The effects of SES on infant and maternal diurnal salivary cortisol output

The present study directly compared diurnal salivary cortisol output and maternal-infant synchrony in low and high socio-economic status (SES) mother–infant dyads. Saliva cortisol samples were collected from 32 6–12-month-old infants and their mothers on the same day in the morning, afternoon and evening, and assayed for free cortisol concentration. Low-SES infants and mothers exhibited higher average salivary cortisol output, without dysregulation, compared to high-SES infants. Low-SES infants and mothers also showed reduced synchrony in cortisol output compared to high-SES infants and mothers. Results are discussed with respect to maternal sensitivity and early stress reduction interventions.     

我国医疗失效模式与效应分析的应用现状及问题

医疗失效模式与效应分析（HFMEA）是目前较为先进的前瞻性预防医疗风险的方法,强调对整个流程潜在医疗风险的量化及“事前预防”。本研究通过文献计量分析发现,国内HFMEA的研究和应用主要集中在护理操作、手术操作、给药流程以及医疗设备管理等方面,尚处于起步阶段,研究论文的数量较少、研究主题多集中在护理风险管理领域且研究方法不够科学。今后应顺应医疗风险管理的趋势,更科学、有效地开展更多HFMEA研究及应用工作,逐步建立健全医疗风险监测和预警机制,提高医疗安全。     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Parent Language and Child Anxiety

Research suggests that parents of anxious children behave differently when interacting with their children than do parents of nonanxious children. However, the relationship between parent language use in this context and child anxiety remains unclear. The present study investigates how parent language use relates to child anxiety during parent–child interactions using a community sample recruited to participate in a study of familial anxiety. Results indicate that parent language use varies in relation to child anxiety. Further, this idiosyncratic pattern of parent linguistic activity uniquely predicts child anxiety diagnostic status. Implications of this study and future directions for research are discussed.     

The Good Behavior Game

The Good Behavior Game was implemented with four children attending a church-affiliated preschool in efforts to increase concurrent compliance and cooperation. Sessions were conducted individually with each child pair while in free play. The children were given various instructions by “Buddy Bear” (a puppet). Children were praised individually for compliant behavior while noncompliant and inappropriate behaviors were ignored. Further instances in which children complies (i.e., cooperation) were rewarded with tokens make of felt, shaped like happy faced or dinosaurs and placed on a large felt board. If the children earned their criterion levels of tokens, they received animal snacks. Improvements in compliance were noted, with generalization occurring across therapists but not settings. Factors influencing the results and implications of the findings are discussed.     

Assessing Parental Response Patterns in the Treatment of Noncompliance in Children

Child noncompliance is one of the most frequently reported behavior problems in clinic-referred children. One difficulty with treating noncompliance in the clinic is that the demand characteristics of the situation may alter the rates of child compliance. The observation of parent-child interactions, with an emphasis on parent behaviors, may be a more meaningful way to assess parent training programs. In the current study, the parents of three children each showed a distinctive pattern in their responding to their children's compliant and noncompliant behaviors. An in vivo direct instruction procedure, that involved the therapist working directly with the parent to provide immediate consequences was used. Following training, improvements in correct responding were evident for al parents. Particularly noteworthy was that child compliance was not an accurate indicator when assessing parents' initial skill levels.     

Editorial to the special issue Neuronus

Did you visit the Neuronus conferences in the years 2012 and 2013 in Kraków? If not, then you certainly should have a close examination of this special issue including this introduction to at least have a glimpse of an idea of the highly interesting topics in the field of cognitive neuroscience that were presented at these conferences. If you were there, it is for sure a good choice to focus on this special issue as well, first to refresh your minds (we know our memories are far from perfect), but especially to see what happened with research of the presenters at these conferences.     

Masked constituent letter priming in an alphabetic decision task

Abstract

The experiments presented here were designed to test whether the prior presentation of a letter in a word, nonword or a string of Xs facilitates the subsequent identification of this letter. Using briefly presented masked primes, clear facilitatory constituent priming effects were obtained in an alphabetic decision task (letter/non-letter classification) when prime letters were flanked by Xs, but the effects disappeared or were greatly reduced when the prime letter formed part of a consonant array (nonword primes). Evidence for word-letter constituent priming was also obtained but almost only for word-initial letten. These facilitatory constituent priming effects were strongest when the target letter was embedded in a string of hash marks and occupied the same relative position in this string as the prime letter in the prime string. The mediating role of letter representations in word recognition and the position-specific coding of character arrays are discussed in the light of these results.     

Capturing the Child’s Perspective: A Review of Self-Report Measures used with Children

Recent policy extends the patient-professional collaboration in making health care decisions to children. As a result, the development of self-reporting measures allowing children to express their concerns is growing. A literature review identified 33 self-report measures for children among a range of disciplines. While these tools allow children to be part of the rehabilitation process, the information obtained does not seem to capture what matters to children. This is particularly true for children with mental illness whose views are often ignored. More research is needed on clinical approaches that access the unique experiences of children with mental illness.     

Chapter 6. Greater Satisfaction with Post-Injury Male Gender Roles

ABSTRACT

Shaken Baby Syndrome is a serious form of child abuse, involving infants under the age of six months. Deliberately shaking an infant is often associated with frustration or anger, particularly when an infant will not stop crying. The shaking results in numerous initial and long-term consequences for the developing infant. In its most severe form Shaken Baby Syndrome results in the death of the infant. A case study detailing the clinical findings and treatment of a six-month-old infant with Shaken Baby Syndrome who received inpatient occupational therapy services is presented.     

Changing interactions between teachers and socially inhibited kindergarten children: An interpersonal approach

In a short-term longitudinal intervention study, it was investigated whether a short teacher training in interpersonal theory and the complementarity principle could be used to break negative interaction cycles between teachers and socially inhibited kindergartners. Sixty-five children and their 35 regular teachers were observed in a dyadic task setting, on three occasions. In the training, it was explained that teachers could elicit more initiative from children by being less dominant and more friendliness by being more affiliative. Independent observers rated teachers' and children's interactive behaviors in 5-second episodes. Teachers reported on children's social inhibition. Multilevel analyses showed that the training elicited a decrease in teacher control at follow-up. Unexpectedly, the training increased teachers' complementarity on the affiliation dimension, especially in interactions with highly inhibited children. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.