their age at the event's occurrence. In both studies the estimated transition from mostly know memories to mostly recollect memories was roughly 4.7 years. This transition estimate was replicated in a sample of adults (ages 24-65 years) with both Bruce et al.'s event-generation task and the Experiment 1a questionnaire. By contrast, in two experiments a transition estimate of roughly 6 years was found for undergraduates' memories of public events (e.g., the Challenger explosion). The wane of childhood amnesia appears to occur around 4.7 years.     

Longitudinal Effects of Reading Intervention on Below Grade Level,Preadolescent, Title I Students

Some claim that good and poor readers continue their trajectories despite intervention. This quasi-experimental study examined whether the READ 180 program helps general education, below-grade-level, Title I preadolescent readers improve. Participants included 82 students, grades 4–8, in public Title I elementary and middle schools. Results showed that below grade-level readers improved after intervention and attained grade-level status. Differences remained between participants and their nonintervention peers during follow-up testing. However, when examining growth trajectories, a reversal in performance between the two groups was manifested. The below-grade-level students’ mean growth between years 1 and 2 after intervention was actually greater than that of their on-grade-level peers with no intervention. The performance trajectory narrowed over time after successful intervention.     

Spoon distance fading with and without escape extinction as treatment for food refusal

Little is known about the characteristics of meals that serve as motivating operations (MOs) for escape behavior. In the current investigation, we showed that the distance at which a therapist held a spoon from a child's lips served as an MO for escape behavior. Based on these results, we implemented spoon distance fading, compared fading with and without escape extinction (EE), and compared fading plus EE to EE alone. Initially, inappropriate mealtime behavior decreased during fading, but this effect was not maintained as fading progressed. Inappropriate mealtime behavior was lower initially when we combined fading and EE relative to EE alone, but acceptance increased more rapidly with EE than with fading plus EE. These results suggest that a number of mealtime characteristics might function as MOs for escape behavior and that analyses of MOs may be useful for developing treatments for food refusal.     

Examining the differences in career thoughts of women in three low socioeconomic status groups

The authors examined differences in career thoughts of 3 groups of women from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. The 3 groups were composed of women who were not seeking employment, women attempting to obtain General Educational Development (GED) certification prior to seeking employment, and women with disabilities who were participating in readiness‐to‐work programs. Results indicated that there were significant differences in participants' career thoughts. Specifically, career thoughts of women who were not seeking employment were significantly less dysfunctional than were the career thoughts of the women who were pursuing their GED certification and those of the women with disabilities who were participating in a job‐readiness training program. The impact of negative career thoughts is discussed.