Resilience and suicide ideation: Coping mediator-moderator effects among adolescent learners

The current study aimed to investigate the influence of coping on the relationship between resilience and adolescent suicide ideation among secondary learners in the Free State Province, South Africa (n = 495; female = 61.6%; black = 55%, white = 27%, other = 18%; mean age = 13.99 years; SD = 0.83 years). The learners completed the Suicide Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ), the Revised Coping Schema Inventory (RCSI), and the Resiliency Scale for Children and Adolescents (RSCA). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict resilience-mediated suicide ideation from coping. Results suggested higher resilience scores on sense of mastery (SoM) and sense of relatedness (SoR) to predict lower suicide ideation risk among the teenagers. By contrast, higher scores on emotional reactivity (ER) predicted higher risk for suicide ideation. Religious coping (RC) moderated the relationship between resilience (sense of relatedness) and suicide ideation so that RC scores with SoM were associated with lower suicide ideation scores. Personal dispositions seem to explain risk for suicide ideation among adolescents.     

Cultural variations in pre-emptive effort downplaying

Pre-emptive effort downplaying (PED) occurs when people publicly downplay their effort expenditure on test preparation prior to taking a test for the sake of managing the social evaluation of the self in the face of a challenging performance task. Thirty Asian Americans and 29 European Americans had two opportunities to publicly report their effort expenditure on a practice exercise. They also completed measures of self-evaluations and concern for performance before working on the practice exercise, and the self-evaluation measure again at the completion of the actual test. Only European Americans showed PED. Additionally, concern for performance was positively associated with and mediated cultural variations in PED. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Adverse effects of predictive testing for Huntington disease underestimated: long-term effects 7-10 years after the test.

The 7-10-year psychological effects of presymptomatic testing for Huntington disease are described in 142 individuals and 104 partners. Questionnaires included the Beck Hopelessness Scale (A. T. Beck, A. Weissman, D. Lester, & L. Trexler, 1974), the Impact of Event Scale (M. J. Horowitz, N. Wilner. & W. Alvarez. 1979). and the General Health Questionnaire (D. P. Goldberg. 1972). Carriers and their partners were more distressed immediately after the test result, although their outlooks improved somewhat in the 2-3-year posttest period. However, they became more pessimistic thereafter, when approaching the age of onset. Carriers, who were lost to follow-up after disclosure of test results, reported more distress pretest than did retained carriers. This demonstrates that studies that report few harmful effects may have underestimated the real impact. Moreover, follow-up studies need to investigate time effects for longer than a few years.     

Relationship between patient characteristics and treatment allocation for patients with personality disorders

Within a large multi-center study in patients with personality disorders, we investigated the relationship between patient characteristics and treatment allocation. Personality pathology, symptom distress, treatment history, motivational factors, and sociodemographics were measured at intake in 923 patients, who subsequently enrolled in short-term or long-term outpatient, day hospital, or inpatient psychotherapy for personality pathology. Logistic regressions were used to examine the predictors of allocation decisions. We found a moderate relationship (R(2) = 0.36) between patient characteristics and treatment setting, and a weak relationship (R(2) = 0.18) between patient characteristics and treatment duration. The most prominent predictors for setting were: symptom distress, cluster C personality pathology, level of identity integration, treatment history, motivation, and parental responsibility. For duration the most prominent predictor was age. We conclude from this study that, in addition to pathology and motivation factors, sociodemographics and treatment history are related to treatment allocation in clinical practice.     

In search of patient characteristics that may guide empirically based treatment selection for personality disorder patients-a concept map approach

Using the concept map method, this study aimed to summarize and describe patient characteristics pertinent to treatment selection for patients with personality disorders (PDs). Initial patient characteristics were derived from the research literature and a survey among Dutch expert clinicians. Concept mapping is a formalized conceptualization procedure that describes the underlying cognitive structures people use in complex tasks, such as treatment allocation. Based on expert opinions of 29 Dutch clinicians, a concept map was generated that yielded eight domains of patient characteristics, i.e., Severity of symptoms, Severity of personality pathology, Ego-adaptive capacities, Motivation and working alliance, Social context, Social demographic characteristics, Trauma, and Treatment history and medical condition. These domains can be ordered along two bipolar axes, running from internal to external concepts and from vulnerability to strength concepts, respectively. Our findings may serve as input for the delineation of algorithms for patient-treatment matching research in PD.