Stress,coping, and resources in mothers of adults with developmental disabilities

This study examined the relationship of various stressors, coping resources, and coping strategies on the level of stress reported by 147 mothers of adults with delayed development. A sense of mastery and the mother's health as well as financial well-being were significantly negatively related to stress. Coping behaviours of reframing of the problem and acquisition of social support were also significantly negatively related to stress. Implications of the results of this study for service providers are discussed.     

Case study: Reinforcement control of severe aggression exhibited by a child with autism in a family home

This clinical case study describes in-home treatment of severe aggression and tantrum behavior exhibited by an 11 -year-old child with autism, using methods of differential reinforcement comparable to those of a case study by Luiselli (1990). No significant reductions in problem conduct occurred when a parent implemented differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) in conjunction with publicly posted ‘good behavior rules,’ physical management training, and redirection to relaxation. Control was established when the child was reinforced for compliance with task demands in conjunction with extinction, implemented directly by professional support staff working in the home. Despite demonstrable parental consistency, systematic training, and fading of supports, results were not maintained at follow-up. The generality of differential reinforcement as a practical intervention for severe aggression in family homes is questioned.     

Musical groove shapes children's free dancing

The drive to move to music is evident across a variety of contexts, from the simple urge to tap our toe to a song on the radio, to massive crowds dancing in time at a rock concert. Though seemingly effortless, beat synchronization is difficult to master and children are often poor beat synchronizers. Nevertheless, auditory-motor integration is fundamental for many daily processes, such as speech. A topic that has been relatively understudied concerns how stimulus properties affect young children's movement in responses to auditory stimuli. In the present study, we examined how musical groove (adult-rated desire to move) affected 3.0- to 6.9-year-old children's free dancing in the comfort of their home (n = 78). In the high groove conditions, children danced more and with more energy compared to the low groove conditions. Moreover, in the high groove condition, children's movement tempos corresponded better with the tempos of the music. Results point to early childhood sensitivity to the musical features that motivate adults to move to music. High groove music may therefore prove especially effective at facilitating early auditory-motor integration. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/vli0-6N12Ts .     

Not all is forgotten: Children's associative matrices for features of a word learning episode

Word learning studies traditionally examine the narrow link between words and objects, indifferent to the rich contextual information surrounding objects. This research examined whether children attend to this contextual information and construct an associative matrix of the words, objects, people, and environmental context during word learning. In Experiment 1, preschool-aged children (age: 3;2–5;11 years) were presented with novel words and objects in an animated storybook. Results revealed that children constructed associations beyond words and objects. Specifically, children attended to and had the strongest associations for features of the environmental context but failed to learn word-object associations. Experiment 2 demonstrated that children (age: 3;0–5;8 years) leveraged strong associations for the person and environmental context to support word-object mapping. This work demonstrates that children are especially sensitive to the word learning context and use associative matrices to support word mapping. Indeed, this research suggests associative matrices of the environment may be foundational for children's vocabulary development.     

Science Anxiety as a Function of Gender and Experience

This study examined the influence of gender and various background factors on science anxiety. Students (50 women, 37 men) took the Science Anxiety Scale (Mallow, 1994), provided information about high school and college academic accomplishments, described gender-role stereotyping in the home, and evaluated their science teachers and science experiences. Most participants were Caucasian and from an upper-middle class background. Women were not uniformly more science anxious and had a relatively similar science background to men, although they had higher science grades in high school and did report less stringent sex-role socialization in the home. However, students with high science anxiety took fewer science courses in college, had lower SAT-Q scores, and reported that their high school science teachers were not helpful. The findings regarding gender- and anxiety-linked differences are discussed in terms of women's and men's differential interpretations of their abilities, the influence of parental gender typing on pursuit of science, and the gender-appropriateness of studying science.     

Mandated Reporting of Abuse/Maltreatment of Older Adults: A Primer for Counselors

Maltreatment of older adults is a serious and underrecognized problem. Every state and 6 Canadian provinces have enacted legislation to protect vulnerable older adults from abuse, and many require that mental health professionals report disclosures of abuse to authorities. However, these laws have received little attention in the counseling literature. This article examines the scope of maltreatment of older persons and describes the content of elder abuse and elder maltreatment laws, with special focus on counselors' responsibilities to report maltreatment to authorities. It concludes with strategies for assessing maltreatment and with implications of these laws for confidentiality and informed consent.     

Effectiveness of an attachment-based intervention for the assessment of parenting capacities in maltreating families: A randomized controlled trial

Even though Parenting Capacity Assessments (PCAs) are essential for child protection services to support placement decisions for maltreating families, presently no evidence-based PCA protocols are available. In this randomized controlled trial, we tested the quality of an attachment-based PCA protocol based on Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD). We recruited 56 parent-child dyads (M_age children = 3.48 years) in Dutch family residential clinics that conduct PCAs to support placement decisions. After pretest, families were randomized to receive the Regular Assessment Procedure (RAP) (n = 28), or an additional assessment based on VIPP-SD (n = 28). An immediate post-test and a 10-month follow-up were conducted. Multilevel models showed that therapists felt equally confident about their recommendations regarding child placement for both groups and that they equally often modified their initial placement recommendations. Moreover, children in the VIPP-SD group did not show fewer behavior problems and did not experience recurring child maltreatment less often than children in the RAP group. Thus, we found no evidence that PCAs incorporating the VIPP-SD protocol outperformed PCAs as usual. We discuss possible explanations why in the current study VIPP-SD did not seem to add to the quality of the RAP.     

Child-directed interaction: prediction of change in impaired mother-child functioning

The first phase of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), called child-directed interaction, teaches parents to use positive and differential social attention to improve the parent-child relationship. This study examined predictors of change in mother and child functioning during the child-directed interaction for 100 mother-child dyads. The children were 3-6-years-old and diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. After establishing that significant improvements occurred in mother report of child disruptive behavior, parenting stress, and parenting practices, these three variables were combined to form a latent impaired mother-child functioning construct. Structural equation models were examined using maternal demographic and psychosocial variables as predictors of impaired mother-child functioning before and after the child-directed interaction. Mothers' self-reported daily hassles and depressive symptomatology predicted 74% of variance in impaired mother-child functioning before treatment. Mothers' report of social support predicted impaired mother-child functioning after the child-directed interaction, with 57% of the variance accounted for in this longitudinal model. These findings suggest the importance of improving maternal social support during the initial phase of PCIT.     

The positive and negative framing of affirmative action: a group dominance perspective

Using a sample of 328 White, Latino, and Black Los Angeles County adults, the authors examined the tendency to employ various affirmative action "frames" (e.g., affirmative action as a "tie-breaking" device or as a quota-based policy). All three groups agreed about which frames cast affirmative action in a positive light and which cast it in a negative light. Although minorities had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms that most people find morally acceptable, Whites had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms most people find unacceptable. In addition, compared to minorities, Whites were less supportive of affirmative action regardless of how it was framed. LISREL modeling also was employed to test two competing models regarding predictors of the tendency to use frames that one personally finds to be relatively negative versus positive. Consistent with the expectations of social dominance theory and a motivated cognition perspective, the authors found that social dominance orientation (SDO) had significant net direct and indirect effects on one's framing of affirmative action.