Exploring maternal touch in the infant’s first 18 months of Life: A study on an Italian sample

Affective touch is a crucial component of caregiving in early life and constitutes a key factor with a significant impact on infant later-life outcomes. The Parent-Infant Caregiving Touch Scale (PICTS) allows to quantify and qualify the caregiver's self-perception of touch in the first months of an infant’s life. In the current study, we contributed to validation of the PICTS in the Italian language in order to explore whether early maternal touch would be associated with maternal emotional state, maternal history of affective touch experiences throughout the lifespan, and infants’ sex and age. Data analyses were run on a sample of 377 Italian mothers (mean age = 33.29; SD = 4.79) participating in an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied. A three-dimensional structure of PICTS (i.e., stroking, affective communication, and holding) after removing one item out resulted in the best model in our sample. Maternal emotional state did not affect PICTS factor scores while maternal comfort and amount of affective touch experienced during adulthood was significantly associated with the stroking, affective communication, and holding factors. Regarding infants’ dimensions, infants’ sex and age were not associated with PICTS factor scores. Findings suggest that the PICTS Italian version is a good measurement of caregiver's self-perception of touch in early infancy and that maternal history of touch is associated with a mother’s current use of touch.     

MMPI Profiles of Liver and Heart Transplant Candidates With and Without Significant Histories of Heavy Alcohol Use

This study compared the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles of liver and heart transplant candidates with (n = 104) and without (n = 253) significant histories of heavy alcohol consumption. The alcohol and nonalcohol groups had similar overall mean profiles with significant or marginally significant (i.e., T 69) clinical elevations on Scales 1, 2, and 3. However, significantly higher proportions of those in the liver transplant group than in the heart transplant group scored within the clinical range on Scales F, 4, 6, and 8. In addition, the proportions of respondents obtaining clinically elevated scores were significantly higher for the alcohol than for the nonalcohol group on Scale 4 and the MacAndrew Scale; the proportion was higher for the nonalcohol than for the alcohol group on Scale K. The overall similarity of the mean profiles indicates that candidates for liver or heart transplantation with and without histories of heavy alcohol use generally display similar psychological presentations. The observed differences between the liver and the heart transplant groups may reflect impairments in mental status among liver transplant candidates due to metabolic consequences of liver disease. The differences between the alcohol and the nonalcohol groups may be more a reflection of past behavioral patterns than present psychological status.     

Alcohol and Drug Use, and Depression Among Hispanic Men in Early Adulthood

Community research and clinical practice have shown that alcohol and drug use and depression are interrelated. Among Hispanics, acculturation may play a role in these relationships. To investigate these relationships as well as alcohol-related problems, we interviewed 288 Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Colombian men in early adulthood. No significant differences emerged in the proportions of abstainers across the three groups. Colombians drank significantly more frequently and had more alcohol-related problems than Dominicans. Dominicans were at least risk for and least likely to have alcohol-related problems. Puerto Ricans were much more likely to use drugs than the other Hispanic men. Drug use was associated with an increased likelihood of heavy drinking which, in turn, increased the risk of drug use and depression. Acculturation decreased the risk of drug use. Results are discussed in terms of implications for community psychology research and interventions.     

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Research: Developmental Issues

Describes developmental issues that pose current challenges to the design of treatment outcome investigation with children and adolescents. Normal childhood development and the development of childhood disorders are discussed using the transactional model of development. Challenges in diagnostic decision making, the selection of the most appropriate treatment regimen, and the measurement methods are highlighted. Recognition of the need to study child treatments through long-term follow-up periods underscores the need for resolution of these developmental issues.     

Use of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with Adolescent Psychiatric Outpatients

To provide information on the use of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) with adolescents, the BDI-II was administered to 105 male and 105 female outpatients between 12 and 18 years old who were seeking psychiatric treatment. The internal consistency of the BDI-II was high (coefficient = .92). The mean BDI-II total score of the girls was approximately 5 points higher than that of the boys (p < .001), and age (years) was positively correlated with the BDI-II total scores (r = .18, p < .01). An iterated principal-factor analysis identified three factors, but only the Cognitive and Somatic-Affective factors were generalizable.     

Relationship Between the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI) and the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) in a Community Sample

Using a sample of 144 mature students, aged 18–53 years, attending a high school upgrading program, the screening properties of the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI) and the correspondence of the HPSI to the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) were evaluated. Correlations between the HPSI and the BPI scales and joint factor analysis of these two inventories demonstrated the validity of HPSI scales and their sampling adequacy from the major components of psychopathology measured by the BPI. Using the BPI as the Gold Standard, the HPSI has almost perfect specificity but the sensitivity of the HPSI is only about 50% at a T-score of 60, whereas at T = 55, the sensitivity is 70%, with a specificity of almost 80%. Overall, results indicated that the three HPSI scales distinctly measure the three major factors of the BPI, and the HPSI has considerable utility as a screening tool.     

The Case for Early Intervention in Diagnosing Specific Reading Disability

In the present article, we argue against the use of psychometric assessment as the primary or sole vehicle for diagnosing specific reading disability. We suggest instead that the diagnostic enterprise should be initiated with early and labor intensive remedial intervention, and that the child’s ability to profit from such intervention should be the most important piece of information in making the diagnosis, notwithstanding the confirmatory value of psychometric assessment in given cases. We support our arguments with selected findings from an intervention study we have recently completed demonstrating that most children who perform poorly in reading can be readily brought to at least an average level of performance if their reading difficulties are addressed at the beginning stage of reading development.     

Assessing the Behavior of Girls: What We See and What We Miss

Three standardized measures of child and adolescent behavior are reviewed for their attention to issues salient in the experiences of girls in late childhood and adolescence (ages 12 to 18; American; American and Brown & Gilligan 1992). The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form (Achenbach and Achenbach), the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992), and the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990) are analyzed. Challenges to psychologists in schools for including the experiences of girls in the knowledge base grounding their practice and research are articulated.     

A COMPARISON OF REINFORCER ASSESSMENT METHODS: THE UTILITY OF VERBAL AND PICTORIAL CHOICE PROCEDURES

We compared three methods of stimulus preference assessment for verbal children and specifically evaluated the utility of a verbal choice procedure for assessing relative reinforcer value. Using a token system, relative preference for five categories of reinforcers, representing 15 different stimuli, was assessed by three methods: a reinforcer survey, a verbal stimulus-choice questionnaire, and a pictorial stimulus-choice procedure. Results showed that the verbal and pictorial stimulus-choice assessments accurately identified high- and low-preference categories for 3 of 4 participants. Survey results alone often rated multiple categories as high preference, were less likely to identify low-preference categories, and were less likely to correspond with the results of a reinforcer assessment.     

ON THE REINFORCING EFFECTS OF THE CONTENT OF VERBAL ATTENTION

During a functional analysis, a boy with autism and oppositional defiant disorder displayed destructive behavior that was maintained by attention in the form of verbal reprimands (e.g., “Don't hit me”). In a second analysis, contingent verbal reprimands produced higher rates of the behavior than contingent statements that were unrelated to the target response (e.g., “It is sunny today”), suggesting that some forms of attention were more reinforcing than others. A treatment based on these analyses reduced the behavior to near-zero levels.