Cross-sectional and prospective associations between cognitive appraisals and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms following stroke

This study examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between cognitive appraisals and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following stroke. While in hospital, stroke patients (n=81) completed questionnaires assessing cognitive appraisals (i.e., negative cognitions about the self, negative cognitions about the world, and self-blame) and PTSD symptoms. PTSD symptoms were assessed again 3 months later when all patients had been discharged from hospital (n=70). Significant correlations were found between the time 1 measures of negative cognitions about the self and the world, but not self-blame, and the severity of PTSD symptoms measured at time 1 and at time 2. Regression analyses revealed that cognitive appraisals explained a significant amount of variance in the severity of PTSD symptoms at time 1, with negative cognitions about the self-emerging as a significant predictor. In contrast, time 1 cognitive appraisals were unable to explain additional variance in time 2 PTSD severity over and above that explained by time 1 PTSD severity. The findings therefore provide only weak support for Ehlers and Clark's cognitive model of PTSD.     

Temperament and externalizing behavior: social preference and perceived acceptance as protective factors

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of social preference and perceived acceptance as moderators of the relation between child temperament and externalizing behavior. Participants included 399 children evaluated at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten assessments. Pre-kindergarten children characterized by high temperamental Surgency/Extraversion were more likely to exhibit hyperactivity and aggression in the kindergarten classroom. In addition, kindergarten perceived acceptance and social preference moderated the relation between pre-kindergarten Surgency/Extraversion and kindergarten hyperactivity for girls only. Girls who were characterized by high temperamental Surgency/Extraversion, high perceived acceptance, and low social preference were at risk for higher levels of teacher-reported and peer-nominated hyperactivity. In contrast, accurately high perceived acceptance was a protective factor for high temperamental Surgency/Extraversion. Findings are discussed in terms of risk and protective factors for externalizing behavior.     

Positive attributional style,life events and their effect on children's mood: Prospective study

The present study extended previous research into the role of cognitive style in predicting depressive symptoms in children by examining positive attributional style for positive events in a prospective manner, with a focus on the influence of prior life experience. A non‐clinical sample of 102 children (aged 10–12 years) was recruited. Participants completed self‐report measures of depression, attributional style, stressful life events, and positive life events on two occasions (approximately 6 months apart). Positive attributional style for positive events moderated the relationship between negative life events and follow‐up depressive symptoms. Number of positive events did not significantly moderate the negative life events–depression symptoms relationship although there was a trend in the expected direction. Positive attributional style for positive events appeared to act as both a mediator and moderator in the positive events–depression symptoms relationship. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cognitive-behavioural therapy for young children with anxiety disorders: Comparison of a Child + Parent condition versus a Parent Only condition

The present study compared the efficacy of a group-based cognitive-behavioural treatment (GCBT) delivered exclusively to parents of young anxious children (between 4 and 8 years of age) with the same intervention delivered to both children and parents, relative to a Wait-list Control condition. Parents of children in the Parent Only condition (N = 25) received 10 weekly sessions of GCBT whereas children and parents in the Parent + Child condition (N = 24) each received 10 weekly sessions of GCBT. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that both active treatment conditions were superior to the Wait-list condition (N = 11), with 55.3% of children in the Parent Only condition and 54.8% of children in the Parent + Child condition no longer meeting criteria for their principal diagnosis at post-treatment. These treatment gains were maintained in both treatment conditions at six-month and 12-month follow-up assessments. There were no significant differences between the two active conditions on other outcome measures including parental psychopathology and parenting style. However, an unexpected finding was that parenting satisfaction and to some extent parenting competence reduced significantly from pre- to post-treatment regardless of the active treatment condition. The present results suggest that GCBT delivered exclusively to parents of young anxious children may be a viable treatment alternative for improving accessibility to efficacious treatments for children with anxiety disorders and for reducing costs associated with mental health care delivery.     

Temporal Discounting of Hypothetical Monetary Rewards by Adolescents,Adults, and Older Adults

The Psychological Record - The present experiment examined temporal discounting across 3 different age bands: adolescents, adults, and older adults (mean ages 14, 46, and 73 years, respectively). A...     

Dyslexic and nondyslexic reading fluency: Rapid automatized naming and the importance of continuous lists

Rapid automatized naming (RAN; Denckla & Rudel, 1976) tasks are consistent predictors of fluency that also discriminate between dyslexic and nondyslexic reading groups. The component processes of RAN that are responsible for its relationship with reading ability remain underspecified, however. We report a study on dyslexic and nondyslexic adult groups that experimentally manipulated RAN formats to elucidate how different components of RAN differentially influence dyslexic and nondyslexic performance. The dyslexic group showed a pervasive deficit in rapid access of individually presented items. Additionally, they showed a significant impairment when multiple items were presented, whereas nondyslexic readers showed marginal facilitation for this format. We discuss the implications of these findings with respect to reading-group differences in reading fluency.     

Heroin addicts reporting previous heroin overdoses also report suicide attempts

Nonfatal heroin overdoses and suicide attempts are both common among heroin addicts, but there is limited knowledge about the association between them. The sample in the present study consisted of 149 regular heroin users in Malmö, Sweden. Out of these 98 had taken an unintentional heroin overdose at some time and 51 had made at least one attempt to commit suicide (but not using heroin). Suicide attempts were significantly more common among those who had taken unintentional overdoses as compared with those who had never taken any overdose (p < 0.01). The more overdoses, the greater the risk of suicide attempt.     

Mainland Chinese and Canadian adolescents’ judgments and reasoning about the fairness of democratic and other forms of government

This study examined the judgments and reasoning of adolescents (ages 12–19 years) from three sites in urban and rural China (n = 270) and in an urban Canadian comparison sample (n = 72), about the fairness of various forms of democratic and non-democratic government. Adolescents from both China and Canada preferred democratic forms of government, such as representative or direct democracy, to non-democratic systems, such as a meritocracy and an oligarchy of the wealthy, at all ages. Adolescents appealed to fundamental democratic principles, such as representation, voice, and majority rule, to justify their judgments. Similar age-related patterns in judgments and reasoning were found across cultures and across diverse settings within China.     

Validation of the SASB Introject Surface in a Norwegian clinical and nonclinical sample

In this study, we examined the reliability and construct validity of the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior Introject Surface, Intrex long form A (SASB-IS; Benjamin, 1995) in 2 Norwegian samples. The fit of the 8 SASB-IS scales to the structural requirements of a circumplex model with relaxed equal spacing constraints was reasonably good in an outpatient sample, but poor in a normal reference sample. The deviations from the equal spacing based on an ideal circumplex model, however, seem to have minimal implications for the utility of the instrument in clinical assessment. The reliability of the SASB-IS was acceptable on most scales, but two scales had unacceptable low reliability. Correspondence with external criteria supported the validity of the SASB-IS in both samples. Profile patterns related to different segments of the introject circumplex model were systematically related to severity of psychopathology: Hostile and accepting patterns of self-relatedness formed polar opposites; control patterns and intermediate patterns gave intermediate pathology scores.     

Age trends in stimulus overselectivity

Stimulus overselectivity refers to the phenomenon whereby stimulus control over behavior is exerted only by a limited subset of the total number of stimuli present during discrimination learning. It often is displayed by individuals with autistic spectrum disorders or learning disabilities, but is not exclusive to those groups. The present studies investigated the impact of aging on stimulus control and overselectivity. Three age groups--18-22, 47-55, and 70-80 year olds-were studied in two experiments. All participants were trained on a simple discrimination task, randomly assigned to one of two conditions (either with or without a distractor task), and then tested for the emergence of overselectivity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2 responding controlled by the overselected stimulus elements was reduced by introducing a verbal punisher. In subsequent tests, control of behavior by the previously underselected elements from Experiment 1 was enhanced across the two younger age groups but not the oldest group of participants. The results are discussed in relation to the attention-deficit and overshadowing accounts of overselectivity.