Measuring stress responses in postpartum mothers: perspectives from studies in human and animal populations

Reduced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) responses to stress during the last week of pregnancy and lactation have been consistently observed in rat studies. Several contributing factors have been proposed for this phenomenon in lactation, including the suckling stimulus from the pups, hormones (oxytocin and prolactin) and opioids, a decrease in the ability of noradrenaline to potentiate hypothalamic responses and changes in pituitary responsiveness to ACTH secretagogues (AVP and CRF). In contrast to this vast literature using the rat model, only few studies have addressed this issue in the human population. The consensus is that women engaging in breastfeeding activities exhibit reduced anxiety, although the reductions in neuroendocrine and autonomic responses to stressors are variable, in part because of the different nature of the stressors used. Further work is required to investigate how additional factors, such as maternal parity or emotional salience of the stressor can affect stress responsiveness in postpartum women. Here, we review first the findings regarding stress responsiveness during lactation in both rat and human studies, and then discuss potential research avenues and methodological issues that could be the lead to future research protocols in human subjects. Knowing the reciprocal relationship in the mother-infant dyad, it is clear that investigation of the mechanisms regulating stress responses and mental health in postpartum mothers can only be beneficial to the development of the infant.     

Gender influences on preschool children's social problem-solving strategies

The authors investigated gender influences on the nature and competency of preschool children's social problem-solving strategies. Preschool-age children (N = 179; 91 boys, 88 girls) responded to hypothetical social situations designed to assess their social problem-solving skills in the areas of provocation, peer group entry, and sharing or taking turns. Results indicated that, overall, girls' responses were more competent (i.e., reflective of successful functioning with peers) than those of boys, and girls' strategies were less likely to involve retaliation or verbal or physical aggression. The competency of the children's responses also varied with the gender of the target child. Findings are discussed in terms of the influence of gender-related social experiences on the types of strategies and behaviors that may be viewed as competent for boys and girls of preschool age.     

The consolidation/transition model in moral reasoning development

The consolidation/transition model conceptualizes development as entailing a cyclical pattern of alternating consolidation and transition phases and posits that stage advance is predicted by a specific distribution of reasoning across stages indicative of disequilibrium (more reasoning above than below the mode, with a high degree of mixture). The validity of this model was examined in the context of moral reasoning development with the use of standard statistical techniques as well as Bayesian techniques that can better account for classification error. In this longitudinal study. 64 children and adolescents participated in 5 annual administrations of the Moral Judgment Interview. The distribution of their reasoning across stages was used to predict subsequent development. The results support the hypotheses regarding cyclical patterns of change and predictors of stage transition and demonstrate the utility of Bayesian techniques for evaluating developmental change.     

Prosodic facilitation in the resolution of syntactic ambiguities in subjects with left and right hemisphere damage

The purpose of this study was to determine if prosody facilitates the comprehension of sentences containing temporary syntactic ambiguities in control, and left (LHD) and right hemisphere damaged (RHD) subjects. To test for effects of prosodic facilitation, sentences were created where prosodic boundaries coincided with (cooperating), were absent (baseline), or conflicted (conflicting) with syntactic boundaries in three response times (RTs) experiments. Despite differences in overall RTs and response accuracy for each group, all three groups responded faster and more accurately to sentences in the cooperating than in the baseline and conflicting conditions across experiments, indicating that prosody facilitates syntactic parsing in brain-damaged subjects just as it does with normal control subjects. Results are discussed in relation to psycholinguistic theories of syntactic parsing and neurolinguistic theories of hemispheric specialization in processing the acoustic properties of prosodic structures.     

Promoting positive body image among university students: A collaborative pilot study

The purpose of the present study was to pilot a prevention program designed to promote positive body image among university students. Thirty-seven undergraduate students from three Canadian universities were recruited to participate in the study. They were selected from a pool of students enrolled in a peer health education program facilitated by the university-based health promotion staff. Borrowing from the tenets of the non-specific vulnerability stressor model and the disease-specific social cognitive theory, the intervention focused on media literacy, self-esteem enhancement strategies, stress management skills and ways to recognize healthy versus unhealthy relationships. Separate ANOVAs revealed that participants reported significant improvements in body satisfaction and reductions in the internalization of media stereotypes between the baseline and post-program period. The program received a favorable response from the participating students, who appreciated the face-to-face format of the intervention, and from the university staff who expressed interest in embedding the strategies into their routine peer mentoring training activities. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Effects of cultural background on WAIS‐III and WMS‐III performances after moderate‐severe traumatic brain injury

The assessment of cognitive function in individuals of culturally and linguistically diverse background poses considerable challenges for the psychologist, particularly when English proficiency is limited. This study explored the effects of diverse cultural background and non‐Western educational background on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale‐Third edition (WAIS‐III) and Wechsler Memory Scale‐Third Edition (WMS‐III) performances in moderate‐severe traumatic brain injury within an outpatient rehabilitation setting. Participants were aged 16–65 years and met careful selection criteria. IQ, index and age‐scaled subtest scores were compared across three groups: (a) English‐speaking background (n = 130), (b) culturally and linguistically diverse background and education completed in English (n = 33), and (c) culturally and linguistically diverse background and non‐English education (n = 33). Cultural backgrounds included people of Asian, European, Middle Eastern, African and Oceania origin. Results were that the English‐educated culturally and linguistically diverse group performed lower than the English‐speaking background group on some verbal WAIS‐III measures; effect sizes were small‐moderate. The non‐English‐educated culturally and linguistically diverse group performed lower than both groups on several WAIS‐III and one WMS‐III measure, with large effect sizes. Clinical implications included the need for caution in interpreting test scores to avoid diagnostic errors and the need for further development of valid assessment tools.     

Pilot Evaluation of a Tablet-Based Application to Improve Quality of Care in Child Mental Health Treatment

Mental health systems need scalable solutions that can reduce the efficacy–effectiveness gap and improve mental health outcomes in community mental health service settings. Two major challenges to delivery of high-quality care are providers’ fidelity to evidence-based treatment models and children’s and caregivers’ engagement in the treatment process. We developed a novel, tablet-based application designed to enhance via technology the quality of delivery of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). We piloted its use in four community mental health service organizations using a blocked randomized controlled trial to examine the feasibility of implementing tablet-facilitated TF-CBT versus standard TF-CBT with 13 providers and 27 families. Provider fidelity and child engagement in treatment were observationally measured via session audio recording. Parent and child perceptions of the tablet application were assessed using structured interviews and mixed-method analyses. Providers actively and appropriately used tablet TF-CBT to facilitate treatment activities. Providers and families expressed high satisfaction with its use, demonstrating acceptability of this approach. Youth and caregivers in both conditions reported high alliance with their providers. Overall, we found that tablet-facilitated treatment is accepted by providers and families and may be integrated into mental health treatment with minimal training. Further study is needed to examine the extent to which technology-based applications may enhance the reach, quality, and clinical outcomes of mental health treatment delivered to children and families.     

A comparison of blocked and mixed‐trial methods for teaching auditory–visual discriminations

Behavior analysts typically teach conditional discriminations in a mixed‐trial format but may switch to a blocked‐trial format for learners displaying limited acquisition. No known research has shown that mixed‐trial methods are more effective or efficient than blocked‐trial methods for teaching discriminations, so it is not clear why this format has been adopted as the “first‐line” intervention. We compared blocked and mixed‐trial formats for teaching novel auditory–visual discriminations to three adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Results show blocked‐trial methods resulted in faster skill acquisition in all cases, suggesting this format may be a preferable starting point for instruction.     

Cross-category revenue spillover in brand extensions: The role of within-category experience

Building on signaling theory, the current research proposes an empirical framework to help firms understand the degree to which cross-category purchases affect the revenue generated for each category and how within-category purchases influence the cross-category spillover effects. The framework is applied to novel individual-level, cross-sectional, and time-series transaction details from a leading lifestyle conglomerate in the Middle East. The empirical results provide strong support for the presence of revenue spillover across multiple categories of brand extensions, with the spillover being more pronounced in categories in which customers have infrequently purchased and thus had less within-category experience. These results add to the ongoing stream of research on brand extensions by offering evidence that both within- and cross-category learning play a significant role in revenue generation from brand extensions for multi-product or service firms.