Rationale for Individualizing Interventions to Promote Adjustment to the Nursing Home

This study was designed to determine whether certain variables were predictors of nursing home residents' membership in groups representing qualitative categories of nursing home adjustment. Responses of 186 residents to an open-ended question about how they handled the change to nursing home life were coded as very good, fair, or poor; an adjustment variable was created on the basis of this classification. Analysis of variance of random samples from each adjustment group showed that affect and social support varied significantly with adjustment. However, when discriminant analysis was applied, the three groups could not be differentiated using measure of affect, life satisfaction, social support, participation in the decisions leading to admission, nursing home satisfaction, or health. Based on the conclusion that adjustment to the nursing home is a unique experience for each individual, strategies were proposed for individualizing interventions to enable adjustment.     

Interventions to Address the Academic Impairment of Children and Adolescents with ADHD

There exists a strong link between ADHD and academic underachievement. Both the core behavioral symptoms of ADHD and associated executive functioning deficits likely contribute to academic impairment. Current evidence-based approaches to the treatment of ADHD (i.e., stimulant medication, clinical behavior therapy and classroom behavioral interventions) have demonstrated a robust impact on behavioral variables such as attention and disruptive behavior within classroom analogue settings; however, their efficacy in improving academic outcomes is much less clear. Although surprisingly few treatment outcome studies of ADHD have attempted to incorporate interventions that specifically target academic outcomes, the studies that are available suggest that these interventions may be beneficial. The state of the treatment literature for addressing academic impairment in children and adolescents with ADHD will be reviewed herein, as well as limitations of current research, and directions for future research.     

Combining Employment and Breastfeeding: Utilizing a Work-Family Conflict Framework to Understand Obstacles and Solutions

Although authorities advocate breastfeeding as the ideal form of infant nutrition, breastfeeding rates remain low among employed mothers in the United States. Utilizing a work-family conflict framework, specific time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based conflicts that can occur for women combining breastfeeding and employment are explored. Research indicates that these conflicts often lead to decreased breastfeeding durations, which result in costs for employers, mothers, and infants. The review links workplace interventions (e.g. prenatal education, lactation programs, support systems, job flexibility, and child care) to the types of conflict (e.g. time, behavior, and strain-based) that each intervention can reduce. A previous version of this paper was presented in March of 2003 at the American Psychological Association’s Work, Stress, and Health Conference in Toronto, Canada.     

Bringing a mentalizing framework to understanding mothers with addiction: The groundbreaking work of Nancy E. Suchman

Nancy Suchman is remembered as a pioneer whose mentalization-based intervention—Mothering from the Inside Out (MIO)—transformed the treatment of parents struggling with substance use disorders. Specifically, Suchman's work highlighted the neural mechanisms underlying substance use disorders and identified the promotion of parental mentalizing as a key therapeutic focus in enhancing early parent-child relationships. Her work transformed parenting support models for this population of parents. Several randomized controlled trials (RCT) show the effectiveness of MIO in promoting parental reflective functioning (PRF) and positive relational outcomes in parents with substance use disorders and their children. Suchman's MIO model has since been extended to parenting in many contexts. She is also remembered as a generous colleague, a gifted researcher and clinician, and an inspiration to generations of researchers and practitioners working with parents who aspire to raise healthy, secure children despite multiple challenges and adversities. This special issue compiles the work of researchers inspired by Suchman as they carry on her legacy in examining aspects of parental mentalization. Collectively, the research presented yields confirmation of MIO core assumptions, offers new insights into roles of positive sentiment and savoring in mentalization processes, and presents evaluations of MIO in multiple contexts and with new adaptations.     

Using Brief Functional Analysis to Select Interventions for Oral Reading

Reading interventions were applied in a brief multielement format to examine their effectiveness at improving the oral reading fluency of three students referred for reading problems. Although each student had different profiles across experimental analyses, effective interventions were identified and a mini-replication confirmed the pattern of results in each case.     

REDUCING THE ILLEGAL SALES OF CIGARETTES TO MINORS: ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE ENFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

The majority of adolescent smokers are able to purchase cigarettes even though laws prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors (Radecki & Zdunich, 1993). The present study focused on merchant licensing, civil penalties, and monitoring of merchant behavior. Several different schedules of enforcement in the city of Chicago were evaluated to determine the optimal schedules to reduce the sale of cigarettes to minors in a major metropolitan area. Schedules of 2, 4, and 6 months were effective in reducing illegal sales, from 86% to 19%, 87% to 34%, and 87% to 42%, respectively. In a control condition, illegal sales remained high (approximately 84%). Cigarette control laws that regularly enforce civil penalties for tobacco sales violations can successfully reduce minors' access to cigarettes.     

In vivo functional assessment and multi-element interventions for problem behaviors of students with disabilities in classroom settings

Persons with developmental disabilities often do not follow instructions or complete tasks in educational settings, thus further disadvantaging themselves as they try to lead more normalized lives. The purpose of this paper was to address the problems of three persons referred for not following instructions and for engaging in associated behavior problems (e.g., crying, hitting, throwing materials) when given instructions. A functional assessment was conducted in the natural school setting without any prescribed conditions as in analogue functional assessments. Results of the assessments showed that problem behaviors for two subjects occurred much more in demand conditions requiring active responses than in demand conditions requiring passive responses. The results for a third subject showed problem behaviors were associated with toileting demands, less so with other demand conditions, but not with conditions in which there were an absence of demands. Individualized multi-element interventions were based on the negative reinforcement hypothesis and were intended to make tasks less aversive and to make instructions easier to understand. Results of the interventions showed increases in task engagement and decreases in problem behaviors during the active tasks and toileting tasks for which interventions were programmed, as well as for the passive tasks and other demand conditions for which no interventions were programmed. Results were discussed in terms of the value of functional assessments in directing therapists to base interventions on hypotheses of the function of the presenting problem.     

Models of burnout: Implications for interventions

Three process models of burnout are discussed, Cherniss' process model, Golembiewski's phase model and Leiter's process model. Empirical support for each model is reported. The models make different contributions to the problem of burnout and its development, and the kind of interventions that follow from each model seem to represent different targets. The strengths and weaknesses of the three models are assessed, and the relative merits of individual versus organizational level interventions are addressed. More model-driven research is necessary to reduce the problem of burnout for individuals and organizations.     

反馈干预及其影响绩效的内部机制

该文首先对反馈干预的定义进行了分析,认为反馈干预是一种由外部动因提供的有意识有目的的外部反馈。接着从反馈干预方式、任务情景、个体差异3个维度说明了反馈干预组合的复杂性。然后探讨了反馈干预作用的内部机制,认为它主要是通过个体的自我效能感、应对策略、内部目标设置等内部调节变量来影响绩效。最后提出了一种反馈干预对绩效施加作用的模型