'Minor GAD': characteristics of subsyndromal GAD in older adults

Subsyndromal emotional symptoms are common in older adults and are associated with increased disability, health care utilization, and risk for developing psychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine subsyndromal generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in older adults. Participants included 30 older adults with diagnosable GAD, 19 with subsyndromal anxiety symptoms [minor GAD; (MGAD)], and 21 normal control volunteers (NC). Participants were assessed using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV and completed self-report measures of anxiety, worry, depression, and life satisfaction. Excessive worry on more days than not, difficulty controlling worry, and clinically significant distress or impairment were the diagnostic criteria endorsed by MGAD participants least often. Therefore, these criteria may be useful in distinguishing between GAD and subsyndromal GAD. Self-reported anxiety and worry also systematically differed across groups in the expected directions, with a discriminant analysis yielding good classification of the GAD and NC groups based on these measures. Categorization of MGAD participants generally was poor, with most misclassified as GAD patients. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The influence of language on theory of mind: a training study

This study investigated the role of language in the development of theory of mind. It was hypothesized that the acquisition of the syntactic and semantic properties of sentential complements would facilitate the development of a representational theory of mind. Sixty preschoolers who failed false belief and sentential complement pretests were randomly assigned to training on false belief, sentential complements, or relative clauses (as a control group). All the children were post-tested on a set of different theory of mind tasks, sentential complements and relative clauses. The main findings were that the group trained on sentential complements not only acquired the linguistic knowledge fostered by the training, but also significantly increased their scores on a range of theory of mind tasks. In contrast, false belief training only led to improved theory of mind scores but had no influence on language. The control group, trained on relative clauses, showed no improvement on theory of mind posttests. These findings are taken as evidence that the acquisition of sentential complements contributes to the development of theory of mind in preschoolers.     

Interest and attention in facial recognition

When applied to facial recognition, the levels of processing paradigm has yielded consistent results: faces processed in deep conditions are recognized better than faces processed under shallow conditions. However, there are multiple explanations for this occurrence. The own-race advantage in facial recognition, the tendency to recognize faces from one's own race better than faces from another race, is also consistently shown but not clearly explained. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that the levels of processing findings in facial recognition are a result of interest and attention, not differences in processing. This hypothesis was tested for both own and other faces with 105 Caucasian general psychology students. Levels of processing was manipulated as a between-subjects variable; students were asked to answer one of four types of study questions, e.g., "deep" or "shallow" processing questions, while viewing the study faces. Students' recognition of a subset of previously presented Caucasian and African-American faces from a test-set with an equal number of distractor faces was tested. They indicated their interest in and attention to the task. The typical levels of processing effect was observed with better recognition performance in the deep conditions than in the shallow conditions for both own- and other-race faces. The typical own-race advantage was also observed regardless of level of processing condition. For both own- and other-race faces, level of processing explained a significant portion of the recognition variance above and beyond what was explained by interest in and attention to the task.     

Parents' and practitioners' perspectives of young children's everyday natural learning environments

Parents' views of natural learning environments were compared to those of practitioners having either considerable or little experience with the characteristics of everyday natural learning opportunities. 8 experienced practitioners' views were congruent with those of the parents, whereas the 8 inexperienced practitioners' views were incongruent with those of both parents and their experienced peers.     

What God has Joined Together: Family Formation and Religion among Young Adults

This study considers how family transitions influence future religiosity among young adults and demonstrates that both marriage and parenthood can serve to reinforce religious commitment among those who are religiously engaged. Drawing on data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, we look at religious change between Wave 3 (18–24 years old) and Wave 4 (23–28 years old) and how this varies across six family statuses: Married with Children, Married without Children, Cohabiting with Children, Cohabiting without Children, Single with Children and Single without Children. We find greater future religious engagement among married individuals compared to those who are single or cohabiting, regardless of the presence of children. Among single and cohabiting parents, however, the presence of children is associated with greater religious salience, though not with attendance at religious services. The findings demonstrate a continued link between the institutions of family and religion at a time when ties to both institutions are loosening.     

Predictors of psychological outcomes in a longitudinal study of Latina breast cancer survivors

Objective: This study sought to investigate the unique contributions of socio-ecological, cultural and cancer treatment-related factors in predicting depressive symptoms and cancer-specific distress among Latinas. Design: Participants were 140 English or Spanish-speaking Latinas (M_age = 50.6) with non-metastatic breast cancer who were assessed within two years of diagnosis (Time 1) and three months later (Time 2).

Main Measures: Hierarchical regression analyses identified predictors of depressive symptoms and cancer-specific distress at Time 1 and 2.

Results: Most women scored above the clinical cut-offs for depressive symptoms and cancer-specific distress. After adjusting for socio-ecological factors, greater Latino enculturation, measured by Latino ethnic identity, was significantly associated with greater cancer-specific distress at Time 1 (β = .20, p < .05). A significant interaction (p < .01) revealed that among women high on Latino identity, lower English language use was associated with more cancer-specific distress than higher English language use. After adjusting for socio-ecological factors, greater satisfaction with surgical treatment predicted improved depressive symptoms and cancer-specific distress across time (β_s range from ?.31 to ?.18, p_s < .01).

Conclusions: Findings elucidate the complex relationship between culture and psychological outcomes in the breast cancer context and suggest that treatment satisfaction might be an important intervention target for Latinas.     

career concerns of unemployed u.s. war veterans: suggestions from a cognitive information processing approach

The authors examined U.S. war veterans' career concerns (e.g., interests, personality, barriers, career thoughts) to provide possible avenues for research‐based and theory‐driven intervention. The veterans who participated in the study were receiving mental health, substance abuse, and vocational services at a residential facility. Participants were found to have interests in all RIASEC (J. L. Holland, B. A. Fritzsche, & A. B. Powell, 1994; J. L. Holland & G. D. Gottfredson, 1994) interest areas, and negative career thinking was found to be related to a variety of negative indicators. Suggestions are provided for working with veterans using the Cognitive Information Processing approach to career decision making.     

Social and emotional functioning following bilateral and unilateral neurosurgical prefrontal cortex lesions

Alterations in emotional and social functioning such as impaired ability to recognize emotions in others, a lack of empathy and poor insight have commonly been reported following prefrontal cortex damage. This study sought to investigate the subtleties of such difficulties in 34 individuals with discrete unilateral and bilateral neurosurgical lesions encroaching on the orbitofrontal, medial, and dorsolateral regions of the prefrontal cortex. A specifically devised self‐ and informant report measure, the social‐emotional questionnaire was used to examine five factors of functioning: emotion recognition; empathy; social conformity; antisocial behaviour; and sociability. There were some specific significant differences between the clinical and control groups' informant‐ratings in certain domains of social and emotional functioning. Individuals with damage involving the orbitofrontal region were reported to display elevated levels of antisocial behaviour. Individuals with bilateral orbitofrontal lesions were rated as showing significantly reduced social and emotional functioning in comparison with individuals with unilateral lesions and controls. In addition, individuals with bilateral lesions had significantly less insight overall regarding their social‐emotional abilities. The right unilateral lesion group showed significantly less insight into their abilities to recognize emotion in others in comparison with the left unilateral group. In conclusion, these results suggest that specific social‐emotional and insight deficits may form separate constellations of impairment. The findings also indicate that marked changes in social and emotional functioning are more likely following bilateral damage, and unilateral lesions do not inevitably lead to impairments.     

Social Support and Personal Mastery as Protective Resources During Emerging Adulthood

During emerging adulthood, lesbian and gay (LG) adults must develop an identity within the social context of heterosexist discrimination. Our specific aims were to examine differences by sexual orientation in depressive symptomatology and self-esteem and explore the role of personal resources in explaining these aspects of psychological well-being. Data were analyzed on 306 participants in emerging adulthood who completed an online survey. LG individuals experienced higher depressive symptomatology and lower self-esteem than heterosexuals, and variations in well-being were explained by personal mastery and social support. The instability which characterizes emerging adulthood is likely compounded by the developmental challenges posed by heterosexism. The formation of social relationships, coupled with personal mastery, appear to serve as protective resources during emerging adulthood.