Supervising Without Controlling: A New Authority intervention for Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes are at an elevated risk for reduced self-care and imbalanced blood sugar rates with long-term medical consequences. Despite...     

The ethics of animal research: a survey of pediatric health care workers

Introduction

Pediatric health care workers (HCW) often perform, promote, and advocate use of public funds for animal research (AR). We aim to determine whether HCW consider common arguments (and counterarguments) in support (or not) of AR convincing.

Design

After development and validation, an e-mail survey was sent to all pediatricians and pediatric intensive care unit nurses and respiratory therapists (RTs) affiliated with a Canadian University. We presented questions about demographics, support for AR, and common arguments (with their counterarguments) to justify the moral permissibility (or not) of AR. Responses are reported using standard tabulations. Responses of pediatricians and nurses/RTs were compared using Chi-square, with P?<?.05 considered significant.

Results

Response rate was 53/115(46%) (pediatricians), and 73/120(61%) (nurses/RTs). Pediatricians and nurses/RTs are supportive of AR. Most considered ‘benefits arguments’ sufficient to justify AR; however, most acknowledged that counterarguments suggesting alternative research methods may be available, or that it is unclear why the same ‘benefits arguments’ do not apply to using humans in research, significantly weakened ‘benefits arguments’. Almost all were not convinced of the moral permissibility of AR by ‘characteristics of non-human-animals arguments’, including that non-human-animals may not be sentient, or are simply property. Most were not convinced of the moral permissibility of AR by ‘human exceptionalism’ arguments, including that humans have more advanced mental abilities, are of a special ‘kind’, can enter into social contracts, or face a ‘lifeboat situation’. Counterarguments explained much of this, including that not all humans have these more advanced abilities [the argument from species overlap], and that the notion of ‘kind’ is arbitrary [e.g., why are we not of the kind ‘sentient animal’ or ‘subject-of-a-life’]. Pediatrician and nurse/RT responses were similar.

Conclusions

Most respondents were not convinced of the moral permissibility of AR when given common arguments and counterarguments from the literature. HCW should seriously consider arguments on both sides of the AR debate.

     

Accuracy of respiratory symptom perception in persons with high and low negative affectivity

Accuracy of respiratory symptom perception was investigated in different contexts in participants (N = 56) scoring high or low for negative affectivity (NA). Within subject-correlations were calculated between minute ventilation (frequency per minute × tidal volume) and the subjective symptom ‘faster and/or deeper breathing’ across 10 subsequent breathing trials of 2?min with varying air mixtures, containing fresh or foul smelling odours and/or 5.5% CO₂. Half the participants were given a positive information frame for the sensations (‘some air mixtures may induce a pleasantly arousing feeling, like when being in love’), whereas the other half was given a negative frame (‘some air mixtures may induce feelings of being anxious and distressed’). Interoceptive accuracy was overall fairly high (r = 0.56–0.74), but it dropped considerably (r = 0.27), when bodily sensations were induced in high NA persons in a negative information frame (interaction, p < 0.005). Interoceptive accuracy appears low when persons with high NA are in situations characterised by negative affective cues.     

Personality Characteristics of BASE Jumpers

BASE jumping is an extreme sport, which is associated with significant risk of injury and death. We aimed to determine whether BASE jumpers have different personality characteristics to an age-matched, normal control population. An international population of BASE jumpers was examined using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Mean age was thirty-four years; fifty-nine (87%) jumpers were male; twenty-eight (41%) jumpers had sustained a significant injury. A substantial proportion of the BASE jumpers presented extremely low scores in the temperament measure of Harm Avoidance (p < 0.001); the extent of which has not been reported in any other population.     

Non‐violent resistance and violence against siblings

A parent‐training approach to the treatment of violence against siblings according to the principles of non‐violent resistance was developed aiming at resisting the violence, providing protection to the victims and reducing escalation between the parents and the violent child.     

Relative Difficulty of Understanding Foreign Accents as a Marker of Proficiency

Foreign‐accented speech is generally harder to understand than native‐accented speech. This difficulty is reduced for non‐native listeners who share their first language with the non‐native speaker. It is currently unclear, however, how non‐native listeners deal with foreign‐accented speech produced by speakers of a different language. We show that the process of (second) language acquisition is associated with an increase in the relative difficulty of processing foreign‐accented speech. Therefore, experiencing greater relative difficulty with foreign‐accented speech compared with native speech is a marker of language proficiency. These results contribute to our understanding of how phonological categories are acquired during second language learning.     

The Role of Family and Parental Characteristics in the Scope of Social Encounters of Children in Homeschooling

Homeschooling, a phenomenon that is increasingly widespread in the Western world, raises questions regarding the ability to supply children in this framework with adequate social encounters. Despite evidence regarding the importance of these encounters for children in homeschooling, there is insufficient data concerning the sources of differences between homeschooling families in the scope of these social encounters. The present study examined the relationships between a child’s social encounters and socioeconomic aspects of the family, parental personalities, and the way homeschooling is practiced. One hundred and forty parents who homeschooled their children completed questionnaires about themselves, their families, and their children, as well as the social interactions of their children. The findings indicate that parental personalities and the way homeschooling is practiced correlated significantly with the social encounters of homeschooled children. Parents’ conscientiousness was associated with a greater number of social encounters and more structure in the homeschooling. This article presents possible explanations for these findings, theoretical implications of the findings and possibilities for further research.     

3-Year-Olds’ Perseveration on the DCCS Explained: A Meta-Analysis

The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task is a widely used measure of preschoolers’ executive function. We combined data for 3,290 3-year-olds from 37 unique studies reporting 130 experimental conditions. Using raw pass/fail counts, we computed the pass rates and chi-squared value for each against chance (50/50) performance. We grouped data according to DCCS variants and computed the standard pass rate and chi-squared and phi for each variant relative to standard. For all standard versions, the mean pass rate was 36%. We compared all other variants to the standard and found robust improvements in performance for manipulations that involved spatial separation of the conflicting dimensions, use of distraction between pre and post-switch, elimination of all conflict, and extra practice. We also found that negative priming offers a better explanation for 3-year-olds’ perseveration than attentional inertia. The results support a theoretical model of 3-year-olds’ performance based on inhibitory control.     

Clinical ethics case report: questionable capacity and the guidance of living wills

After falling from a roof, an older man lost neurological function below his face. In two days, the patient regained consciousness, but it was unclear whether he could communicate his preferences, whether due to injuries or difficulties with language. His family believed he could communicate with them, and that he was capable of making treatment decisions. The staff did not think to contact the hospital's largely inactive ethics consultation service for assistance, and instead looked to the patient's living will for guidance, even though the patient was not terminally ill, and his lack of capacity had not been determined.