The View from Way Below: Inter‐Species Encounter,Membranes, and the Reality of Christ

Viewing modern life from the perspective and world of those whose lives are treated as expendable commodities in our current economic systems—humans and creatures of every other species—creates, Bonhoeffer asserts, the most reliable hermeneutical standpoint for seeing and living in reality. This essay attempts to fashion in broad strokes a Christian theology of creaturely re‐engagement: learning to live again “way below,” in literal and metaphoric touch with reality. I assert that Bonhoeffer's theology of I/Thou encounter as the means of humans’ ethical formation has the potential to ground a broader theology of inter‐species encounter as well.     

Axis I anxiety and mental health disorders among stuttering adolescents

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate anxiety and psychological functioning among adolescents seeking speech therapy for stuttering using a structured, diagnostic interview and psychological questionnaires. This study also sought to determine whether any differences in psychological status were evident between younger and older adolescents.MethodParticipants were 37 stuttering adolescents seeking stuttering treatment. We administered the Computerized Voice Version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, and five psychometric tests. Participants were classified into younger (12–14 years; n = 20) and older adolescents (15–17 years; n = 17).ResultsThirty-eight percent of participants attained at least one diagnosis of a mental disorder, according to the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; APA, 2000), with the majority of these diagnoses involving anxiety. This figure is double current estimates for general adolescent populations, and is consistent with our finding of moderate and moderate–severe quality of life impairment. Although many of the scores on psychological measures fell within the normal range, older adolescents (15–17 years) reported significantly higher anxiety, depression, reactions to stuttering, and emotional/behavioral problems, than younger adolescents (12–14 years). There was scant evidence that self-reported stuttering severity is correlated with mental health issues. There are good reasons to believe these results are conservative because many participants gave socially desirable responses about their mental health status.DiscussionThese results reveal a need for large-scale, statistically powerful assessments of anxiety and other mental disorders among stuttering adolescents with reference to control populations.Educational Objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) explain the clinical importance of assessing for mental health with stuttering adolescents, (b) state the superior method for adolescent mental health assessment and (c) state a major issue with determining the genuineness of stuttering adolescent responses to psychological assessment.     

Maternally administered interventions for preterm infants in the NICU: Effects on maternal psychological distress and mother–infant relationship

Although studies have examined the effects of interventions focused on preterm infants, few studies have examined the effects on maternal distress (anxiety, depressive symptoms, post-traumatic stress symptoms, parenting stress) or parenting. This study examined the effects of the auditory–tactile–visual–vestibular (ATVV) intervention and kangaroo care (KC) on maternal distress and the mother–infant relationship compared to an attention control group.240 mothers from four hospitals were randomly assigned to the three groups. Maternal characteristics in the three groups were similar: 64.1% of ATVV mothers, 64.2% of KC mothers, and 76.5% of control mothers were African American; maternal age averaged 26.3 years for ATVV mothers, 28.1 for KC mothers, and 26.6 for control mothers; and years of education averaged 13.6 for ATVV and KC mothers, and 13.1 for control mothers. Mothers only differed on parity: 68.4% of ATVV and 54.7% of KC mothers were first-time mothers as compared to 43.6% of control mothers. Their infants had a similar mean gestational ages (27.0 weeks for ATVV, 27.2 for KC, and 27.4 for control) and mean birthweights (993 g for ATVV, 1022 for KC, and 1023 for control).Mothers completed questionnaires during hospitalization, and at 2, 6 and 12 months corrected age on demographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, state anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, parenting stress, worry about child health, and child vulnerability (only at 12 months). At 2 and 6 months, 45-min videotapes of mother–infant interactions were made, and the HOME Inventory was scored. Behaviors coded from the videotapes and a HOME subscale were combined into five interactive dimensions: maternal positive involvement and developmental stimulation and child social behaviors, developmental maturity, and irritability.Intervention effects were examined using general linear mixed models controlling for parity and recruitment site. The groups did not differ on any maternal distress variable. Kangaroo care mothers showed a more rapid decline in worry than the other mothers. The only interactive dimensions that differed between the groups were child social behaviors and developmental maturity, which were both higher for kangaroo care infants. Change over time in several individual infant behaviors was affected by the interventions. When mothers reported on the interventions they performed, regardless of group assignment, massage (any form including ATVV) was associated with a more rapid decline in depressive symptoms and higher HOME scores. Performing either intervention was associated with lower parenting stress. These findings suggest that as short-term interventions, KC and ATVV have important effects on mothers and their preterm infants, especially in the first half of the first year.     

Age,the Big Five,and time-of-day preference: A mediational model

This research examined the extent to which the Big Five personality factors mediated the relationship between age and time-of-day preference. A sample of 491 Americans (M_age = 32 yrs) completed the 240-item NEO-PI-R, the 19-item Horne and Östberg’s (1976) Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and provided demographic information. As demonstrated in previous research, correlations revealed that older people expressed a stronger morning preference. More importantly, using bootstrapping procedures, it was found that the Big Five factor of conscientiousness attenuated the relationship between age and time-of-day preference. These findings indicate that conscientiousness plays a significant role in the relationship between age and time-of-day preference.     

Manager–salesperson congruence in customer orientation and job outcomes: The bright and dark sides of leadership in aligning values

To create customer-oriented organizations, managers are often asked to promote a values-based vision. Yet, many managers struggle with transferring their values to employees making strategic value changes difficult. Despite this challenge, research has yet to demonstrate how managers effectively align values within the sales force, or the impact alignment has on job outcomes. Therefore, we develop and empirically test a conceptual framework to examine the role of transformational leadership in aligning salesperson customer orientation (CO) values. We find that transformational leadership is a strong mechanism in creating perceived value congruence, yet may have a surprising dark side. Results suggest that transformational managers achieve congruence by raising or, contrary to conventional wisdom, lowering salesperson CO values to meet the perceived values of the manager. Response surface modelling results support the importance of perceived manager values. Customer-oriented salespeople have higher job satisfaction and sales performance when they perceive their manager to also have high CO. When values are misaligned, job satisfaction increases more for low CO salespeople as perceptions of manager CO increase. Exploratory findings show that performance was higher under situations of perfect alignment but also under severe misalignment suggesting that values generate performance under complementary or supplementary conditions.     

Body image in social anxiety disorder,obsessive–compulsive disorder,and panic disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder falls under the category of obsessive–compulsive and related disorders, yet research has suggested it may also be highly associated with social anxiety disorder. The current study examined body image variables among 68 outpatients with primary obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 22), social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 25), and panic disorder (PD; n = 21). Participants filled out self-report measures of body image disturbance, attitudes toward one's appearance, and anxiety. Body image disturbance and attitudes toward appearance did not significantly differ between the groups. However, SAD symptoms predicted body image disturbance, Appearance Evaluation and Body Areas Satisfaction, and OCD symptoms predicted Appearance Orientation. These findings suggest that SAD and OCD may be associated with different facets of body image. Implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders and for future research are discussed.     

Adapting Parent–Child Interaction Therapy for Deaf Families That Communicate via American Sign Language: A Formal Adaptation Approach

While our field has made positive strides in adapting psychotherapeutic interventions for diverse groups of people, considerable work is still needed in this area. We present our formal adaptation procedure for parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) with Deaf persons. This includes a review of the cultural adaptation process for psychological interventions, including PCIT, as well as an introduction to Deaf culture. Details regarding the specific adaptation of PCIT for Deaf persons are outlined. We found that the utilization of a clear framework to guide the cultural adaptation process facilitated careful consideration of the numerous linguistic and cultural variables involved, while maintaining integrity of the treatment model. While the current focus was on adapting PCIT for Deaf families who communicate via American Sign Language, this framework can also be applied to other populations and/or interventions.     

Catholicism,Protestantism, and Mexicanness on the US–Mexico border: discourses,narrative identities,habits, and affect

ABSTRACT

In Mexico, Catholicism and national identity are deeply intertwined through what we call a process of articulation. Thus, not surprisingly, despite the recent impressive growth of Protestantism in the nation, most people still believe that being Mexican and being Catholic are almost synonymous. Additionally, because the two identifications do not ‘cross each other’ (as the metaphor of intersectionality posits) but, instead, enter a very complex process of articulation in which each modifies the other, there is a particular way in which many Mexicans experience and perform their Catholicism, in the same vein that there is a particular way in which Catholics experience and perform their Mexicanness. Simultaneously, because neither nationality nor religion is narrated and/or performed in isolation to other forms of identification (e.g. race, ethnicity, region, gender) other possible identifications are also articulated or co-inform (in different ways) nationality and religion in the identitarian encounters that occur on the border. In the way people build their identifications around religion, narratives, practices, habits, affect, and emotions are continuously interrelated. We show that having an altar outside one’s house or making the sign of the cross on one’s body is both (depending on the unfolding of the social interactions and their patterns of relations) a non-linguistic discourse and a habit. We also show that their mere presence (in the case of altars) or performance (in the case of the sign of the cross) affect the people around the site or the performance, triggering complex emotions. That altar and sign of the cross can potentially be all these things simultaneously highlights their importance as ‘affective conductors’—stressing their significance as central objects in the intensification of relations that give new capacities to the entities involved in the patterns of relationship at play in the identitarian encounter at stake.     

Resolving Ethical Dilemmas in a Tertiary Care Veterinary Specialty Hospital: Adaptation of the Human Clinical Consultation Committee Model

Technological advances in veterinary medicine have produced considerable progress in the diagnosis and treatment of numerous diseases in animals. At the same time, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and owners of animals face increasingly complex situations that raise questions about goals of care and correct or reasonable courses of action. These dilemmas are frequently controversial and can generate conflicts between clients and health care providers. In many ways they resemble the ethical challenges confronted by human medicine and that spawned the creation of clinical ethics committees as a mechanism to analyze, discuss, and resolve disagreements. The staff of the North Carolina State University Veterinary Hospital, a specialty academic teaching institution, wanted to investigate whether similar success could be achieved in the tertiary care veterinary setting. We discuss the background and rationale for this method, as well as the approach that was taken to create a clinical ethics committee.