Creation and Implementation of an Environmental Scan to Assess Cancer Genetics Services at Three Oncology Care Settings

An environmental scan (ES) is an efficient mixed-methods approach to collect and interpret relevant data for strategic planning and project design. To date, the ES has not been used nor evaluated in the clinical cancer genetics setting. We created and implemented an ES to inform the design of a quality improvement (QI) project to increase the rates of adherence to national guidelines for cancer genetic counseling and genetic testing at three unique oncology care settings (OCS). The ES collected qualitative and quantitative data from reviews of internal processes, past QI efforts, the literature, and each OCS. The ES used a data collection form and semi-structured interviews to aid in data collection. The ES was completed within 6 months, and sufficient data were captured to identify opportunities and threats to the QI project’s success, as well as potential barriers to, and facilitators of guideline-based cancer genetics services at each OCS. Previously unreported barriers were identified, including inefficient genetic counseling appointment scheduling processes and the inability to track referrals, genetics appointments, and genetic test results within electronic medical record systems. The ES was a valuable process for QI project planning at three OCS and may be used to evaluate genetics services in other settings.     

Father Involvement and Behavior Problems among Preadolescents at Risk of Maltreatment

Although there is a well-established connection between father involvement and children’s positive behavioral development in general, this relation has been understudied in more vulnerable and high-risk populations. The aims of this study were to examine how the quantity (i.e., the amount of shared activities) and quality (i.e., perceived quality of the father-child relationship) of father involvement are differently related to internalizing and externalizing behavior problems among preadolescents at risk of maltreatment and test if these associations are moderated by father type and child maltreatment. A secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Generalized estimating equations analysis was performed on a sample of 499 preadolescents aged 12 years. The results indicated that higher quality of father involvement was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems whereas greater quantity of father involvement was associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The positive association between the quantity of father involvement and behavior problems was stronger in adolescents who were physically abused by their father. The association between father involvement and behavior problems did not differ by the type of father co-residing in the home. The findings suggest that policies and interventions aimed at improving the quality of fathers’ relationships and involvement with their children may be helpful in reducing behavior problems in adolescents at risk of maltreatment.     

In which direction to move? Facilitative and interference effects of gestures on problem solver's thinking

Recent research shows that co-speech gestures can influence gesturers’ thought. This line of research suggests that the influence of gestures is so strong, that it can wash out and reverse an effect of learning. We argue that these findings need a more robust and ecologically valid test, which we provide in this article. Our results support the claim that gestures not only reflect information in our mental representations, but can also influence gesturer's thought by adding action information to one's mental representation during problem solving (Tower of Hanoi). We show, however, that the effect of gestures on subsequent performance is not as strong as previously suggested. As opposed to what previous research indicates, gestures' facilitative effect through learning was not nullified by the potentially interfering effect on subsequent problem-solving performance of incompatible gestures. To conclude, using gestures during problem solving seems to provide more benefits than costs for task performance.     

Does Traumatic Brain Injury Attenuate the Exposure Therapy Process?

Research indicates that exposure therapy is efficacious for combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comorbid with traumatic brain injury (TBI) as is shown by reduced PTSD treatment outcome scores. What is unknown, however, is whether the process of fear extinction is attenuated in veterans with TBI history. Increased PTSD symptomatology and possible cognitive deficits associated with TBI sequelae may indicate additional or longer exposure sessions to achieve habituation and extinction comparable to individuals without TBI history. As such, a more extensive course of treatment may be necessary to achieve comparable PTSD treatment outcome scores for individuals with TBI history. Using a sample of veterans with combat-related PTSD, some of whom were comorbid for TBI, this study compared process variables considered relevant to successful treatment outcome in exposure therapy. Individuals with and without TBI demonstrated similar rates of fear activation, length and number of exposure sessions, within-session habituation, between-session habituation, and extinction rate; results remained consistent when controlling for differential PTSD symptomatology. Furthermore, results indicated that self-perception of executive dysfunction did not impact the exposure process. Results suggest that individuals with PTSD and TBI history engage successfully and no differently in the exposure therapy process as compared to individuals with PTSD alone. Findings further support exposure therapy as a first-line treatment for combat-related PTSD regardless of TBI history.     

The perception of (naked only) bodies and faceless heads relies on holistic processing: Evidence from the inversion effect

Faces and bodies are more difficult to perceive when presented inverted than when presented upright (i.e., stimulus inversion effect), an effect that has been attributed to the disruption of holistic processing. The features that can trigger holistic processing in faces and bodies, however, still remain elusive. In this study, using a sequential matching task, we tested whether stimulus inversion affects various categories of visual stimuli: faces, faceless heads, faceless heads in body context, headless bodies naked, whole bodies naked, headless bodies clothed, and whole bodies clothed. Both accuracy and inversion efficiency score results show inversion effects for all categories but for clothed bodies (with and without heads). In addition, the magnitude of the inversion effect for face, naked body, and faceless heads was similar. Our findings demonstrate that the perception of faces, faceless heads, and naked bodies relies on holistic processing. Clothed bodies (with and without heads), on the other side, may trigger clothes-sensitive rather than body-sensitive perceptual mechanisms.     

Perceived Perfectionism from God Scale: Development and Initial Evidence

In this study, the Perceived Perfectionism from God Scale (PPGS) was developed with Latter-day Saints (Mormons) across two samples. Sample 1 (N = 421) was used for EFA to select items for the Perceived Standards from God (5 items) and the Perceived Discrepancy from God (5 items) subscales. Sample 2 (N = 420) was used for CFA and cross-validated the 2-factor oblique model as well as a bifactor model. Perceived Standards from God scores had Cronbach alphas ranging from .73 to .78, and Perceived Discrepancy from God scores had Cronbach alphas ranging from .82 to .84. Standards from God scores were positively correlated with positive affect, whereas Discrepancy from God scores was positively correlated with negative affect, shame and guilt. Moreover, these two PPGS subscale scores added significant incremental variances in predicting associated variables over and above corresponding personal perfectionism scores.