The Efficacy of a Group Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) for Chinese Parents with a Child Diagnosed with ADHD in Hong Kong: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Study

The present pilot study evaluated the efficacy of the Level 4 Group Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with Hong Kong Chinese parents who had a child with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using a randomised controlled trial design. It was a mixed research method involving quantitative measurement and semi‐structured focus group. Participants were randomly assigned to Triple P (n = 8) or control group (n = 9) and completed measures on child disruptive behaviours, sense of parenting efficacy and satisfaction, family stress and service needs. Outcomes were assessed at pre‐, post‐, and 3‐month follow‐up. A focus group was also conducted with the participants in the intervention group upon the programme completion. Compared with the control group, the intervention group reported a significant reduction in intensity of child behaviour problems and a significant increase in parenting efficacy at post‐intervention. The gain in reducing intensity of child disruptive behaviours maintained to 3 months after the completion of programme. Qualitative data suggested the three key elements to help both parents and children get positive changes: understanding and empathy, emotional control, and persistence in applying positive parenting strategies. The results partially provided preliminary evidence supporting the efficacy of Triple P in reducing child behaviour problems for ADHD in Chinese society.     

A preliminary study of an online pain management programme for patients with ankylosing spondylitis

This study was a preliminary attempt to develop and examine an online pain management programme incorporating mindfulness‐informed exercises (i.e. breathing and body scanning exercises) and CBT elements for ankylosing spondylitis patients. Thirty patients diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis participated in a five‐week online pain management programme, which was delivered primarily through a website. The materials covered by the website included breathing and body scanning exercises, mindful walking exercise, positive thinking and management of dysfunctional thinking. Each participant received instructions and reminders from a counselling psychologist through electronic communications each week. They completed the Brief Pain Inventory, Ryff's Psychological Well‐being Scale, Pain Self‐Efficacy Questionnaire, Pain Catastrophizing Scale and Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale‐Revised before and after the treatment programme. In addition, four face‐to‐face focus groups were conducted to yield supplementary qualitative findings. The overall results indicate that this online pain management programme can improve sleep quality and reduce pain interference and catastrophic responses to pain in ankylosing spondylitis patients, albeit being not very effective for mitigating the intensity of pain. Moreover, male and female patients can benefit equally from the online programme. Findings from the focus groups revealed some challenges faced by local patients when practising mindfulness‐informed exercises. Some solutions to those challenges were put forward in accordance with patients’ feedback.     

Assessing Sexual Orientation Symptoms in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Development and Validation of the Sexual Orientation Obsessions and Reactions Test (SORT)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) includes many symptom presentations, which creates unique diagnostic challenges. Fears surrounding one’s sexual orientation are common within OCD (also called SO-OCD), but SO-OCD is consistently misdiagnosed by physicians and psychologists. To address this issue, we describe the development of a self-report measure for assessing SO-OCD to help distinguish OCD from distress caused by a sexual orientation identity crisis. The current paper details two studies that established the psychometric properties and clinical utility of this measure. In Study 1, the factor structure, validity, and reliability were examined for the measure’s 12 items in a sample of 1,673 university students. The results revealed a two-factor solution for the measure (Factor 1: Transformation Fears; Factor 2: Somatic Checking) and preliminary evidence of validity and reliability. In Study 2, the measure was tested with LGBTQ and heterosexual community samples and clinical samples of individuals with SO-OCD and other types of OCD. The two-factor solution and evidence of validity and reliability were supported in these samples. Cut-off points were established to distinguish between community members and SO-OCD sufferers, as well as between those experiencing SO-OCD and other types of OCD. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Cohen's d Corrected for Case IV Range Restriction: A More Accurate Procedure for Evaluating Subgroup Differences in Organizational Research

Organizational and staffing researchers are often interested in evaluating whether subgroup differences exist (e.g., between Caucasian and African‐American individuals) on predictors of job performance. To investigate subgroup differences, researchers often will collect data from current employees to make inferences about subgroup differences among job applicants. However, the magnitude of subgroup differences (i.e., Cohen's d) within incumbent samples may be different (i.e., smaller) than the magnitude of subgroup differences in applicant samples because selection of applicants typically reduces the variance of scores on the predictors (i.e., because lower scoring applicants are not selected). If researchers seek to generalize a d value in an incumbent sample to the applicant population, they may use Bobko, Roth, and Bobko's (correcting the effect size of d for range restriction and unreliability, 2001) Case II or III correction. By extension, Hunter, Schmidt, and Le (implications of direct and indirect range restriction for meta‐analysis methods and findings, 2006) have proposed a Case IV correction, which is more realistic than Bobko et al.'s approach. Therefore, this paper develops a Case IV correction for d (i.e., d_c4). The simulation results showed that the d_c4 was generally accurate across 6,000 simulation conditions. Moreover, 2 published datasets were reanalyzed to show the influence of the Case IV correction on d. In addition, implications and future directions of the d_c4 are discussed.     

Boundaries of American Identity: Relations Between Ethnic Group Prototypicality and Policy Attitudes

We sought to document that the extent to which different ethnic groups are perceived as embodying the American identity is more strongly linked to antiminority policy attitudes and acculturation ideologies among majority‐group members (European Americans) than among minority‐group members (Asian Americans or Latino/as). Participants rated 13 attributes of the American identity as they pertain to different ethnic groups and reported their endorsement of policy attitudes and acculturation ideologies. We found a relative consensus across ethnic groups regarding defining components of the American identity. However, European Americans were perceived as more prototypical of this American identity than ethnic minorities, especially by European American raters. Moreover, for European Americans but not for ethnic minorities, relative ingroup prototypicality was related to antiminority policy attitudes and acculturation ideologies. These findings suggest that for European Americans, perceptions of ethnic group prototypicality fulfill an instrumental function linked to preserving their group interests and limiting the rights afforded to ethnic minorities.     

A retrospective study on risk assessment and management of forensic psychiatric inpatients in Hong Kong

The Department of Forensic Psychiatry of Castle Peak Hospital is the only facility in Hong Kong that provides territory-wide forensic psychiatric services for patients with criminal involvement. This retrospective study aimed to explore whether the rehabilitation programs provided by the department could significantly reduce the risks of forensic psychiatric inpatients as measured by the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START). START ratings of inpatients who were hospitalized in the department for more than 3 months and were discharged to the community during the period from 11 April 2015 to 31 March 2019 were analyzed. A total of 79 patients were assessed, of whom 61 (77.2%) were males. Fifty-four (68.4%) patients suffered from schizophrenia. START scores upon admission (strength score = 5.67; vulnerability score = 17.43) and upon discharge (strength score = 6.87, vulnerability score = 11.18) indicated significant reduction of risks among inpatients (p < 0.05).     

Effects of biological determinist and interactionist causal explanations on undergraduate students' stigma of children with attention deficits hyperactivity disorders: An experimental investigation

This experimental study examined the effects of biological explanations on individuals' stigma against children with ADHD. We randomly assigned 174 undergraduate students to read one of the three fictitious articles: the first article focused on the determining role of biology in affecting children's ADHD symptoms (biological determinist), the second article highlighted the interplay between biological and environmental factors (interactionist), and the third article was unrelated to ADHD (control). Analyses of variance showed that participants who read the biological determinist message, relative to the control group, were (a) less likely to blame the children for their problems, but (b) more likely to endorse fixed beliefs about the nature of ADHD (entity beliefs). Thus, the overall direct effect of biological determinist message on desire for social distance was not significant. By contrast, participants who read the interactionist message showed (a) less blame attribution and (b) lower levels of entity beliefs, which contributed to less desire for social distance. These findings suggest that (a) presenting biological information regarding ADHD in a deterministic way may not be an effective way to reduce stigma, whereas (b) providing an interactionist account of ADHD may undermine the potential negative effect of an exclusively biological explanation.     

Data Collection via Online Platforms: Challenges and Recommendations for Future Research

Online platforms such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) are increasingly used by researchers to collect survey and experimental data. Yet, such platforms often represent a tumultuous terrain for both researchers and reviewers. Researchers have to navigate the complexities of obtaining representative samples from online participant cohorts, ensuring data quality, ethically incentivizing participant engagement, and maintaining transparency. Reviewers, on the other hand, have to navigate the complexities of evaluating the efficacy of such data collection and execution efforts in answering important research questions. In order to provide clarity to these issues, this article provides researchers and reviewers with a series of recommendations for effectively executing and evaluating data collection via online platforms, respectively.