Mother-Child Interactions and Preschoolers’ Emotion Regulation Outcomes: Nurturing Autonomous Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation is a complex process that begins in infancy and continues through childhood with parents’ support. Early parent-child interactions shape the way children learn emotion management. We took a sociocultural and social learning approach to exploring the specific components of mother-child interactions that are related to mothers’ perceptions of her child’s regulatory ability and the child’s observed emotion regulation. Thirty mothers and their preschool children were recruited from two New England urban areas: one community sample and one head start sample. Dyads engaged in a free play session, children completed an observed compliance task, and mothers completed a set of questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their child’s regulation. Regression analyses revealed that maternal behaviors during free play predicted child’s observed hostility (F _(2,29)?=?3.137, p?<?.05) and mothers’ perceptions of her child’s regulatory ability predicted observed child compliance (F _{(2, 17)}?=?4.990, p?<?.05). Child behaviors during play significantly predicted child’s compliance (F _(3,20)?=?4.722, p?<?.05) and child’s hostility (F _{(1, 26)}?=?9.220, p?<?.001). Maternal modeling and intentional scaffolding as well as perceptions of her child’s regulatory capacity have a powerful impact on her child’s observed regulation. Results indicate that it is particularly important for mothers of preschoolers to support autonomy while guiding socially appropriate behavior. Interventions that target improving mothers’ negative perceptions of their children, educating on appropriate preschool expectations, and facilitating preschoolers’ mature play may help mothers interact with their children in the ways that foster children’s autonomous emotion regulation.     

Sleep-related attentional bias in good, moderate, and poor (primary insomnia) sleepers

Evidence was sought of an attentional bias toward a highly representative object of the bedroom environment in good, moderate, and poor (primary insomnia) sleepers. Using a flicker paradigm for inducing change blindness, the authors briefly presented a single scene comprising a group of bedroom environment and neutral objects to participants and then briefly replaced this scene with an identical scene containing a change made to either a bedroom environment or a neutral object. In a 3 x 2 entirely between-participants design, change-detection latencies revealed a sleep-related attentional bias in poor sleepers but not in good sleepers. A possible bias in moderate sleepers was also revealed. It is suggested that attentional bias has a role in the perpetuation and possibly precipitation of primary insomnia.     

The Contributions of Personality to Organizational Behavior and Psychology: Findings,Criticisms, and Future Research Directions

Skepticism regarding the importance of personality traits as predictors of organizational behavior criteria has given way to an appreciation of the broad array of work outcomes predicted by personality. This article considers the effects of the five‐factor model (‘Big Five’) personality traits on the following work outcomes: (1) job performance; (2) work motivation; (3) job attitudes; (4) leadership; (5) power, politics, and influence; (6) stress, adaptability, and coping; (7) team effectiveness; (8) counterproductive/deviant workplace behaviors; (9) workplace accidents; and (10) conflict and negotiation. Two contemporary criticisms of personality research in organizational behavior – that the validities are small and that faking undermines the usefulness of personality inventories in employment contexts – are then evaluated. Finally, a brief agenda for future research is provided which highlights needed areas of advancement.     

A comparative study of adolescent risk assessment instruments: predictive and incremental validity

Promising new adolescent risk assessment tools are being incorporated into clinical practice but currently possess limited evidence of predictive validity regarding their individual and/or combined use in risk assessments. The current study compares three structured adolescent risk instruments, Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI), Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), and Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV), for both predictive and incremental validity with respect to general and violent recidivism. Receiver operating characteristic and hierarchical logistic regression analyses revealed that the risk tools predicted general and violent recidivism to varying degrees of accuracy, but the SAVRY offered the most in incremental validity. Clinical implications and future directions for youth risk assessment are discussed.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Adolescent NSSI: The Role of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Factors

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) occurs in approximately 10 % of adolescents. To establish effective prevention and intervention initiatives, it is important to understand onset, maintenance and cessation of NSSI. We explored whether the relationships between interpersonal factors (i.e. attachment, social support) and NSSI were mediated by intrapersonal factors (i.e. emotion regulation, self-esteem, self-efficacy). Participants were 1973 students (1414 female and 559 male) aged between 12 and 18 years (M?=?13.89, SD?=?0.97) recruited from 40 Australian high schools. Participants completed a questionnaire at two time-points with a 12-month interval. At baseline, 8.3 % of adolescents engaged in NSSI, increasing to 11.9 % at follow-up. Family support was most salient in onset, maintenance and cessation of NSSI. Attachment anxiety was related to NSSI onset. Of the intrapersonal variables, self-esteem and self-efficacy were significant in predicting onset of NSSI. Self-esteem, self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and NSSI onset. A combination of interpersonal and intrapersonal variables contributes to the onset, maintenance and cessation of NSSI in adolescence. Perceived family support appears to be an important safeguard against NSSI. Strategies targeting family functioning and teaching cognitive reappraisal techniques to adolescents may reduce the number engaging in NSSI.     

The Impact of Chronic Health Conditions as an Underlying Challenge on Couple’s Wellbeing

Chronic health conditions affect over 100 million Americans (Cano and Leonard in J Clin Psychol 62(11):1409–1418, 2006). Many clinicians are not integrating chronic physical health symptoms into psychotherapy. There is a complexity of issues that arise within the context of chronic health conditions. Making more need for couple and family therapists, whose primary focus is on a systemic family perspective, to understand how chronic health conditions are impacting family systems when they present for therapy (Canavarro and Dattilio in Contemp Fam Ther 33:87–90, 2011; Poleshuck et al. in Prof Psychol 41(4):312–318, 2010). The correlation of chronic health conditions on marriages and relationships has received limited attention in clinical research. This secondary data analysis examines the differences in overall well-being and psychological distress of individuals and couples seeking therapy who report a presence of chronic health conditions. Original research on the relationship between chronic health conditions and well-being, as measured by comparison of means, will be presented. Few studies investigate how chronic health conditions, when not the primary reason for seeking therapy, influence wellbeing and distress upon entering therapy. This study included 2742 participants from a clinical sample of individuals and couple seeking therapy in a family therapy clinic at a university training clinic. Independent t-tests, as well as ANOVA, were run to compare well-being and psychological distress of individuals and couples in the sample. Results showed significant differences in both overall wellbeing and psychological distress for both individuals who reported chronic illness for themselves, or their partners, than those that reported no chronic illness. There were also significant differences between groups on both well-being and psychological distress [F (2, 2706)?=?47.55, p?=?.00, F (2, 2697)?=?54.59, p?=?.00]. This results showed significant differences in well-being when no member of the couple has chronic health conditions, one member, or both members, with both members decreasing wellbeing significantly. This study demonstrates that chronic health conditions impact both the individual diagnosed, their partners, and is especially impactful if both members of a couple are diagnosed with chronic health conditions. Study limitations and clinical implications are also discussed.     

Validity of Adolescent and Parent Reports on the Six-Item ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-6) in Clinical Assessments of Adolescent Social Anxiety

Adolescents experiencing social anxiety often experience co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Yet, assessing for social anxiety poses challenges given the already time-consuming task of distinguishing social anxiety from other commonly co-occurring internalizing conditions (e.g., generalized anxiety, major depression). Assessors need short screening devices to identify socially anxious adolescents in need of intensive ADHD assessments. A six-item version of the ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-6) was originally developed to identify adults who likely meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD, but its psychometric properties have yet to be examined among adolescents. We tested the psychometric properties of the ASRS-6 when administered in clinical assessments for adolescent social anxiety. Eighty-nine 14–15 year old adolescents and their parents (67.4% female; 62.1% African American; 30 Clinic-Referred; 59 Community Control) completed the ASRS-6, measures of adolescent social anxiety and depressive symptoms, and parent-adolescent conflict. Adolescent self-reported and parent-reported ASRS-6 positively related with scores from established measures of social anxiety, depressive symptoms, and parent-adolescent conflict. Further, adolescent self-reported (but not parent-reported) ASRS-6 scores significantly discriminated adolescents on referral status. Adolescent self-reported (but not parent-reported) ASRS-6 scores incrementally predicted social anxiety over-and-above depressive symptoms, which commonly co-occur with social anxiety. Conversely, parent-reported (but not adolescent self-reported) ASRS-6 scores incrementally predicted parent-adolescent conflict over-and-above depressive symptoms, which commonly co-occur with conflict. When assessing adolescent ADHD symptoms, adolescents’ and parents’ reports meaningfully vary in their links to validity indicators. As such, among adolescents assessed for social anxiety, clinical assessments of adolescent ADHD symptoms should include both parent reports and adolescent self-reports.     

Emotion Regulation in Families of Children with Behavior Problems and Nonclinical Comparisons

The current study compared parents’ emotion regulation (ER) in clinical (those with a child with externalizing behavioral problems) and low-risk comparison families. Additionally, mediation models were explored with parent ER predicting child behavior problems through child ER. Participants were 60 families with children (71.7% boys; 73% Caucasian) ages 2 through 8 years (M?=?4.62; SD?=?1.69) from a rural population in the United States: 34 clinical families referred for parent training and 26 nonclinical families. A blocking design was used to balance the two groups on key demographic characteristics. Parents’ and children’s ER was assessed using parent-report surveys and structured behavioral observations. Analyses indicated higher rates of parental emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty when upset with achieving goal-directed behaviors, p?=?.01, d?=?0.67; controlling impulses, p?=?.01, d?=?0.64; limited use of ER strategies, p?=?.02, d?=?0.62; and more negative verbalizations to their child during the observed task, p?<?.01, d?=?0.73) and child emotion dysregulation (specifically, more difficulty as reported by parents, p?<?.01, d?=??2.42) in the clinical group. Mediational analyses indicated there were indirect paths from parental ER to children’s behavioral problems through child ER. Findings from this research suggest a need to measure and target ER in both parents and their children when working with families who are referred for treatment of child behavior problems.     

Functional Communication Training and Demand Fading Using Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement

Demand fading, a schedule thinning procedure for escape-maintained behaviors, typically includes an escape extinction component. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of demand fading with alternative reinforcement utilizing concurrent reinforcement schedules without extinction. During demand fading, aggression and requests emitted prior to meeting the task completion criterion were reinforced with short, low-quality breaks, but requests emitted following the task completion criterion were reinforced with long, high-quality breaks. Results suggest that concurrent schedules of reinforcement may be an effective alternative to extinction as a component of demand fading.