Post-Adoption Services for High-Risk Families and Their Children: Preliminary Results of a State-Wide Intervention

Despite well-documented post-adoption needs of adoptive families, most states provide no or very limited post-adoption services. This study describes Right Turn® (RT), a state-wide program for strengthening adoptive families and preventing adoption dissolution. Results suggest: (a) RT is serving its targeted audience of adoptive families with challenging problems indicated by older adopted children with a history of multiple placements, extended time in social services systems, and a host of mental health challenges; and (b) adoption training, family support when navigating access to post-adoption services, and collaboration with adoption-competent therapists appeared to have helped improve program outcomes.     

Influencing health decision-making: A study of colour and message framing

Objective: Previous research has provided evidence that colour associations and frame can influence behavioural intentions to engage in vaccination behaviours. In this study, the extension of these effects to sunscreen application behaviours was investigated. Additional colours and the manner in which colour primes were employed were also explored.

Design: Two hundred and eighty-six college students were primed with either short wavelength colours (blue/purple) or long wavelength colours (red/orange) as part of goal framed sunscreen information pamphlets.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported behavioural intentions to apply sunscreen, immediate affective reaction to stimuli material, anticipated affect towards sunscreen use, and perceived efficacy of preventing skin cancer were measured.

Results: Individuals with no prior intention to use sunscreen expressed greater behavioural intentions to do so after reading a positively framed sunscreen pamphlet that was designed using short wavelength colours. The negatively framed messages and those presented in long wavelength colours did not enhance persuasion.

Conclusions: In accordance with the Unification Theory of Framing, a match between the representations of the target behaviour, the colour prime, and the frame resulted in the greatest amount of persuasion. Creating communications with representations that match the target behaviour could be a powerful tool to increase compliance.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Constructs and Children's Behavioral and Emotional Problems

Each cognitive behavior therapy has produced research concerning the cognitive construct it posits to mediate psychopathology. This study attempted to compare the major cognitive behavioral constructs to determine how they are related to each other and how each is related to teachers' perception of externalized and internalized behavioral and emotional problems. Children between the ages of 9 to 13 were classified as internalized, externalized, mixed, or no behavior and emotional problems groups according to their scores on the Teacher's Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist and teachers' ratings on the Walker Problem Identification Scale. Measures of Ellis' (1962) irrationality, Beek's (1976) negative automatic thoughts, Spivack's (Spivack, Platt, & Shure, 1976) social problem skills, and Meichenbaum's (1977) guiding self statements were administered to the children. The results indicated that the various cognitive constructs were only moderately correlated with each other. Irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions were correlated higher than other comparisons. The correlations between the measures of the constructs suggest they are slightly related but represent different constructs. The emotional and behavioral problems groups scored higher than the no problems group on some subtest of irrational beliefs and negative cognitive thoughts. Also, the measures of emotional and behavior problems correlated significantly with some subtest of irrational beliefs and negative automatic thoughts. Irrational beliefs appeared to be related to internalized and externalized emotional and behavioral problems, while negative automatic thoughts appeared to be best related to internalized emotional and behavioral problems. The measures of problem solving skills and guiding self statements appear to be best related to externalized problems.     

EVALUATION OF A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PROGRAM AND IN SITU TRAINING BY PARENTS TO TEACH ABDUCTION‐PREVENTION SKILLS TO CHILDREN

Child abduction is a serious problem; therefore, it is essential that researchers evaluate the efficacy of commercially available abduction‐prevention programs. A multiple baseline design across participants (ages 6 to 8 years) was used to evaluate the effects of a training program, The Safe Side. Experimenters assessed safety responses in situ in two different situations (knock on the door and interaction by a stranger in public). Results revealed that participants did not demonstrate the safety skills following Safe Side training. All participants subsequently received in situ training (IST) implemented by the parent. Additional assessments and IST were conducted until each participant performed the skills to criterion. All participants demonstrated criterion performance following IST and maintained the skills over time.     

Development of the letter identity span in reading: evidence from the eye movement moving window paradigm

By means of the moving window paradigm, we examined how many letters can be identified during a single eye fixation and whether this letter identity span changes as a function of reading skill. The results revealed that 8-year-old Finnish readers identify approximately 5 characters, 10-year-old readers identify approximately 7 characters, and 12-year-old and adult readers identify approximately 9 characters to the right of fixation. Comparison with earlier studies revealed that the letter identity span is smaller than the span for identifying letter features and that it is as wide in Finnish as in English. Furthermore, the letter identity span of faster readers of each age group was larger than that of slower readers, indicating that slower readers, unlike faster readers, allocate most of their processing resources to foveally fixated words. Finally, slower second graders were largely not disrupted by smaller windows, suggesting that their word decoding skill is not yet fully automatized.     

Choking on the Money: Reward-Based Performance Decrements Are Associated With Midbrain Activity

ABSTRACT— A pernicious paradox in human motivation is the occasional reduced performance associated with tasks and situations that involve larger-than-average rewards. Three broad explanations that might account for such performance decrements are attentional competition (distraction theories), inhibition by conscious processes (explicit-monitoring theories), and excessive drive and arousal (overmotivation theories). Here, we report incentive-dependent performance decrements in humans in a reward-pursuit task; subjects were less successful in capturing a more valuable reward in a computerized maze. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that increased activity in ventral midbrain, a brain area associated with incentive motivation and basic reward responding, correlated with both reduced number of captures and increased number of near-misses associated with imminent high rewards. These data cast light on the neurobiological basis of choking under pressure and are consistent with overmotivation accounts.     

Perceived Academic Control: mediating the effects of optimism and social support on college students’ psychological health

The first year of college presents numerous challenges experienced as overwhelming by some freshmen who may become overly stressed and depressed. This longitudinal study examined perceived academic control (PAC) as a mediator of optimism and social support’s buffering effects on freshman students’ psychological health. Multiple regressions assessed optimism and social support (at the start of the academic year) as predictors of year-end stress and depression among 288 freshmen. PAC (at the start of the year) was then examined as a mediator of the effects of optimism and support. Lastly, stress and depression were assessed as predictors of year-end degree commitment and cumulative GPA. As expected, optimism and support predicted less stress and depression, yet their beneficial effects were mediated by students’ PAC. Depression subsequently predicted less year-end degree commitment and lower cumulative GPAs. PAC mediates the protective effects of optimism and support, providing additional protection for students against poor psychological health. Findings have implications for shielding students’ health against the demands of the freshman year.