Construction and validation of the South African version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children: an exploratory factor analysis

The Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (Ollendick, 1983) is an 80-item self-report instrument that has been used internationally to asses the number of fears and general level of fearfulness among children. Despite its widespread use, this instrument has not been adapted to the South African context. The present study addressed this gap by means of a 2-phase investigation aimed at developing a South African version of the instrument. In Phase 1, semistructured interviews were conducted with 40 children (7 to 13 years of age). Qualitative data obtained from these interviews were used to construct additional items for inclusion in the South African Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised. The modified scale, consisting of 97 items, was then administered to a sample of 646 children between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Further psychometric considerations resulted in the final version of the scale consisting of 74 items with high internal consistency (α=.97). The factor structure was explored by means of principal component analysis with varimax rotation and a 5-factor solution was found to provide the best conceptual fit. The factors identified were as follows: Fear of Death and Danger; Fear of the Unknown; Fear of Small Animals and Minor Threats to Self; Large Animal Fears; and Situational Fears. Differences between the South African version and the original Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised are noted and implications for the study of fear in South Africa and other countries are discussed.     

Issues in Parent-Child Agreement: The Case of Structured Diagnostic Interviews

There are three primary purposes of this review. First, the review distinguishes among three types of reliability and describes the importance of evaluating the reliability of child psychopathology assessment instruments for clinical practice and research. Second, parent-child reliability findings from 5 of the more carefully studied and frequently used Structured (semi and highly) diagnostic interviews (The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children, The Child Assessment Scale, The Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children. The Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents, and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children) are examined. Finally, this review explores factors that have been implicated in terms of their potential effect on parent-child agreement. In addition, future directions for research and clinical practice within this area are identified and potential resolutions to the conundrum of parent-child discordance are discussed.     

Category induction from distributional cues in an artificial language

The ability to identify the grammatical category of a word (e.g., noun, verb, adjective) is a fundamental aspect of competence in a natural language. Children show evidence of categorization by as early as 18 months, and in some cases younger. However, the mechanisms that underlie this ability are not well understood. The lexical co-occurrence patterns of words in sentences could provide information about word categories--for example, words that follow the in English often belong to the same category. As a step in understanding the role distributional mechanisms might play in language learning, the present study investigated the ability of adults to categorize words on the basis of distributional information. Forty participants listened for approximately 6 min to sentences in an artificial language and were told that they would later be tested on their memory for what they had heard. Participants were next tested on an additional set of sentences and asked to report which sentences they recognized from the first 6 min. The results suggested that learners performed a distributional analysis on the initial set of sentences and recognized sentences on the basis of their memory of sequences of categories of words. Thus, mechanisms that would be useful in natural language learning were shown to be active in adults in an artificial language learning task.     

A comparison of interview and self-report methods for the assessment of borderline personality disorder criteria

Interview methods are widely regarded as the standard for the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD), whereas self-report methods are considered a time-efficient alternative. However, the relative validity of these methods has not been sufficiently tested. The current study used data from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality disorder Study to compare diagnostic base rates and the relative validity of interview and self-report methods for assessing functional outcome in BPD. Although self-report yielded higher base rates of criteria endorsement, results did not support the common assumption that diagnostic interviews are more valid than self-reports, but instead indicated the combined use of these methods optimally identifies BPD criteria.     

Test anxiety in Indian children: a cross-cultural perspective

The present investigation examined test anxiety in Indian children from a cross-cultural perspective. Test anxiety has been studied extensively in western countries but much less so in eastern countries. Furthermore, the cross-cultural research conducted in eastern countries possesses significant limitations and continues to possess a western bias. The present research attempted to advance cross-cultural research on test anxiety by adopting Berry's imposed etic-emic-derived etic methodology. Participants included 231 schoolchildren. Qualitative data were collected to examine culture-specific variables (emic considerations) using structured focus groups and open-ended questions. Next, quantitative data were collected using translated and adapted versions of Spielberger's Test Anxiety Inventory and the FRIEDBEN Test Anxiety Scale. Qualitative data indicated culture-specific elements of test anxiety in Indian youth, including the high stakes associated with exam performance and future schooling as well as the role of somatization and social derogation in the phenomenological experience of test anxiety. Although quantitative findings failed to confirm the importance of high-stakes environments on test anxiety, the importance of somatization and social derogation was substantiated. Ongoing desensitization to test anxiety and enhanced coping responses were proposed as possible explanations for the obtained relations.     

BDNF is a novel marker of cognitive function in ageing women: the DR's EXTRA Study

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of the key molecules modulating brain plasticity. While low circulating levels of BDNF have been suggested to predispose to Alzheimer's disease, very little data are available on its association with cognitive function in general population. We evaluated the association between plasma BDNF levels and cognition in a representative population sample of ageing men and women. The subjects (n=1389) were participants of the Dose-Responses to Exercise Training (DR's EXTRA) Study and represent a random sample of Eastern Finnish people (684 men and 705 women), 57-79 years of age at baseline of the study. Plasma BDNF levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cognitive function was evaluated using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) neuropsychological test battery. Women had a higher mean (+/-SEM) plasma BDNF level than men (1721+/-55vs. 1495+/-54pg/ml, P<0.001). In women, 1 SD decrease in BDNF increased the risk for a low score in Naming Test by 53% (95% CI 1.21-1.92, P<0.001), in Mini-Mental State Examination by 63% (95% CI 1.21-2.20, P=0.001), in Word List Memory by 56% (95% CI 1.08-2.26, P=0.019), in Word List Recall by 50% (95% CI 1.10-2.05, P=0.010), in Word List Saving by 49% (95% CI 1.12-1.99, P=0.007), and in Word List Recognition by 64% (95% CI 1.19-2.25, P=0.002). Data were adjusted for age, education, depression, impaired glucose metabolism, cardiovascular disease, antihypertensive medication, lipid lowering medication, use of sex hormones, smoking, alcohol consumption, storing time of plasma in the freezer and platelet count. BDNF was not associated with cognition in men. Present data suggest that plasma BDNF is a biomarker of impaired memory and general cognitive function in ageing women.     

Risk factors associated with suicide attempts and other self-injury among Hong Kong adolescents

This study examined 1,361 Chinese adolescents who reported self-injurious behaviors. Groups A and B both acknowledged deliberate self-injury, but only Group A had made a suicide attempt. Group C reported accidental self-injury. Deliberate self-injurers (Groups A and B) were more frequently girls, older, and with more suicidal ideation. Group A had more psychopathology, environmental and suicide-related risk factors than group B and C. Group C had higher depressive symptoms than noninjured controls. The study clarifies differences among self-injurious behavior groups based on expressed deliberate self-injury and self-reported suicide attempt. These three groups appear to present a continuum of risk.     

How is the boss's mood today? I want a raise

Other people's incidental feelings can influence one's decision in a strategic manner. In a sequential game in which proposers moved first by dividing a given pot of cash (keeping 50% or 75% of the pot) and receivers responded by choosing the size of the pot (from 0 dollars to 1 dollar), proposers were more likely to make an unfair offer (i.e., to keep 75% of the pot) if they were told that receivers had watched a funny sitcom, rather than a movie clip portraying anger, in an unrelated study prior to the game playing. However, when proposers were told that receivers knew proposers had this affective information, the effect dissipated. In other words, a proposer expects a happy receiver to be more accommodating or cooperative than an angry receiver as long as the happy receiver does not realize that the proposer may be trying to benefit from the receiver's current incidental feelings.     

Fears in clinic-referred children: relations with child anxiety sensitivity, maternal overcontrol, and maternal phobic anxiety

Relations among maternal phobic anxiety, maternal overcontrol, child anxiety sensitivity, and child level of fear were explored in 156 children referred to an outpatient clinic for psychological evaluation. In addition, these relations were examined separately in analyses of age, gender, and diagnostic status. Overall, age, gender, and child anxiety sensitivity, along with maternal ratings of an overly controlling parenting strategy were significant predictors of levels of fear. These four variables predicted approximately 50% of the variance associated with fear levels. Surprisingly, maternal phobic anxiety was not a significant predictor in this sample of clinic-referred children. In separate analyses of age, gender, and diagnostic status (presence or absence of an anxiety disorder), anxiety sensitivity was a significant predictor of fear levels for both older and younger children, for both boys and girls, and for both children with and without an anxiety disorder. However, maternal overly controlling parenting strategy was significant only for the younger children (and not the older ones) and only for girls (and not boys). Moreover, maternal overcontrol was a marginally significant predictor for the anxiety-disorder group (and not the non-anxiety-disordered group). Results are discussed within a developmental framework, and implications for treatment are explored.