Exploring the Experiences of Newcomer Women with Insecure Housing in Montréal Canada

The objective of this study was to explore housing insecurity among women newcomers to Montreal, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 newcomer women who had experienced housing insecurity and five women’s shelter service providers. The primary cause of housing insecurity for newcomer women was inadequate income in the face of rapidly rising housing costs, coupled with unfamiliarity with the dominant culture and the local housing system. Specific events often served as tipping points for immigrant women—incidents that forced women into less secure housing. To avoid absolute homelessness, most women stayed with family, couch surfed, used women’s or educational residences, shared a room or an apartment, lived in hotels, single rented rooms, or transitional housing. These arrangements were often problematic, as crowded conditions, financial dependency, differing expectations and interpersonal conflicts made for stressful or exploitive relationships, which sometimes ended abruptly. Only two of the 26 women interviewed described their current living situation as stable. Based on the findings on the study, we recommend training for housing and immigration service providers, wrap-around services in terms of health, housing and immigration settlement programs that take into account a broad range of immigration statuses and transitional housing that caters to the specific needs of migrant women.     

Romantic heartbreak: Prevalence,personality traits,and personal stories

Across four studies (N = 4,381, M_age = 39.17 years, 56% female, 67% White, 12% Hispanic/Latinx, 11% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 9% Black/African American) the experience of heartbreak was considered within trait and narrative research paradigms. Participants indicated if they have ever experienced, and were currently experiencing, heartbreak. Personality traits, attachment styles, and narrative accounts of heartbreak were also assessed. Across all studies, 82% of participants indicated experiencing heartbreak and this event was largely unrelated to demographic and personality characteristics whereas 14% of participants reported being in a current state of heartbreak and these individuals were more likely to be single, neurotic, and insecurely attached. Lastly, storying heartbreak as leading to self‐improvement related positively with secure attachment.     

Examining effects of training duration on humans' resurgence and variability using a novel touchscreen procedure

Resurgence occurs when a previously reinforced and then extinguished target response increases due to reducing/eliminating an alternative source of reinforcement or punishing an alternative response. We evaluated whether duration of reinforcement history for a target response (1) affects the degree to which resurgence is observed in humans and (2) produces different gradients of response generalization around target responding during extinction testing. We arranged a novel touchscreen interface in which university students could swipe a 3D soccer ball to spin any direction. In Phase 1, the first direction swiped became the target and produced points exchangeable for money for 3 or 1 min across 2 groups. The first swipe was recorded but had no programmed consequence in a third group. In Phase 2, swipes 180-degrees from the target resulted in points for 3 min in all groups. Point deliveries ceased for 2 min to test for resurgence in Phase 3. Target responses resurged during testing to a relatively greater extent with longer Phase-1 training but gradients of response generalization did not differ among groups. These findings extend prior research on the role of training duration on resurgence. We discuss methodological and conceptual issues surrounding the assessment of response generalization in resurgence.     

The development and content of an interpersonal psychotherapy group for postnatal depression

Postnatal depression (PND) usually causes distressing symptoms for sufferers and significant impairments in relationships. Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT-G) provides the experienced therapist with a brief, focused, and manualized approach to helping women recover from the debilitating effects of PND. This paper describes the background and development of IPT-G for PND. The evidence for the effectiveness of individual and group IPT formats with this population is summarized. The triad of theories underpinning IPT are discussed with an emphasis on the important role of attachment styles during the transition to parenthood. Its strengths, which include its unique package of targets, tactics, and techniques, are highlighted. The benefits and challenges of IPT-G are also explored, and the results of a randomized controlled trial are summarized. Finally, a case study illustrates how IPT-G specifically addresses the social role transitions, conflicts, losses, and social isolation that mothers commonly experience.     

Creating Personal Dispositions for a Professional Counseling Program

The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs requires counselor training programs to undergo systematic evaluation of trainees. This evaluation can be challenging at times. The authors posit the use of dispositions as a tool for ongoing assessment of student development by detailing the process used to establish dispositions in a counselor training program. Using an N= 1 intensive case study approach, they provide information about the relevance of dispositions in counselor training, the origin of dispositions for the program, and ongoing efforts to evaluate the dispositions in terms of their relevance to student growth. Implications for counselor training and curriculum development are discussed.     

The effects of threatened social evaluation of the physique on cortisol activity

Social self preservation theory asserts that situations high in social-evaluative threat elicit increases in cortisol, a hormone released by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Most tests of the theory have examined threats associated with social evaluation of a performance. Two experiments examined the effects of threatened social evaluation of one's physique. In Experiments 1 (n?=?50) and 2 (n?=?40), participants allocated to an experimental (threat) condition had significantly higher post-manipulation cortisol than participants in a control (no threat) condition. In Experiment 1, perceptions of social-evaluative threat were significantly correlated with post-manipulation cortisol levels. These results suggest that the threatened social evaluation of one's body can activate the cortisol response. Women who frequently experience such threats may be at increased risk for a variety of health conditions associated with chronic cortisol exposure.     

Developmental effects of acute, chronic, and withdrawal from chronic nicotine on fear conditioning

Pre-adolescence and adolescence are developmental periods associated with increased vulnerability for tobacco addiction, and exposure to tobacco during these periods may lead to long-lasting changes in behavioral and neuronal plasticity. The present study examined the short- and long-term effects of nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on fear conditioning in pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult mice, and potential underlying substrates that may mediate the developmental effects of nicotine, such as changes in nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) binding, CREB expression, and nicotine metabolism. Age-related differences existed in sensitivity to the effects of acute nicotine, chronic nicotine and nicotine withdrawal on contextual fear conditioning (no changes in cued fear conditioning were seen); younger mice were more sensitive to the acute effects and less sensitive to the effects of nicotine withdrawal 24 h post treatment cessation. Developmental differences in nAChR binding were associated with the effects of nicotine withdrawal on contextual learning. Developmental differences in nicotine metabolism and CREB expression were also observed, but were not related to the effects of nicotine withdrawal on contextual learning 24 h post treatment. Chronic nicotine exposure during pre-adolescence or adolescence, however, produced long-lasting impairments in contextual learning that were observed during adulthood, whereas adult chronic nicotine exposure did not. These developmental effects could be related to changes in CREB. Overall, there is a developmental shift in the effects of nicotine on hippocampus-dependent learning and developmental exposure to nicotine results in adult cognitive deficits; these changes in cognition may play an important role in the development and maintenance of nicotine addiction.     

The impact of category separation on unsupervised categorization

Most previous research on unsupervised categorization has used unconstrained tasks in which no instructions are provided about the underlying category structure or in which the stimuli are not clustered into categories. Few studies have investigated constrained tasks in which the goal is to learn predefined stimulus clusters in the absence of feedback. These studies have generally reported good performance when the stimulus clusters could be separated by a one-dimensional rule. In the present study, we investigated the limits of this ability. Results suggest that even when two stimulus clusters are as widely separated, as in previous studies, performance is poor if within-category variance on the relevant dimension is nonnegligible. In fact, under these conditions, many participants failed even to identify the single relevant stimulus dimension. This poor performance is generally incompatible with all current models of unsupervised category learning.     

Characteristics and Correlates of Cigarette Use Among Recent U.S. Veterans

Little is known about the smoking habits and cessation efforts of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom will seek health care services in the public sector. This project documents rates of smoking and quit attempts among veterans receiving Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) health care and describes the relationship between current smoking use/cessation and demographic characteristics, quality of life, and potential alcohol misuse.

A large representative sample of Iraq/Afghanistan era veterans was surveyed using the VA Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients (Wright, Craig, Campbell, Schafer, &; Humble, 2006 Wright, S. M., Craig, T., Campbell, S., Schaefer, J. and Humble, C. 2006. Patient satisfaction of female and male users of Veterans Health Administration services. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(Suppl. 3): S26–S32. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). One third of respondents reported smoking during the past year and 24% reported currently smoking. Current smoking status was more prevalent among those who reported less education and lower household income. Current smoking status was also related to lower mental and physical health quality of life and higher potential alcohol misuse scores. Quit attempts were significantly less common among reserve component veterans and quitters reported higher incomes and were slightly older. The frequency of cigarette smoking among recent veterans underscores the importance of addressing smoking cessation efforts within this population. Individual characteristics associated with current smoking, cessation efforts, and relapse may help tailor cessation treatment for this growing cohort of new veterans.