Reliability and validity of the Basic Depression Questionnaire

Background/ObjectiveDepressive disorders have a high prevalence around the world. They present a great comorbidity with other disorders like anxiety, thereby making a differential diagnosis very difficult. The Basic Depression Questionnaire was designed to palliate this issue by isolating specific depression symptoms. Our aim is to study the reliability, factorial structure, and differential item functioning of this questionnaire. Method: The sample consisted of 1,397 adults without psychological problems (M_age = 29.76, SD = 11.25, 64.78% women) who completed the CBD. Results: We observed that none of the items presented differential functioning. A monofactorial structure was established. In this model a good fit was obtained by confirmatory factor analysis and a strict invariance by sex. The ordinal alpha was used to check the reliability and it fetched an index of .95. Conclusions: The Basic Depression Questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties. The absence of differential item functioning and the invariance by sex are guarantees of an adequate use to diagnose depression for men and women. So, its clinical use can help to differentiate between the specific diagnoses for depressive disorders and anxiety disorders.     

Coparental Affect,Children's Emotion Dysregulation,and Parent and Child Depressive Symptoms

Children's emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms are known to be affected by a range of individual (parent, child) and systemic (parent–child, marital, and family) characteristics. The current study builds on this literature by examining the unique role of coparental affect in children's emotion dysregulation, and whether this association mediates the link between parent and child depressive symptoms. Participants were 51 mother–father–child triads with children aged 7 to 12 (M age = 9.24 years). Triads discussed a time when the child felt sad and a time when the child felt happy. Maternal and paternal displays of positive affect were coded, and sequential analyses examined the extent to which parents were congruent in their displays of positive affect during the emotion discussions. Results indicated that interparental positive affect congruity (IPAC) during the sadness discussion, but not the happiness discussion, uniquely predicted parent‐reported child emotion dysregulation, above and beyond the contributions of child negative affect and parental punitive reactions. The degree of IPAC during the sadness discussion and child emotion dysregulation mediated the association between maternal, but not paternal, depressive symptoms and child depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the unique role of coparental affect in the socialization of sadness in youth and offer initial support for low levels of IPAC as a risk factor for the transmission of depressive symptoms in youth.     

Child Characteristics,Parent Education and Depressive Symptoms,and Marital Conflict Predicting Trajectories of Parenting Behavior from Childhood Through Early Adolescence in Taiwan

The study examined how child and parent characteristics, and contextual sources of stress, such as marital conflict predict initial status and trajectories of parent involvement, support, and harsh control, over a 4‐year period in families in Taiwan (n = 4,754). Based on Belsky's (1984) ecological model of parenting, three domains predicting parenting were tested, child characteristics (age cohort and gender), father and mother characteristics (education and depressive symptoms), and contextual sources of stress (marital conflict). The study followed two cohorts of children; the younger cohort was followed from first to fourth grade and the older cohort from fourth to seventh grade. Initially, fourth graders reported more parental involvement, support, and harsh control than first graders. However, involvement, support, and harsh control decreased across the 4 years for the older cohort as they transitioned to early adolescence. In the first year, girls reported more parental involvement and support and less harsh control than boys. Across the 4 years, involvement and support increased, and harsh control decreased for boys; whereas involvement stayed the same, support slightly decreased, and harsh control slightly increased for girls. Children whose parents were more educated reported more parent involvement, support, and harsh control in the first year. Children whose fathers were chronically depressed and whose parents were experiencing marital conflict reported decreasing parent involvement and support over the years.     

Three-way interaction of neuroticism,extraversion, and conscientiousness in the internalizing disorders: Evidence of disorder specificity in a psychiatric sample

It is well-established that neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness are individually associated with internalizing disorders, but research suggests that these main effects may be qualified by a three-way interaction when predicting depression. The current study was the first to examine this three-way interaction in a psychiatric sample (N = 463) with a range of internalizing symptoms as the outcomes. Using two omnibus personality inventories and a diagnostic interview, the expected three-way interaction emerged most consistently for symptoms of major depression, and there was also evidence of synergistic effects for post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Findings indicate that, even in a clinically-distressed and currently-disordered sample, high levels of extraversion and conscientiousness protect against distress disorders for those with high levels of neuroticism.     

Distinguishing types of social withdrawal in children: Internalizing and externalizing outcomes of conflicted shyness versus social disinterest across childhood

Little research has examined the effect of subtypes of social withdrawal on the development of psychopathology across childhood.Parents of 493 children (220 females) completed a measure of their child’s conflicted shyness and social disinterest as well as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) when their child was age 3, and again at age 6. When children were age 9, parents completed the CBCL.From 3 to 6, conflicted shyness predicted increases in anxiety symptoms in boys and girls, and predicted depressive symptoms in boys. From 6 to 9, social disinterest predicted increases in anxiety symptoms in girls and boys, and predicted increases in depressive symptoms in boys. In addition, in boys, conflicted shyness at age 6 predicted increases in externalizing symptoms at age 9.Conflicted shyness appears to be particularly problematic in early to middle childhood, while social disinterest appears to be more maladaptive in later childhood, with some differences by gender.     

Weakness of will and motivational internalism

The unconditional version of motivational internalism says that if an agent sincerely judges that to φ in circumstances C is the best option available to her, then, as a matter of conceptual necessity, she will be motivated to φ in C. This position faces a powerful counterargument according to which it is possible for various cases of practical irrationality to completely defeat an agent’s moral motivation while, at the same time, leaving her appreciation of her moral reasons intact. In this paper, I will argue that weakness of will, as the paradigmatic case of practical irrationality, and all other cases of practical irrationality that feature in standard formulations of this argument do not represent genuine counterexamples to this version of motivational internalism. In this sense, the main aim of this paper is to show that proponents of this internalist position are well justified in their denial of the claim that there are people who are completely unmotivated by their judgments about what is the best option available to them.     

Psychotherapie bei Patienten mit koronarer Herzkrankheit

Zusammenfassung Psychosomatisch-somatopsychische Interaktionen sind bei Koronarpatienten häufig und verlaufsrelevant. Seit den 1960er-Jahren kommen daher psychosoziale Interventionen zur Verbesserung von Befinden und Krankheitsverlauf zum Einsatz. Neben psychoedukativen und unspezifisch-supportiven Angeboten oder Entspannungsverfahren finden sich auch explizit psychotherapeutische Interventionen. Diese beabsichtigen einerseits, durch Reduktion von Stressbelastungen und Förderung gesundheitsbewusster Verhaltensweisen den Krankheitsverlauf zu verlangsamen. Zuletzt wurde zudem auch die Psychotherapie psychischer Komorbiditäten untersucht. Hier spielt die prognostisch relevante Depression eine besondere Rolle. In der größten Psychotherapiestudie bei Koronarpatienten, der ENRICHD-Studie, wurde bei 2481 Infarktpatienten mit Depression oder mangelnder sozialer Unterstützung eine maximal halbjährige kognitive Verhaltenstherapie eingesetzt. Diese führte zur deutlichen Besserung der Depressivität; bei hoher Spontanremissionsrate in der Kontrollgruppe blieb der Nettoeffekt jedoch bescheiden. Eine Lebensverlängerung wurde in der Interventionsgruppe nicht erreicht. Die Befundlage verlangt differenzielle Indikationsstellungen und behandlungstechnische Weiterentwicklungen der therapeutischen Konzepte bzw. die Erprobung anderer Therapieverfahren, erlaubt jedoch noch keine evidenzbasierte allgemeine Behandlungsempfehlung. Therapieentscheidungen stützen sich heute auf die Würdigung des Einzelfalls, auf gut belegte subjektiven Therapieeffekte, theoretische Annahmen über Stressbewältigungs- und Entspannungsverfahren sowie die an anderen Patientenkollektiven gewonnenen Wirksamkeitsnachweise psychotherapeutischer Verfahren. Dabei sind generell eine Beachtung der kardialen Situation und der typischen Problembereiche der koronaren Herzkrankheit (KHK) sowie eine gute Abstimmung mit den somatischen Behandlern wichtig.     

Sensory processing sensitivity and its relation to parental bonding, anxiety, and depression

Sensory processing sensitivity is a recently proposed construct referring to a tendency to process a variety of information more strongly and deeply than others. Although some research has found links between sensory processing sensitivity and psychological difficulties, highly sensitive people may not necessarily be predisposed to negative affect, but may be more sensitive to poor parenting. Two hundred thirteen college students were given a measure of sensory processing sensitivity (the HSPS), the parental bonding scale (measuring parental care and over-protection), the trait anxiety scale, and the Beck depression inventory. Sensory processing sensitivity predicted both anxiety and depression above and beyond parental factors, indicating that it may be an independent risk factor. An interaction was found between sensory processing sensitivity and parental care when measuring depression. Highly sensitive people may be particularly sensitive to uncaring parents. Results indicate that sensory processing sensitivity may be a temperamental disposition that interacts meaningfully with environmental factors.