Is the Association of ADHD with Socio-Economic Disadvantage Explained by Child Comorbid Externalizing Problems or Parent ADHD?

It has been unclear whether an associations of child ADHD with socio-economic disadvantage (SES) could be accounted for by (a) parental ADHD explaining both low SES and child ADHD, and/or (b) the joint overlap of ODD or CD with low SES and ADHD. Study 1 used a community-recruited case-control sample with detailed evaluation of SES indicators, child ADHD, child externalizing, and parent ADHD symptoms (n = 931 children, 521 ADHD, 577 boys, 354 girls) in a path modeling analysis with latent variables. Study 2 evaluated ADHD and externalizing behavior in a regression model using a poverty index for SES, in 70,927 children (48.2% female) aged 5–17 years from the US 2011–2012 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). In Study 1, lower SES was related to the ADHD latent variable, β = ?.18, p < .001; 95%CI [?.25,-.12]. This effect held when parent ADHD and child ODD and CD were in the model, β = ?.11, p < .01, 95% CI [?.09,-.03], equivalent to OR = 1.50, 95% CI[1.12–2.04]). In Study 2, these results replicated. Adjusting only for age and sex, children from families who were below 200% of the federal poverty line were more likely to have moderate or severe ADHD than no ADHD, versus children above that line, OR = 2.13, 95% CI[1.79,2.54], p < .001. The effect held after adjusting for disruptive/externalizing problems, OR = 1.61, p < .01, 95%CI [1.32,1.96]. The effect size for comparable models was similar across both studies, lending higher confidence to the results. It is concluded that the SES association with child ADHD is not explained by artifact and requires a mechanistic explanation.     

Sustainable Pressure for "Women-Friendliness" in Sweden

This paper describes how Swedish women argue and act in order to improve their quality of life. It is based on a citizen survey and on interviews with leaders of a broadly defined women's movement. The thesis is that women are in the process of developing their own democratic practice. They thereby challenge the assumption that general suffrage and numerical equality of representation are sufficient conditions for transforming the contemporary gender power order into one characterized by equality of power between women and men. The empirical data show that there is a great deal of variation in perceptions of problems and ways of accomplishing change. The existence of somewhat different priorities and plural feminist strategies for change—state feminist, interest group–based, civil, and segregated—are interpreted as speaking in favor of the sustainability of such pressure for "women-friendliness" in Sweden.     

Distinctness of perceived three-dimensional form induced by modulated illumination: Effects of certain display and modulation conditions

The present study concerns the distinctness of the 3-D shape-induced on flat displays by spacemodulated illumination (“shape from shading”). The displays that we used varied in structure, hue contrast, lightness contrast, and in the number of reflectance edges present. The modulations of the illumination were a square-wave grating, a gradual modulation (a blurred grating), and an “O’Brien modulation,” which combines an edge and a gradient. The displays were compared, using the paired comparison method, as to the distinctness of the perceived 3-D form. The results showed that the structure and chromatic color of the display were important factors facilitating the distinctness of the induced 3-D shape under all the modulation conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the “vector model” for color constancy, proposed in earlier papers.     

Sentence repetition is a measure of children's language skills rather than working memory limitations

Sentence repetition tasks are widely used in the diagnosis and assessment of children with language difficulties. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of sentence repetition tasks and their relationship to other language skills. We present the results from a 2‐year longitudinal study of 216 children. Children were assessed on measures of sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills three times at approximately yearly intervals starting at age 4. Sentence repetition was not a unique longitudinal predictor of the growth of language skills. A unidimensional language latent factor (defined by sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills) provided an excellent fit to the data, and language abilities showed a high degree of longitudinal stability. Sentence repetition is best seen as a reflection of an underlying language ability factor rather than as a measure of a separate construct with a specific role in language processing. Sentence repetition appears to be a valuable tool for language assessment because it draws upon a wide range of language processing skills.     

Still Not ‘Good’ in Terms of ‘Better’

Erik Carlson puts forward a new way of defining monadic value predicates, such as ‘good’, in terms of dyadic value relations, such as ‘better’. Earlier definitions of this kind have the unwanted feature that they rule out some reasonable axiologies by conceptual fiat. Carlson claims that his definitions do not have this drawback. In this paper, I argue that they do.     

Outcome-Desirability Bias in Resource Management Problems

Sequences of numbers representing prior resource size were presented to participants in a common-pool resource dilemma. The numbers were sampled from uniform probability distributions with either a low variance (low resource uncertainty) or a high variance (high resource uncertainty). Presentations were both sequential and simultaneous. Three groups of 16 undergraduates either estimated the size of the resource when it did not represent value to them; requested an amount from the resource, identified with a sum of money, when the outcome of the requests only depended on resource size; or requested from the resource (sum of money) when the outcome of the requests depended on both resource size and how much others in a group requested. In support of an individual outcome-desirability bias due to selective recall of the number sequences, after sequential presentation larger requests were observed when resource uncertainty was high than when it was low. No effects of resource uncertainty or presentation were found on the estimates of resource size. Whether or not the outcome of the requests depended on others' requests made little difference.     

Interpersonal psychotherapy for eating disorders with co-morbid depression: A pilot study

Objective: Patients with eating disorders (ED) often suffer from co-morbid depression, which may complicate the ED treatment. Previous studies have found that ED interventions seem to have limited capacity to reduce depressive symptoms. Several studies of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), have found that when patients have been treated for depression, co-morbid symptoms have diminished. As depression and EDs are commonly co-occurring conditions, this pilot study aimed to examine the effect of an IPT treatment for these conditions, with the focus on the depressive symptoms.

Method: In this multi-centre study, 16 patients with EDs and co-occurring major depression received 16 weeks of depression-focused IPT.

Results: Significant improvements with substantial effect sizes were found for both depression (d = 1.48) and ED (d = .93). Symptom reduction in the two syndromes were strongly correlated (r = .625, p = .004). Patients with a restrictive ED did not improve on either depression or ED symptoms.

Conclusion: These findings point to the usefulness of IPT for concurrent depression and ED with a bingeing/purging symptomatology. Working with negative affect and problem-solving related to current interpersonal problems may alleviate general psychological distress among these patients.