Societal Burden of Clinically Anxious Youth Referred for Treatment: A Cost-of-illness Study

A prevalence-based cost-of-illness study using a societal perspective was conducted to investigate the cost-of-illness in clinically anxious youth aged 8–18 in The Netherlands. Discriminant validity of the cost diary used was obtained by comparing costs of families with an anxious child (n = 118) to costs of families from the general population (n = 41). To examine the convergent validity, bottom-up acquired costs derived from cost diaries were compared to top-down acquired costs obtained from national registrations. Bottom-up acquired costs measured by means of cost diaries amounted to €2,748 per family of a clinically referred anxious child per annum. Societal costs of families with clinically anxious children were almost 21 times as high compared to families from the general population. With respect to convergent validity, total health care costs using the bottom-up approach from clinically anxious children were quite comparable to those of top-down data of anxious children, although costs within the subcategories differed considerably. Clinical anxiety disorders in childhood cost the Dutch society more than 20 million euros a year. Based on results of discriminate and convergent validity, the cost diary seems a valid method in establishing cost-of-illness in childhood anxiety disorders.     

Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being

Eudaimonic theories of well-being assert the importance of achieving one’s full potential through engaging in inherently meaningful endeavors. In two daily diary studies, we assessed whether reports of engagement in behaviors representative of eudaimonic theories were associated with well-being. We also examined whether eudaimonic behaviors were more strongly related to well-being than behaviors directed toward obtaining pleasure or material goods. In both studies, eudaimonic behaviors had consistently stronger relations to well-being than hedonic behaviors. Data also provided support for a temporal sequence in which eudaimonic behaviors were related to greater well-being the next day. Overall, our results suggest that “doing good” may be an important avenue by which people create meaningful and satisfying lives.     

Prediction and Cross-Situational Consistency of Daily Behavior across Cultures: Testing Trait and Cultural Psychology Perspectives

Trait and cultural psychology perspectives on the cross-situational consistency of behavior, and the predictive validity of traits, were tested in a daily process study in the United States (N = 68), an individualistic culture, and the Philippines (N = 80), a collectivistic culture. Participants completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and a measure of self-monitoring, then reported their daily behaviors and associated situational contexts for approximately 30 days. Consistent with trait perspectives, the Big Five traits predicted daily behaviors in both cultures, and relative (interindividual) consistency was observed across many, although not all, situational contexts. The frequency of various Big Five behaviors varied across relevant situational contexts in both cultures and, consistent with cultural psychology perspectives, there was a tendency for Filipinos to exhibit greater situational variability than Americans. Self-monitoring showed some ability to account for individual differences in situational variability in the American sample, but not the Filipino sample.     

The boundaries between attachment and personality: Localized versus generalized effects in daily social interaction

A diary study examined the effects of romantic attachment (avoidance, anxiety) and autonomous and sociotropic personality on levels of sociability within social interactions across relational contexts (N = 89 undergraduates). As expected, the effects of domain-specific romantic attachment avoidance and anxiety on sociability were localized to social interactions with romantic partners, whereas the effects of autonomy and sociotropy were generalized across relational contexts (i.e., across social interactions with romantic partners, family members, friends, and acquaintances/others). Furthermore, the effects of both autonomy and sociotropy on sociability were partially mediated by domain-specific attachment in domain-congruent (romantic) but not domain-incongruent (non-romantic) relational contexts: romantic avoidance partially mediated the effects of autonomy on sociability toward romantic partners, whereas romantic anxiety partially mediated the effects of sociotropy. These results suggest that autonomy and sociotropy summarize global regularities in relational responding that correspond to those described by attachment avoidance and anxiety—although (unlike attachment) they do so across relational contexts. Domain-specific attachment representations, in contrast, govern responding within context-congruent domains and act as a mechanism through which personality guides social interaction within these domains.     

Gender differences in severity of writing and reading disabilities

Gender differences in mean level of reading and writing skills were examined in 122 children (80 boys and 42 girls) and 200 adults (115 fathers and 85 mothers) who showed behavioral markers of dyslexia in a family genetics study. Gender differences were found in writing and replicated prior results for typically developing children: Boys and men were more impaired in handwriting and composing than were girls and women, but men, who were more impaired in those writing skills, were also more impaired in spelling than women. Men were more impaired than women in accuracy and rate of reading passages orally, but boys were not more impaired than girls on any of the reading measures. Males were consistently more impaired than females in orthographic skills, which may be the source of gender differences in writing, but not motor skills. Population-based studies that report gender differences in reading in children with dyslexia may be confounding reading and writing disorders—the latter being the true source of gender differences in both children and adults with dyslexia.     

伴家族史的2型糖尿病危险因素的病例对照研究

为探讨2型糖尿病代谢特征及发病的危险因素,选取大连地区91例有家族史的T2DM患者为病例组,以44例患者的配偶（糖耐量正常）为对照组,进行流行病学问卷调查和体格检查,同时测定空腹血糖、空腹胰岛素、总胆固醇、甘油三酯、高密度脂蛋白、低密度脂蛋白等指标,采用稳态模型法计算两组的胰岛素抵抗指数和β细胞功能指数,并进行多因素非条件Logistic回归分析。结果显示：TG、腰臀比和Ln（HOMAIR）病例组高于对照组,而Ln（HOMAβ）则病例组低于对照组,均具有统计学意义（P〈0．05）。多因素非条件Logistic回归分析结果提示,影响T2DM发病的因素有心血管疾病史、Ln（HOMAIR）及Ln（HOMAβ）。由此可见T2DM患者存在血脂代谢异常;心血管疾病史和Ln（HOMAIR）为发病的危险因素,Ln（HOMAβ）为保护因素。     

经验合作教学对教师教学准备影响的实验研究

本研究以"经验合作教学"的校本教师培训的新思路为依据,以经验合作教学的操作性方案为干预手段,运用教育实验法考察经验合作教学计划对教师教学准备的影响。研究表明:(1)《教师教学准备评价问卷》的信、效度均达到心理测量学要求,可以作为评价教师教学准备的工具;(2)经验合作教学对教师的教学准备具有积极促进作用;(3)经验合作教学对不同教龄、性别、职称教师教学准备的影响不同。     

New age advice: ticket to happiness?

The ‘New Age’ movement emerged in the second half of the 20th century and New Age ideas became the vogue in the Western world. New Age is much concerned with personal quality of life and offers both a philosophy of life and various therapeutic practices, presumed to raise happiness. This paper first describes the main recommendations to be found in New Age books. Next it considers the probable effects on happiness of these, by examining both the theoretical plausibility and the empirical conditions of happiness. This paper concludes that several recommendations are likely to produce beneficial consequences. It is argued, however, that the advice will not fit everybody equally well and that some New Age practices may reduce happiness, e.g., practices that undermine a realistic outlook on reality.     

Asian American career development: A qualitative analysis

This study used a modified version of consensual qualitative research design to examine how contextual, cultural, and personal variables influence the career choices of a diverse group of 12 Asian Americans. Seven domains of influences on career choices emerged including family, culture, external factors, career goals, role models, work values, and self-identity. Furthermore, several overarching themes were discovered that expressed elements of many of these domains. These themes highlighted the pervasive and influential role that both culture and family of origin play in the construction of meaning that these Asian American participants made from their career choices. Implications of these domains and themes and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

流动儿童压力应对方式与抑郁感、社交焦虑的关系:一项追踪研究

为了探讨流动儿童压力应对方式与抑郁感、社交焦虑的变化特点及其动态关系,本研究通过整群抽样法从5所北京市公立学校和1所打工子弟学校选取1164名流动儿童,采用问卷调查的形式对其进行为期一年的追踪测查,追踪时回收有效数据680份.对前、后测均参加调查的680名被试的数据进行分析,结果发现:(1)经过一年的城市适应,流动儿童整体的积极应对增多,消极应对减少,抑郁感下降,但社交焦虑水平无明显变化;(2)流动儿童个体在压力应对、抑郁感、社交焦虑的发展上均表现出两极分化的现象,年龄越小、来京时间越短、低年级及女生流动儿童群体的发展趋势更为良好;(3)流动儿童压力应对方式与抑郁感、社交焦虑间存在相互作用的动态关系,前测压力应对方式、抑郁感、社交焦虑均能显著预测后测相应变量的水平,前后测压力应对方式对抑郁感、社交焦虑均有即时预测作用,而前测抑郁感和社交焦虑对后测压力应对方式有不同的延时性影响.