The Religious and Spiritual Needs of Patients in the Hospital Setting Do Not Depend on Patient Level of Religious/Spiritual Observance and Should be Initiated by Healthcare Providers

Journal of Religion and Health - According to many studies, addressing the religious and spiritual (R/S) needs of patient's increase patient satisfaction. One area of interest is how patient...     

Neurocognitive development in 5- to 16-year-old North American children: A cross-sectional study

Executive functions are thought to be the latest functions to mature. However, this view has not been tested by assessing simultaneously memory, perception of emotions, visuospatial perception, and visuoconstructional skills. NEPSY II norm data from 1000 5- to 16-year-old U.S. children were obtained. Fifteen NEPSY II subtests with no floor or ceiling effects in any age group and no major changes in task type were selected. The 16-year level was attained at age 12 to 13 in all subtests with two exceptions: social perception (age 10 to 11) and narrative memory (age 14). Trend analyses showed that development was rapid in the age range 5 to 9 years followed by a deceleration in the rate of development. Peak performances were reached at 14 to 16 years but later in some subtests representing executive functions, verbal memory, and visuospatial performance. Thus, the study specified developmental time tables of neurocognitive functions. It demonstrated that not only executive functions but also verbal memory and visuospatial performance continue to develop beyond age 16.     

Executive function as a function of sub-clinical psychopathy

Some aspects of executive function are thought to be dysfunctional in psychopathic individuals. We administered a small battery of neuropsychological tests (spatial alternation task, object alternation task, and Porteus Maze) to two samples of college students and obtained a measure of psychopathy via a self-report questionnaire. Psychopathic traits were related to the tests of object alternation and Porteus Maze but not to the spatial alternation task. Our results support the hypothesis of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) dysfunction with sparing of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in psychopathy and provide a downward extension of this theory to sub-clinical levels of psychopathy.     

Varieties of Cues to Emotion in Naturally Occurring Situations

People were asked to observe a person with whom they lived, to report when they noticed that person experiencing an emotion, and to report what cues they used to detect the emotion. In Phase 1, observers were told to "list the cues they used"; in Phase 2, they were told to "describe how they could tell" that the target person was experiencing an emotion. Results were similar in both phases. Only 5 of the 182 respondents reported using a single cue whereas 10 reported using at least a dozen cues. Two out of three respondents reported using vocal cues; over a half reported using facial, indirect verbal, and context cues; nearly a half reported using body and activity cues; about a quarter of the respondents reported using physiological, trait, and other cues; and fewer than a tenth reported using direct verbal cues. Roughly the same number of cues and the same distribution of cue categories was found regardless of the emotion being observed, the sex of the person observing, the sex of the person being observed, or the type of relationship between them.     

Authenticity as a Mediator of the Relation Between Child Maltreatment and Negative Outcomes for College Women

The goal of this cross-sectional study was to determine if authenticity in relationships mediated the relation between early childhood maltreatment and negative outcomes (depression, low self-esteem, and traumatic symptoms). An ethnically diverse sample of female college students (N = 257, M age = 19.74) completed self-report questionnaires related to early childhood maltreatment, negative outcomes, and authenticity in relationships. Approximately 30% of participants experienced childhood maltreatment including physical maltreatment, emotional maltreatment, or both. Results from multiple mediation analyses indicated that, when controlling for physical maltreatment, authenticity in close relationships significantly partially mediated the relation between emotional maltreatment and depression, self-esteem, and traumatic symptoms (p < .05). However, when controlling for emotional maltreatment, physical maltreatment did not significantly predict any of the outcome variables, so physical maltreatment was not significantly mediated by authenticity in relationships. These results have important clinical implications for women who experience negative mental health outcomes as a result of childhood maltreatment.     

purging behavior in a sample of college females: a research note on general strain theory and female deviance

Tests of theories of deviance tend to focus on criminality, delinquency, or types of deviance more typically engaged in by males. Prototypical female deviance has been largely ignored. This article reports the findings from a pilot study of female deviance. Using a sample of 96 college women, we examine the utility of General Strain Theory to explain one prototypically female type of deviant behavior, purging. We explore the relationship of strain variables to purging, mediated through negative affect. Two forms of negative affect, anger and depression, are included in the model. Our findings suggest that the relationship is complex, with an interaction between anger and depression. Anger is associated with purging at high levels of depression only. The preliminary findings, when viewed in conjunction with prior research, suggest that different negative affective states may be associated with different types of deviance outcomes, and that typically "female" or self-directed types of deviance may result from the interaction of anger and depression.     

Collectively Speaking: The Many Meanings of Naming and Sharing Group Trauma

This commentary on Kathleen McPhillips’s (this issue) “‘Unbearable Knowledge’” paper looks at implications for theory of the model she uses to analyze collective trauma. While affirming the model’s robustness, it is suggested that it has both theoretical and political ramifications that need to be further spelled out. The commentary ends with several questions regarding the leap from individual to collective trauma. These include the importance of maintaining a steady appreciation of multiplicity, which is foundational to relational psychoanalytic theory; second, the need to appreciate the complexity of dismantling a collective dissociative defense; and finally, the significance of spontaneity in healing.     

A longitudinal study of children's text messaging and literacy development

Recent studies have shown evidence of positive concurrent relationships between children's use of text message abbreviations ('textisms') and performance on standardized assessments of reading and spelling. This study aimed to determine the direction of this association. One hundred and nineteen children aged between 8 and 12 years were assessed on measures of general ability, reading, spelling, rapid phonological retrieval, and phonological awareness at the beginning and end of an academic year. The children were also asked to provide a sample of the text messages that they sent over a 2-day period. These messages were analyzed to determine the extent to which textisms were used. It was found that textism use at the beginning of the academic year was able to predict unique variance in spelling performance at the end of the academic year after controlling for age, verbal IQ, phonological awareness, and spelling ability at the beginning of the year. When the analysis was reversed, reading and spelling ability were unable to predict unique variance in textism usage. These data suggest that there is some evidence of a causal contribution of textism usage to spelling performance in children aged 8-12 years. However, when the measure of rapid phonological retrieval (rapid picture naming) was controlled in the analysis, the relationship between textism use and spelling ability just failed to reach statistical significance, suggesting that phonological access skills may mediate some of the relationship between textism use and spelling performance.