Maternal Depression and Family Media Use: A Questionnaire and Diary Analysis

We describe the association between postpartum depression and the quantity and content of infant media use. Households with depressed mothers viewed twice as much television as households with non-depressed mothers did, and depressed mothers appeared to derive comparatively greater pleasure from television viewing. Maternal depression was associated with an increased exposure to child-directed content by 6–9-month-old infants, although it was not associated with an increased exposure to adult-directed programming. Depressed mothers also reported being less likely to sit and talk with their children during television use or to consult outside sources of information about media. This increase in television exposure without corresponding parental involvement could negatively affect developmental outcomes.     

Time Course of Treatment Effect of OROS(R) Methylphenidate in Children With ADHD

Objective: The authors evaluated the time course of the treatment effect of Osmotic-Release Oral System methylphenidate (OROS(?) MPH) HCl (Concerta(?), Raritan, NJ) CII in children with ADHD. Method: Data were combined from two double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over, analog classroom studies in children (9-12 years) with ADHD. Participants received an individualized dose of placebo or OROS(?) MPH on two laboratory school days. Permanent Product Math Test and Swanson, Kotkin, Agler, M-Flynn, and Pelham scores were evaluated 0.5 hr before dosing and 1, 2, 4, 10, 11, and 12.5 hr post dose. Analysis used a repeated-measures mixed model. Results: Treatment effects were present at all postdose assessment points (p < .0001 for all comparisons, n = 139). Adverse events were similar to previous reports for OROS(?) MPH. Conclusion: A robust treatment effect occurred with OROS(?) MPH; onset was at 1 hr and persisted for at least 12.5 hr after dosing.     

A comparative study of general intelligence in Spanish and Moroccan samples

The aim of this study is to fill a gap in intelligence research by presenting data for the average IQ in Morocco and for a comparable sample in Spain. Adult samples were administered the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) (Raven, Court, & Raven, 2001) and scored for the total test and for the three sub-factors of gestalt continuation, verbal-analytical reasoning and visuospatial ability identified by Lynn, Allik, and Irwing (2004). The total test and the three factors have shown satisfactory reliability. Our results for the Moroccan sample show significant relationship between general intelligence factor, gestalt continuation and visuospatial ability with education level and income. Conversely, these variables have been shown to be independent for the Spanish sample. This sample obtained significantly higher scores for the four factors assessed than the Moroccan one. These differences have been found also comparing samples with the same education levels. Finally, the errors percentage for Moroccans has been higher than for Spaniards in all the items, suggesting that the level of difficulty was higher for the Moroccan sample.     

Improving the quality of medical care: the normativity of evidence-based performance standards

Poor quality medical care is sometimes attributed to physicians?? unwillingness to act on evidence about what works best. Evidence-based performance standards (EBPSs) are one response to this problem, and they are increasingly employed by health care regulators and payers. Evidence in this instance is judged according to the precepts of evidence-based medicine (EBM); it is probabilistic, and the randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the gold standard. This means that EBPSs suffer all the infirmities of EBM generally??well rehearsed problems with the external validity of research findings as well as the inferential leap from study results in the aggregate to individual patient care. These theoretical weaknesses promise to have a practical impact on the care of patients. To avoid this, EBPSs should be understood as guidelines indicative of average effectiveness rather than standards to be applied in every case.     

Executive function in Parkinson’s disease: contributions of the dorsal frontostriatal pathways to action and motivation

Disruption of the dorsal frontostriatal pathways in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with impairments in motivation, as well as in executive function. The goal of this study was to investigate whether these impairments are related and, if so, whether the disruption of frontostriatal pathways compromises the ability to process the motivational aspects of feedback in such tasks. In Experiment 1, informative feedback improved the performance of young, healthy participants in a task-switching paradigm. This task-switching paradigm was then used in Experiment 2 to test whether feedback would improve the performance of 17 PD patients and age-matched controls. The PD group benefitted from feedback to the same degree as control participants; however, depression scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were significantly related to feedback usage, especially when response selection demands were high. Regardless of feedback, PD patients were more impaired when response demands were high than in an equally difficult condition with low action demands. These results suggest that response selection is a core impairment of insufficient dopamine to the dorsal frontal striatal pathways.     

Emotional regulation of fertility decision making: What is the nature and structure of "baby fever"?

Baby fever-a visceral physical and emotional desire to have a baby-is well known in popular culture, but has not been empirically studied in psychology. Different theoretical perspectives suggest that desire for a baby is either superfluous to biological sex drives and maternal instincts, a sociocultural phenomenon unrelated to biological or evolutionary forces, or an evolved adpatation for regulating birth timing, proceptive behavior, and life history trajectories. A series of studies (involving 337 undergraduate participants and 853 participants from a general population Internet sample) found that: (a) a simple scale measure could elicit ratings of desire frequency; (b) these ratings exhibited significant sex differences; (c) this sex difference was distinct from a general desire for sexual activity; and (d) these findings generalize to a more diverse online population. Factor analyses of ratings for desire elicitors/inhibitors identified three primary factors underlying baby fever. Baby fever appears to be a real phenomenon, with an underlying multifactorial structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Does understanding relational terminology mediate effects of intervention on compare word problems?

The purpose of this study was to assess whether understanding relational terminology (i.e., more, less, and fewer) mediates the effects of intervention on compare word problems. Second-grade classrooms (N=31) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: researcher-designed word-problem intervention, researcher-designed calculation intervention, or business-as-usual (teacher-designed) control. Students in word-problem intervention classrooms received instruction on the compare problem type, which included a focus on understanding relational terminology within compare word problems. Analyses, which accounted for variance associated with classroom clustering, indicated that (a) compared with the calculation intervention and business-as-usual conditions, word-problem intervention significantly increased performance on all three subtypes of compare problems and on understanding relational terminology, and (b) the intervention effect was fully mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for one subtype of compare problems and partially mediated by students' understanding of relational terminology for the other two subtypes.     

Leader Positivity and Follower Creativity: An Experimental Analysis

Using an experimental research design, 191 working adults were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions in order to test a theoretical model linking leader and follower positive psychological capital (PsyCap). Multiple methods were used to gather information from the participants. We found when leader PsyCap was manipulated experimentally, it was positively related to follower PsyCap. Subsequently, follower PsyCap was significantly related to employee's originality of ideas; one important component of creativity in the workplace. We discuss the theoretical contributions of linking leader and follower PsyCap in what emerges as a directional contagion effect, and the mediating role of follower PsyCap in enhancing follower creative task performance. Further, employee selection and development as well as leadership development practical implications are discussed. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and future research directions.     

Religious Diversity in Mexico: Socioeconomic Attainment and Family Structure

Mexico has experienced dynamic changes in its religious landscape, but relatively little is known about the ways in which the affiliates of the diverse religious groups differ in their socioeconomic and family characteristics. This paper examines religious group differences in key demographic indicators of socioeconomic status and family structure using the 2000 Mexican Census. The changing patterns of religious affiliation in Mexico signal increasing religious, socioeconomic and familial diversity. Non-Christians and Mormons stand out for having higher scores on education and the wealth index relative to other religious groups. Most groups have lower rates of consensual unions and higher rates of marriage than do Catholics. These same groups also tend to have larger families and lower divorce/separation. These trends seem inconsistent with the Catholic teachings about marriage, divorce and contraception. Apparently, new groups are attracting adherents who have family orientations that differ from main-stream Mexican society.