Comparison of outcome in men and women after treatment in psychiatric security hospitals in Germany

Previous research has shown that forensic psychiatric treatment reduces reoffending, rehospitalization and premature mortality. Treatment outcome varies with diagnosis, but little is known about the influence of sex, psychosocial adjustment and aftercare. To assess these variables, we interviewed male and female patients discharged from three psychiatric security hospitals in Germany in the years 2010–2017. Participants were interviewed at discharge (n = 609) and 1 year later (n = 366) about reoffending, readmissions, substance use and psychosocial adjustment. Among patients with substance use disorder (SUD), 14% reoffended, 20% were re-hospitalized and 60% maintained abstinence. Among patients with severe mental disorder, 5% reoffended and 13% were re-hospitalized. Significant sex differences were found in offenders with SUD. The results suggest that sociodemographic and disorder-related risk factors are associated with treatment success and that female patients with SUD might need a specific treatment approach. Sex-specific aspects, diagnosis and psychosocial adjustment should be considered in forensic psychiatric treatment and risk assessment.     

Family Coordination in Families who have a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Little is known about the interactions of families where there is a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study applies the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) to explore both its applicability to this population as well as to assess resources and areas of deficit in these families. The sample consisted of 68 families with a child with ASD, and 43 families with a typically developing (TD) child. With respect to the global score for family coordination there were several negative correlations: the more severe the symptoms (based on the child’s ADOS score), the more family coordination was dysfunctional. This correlation was particularly high when parents had to play together with the child. In the parts in which only one of the parents played actively with the child, while the other was simply present, some families did achieve scores in the functional range, despite the child’s symptom severity. The outcomes are discussed in terms of their clinical implications both for assessment and for intervention.     

A Case-Series of Reflective Family Play: Therapeutic Process,Feasibility, and Referral Characteristics

Evidence-based interventions for infants and preschoolers, and their families, have largely focused on the mother-child dyad. In response to the increasing need to diversify treatment approaches in the under six population and include the whole family system, we have developed a new treatment approach called Reflective Family Play (RFP). A manualized, whole-family therapy, RFP allows for the involvement of two parents and siblings when working with infants or young children. In this case-series, we used a qualitative chart review to examine the therapeutic process, acceptability, and feasibility of RFP for 22 families with children ages 0–6, who participated in RFP. We also sought to better understand the referral characteristics of those families who participated in RFP by comparing them to families who were referred to and participated in an established dyadic approach during the same time-period. Session-by-session coding of clinician chart notes revealed evidence of positive shifts throughout the RFP process, including more whole-family play, improvements in coparenting, and better parental mentalization. Parents reported improvements in presenting concerns in all but one case. Improvements in coparenting, sibling relationships, and family alliance were also reported by parents after RFP. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

A review of ideomotor approaches to perception,cognition, action,and language: advancing a cultural recycling hypothesis

The term “cultural recycling” derives from the neuronal recycling hypothesis, which suggests that representations of cultural inventions like written words, Arabic numbers, or tools can occupy brain areas dedicated to other functions. In the present selective review article, we propose a recycling hypothesis for the ideomotor mechanism. The ideomotor approach assumes that motor actions are controlled by the anticipation of the expected perceptual consequences that they aim to generate in the environment. Arguably, such action–perception mechanisms contribute to motor behaviour for human and non-human animals since millions of years. However, recent empirical studies suggest that the ideomotor mechanism can also contribute to word processing, number representation, and arithmetic. For instance, it has been shown that the anticipatory simulation of abstract semantics, like the numerical quantitative value of three items can prime processing of the associated Arabic number “3”. Arabic numbers, words, or tools represent cultural inventions, so that, from a theoretical perspective, we suggest an ideomotor recycling hypothesis for the interaction with such artefacts. In this view, the ideomotor mechanism spreads its influence to other functions beyond motor control, and is recycled to flexibly adapt different human behaviours towards dealing with more abstract concepts.     

How differences in perceptions of own and team performance impact trust and job satisfaction in virtual teams

Employees frequently engage in social comparison processes and tend to perceive their own performance as superior compared to that of their peers. We expect this to be particularly salient in virtual teams where employees receive few cues upon which the comparison with other members of their team can be based. With reliance on social comparison and social exchange theory, we propose that such “perceived overperformance” has negative effects on job satisfaction, which is mediated by trust in the team. We confirm this with a sample of field-service employees (n = 753) using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping. We corroborated our findings in focus groups, which suggest the need for performance indicators that are easily communicated to and comprehended by employees to maintain trust and satisfaction.     

Getting Ahead: Educational and Occupational Trajectories of the ‘New’ Second-Generation in Switzerland

This paper examines the educational and occupational trajectories among second-generation immigrants of Turkish and Western-Balkan origin in Switzerland. Using a representative sample of 1107 respondents in two Swiss urban areas, the findings reveal that descendants of immigrants have reduced chances to follow a constant successful path from education to occupation, which is mainly determined by parental socioeconomic status. However, young adults of Turkish and Western Balkan origin are significantly more often upward mobile than the majority group, a pattern that is robust against a range of controls. We find parental monitoring and family cohesion to be positively related with upward mobility. Moreover, second-generation immigrants are more likely to be upwardly mobile than starting high in the education system but subsequently moving downwards—a profile that is more frequent among Swiss origin youth. Our multivariate results indicate that a lack of intense parent–child communication and perceived discrimination in school are affecting this downward process.     

Parents’ influence on the development of their children’s ethnic intergroup attitudes: a longitudinal analysis from middle childhood to early adolescence

This study investigated to what extent parents’ intergroup attitudes influence the development of their children’s ethnic intergroup attitudes (i.e., ingroup bias), and which socialization factors moderate this influence. We report on a four-year longitudinal study of 213 children (M_age = 7.94) and their parents conducted in Eastern Germany. Findings showed significant interindividual differences in children’s developmental trajectories, which could, in part, be explained by child gender, socio-economic status and parental attitudes. The influence of parents’ intergroup attitudes was moderated by parenting style and parental similarity in attitudes both of which, our findings suggest, can make the transmission of parental attitudes more likely.     

Semantic effects on sensory-motor modality switching

Language processing always involves a combination of sensory (auditory or visual) and motor modalities (vocal or manual). In line with embodied cognition theories, we additionally assume a semantically implied modality (SIM) due to modality references of the underlying concept. Understanding ear-related words (e.g. “noise”), for example, should activate the auditory SIM. In the present study, we investigated the influence of the SIM on sensory-motor modality switching (e.g. switching between the auditory-vocal and visual-manual combination). During modality switching, participants categorised words with regard to their SIM (e.g. ear- versus eye-related words). Overall performance was improved and switch costs were reduced whenever there was concordance between SIMs and sensory-motor modalities (e.g. an auditory presentation of ear-related words). Thus, the present study provides first evidence for semantic effects during sensory-motor modality switching in terms of facilitation effects whenever the SIM was in concordance with sensory-motor modalities.     

The interplay of modern myths about sexual aggression and moral foundations in the blaming of rape victims

Moral Foundations Theory proposes five intuition-based moral concerns: Care and Fairness (“individualizing foundations”) as well as Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity (“binding foundations”). In studies carried out in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the authors examined how these concerns are associated with the acceptance of modern myths about sexual aggression (AMMSA), and how both jointly predict rape victim blaming. Overall, victim blaming was positively predicted by Authority and Sanctity, and negatively predicted by Care and Fairness. Although victim blaming was best predicted by AMMSA, moral concerns also contributed to its prediction, partly independently, partly mediated through AMMSA, and in the case of Sanctity in interaction with AMMSA. Discussion highlights how integrating moral foundations in the investigation of victim blaming and AMMSA across different cultural contexts may deepen our understanding of why, in each cultural context, victim blaming and related beliefs are resistant to change.