Clinical commentary by David Trevatt,Clinical Manager of ‘Hear and Now’ Adolescent Counselling Service,Redbridge and Manager of Open Door's Parenting Teenagers Project,Haringey

Leading the charge to link intervention research with clinical practice is the development of process research, which involves a detailed analysis of specific therapeutic processes over the course of treatment. The delineation of interaction structures – repetitive patterns of interactions between patient and therapist over the course of treatment – can inform therapists of what may be expected from patients with particular patterns of symptoms or behaviours in their clinical practice and how interactions change over time. Using the Child Psychotherapy Q-Set, this study aims to compare the different interaction structures that emerged in the two-year psychotherapy of a six-year-old child conducted, for one year each, by two doctoral-student therapists in a university-based community mental health clinic. The study allows for exploration of the independent role of the therapist in the psychodynamic therapy of a child diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. The results suggest that four distinct interaction structures between child and therapist could be identified in this psychotherapy and that the interaction structures differed between the two therapists and also differed over time within each treatment. The implications of these findings for training and clinical practice are discussed.     

Measuring slips and lapses when they occur – Ambulatory assessment in application to cognitive failures

Cognitive failures are lapses in attention, cognition, and actions that everybody experiences in everyday life. Self-reports are mainly used for assessment but those instruments are memory-biased and more related to personality aspects than to actual behavior. Ambulatory assessment is already used for capturing emotions or addictive behavior, but not yet for cognitive failures. The newly developed Questionnaire for Cognitive Failures in Everyday Life (KFA) was applied via mobile phones (electronic KFA) wherein an acoustic signal asked participants (N = 91, 60–76 years) 4 times daily to answer 13 questions for 1 week. The new instrument showed satisfying reliability and was compared with a self-report method (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire; Broadbent, Cooper, Fitzgerald, and Parkes, 1982) in terms of correlations with cognitive abilities (working memory capacity, short-term memory, switching ability, and reasoning), personality traits, and demographical aspects. Although further validation is needed, first results are promising and eKFA enriches cognitive failures research.     

Rebuild or Relocate? Resilience and Postdisaster Decision‐Making After Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy struck the east coast of the United States on October 29, 2012, devastating communities in its path. In the aftermath, New York implemented a home buyout program designed to facilitate the permanent relocation of residents out of areas considered to be at risk for future hazards. While home buyout programs are becoming popular as policy tools for disaster mitigation, little is known about what factors influence homeowners to participate in or reject these programs. This study used mixed methods to assess the relationship between community resilience and the relocation decision in two heavily damaged communities in which the majority of residents made different decisions regarding whether or not to pursue a buyout. The sample was composed of residents from Oakwood Beach and Rockaway Park, both working‐class communities in New York City, who participated via a community survey (N = 133) and/or in‐depth interviews (N = 28). Results suggested that community resilience moderated the relationship between community of residence and the buyout decision, leading to opposite responses on the buyout decision. Contextual community factors, including the history of natural disasters, local cultural norms, and sense of place, were instrumental in explaining these different responses. Implications for disaster policy are discussed.