Loneliness and Attitudes toward Aloneness in Belgian Adolescents: Measurement Invariance across Language,Age, and Gender Groups

In this study, the factor structure and psychometric properties of a French adaptation of the well-established Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA) was investigated in a French-speaking sample of Belgian adolescents (N?=?641; Mage?=?14.35, SD?=?2.03; 53.4% girls). In addition, measurement invariance analyses across the two main language groups in Belgium (i.e., Dutch-speaking and French-speaking) and across age and gender were conducted on a combined sample of French-speaking and Dutch-speaking Belgian adolescents (N?=?1282; Mage?=?14.36 years, SD?=?2.03; 53.6% female). Subsequently, group mean differences across language, age, and gender groups were investigated. Convincing support was found for the expected four-factor structure of the French adaptation of the LACA and the measure showed good reliability. Results further indicated that Belgian adolescents from the two principal language groups and from different age and gender groups interpreted the items of the LACA similarly. Therefore, analyses of group mean differences could be compared. Given the small effect sizes that accompanied the obtained effects, replication research is needed to further investigate these group mean differences.     

A Multi-Informant Approach to Assessing Safety Behaviors among Adolescents: Psychometric Properties of the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination

Safety behaviors are subtle avoidance strategies for minimizing distress within social situations (e.g., avoidance of eye contact). These behaviors factor prominently in the development and maintenance of social anxiety concerns, and when patients use these behaviors within psychosocial treatments for social anxiety, this may impede treatment response. Prior work supports the need to include measures of safety behaviors within evidence-based assessments of social anxiety. Along these lines, researchers developed the Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE) to assess safety behaviors among adults. However, we know relatively little about the SAFE’s psychometric properties when administered to adolescents. We tested the SAFE’s psychometric properties using adolescent self-reports and parallel parent reports in a mixed-clinical/community sample of 96 14 to 15 year-old adolescents and their parents (33 clinic-referred; 63 community control; 59.4% African American). Adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed moderate correspondence with each other. Both adolescent and parent SAFE reports related positively to well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Both reports distinguished adolescents on referral status as well as cut scores on well-established measures of adolescent social anxiety. Further, both adolescent and parent SAFE reports displayed incremental validity in relation to survey reports of adolescent social anxiety, over-and-above survey reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, which commonly co-occur with social anxiety. However, adolescent (but not parent) SAFE reports predicted adolescents’ social anxiety and state arousal as displayed within social interactions with unfamiliar peer confederates. These findings have important implications for leveraging multi-informant approaches to assessing safety behaviors among adolescents.     

“The Destruction of a Legacy”: Agenda Setting and the Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Allegations

Utilizing agenda setting theory, this study investigates the Bill Cosby sexual assault allegation scandal and how the scandal is framed by the media. In order to examine if and how varied networks reported differently on the Cosby scandal, sixty articles from three, distinct networks (CNN, FOX News, E!) were analyzed and coded under seven different categories. Results demonstrate a significant difference among the analyzed networks and media frames most reported in the sample for this study. Although all networks address Cosby’s rise and fall of an American hero, agendas set and story frames presented varied. Specifically, CNN highlighted victims’/survivors’ powerful voice whereas E! and FOX News highlighted Cosby’s support from the black community, celebrities and co-stars. Additional results, discussion and future directions follow.     

Disgust predicts prejudice and discrimination toward individuals with obesity

This study examined the relevance of disgust to evaluations of an obese target person, and the connection between disgust and prejudice toward that person. Participants (n = 598) viewed an image of an obese or non‐obese woman, and then evaluated that woman on a number of dimensions (emotions, attitudes, stereotypes, desire for social distance). Compared with the non‐obese target, the obese target elicited more disgust, more negative attitudes and stereotypes, and a greater desire for social distance. Furthermore, disgust mediated the effect of the target's body size on all of the outcome variables (attitudes, stereotypes, social distance). Disgust plays an important role in prejudice and discrimination toward individuals with obesity, and might in part explain the pervasiveness of weight bias.     

Similar stimulus features control visual classification in orangutans and rhesus monkeys

Many species classify images according to visual attributes. In pigeons, local features may disproportionately control classification, whereas in primates global features may exert greater control. In the absence of explicitly comparative studies, in which different species are tested with the same stimuli under similar conditions, it is not possible to determine how much of the variation in the control of classification is due to species differences and how much is due to differences in the stimuli, training, or testing conditions. We tested rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii) in identical tests in which images were modified to determine which stimulus features controlled classification. Monkeys and orangutans were trained to classify full color images of birds, fish, flowers, and people; they were later given generalization tests in which images were novel, black and white, black and white line drawings, or scrambled. Classification in these primate species was controlled by multiple stimulus attributes, both global and local, and the species behaved similarly.     

Explicitly Pressing Send: Impact of Sexting on Relationship Satisfaction

Given that few researchers have addressed sexting among adult samples, we sought to evaluate the prevalence of adults who sext, their sexting behaviors, and how it impacted relationship satisfaction. Analyses on the sample (N = 1171) revealed that heterosexual women are negatively impacted if they do not reciprocate a sext message; yet nonheterosexual women, and men in general, are not negatively impacted. This finding can be best understood within the framework of relational cultural theory (RCT). Implications for future research and for the practice of mental health providers are discussed.     

Attention training improves aberrant neural dynamics during working memory processing in veterans with PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with executive functioning deficits, including disruptions in working memory (WM). Recent studies suggest that attention training reduces PTSD symptomatology, but the underlying neural mechanisms are unknown. We used high-density magnetoencephalography (MEG) to evaluate whether attention training modulates brain regions serving WM processing in PTSD. Fourteen veterans with PTSD completed a WM task during a 306-sensor MEG recording before and after 8 sessions of attention training treatment. A matched comparison sample of 12 combat-exposed veterans without PTSD completed the same WM task during a single MEG session. To identify the spatiotemporal dynamics, each group’s data were transformed into the time-frequency domain, and significant oscillatory brain responses were imaged using a beamforming approach. All participants exhibited activity in left hemispheric language areas consistent with a verbal WM task. Additionally, veterans with PTSD and combat-exposed healthy controls each exhibited oscillatory responses in right hemispheric homologue regions (e.g., right Broca’s area); however, these responses were in opposite directions. Group differences in oscillatory activity emerged in the theta band (4–8 Hz) during encoding and in the alpha band (9–12 Hz) during maintenance and were significant in right prefrontal and right supramarginal and inferior parietal regions. Importantly, following attention training, these significant group differences were reduced or eliminated. This study provides initial evidence that attention training improves aberrant neural activity in brain networks serving WM processing.     

Preschool life skills: Recent advancements and future directions

Over the past decade, researchers have replicated and extended research on the preschool life skills (PLS) program developed by Hanley, Heal, Tiger, and Ingvarsson (2007). This review summarizes recent research with respect to maximizing skill acquisition, improving generality, evaluating feasibility and acceptability, and testing predictions of the initial PLS study. For each area, we suggest directions for future research.