Treating destructive behavior reinforced by increased caregiver compliance with the participant's mands

Functional analyses sometimes do not identify momentary fluctuations in the function of destructive behavior (Bowman, Fisher, Thompson, & Piazza, 1997). In such cases, individuals may mand for the reinforcer that is currently most preferred and display destructive behavior if that mand goes unreinforced. In this study, we conducted a mand analysis to test whether destructive behavior functioned as a precurrent response that increased reinforcement for the participant's mands. We then evaluated a treatment that matched this function of destructive behavior by providing differential or time-based reinforcement of participant mands in accordance with multiple or chained schedules with reinforcement-schedule thinning. Decreases in destructive behavior averaged 97.4% across cases. We discuss these results relative to the importance of matching treatments for destructive behavior to operant functions for both traditional and idiosyncratic functions of destructive behavior.     

Intergenerational and Partner Influences on Fathers’ Negative Discipline

Recent studies have found significant but relatively modest associations in parenting across generations, suggesting additional influences on parenting beyond experiences in the family of origin. The present prospective, cross-generational study of at-risk men (Oregon Youth Study) focuses on fathers' negative discipline practices with their 2- to 3-year-old children. The theoretical model is based on a dynamic developmental systems approach to problematic family functioning, which points to the importance of developmental systems, including family risk context and key influential social interactional systems, and emphasizes influence that is directly pertinent to the outcome of interest. Path modeling indicated that the men's poor and harsh discipline practices were predicted by partners' problem behavior (substance use and antisocial behavior) and negative discipline practices, as well as by poor discipline experienced in the family of origin; men's own problem behavior, ages at which they became fathers, and family socioeconomic status were controlled. Findings indicate the importance of focusing on influence dynamics across parents.     

Suicidal ideation and its recurrence in boys and men from early adolescence to early adulthood: an event history analysis

Occurrence and recurrences of suicidal ideation (SI) were modeled among boys/men assessed annually from ages 12 to 29 years. Multiple-spell discrete-time event-history analyses permitted (a) determination of whether risk for SI escalates with prior experiences of SI (spell effects), while (b) accounting for changes in risk with time (period effects) and (c) controlling for vulnerability factors. Self-reported SI (presence/absence in past week), depressive symptoms, alcohol/substance use, antisocial behavior, and official arrest records were collected annually from 205 boys recruited on the basis of community risk for delinquency. Parents' self-reported psychopathology and SES were collected in childhood. Period effects supported decreasing risk for SI over time. Spell and time-varying 1-year lagged substance use and depressive symptoms independently predicted increased risk for SI. Models involving SI with intent were explored. Consistent with interpersonal psychological theory, risk for young men's SI increases with past experience of SI, even with key propensities controlled. However, risk also decays over time. Targeting conditions that confer risk for SI is essential. Preventing and delaying SI occurrence and recurrence may represent independent mechanisms by which prevention efforts operate.     

Impact of stressors in a natural context on release of cortisol in healthy adult humans: a meta-analysis

Increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation, culminating in elevated circulating cortisol levels is a fundamental response to stressors. In animals, this neuroendocrine change is highly reliable and marked (approximately 5-10-fold elevations), whereas in humans, the increase of cortisol release is less pronounced, and even some potent life-threatening events (anticipation of surgery) only elicit modest cortisol increases. Meta-analysis of factors that influenced the increase of cortisol release in a laboratory context pointed to the importance of social evaluative threats and stressor controllability in accounting for the cortisol rise. The present meta-analysis, covering the period from 1978 through March 2007, was undertaken to identify the factors most closely aligned with cortisol increases in natural settings. It appeared that stressor chronicity was fundamental in predicting cortisol changes; however, this variable is often confounded by the stressor type, the stressor's controllability, as well as contextual factors, making it difficult to disentangle their relative contributions to the cortisol response. Moreover, several experiential factors (e.g. previous stressor experiences) may influence the cortisol response to ongoing stressors, but these are not readily deduced through a meta-analysis. Nevertheless, there are ample data suggesting that stressful events, through their actions on cortisol levels and reactivity, may influence psychological and physical pathology.     

Hopelessness as a Predictor of Suicide Ideation in Depressed Male and Female Adolescent Youth

We examined hopelessness as a predictor of suicide ideation in depressed youth after acute medication treatment. A total of 158 depressed adolescents were administered the Children's Depression Rating Scale‐Revised (CDRS‐R) and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C‐SSRS) as part of a larger battery at baseline and at weekly visits across 6 weeks of acute fluoxetine treatment. The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) was administered at baseline and week 6. A negative binomial regression model via a generalized estimating equation analysis of repeated measures was used to estimate suicide ideation over the 6 weeks of acute treatment from baseline measure of hopelessness. Depression severity and gender were included as covariates in the model. The negative binomial analysis was also conducted separately for the sample of males and females (in a gender‐stratified analysis). Mean CDRS‐R total scores were 60.30 ± 8.93 at baseline and 34.65 ± 10.41 at week 6. Mean baseline and week 6 BHS scores were 9.57 ± 5.51 and 5.59 ± 5.38, respectively. Per the C‐SSRS, 43.04% and 83.54% reported having no suicide ideation at baseline and at week 6, respectively. The analyses revealed that baseline hopelessness was positively related to suicide ideation over treatment (p = .0027), independent of changes in depression severity. This significant finding persisted only for females (p = .0024). These results indicate the importance of early identification of hopelessness.     

Distinguishing between perceiver and wearer effects in clothing color-associated attributions

Recent studies have noted positive effects of red clothing on success in competitive sports, perhaps arising from an evolutionary predisposition to associate the color red with dominance status. Red may also enhance judgments of women's attractiveness by men, perhaps through a similar association with fertility. Here we extend these studies by investigating attractiveness judgments of both sexes and by contrasting attributions based on six different colors. Furthermore, by photographing targets repeatedly in different colors, we could investigate whether color effects are due to influences on raters or clothing wearers, by either withholding from raters information about clothing color or holding it constant via digital manipulation, while retaining color-associated variation in wearer's expression and posture. When color cues were available, we found color-attractiveness associations when males were judged by either sex, or when males judged females, but not when females judged female images. Both red and black were associated with higher attractiveness judgments and had approximately equivalent effects. Importantly, we also detected significant clothing color-attractiveness associations even when clothing color was obscured from raters and when color was held constant by digital manipulation. These results suggest that clothing color has a psychological influence on wearers at least as much as on raters, and that this ultimately influences attractiveness judgments by others. Our results lend support for the idea that evolutionarily-derived color associations can bias interpersonal judgments, although these are limited neither to effects on raters nor to the color red.     

Objective and subjective bulimic episodes in the classification of bulimic-type eating disorders: Another nail in the coffin of a problematic distinction

We sought to further explore the validity of the distinction between objective bulimic episodes (OBEs) and subjective bulimic episodes (SBEs) in the study of bulimic-type eating disorders. Drawing on data obtained at the second, interview phase of a large-scale epidemiological study, we identified mutually exclusive subgroups of women with bulimic-type eating disorders who engaged in regular OBEs but not SBEs (n = 37) or regular SBEs but not OBEs (n = 52). These subgroups were compared on a wide range of outcomes, including socio-demographic characteristics, current levels of eating disorder psychopathology, general psychological distress and impairment in role functioning, current and lifetime impairment in quality of life specifically associated with an eating problem, (self)-recognition of an eating problem, health service utilization and use of psychotropic medication. The only difference between groups was that participants who reported regular OBEs were heavier than those who reported regular SBEs. The findings converge with those of previous research in suggesting that bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs, but not OBEs, do not differ in any clinically meaningful way from those characterized by regular OBEs, but not SBEs. Inclusion of bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs as a provisional category requiring further research in DSM-V appears warranted.