Longitudinal Evaluation of the Role of Academic and Social Impairment and Parent-Adolescent Conflict in the Development of Depression in Adolescents with ADHD

Older adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a significantly increased likelihood of developing comorbid depression. It is important to evaluate factors during the early adolescent period that may contribute to this risk. A predominant theory is that impairment and failure experiences lead to the development of low-self efficacy and depression, and that parent and family factors also play a role. In a sample of 326 young adolescents with ADHD (Mage?=?12), the present study evaluated whether parent-adolescent conflict mediated the association between social and academic impairment and the development of depression. This study builds upon prior work by evaluating these associations longitudinally and by using a multi-rater approach, including the parent, adolescent, and teacher perspectives. Social and academic impairment directly predicted depression controlling for baseline levels of depression and change in ADHD symptoms. The association between social impairment and depression was partially mediated by parent-adolescent conflict. Mediation through conflict was not found for academic impairment, and the association between academic impairment and depression was no longer significant when accounting for conflict. These findings highlight the importance of social impairment in the development of depression in adolescents with ADHD. Caregivers may play an important role in determining whether adolescents with ADHD internalize social impairment and failure experiences and develop depressive symptoms. Implications of these findings in terms of the importance of interventions focused on parent-adolescent conflict are discussed.     

Perceptions of Hospitalization by Children with Chronic Illnesses and Siblings

Understanding children’s perceptions of their illnesses and functioning when they are undergoing medical procedures remains an important area for research. Further research about siblings’ perceptions will also provide knowledge about how they are coping with a brother or sister’s chronic illness. The current study examined the perceptions of children with illnesses and their siblings using a play interview. Themes in the data indicated resilience in child functioning for both patients and siblings. Children with chronic illnesses could experience pain, which often related to fears and other negative feelings about hospitalization and potentially doctors or nurses, if they were administering painful procedures. Distraction and prayer were coping tools for patients. However, most patients believed their illness and recovery would be a “long journey.” Brothers and sisters of children with chronic illnesses could experience loneliness. A more common report was a strong desire to help and be a support for a brother or sister with an illness. Support from parents was critical for both patients and siblings and both typically enjoyed child life activities. A member-checking process, with a different group of children with illnesses and siblings, was used to audit themes discovered after reviewing play interviews. The audit process supported the positive and negative themes in the data. In the future, examining the impact of magical thinking on outcomes and conducting studies after the children have gained distance from medical trauma will be important. Moreover, increasing a focus on resilience as a hallmark of children’s functioning remains another area for further research.     

Intergenerational Continuity in Qualities of the Parent–Child Relationship: Mediating and Moderating Mechanisms

Intergenerational continuity in parenting quality has been demonstrated but the mechanisms underlying this continuity are less understood. This study investigated whether the offspring personality and years of education mediate the continuity in qualities of the parent–child relationship and whether offspring personality moderates this association. The sample comprised 1308 Finnish offspring (G2; 62% female) and their mothers (G1). G1 (Mean age?=?37.7) reported self-perceived qualities of the parent–child relationship in terms of emotional warmth and acceptance towards G2 aged 3–18 years in 1980. Thirty-two years later, once having become parents themselves, G2 (Mean age?=?42.9) self-rated their own qualities of the parent–child relationship towards their children using the same scales. Between these follow-ups, G2 self-rated their personality (consisting of temperament and character traits) using the Temperament and Character Inventory and reported years of education. Results indicated that G2 character traits—Self-directedness and Cooperativeness—partially mediated the intergenerational continuity in self-perceived emotional warmth and explained 16% of this association. No mediating role of G2 temperament traits was found (all ps?>?.240). Character traits accounted for the indirect association better than education in a multiple mediator model. Moreover, no moderating role of either temperament or character traits was found (all ps?≥?.064). Study findings show that warm and accepting qualities of the parent–child relationship in childhood are related to offspring character traits that reflect personality maturity in adulthood, which in turn would predict their own positive parent–child relationship later in life.     

Suicide Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Is Marriage a Protective Factor for Veterans?

Alarming numbers of military veterans end their lives each day which has a profound effect on the military population. This study examines a sample (N?=?434) of suicide-exposed (i.e., personally knowing someone who has died by suicide) veterans to determine whether the proportion of individuals who report high impact from suicide exposure and those who have clinically-significant posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms is related to marital status. Using Hill’s (Social Casework 49: 139–150, 1958) ABC-X model for conceptualizing the relationships between variables, mean scores for posttraumatic stress disorder were significantly different between groups, and the odds of a married veteran reporting high-impact suicide exposure were 2.19 times lower than the odds of a single veteran reporting high-impact. Likewise, the odds of a veteran with high-impact suicide exposure having clinically-significant posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were 10.04 times higher than veterans with low-impact suicide exposure. Findings indicate that veterans who are married are less likely to be highly-affected by another individual’s suicide. Thus, marriage is a protective factor for suicide-exposed veterans.     

Mothers’ Mental Health Treatment Associated with Greater Adolescent Mental Health Service Use for Depression

Despite concerns surrounding depression in adolescence and the existence of effective treatments, adolescent depression often goes untreated. In 2014, only 41.2% of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode (MDE) received mental health treatment. Parents play a key role in adolescents’ treatment utilization. We examined whether among mothers with any mental illness, mothers’ utilization of mental health treatment was associated with greater likelihood of their adolescent children who experienced an MDE receiving mental health treatment. Using nationally representative data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2008–2014), we performed logistic regression analysis to model the odds of adolescents (aged 12 to 17 years) with a past year MDE receiving any mental health treatment in the past year as a function of their mothers’ mental health treatment utilization in the past year, adjusting for control variables. The rate of adolescent treatment utilization was 66% when mothers had utilized treatment, as compared to 45% when mothers did not utilize treatment (p?<?0.001). The odds of an adolescent with an MDE receiving mental health treatment were two times greater when the mother received mental health treatment as compared to adolescents whose mothers did not receive any mental health treatment (OR?=?2.09, 95% CI [1.04, 4.17]). There was no effect of adolescent gender (OR?=?1.15, 95% CI [0.40, 3.28]) or interaction between gender and mothers’ treatment (OR?=?0.95, 95% CI [0.26, 3.46]). Barriers to adolescent mental health treatment may be lower when mothers receive mental health treatment.     

Understanding the School Experience of African-American Homeless Children

Homelessness is a devastating problem that breeds far-reaching negative impacts on all aspects of children's lives, including their school experience. Fifteen homeless, African-American children in grades 3 through 6 were interviewed about their experiences at school, as well as their future educational and career aspirations. Findings of a grounded theory analysis reveal that these children struggled to envision a safe future through seeking predictability, personal connections, and academic achievement, and provide insight for interventions. The study examines the ways the children constructed meaning out of their school experience, understood their transitions, and set life goals. By understanding the ways these youth experience their school experience, psychologists, counselors, and educators can be better equipped to serve their needs by providing support services that support their development, by developing educational practices that shape realistic educational goals, and by moving toward systemic change through collaborating with administrators and other stakeholders.     

Development of a Behavioral Activation–Based Intervention for Cigarette-Smoking Young Adults

Quitting smoking during young adulthood can substantially reduce tobacco-related morbidity and mortality later in life. Depressive symptomatology is prevalent among smokers and increases risk for poor smoking cessation outcomes. However, few integrated behavioral interventions simultaneously target smoking and depressive symptoms and rarely have young smokers been included in the development of these interventions. In this paper we describe an 8-session behavioral activation–based treatment for smoking (BATS; MacPherson et al., 2010) adapted for youth. We conducted a series of focus groups with young adult smokers with depressive symptoms in order to modify treatment manuals to be developmentally appropriate. Subsequently, we completed a small pilot group (n = 5) of the intervention to provide preliminary data on feasibility, acceptability, and outcomes. We provide a case series of the participants in order to provide clinical illustrations of how the modified BATS treatment was implemented among young adults. Most pilot study participants exhibited smoking abstinence and smoking reductions at the end of treatment, as well as improvement in depressive symptoms and maintenance of levels of activation and environmental reward. Participants provided positive qualitative constructive feedback regarding the intervention.     

Caregivers of School-aged Children with Autism: Social Media as a Source of Support

Support groups provide parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with additional support which they may not receive from health care professionals. Rapid technological growth has increased the opportunity for parents to access information and support. In this study, we used a qualitative phenomenological design to explore the use of a social media support group, on WhatsApp, to provide support to parents of children with ASD. We used convenience sampling to select six participants who had a child diagnosed with ASD who was in the foundation or intermediate phase at school and between the ages of 5 and 12 years, had been a part of the WhatsApp support group for 6 months or longer, and lived in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data analysis revealed eight emergent themes, (a) communication support, (b) behavior support, (c) feeding support, (d) emotional support, (e) informational support, (f) the presence of a professional, (g) positive experiences in the group, and (h) limitations of the group. Findings indicate managing behavioral difficulties and emotional support for caregivers were the core functions of the group, and having a professional on the group served as a valuable resource. The use of a social media support group on WhatsApp provided ongoing support to parents of children with ASD, implying that such a group may have clinical significance for use by practitioners as well as the creation of similar groups on other platforms.     

The effects of familiarity on thought--action fusion

The present study examined whether beliefs about the importance of thoughts (i.e., thought–action fusion; TAF) are related to the target subject of the negative thought. One hundred and seven undergraduate students were randomly assigned to imagine either a beloved relative or a stranger being diagnosed with cancer and provided in vivo ratings of anxiety, likelihood, moral wrongness, urge to neutralize, and how upsetting the event would be if it occurred. Results indicated that thinking of a relative being diagnosed with cancer provoked more distress, urges to neutralize, and higher estimates of likelihood, as well greater use of mental neutralizing behaviors, compared to thinking of a stranger. Contrary to our prediction, the groups did not differ in their ratings of the moral wrongness. These findings broadly support the assertion that the more personally significant a negative intrusive thought, the more it will provoke distress and urges to neutralize. Results are discussed in terms of the cognitive model of obsessions and clinical implications are addressed.     

Where cognitive development and aging meet: face learning ability peaks after age 30

Research on age-related cognitive change traditionally focuses on either development or aging, where development ends with adulthood and aging begins around 55 years. This approach ignores age-related changes during the 35 years in-between, implying that this period is uninformative. Here we investigated face recognition as an ability that may mature late relative to other abilities. Using data from over 60,000 participants, we traced the ability to learn new faces from pre-adolescence through middle age. In three separate experiments, we show that face learning ability improves until just after age 30 – even though other putatively related abilities (inverted face recognition and name recognition) stop showing age-related improvements years earlier. Our data provide the first behavioral evidence for late maturation of face processing and the dissociation of face recognition from other abilities over time demonstrates that studies on adult age development can provide insight into the organization and development of cognitive systems.