Disentangling the Role of Religiosity in Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Religion and Health - Religion is a complex and sociocultural driver of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination decisions, but its exact role has been mixed/unclear. We used a...     

Childhood predictors of adolescent substance use in a longitudinal study of children with ADHD

Children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 142) were prospectively monitored into adolescence (13-18 years old) to evaluate their risk for elevated substance use relative to same-aged adolescents without ADHD (n = 100). Probands reported higher levels of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use than did controls. Group differences were apparent for alcohol symptom scores but not for alcohol or marijuana disorder diagnoses. Within probands, severity of childhood inattention symptoms predicted multiple substance use outcomes: childhood oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) symptoms predicted illicit drug use and CD symptoms. Persistence of ADHD and adolescent CD were each associated with elevated substance use behaviors relative to controls. Further study of the mediating mechanisms that explain risk for early substance use and abuse in children with ADHD is warranted.     

Maternal Parenting and Toddler Temperament: Predictors of Early School Age Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder-Related Behaviors

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Detection of early risk for developing childhood attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms, inattention and hyperactivity, may be...     

Preferences Regarding Targeted Education and Risk Assessment in People with a Family History of Major Depressive Disorder

Genetic testing for susceptibility to major depressive disorder (MDD) is not available for clinical use at present. Given this, family history remains the best predictor for development of MDD, and family-history-based risk assessment and information about familial aspects of MDD may be useful to clients at increased risk for MDD attending for genetic counseling. This study uses a mixed-methods design to assess the information needs and preferences of people at increased familial risk for MDD. Telephone interviews were conducted with 23 individuals, who had at least one first-degree relative with MDD and were recruited through advertisements placed on depression education websites. The most preferred way to access depression information was via the internet (87 % of participants), although this preference may have been due to the internet-based recruitment method. The second most preferred dissemination strategy (56 %) was face-to-face delivery through a health professional, including genetic counselors. Individuals reported a need for information about etiology and development of MDD, reproductive decision-making, early detection of symptoms and risk-reducing strategies. Nearly all participants expressed an interest in risk assessment. The present study found evidence of a high level of interest for information targeted to people at increased familial risk for MDD. Genetic counselors are likely to be called upon increasingly to provide supportive counseling to assist clients at increased familial risk in interpreting and contextualizing such information once it becomes available.     

Executive Functioning Characteristics Associated with ADHD Comorbidity in Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders

The nature of executive dysfunction in youth with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) remains unclear, despite extensive research in samples of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To determine the relationship between DBD, ADHD, and executive function deficits in aggressive teens, adolescents with DBD and comorbid ADHD (DBD + ADHD; n = 25), DBD without ADHD (DBD-ADHD; n = 23), and healthy controls (HC; n = 25) were compared on neurocognitive tests and questionnaires measuring executive functioning. Teens with DBD + ADHD performed worse on both neurocognitive and questionnaire measures of executive function than the DBD-ADHD and HC groups. Results suggest that subgroups of DBD may exist depending on the presence or absence of comorbid ADHD, which may have implications for the selection and efficacy of treatment strategies.     

Reputation-like inference in domestic dogs (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Canis familiaris</Emphasis>)

Humans frequently interact with strangers absent prior direct experience with their behavior. Some conjecture that this may have favored evolution of a cognitive system within the hominoid clade or perhaps the primate order to assign reputations based on third-party exchanges. However, non-primate species’ acquisition of skills from experienced individuals, attention to communicative cues, and propensity to infer social rules suggests reputation inference may be more widespread. We utilized dogs’ sensitivity to humans’ social and communicative cues to explore whether dogs evidenced reputation-like inference for strangers through third-party interactions. Results indicated dogs spontaneously show reputation-like inference for strangers from indirect exchanges. Further manipulations revealed that dogs continued to evidence this ability despite reduction of specific components of the observed interactions, including reduction of visual social cues (i.e., face-to-face contact between the participants in the interaction) and the nature of the recipient (i.e., living, animate agent versus living, inanimate self-propelled agent). Dogs also continued to demonstrate reputation-like inference when local enhancement was controlled and in a begging paradigm. However, dogs did not evidence reputation-like inference when the observed interaction was inadvertent.     

Basic information processing of neurotics and stables: an experimental ERP approach to personality and distractibility

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of level of neuroticism on electrophysiological event-related potentials (ERPs) to different kinds of stimuli. The neuroticism items from the NEO-PI-R were administered to 168 female, right-handed undergraduates between 19 and 29 years of age. 20 highly neurotic and 22 highly stable persons underwent an ERP task that was designed to be a combination of an auditory P3a and a visual P3b oddball task. No significant differences in the P3a and P3b were detected. It is concluded that highly neurotic and highly stable persons do not differ in fast neurocognitive processing of neutral stimuli, and that cognitive differences between the groups may be located at another level in the sequence of information processing stages.     

Modeling certainty equivalents for imprecise gambles

We present results from two experiments on the relative importance of, and subjects' differential sensitivity to, vagueness on both probabilities and outcomes. Subjects in these studies made certainty equivalent (CE) judgments for precise and vague gambles. In the first study subjects responded to gain gambles only; in the second they judged both gain and loss gambles. Model-free analyses of the results indicate (a) a higher concern for the precision of the outcomes than that of the probabilities, (b) vagueness seeking for positive outcomes and (c) vagueness avoidance for negative outcomes and (d) no strong modal attitude toward vagueness on the probability dimension. The greater salience of the outcomes can be explained by the nature of the response mode (CEs). The reflection of attitudes towards outcome vagueness in the two domains can be explained by the distinct goals of the DMs in the two cases, which cause them to focus on the highest (most desirable) possible gain or the largest (most dreaded) conceivable loss. We propose and fit a new model of decision making with vaguely specified attributes that generalize the Prospect Theory model for the precise case. The new generalized model combines the two submodels (preference among precise lotteries and effects of vagueness) and allows estimation of the vagueness parameters. These estimated parameters are consistent with, and confirm, the patterns uncovered by the qualitative analysis.