Language and the bicultural dialectical self

We examined the effect of language priming on na?ve dialecticism, with special attention paid to effects on dialectical beliefs about the self. European Americans responding in English and bilingual Chinese responding in either Chinese or English completed several measures designed to tap dialectical thinking and dialectical self-perceptions, including tolerance of contradiction, change in thoughts and behavior over time and context, holistic beliefs, and self-concept inconsistency. As expected, those answering in Chinese reported greater dialecticism on most of these measures, relative to those responding in English. European American responses were highly similar to those of bilinguals responding in English. We discuss advantages of language priming and offer directions for future research.     

Anxiety and Asthma Symptoms in Urban Adolescents with Asthma: The Mediating Role of Illness Perceptions

Twenty to 40% of adolescents with asthma experience significant symptoms of anxiety. This study examined the mediational role of illness perceptions in the relationship between anxiety and asthma symptoms in adolescents. One hundred fifty-one urban adolescents (ages 11–18) with asthma completed measures of illness perceptions, and anxiety and asthma symptoms. Using the Baron and Kenny approach and Sobel tests, we examined whether illness perceptions mediated the anxiety-asthma symptom relationship. Three illness perceptions significantly mediated the relationship between anxiety and asthma symptoms, z = 1.97–2.13, p < .05; adjusted R ² = 0.42–0.51, p < .05. Greater anxiety symptoms were associated with perceptions that asthma negatively impacted one’s life and emotions and was difficult to control. These negative illness perceptions were, in turn, related to greater asthma symptoms. Illness perceptions helped explain the anxiety-asthma symptoms link in adolescents. Results suggest that targeting illness perceptions in adolescents with asthma and anxiety may help reduce asthma symptoms.     

Social connectedness,conformity, and internalization of societal standards of attractiveness

Internalization of societal standards of attractiveness is known to play a role in the development of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating, and researchers are now working toward identifying factors that influence the internalization of those societal standards. The present study examined to what extent social connectedness and conformity were related to internalization. Female college students (n = 300) completed measures of social connectedness, conformity, and internalization, as well as measures of body image concerns, dietary restraint, and bulimic symptoms. Path analysis showed that social connectedness was negatively related to conformity, and that conformity was positively related to internalization. Consistent with past research, internalization predicted body image concerns and dietary restraint, which in turn predicted bulimic symptoms. Conformity appears to be a risk factor for the internalization of societal standards of attractiveness, and could be targeted in efforts to reduce internalization, negative body image, and disordered eating.     

Development of the Behavioral Evaluation of Disorders of Sleep Scale

We describe the development, preliminary psychometric properties, and cross-validation of the Behavioral Evaluation of Disorders of Sleep (BEDS: Schreck 1997/1998). Parental reports of problem sleep behavior in elementary school aged children 5 years to 12 years were collected for two samples. With the first sample, an exploratory factor analysis of parental responses (N = 307) resulted in reports of five distinct types of sleep problems: Expressive Sleep Disturbances; Sensitivity to the Environment; Disoriented Awakening; Sleep Facilitators; and Apnea/Bruxism. Four of these factors (Expressive Sleep Disturbances; Sensitivity to the Environment; Disoriented Awakening; and Apnea) were confirmed with the new participant sample (N = 1054). These factors of problem sleep behavior were similar to findings in other studies, with the exception of the exclusion of bedtime behavior problems.     

Does Motivation Impact OCD Symptom Severity? An Exploration of Longitudinal Effects

Understanding the role of patient motivation in OCD treatment is of clinical importance given the requisite autonomous role of patients in Exposure and Response Prevention. The present study investigated state- and trait-like relations between three variables: two previously established motivational constructs, readiness to change (RTC) and committed action (CA), derived from the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment, and OCD symptom severity as measured by the self-report Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS-SR). Utilizing a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) design, we assessed autoregressive, within-time correlations, and cross-lagged effects of RTC, CA, and Y-BOCS-SR scores at admission, month 1 of treatment, and discharge from an intensive/residential treatment program for OCD. Results revealed significant autoregressive (i.e., state-like) effects for CA and Y-BOCS-SR, negative within-time correlations between state CA and Y-BOCS-SR across all time points, a positive within-time correlation between state CA and RTC at admission, and a cross-lagged effect between state Y-BOCS-SR at month 1 of treatment and state RTC at discharge. Results also demonstrated that the stability of the RTC variable was attributable to trait-like factors in the present sample. This study is novel in its use of RI-CLPM in an OCD sample and represents an important addition to the literature on the longitudinal impacts of dynamic constructs of motivation. Our findings may provide future researchers with strategies to supplement ERP with CA-driven motivational interviewing.     

The mediating role of state maladaptive emotion regulation in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and self-evaluation bias

Although social anxiety symptoms are robustly linked to biased self-evaluations across time, the mechanisms of this relation remain unclear. The present study tested three maladaptive emotion regulation strategies – state post-event processing, state experiential avoidance, and state expressive suppression – as potential mediators of this relation. Undergraduate participants (N?=?88; 61.4% Female) rated their social skill in an impromptu conversation task and then returned to the laboratory approximately two days later to evaluate their social skill in the conversation again. Consistent with expectations, state post-event processing and state experiential avoidance mediated the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluations of social skill (controlling for research assistant evaluations), particularly for positive qualities (e.g. appeared confident, demonstrated social skill). State expressive suppression did not mediate the relation between social anxiety symptoms and changes in self-evaluation bias across time. These findings highlight the role that spontaneous, state experiential avoidance and state post-event processing may play in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluation biases of social skill across time.     

Greeting skills: A systematic review of the literature

Individuals with disabilities often demonstrate difficulty in social communication skills such as greetings. Studies have shown that deficits in greetings may negatively affect social interactions and vocational opportunities. Therefore, previous research has evaluated a variety of teaching procedures to increase greetings for individuals with disabilities with varying efficacy. This review of the literature provides an overview of studies to date in which greetings were taught to individuals with intellectual disabilities. A variety of teaching procedures were identified, and implications of those procedures are discussed. Results suggest that multiple teaching procedures may be effective; however, component analyses, further replication, and modified generalization procedures are necessary. Implications for future researchers include identifying a technological definition of greetings and evaluating effective teaching procedures and generalization strategies. Implications for practitioners include teaching one greeting type at a time, limiting the number of social skills taught simultaneously, identification of effective teaching procedures and generalization considerations.     

Behavior Analysts' Use of and Beliefs in Treatments for People with Autism: A 5‐Year Follow‐up

As autism prevalence rises, parents of children with autism rely upon professionals to recommend the most effective treatment for their children. Historically, these professionals have chosen a range of treatments from empirically supported to nonempirically supported treatments. This study replicated and extended that work by surveying Board Certified Behavior Analysts to determine what treatments they promoted and used. Results showed that although most respondents used evidence‐based, behavioral procedures, many did not. Influential stimuli most likely to contribute to behavior analysts' choices of treatments were beliefs in effectiveness, ease of implementation, and persuasion by others. Self‐reported reinforcers for treatment use included perceived observed success, praise from others, and financial gain. Behavior analysts continue to use a variety of nonscientifically supported treatments, including those that have been deemed ineffective and harmful to people with autism. Future training of Board Certified Behavior Analysts must stress adherence to the ethical code for certified behavior analysts, adherence to data‐based decision‐making, and strict fealty to the scientific process in which all behavior analysts have been trained. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.