Leveraging social media content to support engagement in positive interventions

A key challenge for positive psychology interventions is promoting sustained engagement to improve long-term outcomes. One way to increase engagement is to introduce variety to reduce hedonic adaptation. Here, we propose supplementing intervention prompts with items from a person’s social media archive to add variety. Through a one-week pilot study of six positive psychology activities via a Facebook application, we explore whether Facebook content is useful to keep people engaged in activities and what attributes of content make it most useful. A total of 260 participants used our application, and analysis of usage showed that displaying content is engaging. By looking at which content was marked as useful by participants, we find that useful content is in itself meaningful and engaging (photos, longer texts, and content about close friends). We also find that certain intervention activities are more engaging and better suited for making use of Facebook content than others.     

When First Comes Love (or Lust): How Romantic and Sexual Cues Bias First Impressions in Online Social Networking

Three experimental studies (N = 286) tested how priming the concepts of sex or romance influence the way people perceive other social media users. Participants first completed a word-search task containing sexual (intercourse, lust), romantic (love, heart), or control words. Participants then evaluated a target’s sexual qualities and romantic qualities based on social media profiles, as well as rated their acceptance of the priming stimuli. Results suggested that sex primes led participants to judge targets as being more alluring, racy, and provocative, whereas romance primes led participants to judge targets as being more tender, sentimental, and kind. Both men and women found all primes to be equally acceptable content; women were not averse to these mainstream, non-explicit sexual stimuli. Findings are discussed in terms of viewing sex and romance as distinct, yet related networks of concepts and the need to disentangle sex, romance, and sexualized views of romance.     

Cognitive,emotional and social development in adolescents born to substance using women

The aim of this article is to investigate the long‐term developmental consequences of being born to a substance‐using mother, focusing on cognitive functions, attention, emotional and social development. The longitudinal sample comprised 48 adolescents aged 12–16 at the time of follow‐up assessments, which included the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐III, the Test of Everyday Attention for Children, The Tower of London test and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The adolescents scored significantly lower than the norms on Wechsler's subtests and Full‐Scale IQ, and on The Everyday Attention test. There were few differences on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The girls reported significantly more hyperactivity than the British norms, and the teachers reported higher impact scores in boys, compared to the British norms. Thus, the results on cognitive consequences of maternal substance use appear to be very substantial while the emotional and social consequences do not. The results suggest serious negative effects of substance exposure in utero on attention and cognitive functioning in general.     

人之将尽,消费国货？死亡信息的暴露增加国货选择的现象、中介和边界条件解析

死亡信息无处无时不在。恐惧管理理论认为,死亡暴露会促使个体采取两种防御机制：支持文化世界观和提升自尊。来自西方发达国家消费者的数据显示,死亡暴露会促使这些消费者偏爱国货、支持文化世界观,内在机制是爱国主义情绪的唤醒。但对将购买外国货视为追求高自尊和高身份的发展中国家消费者而言,尚没有学者检验死亡暴露会促使他们继续购买外国货以提升自尊,还是转而购买国货以支持文化世界观。本文用实验检验了这两种竞争预测,发现死亡暴露会增加发展中国家消费者的国货选择,但机制是补偿个人控制感的缺失。同时,已有探讨死亡暴露与国货偏好的研究并没有检验何时死亡暴露将不再增加国货偏好,本文发现启动亲密的人际归属感是边界条件。     

Factors predictive of a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder: Neuropsychological assessment

A variety of neurodevelopmental impairments related to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) diagnoses have been consistently documented. However, it is not clear whether such variables are predictive of a diagnosis. The purpose of the present study is to use logistic regressions to identify predictors of FASD in neuropsychological assessment. Charts of 180 children and adolescents with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) who underwent psychological and diagnostic assessment for FASD were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 107 received an FASD diagnosis (the PAE-FASD group) and 73 did not (the PAE group). Following preliminary analyses, direct logistic regressions were performed to assess the contribution of different neuropsychological testing measures on the likelihood of a child or adolescent receiving an FASD diagnosis. The results indicate that the classification accuracy of the PAE-FASD and PAE groups is clinically significant across models of intelligence, academic achievement, memory, and executive functioning. Classification rates across the various models range from 67.1% to 75.5%, with models incorporating 10 intelligence subtests or 3 academic subtests emerging as superior to those using broad indices of intelligence and/or individual subtests of memory or executive functioning. A “test battery” model incorporating verbal intelligence, verbal/auditory working memory (digit span), basic reading and spelling skills, math calculations, delayed story recall, and spatial planning and problem-solving yielded a classification rate of 74.7%. These results suggest that neuropsychological testing is a critical component of FASD assessment and help guide decisions to maximize the efficiency and efficacy of the diagnostic process and treatment recommendations.     

Treatment seeking for posttraumatic stress in Israel Defense Forces veterans deployed in the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009): a comparative study

Background and objectives: The goal of the study was to determine the long-term prevalence of combat-related treatment seeking and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Israel’s veterans deployed to the Second Lebanon War (2006) and “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza Strip (2009).

Methods: The prevalence of treatment seeking and DSM-IV-TR diagnoses among Israel Defense Force (IDF) veterans was assessed using seven and five year’s surveillance and records. The whereabouts and combat exposure of veterans during the war was determined based on the IDF’s Operations Directorate records.

Results: Overall prevalence of treatment seeking was 1.32% and 0.38% in the Second Lebanon War and “Operation Cast Lead”, respectively. The prevalence of treatment-seeking veterans from the Second Lebanon War and in “Operation Cast Lead” was significantly higher in soldiers deployed to high combat-exposure zones (2.19% and 3.1%, respectively), relative to low combat-exposure zones (0.24% and 0.06%, respectively), and relative to soldiers deployed elsewhere (0.26% and 0.02%, respectively). PTSD prevalence was similar among treatment-seeking veterans deployed in high combat-exposure zones in both combats.

Conclusions: There is a gap of anywhere between 3% and 11% between treatment seeking by IDF veterans following war deployment and the actual prevalence of PTSD in this soldier population.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy With Prolonged Exposure for Adolescents: Rationale and Review of the Research

Among adolescents, interpersonal trauma has been associated with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and impairments across multiple domains of functioning (e.g., Derosa, Amaya-Jackson & Layne, 2013; Ford, Courtois, Steele, van der Hart, & Nijenhuis, 2005; van der Kolk, 2005). Such difficulties can include high-risk behaviors such as active suicidality (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008) and nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI; Hu, Taylor, Li, & Glauert, 2017). While there have been many advances in the treatment of trauma, treatment dropout for adolescents seeking trauma-informed treatment is predicted by diagnostic comorbidity and complexity (Sprang et al., 2013), as well as the number of traumatic events endorsed (Wamser-Nanney & Steinzor, 2016). Many traumatized adolescents with high-risk behaviors are referred to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT-A). However, DBT-A does not yet include a specific, evidence-based protocol for treating PTSD, without which treatment gains may not be sustained for traumatized adolescents (Harned, Korslund, & Linehan, 2014). While Prolonged Exposure (PE) is indicated as the gold-standard treatment for PTSD and has proven effective for adolescents (PE-A; Foa, McLean, Capaldi, & Rosenfield, 2013), it has not yet been validated with adolescents who are actively suicidal. However, PE has successfully been integrated within DBT for adults with co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD (e.g., DBT-PE; Harned et al., 2014). Based upon this model, the current paper proposes the integration of DBT-A and PE-A to treat adolescents with interpersonal trauma who also present with high-risk behaviors. The paper discusses anticipated complications related to adapting this model for adolescents and provides direction for future research.     

Call to Action: Recommendations for Justice-Based Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder With Sexual Orientation and Gender Themes

Gender and sexual minorities are subjected to minority stress in the form of discrimination and violence that leads to vigilance; identity concealment and discomfort; and internalized homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia. These experiences are related to increased susceptibility to mental health concerns in this population. Historically, the behavioral treatment of sexual orientation (SO) and gender-themed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has inadvertently reinforced anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) stigma and contributed to minority stress in clients, treatment providers, and society at large. We present updated recommendations for treatment of SO- and gender-themed OCD through a more equitable, justice-based lens, primarily through eliminating exposures that contribute to minority stress and replacing them with psychoeducation about LGBTQ+ identities, and exposures to neutral and positive stimuli, uncertainty, and core fears. We also present recommendations for equitable research on SO- and gender-themed OCD.