Exposure to Bullying and General Psychopathology: A Prospective,Longitudinal Study

Although there is mounting evidence that the experience of being bullied associates with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms, it is not known yet whether the identified associations are specific to these symptoms, or shared between them. The primary focus of this study is to assess the prospective associations of bullying exposure with both general and specific (i.e., internalizing, externalizing) factors of psychopathology. This study included data from 6,210 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Child bullying was measured by self-report at ages 8 and 10 years. Child psychopathology symptoms were assessed by parent-interview, using the Development and Well-being Assessment (DAWBA) at ages 7 and 13 years. Bullying exposure significantly associated with the general psychopathology factor in early adolescence. In particular, chronically victimized youth exposed to multiple forms of bullying (i.e., both overt and relational) showed higher levels of general psychopathology. Bullying exposure also associated with both internalizing and externalizing factors from the correlated-factors model. However, the effect estimates for these factors decreased considerably in size and dropped to insignificant for the internalizing factor after extracting the shared variance that belongs to the general factor of psychopathology. Using an integrative longitudinal model, we found that higher levels of general psychopathology at age 7 also associated with bullying exposure at age 8 which, in turn, associated with general psychopathology at age 13 through its two-year continuity. Findings suggest that exposure to bullying is a risk factor for a more general vulnerability to psychopathology.

     

More Precise Estimation of Lower-Level Interaction Effects in Multilevel Models

In hierarchical data, the effect of a lower-level predictor on a lower-level outcome may often be confounded by an (un)measured upper-level factor. When such confounding is left unaddressed, the effect of the lower-level predictor is estimated with bias. Separating this effect into a within- and between-component removes such bias in a linear random intercept model under a specific set of assumptions for the confounder. When the effect of the lower-level predictor is additionally moderated by another lower-level predictor, an interaction between both lower-level predictors is included into the model. To address unmeasured upper-level confounding, this interaction term ought to be decomposed into a within- and between-component as well. This can be achieved by first multiplying both predictors and centering that product term next, or vice versa. We show that while both approaches, on average, yield the same estimates of the interaction effect in linear models, the former decomposition is much more precise and robust against misspecification of the effects of cross-level and upper-level terms, compared to the latter.     

Why are some people’s names easier to learn than others? The effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations

Using synthetic faces that varied along four perceptual dimensions (Wilson, Loffler, & Wilkinson, 2002), we examined the effects of face similarity on memory for face-name associations. The nature of these stimuli allowed us to go beyond the categorical similarity manipulations used in previous verbal associative memory studies to trace out the parametric relation between similarity and various performance measures. In Experiment 1, we found that recall performance diminished as a function of how many studied faces were in the vicinity of the cue face in similarity space. Also, incorrect recalls were more likely to come from nearby positions in face space. Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, demonstrated analogous effects with a set of more distinguishable, photorealistic faces, and in an associative recognition task. These results highlight the similarity between associative recall and associative recognition, and between face-name association and other domains of associative memory.     

Adult attachment and attention to positive and negative emotional face expressions

The present study investigated the relation between adult attachment styles and attention for happy, angry, and neutral emotional face expressions. Using a modified version of the exogenous cueing paradigm, we found that the combination of high attachment anxiety and high attachment avoidance was associated with reduced attention for angry faces. We also observed that anxious people tended to orient attention away from happy faces, especially in combination with high scores on attachment avoidance. These findings replicate and extend the results of a previous study and provide additional information on the role of attention in adult attachment.     

Object-location memory: A lesion-behavior mapping study in stroke patients

Object-location memory is an important form of spatial memory, comprising different subcomponents that each process specific types of information within memory, i.e. remembering objects, remembering positions and binding these features in memory. In the current study we investigated the neural correlates of binding categorical (relative) or coordinate (exact) position information with objects in memory. Therefore, an object-location memory battery was used, including different task conditions assessing object-location memory, i.e. memory for position information per se, and binding object information with coordinate and categorical position information. Sixty-one stroke patients with focal brain lesions were examined and compared with 77 healthy matched controls. The lesion subtraction method was used to define the area of overlap. Results indicate an important role of the left posterior parietal cortex in the binding of both categorical and coordinate positions with object information. Additionally, the hippocampus seems important for categorical object-location memory. This suggests that categorical and coordinate object-location memory depend on similar cognitive and neural systems.     

Bootstrap confidence intervals in multi‐level simultaneous component analysis

Multi‐level simultaneous component analysis (MLSCA) was designed for the exploratory analysis of hierarchically ordered data. MLSCA specifies a component model for each level in the data, where appropriate constraints express possible similarities between groups of objects at a certain level, yielding four MLSCA variants. The present paper discusses different bootstrap strategies for estimating confidence intervals (CIs) on the individual parameters. In selecting a proper strategy, the main issues to address are the resampling scheme and the non‐uniqueness of the parameters. The resampling scheme depends on which level(s) in the hierarchy are considered random, and which fixed. The degree of non‐uniqueness depends on the MLSCA variant, and, in two variants, the extent to which the user exploits the transformational freedom. A comparative simulation study examines the quality of bootstrap CIs of different MLSCA parameters. Generally, the quality of bootstrap CIs appears to be good, provided the sample sizes are sufficient at each level that is considered to be random. The latter implies that if more than a single level is considered random, the total number of observations necessary to obtain reliable inferential information increases dramatically. An empirical example illustrates the use of bootstrap CIs in MLSCA.     

Timed performance weaknesses on computerized tasks in pediatric brain tumor survivors: A comparison with sibling controls

With more children surviving a brain tumor, insight into the late effects of the disease and treatment is of high importance. This study focused on profiling the neurocognitive functions that might be affected after treatment for a pediatric brain tumor, using a broad battery of computerized tests. Predictors that may influence neurocognitive functioning were also investigated. A total of 82 pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTSs) aged 8–18 years (M = 13.85, SD = 3.15, 49% males) with parent-reported neurocognitive complaints were compared to a control group of 43 siblings (age M = 14.27, SD = 2.44, 40% males) using linear mixed models. Neurocognitive performance was assessed using measures of attention, processing speed, memory, executive functioning, visuomotor integration (VMI), and intelligence. Tumor type, treatment, tumor location, hydrocephalus, gender, age at diagnosis, and time since diagnosis were entered into regression analyzes as predictors for neurocognitive functioning. The PBTSs showed slower processing speeds and lower intelligence (range effect sizes .71–.82, p < .001), as well as deficits in executive attention, short-term memory, executive functioning, and VMI (range effect sizes .40–.57, p < .05). Older age at assessment was associated with better neurocognitive functioning (B = .450, p < .001) and younger age at diagnosis was associated with lower intelligence (B = .328, p < .05). Medical risk factors, e.g., hydrocephalus, did not show an association with neurocognitive functioning. Late effects in PBTSs include a broad range of neurocognitive deficits. The results suggest that even PBTSs that were traditionally viewed as low risk for neurocognitive problems (e.g., surgery only, no hydrocephalus) may suffer from decreased neurocognitive functioning.     

Parent-Professional Alliance and Outcomes of Child,Parent, and Family Treatment: A Systematic Review

This review systematically explored research examining the relation between parent-professional alliance and outcomes of psychosocial treatments provided to children, and their parents and families. Study findings and methodological characteristics were reviewed to investigate the evidence linking the alliance between parents and professionals to outcomes of child, parent, and family treatment as well as to identify factors that may influence the alliance-outcome association. A systematic review of the literature was conducted that included a search of three electronic databases using specified search terms, followed by a hand search to identify relevant studies. A total of 46 studies (37 published articles and 9 unpublished dissertations) met inclusion criteria. Overall, the findings indicated that higher levels of parent-professional alliance were significantly associated with improved clinical outcomes and stronger treatment engagement. However, some studies found that the parent-professional alliance was not significantly related to clinical outcomes or treatment engagement, and a few studies showed that higher levels of alliance were related to less positive clinical outcomes and lower levels of treatment engagement. Several theoretical (problem type, child age, parent sex) and methodological (source and timing of alliance measurement, alliance-outcome informants, outcome domain, timing of outcome measurement) factors were identified that could influence the alliance-outcome association. Together, our findings emphasize the importance of alliance awareness when working with parents as well as a need for future studies to investigate factors influencing the quality of the parent-professional alliance and alliance-outcome association in child, parent, and family treatment.     

Fearing shades of grey: individual differences in fear responding towards generalisation stimuli

Individual differences in fear generalisation have been proposed to play a role in the aetiology and/or maintenance of anxiety disorders, but few data are available to directly support that claim. The research that is available has focused mostly on generalisation of peripheral and central physiological fear responses. Far less is known about the generalisation of avoidance, the behavioural component of fear. In two experiments, we evaluated how neuroticism, a known vulnerability factor for anxiety, modulates an array of fear responses, including avoidance tendencies, towards generalisation stimuli (GS). Participants underwent differential fear conditioning, in which one conditioned stimulus (CS+) was repeatedly paired with an aversive outcome (shock; unconditioned stimulus, US), whereas another was not (CS?). Fear generalisation was observed across measures in Experiment 1 (US expectancy and evaluative ratings) and Experiment 2 (US expectancy, evaluative ratings, skin conductance, startle responses, safety behaviours), with overall highest responding to the CS+, lowest to the CS? and intermediate responding to the GSs. Neuroticism had very little impact on fear generalisation (but did affect GS recognition rates in Experiment 1), in line with the idea that fear generalisation is largely an adaptive process.