Considerations for Culturally Competent Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression with Hispanic Patients

The purpose of this paper is to outline considerations for adapting cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to Hispanic patients who have recently immigrated, particularly those presenting with depressive symptoms. Culturally competent CBT is framed within a model originally proposed by Rogler and his colleagues (1987). The considerations outlined by the model include ensuring that treatments provide access, are selected based on compatibility with Hispanic culture, and are adapted to fit the culture. Recommendations for culturally adapting CBT include consideration of each patient's unique ethnocultural background and their treatment expectations, as well as culturally relevant interpersonal styles, values, and metaphors/language. In addition, specific strategies for conceptualizing and conducting CBT techniques are discussed.     

Understanding the link between work engagement and affective organisational commitment: The moderating effect of role stress

This study aimed to explore the moderating effect of role ambiguity and role conflict on the relationship between work engagement and affective organisational commitment. Using convenience sampling, a final sample of 179 IT-specialists of services companies in southern Spain was obtained. Moderation analyses were performed using the hierarchical regressions and bootstrapping method (Bias-Corrected confidence intervals). Results showed that work engagement was positively related to affective commitment while role ambiguity and role conflict were negatively related to it. However, only role conflict moderated the relationship between work engagement and affective commitment. That is, at high levels of role conflict, IT-specialists perceiving higher levels of work engagement reported lower levels of affective commitment. This study highlights the hindrance effect of role conflict on one of the most important consequences of work engagement: affective commitment with the organisation. An adequate definition of role and positions could help to reduce the levels of role conflict, increasing the emotional bond to the organisation.     

Prenatal daily musical exposure is associated with enhanced neural representation of speech fundamental frequency: Evidence from neonatal frequency-following responses

Fetal hearing experiences shape the linguistic and musical preferences of neonates. From the very first moment after birth, newborns prefer their native language, recognize their mother's voice, and show a greater responsiveness to lullabies presented during pregnancy. Yet, the neural underpinnings of this experience inducing plasticity have remained elusive. Here we recorded the frequency-following response (FFR), an auditory evoked potential elicited to periodic complex sounds, to show that prenatal music exposure is associated to enhanced neural encoding of speech stimuli periodicity, which relates to the perceptual experience of pitch. FFRs were recorded in a sample of 60 healthy neonates born at term and aged 12–72 hours. The sample was divided into two groups according to their prenatal musical exposure (29 daily musically exposed; 31 not-daily musically exposed). Prenatal exposure was assessed retrospectively by a questionnaire in which mothers reported how often they sang or listened to music through loudspeakers during the last trimester of pregnancy. The FFR was recorded to either a /da/ or an /oa/ speech-syllable stimulus. Analyses were centered on stimuli sections of identical duration (113 ms) and fundamental frequency (F₀ = 113 Hz). Neural encoding of stimuli periodicity was quantified as the FFR spectral amplitude at the stimulus F₀. Data revealed that newborns exposed daily to music exhibit larger spectral amplitudes at F₀ as compared to not-daily musically-exposed newborns, regardless of the eliciting stimulus. Our results suggest that prenatal music exposure facilitates the tuning to human speech fundamental frequency, which may support early language processing and acquisition.

Research Highlights

• Frequency-following responses to speech were collected from a sample of neonates prenatally exposed to music daily and compared to neonates not-daily exposed to music.
• Neonates who experienced daily prenatal music exposure exhibit enhanced frequency-following responses to the periodicity of speech sounds.
• Prenatal music exposure is associated with a fine-tuned encoding of human speech fundamental frequency, which may facilitate early language processing and acquisition.