Continuous Access to Competing Stimulation as Intervention for Self-Injurious Skin Picking in a Child with Autism

Children with autism frequently display self-injurious behavior (SIB), but skin picking—a less severe topography of SIB—has not been the focus of much clinical research. The present study evaluated a home-based intervention that was implemented with a 9-year-old girl who had autism and picked her fingers with resulting tissue damage. The intervention allowed the girl to hold and manipulate preferred objects during play and leisure activities. Evaluated in an ABAB reversal design, intervention essentially eliminated skin picking. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Psychometric Properties of the Anticipatory Social Behaviours Questionnaire

Relative to other components of Clark and Wells’ (1995) model, anticipatory processing has been understudied, despite research that suggests that anticipatory processing may maintain social anxiety through mechanisms such as increased anxiety, negative memory biases, and other negative consequences. Anticipatory processing has only been examined as a unitary process, with no efforts examining the underlying structure of this process. The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure of the Anticipatory Social Behaviours Questionnaire (ASBQ, Hinrichsen and Clark Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34, 205–218, 2003) and identify relationships between the measure’s factors and other constructs of social anxiety. Study 1 (N?=?861) used exploratory factor analysis and concluded that a two-factor model (Avoidance and Preparation) was the best conceptualization of anticipatory processing. Study 2 confirmed the two factor model in a separate sample (N?=?485) and demonstrated the superiority of the two-factor model over a unitary model. Results of Study 3 suggested that, with a sample of high-socially-anxious undergraduates (N?=?59), the Avoidance factor was more maladaptive than the Preparation factor. Results are discussed in the context of the anticipatory processing literature and future directions are proposed.     

Parental communication appears not to be an effective strategy to reduce smoking in a sample of Dutch adolescents

This longitudinal study examined the reciprocal effects of the frequency of parent–adolescent communication on tobacco-related issues (smoking-specific communication), and adolescents’ smoking. Participants were 428 Dutch older and younger siblings between 13 and 16 years old. Smoking-specific communication did not affect youth smoking in general; however, among younger, but not older, siblings, smoking-specific communication was associated with a higher likelihood of smoking over time. In addition, when adolescents already smoked parents started to talk more frequently about smoking-related issues with their older and younger adolescents later on. Neither the quality of smoking-specific communication, the quality of parent–adolescent relationship, nor parental smoking moderated these reciprocal effects. In conclusion, prevention campaigns encouraging parents to undertake smoking-specific communication might not be desirable.     

Job Conditions,Coping and Wellness/Health Outcomes in Spanish Secondary School Teachers

This cross-sectional study is part of EUROTEACH; a project aimed at examining the possible relationships between job conditions and wellness/ health outcomes in teachers from 11 European countries. The Spanish sample consists of 198 (53% female) teachers working in mixed public secondary schools in Alicante. The Job Demand-Control-Social Support (JDCS) model (Johnson and Hall, <citeref rid="bib18">1988</citeref>; Karasek and Theorell, <citeref rid="bib22">1990</citeref>) provides the theoretical framework for the study and specific instruments measuring additional job conditions and coping are applied to investigate these variables in the teaching profession. Moreover, the relationships between the variables are studied to clarify their possible interaction. Results confirm the expected relationship between job conditions and wellness/health effects, and also show the presence of an interaction between coping and the variables in the JDCS model. The need to perform further research on the role of coping, as well as considering other individual variables that might influence teacher occupational stress, is pointed out.     

Attention and Memory in Children with Brain Tumors

The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test was utilized to examine attention, learning, and memory abilities in 42 children with cerebellar (N?=?18) and third ventricle tumors (N?=?24). Children with cerebellar tumors exhibited significant auditory attentional impairments and displayed adequate encoding and retrieval across subsequent learning and memory trials. In contrast, children with third ventricle tumors exhibited average auditory attentional abilities, but they displayed mild encoding deficits across trials 2–5. Furthermore, the third ventricle group's compromised performance on the delayed recall trial and average performance on the delayed recognition trial is suggestive of underlying retrieval deficits.     

Measurement tool for preoperative anxiety in young children: The yale preoperative anxiety scale

To develop a preoperative anxiety scale (YPAS) for children undergoing surgery, 21 specific behaviors indicating anxiety were defined within five domains (activity, emotional expressivity, state of arousal, vocalization, and use of adults). A reliability Kappa analysis revealed that inter-observer agreement ranged from .66 to .94, while intra-observer Kappa ranged from .66 to .91. Validity analysis between a Visual Analog Scale and the YPAS revealed an r of .59 for entering the operating room. Multiserial analysis comparing the YPAS to the Vernon Anxiety Scale ranged from .61 to .64. Showing good to excellent observer reliability and validity, the YPAS proves to be an appropriate tool for studying children's responses in preoperative settings. As such, the new assessment instrument should be of interest to clinical and research neuropsychologists who need to assess a child's anxiety level prior to the undertaking of a given surgical procedure.     

Prenatal cocaine exposure and neurobehavioral development: How subjects lost to follow-up bias study results

Ninety-four prenatally cocaine-exposed and 50 non-cocaine-exposed infants were enrolled at birth and seen at 3,6, and 12 months. Applying a recently developed model (Cicchetti&Nelson, 1994) produced four independent groups: those infants assessed at birth only (n=61), those returning for at least one (n=29) or two (n=15) assessments after birth, and those returning for all three (n=35). Among those infants having all follow-up assessments, cocaine-exposed infants showed significantly lower psychomotor performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) than did non-exposed infants. Results approached statistical significance for mental development. Except for birthweight (cocaine-exposed infants weighed significantly less), none of a wide range of maternal, perinatal, or neurobehavioral demographic variables biased study results or the generalization of findings to the total sample from those who returned for all visits.     

The impact of cognitive control on children’s goal monitoring in a time-based prospective memory task

The present study investigated whether developmental changes in cognitive control may underlie improvements of time-based prospective memory. Five-, 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds (N = 166) completed a driving simulation task (ongoing task) in which they had to refuel their vehicle at specific points in time (PM task). The availability of cognitive control resources was experimentally manipulated by imposing a secondary task that required divided attention. Children completed the driving simulation task both in a full-attention condition and a divided-attention condition where they had to carry out a secondary task. Results revealed that older children performed better than younger children on the ongoing task and PM task. Children performed worse on the ongoing and PM tasks in the divided-attention condition compared to the full-attention condition. With respect to time monitoring in the final interval prior to the PM target, divided attention interacted with age such that older children’s time monitoring was more negatively affected by the secondary task compared to younger children. Results are discussed in terms of developmental shifts from reactive to proactive monitoring strategies.     

Exact ground states of extended t – Jz models on a square lattice

We examine special extended spin S?=?1/2 fermionic and hard core bosonic t–J_z models with nearest neighbour and next nearest neighbour interactions to find exact ground states. Some of these models display an exponentially large degeneracy with diagonal stripe-like patterns.     

Analysis of intrinsic diffusivities in multicomponent alloys

In this letter we consider the intrinsic diffusivities in a multicomponent random alloy in terms of the ratios of atom-vacancy exchange frequencies. Using the exact sum rule due to Moleko and Allnatt, which relates phenomenological coefficients in the multicomponent random alloy, we deduce an exact relationship between the intrinsic diffusivities and the ratios of the exchange frequencies. We exemplify the finding with a consideration of binary and ternary random alloys. We show that the new relationship should be robust enough for employment in multicomponent alloys showing non-ideality.