Nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in adolescents

To determine the frequency and correlates of nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts in 12–14 year olds, a two stage epidemiologic survey with a self-administered questionnaire (N=3283) followed by a psychiatric interview of a subsample of the adolescents and their parents (N=444) was used. Prevalence estimates of interview validated nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts were 2.46% in males and 2.79% in females. Significant relationships were found between nonsuicidal physically self-damaging acts and suicidal ideation, major depression and undesirable life events. Data suggest that physically self-damaging acts occur at substantial rates during early adolescence. The strong correlation between nonsuicidal self-destructive acts and both suicidal ideation and major depression clarifies prior conflicting reports in the literature and suggests that a history of self-damaging acts should be taken into consideration when evaluating for possible depression and suicide risk.     

Working Together with God: Religious Coping,Perceived Discrimination,and Hypertension

This study examined the relationships of perceived discrimination and religious coping with hypertension in a sample of Black and White Seventh-day Adventists. Data come from a community-based sample of 6128 White American, 2253 African American and 927 Caribbean American adults (67% women; mean age = 62.9 years). Results indicate lifetime unfair treatment was significantly associated with hypertension regardless of race/ethnicity. Positive religious coping was associated with lower odds of hypertension and did not interact with unfair treatment. Both positive and negative religious coping were indirectly associated with increased hypertension risk through an increase in perceived discrimination.

     

Early sex differences in weighting geometric cues

When geometric and non-geometric information are both available for specifying location, men have been shown to rely more heavily on geometry compared to women. To shed insight on the nature and developmental origins of this sex difference, we examined how 18- to 24-month-olds represented the geometry of a surrounding (rectangular) space when direct non-geometric information (i.e. a beacon) was also available for localizing a hidden object. Children were tested on a disorientation task with multiple phases. Across experiments, boys relied more heavily than girls on geometry to guide localization, as indicated by their errors during the initial phase of the task, and by their search choices following transformations that left only geometry available, or that, under limited conditions, created a conflict between beacon and geometry. Analyses of search times suggested that girls, like boys, had encoded geometry, and testing in a square space ruled out explanations concerned with motivational and methodological variables. Taken together, the findings provide evidence for an early sex difference in the weighting of geometry. This sex difference, we suggest, reflects subtle variation in how boys and girls approach the problem of combining multiple sources of location information.     

Effects of age, speed of processing, and working memory on comprehension of sentences with relative clauses

Two hundred participants, 50 in each of four age ranges (19-29, 30-49, 50-69, 70-90) were tested for working memory, speed of processing, and the processing of sentences with relative clauses. In Experiment 1, participants read four sentence types (cleft subject, cleft object, subject-subject, subject-object) in a word-by-word, non-cumulative, self-paced reading task and made speeded plausibility judgments about them. In Experiment 2, participants read two types of sentences, one of which contained a doubly center embedded relative clause. Older participants' comprehension was less accurate and there was age-related slowing of online processing times in all but the simplest sentences, which increased in syntactically complex sentences in Experiment 1. This pattern suggests an age-related decrease in the efficiency of parsing and interpretation. Slower speed of processing and lower working memory were associated with longer online processing times only in Experiment 2, suggesting that task-related operations are related to general speed of processing and working memory. Lower working memory was not associated with longer reading times in more complex sentences, consistent with the view that general working memory is not critically involved in online syntactic processing. Longer online processing at the most demanding point in the most demanding sentence was associated with better comprehension, indicating that it reflects effective processing under some certain circumstances. However, the poorer comprehension performance of older individuals indicates that their slower online processing reflects inefficient processing even at these points.     

Positive discipline,harsh physical discipline,physical discipline and psychological aggression in five Caribbean countries: Associations with preschoolers' early literacy skills

Physical punishment has received worldwide attention because of its negative impact on children's cognitive and social development and its implications for children's rights. Using UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 4 and 5 data, we assessed the associations between positive discipline, harsh physical punishment, physical punishment and psychological aggression and preschoolers' literacy skills in 5628 preschool‐aged children and their caregivers in the developing nations of Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica and Suriname. Caregivers across countries used high levels of explanations and psychological aggression. There were significant country differences in the use of the four disciplinary practices. In the Dominican Republic and Guyana, physical punishment had negative associations with children's literacy skills, and in the Dominican Republic, positive discipline had a positive association with children's literacy skills. Findings are discussed with respect to the negative consequences of harsh disciplinary practices on preschoolers' early literacy skills in the developing world.     

Factors Influencing Clinical Correlates of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE): a Review

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neuropathologically defined disease reportedly linked to a history of repetitive brain trauma. As such, retired collision sport athletes are likely at heightened risk for developing CTE. Researchers have described distinct pathological features of CTE as well a wide range of clinical symptom presentations, recently termed traumatic encephalopathy syndrome (TES). These clinical symptoms are highly variable, non-specific to individuals described as having CTE pathology in case reports, and are often associated with many other factors. This review describes the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes associated with 1) developmental and demographic factors, 2) neurodevelopmental disorders, 3) normal aging, 4) adjusting to retirement, 5) drug and alcohol abuse, 6) surgeries and anesthesia, and 7) sleep difficulties, as well as the relationship between these factors and risk for developing dementia-related neurodegenerative disease. We discuss why some professional athletes may be particularly susceptible to many of these effects and the importance of choosing appropriate controls groups when designing research protocols. We conclude that these factors should be considered as modifiers predominantly of the clinical outcomes associated with repetitive brain trauma within a broader biopsychosocial framework when interpreting and attributing symptom development, though also note potential effects on neuropathological outcomes. Importantly, this could have significant treatment implications for improving quality of life.     

The role of social support as a moderator of the acute stress response: In Situ versus empirically-derived associations

Abstract

This investigation was designed to (1) evaluate the role of social support during an acute naturalistic stressor i.e., emergency dental treatment, (2) assess whether an in situ and an empirical measure of support exhibited consistent relationships with anxiety and (3) examine the relationship between the in situ and empirical measures of support. All participants completed a measure of social support prior to treatment and an anxiety measure prior to and following treatment. The effect of support on pre-treatment anxiety, post-treatment anxiety and change in anxiety during the treatment process was assessed. According to the in situ support measure, individuals high in support were accompanied to the clinic, and individuals low in support were unaccompanied. According to the empirical support measure, individuals high in support had actual support scores above the sample median. Individuals low in support had actual support scores below the sample median. Individuals high in in situ support were found to have significantly higher levels of pre-treatment anxiety. No other effects of support were observed for either support measure. Furthermore, while there was some evidence that the in situ and empirical measures of support were associated with consistent outcomes, in the main, they exhibited independence.     

The impact of a history of sexual abuse on high-risk sexual behaviors among females attending alternative schools

The goal of this study was to explore whether a history of sexual abuse is associated with high-risk sexual behaviors among female adolescents attending alternative schools in a large urban city in the southwestern United States, and to examine the role of depression and substance abuse in explaining this association. One hundred eighty-four sexually active female adolescents constituted the sample for this analysis. Forty-nine (26.6%) reported that they were forced to have sex. Having a history of sexual abuse substantially increased sexual risk behaviors. Adolescents reporting a history of sexual abuse, compared to those who did not report such a history, were significantly more likely to have initiated sexual activity (intercourse) before age 14, to have had three or more sexual partners in the last 3 months, and to have had a history of sexually transmitted diseases. These associations remained significant after controlling for age, ethnicity, and family income. Depression and substance abuse did not explain the association between sexual abuse and high-risk sexual behaviors. It seems reasonable to conclude that adolescents with a history of sexual abuse have greater difficulty practicing safe sexual behaviors than do those who have not been sexually abused. Given the prevalence of child sexual abuse and the extent of its impact, it is critical that intervention strategies for adolescent females address the issue of abuse and help them adopt self-protective sexual behaviors. The findings also highlight the importance of targeting adolescents who attend alternative schools.     

Undesirable life-events and depression in young adolescents

We compared the relationship between individual undesirable life-events and comprehensive life-event factors, as well as major depression in adolescents. Students in four public suburban middle schools were screened for depressive symptomatology and life-events by a self-administered questionnaire. Seven of 21 individual events (parents' divorce, parental job loss, problems between parents, problems between the adolescent and his/her parents, failing a grade in school, school suspension, death of a close friend) and three of six life-event factors (conflict/disappointment, marital discord, maladjustment) were significantly related to depression in univariate models. A multivariate examination of the individual events was difficult to interpret, but examination of the event factors found maladjustment and conflict/disappointment significant. Analyses using the undesirable life-event factors provided a clearer picture of the relationships investigated by grouping related events into a more manageable number of independent categories. Specific combinations of life-events suggest stronger associations with adolescent depression than others. Clinicians may identify youths at risk for depression when specific combinations of undesirable life-events occur.     

Family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder in a community sample of young adolescents

A two-stage epidemiologic study conducted between 1986 and 1988 in the southeastern United States investigated family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical OCD in young adolescents. In the first stage, a life-event schedule and a family adaptability and cohesion scale were administered to a community sample of 3,283 adolescents. In stage two, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia in School Age Children and the Children's Global Assessment Scale were administered to 488 mother-child pairs. In multivariable models family cohesion was the only significant correlate of OCD (odds ratio=0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.91–0.98). Gender, race, age, socioeconomic status, guardian status, adaptability, undesirable life events and desirable life events were not found to be significant predictors of OCD in models adjusting for cohesion. Note of the above variables were significantly associated with subclinical OCD. However, separate analyses of the 41 individual life events indicated seven specific events were significantly associated with OCD or subclinical OCD. These findings are at odds with the theory that overinvolvement of family members is a risk factor for OCD, though an association with overly rigid family structure cannot be eliminated based on these data. Further exploration of family characteristics is warranted.