Family or friends: who plays a greater supportive role for Latino college students?

This study compared the relative contribution of perceived family and friend support to psychological well-being and distress and examined whether family or friend support moderated the effects of stress on psychological adjustment in 338 Latino (228 Mexican American, 110 Central American) college students from a predominantly Latino university. Two multiple regressions, controlling for gender, socioeconomic level, acculturation level, and stresses (generic college, acculturative, and minority status), showed that friend support made a slightly greater contribution to well-being than family support, and friend support and not family support protected against psychological distress. Neither family nor friend support moderated the effects of stress on psychological adjustment. Further examination of these variables that assess common-specific stresses within a culture-specific theoretical framework is recommended.     

Epidemiology of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in Mexico

Prevalence rates of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were estimated from a probability sample of 2,509 adults from 4 cities in Mexico. PTSD was assessed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI; WHO, 1997). Lifetime prevalence of exposure and PTSD were 76% and 11.2%, respectively. Risk for PTSD was highest in Oaxaca (the poorest city), persons of lower socioeconomic status, and women. Conditional risk for PTSD was highest following sexual violence, but nonsexual violence and traumatic bereavement had greater overall impact because of their frequency. Of lifetime cases, 62% became chronic; only 42% received medical or professional care. The research demonstrates the importance of expanding the epidemiologic research base on trauma to include developing countries around the world.     

Alternative Approaches to Addressing Non-Normal Distributions in the Application of IRT Models to Personality Measures

It is generally assumed that the latent trait is normally distributed in the population when estimating logistic item response theory (IRT) model parameters. This assumption requires that the latent trait be fully continuous and the population homogenous (i.e., not a mixture). When this normality assumption is violated, models are misspecified, and item and person parameter estimates are inaccurate. When normality cannot be assumed, it might be appropriate to consider alternative modeling approaches: (a) a zero-inflated mixture, (b) a log-logistic, (c) a Ramsay curve, or (d) a heteroskedastic-skew model. The first 2 models were developed to address modeling problems associated with so-called quasi-continuous or unipolar constructs, which apply only to a subset of the population, or are meaningful at one end of the continuum only. The second 2 models were developed to address non-normal latent trait distributions and violations of homogeneity of error variance, respectively. To introduce these alternative IRT models and illustrate their strengths and weaknesses, we performed real data application comparing results to those from a graded response model. We review both statistical and theoretical challenges in applying these models and choosing among them. Future applications of these and other alternative models (e.g., unfolding, diffusion) are needed to advance understanding about model choice in particular situations.     

Latino College Student Adjustment: Does an Increased Presence Offset Minority‐Status and Acculturative Stresses?1

This study examined whether minority‐status stresses and acculturative stresses increase the risk of psychological maladjustment of Latino students at a university where Latinos constitute the largest ethnic group. Participants were 338 Latino (228 Mexican American, 110 Central American) college students who responded to a mailed survey. The results of 2 separate hierarchical regression analyses of psychological distress and well‐being, controlling for demographic (gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity). sociocultural (level of acculturation), college role (generic college stresses), and personal (academic self‐confidence) influences provided partial support for our hypothesis and demonstrated the incremental predictive validity of acculturative stresses, but not of minority‐status stresses. Results are discussed in terms of the variety of stresses that Latino college students are likely to experience.     

Sudden Unexpected Versus Violent Death and PTSD Symptom Development

Changes to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) trauma criterion in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5) have been an area of much scrutiny and debate. One of the proposed changes included removing sudden unexpected death (SUD) from the list of potentially traumatic events. This study tested the extent to which unexpected death differed from violent death and other traumas as measured by PTSD symptoms. Our results indicated a significant difference in symptom development between those experiencing sudden violent death and sudden unexpected, but nonviolent, death. Additional analyses at the DSM–IV symptom cluster level, as well as with Simms, Watson, and Doebbeling’s (2002) factor structure of PTSD symptoms, suggested further distinctions between event types and symptom development. The extent to which SUD should be included in the trauma criterion is considered.     

Programming Time as a Function of Response Duration

Reaction time was longer prior to longer-lasting pressing responses for low probability, unanticipated movements. By contrast, reaction time was independent of response duration for high probability, anticipated movements. This replicates and extends previous findings for choice and simple reaction time in the “dit-dah” paradigm. The present results (unanticipated responses) cannot be given a selective anticipation interpretation because the comparison is between responses which are never anticipated. The previous paradigm was open to an alternative interpretation in which selective anticipation of dit rather than dah could have produced the differences in choice reaction time. Confirmation of the finding that variations in required response duration lead to differences in reaction time supports the view that the underlying parameter of “complexity” in the “memory drum theory” may be response duration.