A Rumination-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Self-Help Program to Reduce Depressive Rumination in High-Ruminating Japanese Female University Students: A Case Series Study

The present case series reports the preliminary test of a rumination-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (RFCBT) self-help program to reduce depressive rumination among Japanese female undergraduates. A workbook-type self-help program based on RFCBT was implemented with 39 participants showing a high tendency toward rumination/worry. Data from 30 participants who completed one or more modules were analyzed quantitatively. The results showed significant reductions of rumination, worry, and anxiety at post-intervention. Further, semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 participants who completed the program, and verbatim data were examined using content analysis. The contents found to be useful and difficult differed for each participant and each module. Based on these results, the future implementation and dissemination of RFCBT is discussed.     

Telehealth for Dialectical Behavioral Therapy: A Commentary on the Experience of a Rapid Transition to Virtual Delivery of DBT

Telehealth has been rapidly adopted to provide continuity of delivery of mental health services in light of COVID-19. However, the remote implementation of intensive treatments like dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) has been vastly understudied. The aim of the current commentary is to describe potential obstacles, propose solutions, and discuss advantages of transitioning from traditional in-person to a virtual delivery format for full model DBT. We speak to these points at multiple levels of relevance to clinical scientists and practitioners: (1) considerations about the virtual delivery format, (2) considerations for the virtual delivery of DBT specifically, and (3) person-level considerations (e.g., client, clinician). We illustrate the commentary using examples of obstacles encountered and solutions identified during our DBT team’s rapid transition to telehealth in response to COVID-19-related shut-downs and discuss considerations for the extension of telehealth delivery of DBT going forward. We are hopeful that the rapid transition to telehealth delivery of mental health services in response to COVID-19 serves as a call to action for clinicians to adapt and leverage technology to deliver DBT on a broader scale to improve patient health outcomes.     

粗暴养育与中学生学习投入：状态焦虑与性别的作用

基于儿童学习投入的社会文化情境发展模型和动机与投入之轮理论,构建了一个有调节的中介模型,探讨了粗暴养育与学习投入的关系以及状态焦虑与性别的作用。对852名初中生进行问卷调查,结果发现：（1）粗暴养育与状态焦虑呈显著正相关,与学习投入呈显著负相关,状态焦虑与学习投入呈显著负相关;（2）状态焦虑在粗暴养育与学习投入之间起完全中介作用;性别调节了“粗暴养育→状态焦虑→学习投入”的前半段路径,相对于男性,粗暴养育与状态焦虑的正向联系在女性中更强。     

Long-Term Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Standard Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Anxiety and Depression

The present study represents one of the first comparisons of the long-term effectiveness of traditional cognitive behavior therapy (i.e., Beckian cognitive therapy; CT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). One hundred thirty-two anxious or depressed outpatients were randomly assigned to receive either CT or ACT, and were assessed at posttreatment (n = 90) and at 1.5-year (n = 91) follow-up. As previously reported, the two treatments were equivalently effective at posttreatment according to measures of depression, anxiety, overall (social/occupational/symptom-related) functioning, and quality of life. However, current results suggest that treatment gains were better maintained at follow-up in the CT condition. Clinical significance analyses revealed that, at follow-up, one-third more CT patients were in the clinically normative range in terms of depressive symptoms and more than twice as many CT patients were in the normative range in terms of functioning levels. The possible long-term advantage of CT relative to ACT in this population is discussed.     

Religion and Civic Engagement in Muslim Countries

Previous studies of religion on civic and political participation focus primarily on Western Christian societies. Studies of Muslim societies concentrate on Islamic religiosity's effect on attitudes toward democracy, not on how Muslim religious participation carries over into social and political arenas. This article examines the relationship between religion and civic engagement in nine Muslim‐majority countries using data from the World Values Surveys. I find that active participation in Muslim organizations is associated with greater civic engagement, while religious service attendance is not. In a subset of countries, daily prayer is associated with less civic engagement. The main area in which Muslim societies differ from Western ones is in the lack of association between civic engagement, trust, and tolerance. Religious participation is a more significant predictor of secular engagement than commonly used “social capital” measures, suggesting a need to adapt measures of religiosity to account for differences in religious expression across non‐Christian faiths.     

Disruptive effects of contingent food on high-probability behavior

The delivery of food contingent on 10 s of consecutive toy engagement resulted in a decrease in engagement and a corresponding increase in other responses that had been previously reinforced with food. Similar effects were not observed when tokens exchangeable for the same food were delivered, suggesting that engagement was disrupted by the contingent provision of the food, which may have functioned as a discriminative stimulus that occasioned competing responses.     

Psychic skin: psychotic defences, borderline process and delusions

In this paper, I apply the concept of psychic skin to analytic work with people suffering from personality disorders and psychoses. When psychoses emerge, the defensive skin which protects the ego is breached and violent unconscious forces rip through the personality. Some of the patients diagnosed as schizophrenic with whom I work have identified with archetypal characters such as Christ, Satan, John Lennon and the Queen. I attempt to show how the adoption of these inflated personas can serve as secondary psychic skins. Such delusional identifications can provide a protective shield to hide the denuded self and prevent intrusion from the external world. Through clinical example, I try to demonstrate how these archetypal 'second skins' can preserve life until internal and external conditions make it possible for the self to emerge. I contrast such psychotic identifications with 'thin-skinned' and 'thick-skinned' narcissism as well as 'defences of the self' in borderline states where the psychic skin may be damaged but does not disintegrate. I also look at the ways in which Jung's own personal experience was different from this and how he managed to avert psychotic breakdown.     

Contagious flexibility? A study on whether schedule flexibility facilitates work‐life enrichment

Schedule flexibility defines an important generating resource for work-life enrichment; however, our knowledge about how such spillovers take place is limited. This multiple case study examines how workers from different working time contexts with varying levels of schedule flexibility experience work-life interplay. Given the adopted explorative design, it is important to interpret the findings in a tentative light. Nonetheless, the study offers important insight into work-life enrichment that may guide future research in this field. The findings indicate that schedule flexibility may act as a boundary-spanning resource owing to the agency potential it offers workers. Thus, it seemed that flexible schedule opportunities enabled workers to engage more fully in personal life activities, which in turn had a positive influence on their work involvement through positive affect. Such positive role engagements appeared, however, to be greatly determined by workers' boundary management and by time conditions of work and family. In conclusion, the major findings and limitation of the study are discussed against existing research and theory.     

An Intervention to Help Community-Based Organizations Implement an Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Intervention: The Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System

Considerable resources have been spent developing and rigorously testing HIV prevention intervention models, but such models do not impact the AIDS pandemic unless they are implemented effectively by community-based organizations (CBOs) and health departments. The Mpowerment Project (MP) is being implemented by CBOs around the US. It is a multilevel, evidence-based HIV prevention program for young gay/bisexual men that targets individual, interpersonal, social, and structural issues by using empowerment and community mobilization methods. This paper discusses the development of an intervention to help CBOs implement the MP called the Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System (MPTES); CBOs’ uptake, utilization and perceptions of the MPTES components; and issues that arose during technical assistance. The seven-component MPTES was provided to 49 CBOs implementing the MP that were followed longitudinally for up to two years. Except for the widely used program manual, other program materials were used early in implementing the MP and then their use declined. In contrast, once technical assistance was proactively provided, its usage remained constant over time, as did requests for technical assistance. CBOs expressed substantial positive feedback about the MPTES, but felt that it needs more focus on diversity issues, describing real world implementation approaches, and providing guidance on how to adapt the MP to diverse populations.