Cultural considerations using the structured clinical interview for DSM-III for mood and anxiety disorders assessment

This paper focuses on the impact that culture has upon standardized or structured interviews. It briefly reviews how these interviews evolved from a primary research function, what they can teach us about clinical work, and the multiple ways that culture influences these supposedly objective instruments and the diagnoses which follow from their use. Although the use of structured interviews and standardized diagnostic criteria has been a major advance for the field in terms of reliability, care needs to be exercised when evaluating individuals from disparate cultural backgrounds.     

Psychiatric Disorders Associated with Substance Use Among Children and Adolescents: Findings from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study

The relationships between specific quantities and frequencies of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance use and substance use (SUD) and other psychiatric disorders were investigated among 1,285 randomly selected children and adolescents, aged 9 to 18, and their parents, from the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study. Logistic regressions indicated that daily cigarette smoking, weekly alcohol consumption, and any illicit substance use in the past year were each independently associated with an elevated likelihood of diagnosis with SUD and other psychiatric disorders (anxiety, mood, or disruptive behavior disorders), controlling for sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, family income). The associations between the use of specific substances and specific psychiatric disorders varied as a function of gender.     

Inter- and intrasession reliability of psychophysiological poststress adaptation periods

This study examined the intersession and intrasession reliability of poststress adaptation periods. Fifteen undergraduates were assessed four times on measures of cephalic vasomotor response, electromyography (EMG; frontal and forearm flexor), hand surface temperature, heart rate, and skin resistance level. The results indicated no consistent intersession reliability of these measures and good intrasession reliability of all measures except frontal EMG. A 3- min poststress adaptation period was all that was necessary for most measures, again with the exception of frontal EMG, to return to a baseline quiescent state. These results are discussed in terms of the effect these findings have on theories of psychophysiological disorders which postulate impaired recovery processes.The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Drs. Edward B. Blanchard, Frank Andrasik, and Ellie Sturgis for their help in the conceptualization of this paper and Patricia Cotch and Patricia Myers for their help in the running of this study. Without their aid, the article would not have been possible.     

From an insecure base: Parent-child relations and internalizing behaviour in the pre-school

Eighty-three two-parent families were recruited via eight pre-school programmes in order to explore the origins of internalizing behaviour problems of pre-school children. Children were assessed by their teachers using standard checklists of anxious and prosocial behaviour as well as rank orders of dependency and social competence. Observers contributed measures of solitary activity and interactive play. In the home, mothers and fathers completed a 100-item Q-sort on parent-child attachment. Internalizing and competence measures were predictable from parent-child relations. Mother-child variables were more generally and significantly related to pre-school measures than father-child variables. In particular, boys who were highly dependent on their mothers were anxious and withdrawn in the pre-school, overly dependent on their teachers, and low in teacher assessments of prosocial behaviour and social competence. In addition to quantitative differences in the predictive power of maternal and paternal variables, qualitative differences were found indicating secure base behaviour as a more important dimension of mother-child relations, while affective sharing during play may be a more salient marker of the quality of father-child relations.     

Maternal interactive behaviour towards children with and children without cleft lip and palate

The present study examined qualitative and quantitative differences in maternal interactive behaviour towards infants with and without cleft lip and palate (CLP). Thirty-three mother-child pairs with CLP and 34 pairs without CLP were videotaped at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of age in two sorts of play situations at home. In addition, the mothers were questioned by letter about their ability to recognize and interpret the child's signals; their willingness to respond to such signals; and the duration of shared daily activities in the context of feeding and play. The results showed that mothers of CLP children are somewhat less sensitive than other mothers. In addition, it appeared that CLP children play less with other people. Longer feeding times for CLP children appeared to be restricted to the age of 3 months. It is suggested that mothers of CLP children may be comparatively directive and stimulating because of uncertainty about additional deficiencies. Furthermore, they may be inclined to keep their children away from the outside world.     

Assessment of fear of fear among Agoraphobic patients: The Agoraphobic Cognitions Scale

A self-report scale for the measurement of fear of fear, the Agoraphobic Cognitions Scale (ACS), was psychometrically evaluated. Two samples of inpatients satisfying DSM-III-R criteria for unipolar depressive and/or anxiety disorder were studied. Intercorrelational and factor analyses indicated that the ACS measured three dimensions of fear of fear: fear of bodily incapacitation, fear of losing control, and fear of acting embarrassingly. Three subscales were constructed to measure these dimensions. The subscales proved to have satisfactory internal consistency and criterion-related validity. However, fear of losing control was related not only to other anxiety symptoms, but also to depressive symptomatology. Agoraphobic patients reported more fear of bodily incapacitation and fear of losing control than social phobic, generally anxious, and nonanxious depressed patients. Fear of embarrassing action was higher among agoraphobic and social phobic patients than among generally anxious and nonanxious depressed patients. These results were obtained after controlling for general anxiety and depression level and, thus, support the validity of the fear of fear construct.     

Sexual-Assault History and Long-Term Physical Health Problems: Evidence From Clinical and Population Epidemiology

Having a history of sexual assault is associated with both poor general health and limitations in physical functioning, as well as with specific health problems such as chronic pelvic pain, premenstrual disturbance, other gynecologic symptoms, fibromyalgia, headache, other pain syndromes, and gastrointestinal disorders. In studies evaluating the possible role of depression in these associations, depression among sexually assaulted persons did not account for their poorer health. Although there are unanswered questions in the literature on the associations between sexual assault and health, existing findings are consistent with standard criteria for inferring causal relationships from observational data. For example, many assault-health associations are supported by multiple, independent studies, and many demonstrate dose-response relationships (i.e., more incidents of sexual assault, or more severe assaults, are associated with more adverse health outcomes).     

Does traffic congestion increase driver aggression?

In his recent article about aggressive driving, David Shinar proposed that the classical frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard, J., Doob, L., Miller, N., Mowrer, O. & Sears, R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press) provides a useful tool for understanding driver aggression (Shinar, D. (1998). Aggressive driving: the contribution of the drivers and situation. Transportation Research Part F, 1, 137–160). According to Shinar's (1998) application of the frustration–aggression hypothesis, driver aggression is caused by frustration because of traffic congestion and delays. In the present study, the relationships between exposure to congestion (rush-hour driving) and aggressive violations (DBQ) were investigated in Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands. Partial correlations showed that the frequency of rush-hour driving did not correlate statistically significantly with driver aggression. Correlations between driving during rush-hour and aggression did not differ in magnitude from those between driving on country roads and aggressive violations. In addition, correlations between exposure to congestion and aggressive violations in countries with large number of vehicles per road kilometre (UK, Netherlands) were not higher than those in a sparsely populated country (Finland). These results from three countries suggest that congestion does not increase driver aggression as directly as suggested by Shinar (1998).     

Police intervention in riots: The role of accountability and group norms. A field experiment

This study explores the role of perceived accountability in riot police action. The basic hypothesis is that accountability, provided that non-violent norms are made salient, will lessen the chances of escalation of a conflict between police and demonstrators. Four platoons participated in a field experiment conducted at the Dutch Riot Police Academy, in which they played a riot simulation. In a 2 × 2 design, the effects of accountability and Department on attitudes and norms concerning the action of ‘police’ and ‘demonstrators’ were tested. Measurements were made before and after the simulation. Internal analysis, involving redefined accountability categories, provided support for our hypothesis. That is, perceived accountability proved to be related to a heightened public self-awareness, a less extremely positive evaluation of fellow group members, and less intergroup differentiation. The limitations of an internal analysis are discussed, as well as the importance of the nature of organizational norms and of the accountability forum in predicting the effect of accountability.     

PEER-MEDIATED PROCEDURES TO INDUCE SWALLOWING AND FOOD ACCEPTANCE IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Two studies demonstrated a functional relationship between a peer modeling procedure and the treatment of feeding disorders with 2 young children. In the first experiment, the use of a peer model treatment package was shown to induce swallowing in a child with dysphagia who had never swallowed food or liquid. In the second experiment, a child who consistently declined food was induced to increase food acceptance as a function of the same peer modeling package. In the latter experiment, a peer-mediated procedure, consisting of rotated opportunities to consume food with a peer, was found to increase consumption more than did modeling alone. The first experiment used a multiple baseline design across solids and liquids, and the second used a multiple treatment design. The results of both experiments are discussed as new and nonaversive treatments for feeding disorders of young children who are imitative.