Friendship and adjustment among adolescents

This study investigated the relation of friendship and emotional adjustment in adolescents. Both quantitative (popularity, mutual friendships, and number of friends) and qualitative dimensions (perceived positive friendship quality and conflict) of friendship were used. Participants were 618, mostly European American, 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. Structural equation modeling showed that positive friendship quality was the only friendship variable that predicted adjustment. An examination of gender effects indicated that this relation held only for boys. The quantitative aspects of friendship had a small, indirect effect on adjustment through their effects on positive quality. Conflict had a negative effect on positive quality and this effect was stronger for girls than for boys. The role of adolescents' perception in adjustment was highlighted and suggestions for future research were made.     

Distributive Justice and Clinical Trials in the Third World

One of the arguments against conducting human subject trials inthe Third World adopts a distributive justice principle found ina commentary of the CIOM'S Eighth Guideline for internationalresearch on human subjects. Critics argue that non-participantmembers of the community in which the trials are conducted areexploited because sponsoring agencies do not ensure that theproducts developed have been made reasonably available to theseindividuals.I argue that the distributive principle's wording is too vagueand ambiguous to be used to criticize any trial. Furthermore,the mere fact that an experiment does not fulfill this particulardistributive justice principle does not entail that it isunethical.     

临时知识型员工自主性动机激发：关系导向人力资源管理建构及其作用机理

快速变化的技术需求使得人才外部化, 人才共享成为组织获取技能型、知识型人才的重要方式。共享经济背景下的人力资源管理属于新兴研究领域, 企业在管理临时知识型员工面临很大挑战。由于身份的外部性、临时性, 员工关系基础薄弱, 临时知识型员工专业能力发挥受限, 工作场所关系需求受阻, 导致自主性动机不足, 影响绩效产出, 而传统对外部员工的契约型管理难以解决以上问题。针对嵌入团队工作的临时知识型员工, 研究基于关系型协调理论探索关系导向人力资源管理实践构成。在此基础上, 结合自我决定理论探讨关系导向人力资源管理实践提升临时知识型员工绩效的作用机理, 验证从自主性动机来源、自主性动机激发到自主性动机结果的路径机制。对关系导向人力资源管理实践内容和效用探讨有助于深入理解临时知识型员工的管理, 为共享经济背景下新型用工管理实践提供启示。     

汉字刺激质量与语义启动间的交互作用

本研究探讨汉字刺激质量与语义启动的相互作用,深入考察汉字识别的内在机制。实验采用真假字判断范式,实验1使用语义相关词对比率较高的实验材料,实验2使用语义相关词对比率较低的实验材料,结果发现：（1）无论语义相关词对比率高还是低,均存在语义启动效应和刺激质量效应,且汉字刺激质量与语义启动之间均存在交互作用;（2）轻度模糊刺激较重度模糊刺激受到的语义启动效应更大。结果表明,即使排除了额外反馈的作用,汉字刺激质量与语义启动之间仍存在交互作用,进一步支持交互激活模型。     

A pilot randomised controlled trial of a home-based writing intervention for individuals with seizures

Objective: We investigated the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of a writing intervention for individuals with epilepsy or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.

Methods: Individuals were randomised to write about potentially ‘therapeutic’ topics (n = 43) or about their daily events (n = 25). Participants were asked to write on four separate occasions for at least 20 min. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to investigate change in measures of health-related quality of life (NEWQoL-6D), depression (NDDI-E), anxiety (GAD-7) and illness perception (B-IPQ) from baseline to one and three-month follow-ups. Qualitative and quantitative data taken from a Writing Task Questionnaire was analysed between the two conditions.

Results: Recruitment was acceptable with 52% of those randomised completing the full writing intervention. In both conditions, participants wrote for longer than 20 min suggesting those who completed the study engaged well with the procedure. Greater benefits were observed in the ‘therapeutic’ condition (p < 0.05), which was associated with an improvement in health-related quality of life at one-month follow-up (p = 0.02). No differences were found in the other measures.

Conclusions: A writing intervention is acceptable in this population. Self-reported benefits were modest, suggesting therapeutic writing may be more suitable as a supplement to other therapies rather than a stand-alone therapeutic intervention.     

The relationship between sleep problems and working memory in children born very preterm

In two studies, the relationship between sleep and working memory performance was investigated in children born very preterm (i.e., gestation less than 32 weeks) and the possible mechanisms underlying this relationship. In Study 1, parent-reported measures of snoring, night-time sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness were collected on 89 children born very preterm aged 6 to 7 years. The children completed a verbal working memory task, as well as measures of processing speed and verbal storage capacity. Night-time sleep quality was found to be associated with verbal working memory performance over and above the variance associated with individual differences in processing speed and storage capacity, suggesting that poor sleep may have an impact on the executive component of working memory. Snoring and daytime sleepiness were not found to be associated with working memory performance. Study 2 introduced a direct measure of executive functioning and examined whether sleep problems would differentially impact the executive functioning of children born very preterm relative to children born to term. Parent-reported sleep problems were collected on 43 children born very preterm and 48 children born to term (aged 6 to 9 years). Problematic sleep was found to adversely impact executive functioning in the very preterm group, while no effect of sleep was found in the control group. These findings implicate executive dysfunction as a possible mechanism by which problematic sleep adversely impacts upon cognition in children born very preterm, and suggest that sleep problems can increase the cognitive vulnerability already experienced by many of these children.     

Congenital heart disease: A primer for the pediatric neuropsychologist

Congenital heart disease (CHD) affects millions of people worldwide, including over one million children in the United States. Approximately 25% of children born with CHD require intensive surgical intervention within the first year of life. Despite improved rates of survival into adulthood – rates that exceed 90% in the modern era – children and adolescents with CHD remain at risk for neurological injury and a range of neurobehavioral and psychosocial challenges that pose a threat to quality of life across the lifespan. Consequently, as experts in both clinical psychology and brain development, neuropsychologists are becoming increasingly involved in cardiac follow-up and monitoring to promote optimal developmental outcomes. The primary objective of this paper is to provide an evidence-based, clinically-oriented primer on CHD for pediatric neuropsychologists working with this growing population of survivors. Following an introduction to current standard-of-care guidelines for managing children and adolescents with CHD, we present an overview of brain development within the context of CHD, review neuropsychological outcomes, examine factors influencing variability in outcomes, and discuss implications and strategies for clinical assessment.     

Evaluation of a French parent-training program in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Parent training programs (PTs) in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are known to reduce parenting stress and improve child's behavior and parent-child interactions. Few PTs are available to French speaking families. In order to provide them with this type of intervention, we developed a French parent-training program of 12 bimonthly sessions and three individual home visits based on applied behavior analysis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the social validity and efficacy of this new PT on eighteen parents who have a child with ASD and developmental delay. For 16 parents, the PT was considered effective, the objectives targeted important and the strategies learned acceptable for use with children. They have significantly improved their knowledge in ASD and behavioral intervention strategies and their children's socialization skills, and reduce their parental stress. This new French PT program seems to be a promising intervention.     

Trainees with Competence Problems in the Professionalism Domain

Increasingly, professionalism has been recognized as a core competency for health service professionals and is the domain in which vexing competence problems are observed in trainees. We begin by describing manifestations of problems of professionalism in accord with the values that fall within the rubric of this multifaceted construct. We provide an approach for evaluating problems of professionalism and discuss intervention for trainees with mild, moderate, or severe problems in this domain. We propose implications for training focused on enhancing the culture of programs; bolstering the education, guidance, and mentoring provided related to professionalism; and encouraging best practices for addressing trainees with problems of professionalism. We conclude by sharing ideas about defining professionalism, identifying problems of professionalism, strengthening our approach to assessing professionalism and intervening when problems are evident, developing strategies for preventing professionalism problems, and ensuring that psychologists take seriously their responsibility to address professionalism concerns with colleagues.     

The impact of pre-sleep arousal state and strategy to control unwanted thoughts on sleep quality

Objective: It has been questioned whether elevated pre-sleep cognitive arousal contributes to poor sleep or whether it is the use of maladaptive thought control strategies, used to manage this cognitive arousal, that are responsible. The study aimed to examine how these factors – cognitive arousal (with and without anxiety) and maladaptive thought control strategies contribute to perceived sleep quality (SQ). Design: 129 “healthy adults” (46 males, 83 females) were exposed to picture-stimuli eliciting either anxious cognitive arousal or non-anxious cognitive arousal at bedtime. The groups were then randomly split and briefed to use either a cognitive distraction or cognitive suppression thought control strategy or no instructions were given (controls). Subjective SQ was measured immediately on waking. Results: Induced anxious cognitive arousal was associated with lower SQ compared to non-anxious cognitive arousal. Analyses revealed a significant interaction between arousal and the strategies used to control unwanted thoughts on SQ. When experiencing anxious cognitive arousal, the strategy of distraction was associated with poorer sleep outcomes. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the efficacy of differing thought control strategies vary depending upon whether cognitive arousal elicits anxiety or not. With that in mind, clinical implications in terms of augmenting the treatment of insomnia are discussed.