Identifying Unmet Mental Health Needs in Children of Formerly Homeless Mothers Living in a Supportive Housing Community Sector of Care

This study reports psychosocial characteristics of a sample of 111 children (K to 2nd grade) and their mothers who were living in urban supportive housings. The aim of this study was to document the various types and degree of risk endemic to this population. First, we describe the psychosocial characteristics of this homeless sample. Second, we compared this homeless sample with a grade-matched, high-risk, school-based sample of children (n = 146) who were identified as showing early symptoms of disruptive behaviors. Third, we compared the parents in both samples on mental health, parenting practices, and service utilization. Results showed that children living in supportive housing were in the at-risk range and had comparable levels of externalizing problems, internalizing problems, school problems and emotional strengths with the school-based risk sample receiving prevention services at a family support community agency. Mothers in supportive housing reported significantly higher psychological distress, less optimal parenting practices and greater service utilization. These findings are among the first to provide empircal support for the need to deliver prevention interventions in community sectors of care.     

Integrated and Holistic Treatment Approach to PTSD and SUD: A Synergy

A review of the literature on integrated and holistic treatment approaches of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD) diagnoses is presented. Perspectives on the etiology of PTSD‐SUD comorbidity and the inter‐relation of symptoms are explored.     

The power of rituals in dealing with traumatic stress symptoms: cleansing rituals for former child soldiers in Northern Uganda

International guidelines for emergency response note the importance of cultural adaptions and facilitation of local spiritual and religious healing practices when appropriate. Deciding whether traditional medicine is safe, effective and appropriate is a complex matter. This study explores the therapeutic factors of a local cleansing ritual in Northern Uganda aimed at healing former child soldiers. The components of the ritual are analysed and compared with research-based therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Participant observation was used during the ritual, followed by qualitative in-depth interviews and follow-up interviews over three years. The key informant is a former child soldier participating in the ritual. He was abducted and forced to commit several killings during a three-year period. The collective mobilisation of social support, the collective forgiveness and the strength of the psycho-education appear central for the effect of the ritual. In addition, the ritual draws on common therapeutic factors. The findings indicate that such a ritual involves elements that safely and effectively deal with symptoms in accordance with modern research on trauma therapy, perhaps more powerfully than Western-style therapy. Implications for collaboration with local healers in emergency settings are indicated.     

Explanatory,Multilevel Person-Fit Analysis of Response Consistency on the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

Self-report measures are vulnerable to concentration and motivation problems, leading to responses that may be inconsistent with the respondent's latent trait value. We investigated response consistency in a sample (N = 860) of cardiac patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and their partners who completed the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory on five measurement occasions. For each occasion and for both the state and trait subscales, we used the l ^p _z person-fit statistic to assess response consistency. We used multilevel analysis to model the between-person and within-person differences in the repeated observations of response consistency using time-dependent (e.g., mood states) and time-invariant explanatory variables (e.g., demographic characteristics). Respondents with lower education, undergoing psychological treatment, and with more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms tended to respond less consistently. The percentages of explained variance in response consistency were small. Hence, we conclude that the results give insight into the causes of response inconsistency but that the identified explanatory variables are of limited practical value for identifying respondents at risk of producing invalid test results. We discuss explanations for the small percentage of explained variance and suggest alternative methods for studying causes of response inconsistency.     

Construct validity of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank with clinic-referred and nonreferred adolescents

We examined the construct validity of the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB; Rotter, Lah, & Rafferty, 1992) as a measure of psychological maladjustment in adolescents. In Study 1, we investigated the reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of the RISB with adolescents referred to treatment. In Studies 2 and 3, we examined the RISB's ability to differentiate referred and nonreferred adolescents. The RISB showed adequate interrater reliability and converged with self-reported, parent-reported, and teacher-reported social-emotional and behavioral problems. Criterion-related evidence suggests that the RISB may be useful as a screening measure for adolescents using a 135 or 140 cut score. We provide normative data to facilitate the test's use with adolescents in clinical and research settings.     

Regulatory mode effects on counterfactual thinking and regret

The present studies examined the influence of two regulatory mode concerns—a locomotion concern with movement from state to state and an assessment concern with making comparisons [see Higgins, E. T., Kruglanski, A. W., & Pierro, A. (2003). Regulatory mode: Locomotion and assessment as distinct orientations. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 35, pp. 293-344). New York: Academic Press]—on engaging in counterfactual thinking and experiencing post-decisional regret. When contemplating a decision with a negative outcome, it was predicted that high (vs. low) locomotion would induce less counterfactual thinking and less regret, whereas the opposite would be true for high (vs. low) assessment. Locomotion and assessment orientations were measured as chronic individual differences in Study 1 and 2, and were induced experimentally in Study 3. In Study 1 and 3 a purchase scenario with a negative outcome was used to elicit counterfactuals and regret, while in Study 2 participants were asked to recall one of their own personal purchases that had a negative outcome. The results supported our predictions. We discuss the implications of these findings for the nature of counterfactual thinking and regret from the perspective of their relation to regulatory mode.     

Preschool children's ability to visually represent relations

The developmental origins of mapping temporal relations onto space was investigated in N = 122 3- to 5-year-old children and adults. Spontaneous production and comprehension were investigated. Production was investigated in two conditions: an iconic condition (three-dimensional objects depicting the events or objects to be represented) and an abstract condition (plain discs). Consistent with findings by Tversky, Kugelmass and Winter (1991), 5-year-olds performed on an adult-like level. Developmental progress was observed between the ages of 3 and 4 years, with comprehension preceding production. Consistent with DeLoache's findings (2000), 4-year-olds' performance was better in abstract than in iconic conditions, indicating that dual representational demands may have affected task performance in the iconic condition. In sum, abilities to map temporal relations onto spatial relations appear to develop spontaneously, even before children have experience with conventional notational systems.     

Age-related differences in valence and arousal ratings of pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Do ratings become more extreme with age?

The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) has been widely used in aging-oriented research on emotion. However, no ratings for older adults are available. The aim of the present study was to close this gap by providing ratings of valence and arousal for 504 IAPS pictures by 53 young and 53 older adults. Both age groups rated positive pictures as less arousing, resulting in a stronger linear association between valence and arousal, than has been found in previous studies. This association was even stronger in older than in young adults. Older adults perceived negative pictures as more negative and more arousing and positive pictures as more positive and less arousing than young adults did. This might indicate a dedifferentiation of emotional processing in old age. On the basis of a picture recognition task, we also report memorability scores for individual pictures and how they relate to valence and arousal ratings. Data for all the pictures are archived at www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Out with the old: Inhibition of old items in a preview search is limited

If some of the distractors in a visual search task are previewed prior to the presentation of the remaining distractors and the target, search time is reduced relative to when all of the items are displayed simultaneously. Here, we tested whether the ability to preferentially search new items during such a preview search is limited. We confirmed previous studies: The proportion of fixations on old items was significantly less than chance. However, the probability of fixating old locations was negatively affected by increasing the number of previewed distractors, suggesting that inhibition is limited to a small number of old items. Furthermore, the ability to inhibit old locations was limited to the first four fixations, indicating that by the fifth fixation, the resources required to sustain inhibition had been depleted. Together, these findings suggest that inhibition of old items in a preview search is a top-down mediated process dependent on capacity-limited cognitive resources.