Psychiatric correlates of childhood shyness in a nationally representative sample

Relations between adult anxiety and mood disorders and retrospective reports of excessive childhood shyness were investigated in the US National Comorbidity, Survey (n=5877). Results indicated that 26% of women and 19% of men described themselves as 'very shy' when they were growing up. Of these shy individuals, 53% of women and 40% of men met criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of one or more anxiety or mood disorders. Relations between excessive shyness and each of the anxiety and mood disorders were examined after adjusting for elevated neuroticism, self-criticism, and low maternal care. The largest odds ratios were found for social phobia in both men and women, particularly for the complex subtype of this disorder. Significant associations also emerged for posttraumatic stress disorder in women and for major depressive disorder in men. Childhood shyness remained significantly associated with a lifetime history of social phobia when individuals with current (past year) social phobia were excluded from the analysis. The results of this study suggest that childhood shyness is strongly related to the complex subtype of social phobia in the general population. Excessive shyness does not appear to be strongly associated with other anxiety and mood disorders when related psychosocial and developmental dimensions are statistically controlled. Finally, many individuals who report excessive childhood shyness do not meet criteria for any anxiety or mood disorder. In a similar fashion, approximately 50% of individuals with a lifetime history of complex social phobia did not view themselves as very shy when growing up.     

Constructing a short form of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire with adolescents and young adults

The goal of the present studies was to construct and validate a short form of the 50-item Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ; T.H. Brandon & T. B. Baker, 1991), a measure of smoking outcome expectancies. In Study 1, a 21-item short form (S-SCQ) was derived from a sample of 107 young adults previously treated for substance abuse. In Study 2, the measure was cross-validated on 125 adolescents in treatment for substance abuse. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed good model fit and factorial invariance for the 4 S-SCQ subscales across both samples. Validation analyses on each sample found that subscale scores generally correlated significantly with smoking-related variables. The present studies provide initial evidence for the utility of the S-SCQ when used with young adults and adolescents.     

A COMPARISON OF THREE METHODS FOR ELIMINATING DISRUPTIVE LUNCHROOM BEHAVIOR1,2

Three methods of controlling disruptive lunchroom behaviors of elementary school children were compared: basic modification procedures, basic modification procedures plus punishment essays, and basic modification procedures plus mediation essays. During an in-service workshop, six paraprofessional lunch aides received training in these methods to modify three classes of disruptive lunchroom behaviors. They then applied the methods in a counter-balanced design. Fourth- and fifth-grade elementary school pupils were observers and made reliability counts of the target misbehaviors under the various methods. Results indicated that during the periods when aides had been directed to use basic modification procedures plus mediation essays, target misbehaviors were almost totally eliminated and occurred significandy less often than during the periods when they had been directed to use basic modification procedures alone or basic modification procedures plus punishment essays.     

Does the social concerns component of the anxiety sensitivity index belong to the domain of anxiety sensitivity or the domain of negative evaluation sensitivity?

The present study utilized an exploratory factor-analytic approach (i.e. principal-components analysis; PCA) to investigate whether the Social Concerns component of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI [Peterson, R. A., & Reiss, S. (1992). Anxiety Sensitivity Index manual (2nd ed.). Worthington, OH: International Diagnostic Systems.]) is best conceptualized as belonging to the domain of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and/or the domain of negative evaluation sensitivity (NES). A sample of university students (N = 216) was administered measures of both NES (i.e. Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation scale; Leary, 1983) and AS (i.e. ASI). Participants' responses to the items comprising these measures were subjected to a PCA with oblique rotation. Factors representing the NES construct and the three lower-order AS constructs (i.e. AS Physical, Psychological and Social Concerns) were obtained. Subscales derived from these four factors were positively and significantly correlated with one another and loaded on a single higher-order factor labeled Threat Sensitivity. Thus, the present findings suggest that the AS Social Concerns factor is distinct from NES and the other lower-order components of AS. However, correlational analyses and higher-order PCA indicated that the AS Social Concerns factor taps a blend of AS and NES as well as something unique and distinct from both global AS and NES.     

Age,executive function,and social decision making: a dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive aging

Current neuropsychological models propose that some age-related cognitive changes are due to frontal-lobe deterioration. However, these models have not considered the possible subdivision of the frontal lobes into the dorsolateral and ventromedial regions. This study assessed the age effects on 3 tasks of executive function and working memory, tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction; and 3 tasks of emotion and social decision making, tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. Age-related differences in performance were found on all tasks dependent on dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction. In contrast, age-related differences were not found on the majority of the tasks dependent on ventromedial prefrontal dysfunction. The results support a specific dorsolateral prefrontal theory of cognitive changes with age, rather than a global decline in frontal-lobe function.     

Familiar other-race faces show normal holistic processing and are robust to perceptual stress

Other-race individuals are remembered more poorly and receive less holistic/configural processing than same-race individuals, at least when faces are novel. Here, we examine the amelioration of these effects with familiarity, using distinctiveness-matched Caucasian and Asian stimulus sets. We confirmed a cross-race deficit for upright faces following a single encoding trial, which disappeared rapidly with practice on a small set of other-race 'friends' and did not re-emerge when perceptual processing was put under stress (presentation in the periphery). We also examined holistic/configural processing for familiarised faces using the peripheral inversion effect (McKone, 2004 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 30 181 - 197). A test for faces and nonface objects (dogs) confirmed the validity of this technique as providing a direct measure of holistic processing; we then showed that, after 1 h of training, holistic processing was as strong for other-race as same-race faces. We conclude that practice with other-race individuals can rapidly engage normal face-processing mechanisms.     

“It Depends on What You Mean by ‘Disagree’”: Differences between Parent and Child Perceptions of Parent–Child Conflict

We examined a new structured interview of parent?Cchild conflict that assesses parent and child perceptions of behavioral conflict about daily life topics (e.g., doing chores, homework), and whether discrepancies exist on beliefs about these topics. In a sample of 100 parents and children ages 10 to 17?years (M?=?13.5?years, 52 males, 57?% African-American), informants could reliably distinguish between perceived behavioral conflicts and perceived discrepant beliefs about topics. These scores were also significantly related to questionnaire reports of parent?Cchild conflict. Parent and child questionnaire reports did not significantly differ, yet on the structured interview, parents reported significantly greater levels of perceived conflict and discrepant beliefs relative to child reports. Additionally, structured interview reports of conflict demonstrated incremental validity by relating to child self-reports of delinquent behaviors, when accounting for questionnaire conflict reports. The findings have implications for increasing understanding of the links between parent?Cchild conflict and psychosocial outcomes.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents: Theory, Treatment Adaptations, and Empirical Outcomes

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was originally developed for chronically suicidal adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and emotion dysregulation. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicate DBT is associated with improvements in problem behaviors, including suicide ideation and behavior, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), attrition, and hospitalization. Positive outcomes with adults have prompted researchers to adapt DBT for adolescents. Given this interest in DBT for adolescents, it is important to review the theoretical rationale and the evidence base for this treatment and its adaptations. A solid theoretical foundation allows for adequate evaluation of content, structural, and developmental adaptations and provides a framework for understanding which symptoms or behaviors are expected to improve with treatment and why. We first summarize the adult DBT literature, including theory, treatment structure and content, and outcome research. Then, we review theoretical underpinnings, adaptations, and outcomes of DBT for adolescents. DBT has been adapted for adolescents with various psychiatric disorders (i.e., BPD, mood disorders, externalizing disorders, eating disorders, trichotillomania) and problem behaviors (i.e., suicide ideation and behavior, NSSI) across several settings (i.e., outpatient, day program, inpatient, residential, correctional facility). The rationale for using DBT with these adolescents rests in the common underlying dysfunction in emotion regulation among the aforementioned disorders and problem behaviors. Thus, the theoretical underpinnings of DBT suggest that this treatment is likely to be beneficial for adolescents with a broad array of emotion regulation difficulties, particularly underregulation of emotion resulting in behavioral excess. Results from open and quasi-experimental adolescent studies are promising; however, RCTs are sorely needed.