Interreinforcement time, work time, and the postreinforcement pause

Six rats were trained with food deliveries contingent upon their pressing a lever and holding it down for fixed, cumulative durations. Hold requirements were varied from 7.5 seconds to 120 seconds. Lever holding was maintained reliably at hold requirements as long as 30 seconds to 105 seconds for different rats. At longer hold requirements, lever holding was erratic and tended to occur only early in sessions. At shorter and intermediate requirements, the patterns of lever holding resembled those of responding under fixed-ratio schedules for discrete responses, with breaks in responding immediately after reinforcement alternating with relatively continuous lever holding until the next reinforcement. At longer hold requirements, postpause lever holding frequently was interrupted with additional pauses. The duration of postreinforcement pauses increased linearly with the scheduled hold requirement. However, for five of six rats, the hold requirement, which represents the actual time spent lever holding per reinforcer, accounted for somewhat less variance in pause duration than did interreinforcement time.     

Where the Girls (and Women) Are

This paper takes up a theoretical and empirical investigation of how two community-based projects for young women both create safety from community and domestic violence but how, in the process, discourses of multicultural inclusion define one site, and racist discourses of exclusion float through the other site. By relying on two intensive qualitative case studies of community-based organizations for girls, one exclusively White and working class and the other expressly multicultural and antiracist, we try to identify those structures and practices that support feminist, but inadvertently racist, work and those structures and practices that enable, at once, feminist and antiracist consciousness and praxis.     

Anxiety as a Predictor and Outcome Variable in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA)

Initial moderator analyses in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) suggested that child anxiety ascertained by parent report on the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 2.3 (DISC Anxiety) differentially moderated the outcome of treatment. Left unanswered were questions regarding the nature of DISC Anxiety, the impact of comorbid conduct problems on the moderating effect of DISC Anxiety, and the clinical significance of DISC Anxiety as a moderator of treatment outcome. Thirty-three percent of MTA subjects met DSM-III-R criteria for an anxiety disorder excluding simple phobias. Of these, two-thirds also met DSM-III-R criteria for comorbid oppositional-defiant or conduct disorder whereas one-third did not, yielding an odds ratio of approximately two for DISC Anxiety, given conduct problems. In this context, exploratory analyses of baseline data suggest that DISC Anxiety may reflect parental attributions regarding child negative affectivity and associated behavior problems (unlike fearfulness), particularly in the area of social interactions, another core component of anxiety that is more typically associated with phobic symptoms. Analyses using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) indicate that the moderating effect of DISC Anxiety continues to favor the inclusion of psychosocial treatment for anxious ADHD children irrespective of the presence or absence of comorbid conduct problems. This effect, which is clinically meaningful, is confined primarily to parent-reported outcomes involving disruptive behavior, internalizing symptoms, and inattention; and is generally stronger for combined than unimodal treatment. Contravening earlier studies, no adverse effect of anxiety on medication response for core ADHD or other outcomes in anxious or nonanxious ADHD children was demonstrated. When treating ADHD, it is important to search for comorbid anxiety and negative affectivity and to adjust treatment strategies accordingly.     

School-Based Mental Health Services: A Research Review

This paper provides a synthetic review of research on school-based mental health services. Schools play an increasingly important role in providing mental health services to children, yet most school-based programs being provided have no evidence to support their impact. A computerized search of references published between 1985 and 1999 was used to identify studies of school-based mental health services for children. Study inclusion was determined by (i) use of randomized, quasi-experimental, or multiple baseline research design; (ii) inclusion of a control group; (iii) use of standardized outcome measures; and (iv) baseline and postintervention outcome assessment. The application of these criteria yielded a final sample of 47 studies on which this review is based. Results suggest that there are a strong group of school-based mental health programs that have evidence of impact across a range of emotional and behavioral problems. However, there were no programs that specifically targeted particular clinical syndromes. Important features of the implementation process that increase the probability of service sustainability and maintenance were identified. These include (i) consistent program implementation; (ii) inclusion of parents, teachers, or peers; (iii) use of multiple modalities; (iv) integration of program content into general classroom curriculum; and (v) developmentally appropriate program components. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Meta-analysis for single-case consultation outcomes: Applications to research and practice

The application of meta-analysis holds much appeal for single-case consultation outcome research. We review a meta-analytic method for using within-study treatment effect sizes in reporting consultation outcomes. The strengths and limitations of traditional group design meta-analysis are examined. Various methods for analyzing single-case outcomes are discussed briefly, followed by an examination of the use of meta-analysis in single-case reviews across independent studies. Within-study meta-analytic results are presented that were derived from treatments implemented in consultations in natural settings. To conclude the article, an illustration is offered of a single-case data analysis display that incorporates meta-analytic results along with other indices of treatment outcome. Recommendations are provided for using meta-analytic methods to evaluate outcomes of single-case consultation treatment.     

Dynamique des valeurs culturelles au travail en contexte gabonais : influence de la culture nationale et de la culture d’entreprise occidentale

More and more Western organizations settle in Africa and import their corporate culture. This contrasts strongly with local national culture. The present study examines the direct links and the interactive effect of Gabonese culture and Western corporate culture on workplace cultural values. A total of 650 Gabonese employees working in Western organizations answered a questionnaire. The results indicate that Gabonese national culture and Western corporate culture are differentially linked with collectivism at work, given that the former is positively associated whereas the latter is negatively associated. Moreover, an additive effect of both cultures on the distance to power. Thus, the cohabitation between Gabonese national culture and Western corporate culture leads to a mismatch of cultural values at workplace.     

员工正念对配偶家庭满意度和工作投入的影响

文章基于资源保存理论, 采用体验抽样法收集了一家商业银行114名员工及其配偶的数据。结果表明, 在个体内层面, 员工正念通过员工情感联结策略的中介作用影响其配偶家庭满意度及第二天早上工作投入; 在个体间层面的配偶家庭负面情感表达调节了员工正念与员工情感联结策略的关系及员工情感联结策略的中介作用, 即配偶家庭负面情感表达水平越高, 员工正念对员工情感联结策略的影响及员工情感联结策略的中介作用相对更弱。     

Patterns of Parental Adherence and the Association to Child and Parenting Outcomes Following a Multicomponent School-Home Intervention for Youth With ADHD

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the role of parent adherence in the Collaborative Life Skills (CLS) program, a multicomponent school-home intervention, for predicting child and parenting outcomes. A sample of 129 children (63% male; M age = 8.22, SD = 1.10; grades 2–5) with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their parents participated in CLS, which included 10 weekly behavioral parent training group sessions. Each week, parents provided information on their CLS skill use between sessions (at home) as part of the intervention. Outcome measures included parent and teacher ratings of child behavior and parenting at post-intervention and 6 months follow-up. Growth mixture models examining weekly parent skill use trajectories throughout the intervention significantly predicted parent- and teacher-reported outcomes including parent-rated child behavior, teacher-rated academic competence, and positive parenting behaviors. Fifty-two percent of parents displayed moderate skill use throughout the intervention, whereas the remaining parents had either low (20%) or high (28%) initial levels of use but demonstrated high skill utilization by the middle of the intervention. Results highlight the importance of examining individual differences in parents between session strategy use for behavioral parent training interventions targeting child and parenting outcomes.     

Posttraumatic symptoms,posttraumatic growth,and internal resources among the general population in Greece: A nation-wide survey amid the first COVID-19 lockdown

Scarce and inconclusive evidence exists on the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown. This study examined the psychological impact of the lockdown in Greece, resilience levels, use of coping strategies, and identified high-risk groups. A sample of 1661 participants (mean age = 39.5, SD = 12.2; 75.5% females) completed a web-based survey, which was distributed through social networking sites, webpages, and personal contacts. Posttraumatic symptoms, posttraumatic growth, resilience, and coping strategies were assessed. Different population subgroups suffered the impact of lockdown disproportionately. Healthcare workers, females, younger, less educated, and those living alone reported higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Females achieved more posttraumatic growth and were using coping strategies more frequently than men. Men, older, healthcare workers, and those with a partner were more resilient. Interventions need to be developed to target personal resources, protect vulnerable populations, facilitate posttraumatic growth, and ameliorate wellbeing and quality of life.