To Serve or Not to Serve: Ethical and Policy Implications

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is one of the nation's more influential health‐related non‐profit organizations. It plays a large role in shaping health policy by commissioning panels to develop “white papers” describing research and recommendations on a variety of health topics. These white paper publications are often used to help make policy decisions at the legislative and executive levels. Such a prominent institution might seem like a natural ally for policy‐related collaborative efforts. As community psychologists, we strongly endorse efforts to positively influence public policy at the national level. However, while serving on influential panels and commissions like the IOM might seem to be very much part of the ethos of our discipline, there are occasions when such institutions are pursuing a mission that inadvertently has the potential to instigate divisive friction among community activists and organizations. A case study is presented whereby I describe my decision not to accept an invitation to serve on a controversial IOM panel. I explore the ethical challenges regarding maintaining my independence from this institution and its attempt to redefine chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), as well as the process of searching for alternative avenues for collaborating with community activists to influence policy related to these debilitating illnesses.     

What elicits third-party anger? The effects of moral violation and others’ outcome on anger and compassion

People often get angry when they perceive an injustice that affects others but not themselves. In two studies, we investigated the elicitation of third-party anger by varying moral violation and others’ outcome presented in newspaper articles. We found that anger was highly contingent on the moral violation. Others’ outcome, although relevant for compassion, were not significantly relevant for anger (Study 1 and Study 2a) or less relevant for anger than for compassion (Study 2b). This indicates that people can be morally outraged: anger can be elicited by a perceived violation of moral values alone, independent of the harm done. A severe negative consequence for others is not necessary to elicit anger.     

Mathematics—a Critical Filter for STEM-Related Career Choices? A Longitudinal Examination among Australian and U.S. Adolescents

Although women have made progress in entering scientific careers in biology, they remain underrepresented in mathematically intensive fields such as physics. We investigated whether gender differences in mathematics motivation and socialisers’ perceptions impacted choices for diverse STEM careers of varying mathematical intensity. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, we tested structural equation models in which adolescents’ preferred careers related to each of physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics were predicted by prior mathematical performance, motivations, and mothers’ perceptions. We explored potential differences in gendered processes of influence using multigroup models. Samples were 331 Australian adolescents followed from 9th to 11th grade in 1998 and 277 U.S. adolescents from 9th to 12th grade in 2009–10. In both samples female adolescents preferred biological careers more than males did; male adolescents preferred physics-related careers and also mathematical careers in the Australian sample. Mothers’ perceptions were important to female and male adolescents’ mathematics motivations; gendered motivations were more evident in the Australian sample. Mathematics interest played the strongest role in male adolescents’ preferred careers, whereas actual or perceived mathematical achievements were most important for females, demonstrating the impacts of mathematical motivations on preferences for diverse STEM careers.     

Prevalence and Characteristics of Patients with Suspected Inherited Renal Cell Cancer: Application of the ACMG/NSGC Genetic Referral Guidelines to Patient Cohorts

Patients with suspected hereditary renal cell cancer (RCC) are under-referred for genetic evaluation. Characterizing the prevalence and characteristics of suspected inherited RCC is a crucial step toward advancing personalized, genetically-based cancer risk management for patients and their families. To evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of suspected inherited RCC syndromes based on consensus criteria, we performed a cross-sectional analysis of patients with a diagnosis of RCC in SEER (2001–2011, n = 105,754) and in our institutional cancer registry (2004–2013, n = 998). Consensus criteria for referral of patients with RCC for genetic evaluation from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and National Society of Genetic Counselors (ACMG/NSGC) were applied to the two cohorts. The associations between meeting referral criteria with demographic characteristics were assessed with chi-square tests. Overall, 24.0 % of the SEER cohort and 33.7 % of our institutional cohort met ACMG/NSGC referral criteria for genetic counseling. While white patients more commonly met early onset clear cell RCC criteria, black patients met papillary RCC criteria at twice the rate of whites in both cohorts (p < 0.0001). As many as 1 in 5 individuals with RCC meet referral criteria for genetic evaluation based on newly emerging guidelines, with differences in pathology noted by race. Prospective genetic testing studies utilizing emerging referral guidelines should help to refine the genetic spectrum of inherited kidney cancer. This study supports efforts to increase awareness of referral of patients with RCC for genetic counseling particularly among urologic providers.     

The antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Background and objectives: Theories of dyadic coping and empirical literature have intermittently and inconsistently highlighted antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping. The purpose of this review was to systematically identify the antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping in close personal relationships.

Design: A PRISMA-guided systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Methods: Literature searches were conducted using CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and citation pearl growing to identify studies that were relevant to the aim of the review. The search strategy and exclusion criteria led to a final sample of 46 studies that each highlighted antecedents and outcomes of dyadic coping among married couples. Each study was critically appraised and analyzed using narrative synthesis.

Results: The narrative synthesis highlighted five antecedents (learning, gender, relationship characteristics, relationship role, and cultural influences) and two outcomes (relationship functioning and personal health) of dyadic coping.

Conclusion: The review exposes inconsistencies in the conceptualization of dyadic coping, highlights a range of antecedents that influence dyadic coping, and suggests that dyadic coping can have positive benefits for relationship functioning and personal health. The findings have implications for future research and practice (e.g. when working with couples to improve relationship functioning).     

Attitudes Toward Dating Violence: How Does Sexual Identity Influence Perceptions Among College Students?

In the current study, we explore how sexual identity affects attitudes toward dating violence by utilizing a survey of 1,645 college students. We examine attitudes toward justification for relationship violence and perceptions of unhealthy relationships. It is important to explore how sexual identity influences perceptions of intimate partner violence because recent research suggests that rates of IPV among LGBT individuals are equal to or higher than IPV rates among heterosexuals (Walters, Chen, & Breiding, 2013). Additionally, non-heterosexual individuals often face different difficulties than their heterosexual counterparts when they attempt to report IPV and seek help. Considering prior research has often failed to examine how these differences influence attitudes toward relationship violence, the current study attempts to fill this void in the literature. Findings from the current study indicate that gender, more than sexuality, appears to be influencing attitudes towards IPV. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Reflecting and talking about private lives and professional consequences

The section of Part 1 of the Editorial called Arguing for autobiographical reflection and data set out an argument for the use of the sociological imagination where the emphasis is not placed on an aggregated view but on the individual voice. This voice speaks openly of its experience in the situation under examination, in this case, in the educational institution attached to some form of religious tradition. The second part of the Editorial picks up these points made earlier about the qualitative approach and clears the ground, methodologically speaking, for the range of voices in a variety of contexts and autobiographic narratives expressed in the symposium that is Part B. The voices do not speak of unthinking acceptance, of the closed mind and future: their common characteristic is questioning. It is this process that we now examine in itself.     

Interview

Much of the opposition to faith sector education revolves around a number of accusations (as set out in Roger Marples' article in Part A). To confront these accusations openly, this interview is presented as an unmediated voice of a young person who is a former pupil of a faith school. He discusses selection, his reasons for going to a faith school and the religious exposure that he experienced there. He goes to talk about his unhampered role as a devil's advocate in a faith school, whether or not he felt he was being indoctrinated, the issue of fundamentalism and his own questioning stance.     

The CBCL Bipolar Profile and Attention,Mood, and Behavior Dysregulation

Biederman and colleagues reported that a CBCL profile identified youngsters who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Some studies found that this CBCL profile does not reliably identify children who present with bipolar disorder, but nonetheless this CBCL does identify youngsters with severe dysfunction. However, the nature of the impairment of youngsters who fit this profile is unclear. The goal of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of youngsters who fit this CBCL profile. The sample included 310 youngsters referred to an outpatient psychopharmacology clinic. There were 55 youngsters who fit the CBCL profile. These youngsters were compared to 255 youngsters who did not fit the CBCL profile. Measures included the CBCL, standardized measures of aggression and ADHD symptoms, youngsters’ self-reported depression, DSM-IV diagnoses, and child and adolescent psychiatrists’ ratings of impairment and functioning. Compared to youngsters who did not fit the CBCL bipolar disorder profile, youngsters who fit the profile had significantly higher scores on all but one CBCL scale and significantly higher levels of aggression. Youngsters who fit the CBCL profile also had greater psychosocial impairment and more DSM-IV diagnoses than youngsters who did not fit the profile. Youngsters who fit the CBCL profile exhibit severe dysregulation across multiple domains of functioning including attention, affective, and behavioral dysregulation that are not easily nor efficiently captured by extant DSM-IV diagnoses. These youngsters are not uncommon and comprise slightly less than 1 in 5 referrals to a child psychiatry clinic.