Procreative responsibilities and the parental obligation objection

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - This essay presents a challenge to the parental obligation objection. This objection is usually made by abortion opponents who argue that because child support...     

Testing use of the first multi-partner cognitive enrichment devices by a group of male bottlenose dolphins

Animal Cognition - Alliance formation plays a crucial part in male dolphins’ lives. These partnerships may last for decades or even for a lifetime; thus, partner choice and the maintenance of...     

Family Functioning and Externalizing Behaviour among Low-income Children: Self-regulation as a Mediator

The purpose of this study was to examine self-regulation as a mediator of the relation between family functioning and externalizing behaviour in 731 low-income children (M age = 41 months) across three time points. Specifically, this study focused on whether chaos in the home and positive behaviour support were indirectly related to externalizing problems through their influence on inhibitory control. The primary findings were as follows: (a) chaos in the home at age 3 years was indirectly related to externalizing behaviour at age 5.5 years through children's inhibitory control at age 4 years, and (b) positive behaviour support at age 3 years was indirectly related to externalizing behaviour at age 5.5 years through inhibitory control at age 4 years. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Comparison of the Family Therapy Educational and Experience Requirements for Licensure or Certification in Six Mental Health Disciplines

In a review of literature on clinical licensure programs and certified mental health disciplines, no studies specifically compared didactic methods and clinical training standards for family-based interventions. Consequently, consumers and insurers of these services have no basis from which to evaluate the relative competency of each of the mental health disciplines in providing family-based interventions. This study used content analysis to examine the amount of family based training that is required by six core mental health disciplines (Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychiatric Nursing, Professional Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Social Work) in each of the 50 United States. Results indicate that a marriage and family therapist is required to have three times more family therapy coursework than any other professional mental health discipline. Also, before becoming licensed a marriage and family therapist, must complete 16 times more face-to-face family therapy hours than a mental health professional from any other discipline. Implications for consumers and practitioners are discussed.     

Parental Coping in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Fifty-six mothers of premature infants who participated in a study to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed the Brief COPE, a self-report inventory of coping mechanisms, the Stanford Acute Stress Reaction Questionnaire to assess acute stress disorder (ASD) and the Davidson Trauma Scale to assess PTSD. 18 % of mothers had baseline ASD while 30 % of mothers met the criteria for PTSD at the 1-month follow-up. Dysfunctional coping as measured by the Brief COPE was positively associated with elevated risk of PTSD in these mothers (RR = 1.09, 95 % CI 1.02–1.15; p = .008). Maternal education was positively associated with PTSD; each year increase in education was associated with a 17 % increase in the relative risk of PTSD at 1 month follow-up (RR = 1.17, 95 % CI 1.02–1.35; p = .03). Results suggest that dysfunctional coping is an important issue to consider in the development of PTSD in parents of premature infants.     

Leaps of faith: the role of religious development in recovering integrity among Jewish alcoholics and drug addicts

In the present study we investigated the association between religiosity and schizotypy in teenagers. The Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity (Francis &; Stubbs, 1987) and the Multidimensional Schizotypal Traits Questionnaire (Rawlings &; MacFarlane 1994) were completed by 492 school pupils ranging in age from 13 to 18. It was found that higher scores on the Francis scale were associated with higher scores on the perceptual aberration subscale and lower scores on the impulsive nonconformity and magical ideation subscales. However, when the analysis was repeated for girls and boys separately we found that the association with magical ideation was unique to boys and the association with impulsive nonconformity was unique to girls. Certain associations seem to be sex specific. Also, although our data suggest that in some respects religiosity might be an index of psychosis proneness, in other respects it would seem that religiosity is associated with psychological well-being.     

The Effect of Attention Allocation Instructions on Self-paced Task Performance under Quiet and Distracted Conditions

This study examined the effectiveness of external and internal focusing attention instructions on the performance of three throwing tasks under both quiet and distracted conditions. The main finding was that during acquisition, the external focus of attention led to improved performance when compared to internal focus of attention and control, but only under quiet conditions. It was also found that during auditory and visual distraction conditions, both types of focus attention produced similar levels of performance, and both groups were superior to the control condition. It is suggested that sport psychology consultants provide their athletes with external focusing attention instructions.     

An effectiveness trial of a new enhanced dissonance eating disorder prevention program among female college students

Objective

Efficacy trials indicate that a dissonance-based prevention program in which female high school and college students with body image concerns critique the thin-ideal reduced risk factors, eating disorder symptoms, and future eating disorder onset, but weaker effects emerged from an effectiveness trial wherein high school clinicians recruited students and delivered the program under real-world conditions. The present effectiveness trial tested whether a new enhanced dissonance version of this program produced larger effects when college clinicians recruited students and delivered the intervention using improved procedures to select, train, and supervise clinicians.

Method

Young women recruited from seven universities across the US (N = 408, M age = 21.6, SD = 5.64) were randomized to the dissonance intervention or an educational brochure control condition.

Results

Dissonance participants showed significantly greater decreases in risk factors (thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting, negative affect) and eating disorder symptoms versus controls at posttest and 1-year follow-up, resulting in medium average effect size (d = .60). Dissonance participants also reported significant improvements in psychosocial functioning, but not reduced health care utilization or unhealthy weight gain.

Conclusions

This novel multisite effectiveness trial with college clinicians found that the enhanced dissonance version of this program and the improved facilitator selection/training procedures produced average effects that were 83% larger than effects observed in the high school effectiveness trial.     

Centrality Preferences in Choices Among Similar Options

Three explanations were explored for the finding that people prefer the middle option rather than the extremes when choosing from an array of similar options. In Study 1, 68% chose the middle item from a set of three highlighters and three surveys, whereas 32% chose an item from either end, p < .0001. In Study 2, 71% selected the middle chair from a row of three chairs that were either all empty, or had a backpack occupying either one of the two end chairs, p < .0001. These results support a minimal mental effort principle rather than a preference for symmetry rule. In Study 3, 54.2% recalled more graphic items from the center poster of a 3-poster collage, whereas 31.3% and 14.5% recalled more items from the left and right posters, respectively, p < .004. These findings lend additional support to a focus of attention explanation.