Development and Validation of the Xhosa Translations of the Beck Inventories: 3. Concurrent and Convergent Validity

This article provides data on the validity of the Xhosa versions of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (XBDI-II), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (XBHS) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (XBAI) based on a sample of 122 Xhosa respondents which included students and patients. For patients, clinicians completed rating scales of Depression and Anxiety symptoms. In tests of concurrent validity, depressed patients had significantly higher scores on the XBDI-II and XBHS than students or patients who were not depressed. Similarly anxious patients had higher scores on the XBAI than students and patients who were not anxious. Correlations with clinicians' ratings were:.91 for XBDI-II scores and depression ratings, and.88 for XBAI scores and anxiety ratings. Correlations between the three translated scales were similar to those for the original scales. These analyses provide evidence that the translated scales have levels of concurrent and convergent validity comparable to the originals.     

Innovating With the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health

This article describes a new approach in a group of National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom. The assessment and intervention were focused on using the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health services. An occupation focused assessment and intervention protocol were developed based on the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool Single-Observation Form (MOHOST-SOF). The aim was to develop a guide to treatment and monitoring to support efficient practice while maintaining an occupation and client-centered focus. Implementation has been successful to date.     

Relationship Patterns and Role of Religion in Elderly Couples with Chronic Illness

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to explore the various relationship patterns and the role religion plays as a coping resource for elderly couples in which at least one spouse has a chronic illness. Elderly couples were interviewed and also completed marital satisfaction and couple communication inventories. Five different relationship patterns emerged from the data: active couples, short-term caregivinjg couples, long-term caregiving couples, survival couples, and live-in caregiver couples. Various aspects of religion emerged as an important coping resource among the different relationship patterns. Ideas and questions for research and practice, generated by the study, are presented.     

En experimentell prövning av aktivt lyssnande som tröst för sm[acaron] barn som gr[acaron]ter

The procedural validity of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview - short form (CIDISF) administered via an Internet web-page was examined and compared with an in-person interview (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, research version; SCID) for 7 DSM-IV mental disorders: major depression, generalized anxiety, specific phobia, social phobia, agoraphobia, panic attack and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The 53 participants completed a computerized interview (CIDI-SF) via a web page 2 days before the scheduled in-person interview (SCID). The agreement between CIDI-SF and SCID was generally low (Cohens Kappa <0.40). However, if the panic disorder module from the long version of CIDI is used instead, the Kappa is fair (K = 0.48) with an agreement of 75%. Practical applications and future directions are discussed.     

The Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report Version (TGI-SR): Introduction and Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation

Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder (PCBD) is a disorder of grief newly included in the “Emerging Measures and Models” section of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. [Google Scholar]). Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a disorder with similar symptoms, likely to be included in the forthcoming 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 1992 World Health Organization. (1992). International classification of diseases and related health problems (10th revision). Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. [Google Scholar]). We developed the Traumatic Grief Inventory Self-Report version (TGI-SR), an 18-item measure, for the assessment of symptoms of PCBD and PGD in clinical and research settings. This study was an initial attempt to evaluate psychometric properties of the TGI-SR. To this end, the measure was administered to 327 patients of a mental health institute specialized in the treatment of psychopathology associated with loss and trauma. We found evidence that items of the TGI-SR (all 18 items, as well as the selection of 17 items representing PCBD criteria, and 11 items representing PGD criteria) loaded on one dimension. The TGI-SR demonstrated strong internal consistency. Elevated scores on the TGI-SR were significantly correlated with elevated scores on indices of psychopathology and lower quality of life, attesting to the concurrent validity. Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) analyses of the TGI-SR total score against provisional diagnoses of PCBD and PGD yielded a high area under the curve index suggesting that the TGI-SR total score can be used as an indicator for probable diagnoses of both PCBD and PGD. Results of this study provide initial evidence that PCBD and PGD symptoms may be readily and reliably measured using the TGI-SR.     

Fidelity Assessment to Improve Teacher Instruction and School Decision Making

Teachers must provide high-quality instruction based on evidence-based practices to provide students meaningful opportunities to learn and to improve school outcomes. Although teachers have access to a variety of resources on evidence-based practices, poor implementation may limit the effectiveness of teacher practices, as indicated by low levels of student achievement and flat rates of progress. However, inadequate student response to instruction or intervention may also be due to a mismatch between teacher practices and student needs such as when students require more intensive support. As a result, school teams must determine the degree to which teachers provide instruction and intervention as intended (i.e., fidelity of implementation) to determine if an inadequate student response is due to poor implementation of practices that match student needs or due to a need for more intensive support. The authors report the necessity of including contingencies for measuring fidelity within school-wide assessment practices. Methods for assessing fidelity that can be used by school administrators, school psychologists, and teachers are discussed. Examples of recommended methods are provided for both academic and behavioral practices.     

Learning to feel global: Exploring the emotional geographies of worldschooling

Worldschooling is a small but growing alternative education and lifestyle practice adopted by families who take their children out of conventional school settings and educate them while traveling the world. Many worldschooling families document their journeys on blogs and in social media forums, where they explicitly embrace the educational potential of travel and claim the world as their classroom. Drawing on a mobile virtual ethnography of worldschooling, including analysis of online materials along with interviews and field notes from seven months of fieldwork as a worldschooling parent, I explore the intersections of emotion, learning, mobility, and global citizenship in these accounts of worldschooling. While many parents design their mobile curricula around destination based content, they emphasize the repertoire of social and emotional skills their children learn while traveling around the world, often aligning these skills with aspirations of global citizenship. In this sense, global citizenship is about emotions as much as it is about exercising certain rights and responsibilities. In this article, I chart the overlapping emotional geographies that emerge around these performances of ‘feeling global,’ focusing especially on the tensions between individual emotions and broader affective climate of neoliberal globalization.     

Not just war: Eisikovits on A Theory of Truces

More work has gone into thinking about the philosophical justifications for starting a just war than bringing political violence to an end. The papers in this special section explore themes in Nir Eisikovits’s groundbreaking book A Theory of Truces and why truces deserve greater philosophical attention. This introduction briefly raises these issues and provides an overview of the papers.     

Interoception and gender: What aspects should we pay attention to?

Interoception is involved in both somatic and mental disorders with different prevalence between genders; however, gender differences are often neglected. To examine the potential gender differences in interoceptive awareness, we recruited 376 healthy subjects (51% males, aged 17–30 years), to fill in the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). Of that sample, in a subgroup of 40 subjects (50% males), interoceptive accuracy was assessed by heartbeat counting task (HCT).The results on interroceptive awareness suggest that females tend to notice bodily sensations more often, better understand relations between bodily sensations and emotional states, worry or experience more emotional distress with sensations of pain or discomfort and see body as less safe. The results of interoceptive accuracy further suggest that females are less efficient in consciously detecting heartbeats. Therefore, gender should be considered when interoceptive evaluation is performed in disorders associated to bodily sensations and to the emotional/mood states.     

Community Psychology and Global Climate Change: Introduction to the Special Section

Global climate change is not just a distant environmental or future problem but a crisis that has a clear human face already causing the suffering of millions around the globe. It is an issue of high relevance for community psychologists and the communities we work with but has received little attention within the field of community psychology. This special section is intended to promote more thinking and dialogue on this important topic. Six articles are presented that feature both theoretical consideration and empirical research related to global climate change and related environmental issues.