Efficacy of self-administered treatments for pathological academic worry: A randomized controlled trial

Research on treatments for reducing pathological worry is limited. In particular, academic worry is a common theme in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) samples as well as non-clinical student samples. Given the high cost of anxiety disorders to society, research is needed to examine the efficacy of self-administered treatments designed to reduce pathological worry. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the benefits of three self-administered interventions for reducing academic worry. College students (N = 113) experiencing clinically significant academic worry were randomized to either: (a) worry exposure (WE); (b) expressive writing (EW); (c) relaxation consisting of pulsed audio-photic stimulation (APS); or (d) waitlist control (WLC). Participants were instructed to practice their interventions three times per week for one month and completed home practice logs online to track treatment adherence. Academic worry, general anxiety, and perceived stress were assessed at baseline and post-treatment. Academic worry and general anxiety were also assessed at a three-month follow-up. Those assigned to the WE and APS conditions showed significant improvement relative to EW and WLC at post-treatment. All treatment conditions showed continued improvement by follow-up, with no between-group differences. Treatment and public health implications are discussed.     

Development of a Screening Instrument for Early Language Delay in Hong Kong Chinese: A Preliminary Study

Having language delay—one of the common neurodevelopmental difficulties during childhood—does not only imply an impairment in communication in the 1st few years of life. Previous studies have suggested that language problems have long-term implications for social, emotional, and intellectual development. Researchers have found that early identification and intervention of speech and language delay yields better treatment effects. However, unlike most of the motor developmental assessment tools, language assessment tools are not readily transferred across cultures because of the different linguistic features and the developmental stages of such features in a particular language or dialect. The present study presents an empirical example of the initial development of a culturally sensitive screening protocol, using vocabulary size as the indicator to minimize the effect of linguistic differences.     

Preschoolers' attention and emotion in an achievement and an effect game: A longitudinal study

Understanding positive emotions' shared and differentiating features can yield valuable insight into the structure of positive emotion space and identify emotion states, or aspects of emotion states, that are most relevant for particular psychological processes and outcomes. We report two studies that examined core relational themes (Study 1) and expressive displays (Study 2) for eight positive emotion constructs—amusement, awe, contentment, gratitude, interest, joy, love, and pride. Across studies, all eight emotions shared one quality: high positive valence. Distinctive core relational theme and expressive display patterns were found for four emotions—amusement, awe, interest, and pride. Gratitude was associated with a distinct core relational theme but not an expressive display. Joy and love were each associated with a distinct expressive display but their core relational themes also characterised pride and gratitude, respectively. Contentment was associated with a distinct expressive display but not a core relational theme. The implications of this work for the study of positive emotion are discussed.     

Prediction of toddlers’ expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ anger expressions: A developmental perspective

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children's observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child's developmental stage and sex.     

Abusive interactions and burnout: Examining occupation,gender, and the mediating role of community

Abstract

Two studies examined the association of gender and occupational group (nursing versus non-nursing) with perceived risk of abuse (sexual harassment and verbal and physical abuse) as well as the relationship of perceived abuse risk with burnout and sense of community. Study 1, comprising of two settings (tertiary care hospital, N = 3,062; psychiatric hospital, N = 383), found gender and occupational group associated with perceived risk of abuse (women felt greater risk than men; nurses felt greater risk than non-nurses). It also found a gender/occupational group interaction. Study 2, conducted at an Irish tertiary care hospital (N = 892), found nurses felt at greater risk for all three types of abuse than did non-nurses. Further, women perceived themselves at greater risk for sexual harassment and verbal abuse than did men; the study found no gender difference regarding physical abuse. The analysis identified a gender/occupational group interaction for sexual harassment. The study considers methods of reducing perceived risk in regard to the research literature on abuse at work.     

Exploring Expressive Sandwork as a Form of Psychosocial Care: A Case Study of a Vulnerable Adolescent

This paper explores the use of expressive sandwork as a form of psychological support for a youth with psychosocial vulnerability. A case study, which emanated from a community outreach project, is briefly described of a male black participant, from a low socioeconomic background, who is currently in correctional services care. The participant engaged with sandplay over five weekly sessions, lasting approximately an hour each. The data obtained during these sessions were thematically analyzed and the findings suggest that expressive sandwork enabled this individual to become more aware of his emotional wellbeing and foster a sense of hope. Expressive sandwork offers a form of short-term psychological support in circumstances where limited or no help is available.     

Do social norms,false belief understanding,and metacognitive vocabulary influence irony comprehension? A study of five- and seven-year-old children

This study explores the effects of violating socially shared versus situationally defined norms on the understanding of ironic statements in 70 Italian-speaking five- and seven-year-old children. We also considered the possible relationships between irony understanding, receptive and metacognitive vocabulary, and false belief understanding. The results showed that violating socially shared norms does not benefit younger children's understanding of irony, although it does help older children's understanding. Ironic utterances that violate situationally defined norms were understood similarly across the two age groups. First- and second-order false belief understanding did not predict children's ability to interpret irony, although metacognitive vocabulary did predict interpretation for the seven-year-old group in instances of violating a situationally defined norm.     

阅读中自然学习生词的实验研究

本研究对儿童阅读时从语境中自然学习生词的过程及其多个影响因素进行了探讨。301名三、五年级小学生参加了实验。首先要求他们阅读文章,然后测验他们对文章中生词的知识。本研究在不同年级和能力的儿童中都发现了显著的自然学习效应。结果还表明,词的概念难度、词结构的语义透明度、语境线索强度和儿童课外阅读量对儿童的自然学习有重要影响。     

学习支持对儿童在多媒体语境中学习英语词汇的影响

该研究旨在考察中文翻译与主题提示两种学习支持对儿童在多媒体语境中学习英语词汇的作用,为此设计了三种学习条件：无支持条件、中文翻译条件和中文翻译 主题提示条件。对学龄初期儿童在上述三种学习条件下学习英语词汇的过程和结果进行的考察和分析表明：儿童在无支持条件下的学习效果较差;中文翻译可以明显促进儿童对语句的理解,但无法提高儿童对目标词的掌握;中文翻译 主题提示条件下儿童对单词语义的掌握最好,他们表现出了较多的跟读行为,并更倾向于认为学习任务较为容易。