Effects of parental divorce on marital commitment and confidence

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a happy marriage with their spouse. However, this prediction has not been tested. In the current study, we assessed relationship commitment and relationship confidence, as well as parental divorce and retrospectively reported interparental conflict, in a sample of 265 engaged couples prior to their first marriage. Results demonstrated that women's, but not men's, parental divorce was associated with lower relationship commitment and lower relationship confidence. These effects persisted when controlling for the influence of recalled interparental conflict and premarital relationship adjustment. The current findings suggest that women whose parents divorced are more likely to enter marriage with relatively lower commitment to, and confidence in, the future of those marriages, potentially raising their risk for divorce.     

Blockade of IP3-mediated SK channel signaling in the rat medial prefrontal cortex improves spatial working memory

Planning and directing thought and behavior require the working memory (WM) functions of prefrontal cortex. WM is compromised by stress, which activates phosphatidylinositol (PI)-mediated IP3-PKC intracellular signaling. PKC overactivation impairs WM operations and in vitro studies indicate that IP3 receptor (IP3R)-evoked calcium release results in SK channel-dependent hyperpolarization of prefrontal neurons. However, the effects of IP3R signaling on prefrontal function have not been investigated. The present findings demonstrate that blockade of IP3R or SK channels in the prefrontal cortex enhances WM performance in rats, suggesting that both arms of the PI cascade influence prefrontal cognitive function.     

Age-related differences in the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in attentional control

We investigated the relative involvement of cortical regions supporting attentional control in older and younger adults during performance on a modified version of the Stroop task. Participants were exposed to two different types of incongruent trials. One of these, an incongruent-ineligible condition, produces conflict at the non-response level, while the second, an incongruent-eligible condition, produces conflict at both non-response and response levels of information processing. Greater attentional control is needed to perform the incongruent-eligible condition compared to other conditions. We examined the cortical recruitment associated with this task in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm in 25 older and 25 younger adults. Our results indicated that while younger adults demonstrated an increase in the activation of cortical regions responsible for maintaining attentional control in response to increased levels of conflict, such sensitivity and flexibility of the cortical regions to increased attentional control demands was absent in older adults. These results suggest a limitation in older adults’ capabilities for flexibly recruiting the attentional network in response to increasing attentional demands.     

WITHIN‐SUBJECT REVERSIBILITY OF DISCRIMINATIVE FUNCTION IN THE COMPOSITE‐STIMULUS CONTROL OF BEHAVIOR

According to the composite-stimulus control model (Weiss, 1969, 1972b), an individual discriminative stimulus (S^D) is composed of that S^D''s on-state plus the off-states of all other relevant S^Ds. The present experiment investigated the reversibility of composite-stimulus control. Separate groups of rats were trained to lever-press for food whenever a tone or a light S^D was present. For one group, the nonreinforced S^Δ condition was tone-and-light absence ($\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$). Tone-plus-light (T+L) was S^Δ in the other group. On a “stimulus compounding” test that recombined composite elements, maximum responding occurred to that composite consisting only of elements occasioning response increase. That was T+L for the group trained with $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ as S^Δ and $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$ for the group trained with T+L as S^Δ. The S^Δ composite was next reversed over groups in Phase 2. In Phase 2 tests, maximum responding that was comparable in magnitude to that of Phase 1 was again controlled by the composite consisting only of elements most recently occasioning response increase—whether T+L or $\bar{T}$+$\bar{L}$. The inhibitory conditioning history of both composite-elements currently occasioning responding did not weaken the summative effect. These results confirm and extend Weiss''s composite-stimulus control model, and demonstrate that such control is fully reversible. We discuss how translating conditions of the stimulus-compounding paradigm to a composite continuum creates a functional and logical connection to intradimensional control measured through stimulus generalization, reducing the number of different behavioral phenomena requiring unique explanations.     

Telephone-Administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Case Study of Anxiety and Depression in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic medical illness with a high incidence of psychiatric comorbidity, specifically depression and anxiety. Research on treatment of such psychiatric complications is scarce. Non-pharmaceutical treatment options are especially attractive. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic treatment option that has been successful in other chronically medically ill populations with comorbid depression and anxiety. The current research had two aims. The first was to pilot the feasibility of screening and identifying PD patients with symptoms of anxiety and depression in a specialized outpatient clinic. The second aim was to pilot the feasibility of telephone-administered CBT for the treatment of depression and anxiety in persons with PD, which was done through a case series comparing telephone-administered CBT to a Support strategy. A fairly large portion (67.5%) of patients screened in the outpatient clinic were identified as having symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. Results also indicated that CBT delivered via the telephone is a useful approach for targeting psychiatric symptoms in this population. A case example is given to illustrate the clinical considerations associated with delivering therapy via telephone to persons with PD. This study was conducted at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX. The first author was previously affiliated with the Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Innovations for Cardiopulmonary Patients With Depression and Anxiety

Medically ill patients face unique physical and emotional challenges that place them at increased risk for symptoms of depression and anxiety. Despite high prevalence and significant impact, depression and anxiety are infrequently treated in the medically ill because of a variety of patient, provider, and system factors. The current article describes the development of an innovative, modular-based cognitive-behavioral intervention (Adjusting to Chronic Conditions Using Education Support and Skills [ACCESS]) that integrates treatment for symptoms of anxiety and depression with medical disease self-management in patients with heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Data from 3 patients who participated in an ongoing open clinical trial are reviewed to illustrate the feasibility, acceptability, and potential strengths and limitations of this intervention.     

A Person-Centered Approach to Subjective Well-Being

Rooted in Diener’s (Psychol Bull 95:542–575, 1984) three-component model of subjective well-being (SWB), the present work employed a person-centered approach to studying SWB based on Shmotkin’s (Rev Gen Psychol 9:291–325, 2005) dynamic systems framework. Within-individual configurations of life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) were explored using cluster analysis. Five distinct SWB configurations replicated within and across two samples (N = 756 first-year undergraduates; N = 550 community adults). A substantial number of participants reported a profile indicative of “high SWB” (high LS, frequent PA, infrequent NA). Consistent with expectations, these individuals were characterized by elevated mental, physical, and interpersonal functioning. In contrast, people with a “low SWB” profile reported the greatest dysfunction. Across the five clusters, however, adaptive functioning was not unique to individuals reporting a high SWB profile, nor was dysfunction unique to people characterized by a low SWB configuration. Results are discussed in terms of compensation and strain processes hypothesized by Shmotkin (2005). Implications for future research on SWB are considered.

Prevalence of dating violence and victimization: regional and gender differences

This report examines (1) the prevalence of dating violence victimization from a national sample of rural adolescents and (2) patterns by gender and region. Analyses are based on 20,274 adolescents who reported violence victimization using the Community Drug and Alcohol Survey. The relationship of dating violence with gender and region was assessed with HLM5 using Bernoulli's logistic regression. Approximately 16% of adolescents reported being a victim of dating violence. Females reported higher incidence of victimization than males. Dating violence is more prevalent in the South. While it is important to address the underlying values in society that may contribute to dating violence, it is equally productive to include regional and cultural values.     

Legal abortion worldwide: incidence and recent trends

CONTEXT: Information on abortion levels and trends can inform research and policies affecting maternal and reproductive health, but the incidence of legal abortion has not been assessed in nearly a decade. METHODS: Statistics on legal abortions in 2003 were compiled for 60 countries in which the procedure is broadly legal, and trends were assessed where possible. Data sources included published and unpublished reports from official national reporting systems, questionnaires sent to government agencies and nationally representative population surveys. The completeness of country estimates was assessed by officials involved in data collection and by in-country and regional experts. RESULTS: In recent years, more countries experienced a decline in legal abortion rates than an increase, among those for which statistics are complete and trend data are available. The most dramatic declines were in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where rates remained among the highest in the world. The highest estimated levels were in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, where surveys indicate that women will have close to three abortions each on average in their lifetimes. The U.S. abortion rate dropped by 8% between 1996 and 2003, but remained higher than rates in many Northern and Western European countries. Rates increased in the Netherlands and New Zealand. The official abortion rate declined by 21% over seven years in China, which accounted for a third of the world's legal abortions in 1996. Trends in the abortion rate differed across age-groups in some countries. CONCLUSIONS: The abortion rate varies widely across the countries in which legal abortion is generally available and has declined in many countries since the mid-1990s.