The Shapes of Commitment Development in Emerging Adulthood

Based on a model developed by Kunnen et al. (in: Nurmi (ed) Navigating through adolescence: European perspectives, 2001), we investigated trajectories of commitment development in university students and their relation with well-being, identity style, coping, personality, and ego-development. By means of cluster analysis on individual trajectories, we distinguished different clusters of trajectories in six domains of life. Almost all clusters could be classified according to the identity status theory, either on a moratorium-achieved trajectory (MAMA), or as a stable trajectory in one of the four identity statuses. As expected, clusters with stable strong commitment had highest levels of well-being, and MAMA clusters had highest levels of ego-development. In general, the condition “having no commitments for a prolonged period” was more strongly related to non-optimal outcomes than the condition “no exploration.” This is surprising, given the important role of exploration in identity development. We suggested that having no commitments may affect—probably temporarily—the coping preferences and personality characteristics. Differences between the domains can be interpreted as effects of different societal demands and the social or non-social nature of the domain.     

The relationship of clinical, cognitive and social measures in schizophrenia: a preliminary finding combining measures in probands and relatives

This study examines performance of schizophrenia patients, unaffected relatives and controls in social cognition, cognitive and psychiatric scales looking for possible markers of vulnerability in schizophrenia. Performance of schizophrenia patients from multiplex families, first-degree relatives, and matched controls was compared and, subsequently, discriminant analysis method was used for identifying the best predictors for group membership. By using Multigroup Discriminant Analyses on the three groups, the best predictors were PANSS, Premorbid Adjustment Scale, Faux Pas test, and a face/emotion categorizing task. This model obtained 82% correct global classification, suggesting that the combination of psychiatric scales and neuropsychological/social cognition tasks are the best approach for characterizing this disease. Although preliminary, our results suggest that social cognition tasks are robust markers of schizophrenia family impairments, and that combining clinical, social and neuropsychological measures is the best approach to asses patients and relatives vulnerability.     

US Retirement Migration to Mexico: Understanding Issues of Adaptation,Networking, and Social Integration

This paper describes the cultural adaptation of American retirees living in two traditional retirement destinations in Mexico (Lake Chapala, state of Jalisco and San Miguel de Allende, state of Guanajuato). Based on 375 surveys and follow-up interviews, the authors discuss issues of adaptation, identity, and networking with the American and local community. Findings present a complex picture of adaptation and integration to the Mexican community as well as networking with other US residents. The comparative case study allows researcher to see the different social and economic dynamics taking place in the two destinations. This study contributes to understand a largely ignored migration flow that is directly related to the aging of the baby boomers generation.     

Parent and child agreement on anxiety disorder symptoms using the DISC predictive scales

Growing recognition of the negative impact of anxiety disorders in the lives of youth has made their identification an important clinical task. Multiple perspective assessment (e.g., parents, children) is generally considered a preferred method in the assessment of anxiety disorder symptoms, although it has been generally thought that disagreement between parent and youth ratings of the child's emotions is common. This study examined parent and child reports of the child's anxiety disorder symptoms using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Predictive Scales (DISC-PS) in a clinic-referred sample of substance using adolescents. Parents and adolescents (N = 480) who were referred for substance abuse treatment were screened for anxiety disorder symptoms using the DISC-PS at pretreatment. Results suggest similar (low) levels of agreement between the parent report and child report versions as found with other anxiety symptom and anxiety disorder measures. Findings provide data on multi-informant agreement and highlight issues in the use of the DISC-PS to identify anxiety problems in youth.     

Family,School, and Peer Influences on Alcohol Abstinence and Use among American Indian and White Female Adolescents

This analysis is informed by social bonding, social learning, and self-control theories and is based on data collected between 2009 and 2013 in 27 school districts located in five U. S. regions. The sample (N = 2,140) includes female adolescents (7th–12th graders) who identified themselves as white or American Indian. In support of the social learning theory, pro-alcohol use definitions, association with peers who drink excessively, and the peers’ differential reinforcement of alcohol abuse are significant predictors of alcohol use in the racially integrated model. Conversely, when controlling for a selected group of predictors, one’s level of self-control and measures of social bond are no longer differentiating alcohol users from abstainers. Yet, additional mediation analyses show that the lack of family attachment, parental monitoring, and school attachment have significant indirect effects on alcohol use.     

The experience of meditation for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their caregivers – a qualitative analysis

There is a lack of studies about psychological interventions for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers. We investigated the experience of a meditation training program tailored for ALS needs. People with ALS (pALS) and their caregivers that joined a meditation program for ALS were interviewed at the end of the program. Verbatims were analyzed with a qualitative approach. Both pALS and their caregivers reported a positive impact on their psychological well-being, promoted by an increase in acceptance and non-judgmental attitude. Furthermore, coping strategies seem to improve, with a positive effect on resilience skills. The ALS meditation training program seems to be an effective psychological intervention for the promotion of well-being in pALS and their caregivers.     

Communication and crying in newborns

Few studies have analysed newborns’ crying behaviour in relation to the communicative context. In the present study, duration, latency and dysphony of newborns’ cry were analysed in three different communicative conditions: absent, continuous and discontinuous tactile communication. Thirty newborns were randomly assigned to three tactile communicative procedures. Subsequently they were presented with two visual stimuli, face (social-stimulus) and square (non-social-stimulus). The study showed that newborns cried only during visual stimuli presentation both in absent and continuous communication conditions. Newborns with absent communication cried more, with shorter latency and more dysphony than newborns with continuous communication. No significant differences were found in duration, latency and dysphony of newborns’ cry between the two stimuli. Newborns in the discontinuous communicative condition did not cry either during tactile communication or during visual stimuli presentation. Different communicative contexts affected the newborns’ crying behaviour during stimuli presentation. Different interpretations are discussed here in order to explain the results.