Factor structure of the Depression Self-Rating Scale in an Iranian adolescent sample

Previous research showed concurrent validity for the Depression Self-rating Scale for Iranian adolescents, so the present purpose was to evaluate construct validity. The scale was distributed to 2012 school students in Grades 5 to 10. Factor analysis using varimax rotation yielded four factors interpretable as depressed mood, hopelessness, lack of pleasurable activities, and physiological symptoms. These factors accounted for 44% of the variance and provide some support for construct validity of the scale in Iranian adolescents.     

Orientation-selective adaptation to crowded illusory lines

Visual adaptation has been successfully used as a psychophysical tool for studying the functional organisation of visual awareness. It has been shown that orientation-selective adaptation to a grating pattern occurs in crowded conditions. In such conditions, simultaneous presentation of flanking distractors pushes the target stimulus out of conscious perception and severely impairs orientation discrimination in the periphery of the visual field. In the present study, orientation-selective adaptation to illusory lines induced by two line gratings abutting each other with a phase shift was examined in crowded and non-crowded conditions. To rule out the effects of lower level adaptations we used an animation paradigm in which the orientations of the two line gratings were altered repeatedly during adaptation phase without any change in the orientation of the resulting illusory line. Although performance of subjects in reporting the orientation of crowded illusory lines was at chance level, orientation-selective adaptation was preserved for crowded as well as non-crowded adapting targets. Two control experiments demonstrated that adaptation to endpoints of real lines at the location of abutting grating lines had minimal effect on the adaptation to illusory lines; and changes in the configuration of endpoints could not be responsible for better performance when adapting and test stimuli were different. We conclude that a crowding effect occurs after illusory lines have been processed in the visual stream. Since illusory lines seem to be represented at relatively early stages of visual processing (e.g. area V2), adaptation to crowded illusory stimuli suggests that neuronal activation in those early stages is not necessarily correlated with conscious perception.     

The role of executive functions in bilingual children with reading difficulties

To explore the joint effect of reading difficulties (RD) and bilingualism on executive functions, 190 children of four groups of 9–12 year‐olds (41 bilinguals with RD, 45 monolinguals with RD, 45 bilinguals without RD, and 59 monolinguals without RD) were examined on the Concentration game, Tower of Hanoi, and Stroop as measures of executive functioning tapping into inhibitory/attentional control, working memory and planning ability. The most prominent finding was that in terms of RD, the speed of performances decreased dramatically. This general decrease was more pronounced for bilingual children with RD than for their monolingual counterparts. In conclusion, the findings suggest that while bilinguals gain more from executive functions in normal reading, they lose in terms of RD. Such an outcome confirms that executive functions are essential components of both reading and bilingualism, which depending on whether reading conditions are normal or difficult will produce cognitive advantages or disadvantages. Further, it is argued that dissimilarity between the Farsi and Swedish languages may complicate handling of such a situation.     

Relationships of Contextual Factors and Personal Identity to Externalizing Problem Behavior Among Iranian Early Adolescents

In the present study, we evaluated a model of relations among contextual factors (family, school, and peer group), personal identity (i.e., coherence and confusion), and problem behavior among Iranian adolescents. The sample consisted of 765 Iranian adolescents and 615 primary caregivers. Results indicated that family functioning (adolescent report) was related to adolescent problem behavior (a) directly and (b) indirectly through identity confusion. Peer support on the other hand was solely indirectly related to adolescent problem behavior through identity confusion. School functioning was also significantly and negatively related to adolescent problem behavior. The present findings suggest that identity and contextual factors play important roles in steering Iranian adolescents toward or away from behavior problems. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Physical Activity in Overweight and Obese Women: Association with Body Mass Index and Demographic Characteristics

The aim of present study was determination of the level of physical activity in overweight and obese women and its association with body mass index and various socio-demographic characteristics. In the present cross-sectional survey, the translated and validated form of International physical activity questionnaire was completed by 300 overweight and obese women from Iran-Tabriz. For each activity level, the MET-time value was calculated. The weight and height of subjects were measured and the BMI was calculated. In addition, subjects were asked to indicate their age, marital and socioeconomic status (including employment, educational status, salaries and material endowments) using a general information questionnaire. The One-way ANOVA, Independent t-test, multiple linear regression analysis were used for statistical analysis. Approximately, 45 % of women were physically inactive. Overweight women were more likely to be physically active as compared to obese, while the lowest physical activity rates were observed in older participants. With increasing age, the time spent in vigorous physical activity declined significantly (p-value?=?0.004). Physically active women had higher Socio-economic status. The average time spent on vigorous physical activities were significantly more in single than married women (p-value?相似文献   

Short-term and Mid-term Effects of Fasting and Downset Meal Pattern on Lipid Profile in Iranian Fasted Women

It is not clear that whether the effects of fasting and downset meal pattern on lipid profile are limited only to Ramadan or do they remain after that month. The cohort study was conducted on 49 women aged 20–45 who worked at Shahid Motahari hospital in Isfahan. They put on groups of 23 consuming downset meal and 26 non-consuming downset meal persons. Serum triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, and HDL were measured on the 3 days before the beginning, 3 and 30 days after the end of Ramadan. Repeated measure test was used to determine the changes during times and the interaction effects between times and nocturnal eating pattern. This study showed that fasting causes some short-term and mid-term changes in triglyceride and HDL that is mostly attributable to changes in dietary habits during Ramadan, rather than downset meal pattern.     

A Comparison of Effectiveness of Dohsa‐hou and the Alexander Technique on Happiness,Social Adjustment,Hope, Mental Health,and Quality of Life in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Dohsa‐hou and the Alexander Technique on happiness, social adjustment, hope, mental health, and quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease. The statistical population of this study included all of the patients with Parkinson's disease who were clients of neural therapeutic centers in Isfahan City in 2015. Among this population, 28 patients were selected through convenience sampling as the sample of the study. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, the Social Adjustment Scale, the Adult Hope Scale, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Word Health Quality of Life Questionnaire were used as the instruments of the study. Data were analyzed by analyses of variance with repeated measures. The results showed that both interventions of this study can improve happiness, hope, and quality of life in patients with Parkinson's disease, but Dohsa‐hou is more effective than the Alexander Technique in the improvement of happiness and hope. Probable explanations have been discussed.     

When white collar criminals turn to fatal violence: The impact of narcissism and psychopathy

The present article takes as its point of departure Perri's view, according to whom the impact of personality traits such as psychopathy and narcissism has unduly been omitted in research on white collar criminality. However, this article argues that although such factors have an important role to play in some cases when white collar criminals turn violent in order to prevent the detection of their felonies, they constitute neither the necessary nor the sufficient conditions for white collar criminals to commit murders. This means on the one hand that, although potentially increasing the risk for violence, these traits are not by themselves sufficient as the triggers of violent acts and can function so only under certain social‐contextual circumstances. However, such personality traits are not by themselves necessary, as there can be empirical cases of fraud detection murder committed by white collar criminals lacking them. This position is supported by both a logical analysis of Perri's main arguments and by empirical evidence, consisting of a few real‐life cases of Scandinavian white collar criminals who have “turned red.”     

The Factor Structure of the Twelve Items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): a Population Based Study

Mental health is a key component of general health based on world health organization (WHO) definition of health. A short form of the general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been widely used as an assessment tool of general and mental health. This study was designed to evaluate the properties of the Persian version of this questionnaire. Of 6140 subjects aged 10–90 years of a cohort study of Northern Iran, the relevant data of 5074 individuals aged ≥18 years were considered for analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the six models including one-dimensional model, one-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items, two-dimensional model based on negative and positive statement items, two-dimensional model based on social dysfunction and psychological distress, three-dimensional model based on anxiety/depression, social dysfunction and loss of confidence and finally one-dimensional model with an additional factor for the negatively phrased items. The best fit indices belonged to one-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items with χ2 = 686.8, df = 39, CFI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.057 (95%CI: 0.054–0.061), SRMR = 0.0317, AGFI = 0.952, TLI = 0.920 and AIC = 764.8 and also three-dimensional model with χ2 = 860.7, df = 51, CFI = 0.941, RMSEA = 0.056 (95%CI: 0.053–0.059), SRMR = 0.0343, AGFI = 0.955, TLI = 0.923 and AIC = 915.0. In the comparison between these two best models we had ?χ2 = 174.2, ?df = 12, p-value < 0.001 in favor of the one-dimensional model. One-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items showed the best fitting indices with our population.