Self-regulation and academic achievement in elementary school children

Self-regulation is a key construct in children's healthy and adaptive development. In this chapter, the authors situate self-regulation in a theoretical context that describes its underlying components that are most important for early school success: flexible attention, working memory, and inhibitory control. The authors review evidence that supports substantive links between these aspects of self-regulation and academic achievement in young children. They also discuss methodological challenges in reliably and validly assessing these skills (involving measures that are biased, are not applicable across broad age ranges, or triangulated) and describe some recent advances in measures of self-regulation (involving the NIH Toolbox or the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders assessment) that are reliable, ecologically valid, and predictive of children's school achievement.     

Finding the depressed object in the obsessional: a clinical study

In this paper the author explores the clinical significance of the presence of a depressed internal object in a patient with marked obsessional features, dominating the patient's internal world and restricting relations in external life. After discussing important aspects of the contribution of Freud and later writers to the study of obsessional neurosis, the author provides clinical material that shows the patient's tormented relationship to a feared depressed object that was manifested in the transference. Developing her argument, the author suggests that if the analyst does not fully grasp the primitive anxieties of the underlying state of mind she can be prone to enter into an aggressive enactment with the patient's sadistic superego. This kind of enactment may arouse excitement and triumph in the patient, but actually confirms his doubts and fears about the capacity of his object to contain him.     

Depression and anxious apprehension distinguish frontocingulate cortical activity during top-down attentional control

A network consisting of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) has been implicated in top-down attentional control. Few studies have systematically investigated how this network is altered in psychopathology, despite evidence that depression and anxiety are associated with attentional control impairments. Functional MRI and dense-array event-related brain potential (ERP) data were collected in separate sessions from 100 participants during a color-word Stroop task. Functional MRI results guided ERP source modeling to characterize the time course of activity in LDLPFC (300-440 ms) and dACC (520-680 ms). At low levels of depression, LDLPFC activity was indirectly related to Stroop interference and only via dACC activity. In contrast, at high levels of depression, dACC did not play an intervening role, and increased LDLPFC activity was directly related to decreased Stroop interference. Specific to high levels of anxious apprehension, higher dACC activity was related to more Stroop interference. Results indicate that depression and anxious apprehension modulate temporally and functionally distinct aspects of the frontocingulate network involved in top-down attention control.     

Mood and positive testing in social interaction

Why, how and when does mood influence positive testing, that is, the selection of matching questions, when people actively search for information about others they meet? In four experiments, we demonstrated that happy mood increased positive testing compared to sad mood. Experiment 1 showed that happy participants were more strongly motivated to get along and smooth the interaction to come than sad ones. In addition, evidence was provided by a mediation analysis that happy mood increased the preference for positive testing because of such an improved motivation to get along. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed that happy participants' preference for positive testing vanished when cognitive resources were limited. The preference for positive testing appeared under happy mood only when the context made salient the goal to get along (Experiments 3 and 4). Together, these results suggest that positive testing in a social‐hypothesis testing paradigm may have social values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observed maternal responses to adolescent behaviour predict the onset of major depression

Two mechanisms have been proposed regarding relations between parental responses to adolescent affective behaviours and the development of depression: the elicitation of parental negativity and the suppression of parental aggression. This study aimed to investigate the boundary conditions under which these two mechanisms operate in relation to the prospective prediction of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) onset in adolescence. A community sample of 159 adolescents (aged 11–13 years) with no history of MDD completed a family interaction assessment with their mothers, and were followed-up with a diagnostic interview 2–3 years later. Results showed that onset of MDD was prospectively predicted by the elicitation of maternal aggression in response to adolescent aggression (in girls only) and maternal dysphoria in response to adolescent aggression, as well as the suppression of maternal aggression and dysphoria in response to adolescent dysphoria. Thus, support was obtained for both the elicitation of negativity mechanism in relation to maternal responses to adolescents’ aggressive behaviours, and the suppression of aggression mechanisms in relation to maternal responses to adolescents’ dysphoric behaviours. Mothers’ responses to adolescents’ aggressive and dysphoric behaviours may differentially influence the risk of MDD onset for adolescents over time.     

Postnatal debriefing: have we thrown the baby out with the bath water?

Postnatal debriefing is offered by 78% of maternity services in the UK despite little evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that it is effective. RCTs in this area have applied debriefing as a prophylactic to all or high risk women, rather than as a treatment for women who request it. This pragmatic trial therefore evaluated existing postnatal debriefing services that provide debriefing as a treatment for women who request it. Forty-six women who met criterion A for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and requested debriefing 1.3–72.2 months (median 16 weeks) postpartum completed measures of depression, PTSD, support and negative appraisals of the birth before and one month after debriefing. Women were compared with others who gave birth in the same hospitals during the same time period (n = 34), who met criterion A for PTSD but had not requested debriefing. Results showed PTSD symptoms reduced over time in both groups but greater decreases were observed in women who attended debriefing. Debriefing also led to reduction in negative appraisals but did not affect symptoms of depression. Therefore, results suggest providing debriefing as a treatment to women who request or are referred to it may help to reduce symptoms of PTSD.     

Memory and brain volume in adults prenatally exposed to alcohol

The impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on memory and brain development was investigated in 92 African-American, young adults who were first identified in the prenatal period. Three groups (Control, n=26; Alcohol-related Neurodevelopmental Disorder, n=36; and Dysmorphic, n=30) were imaged using structural MRI with brain volume calculated for multiple regions of interest. Memory was measured using the Verbal Selective Reminding Memory Test and its nonverbal counterpart, the Nonverbal Selective Reminding Memory Test, which each yielding measures of learning and recall. For both Verbal and Nonverbal Recall and Slope, linear trends were observed demonstrating a spectrum of deficits associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. Dysmorphic individuals performed significantly poorer than unexposed controls on 5 of 6 memory outcomes. Alcohol-exposed individuals demonstrated significantly lower total brain volume than controls, as well as lower volume in a number of specific regions including hippocampus. Mediation analyses indicated that memory performance associated with effects of prenatal alcohol exposure was mediated from dysmorphic severity through hippocampal volume, particularly right hippocampus. These results indicate that the association between the physical effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and deficits in memory are mediated by volumetric reduction in specific brain regions.     

Spiritual Wellness and Depression: Testing a Theoretical Model With Older Adolescents and Midlife Adults

Overall spiritual wellness, as well as 4 individual components of spiritual wellness, has been theoretically and empirically linked with depression. Prior to this investigation, no study has examined the relationship between spiritual wellness and depression by using a 4‐component measurement model of spiritual wellness. In this study of older adolescents and midlife adults, negative correlations between 4 components of spiritual wellness and depression were found for both groups. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that for both older adolescents and midlife adults, the only significant contributing factor of spiritual wellness to depression was meaning and purpose in life.