Classwide Teacher Implementation of Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Writing with Students with E/BD in a Residential Facility

One promising intervention to support the writing skills of students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders is self-regulated strategy development (SRSD). The purpose of this study was to extend this line of inquiry to a residential setting with teachers serving as interventionists and determine the effects of the SRSD using the STOP and DARE mnemonic for persuasive writing on the writing performance (Correct Word Sequences, Essay Elements, and Essay Quality), and academic engagement of secondary students. In addition, this study extended this line of inquiry by looking at implementation of the intervention only 2 days per week, a lower treatment intensity than previous research has used to find statistically significant gains in writing. Results of a piecewise hierarchical linear model suggest statistically significant gains were made over the course of the intervention in writing and academic engagement when compared to baseline. In addition, student variables such as writing achievement, externalizing/internalizing behavior patterns, age, and attendance predicted writing and engagement. Results of generalization, fidelity, and social validity also are reported.     

Parent–Child Conflict Moderates the Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Child Disruptive Behaviors in Youth with T1D

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Executive function (EF) skills, parent–child conflict, and high blood glucose (BG) may impact child externalizing behaviors. We examined...     

Pediatric Parenting Stress and Its Relation to Depressive Symptoms and Fear of Hypoglycemia in Parents of Young Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Parents of young children with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) maintain full responsibility for their child’s daily diabetes self-care and thus may be vulnerable to experiencing parenting stress. This study examined several psychological correlates of pediatric parenting stress in parents of young children with T1DM. Parents of 39 young children with T1DM (ages 2–7 years) completed measures of pediatric parenting stress, mealtime behavior problems, depressive symptoms, and fear of hypoglycemia. For parents of young children, higher stress frequency and difficulty were associated with higher parental depressive symptoms and fear. Regression analyses identified that 58% of the variance in stress frequency was associated with parental depressive symptoms. For stress difficulty, 68% of the variance was associated with parental depressive symptoms and fear. Pediatric parenting stress is common in parents of young children with T1DM. Stress and the psychological correlates measured in this study are amenable to intervention and should be regularly assessed in parents of young children with T1DM.     

The Importance and Place of Neuroticism in Predicting Burnout in Employment Service Case Managers

This study investigated the ability of neuroticism to explain variance in burnout scores obtained from a sample of Australian case managers who work with individuals experiencing unemployment. Using a longitudinal survey methodology, 70 case managers completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996) on 2 occasions. Case managers also completed the Work Environment Scale (Moos, 1994) and the short form of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991) on the first occasion. In a series of hierarchical regression analyses, neuroticism added significantly to the explanation of variance in all 3 MBI subscales after summary scores describing work stress and work relationships had been entered at an earlier step. An investigation of whether emotional exhaustion mediated the influence of neuroticism on depersonalization found that emotional exhaustion satisfied the criteria for complete mediation.     

The pastoral counselor as specialist within ministry

The article attempts to demonstrate the continuity of the specialized ministry of pastoral counseling with all Christian ministry. By the use of a case fragment from a pastoral counseling case, it attempts to raise three central issues which, in terms of how they are dealt with, can determine whether or not a particular experience of counseling is Christian ministry. These issues are: the role of the minister and the context for ministry; the way in which the method of counseling can be shown to be related to a norm for Christian ministry; and the way in which the counseling process is interpreted and understood.His article is an extensive revision of an address given to the annual convention of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors in April, 1980.     

The Impact of the United States Air Force Deployment Transition Center on Postdeployment Mental Health Outcomes

The United States Air Force Deployment Transition Center (DTC) operates a 2-day third-location decompression program that commenced operations during the summer of 2010 in Ramstein, Germany, with the aim to assist Air Force service members (AFSMs) who are returning from deployment as they prepare to reintegrate back into their home lives and work stations. The present study evaluated the impact of DTC attendance on later mental health outcomes. Because participants are not randomly assigned to attend the DTC, propensity score weighting was used to compare DTC participants (N = 1,573) to a weighted control group of AFSMs (N = 1,570) in the same job specialties who returned from deployment during the same time period. Rates of endorsement to items on the Postdeployment Health Reassessment were examined and compared, as were rates of mental health diagnoses from AFSMs’ official medical records. Key findings indicate that DTC participants reported lower levels of depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and lower levels of relationship conflict following return from deployment, as compared to weighted control participants. Mental health diagnostic rates were comparable for the 2 groups during the first 6 months following return from deployment. These findings suggest that participation in the DTC program had notable benefits for redeploying AFSMs and support the continued use of the program.     

Hand-scoring error rates in psychological testing

Despite the comprehensive treatment of test validity in most technical manuals, test authors appear to routinely assume that clients and professionals will score their instruments without error. Recently Allard and Faust challenged this assumption by suggesting that error rates "may not be rare or benign" and demonstrated that tests with more complex scoring procedures were associated with a greater number of scoring errors. This study investigated error rates that resulted from hand scoring seven psychometric tests commonly employed in psychological practice. Significant and serious error rates were identified for both psychologist and client scorers across all tests investigated. Scoring complexity was found to predict the base rate of scorer errors. The findings suggest that greater development in and attention to test-scoring procedures is required to restrict the likelihood of scorer error.     

The Motivated Expression of Embarrassment Following a Self-Presentational Predicament

ABSTRACT Two experiments tested hypotheses derived from an interpersonal model of embarrassment. According to this model, people who have suffered a self-presentational predicament are motivated to convey to others that they feel embarrassed as a way of repairing their social image and lowering subjective embarrassment in such situations. In Experiment 1, participants who performed an embarrassing task subsequently expressed greater embarrassment if the researcher did not already know that they were embarrassed than if she was aware of their embarrassment. Experiment 2 showed that embarrassed participants who thought that the researcher did not interpret their blushing as a sign of embarrassment subsequently engaged in alternative self-presentational tactics to improve their damaged social image.