Therapists' Emotional Reactions to Patients as a Mediator in Cognitive Behavioural Treatment of Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia

The aims of this study were to examine whether therapists' emotional reactions to their patients mediate the effect of personality disorders and interpersonal problem behaviours on the outcome of treatment, focusing on an Axis I disorder; and whether therapists' reactions mediate the effect of personality disorders on the course of interpersonal problems. Therapists completed a checklist of emotional reactions to individual patients after the end of residential cognitive or guided mastery therapy for 46 inpatients with panic disorder with agoraphobia. The severity of DSM‐III‐R personality disorder was related to therapists' insecurity feelings, but not to interest and anger. A higher level of therapists' insecurity feelings was related to less reduction in self‐reported agoraphobic avoidance during treatment, whereas therapists' emotions were unrelated to symptomatic course after treatment. Therapists' insecurity feelings appeared partly to mediate the relationship between patients' severity of personality disorder and persistence of patients' interpersonal dominance and nurturance problems.     

小学生数学问题解决中视觉空间表征的研究

本研究区分了两类数学应用题:非视觉化题目与视觉化题目,采用数学测验与个别访谈相结合的方法,考察了54名小学四、五、六年级不同学业水平学生的视觉空间表征。结果表明:图式表征在非视觉化题目与视觉化题目上都极大地促进了问题解决,图像表征妨碍非视觉化题目的解决但与视觉化题目的解决无关,并提出图式表征和图像表征在两类题目上有不同的含义。六年级学生的解题成绩及图式表征有显著的提高,但图像表征与年级因素无关。差生的图式表征能力很差,而在视觉化题目上使用图像表征显著地多于优生及中等生。在非视觉化题目的非视觉空间表征与图式表征之间的转换灵活性上,优生表现了明显的优势。     

当代积极心理学运动存在的几个问题

积极心理学运动是当代心理学发展的一个重要趋势,但它并不是对传统以问题为核心的病理性心理学的取代而只是一种补充。积极心理学强调心理学不仅要研究人或社会所存在的问题,同时还要研究人的积极力量和积极品质。由于积极心理学运动兴起的时间较短,因而在其发展过程中还存在一些问题,这些问题主要包括：表现出一定的话语霸权、研究对象不够全面、缺少有说服力的纵向研究、和早期心理学的一些相关研究存在一定的脱节     

留守儿童情绪和行为问题特征的潜在类别分析：基于个体为中心的研究视角

对2288个留守儿童样本用儿童长处与困难问卷（SDQ）进行施测,并对他们的情绪和行为问题特征进行探索性的潜在类别分析,发现留守儿童的情绪和行为问题存在明显的分组特征。统计指标支持了3个潜类别的模型,根据3个潜在类别在问卷各条目上的条件概率特征分别定义为：“适应困难组”,“行为冲动组”和“良好适应组”,3个潜在类别所占全体样本的比例分别为32%、41%和27%。进一步的分析发现：相比较良好适应组而言,适应困难组和行为冲动组有着显著的性别和年级水平效应,适应困难组和行为冲动组的男生所占比例更大;同时,这两个组的小学生所占的比例也更大。     

Developments in Classification,Identification, and Intervention for School Refusal and Other Attendance Problems: Introduction to the Special Series

The literature on school attendance problems (SAPs) is diverse and sometimes confusing, but it is also promising. This special series presents seven articles and a discussion that attest to the diversity, complexity, and exciting developments associated with SAPs. While some articles focus on school refusal in particular, others have relevance for school refusal, truancy, and other types of SAPs. Collectively, the seven articles provide direction in thinking about two key questions: (1) How can SAPs best be classified and identified?; and (2) Which innovative approaches can be applied when a SAP is severe, chronic, and/or complex? In this way the series has direct relevance for Tiers 1 and 3 of the Response to Intervention model for managing school absenteeism (Kearney & Graczyk, 2014). Three innovative treatment programs presented in this series illustrate ways in which mental health interventions and educational interventions can be combined to address Tier 3 SAPs. The discussion article presents thought-provoking reflections on the topics covered in the seven articles and on the gaps in practice and research in the field of SAPs. You are invited to critically and creatively respond to the ideas offered in this series.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Arnold et al.’s Parenting Scale Across Race, Age, and Sex

We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to investigate the factor structure of several models of Arnold et al.’s Parenting Scale [Arnold et al. (1993). Psychological Assessment, 5, 137–144] across children from various age groups and races. Participants were parents of children (ages 2–16 years) presenting to four community-based pediatric practices for routine care. Parents completed questionnaires pertaining to various aspects of parenting and child behavior problems. Results indicated that a two-factor revision proposed by Reitman et al. [(2001). Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30, 514–524] represented the data well and better than the original three-factor structure and other two-factor models. Results from multigroup CFA analyses indicated that this factor structure did not vary across child sex, child age, and parental race. Results of validity analyses indicated that scores on both factors were related to reports of children’s behavior and parental affect and cognitions. This study was the first to use multigroup CFA procedures to demonstrate that relationships between individual items and factors of the Parenting Scale are similar for parents of children across various age groups.     

Early Parenting Intervention: Family Risk and First-time Parenting Related to Intervention Effectiveness

The effects of cumulative risk and parity on the effectiveness of a home based parenting intervention were tested in a randomized controlled trial with 237 families with 1- to 3-year-old children screened for high levels of externalizing behavior. The intervention was aimed at enhancing positive parenting and decreasing externalizing behaviors. The results showed that cumulative risk was not associated with either change in child externalizing behaviors or change in positive parenting. When intervention effectiveness was compared for primiparas (i.e., first-time mothers) versus multiparas (i.e., mothers with more than one child), we found that intervention mothers of first-born children displayed an increase in their use of positive discipline strategies as compared to first-time mothers in the control group, whereas a similar effect for multiparas was absent. Among multiparas we found an intervention effect on sensitivity, with control group mothers showing an increase in sensitivity, whereas the intervention group showed a constant level of sensitivity over time. These results suggest that parity may be a moderator of intervention effectiveness. Implications for investigating moderators of intervention effectiveness are discussed.     

Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic

McCrink (McCrink, Dehaene, & Dehaene-Lambertz (2007). Moving along the number line: Operational momentum in nonsymbolic arithmetic. Perception and Psychophysics, 69(8), 1324-1333) documented an “Operational Momentum” (OM) effect - overestimation of addition and underestimation of subtraction outcomes in non-symbolic (dot pattern) arithmetic. We investigated whether OM also occurs with Arabic number symbols. Participants pointed to number locations (1-9) on a visually given number line after computing them from addition or subtraction problems. Pointing was biased leftward after subtracting and rightward after adding, especially when the second operand was zero. The findings generalize OM to the spatial domain and to symbolic number processing. Alternative interpretations of our results are discussed.     

我国农村地区婴幼儿的喂养问题与对策

喂养不当是导致婴幼儿生长发育不良及营养障碍性疾病的主要原因。婴幼儿的喂养问题在我国农村地区尤为突出,主要表现在喂养方式、添加辅食和喂养行为等方面。文章重点围绕上述3个方面展开分析、提出对策,以期为政府决策、儿童保健人员及喂养者提供参考。