Socioeconomic Status and Child Mental Health: The Role of Parental Emotional Well-Being and Parenting Practices

This study examined the role of parental emotional well-being and parenting practices as mediators of the association between familial socioeconomic status (SES) and child mental health problems. The sample included 2,043 5th-7th graders (50.7 % female) participating in the second wave of the Bergen Child Study. Children completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, parents reported family economy and education level, emotional well-being (measured with the Everyday Feelings Questionnaire), and the use of negative disciplinary and affirmative parenting practices (measured using the Family Life Questionnaire). Path analyses were conducted to examine the associations between SES and externalizing and internalizing problems. Results supported a model where family economy was associated with externalizing problems through parental emotional well-being and parenting practices, whereas maternal education level was associated with externalizing problems through negative discipline. The direct association between paternal education level and externalizing problems was not mediated by parenting. For internalizing problems, we found both direct associations with family economy and indirect associations with family economy through parental emotional well-being and parenting. The results suggest that parental emotional well-being and parenting practices are two potential mechanisms through which low socioeconomic status is associated with child mental health problems.     

The resilience of object predictions: Early recognition across viewpoints and exemplars

Recognition of everyday objects can be facilitated by top-down predictions. We have proposed that these predictions are derived from rudimentary image information, or gist, extracted rapidly from the low spatial frequencies (LSFs) (Bar Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 15: 600–609, 2003). Because of the coarse nature of LSF representations, we hypothesized here that such predictions can accommodate changes in viewpoint as well as facilitate the recognition of visually similar objects. In a repetition-priming task, we indeed observed significant facilitation of target recognition that was primed by LSF objects across moderate viewpoint changes, as well as across visually similar exemplars. These results suggest that the LSF representations are specific enough to activate accurate predictions, yet flexible enough to overcome small changes in visual appearance. Such gist representations facilitate object recognition by accommodating changes in visual appearance due to viewing conditions, and help generalize from familiar to novel exemplars.     

Higher-Order Contingentism,Part 1: Closure and Generation

This paper is a study of higher-order contingentism – the view, roughly, that it is contingent what properties and propositions there are. We explore the motivations for this view and various ways in which it might be developed, synthesizing and expanding on work by Kit Fine, Robert Stalnaker, and Timothy Williamson. Special attention is paid to the question of whether the view makes sense by its own lights, or whether articulating the view requires drawing distinctions among possibilities that, according to the view itself, do not exist to be drawn. The paper begins with a non-technical exposition of the main ideas and technical results, which can be read on its own. This exposition is followed by a formal investigation of higher-order contingentism, in which the tools of variable-domain intensional model theory are used to articulate various versions of the view, understood as theories formulated in a higher-order modal language. Our overall assessment is mixed: higher-order contingentism can be fleshed out into an elegant systematic theory, but perhaps only at the cost of abandoning some of its original motivations.     

The Effect of Emotion on Visual Attention to Information and Decision Making in the Context of Informed Consent Process for Clinical Trials

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of emotion on visual information processing and decision making in the context of informed consent. Researchers are ethically obligated to ensure informed consent in clinical trials; however, many volunteers have unrealistic expectations about the value of an experimental therapy. Moreover, suboptimal participation rates for clinical trials may be partially attributable to perceptions that ethical obligations to volunteers are not met. This study examines whether discrete negative emotions (fear, anger, and sadness) differentially influence information processing, visual attention, and decisions in the context of clinical trial informed consent. Community participants completed a standard emotion induction (or control) and then read an actual consent form from a clinical trial while eye movements were tracked. Fear and anger produced the most prominently different patterns of systematic processing and visual attention, such that fear induced longer fixations to information presented, whereas anger induced shorter fixations. Moreover, among women only, fear increased decisions to participate, compared with anger and neutral emotion. Examinations of associations between eye‐tracking variables and self‐reported outcomes indicated that for angry participants only, less systematic processing was associated with greater decisions to participate. Negative emotions of any kind decreased accurate perceptions of trial benefit. These patterns suggest a complex interplay among emotion, processing style, and decision making. Future research is necessary to further probe these effects among potential clinical trial volunteers. Published 2016. This article is a U.S Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.     

Trust in the medical profession and patient attachment style

Attachment style is a person’s approach to interpersonal relationships, which develops from early experiences with primary caregivers and can remain stable into adulthood. Depending on a person’s attachment style, the amount of trust one has in others can vary when forming relationships, and trust is important in formation of the patient–physician relationship. The purpose of this study was to see if there is an association between attachment style and trust in physicians in general. Participants were recruited from an emergency department (ED) and an online university participant pool, and completed short questionnaires assessing attachment style and trust in the medical profession. Results revealed that individuals with a fearful attachment style reported significantly lower levels of trust in the medical profession than those with a secure attachment style. ED participants also reported higher levels of trust in the medical profession in comparison to student participants. This study provides a better understanding of trust in the medical profession, and insight into future care for patients who have low trust.     

Opening minds by supporting needs: do autonomy and competence support facilitate mindfulness and academic performance?

Social Psychology of Education - In a pair of studies, the present research examined mindfulness as a mediator through which perceived support for the basic psychological needs of autonomy and...     

Child Behavior Problems Related to Inconsistency and Average Negativity in Mother–Child Conflict Characteristics: The Mediating Role of Parenting Stress

Journal of Child and Family Studies - We examined the mediating effect of parenting stress on the association between children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and mothers’...     

Assessment of apathy in neurological patients using the Apathy Motivation Index caregiver version

Apathy is a common, disabling neuropsychiatric syndrome that occurs across many brain disorders and may be associated with diminished motivation in behavioural, cognitive, emotional and social domains. Assessment is complicated by the variability of symptoms across apathy domains and self-report from patients, which can be misleading due to their lack of insight. Independent evaluation by clinicians also has limitations though if it has to be performed with limited time. Caregiver reports are a viable alternative, but current assessments for them either do not distinguish between different apathy domains or are interview-based and take long to administer. In this study, we developed a brief caregiver questionnaire version of the recently developed Apathy Motivation Index (AMI), which is a self-report tool. We confirmed three apathy factors in this new caregiver measure (AMI-CG) that were also present in the AMI: Behavioural Activation, Emotional Sensitivity and Social Motivation. Furthermore, we validated the scores against more extensive caregiver interviews using the established Lillle apathy rating scale as well as patient self-reports of apathy, measures of depression, anhedonia, cognition, activities of daily living and caregiver burden across four different neurological conditions: Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, subjective cognitive impairment and limbic encephalitis. The AMI-CG showed good internal reliability, external validity and diagnostic accuracy. It also uncovered cases of social apathy overlooked by traditional instruments. Crucially, patients who under-rated their apathy compared to informants were more likely to have difficulties performing everyday activities and to be a greater burden to caregivers. The findings provide evidence for a multidimensional conceptualization of apathy and an instrument for efficient detection of apathy based on caregiver reports for use in clinical practice.     

Increased wait-list time predicts dropout from outpatient enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders

Between 30 and 70% of patients with eating disorders drop out from outpatient treatment. However, research has been unable to identify factors that consistently predict dropout from eating disorder treatment. Most studies have exclusively investigated the role that individual patient characteristics play in dropout and have ignored more process-based factors such as expectations about treatment, the therapeutic alliance, or time spent on a treatment waiting list. This study aimed to investigate the roles of both individual patient characteristics and process-based factors in dropout from outpatient treatment for eating disorders. The study involved data collected from consecutive eating disorder referrals to the only public specialist eating disorder service for youth and adults in Perth, Western Australia. The standard treatment provided at this service is Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy on an individual basis. The study involved 189 patients referred to the service between 2005 and 2010. Forty five percent of this sample dropped out of treatment. Results showed that, in this sample, two individual factors, lowest reported weight and the tendency to avoid affect, and one process-based factor, time spent on the wait list for treatment, were significant predictors of dropout. These findings are valuable because a process-based factor, such as wait-list time, may be easier to address and modify than a patient's weight history or the trait of mood intolerance. Increased resources for eating disorder services may reduce waiting list times which would help to reduce dropout and maximize treatment outcomes.