Factor structure of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C) among Hospital Patients and Community Clients

The factor structure, reliability and concurrent validity of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C) was examined. The BPRS-C was designed to measure child psychopathology with seven scales consisting of three items each. Two large samples of intake assessments at admission to the public mental health system of state psychiatric hospitals (n = 6712) and community mental health centers (n = 21,459) for children aged 3–17 were examined. In both samples exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis found seven factors that generally supported the BPRS-C seven scale structure. Reliability as measured by internal consistency was acceptable with an average alpha of .72 (SD = .09). Mean scale scores across diagnoses and concurrent correlations with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were consistent with expectations.     

Do Partner Attachment Behaviors Moderate Avoidant Conflict-Resolution Styles and Relationship Self-Regulation?

ABSTRACT

Relationship self-regulation refers to the “work” partners put in to keep their relationships healthy. Past relationship self-regulation research has not taken into account distal variables that may affect it, such as respondents’ own and parental avoidant couple conflict-resolution styles. Using data from 4,456 people in their first marriages who completed the RELATionship Evaluation (RELATE) (Busby, Holman, & Taniguchi, 2001 Busby, D. M., Holman, T. B., & Taniguchi, N. (2001). Relate: Relationship evaluation of the individual, family, cultural, and couple contexts. Family Relations, 50, 308–316.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the current study found a positive correlation between parents’ couple avoidant conflict-resolution style and respondents’ avoidant couple conflict-resolution style. Respondents’ avoidant couple conflict-resolution style was also negatively correlated with relationship self-regulation. Perception of partners’ secure attachment behaviors, however, had a significant strong relationship with respondents’ ability to do relationship self-regulation.     

Words and Wards: A Model of Reflective Writing and Its Uses in Medical Education

Personal, creative writing as a process for reflection on patient care and socialization into medicine ("reflective writing") has important potential uses in educating medical students and residents. Based on the authors' experiences with a range of writing activities in academic medical settings, this article sets forth a conceptual model for considering the processes and effects of such writing. The first phase (writing) is individual and solitary, consisting of personal reflection and creation. Here, introspection and imagination guide learners from loss of certainty to reclaiming a personal voice; identifying the patient's voice; acknowledging simultaneously valid yet often conflicting perspectives; and recognizing and responding to the range of emotions triggered in patient care. The next phase (small-group reading and discussion) is public and communal, where sharing one's writing results in acknowledging vulnerability, risk-taking, and self-disclosure. Listening to others' writing becomes an exercise in mindfulness and presence, including witnessing suffering and confusion experienced by others. Specific pedagogical goals in three arenas-professional development, patient care and practitioner well-being - are linked to the writing/reading/listening process. The intent of presenting this model is to help frame future intellectual inquiry and investigation into this innovative pedagogical modality.     

Lateralized perceptual organization deficits on the global-local task in schizotypal personality disorder

Right and left hemisphere contributions to perceptual organization functions were examined using a divided-attention version of the global-local task in a sample of 21 unmedicated participants diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and 20 controls. The SPD participants showed an abnormal global processing advantage. When the visual angle of the hierarchical stimuli was increased from 3 degrees to 9 degrees, the controls showed an increasing local processing advantage, but the SPD participants continued to show an abnormal global processing advantage. These findings suggest a local processing deficit on divided-attention versions of the global-local task in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Female SPD participants, who had less severe interpersonal deficit symptoms, showed a more abnormal global processing advantage. Hemispheric and processing resource mechanisms that might explain these findings are discussed.     

FROM THE SENSES TO SENSE: THE HERMENEUTICS OF LOVE

Abstract. Drawing on philosophy, theology, comparative religion, spirituality, Holocaust studies, physics, biology, psychology, and personal experience, I argue that continued human existence depends on our willingness to reject nihilism–not as an expedient "noble lie" but because faith in a meaningful cosmos and the power of love is at least as validly grounded in human experience as insistence on cosmic indifference and ultimate futility. I maintain that hope will free us to develop nonimperialistic methods of bridging cultural differences by forming a mutually intelligible vocabulary that celebrates diversity, enters the worlds of others in respectful dialogue, and fosters a postmechanistic, organic, ecological, holistic, dynamic, interactive, open-ended model of reality. I lay the foundation for a "hermeneutics of love" to complement Paul Ricoeur's "hermeneutics of suspicion" and invite speculation on the ways science, technology, and society would be transformed if those "glasses of friendship" were widely applied.     

TRAINING MILDLY HANDICAPPED PEERS TO FACILITATE CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL INTERACTION SKILLS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

We evaluated the effects of a peer-training strategy, consisting of direct prompting and modeling, on the occurrence and duration of interactions between autistic students and nonautistic peer-trainers. Data were obtained in both training and generalization settings. The results of a multiple-baseline design across students demonstrated that: (a) the direct prompting procedure produced immediate and substantial increases in the occurrences and durations of positive social interactions between the peer-trainers and autistic students; (b) these increases were maintained across time at levels above baseline during subsequent free-play probes; (c) these findings were judged by teachers to be socially valid; (d) untrained peers increased their interactions with the autistic students in three of the four groups; (e) generalization of behavior change across settings occurred only after specific programming; and (f) interactions between untrained peers and peer-trainers decreased following training. Variables that may account for the results and the implications of these findings for peer-mediated interventions are discussed.     

Male acceptance of female career roles

Forty-two male university students rated five written female role statements matched with video taped females on an 11-point probability of marriage scale. A significant main effect for work roles revealed the order of preference to be Immediate Nurturer, Delayed Nurturer, Homemaker, Integrator, and Career Primary — confirming the expected preference of these middle-class college males for women who combine traditional family goals with some degree of career involvement. There was also an interaction between work roles, female physical attractiveness, and male self-esteem, which revealed an inability of low self-esteem males to tolerate the very attractive career-oriented female.     

Variation in Masculinities and Fathering Behaviors: A Cross-National Comparison of the United States and Canada

Sex Roles - Research continues to examine the barriers to and facilitators of positive fathering behaviors. One area recently addressed by researchers focuses on the relationship between masculine...     

Religious Variability in the Relationship Between Masculinity and Father Involvement

While traditional masculinity and fathering behaviors are seemingly associated, few studies have considered the conditions under which masculine norms may influence fathers’ behavior. Religiosity is an important factor to consider, given its association with both the endorsement of traditional gender attitudes and father involvement. This paper addresses the independent effects of traditional masculine norms and religiosity on fathering behaviors and considers whether religiosity moderates the relationship between masculinity and men's parenting behaviors. Using a national sample of fathers with children aged 2–17 in the United States, the results suggest that masculinity is negatively associated with father involvement, while religiosity is positively associated with father involvement. Yet, both highly masculine and highly religious fathers are more likely to engage in harsh discipline. Moreover, results suggest that religiosity attenuates the negative relationship between masculinity and active father involvement, while exacerbating the positive relationship between masculinity and harsh punishment.