Social preference in rats

Rats were given repeated choices between social and nonsocial outcomes, and between familiar and unfamiliar social outcomes. Lever presses on either of 2 levers in the middle chamber of a 3-chamber apparatus opened a door adjacent to the lever, permitting 45-s access to social interaction with the rat in the chosen side chamber. In Experiment 1, rats preferred (a) social over nonsocial options, choosing their cagemate rat over an empty chamber, and (b) an unfamiliar over a familiar rat, choosing a non-cagemate over their cagemate. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2 with 2 different non-cagemate rats. Rats preferred both non-cagemate rats to a similar degree when pitted against their cagemate, but were indifferent when the 2 non-cagemates were pitted against each other. Similar preference for social over nonsocial and non-cagemate over cagemate was seen in Experiment 3, with new non-cagemate rats introduced after every third session. Response rates (for both cagemate and non-cagemate rats) were elevated under conditions of nonsocial (isolated) housing compared to conditions of social (paired) housing, demonstrating a social deprivation effect. Together, the experiments contribute to an experimental analysis of social preference within a social reinforcement framework, drawing on methods with proven efficacy in the analysis of reinforcement more generally.     

A Safety and Coping Planning Intervention for Suicidal Adolescents in Acute Psychiatric Care

Transitioning from an acute psychiatric care setting to a less restrictive environment after a suicidal event is arguably the most critical period of suicide risk for adolescents, making comprehensive safety and coping plans for this population ever more critical. In this paper we provide theoretical and empirical rationale for the need for developmental adaptations to current safety planning procedures for suicidal adolescents, as well as the standardization of pediatric safety plans for broader use across settings that provide acute psychiatric care to adolescents. We describe how we developed the Adolescent Safety and Coping Plan (ASCP) using qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 adolescents and their parents, explain the specific components of the ASCP, and give a case example of the ASCP being used with a young adolescent and her parents. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the barriers and facilitators of the use of the ASCP in settings that provide acute psychiatric care, as well as the need for future research to test the ASCP with diverse adolescent and family populations and settings.     

Where Emerging Adults in the United States Find Meaning in Life

We explored the most important sources of meaning among emerging adults and whether time spent on social media had an effect on life meaning dimensions. Results showed that the majority of emerging adults mentioned family and friends when asked in an open‐ended question about things that make their life meaningful.     

Development of the infant's hand preference for visually directed reaching: Preliminary report of a longitudinal study

The development of hand preference in infancy was investigated longitudinally by using a visually-directed reaching task. Thirty-two infants, equally divided into groups of familial right- and left-handed boys and girls, were tested every 3 weeks from 24 to 39 weeks of age and once again at 52 weeks. Group trends for the development of hand preference were differentiated by familial handedness and sex of the infant. At all ages, test object position (to the infant's right or left) strongly influenced the hand used for reaching. Marked variability both between and within infants demonstrated an instability of early hand preference, an effect that could be appreciated fully only with a prospective longitudinal design. The results thus suggest that the development of hand preference for reaching is highly variable, discontinuous, and related to the interaction of sex and familial handedness.     

Student volunteer social support and infant intervention: A case study

The emphases in infant mental health have been in the three areas of supporting the mother-infant dyad through education, psychotherapy to help parents resolve emotional conflicts that interfere with the parent-infant interaction, and support during the acute crisis that follows an abnormal birth. The case described herein involves a child with a genetic defect born to competent parents, a chronic stressful situation that does not fit these categories. It became apparent in the first few months after the birth that both the child and parents were in need of some help in coping with the situation. An intervention was designed to help provide both the necessary stimulation for the baby and the needed emotional support for the family, while it acknowledged their skill and competencies as parents. This was done through the help of college student volunteers, who assisted the mother in the home. Developmental data recorded at birth, 7 months, 12 months, and 39 months indicate that the child is severely multiply handicapped. Interview data with the parents at those times document their personal and family difficulties, the eventual resolution as a family in dealing with this problem, and the importance of the volunteer help during that process.     

Psychological Well-Being and Parent-Child Relationship Quality in Relation to Child Autism: An Actor-Partner Modeling Approach

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report poor psychological well-being, including a high level of parenting stress and depressive symptoms. Little is known about the extent to which poor parent psychological well-being alters the emotional quality of the parent-child relationship in a context of child ASD. This study examined the association between actor (one's own) and partner (one's partner's) level of parenting stress and depressive symptoms and the emotional quality of the parent-child relationship using a Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) in 150 families of children with ASD, aged 5–12 years (85.7% male). Mothers and fathers were aged 38.69 (SD = 5.62) and 40.76 (SD = 6.19), respectively; 76% of mothers and 68% of fathers had a college degree. Structural equation modeling, using Analysis of Moment Structures software, was used to test Actor-Partner Interdependence Models. Results indicated that mother's level of parenting stress and depressive symptoms were associated with her own FMSS Warmth and Criticism toward the child with ASD 12 months later in negative and positive directions. Mother's level of parenting stress was also negatively associated with father's FMSS Warmth toward the child with ASD 12 months later. Finally, father's level of parenting stress was positively associated with his FMSS Criticism toward the child with ASD. Overall, findings indicate that the mother-child and father-child relationship are both impacted by parent psychological well-being in families of children with ASD; however, actor effects are stronger for mothers and partner effects were only found for fathers. Implications for interventions are discussed.     

Assessment to identify learner-specific prompt and prompt-fading procedures for children with autism spectrum disorder

Few studies have evaluated the use of assessment to identify the most efficient instructional practices for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. This is problematic as these individuals often have difficulty acquiring skills, and the procedures that may be efficient with one individual may not be for others. The experimenters conducted instructional assessments to identify the most efficient prompt type (model, partial physical, full physical) and prompt-fading procedure (progressive delay, most-to-least, least-to-most) for teaching auditory–visual conditional discriminations for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Each assessment was conducted at least twice, and a final generality test combined the most and the least efficient prompt type and prompt-fading procedure for teaching novel auditory–visual conditional discriminations. The results demonstrated learner-specific outcomes for the prompt type assessment, whereas the least-to-most prompt fading procedure was most efficient for all participants.     

Infant positioning: A brief review

The American Academy of Pediatrics (2016a) has made several recommendations regarding the safe positioning of infants by caregivers, including placing infants in a supine position for sleep and in prone for supervised periods of tummy time. However, caregivers may have difficulty adhering with these recommendations. A small, but growing, number of behavior analytic studies have examined these infant safety recommendations and strategies for increasing adherence. This review describes behavior analytic research on infant positioning and provides suggestions for future research.     

Internalizing problems and their impact on the relation between callous-unemotional traits,narcissism, and aggression

Narcissism and callous-unemotional (CU) traits have demonstrated relations with youth aggression across studies. However, different forms of narcissism and internalizing problems may exacerbate the relation between CU traits and aggression. To that end, the current study examined the degree to which interactions among internalizing problems, CU traits, and dimensions of narcissism related to aggression in a sample of 219 adolescents (83.1% males), ages 16–19, enrolled in a military-style residential program. Consistent with previous research, psychopathy-linked narcissism significantly moderated the relation between CU traits and aggression. Addtionally, self-reported aggression was highest among adolescents who endorsed high levels of CU traits, psychopathy-linked narcissism, and internalizing problems. The same pattern of results was not evident for other forms of narcissism. These results suggest that internalizing problems further increase the probability of aggression among adolescents with psychopathic tendencies (i.e., CU traits, psychopathy-linked narcissism). Further implications are discussed.