The Establishment of Core Competencies for Canadian Genetic Counsellors: Validation of Practice Based Competencies

Numerous groups of health professionals have undertaken the task of defining core competencies for their profession. The goal of establishing core competencies is to have a defined standard for such professional needs as practice guidelines, training curricula, certification, continuing competency and re-entry to practice. In 2006, the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors (CAGC) recognized the need for uniform practice standards for the profession in Canada, given the rapid progress of genetic knowledge and technologies, the expanding practice of genetic counsellors and the increasing demand for services. We report here the process by which the CAGC Practice Based Competencies were developed and then validated via two survey cycles, the first within the CAGC membership, and the second with feedback from external stakeholders. These competencies were formally approved in 2012 and describe the integrated skills, attitudes and judgment that genetic counsellors in Canada require in order to perform the services and duties that fall within the practice of the profession responsibly, safely, effectively and ethically.     

Assessment of stress and self-efficacy for the NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function

Background and Objectives: The NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function assessment battery contains measures in the domains of cognitive function, motor function, sensory function, and emotional health. It was designed for use in epidemiological and clinical trials health-related research. Design: This paper describes the first phase of instrument development for the stress and self-efficacy subdomain of emotional health. Based on an extensive literature review and expert consultation, 127 measures were initially considered for inclusion in this subdomain, including measures of stress, self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and coping. Results: Several measures, including emotion regulation and measures of coping strategies, did not meet criteria that were a priori established for inclusion. Psychometric properties of the remaining candidate measures were evaluated using data from five independent samples (combined N = 3175). Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses indicated the Perceived Stress Scale and the General Self-Efficacy Scale each assessed single dimensions. Conclusions: Based on their psychometric performance, these two instruments were selected for inclusion and subsequent national norming for the NIH Toolbox.     

The news media and psychological distress

Abstract

The twentieth century has been marked by advances in communications technology as well as mounting psychological distress. This study explored the premise that exposure to negative news via the media contributes to anxiety and depression. Levels of news media exposure, stress levels, irrational beliefs, optimism-pessimism, anxiety, and depression were assessed (n=239) and analyzed using multiple regression techniques. Negative stress was directly related to anxiety and depression. News media exposure and anxiety were positively related at low levels of irrationality. News media exposure was predictive of trait anxiety at low levels of optimism. However, media exposure was not predictive of depression. The implications of the findings for understanding how the news media impacts stress and the cognitive factors that effect this relationship are discussed.     

Use of gesture sequences in captive chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) play

This study examined the use of sensory modalities relative to a partner’s behavior in gesture sequences during captive chimpanzee play at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. We hypothesized that chimpanzees would use visual gestures toward attentive recipients and auditory/tactile gestures toward inattentive recipients. We also hypothesized that gesture sequences would be more prevalent toward unresponsive rather than responsive recipients. The chimpanzees used significantly more auditory/tactile rather than visual gestures first in sequences with both attentive and inattentive recipients. They rarely used visual gestures toward inattentive recipients. Auditory/tactile gestures were effective with and used with both attentive and inattentive recipients. Recipients responded significantly more to single gestures than to first gestures in sequences. Sequences often indicated that recipients did not respond to initial gestures, whereas effective single gestures made more gestures unnecessary. The chimpanzees thus gestured appropriately relative to a recipient’s behavior and modified their interactions according to contextual social cues.     

A Note

Following Whiting’s (1986) comments on Fischman and Schneider (1985) and Smyth and Marriott (1982), this note addresses the questions of expertise in catching, the effects of sight of the hand on timing and positioning, and the difficulties of comparing performance in different experiments on catching.     

Parental Loss in Children as Reflected in Projective Responses

Fisher and Cleveland originally proposed that individuals differ in exterior-interior body awareness. A study was conducted in a population of 61 men and 43 women to examine this hypothesis. Tachistocopic recognition times for picture categories depicting the exterior and interior (E and I) body sectors were ascertained. A chi square analysis revealed that these recognition times were significantly related (P = 0.01) to Rorschach measures reflecting E-I awareness. An additional finding was that men recognized the I category more rapidly. This was considered to provide further support for the hypothesis that men have accentuated I awareness. An outline was given of ongoing work designed to measure the extent of the tachistoscope's regional specificity.     

Quantile Mediation Models: A Comparison of Methods for Assessing Mediation Across the Outcome Distribution

Recent introduction of quantile regression methods to analysis of epidemiologic data suggests that traditional mean regression approaches may not suffice for some health outcomes such as Body Mass Index (BMI). In the same vein, the traditional mean-based approach to mediation modeling may not be sufficient to capture the potentially different mediating effects of behavioral interventions across the outcome distribution. By combining methods for estimating conditional quantiles with traditional mediation modeling techniques, mediation effects can be estimated for any quantile of the outcome distribution (so-called quantile mediation effects). Estimation and inference techniques for quantile mediation effects are compared through simulation studies, and recommendations are given. The quantile mediation methods are further compared with the traditional mean-based regression approaches to mediation analysis through analysis of data from Healthy Places, a trial that is examining the effects of the community–built environment on resident obesity risk. We found the magnitudes of indirect (mediating) effects of walkability on BMI and waist circumference were substantially larger for the upper quantiles compared with the median or mean. Results suggest that restricting the examination of mediation to the mean of the outcome distribution provides an incomplete picture of proposed mediating mechanisms and in some cases may miss important mediational relationships to outcomes.     

Responses of Comparable White and Negro Adults to the Rorschach Test

Five groups of 20 Ss each, ranging from seven years to college age, were asked to solve a series of problems involving change-making and coin equivalences. Results indicated that the number of Ss able to make change without the use of written calculations increased as a consequence of chronological age, with the greatest increase occurring between 11 and 13 years of age. In addition, it was found that although children at all levels knew the various coin equivalences, younger children used primarily dimes and pennies in making change, whereas older children used all of the coins available. This was interpreted to mean that coin equivalences are probably learned as specific stimulus-response pairs, and that in making change younger children use untransformed base 10 units, such as pennies and dimes, largely because the computational demands placed by change-making operations force them to minimize the number of noncomputational transformations used.