Daily Parent-Adolescent Digital Exchanges

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The present study tracked adolescents via mobile phones to describe how parents and their adolescent children are using digital technologies in...     

Hostile/Helpless maternal representations in pregnancy and later child removal: A pilot study

This article presents the results of a small pilot study examining links between Hostile/Helpless (HH) representations of caregiving in pregnancy and later child removal by child protective services. The sample was drawn from a replication study of the Minding the Baby^® attachment‐based home‐visiting intervention conducted in the United Kingdom, serving young first‐time mothers in under resourced communities. The HH classification system (Lyons‐Ruth et al.) was adapted for use with the Pregnancy Interview (PI) (Slade); 26 PIs were assessed (coders blinded) in a sample that included 13 mothers whose infants were removed from custody due to anticipated or documented maltreatment within 2 years of childbirth, and 13 mothers who did not have their infants removed. Mothers whose infants were removed from their custody had significantly higher HH scores than mothers of infants who were not removed from their care (F(1, 24) = 14.500, p < .001), and the relation between overall HH classification and infant removal status was also significant (χ²(1, N = 26) = 12.462, p < .001). Results suggest that prenatal maternal caregiving representations may predict postnatal relationship disruptions, and indicate the need for larger studies further testing this prenatal approach to maltreatment risk assessment in at‐risk populations.     

Childhood self-regulatory skills predict adolescent smoking behavior

Cigarette smoking is the primary preventable cause of premature death. Better self-regulatory capacity is a key psychosocial factor that has been linked with reduced likelihood of tobacco use. Studies point to the importance of multiple forms of self-regulation, in the domains of emotion, attention, behavior, and social regulation, although no work has evaluated all of these domains in a single prospective study. Considering those four self-regulation domains separately and in combination, this study prospectively investigated whether greater self-regulation in childhood is associated with reduced likelihood of either trying cigarettes or becoming a regular smoker. Hypotheses were tested using longitudinal data from a cohort of 1709 US children participating in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics – Child Development Supplement. Self-regulation was assessed at study baseline when children ranged in age from 6 to 14 years, using parent-reported measures derived from the Behavior Problems Index and Positive Behavior Scale. Children ages 12–19 self-reported their cigarette smoking, defined in two ways: (1) trying and (2) regular use. Separate multiple logistic regression models were used to evaluate odds of trying or regularly using cigarettes, taking account of various potential confounders. Over an average of five years of follow-up, 34.5% of children ever tried cigarettes and 10.6% smoked regularly. Higher behavioral self-regulation was the only domain associated with reduced odds of trying cigarettes (odds ratio (OR) = .85, 95% confidence interval (CI) = .73–.99). Effective regulation in each of the domains was associated with reduced likelihood of regular smoking, although the association with social regulation was not statistically significant (ORs range .70–.85). For each additional domain in which a child was able to regulate successfully, the odds of becoming a regular smoker dropped by 18% (95% CI = .70–.97). These findings suggest that effective childhood self-regulatory skills across multiple domains may reduce future health risk behaviors.     

Successive incrementing non-matching-to-samples in rats: An automated version of the odor span task

The odor span task is a procedure frequently used to study remembering of multiple stimuli in rodents. A large arena is used and odor stimuli are presented using scented cups. Selection of each odor is reinforced when first presented, but not on subsequent presentations; correct selections depend on remembering which stimuli were previously presented. The use of an arena setting with manual stimulus presentation makes the odor span task labor-intensive and limits experimental control; thus, an automated version of the task would be of value. The present study used an operant chamber equipped with an olfactometer and trained rats using successive conditional discrimination procedures under an incrementing non-matching-to-samples contingency. High rates of responding developed to odor stimuli when they were session-novel with low rates of responding to subsequent presentations of that odor. Additional experiments assessed variations of the procedure to determine the role of the frequency of odor presentation and the retention interval separating sample and comparison. Discrimination was impaired with long retention intervals suggesting the importance of this variable. These findings confirmed that rats differentiate between stimuli that are session-novel and those previously encountered and support the use of an automated procedure as an alternative to the odor span task.     

Propositional Versus Structural Semantic Analyses of Medical Diagnostic Thinking

Two approaches to the study of diagnostic thinking are compared, one mainly propositional, namely that of Patel and Groen (1986), the other mainly semantic, that of Lemieux and Bordage (1986). Patel and Groen analyzed the linear dimension of cardiologists' discourses while solving a case of acute bacterial endocarditis, that is, the before and after propositional rules. A secondary analysis of two of their pothophysiological protocols is done using structural semantic techniques from Lemieux and Bordage where the vertical dimension of the discourses is analyzed, that is, the levels of meaning or semantic axes. Contrary to Patel and Groen's position, making an accurate diagnosis is not explained in terms of pure forward reasoning through networks of causal rules, but by means of networks of semantic qualities abstracted from the symptoms and signs. The semantic qualities operate in the clinician's mind in terms of binary oppositions (e.g., sudden-gradual, unilateral-bilateral) whereby each pair of properties constitutes a semantic axis (e.g., sudden-gradual). The successful diagnosticians are those who use the most diversified and pertinent set of semantic axes and, therefore, have a deeper representation of the problem.     

The Moral Problem of Risk Impositions: A Survey of the Literature

This paper surveys the current philosophical discussion of the ethics of risk imposition, placing it in the context of relevant work in psychology, economics and social theory. The central philosophical problem starts from the observation that it is not practically possible to assign people individual rights not to be exposed to risk, as virtually all activity imposes some risk on others. This is the ‘problem of paralysis’. However, the obvious alternative theory that exposure to risk is justified when its total benefits exceed its total costs faces the standard distributional challenges of consequentialism. Forms of contractualism have been proposed as a solution, but how exactly such theories can be formulated remains problematic, especially when confronted with the difficult cases of mass, novel, risk such as climate change.     

The Cambridge Car Memory Test: A task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects

Many research questions require a within-class object recognition task matched for general cognitive requirements with a face recognition task. If the object task also has high internal reliability, it can improve accuracy and power in group analyses (e.g., mean inversion effects for faces vs. objects), individual-difference studies (e.g., correlations between certain perceptual abilities and face/object recognition), and case studies in neuropsychology (e.g., whether a prosopagnosic shows a face-specific or object-general deficit). Here, we present such a task. Our Cambridge Car Memory Test (CCMT) was matched in format to the established Cambridge Face Memory Test, requiring recognition of exemplars across view and lighting change. We tested 153 young adults (93 female). Results showed high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .84) and a range of scores suitable both for normal-range individual-difference studies and, potentially, for diagnosis of impairment. The mean for males was much higher than the mean for females. We demonstrate independence between face memory and car memory (dissociation based on sex, plus a modest correlation between the two), including where participants have high relative expertise with cars. We also show that expertise with real car makes and models of the era used in the test significantly predicts CCMT performance. Surprisingly, however, regression analyses imply that there is an effect of sex per se on the CCMT that is not attributable to a stereotypical male advantage in car expertise.     

Children and Adolescents with Medically Unexplained Symptoms: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) in children and adolescents are confounding and concerning for patients, parents, and health care practitioners. Our goal was to review and summarize the literature for family therapists working with a diverse, challenging patient population coping with MUS. A search of multiple databases from 1994 to 2018 was conducted using MUS and related terms. The literature was then organized into subcategories based on its relevance to family therapists, particularly medical family therapists collaborating with primary care physicians. We conclude with a discussion about gaps in the literature and suggestions for clinical management.