An assessment of teratology training provided by masters level genetic counseling programs

The increasing demand in the clinical genetics setting for information about teratogen exposures has created a need for genetic counselors to have the capabilities to appropriately address patient concerns. In order to assess how training in teratogen counseling is currently being conducted, the GLaRGG Teratogen Subcommittee surveyed all 17 genetic counseling training programs in North America in September 1993. Information was obtained from training programs about coursework, resources, and clinical training. In addition, each training program was asked to provide information about how their teratogen training needs could better be met. While all programs responded that some information in their coursework applicable to teratogen counseling was provided, there was wide variation in the amount of time devoted to this topic. The programs also greatly differed in the provision of clinical training in teratogen counseling. For both coursework and clinical work, genetic counselors were the main trainers in teratogen counseling. In spite of this, fewer than 25% of training programs have a defined teratogen clinical rotation. Data from the survey are discussed and recommendations presented.     

Personal Loss,Parental Relationships,and Caregiving Intentions among Adult Siblings of Individuals with Mental Illness

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Although parents often provide care for adult children coping with serious mental illness, adult siblings are typically expected to assume caregiving...     

Outpatient behavioral management of aggressiveness in adolescents: A response cost paradigm

This study focuses on outpatient behavioral management of oppositional‐defiant teenagers that engage in aggressive behaviors. Sixteen subjects, 13 male and three female, are followed through an alternating treatment, single case design, ABCD: baseline; cognitive therapy coupled with the REST (Real Economy System for Teens) program for parental outpatient behavioral management; combined cognitive, REST, and response cost; and finally REST with response cost to control aggressive behaviors. The response cost was designed to control aggression. Response cost involved the parents identifying seven reinforcers, objects, and activities that are important to the teen. They are rank ordered, with item one being most important and item seven being least important. An aggressive act means the loss of an item for 1 year, beginning with item seven and progressing upward. This study finds that aggressive behaviors do not decrease with cognitive therapy and the REST program. When the more stringent response cost program is implemented in addition to the cognitive and REST techniques, the acts of aggression do respond to treatment. Thus, it is concluded that adding a stringent parent management response cost program offers a tool therapists can use in treating aggressive, oppositional‐defiant teenagers on an outpatient basis without the need for hospitalization. Aggr. Behav. 25:321–330, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Conventions and Rules in Literature

Views of what role convention plays in the creation and appreciation of art works gravitate towards two extremes. One view holds that works of art can be apprehended and appreciated as well as created with no reference to convention. The other claims that conventions fully determine how works of art are apprehended and are therefore necessary conditions for the creation of works of art as well as constitutive of appreciation. The former is a version of the Romantic view of art as something that appeals spontaneously to man's most profound emotions, to man's sentient nature, without making use of or needing mediating conventions. The conventionalist view denies that it is possible to respond spontaneously to art. All apprehension and appreciation of art are structured by conventions, and the reader/audience cannot go beyond these conventions because they constitute , the experience of the work of art. This paper explains the sense in which the constitutive view may be best understood.     

Gender differences in susceptibility to posttraumatic stress disorder

We examined data from a community survey of trauma exposure and DSM-IV PTSD in Winnipeg, Canada to explore factors associated with the higher rate of PTSD in women than men. Women were found to be at significantly increased risk for PTSD following exposure to serious trauma (odds ratio approximately 5), even when sexual trauma--which predominates in women--was excluded (odds ratio approximately 3). Adjusting for gender differences in the number of lifetime traumata, or in the likelihood of the trauma being associated with particular reactions to or consequences of the event (i.e. thinking that one would be killed or seriously injured; sustaining a serious physical injury; seeing someone else seriously injured or killed) did not result in a lessening of the PTSD risk in women. Women were found to be at increased risk for PTSD following nonsexual assaultive violence (e.g. mugging or other physical attack) but not following non-assaultive trauma (e.g. fire, witnessing injury to others). Understanding the basis of (and parameters for) this increased susceptibility to PTSD in women compared to men following trauma exposure should be a priority for future traumatic stress research.     

Understanding inference as a source of knowledge: children's ability to evaluate the certainty of deduction, perception, and guessing

Three experiments investigated children's understanding of inference as a source of knowledge. Children observed a puppet make a statement about the color of one of two hidden toys after the puppet (a) looked directly at the toy (looking), (b) looked at the other toy (inference), or (c) looked at neither toy (guessing). Most 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds did not rate the puppet as being more certain of the toy's color after the puppet looked directly at it or inferred its color than they did after the puppet guessed its color. Most 8 and 9-year-olds distinguished inference and looking from guessing. The tendency to explain the puppet's knowledge by referring to inference increased with age. Children who referred to inference in their explanations were more likely to judge deductive inference as more certain than guessing.     

Development of an Infrequency-Psychopathology scale for the MMPI-A: the Fp-A Scale

This article describes the development and initial validation of the Infrequency-Psychopathology scale, Fp-A, for the MMPI-A (Butcher et al., 1992). The scale parallels the Infrequency-Psychopathology scale, F(p), that has been developed for the MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989). Results demonstrated that the 40-item Fp-A scale is superior to the F scale at discriminating between faking-bad and accurate reports of psychopathology, although the improvement over F was modest, particularly when compared to the improvement found for the F(p) scale. The difference seemed to reflect the superiority of the MMPI-A F scale to the MMPI-2 F scale. Even so, the findings suggest that the identification of overreporting on the MMPI-A could potentially be enhanced by using Fp-A as an adjunct to the F scale.