Self-Stigma in Substance Abuse: Development of a New Measure

Little attention has been paid to the examination and measurement of self-stigma in substance misuse. This paper aims to fill this gap by reporting on the development of a new scale to measure self-stigma experienced by people who are misusing substances, the Substance Abuse Self-Stigma Scale. Content validity and item refinement occurred through an iterative process involving a literature search, focus groups, and expert judges. Psychometric properties were examined in a cross-sectional study of individuals (n?=?352) receiving treatment for substance misuse. Factor analyses resulted in a 40-item measure with self devaluation, fear of enacted stigma, stigma avoidance, and values disengagement subscales. The measure showed a strong factor structure and good reliability and validity overall, though the values disengagement subscale showed a mixed pattern. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for studies of stigma impact and intervention.     

Physical activity and diabetes: An application of the theory of planned behaviour to explain physical activity for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in an adult population sample

Physical activity (PA) plays a key role in the management of Type 1 (T1D) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D) but there are few theory-based, effective programs to promote PA for individuals with diabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in understanding PA in an adult population with T1D or T2D. A total of 2311 individuals (691 T1D; 1614 T2D) completed self-report TPB constructs of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC), intention and PA at baseline and 1717 (524 T1D; 1123 T2D) completed the PA measure again at 6-month follow-up. Multi-group Structural Equation Modelling was conducted to: (1) test the fit of the TPB structure (2) determine the TPB structural invariance between the two types of diabetes and (3) to examine the explained variances in PA and compare the strength of associations of the TPB constructs in the two types of diabetes. The TPB constructs explained ≥40% of the variance in intentions for both diabetes groups. In cross-sectional models, the TPB accounted for 23 and 19% of the variance in PA for T1D and T2D, respectively. In prospective models, the TPB explained 13 and 8% of the variance in PA for T1D and T2D, respectively. When adjusting for past PA behaviour, the impact of PBC and intention on behaviour was reduced in both groups. The findings provide evidence for the utility of the TPB for the design of PA promotion interventions for adults with either T1D or T2D.     

Epidemiologie psychischer Störungen

The discipline of epidemiology not only contributes to knowledge regarding the distribution and prevalence of mental disorders but also to a better understanding of their causes and consequences. This article focuses on the prevalence and disease burden. Epidemiological studies show that mental disorders are more common than previously thought and that they are associated with a particularly high societal burden. Costs of illness are higher in mental disorders compared to many widespread somatic conditions because of their high prevalence, chronic course, young age of first onset and the profile of disability. The extent of inability to work due to mental disorders is rising steadily although a general decline in absenteeism has been observed across other disease types. This raises the question of whether mental disorders have increased recently. Furthermore, the general need for treatment is discussed as well as the corresponding mental health care options. Finally, it has been found that, despite the quantitatively relatively well-developed health care system in Germany, there are still signs of a significant undertreatment in the field of psychotherapy.     

Peering into a Chilean Black Box: Parental Storytelling in Pediatric Genetic Counseling

While genetic counseling has expanded to multiple international settings, research about providing culturally sensitive services to non-U.S. patients is limited. To gain insights, we utilized a process study to explore parental communication in pediatric genetics clinics in Chile. We utilized a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to assess storytelling in six pediatric sessions that were conducted in Spanish, and translated into English. The majority of the sessions focused on information gathering (35 %), and providing medical (20 %) and genetics education (18 %). The 14 instances of storytelling we identified usually emerged during information gathering, genetics education, and the closing of the session. Stories illustrated parental efforts to create a cognitive and emotional context for their child’s genetic diagnosis. Parents emerged as competent caregivers who discussed the role of the child as a social being in the family and the larger community. Our analysis found that genetic counseling sessions in the U.S. and Chile are structured similarly and although communication is not a balanced process, parents use storytelling to participate as active agents in the session. Via storytelling, we learned that parents are working to understand and gain control over their child’s genetic diagnosis by relying on mechanisms that extend beyond the genetics appointment.     

Effects of a self-regulation intervention on exercise are moderated by depressive symptoms: A quasi-experimental study

This study investigated whether a computer-based self-regulation intervention increases physical exercise in individuals with or without depressive symptoms. A total of 361 individuals in orthopedic rehabilitation, 36 of them with depressive symptoms, were recruited in Germany. In a quasi-experimental study, individuals were allocated to either a computer-based self-regulation intervention or an online questionnaire. Exercise was measured at the beginning of rehabilitation and six weeks after rehabilitation. Depressive symptoms were assessed at the end of rehabilitation. An analysis of covariance was conducted, controlling for exercise baseline, sex, and phase of assessment. A main effect for depressive symptoms (p = .005) and intervention group (p = .011), as well as a marginal interaction of intervention x depressive symptoms were found (p = .076). Results indicate that the self-regulation exercise intervention in an orthopedic rehabilitation setting seem to be only effective in non-depressed individuals. Future research should examine how health behavior change programs can be designed more effectively for individuals with depressive symptoms.     

Information underpinning anticipation of goal-directed throwing

We identified the information used to anticipate throw direction in handball. In two experiments, we examined how anticipation performance is affected when the information from one of five body areas (right arm, shoulders, hips, trunk, or total throw side) was either neutralized or decoupled from the motion of other body segments. In the first experiment, performance was significantly reduced when information from the throwing arm was neutralized, irrespective of skill levels. Skilled participants were negatively affected when the shoulders, hips, and trunk were neutralized, whereas less-skilled participants showed trends toward improvement under identical conditions. In the second experiment, partially disrupting relative motion via decoupling was not enough to reduce the anticipation performance among skilled participants to chance levels, whereas less-skilled participants lost their ability to anticipate in three conditions. Our findings suggest that skilled and less-skilled participants employ different information extraction strategies, yet information from the throwing arm is critical to anticipation for both groups. The two experiments suggest that relative motion mediated by both the absolute displacement trajectories of individual marker locations and their relative timings are important in informing anticipation, irrespective of skill level.     

Effects of chronic administration with high doses of testosterone propionate on behavioral and physiological parameters in mice with differing basal aggressiveness

The effects of testosterone propionate, an anabolic‐androgenic steroid, on the behavior displayed during a social encounter by gonadally intact male mice were investigated. Animals were distributed into three groups according to their attack latency in a pre‐screening test (high‐, moderate‐, and low‐ attacking mice) and each group received weekly injections of 60 or 120 mg/kg of testosterone or sesame oil for 10 weeks. Behavioral tests were then carried out. Afterwards, organs were weighed and blood samples collected in order to obtain hormonal data. Treatment had a differential impact on attack in the three groups of animals. Only the high‐attacking testosterone‐treated mice showed lower total duration of attack than their controls. Those that received 60 mg/kg spent more time exhibiting exploratory behaviors. As an index of the anabolic activity of the drug, all testosterone‐treated mice had heavier kidneys and, as an index of the androgenic activity of testosterone propionate, they had heavier seminal vesicles, lighter testes, and showed higher testosterone levels in a dose‐dependent way than their controls. Hence, the effect of treatment on peripheral physiological parameters was similar in all three groups whereas behavioral effects differed depending on basal aggressiveness, considered a characteristic of coping style. Aggr. Behav. 29:173–189, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Activation of Locations in Working Memory in Cats

Cats saw an object appear and disappear at two successive locations; the movement of the object from one location to the other was not perceived but was indicated by indirect cues and the two disappearances were separated by a 0-sec or a 20-sec interval. Performance was poorer with the 0-sec than with the 20-sec interval. With the 0-sec interval, the percentages of search attempts made at the object's initial and final hiding locations did not differ whereas with the 20-sec interval, more search attempts were made at the final than at the initial location. These results provide additional support to Goulet, Dore and Rousseau's (1994) interpretation of cats' search behaviour in terms of activation of spatial locations in working memory.