The Interface between Mental Health Providers, Families, and Schools: Parent and Child Attitudes about Information-Sharing

Youth with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are at an increased risk for school problems and negative consequences into adulthood, increasing the need for collaboration between families, school personnel and mental health providers. Current treatment guidelines emphasize the importance of information-sharing between providers and schools, yet few studies have addressed parents’ or students’ attitudes and preferences about this process or about the disclosure of mental health-related information to school professionals. Using a sample of 73 pairs of parents and their adolescents seeking outpatient treatment, this study assessed parental and adolescent attitudes about disclosure of mental health treatment information to school personnel. The majority of parents reported that the school should be informed that their adolescent was receiving counseling or medication for EBD, and that they should be the primary informant, rather than providers. By comparison, adolescents preferred more discretion about their involvement in treatment. Taken together, the study results highlight a number of implications relevant to the therapeutic relation and the process of obtaining and sharing mental health-related treatment information with various school personnel. Future research directions regarding the consultative and collaborative process with school personnel are also discussed.     

Racial Discrimination: A Continuum of Violence Exposure for Children of Color

This article reviews and examines findings on the impact of racial discrimination on the development and functioning of children of color in the US. Based on current definitions of violence and child maltreatment, exposure to racial discrimination should be considered as a form of violence that can significantly impact child outcomes and limit the ability of parents and communities to provide support that promotes resiliency and optimal child development. In this article, a conceptual model of the effects of racial discrimination in children of color is presented. The model posits that exposure to racial discrimination may be a chronic source of trauma in the lives of many children of color that negatively influences mental and physical outcomes as well as parent and community support and functioning. Concurrent exposure to other forms of violence, including domestic, interpersonal and/or community violence, may exacerbate these effects. The impact of a potential continuum of violence exposure for children of color in the US and the need for future research and theoretical models on children’s exposure to violence that attend to the impact of racial discrimination on child outcomes are discussed.     

When the Solution Is on the Doorstep: Better Solving Performance,but Diminished Aha! Experience for Chess Experts on the Mutilated Checkerboard Problem

Insight problems are difficult because the initially activated knowledge hinders successful solving. The crucial information needed for a solution is often so far removed that gaining access to it through restructuring leads to the subjective experience of “Aha!”. Although this assumption is shared by most insight theories, there is little empirical evidence for the connection between the necessity of restructuring an incorrect problem representation and the Aha! experience. Here, we demonstrate a rare case where previous knowledge facilitates the solving of insight problems but reduces the accompanying Aha! experience. Chess players were more successful than non‐chess players at solving the mutilated checkerboard insight problem, which requires retrieval of chess‐related information about the color of the squares. Their success came at a price, since they reported a diminished Aha! experience compared to controls. Chess players’ problem‐solving ability was confined to that particular problem, since they struggled to a similar degree to non‐chess players to solve another insight problem (the eight‐coin problem), which does not require chess‐related information for a solution. Here, chess players and non‐chess players experienced the same degree of insight.     

Professional preparation of individuals who provide genetic counseling services

An unprecedented increase has occurred in demand for genetic counseling services during the current decade. This study examined the complex issue of who currently provides genetic counseling services and the professional preparation of these personnel. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to 325 genetic counseling professionals in the southeastern United States who were members of the Southeast Regional Genetics Group (SERGG), National Society of Genetic Counselors, or American Society of Human Genetics States; 204 completed the questionnaire (63%). Seventy percent of respondents were female and 30% were male. Thirty percent of respondents held MD degrees; nine physicians held PhD degrees. Most physicians were male. Thirty-two percent of respondents held master's degrees in genetic counseling; five counselors held PhD degrees. Twenty-three percent of respondents were nurses; eight nurses held master's degrees. Three percent of respondents were social workers. Individuals with other degrees, such as an associate of science in medical technology and a doctoral degree in education, also provided genetic counseling. Genetic counseling typically involved a team effort, consisting mainly of physicians and genetic counselors. Most respondents reported college coursework in human genetics, supervised training, and seminar/workshop training. Thirty percent reported college coursework in counseling techniques, supervised training, and seminar/workshop training. Policy recommendations are offered concerning professional preparation of genetic counselors.     

Concomitant changes in classically conditioned heart rate and corneoretinal potential discrimination in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Corneoretinal Potential (CRP) and heart rate changes were measured in a series of differential classical conditioning experiments in which the directionality of the heart rate response was related to (a) CRP acquisition, and (b) the certainty or uncertainty of the stimulus situation. The results suggested that heart rate decelerations were associated with stimuli that predict upcoming aversive events, while heart rate accelerations were associated with asymptotic CRP responding late in conditioning. These findings were interpreted in terms of (a) changes in general somatic activity, and (b) the cue properties associated with CSs which predict aversive events.     

The effectiveness of imagery and sentence strategy instructions as a function of visual and auditory processing in young school-age children

The relationship between auditory and visual processing modality and strategy instructions was examined in first- and second-grade children. A Pictograph Sentence Memory Test was used to determine dominant processing modality as well as to assess instructional effects. The pictograph task was given first followed by auditory or visual interference. Children who were disrupted more by visual interference were classed as visual processors and those more disrupted by auditory interference were classed as auditory processors. Auditory and visual processors were then assigned to one of three conditions: interactive imagery strategy, sentence strategy, or a control group. Children in the imagery and sentence strategy groups were briefly taught to integrate the pictographs in order to remember them better. The sentence strategy was found to be effective for both auditory and visual processors, whereas the interactive imagery strategy was effective only for auditory processors.     

Simulation-based research to improve infant health outcomes: Using the infant simulator to prevent infant shaking

Simulation is a technique that creates a situation or environment to allow persons to experience a representation of a real event for the purpose of practice, learning, evaluation, testing, or to gain understanding of systems or human actions. We will first provide an introduction to simulation in healthcare and describe the two types of simulation-based research (SBR) in the pediatric population. We will then provide an overview of the use of SBR to improve health outcomes for infants in health care settings and to improve parent-child interactions using the infant simulator. Finally, we will discuss previous and future research using simulation to reduce morbidity and mortality from abusive head trauma, the most common cause of traumatic death in infancy.     

Never getting to zero: Elementary school students' understanding of the infinite divisibility of number and matter

Clinical interviews administered to third- to sixth-graders explored children's conceptualizations of rational number and of certain extensive physical quantities. We found within child consistency in reasoning about diverse aspects of rational number. Children's spontaneous acknowledgement of the existence of numbers between 0 and 1 was strongly related to their induction that numbers are infinitely divisible in the sense that they can be repeatedly divided without ever getting to zero. Their conceptualizing number as infinitely divisible was strongly related to their having a model of fraction notation based on division and to their successful judgment of the relative magnitudes of fractions and decimals. In addition, their understanding number as infinitely divisible was strongly related to their understanding physical quantities as infinitely divisible. These results support a conceptual change account of knowledge acquisition, involving two-way mappings between the domains of number and physical quantity.     

The parental support networks of mothers and fathers: A multidimensional approach

This paper argues for a multidimensional approach to the study of the social support networks of mothers and fathers of young children. Network structure (e. g. size, density, member characteristics), support content (e. g. emotional, informational, economic and child care) and support quality (e. g. helpfulness, satisfaction with support, conflict associated with support and willingness to access support in future need) are distinguished. The goals of the study were: (1) to empirically test the multidimensionality of parental support networks; (2) to assess the relations among these three dimensions for mothers and for fathers; and (3) to examine how couples' support networks are interrelated. Individual at-home interviews were conducted with 100 parents to derive measures of parental support structure, content and quality. Fathers (N = 31) were compared to their spouses (N = 31) and to a comparison group of demographically similar married mothers (N = 38). For all three groups, the same three predicted dimensions emerged in the factor structure of their networks; in general, few gender differences were found. However, relations among structure, content and quality differed by gender, with network structure predicting support content and quality only for mothers. The network structure of couples was positively correlated, and overlap in network members was related to own and spouse's network helpfulness, satisfaction and child care support.