Friends as Reporters of Children's and Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms

Obtaining information from multiple informants is important when assessing youth depression. Past studies have utilized adults' reports of youths' emotional functioning and aggregate reports from classmates but have not considered close friends as reporters of depressive symptoms. This is surprising given the important roles of friends as companions and confidants. This study investigated relations between friend-reported depressive symptoms and youths' self-reports. From a larger sample of fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade participants, self-reports and friend reports of depressive symptoms and friend reports of friendship quality were available for a subset of 367 participants. Significant positive relations emerged between friend reports and self-reports of affective depressive symptoms for girls and youth in high-quality friendships. Relations between friend reports and self-reports were stronger for conduct-related than affective depressive symptoms and reached significance for boys as well as for girls and for youth in low-quality friendships as well as for youth in high-quality friendships. Implications for identifying at-risk youth are discussed.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder and psychosocial functioning within two samples of MVA survivors

To examine criterion F variables of PTSD, the psychosocial functioning of two samples of motor vehicle accident (MVA) survivors was investigated. Within each sample, comparisons between MVA survivors with and without PTSD were conducted on four psychosocial functioning indices at three time points. In addition, the relationships between specific PTSD symptom clusters and psychosocial functioning indices were examined. The study revealed that, in general, MVA survivors with PTSD evidenced poorer psychosocial functioning than did survivors without PTSD. The emotional numbing symptoms of PTSD emerged as the most consistent predictors of the psychosocial functioning indices. The implications of these findings to the comprehensive treatment of PTSD are discussed.     

The Price of Being Conciliatory: Remarks about Mellon's Model for Hospital Chaplaincy Work in Multi-Faith Settings

The intimate connection, within Christianity, of theology andethics is invoked, and the ethical differences between Christiandenominations are exposed, as they present themselves inMellon'scase studies, in order to call attention to the unsolvable dilemmain which hospital chaplains find themselves, if they understandtheir role in a merely conciliatory fashion as that of a "comforter,mediator, educator, ethicist, and counselor". As witnessed bythe Calvinist and Anabaptist traditions Mellon introduces, conceptssuch as "the patient's good" can mean radically different thingsin these theological contexts. Attempting to merely mediatebetween such positions in a spirit of merely generic prayerand on the basis of a merely psychological notion of well-beingposes a risk to chaplains' spiritual integrity and faithfulnessto their mission.     

'Oh Rose, thou art sick!' Anti-individuation forces in the film American Beauty

The film American Beauty is used as a vehicle to explore difficulties in the individuation process, to look at a particular aspect of couple relationships in which mourning is avoided, and to make a general comment about the relationship between film and psychological experience. The thesis of the paper is that the individuation process is both an intra-psychic experience and an inter-psychic one which relies on relationships with external figures to enable development. The adult couple relationship is taken as one of the key areas of emotional life for the individuation process and as an area that can best show up false starts, successes, or even retreats in psychological development. Using the poetry of William Blake and the work of Michael Fordham, I show a process of anti-individuation going on in the relationship between the characters of Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film.     

Symbols and self preservation in severe disturbance

The author considers a particular way in which symbolic functioning and the sense of self fail in certain cases of severe disturbance. When containment of the infant fails, the experience is a violent one. If the infant is projected into by an 'invasive object', the infant can incorporate this experience both as a bodily and a proto-mental registration. The experience then remains within the psyche-soma and subsequent development is built 'around' the consequences of the trauma. Clinical illustrations are provided to demonstrate this phenomenon in the analytic setting.     

父母低头行为对儿童青少年心理发展的影响

父母低头行为是指父母照顾或与孩子交流时,过分关注与使用手机而忽视孩子的行为。梳理相关研究发现,父母低头行为会对孩子产生多种不良影响,如,降低亲子关系交流质量、增加意外伤害风险、损伤人际交往能力、导致问题行为增多。现有研究采用取代假说、多任务操作理论以及依恋理论对影响过程进行解释。未来研究的关键在于邻近概念的区分、测量方式和研究方法的改进、探讨儿童对父母手机使用行为的看法以及移动设备对亲子互动可能的积极影响。     

Social Anxiety and the Generation of Positivity During Dyadic Interaction: Curiosity and Authenticity Are the Keys to Success

What drives positive affective and interpersonal experiences during social interaction? Undergraduates with high (n = 63) or low (n = 56) trait social anxiety (SA) were paired with unfamiliar low SA partners in a 45-minute conversation task. Throughout the task, participants and their conversation partners completed measures of affiliative goals, affect, curiosity, authenticity, and attentional focus. Both affective and interpersonal outcomes were assessed. Dyadic analyses revealed that participants’ affiliative goals during the social interaction predicted positive outcomes for both themselves and their partners, although the link between affiliative goals and positive affect was weaker for participants with high SA. Mediation analyses demonstrated that adopting affiliative goals may promote more positive outcomes by increasing participants’ curiosity and felt authenticity. Taken together, results illuminate the pathways through which people with varying levels of trait SA may derive interpersonally generated positive affect and positive social outcomes, with implications for clinical theory and practice.     

Classification of loneliness using the T‐ILS: Is it as simple as it seems?

Student well‐being is a growing issue in higher education, and assessment of the prevalence of conditions as loneliness is therefore important. In higher education and population surveys the Three‐Item Loneliness Scale (T‐ILS) is used increasingly. The T‐ILS is attractive for large multi‐subject surveys, as it consists of only three items (derived from the UCLA Loneliness Scale). Several ways of classifying persons as lonely based on T‐ILS scores exist: dichotomous and trichotomous classification schemes and use of sum scores with rising levels indicating more loneliness. The question remains whether T‐ILS scores are comparable across the different population groups where they are used or across groups of students in the higher education system. The aim was to investigate whether the T‐ILS suffers from differential item functioning (DIF) that might change the loneliness classification among higher education students, using a large sample just admitted to 22 different academy profession degree programs in Denmark (N = 3,757). DIF was tested relative to degree program, age groups and gender. The framework of graphical loglinear Rasch models was applied, as this allows for adjustment of sum scores for uniform DIF, and thus for assessment of whether DIF might change the classification. Two items showed DIF relative to degree program and gender, and adjusting for this DIF changed the classification for some subgroups. The consequences were negligible when using a dichotomous classification and larger when using a trichotomous classification. Therefore, trichotomous classification should be used with caution unless suitable adjustments for DIF are done prior to classification.     

Detecting Differential Item Functioning Using Multiple-Group Cognitive Diagnosis Models

This study proposes a multiple-group cognitive diagnosis model to account for the fact that students in different groups may use distinct attributes or use the same attributes but in different manners (e.g., conjunctive, disjunctive, and compensatory) to solve problems. Based on the proposed model, this study systematically investigates the performance of the likelihood ratio (LR) test and Wald test in detecting differential item functioning (DIF). A forward anchor item search procedure was also proposed to identify a set of anchor items with invariant item parameters across groups. Results showed that the LR and Wald tests with the forward anchor item search algorithm produced better calibrated Type I error rates than the ordinary LR and Wald tests, especially when items were of low quality. A set of real data were also analyzed to illustrate the use of these DIF detection procedures.     

A domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) model of triarchic psychopathy factors: Development and initial validation of the CAT-Tri+ questionnaire

We operationalised the triarchic model of psychopathy (boldness, meanness, and disinhibition) in domestic cats using a cat triarchic (CAT-Tri) questionnaire. In study 1 (n = 549), we identified candidate items for CAT-Tri scales using thematically analysed cat owner questionnaire responses. In study 2 (n = 1463), owners completed a questionnaire battery; the preliminary CAT-Tri questionnaire, Feline Five, and Cat-Owner Relationship Subscales. In study 3 (n = 30), associations between feline daily activity and Cat-Tri scales were investigated. A five-factor cat triarchic plus (CAT-Tri+) solution emerged: boldness, disinhibition, meanness, pet-unfriendliness, and human-unfriendliness. Disinhibition and pet-unfriendliness predicted a higher quality cat-owner relationship; meanness and boldness predicted a lower quality relationship. Findings provide insight into the structure of triarchic psychopathy in cats.