The Efficacy of Toddler-Parent Psychotherapy for Fostering Cognitive Development in Offspring of Depressed Mothers

The efficacy of Toddler-Parent Psychotherapy (TPP) as a preventive intervention for fostering cognitive development in the offspring of depressed mothers was evaluated. Mothers with major depressive disorder and their toddlers were randomly assigned to TPP (n = 43) or to a nonintervention group (n = 54) and compared to a control group (n = 61) of women with no current or past mental disorder. At baseline (age 20 months), the groups did not differ on the Bayley Mental Development Index. At post-intervention follow-up (age 3 years), a relative decline in IQ was found in the depressed nonintervention group, whereas the depressed intervention and the normal control groups continued to be equivalent, with higher WPPSI-R Full Scale and Verbal IQs. The worst outcome was found among nonintervention children whose mothers had subsequent depressive episodes. The results confirm the developmental risks faced by offspring of depressed mothers and support the efficacy of the preventive intervention in safeguarding successful cognitive development in at-risk youngsters.     

Effects of age on estimated familiarity in the process dissociation procedure: The role of noncriterial recollection

Research on recognition memory using the process dissociation procedure has suggested that although recollection (R) declines with age, familiarity (F) remains age invariant. However, this research has used relatively broad definitions of R. An important question concerns age-related changes in memory when R is defined in terms of specific event details. Yonelinas and Jacoby (1996a) required young participants to recollect specific, criterial details of a prior event and found evidence that recollection of noncriterial details elevated estimates of F yet still operated automatically. In the present study, the issue of noncriterial recollection was examined in the context of aging. The results replicated the effects of noncriterial recollection for the young, but not for the older adults, who also showed overall reduced levels of familiarity.     

Closeness to God Among Those Doing God’s Work: A Spiritual Well-Being Measure for Clergy

Measuring spiritual well-being among clergy is particularly important given the high relevance of God to their lives, and yet its measurement is prone to problems such as ceiling effects and conflating religious behaviors with spiritual well-being. To create a measure of closeness to God for Christian clergy, we tested survey items at two time points with 1,513 United Methodist Church clergy. The confirmatory factor analysis indicated support for two, six-item factors: Presence and Power of God in Daily Life, and Presence and Power of God in Ministry. The data supported the predictive and concurrent validity of the two factors and evidenced high reliabilities without ceiling effects. This Clergy Spiritual Well-being Scale may be useful to elucidate the relationship among dimensions of health and well-being in clergy populations.     

Attachment and Affect between Mothers with Depression and their Children: Longitudinal Outcomes of Child Parent Psychotherapy

The present investigation examined the longitudinal effects of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for toddlers and their mothers with depression on: a) maternal affective expression, b) child affective expression, and c) mother-child cohesion. Mothers with depression (M_age?=?31.7 years; 92.8% White, 3.5% Black, 2.1% Hispanic, 2.3% other) and their toddlers were randomized to receive CPP (DI; n?=?66) or to a control group (DC; n?=?64). Mothers without depression and their toddlers (NC; n?=?68) were recruited as an additional comparison group. Dyads were assessed at baseline (T1; 20 months old), post-intervention (T2; 36 months old), and follow-up (T3; 9 years old). Data from a mother-child conflict task was coded as a measure of observed outcome variables. Change in post-intervention attachment security assessed via the Strange Situation was evaluated as a mediator between intervention condition and maternal and child affective expression and dyadic cohesion at T3. Change to secure attachment post-intervention significantly mediated the association between intervention condition and T3 maternal warmth and child anger/problem behavior. Toddlers of mothers with depression who received CPP showed higher rates of change to secure attachment compared to those in both the DC and NC groups. Dyads who changed to secure attachment at T2 displayed higher levels of maternal warmth at T3 and lower levels of child anger and problem behavior at T3. Implications for the use of CPP as a preventive intervention and the importance of attachment as a mediator of long-term outcomes are discussed.

     

Maternal Intergenerational Transmission of Childhood Multitype Maltreatment

Previous research suggests that child maltreatment is transmitted across familial generations. However, extant studies focused exclusively on single maltreatment subtypes, instead of the more common experience of multitype maltreatment. This limitation is addressed in the first known study to examine the maternal intergenerational transmission of childhood multitype maltreatment among 104 mothers and their children. Findings demonstrated that mothers' childhood multitype maltreatment directly predicted their children's multitype maltreatment, instead of having indirect effects through maternal romantic attachment dimension, intimate partner violence, and psychological distress. Mothers' childhood multitype maltreatment was also related to intimate partner violence and anxious romantic attachment but unrelated to psychological distress. Our findings highlight the need for clinical attention to the long-term generational effects of diverse childhood traumas.     

Multiple levels of control in the Stroop task

Multiple levels of control may be used in service of reducing Stroop interference. One is list-wide, whereby interference is reduced strategically in lists that include disproportionately more incongruent trials. A second, item-specific control is observed when proportion congruence is manipulated at the level of items. Item-specific control reduces interference for mostly incongruent relative to mostly congruent items. First, we show that item-specific control may drive both list-wide and item-specific proportion congruence effects (Experiment 1). We then show that item-specific control affects Stroop interference similarly when a single feature (a word) as opposed to a feature combination (a word 1 font type) signals proportion congruence (Experiment 2). Although this suggests that font type offers little advantage for controlling Stroop interference beyond the word, a novel, font-specific proportion congruence effect is observed in Experiment 3, indicating that font type can be used to control interference. These findings support the idea that multiple levels of control are used in reducing Stroop interference.     

A short-term grief and loss therapy group: Group members' experiences

Abstract

This article is an evaluative study of a short-term grief and loss therapy group conducted at a large Midwestern university's counseling center. The group was held for students who had experienced loss through death of a significant person. The author examines brief group psychotherapy, special considerations of the college student's grief experience, an adaptation of the brief group model for grieving students, and data gathered from the members of the therapy group. Students' scores on a grief instrument showed mixed results. Group members made journal entries at four times during the group experience. They reported that the group was a supportive and helpful experience; five of Yalom's (1995) eleven therapeutic factors could be discerned. Recommendations regarding the treatment of grieving students in a group setting are made.     

Unintentional influences and opposition: A reply to graf

Abstract

People's behaviour is often influenced by processes of which they are not aware or that they do not intend. However, behaviour is also, at least partially, under intentional control. Most task performance is co-determined by these two classes of processes. Placing intentional control in opposition to unintentional influences is useful for understanding the nature of the two forms of processing. However, opposition alone cannot provide a pure measure of automatic influences because, as in most tasks, intentional processes also affect the overall level of performance. The goal of the process dissociation procedure is to disentangle the effects of these two forms of processing on behaviour. It approaches this goal by taking advantage of a unique property of intentionally controlled processes their ability to either oppose or act in concert with automatic processes. The goal of separating the two forms of processing is imperative for both theoretical and applied purposes.     

Relations among children's perceptions of maternal behavior,attributional styles,and behavioral symptomatology in maltreated children

This investigation examined relations among perceptions of mothers, attributional style, and counselor-rated behavior problems in 187 school age children (88 maltreated, 99 nonmaltreated). Hypotheses regarding the presence of higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in maltreated children were confirmed. Attributional style was found to function as a moderator of externalizing behavior problems, suggesting that attributional style exerts a protective role against the harmful effect of child maltreatment. Perceptions of mothers were found to operate as a mediator of both internalizing and externalizing symptomatology, with maltreated children with less positive perceptions of their mothers exhibiting greater internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. These findings advance knowledge of how cognitive processes contribute to behavior problems in maltreated children and possess implications for prevention and intervention efforts.