Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Middle School: Opportunities, Constraints, and Key Processes

Late childhood and early adolescence represent a critical transition in the developmental and academic trajectory of youth, a time in which there is an upsurge in academic disengagement and psychopathology. PAR projects that can promote youth's sense of meaningful engagement in school and a sense of efficacy and mattering can be particularly powerful given the challenges of this developmental stage. In the present study, we draw on data from our own collaborative implementation of PAR projects in secondary schools to consider two central questions: (1) How do features of middle school settings and the developmental characteristics of the youth promote or inhibit the processes, outcomes, and sustainability of the PAR endeavor? and (2) How can the broad principles and concepts of PAR be effectively translated into specific intervention activities in schools, both within and outside of the classroom? In particular, we discuss a participatory research project conducted with 6th and 7th graders at an urban middle school as a means of highlighting the opportunities, constraints, and lessons learned in our efforts to contribute to the high‐quality implementation and evaluation of PAR in diverse urban public schools.     

Psychosocial intervention follow-up in children with ADHD: effects on academic, emotional and social functioning

The aim of this investigation was to analyze the maintenance of the effects, one year after its conclusion, of an intervention that integrated three coordinated programs, implemented with 27 children with ADHD, aged between 7 and 10 years, their parents and teachers. The intervention lasted 10 weeks and included behavior-modification and cognitive-behavioral techniques, academic adaptations and social skills. We evaluated the effects on academic, emotional and social adjustment from the information provided by parents, teachers and classmates. The results confirm the maintenance in the follow-up evaluation of the improvements experienced after the treatment, especially in the academic and social areas, in which these children displayed the greatest difficulties.     

Personality and Reaction Time after Sleep Deprivation

The relationship between reaction time and both state and trait personality variables was investigated in 37 participants after 30 h of sleep deprivation. Regression analyses suggested that endorsement of greater Novelty Seeking, anger/hostility, and depression/dejection, and less confusion, was associated with greater reaction time declines on one Multi-Attribute Task Battery index after sleep deprivation. Further, greater Novelty Seeking and depression/dejection, and less vigor/activity, was associated with greater reaction time declines after sleep deprivation on another Multi-Attribute Task Battery index. Additional correlational analyses indicated that better reaction times were associated with greater Novelty Seeking and lower anger/hostility prior to sleep deprivation, and less confusion/bewilderment following sleep deprivation. Findings suggest that both state and trait personality variables are associated with reaction time performance following sleep deprivation.     

Psychometric Validation of the Preschool Outcome Questionnaire: A Preschool Treatment Outcome Instrument

Developing normed treatment outcome measures is important to research addressing treatment effectiveness and to improved clinical care. The Preschool Outcome Questionnaire (POQ) is a new measure designed for use with preschool children aged two to six. Designed in collaboration with parents and clinicians, the POQ is brief, easy to administer, score and interpret. This study reports on the instrument’s psychometric evaluation, contains preliminary normative data, and provides a clinical cut-off and a reliable change index to facilitate clinical use of the instrument. Results show that the POQ has acceptable test–retest and internal reliability, concurrent validity and criterion validity. Importantly, results also show that the instrument is sensitive to clinically relevant change. Clinical implications are discussed as well as suggestions for further research.     

Language and executive functioning skills of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and in reading comprehension difficulties (RCD)

The aim of this work was to study the specificity of deficits in linguistic and executive functioning of students with ADHD and with RCD and to determine the profile of deficits in the comorbid group (ADHD+RCD). Participants in the study were 84 students, ages 12-16 years divided into four groups with an equal number of subjects (N= 21): ADHD, RCD, ADHD+RCD and comparison group (without ADHD and without RCD). We measured vocabulary, oral comprehension, lexical access, verbal and visual working memory, inhibition and attention. The results show that the ADHD+RCD group presents the most important linguistic deficits, followed by the RCD group. On the other hand, the three clinical groups (ADHD, RCD and ADHD+RCD) display greater performance problems in working memory than the comparison group, whereas the two groups with ADHD had more problems in attention and inhibition. These results suggest the dissociation of linguistic and executive deficits that affect the RCD group and ADHD group to a greater extent, respectively. Lastly, the comorbid group showed deficits both in language and in executive skills. We discuss the implications of these findings for designing interventions.     

Role of cholinergic system on the construction of memories: taste memory encoding

There is a large body of evidence suggesting that cholinergic activity is involved in memory processes. It seems that cholinergic activity is essential to learn several tasks and recent works suggest that acetylcholine plays an important role during the early stages of memory formation. In this review, we will discuss the results related to taste memory formation, focusing particularly on the conditioned taste aversion paradigm. We will first give evidence that nucleus basalis magnocellularis is involved in taste memory formation, due to its cholinergic projections. We then show that the cholinergic activity of the insular (gustatory) cortex is related to the taste novelty, and that the cholinergic signals initiated by novelty are crucial for taste memory formation. Then we present recent data indicating that cortical activation of muscarinic receptors is necessary for taste trace encoding, and also for its consolidation under certain circumstances. Finally, interactions between the cholinergic and other neuromodulatory systems inducing intracellular mechanisms related to plastic changes will be proposed as important processes underlying gustatory memory trace storage.     

Correction to: Secret Agent Society: a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Transdiagnostic Youth Social Skills Group Treatment

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology -