Maintenance of Parent-Implemented Discrete-Trial Instruction during Videoconferencing

Access to behavior-analytic professionals who can implement interventions like discrete-trial instruction (DTI) may be limited for families living in rural communities. We trained four rural parents of children with autism to implement DTI accurately with a confederate using in vivo behavioral skills training. The DTI skills that parents demonstrated with a confederate generalized to working with their children. We then assessed whether periodic supervision during videoconferencing maintained parents’ DTI skills following training. Parents accurately implemented untrained DTI programs with their children and maintained accurate implementation over several months of remote supervision occurring twice a week, weekly, and biweekly. Videoconferencing may be an effective way for individuals responsible for direct implementation to maintain contact with behavior analysts who are not locally accessible.     

Development of a coping with stress scale for a non-western population of children and adolescents

Background and objectives: In the related literature numerous instruments have been developed to measure children and adolescents’ coping with stress. Considering the cultural differences in individuals’ choice for coping strategies, along with the limitations of the existing measures of coping for children and adolescents (e.g., being derived from coping measures developed for adults; unrepresentative samples with limited age range, etc.), the current study aimed to construct a self-report coping scale for a non-western population of children and adolescents.

Design and methods: The study design included both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Three consecutive studies were conducted for the development and validation of the Children and Adolescents’ Coping with Stress Scale (CACSS), a self-report measure assessing coping strategies of children and adolescents aged from 9 to 18 in response to self-identified stressors.

Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a 61-item CACSS with 10 factors. The scale appears to have a clear factor structure; sufficient temporal stability; and good convergent, discriminant, and construct validity.

Conclusions: By addressing limitations of existing coping scales, CACSS is believed to contribute to the literature as a developmentally appropriate and multidimensional tool.     

Happy Family Kitchen: Behavioral Outcomes of a Brief Community-Based Family Intervention in Hong Kong

Positive psychology interventions commonly involve behavioral exercises to improve psychosocial well-being. Intervention effect on behavior is unclear. The Happy Family Kitchen project, one of the community-based brief intervention projects under The FAMILY: A Jockey Club Initiative for a Harmonious Society, was conducted in Hong Kong to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a positive psychology family intervention. We have previously reported positive intervention effects on family communication, family well-being, and subjective happiness. This paper aims to explore the effectiveness of the intervention on behavioral outcomes and their associations with psychosocial well-being. A total of 23 social service units organized and conducted intervention programs for 1419 individuals from 612 families in Hong Kong. Each intervention was developed with emphasis on one of five positive psychology themes: gratitude, flow, happiness, health, and savoring. Intervention outcomes were assessed at pre-intervention, immediate post-intervention, and 6 weeks and 12 weeks post-intervention. Results showed that family communication time and frequency of meal preparation with family members increased with sustainable small effects up to 12 weeks. Theme-specific behavior change was observed in the gratitude, flow, and happiness interventions, respectively. Family communication time, frequency of eating with family members, and theme-specific behaviors, including gratitude, flow, happiness behavior, health attitude, and health behavior, were positively associated with psychosocial well-being. Qualitative data provided additional evidence of effectiveness with in-depth insights into behavior change. The positive associations between target behaviors and well-being suggest that improvements in well-being as a function of the intervention may be associated with behavior change.     

Observational Context of Mother-Child Interaction: Impact of a stress Context on Emotional Availability

Previous studies have found that a stressful observational context challenges the mother-child relationship, thus highlighting negative interactive behavior. However, the impact of observational context has only been investigated in infants and preschoolers without specifically using the Emotional Availability Scales. Nor have they explored whether the association of mother-child interaction with children’s emotional or behavioral problems depends on the observational context. We observed 140 mothers and their five to 12-year-old children in non-stressful free play and in a stressful task context. In general, dyads showed higher emotional availability in the task context compared to the free play. Specifically, mothers showed higher levels of Sensitivity, Structuring and Nonhostility, but lower levels of Nonintrusiveness during the task compared to the free play context; children showed higher levels of Responsiveness during the task than during free play. After controlling for dyadic stress, contextual effects decreased for all dimensions of emotional availability. The association of mother-child interaction with child problem behavior depended on the observational context. Specifically, we found maternal emotional availability during free play to be more strongly associated with child problem behavior than during the stressful task; however, emotional availability of the child was more strongly associated with problem behavior when obtained during the task. We conclude that context impacts on mother-child interactive behavior and also on the association of mother-child-interaction and child behavior. Stress is a relevant contextual factor influencing mother-child interactive behavior.     

Gender differences in emotional experiences across childhood,romantic relationship,and self-defining memories

The aim of the present study is to examine the gender differences in emotional experiences across three different types of autobiographical memory. A total of 612 undergraduate students from Izmir, Turkey, were asked to recall a memory either from childhood, from romantic relationships, or from self-defining experiences. A gender difference was found in the intensity of anxiety, sadness, and pride for romantic relationship memories. Men had higher scores on emotional distancing than women in self-defining memories. With regard to emotional valance, women’s feelings were less positive than men’s feelings when remembering childhood and romantic relationship experiences, whereas they were more positive than men’s feelings when remembering self-defining experiences. The findings support the notion that gender differences in emotional experiences during the autobiographical recollection of personal life events vary across different memory types.     

Cognitive vulnerability and frontal brain asymmetry: common predictors of first prospective depressive episode

The hopelessness theory of depression proposes that individuals with a depressogenic cognitive style are more likely to become hopeless and experience depression following negative life events. Although the neurophysiological underpinnings of cognitive style remain speculative, research indicates that decreased relative left frontal brain electrical activity holds promise as a traitlike marker of depression. This begs the question: Do measures of depressogenic cognitive style and resting frontal brain asymmetry index a common vulnerability? The present study provides preliminary support for this hypothesis. At baseline assessment, increased cognitive vulnerability to depression was associated with decreased relative left frontal brain activity at rest in individuals with no prior history of, or current, depression. Following baseline assessment, participants were followed prospectively an average of 3 years with structured diagnostic interviews at 4-month intervals. Both cognitive vulnerability and asymmetric frontal cortical activity prospectively predicted onset of first depressive episode in separate univariate analyses. Furthermore, multivariate analyses indicated that cognitive vulnerability and frontal asymmetry represented shared, rather than independent, predictors of first depression onset.     

Resilience: enhancing well-being through the positive cognitive triad

The present study tested whether the relationships among resilience, life satisfaction, and depression could be explained by positive views toward the self, the world, and the future (positive cognitive triad). Structural equation modeling and mediation analyses were conducted based on 1,419 college students in Hong Kong. The model of positive cognitive triad as mediator between resilience and well-being fit the data (comparative fit index = .94, Tucker-Lewis index = .93, root-mean-square error of approximation = .08). Findings showed resilience to be significantly related to positive cognitions about the self, the world, and the future. Individuals who had higher level of resilience held significantly more positive cognitions and reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and lower levels of depression. The utility of the positive cognitive triad as the mechanism through which resilience enhances well-being was supported. Applications in cultivating resilience and positive cognitions in counseling services are discussed.     

Asian American college students' suicide ideation: a mixed-methods study

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the phenomenon of suicide ideation among 293 Asian American college students. Guided by T. Joiner's (2005) interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior, the authors examined the relationships among perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, self-construals, and suicide ideation. Compared with thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness was a more robust predictor of suicide ideation. However, thwarted belongingness moderated the positive association between perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation. Furthermore, interdependent self-construal and independent self-construal both weakened the link between perceived burdensomeness and suicide ideation and between thwarted belongingness and suicide ideation. The authors also conducted a qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses about their perceptions of why Asian American college students might consider suicide. The authors identified a core phenomenon of unfulfilled expectations as well as 2 broad themes related to this core phenomenon: unfulfilled intrapersonal expectations and unfulfilled interpersonal expectations, comprising the subthemes of (a) family, (b) relationship, (c) cultural differences, and (d) racism. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for suicide-related clinical interventions and primary prevention efforts among Asian American college students.     

In the Face of Terrorism: Evidence that Belief in Literal Immortality Reduces Prejudice Under Terrorism Threat

Based on terror management theory, previous research has shown that terrorism threat increases prejudice against Muslims and is mediated by death‐related thoughts. Because this effect was found on a correlational level, it remains unclear whether terrorism threat increases prejudice against Muslims because of enhanced death‐related thoughts or the opposite: terrorism threat increases death‐related thoughts because of stronger prejudice against Muslims. To disentangle this shortcoming, we varied death‐related thoughts by systematically manipulating the belief in literal immortality. Using two studies, we found that participants exposed to terrorism pictures (vs. controls) had increased prejudice against both Muslims (Study 1) and immigrants (Study 2) when they were led to believe that literal immortality does not exist but not when they were led to believe that it does exist. Mediation analysis indicated that this effect was mediated by death‐related thoughts. This provides further evidence that terrorism threat increases prejudice because of death‐related thoughts.