This study examined the effects of a screening instrument and parent handouts on pediatric residents' recognition and intervention of children's behavioral and emotional problems. Four pediatric residents and 52 parent-child dyads attending a pediatric primary care clinic participated in the study. A multiple baseline design across residents was used. The effects of the interventions were assessed by measuring ten target behaviors of the pediatric residents. After being trained to use the screening instrument, residents' increased the number and variety of questions they asked regarding behavioral and emotional issues. Attempts at intervention by the residents showed small but reliable increases when handouts on behavior management procedures were made available. The use of a screening instrument in pediatric primary care shows promise in increasing discussions regarding children's behavioral and emotional issues between residents and parents. Further research is needed examining strategies to improve pediatric residents' attempts at intervention for behavioral and emotional problems in children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the severity of cocaine/alcohol use, neuropsychological functioning, and cerebral blood flow abnormalities. Cocaine users (n = 60) and control subjects (n = 13) were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests that yielded the following factors: Attention/Executive Functioning, Memory, Simple Motor, and Sensorimotor. Participants were assessed for decreased cerebral blood flow with single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Examination of group differences indicated that cocaine users performed significantly worse than controls on the Memory and Sensorimotor factors. The frequency/duration of cocaine use, alcohol use, and a combination of both substances were evaluated to specify which contributed the greatest to reductions in cognitive functions. Increasing frequency of recent alcohol consumption was a significant predictor of worse performance on the Attention and Sensorimotor factors. Years of alcohol use was also significantly related to the Attention factor, whereas, greater duration of cocaine use predicted poorer performance on the Memory factor. Caucasian race was associated with better performance on the Attention/Executive Functioning, Memory, and Sensorimotor factors. The ethnic differences persisted after controlling for greater substance use among African-Americans. Increasing severity of total cerebral hypoperfusion contributed significantly only to the prediction of poorer performance on the Simple Motor factor. There was some evidence supporting the hypothesis that the severity of hypoperfusion worsens with increasing frequency of cocaine use. Moderate alcohol use appeared to be related to a reduction in severity of hypoperfusion. Overall, the results suggested that reductions in memory functioning in this group of cocaine users was specifically related to increasing duration of cocaine use, rather than to alcohol, or a combination of the two. Attention and sensorimotor functioning seem to be more reliant on the frequency of recent alcohol usage, contrary to the assumption that declines in these functions were due to cocaine among samples of cocaine-dependent patients. Findings suggested that simple motor performance was more affected by global hypoperfusion than the other cognitive functions. Future research is needed to evaluate whether more localized areas of cerebral perfusion deficits reveal a significant relationship between hypoperfusion and memory, attention, and sensorimotor functioning.

With advances in HIV treatment regimens, HIV has become a treatable chronic illness that requires extensive clinical management (Kelly, Otto-Salaj, Sikkema, Pinkerton, & Bloom, 1998). Nonadherence to HIV medical regimens is a primary reason for treatment failure. HIV medication regimens are complicated and require extensive time and effort from the patient (Friedland & Williams, 1999). Since the effectiveness of HIV medication regimens can be severely limited by poor adherence, much research has been conducted regarding the influence of psychosocial factors in adherence. However, this research has primarily focused on medication adherence and has not investigated psychosocial aspects associated with other adherence related behaviors such as appointment attendance. Thus, the current literature may be missing an entire group of HIV patients who do not follow through with medical care long enough to receive medications or other available treatments and services. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of initial coping strategies on long-term appointment attendance in individuals with HIV. Baseline data collection was conducted between 1992 and 1995 and included information concerning demographic factors, illness severity, depressive symptoms, and coping strategies. The current results were obtained by a retrospective chart review of appointment attendance. It was predicted that problem-focused coping would be associated with attending regularly scheduled clinic visits and emotion-focused coping would be predictive of failure to attend appointments. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the coping style employed by participants did not predict appointment attendance above and beyond the variance predicted by demographic, illness, and distress related factors. However, minority status, depressive symptoms, and history of intravenous drug use did emerge as reliable predictors of failure to attend scheduled clinic appointments over a three-year follow-up period. These results suggest that increased depressive symptoms, a history of intravenous drug use, and being African American negatively impact treatment success by reducing appointment attendance. Further research should evaluate the specific variables associated with poor appointment attendance among minority individuals.

Research has found that athletes, particularly those involved in "aesthetically-oriented" sports, are at increased risk for engaging in unhealthy weight reduction practices and developing clinical eating disorders. Prevention studies of eating disorders have had some success, but there are very few published studies that address prevention in athletes. This study was designed as an eating disorders prevention program that targeted coaches as change agents. Cheerleading coaches at national or regional conferences attended an intervention workshop or a control workshop. Coaches who attended the intervention workshop received information regarding nutrition, eating disorders, and ways to manage athletes with eating disorders. They had the opportunity to participate in seven intervention strategies (e.g., reading materials, Internet support, parent handouts) after attending the workshop. Seven months following the workshop, the coaches and cheerleaders completed an assessment battery designed to test the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated that the intervention was successful in increasing knowledge about eating disorders among coaches and producing behavior changes in coaches. However, the changes observed in the coaches did not lead to improvements in body image among cheerleaders or reduce the cheerleaders perceptions of weight pressures associated with their sport. These findings imply that interventions can be implemented by important adult figures (e.g., coaches, teachers) but the overall effectiveness of these interventions must be enhanced in order to have a significant impact on the athletes themselves.

Attention and affect perception was examined in a sample of sixty-five persons with chronic schizophrenia. Attentional skills may be related to deficits in affect perception due to a lack of attention to important information contained in the face. Deficits of this sort can dramatically inhibit appropriate social functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical research on this topic. Mirsky's four factor model of attention was used as a broad-based assessment of attentional functioning. The four factors of attention were: 1) Focus-Execute, 2) Encode, 3) Sustain, and 4) Shift. Neuropsychological measures reflective of attentional factor were administered. In this study, Mirsky's four factor model of attention was replicated, and four clear factors of attention emerged from the analysis. In addition, a regression analysis showed that all four attentional factors and psychiatric diagnosis were significantly related to affect perception scores. In contrast, psychiatric symptoms, medication levels, demographic variables, verbal fluency, and face perception scores were unrelated to affect perception. The four factors of attention accounted for 78% of the variance in affect perception scores. Finally, persons who scored high and low on the affect perception measures were also found to differ on the attentional measures as well. All of these results point to the important role that attentional abilities play in the recognition of emotional states for persons with schizophrenia.

Several studies have examined the ability of the Rey 15-Item Memory Test (MFIT) to identify malingering of memory problems among a variety of psychiatric and neurologically impaired populations. The consensus has been that the quantitative scoring method is overly sensitive to genuine memory impairment and lacks sensitivity to simulated amnesia. However, a reexamination of these studies and available data indicates the MFIT is both valid and effective at identifying actual malingerers among civil litigants, and a number of these studies were limited through inappropriate inclusion of severely impaired patients and research designs of questionable validity. Also, the performance of a group for whom malingering of memory complaints is a relevant issue (criminal defendants) has been overlooked. The present study expands upon previous investigations by comparing the MFIT performance of a known group of forensic malingerers to a group of non-malingering pretrial criminal defendants and non-malingering post-trial forensic inpatients, and by examining the utility of a qualitative scoring approach hypothesized to enhance the MFITs detection ability. <p>Using the quantitative method, a low sensitivity of 47.7% was obtained for malingerers. Minimal improvement was found when qualitative scoring was incorporated (56.8%), although confidence in correct identification was increased with very low total scores (<5) and failure to recall at least 3 of the first 6 items. While the quantitative method yielded high specificity for non-malingering post-trial patients (86.7%), this was not the case for the more clinically relevant non-malingering pretrial patients (56.2%). However, specificity was increased for both non-malingering groups through the addition of qualitative scoring. Although both the quantitative and combined quantitative and qualitative scoring methods were found to be accurate at identifying criminal forensic malingerers, neither was found to be more accurate than base rate prediction alone. It is concluded that the lack of effectiveness can be attributed to 1) decreased sensitivity to less blatant forms of malingering, and 2) the adverse impact of lower intelligence and psychiatric symptoms affecting the ability to attend and organize cognitive processes on the MFIT recall for actual patients.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is currently defined using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). With the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-5) forthcoming, one change the American Psychiatric Association has proposed is an increase in the number of overall symptoms necessary to meet criteria for ASD. Because social skills is well established as a core symptom of autism, the present study explores differences in social functioning using the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills in Youngsters-II (MESSY-II) in three groups of children ages 3-16 years including those diagnosed with ASD using the current criteria who will no longer meet criteria according to the proposed DSM-5, those who will still meet criteria for ASD using the proposed DSM-5, and a control group of typically developing children. In the present study (n = 205), significant differences were found between the control group and the two DSM groups combined. On the two factors of the MESSY-II representing inappropriate social skills, there were no significant differences in social functioning between those diagnosed with the proposed DSM-5 and those who met criteria under the DSM-IV-TR but will no longer meet criteria with the proposed DSM-5. Concerning the factor of the MESSY-II rating socially appropriate behavior, significantly more impairments were found in the DSM-5 group compared with those diagnosed with ASD according to the DSM-IV only, though both groups evinced severe impairments. The implications of these findings are important; though individuals who may no longer meet criteria were found to engage in slightly more appropriate social behavior, they functioned in the severely impaired range in terms of social skills. Further, children diagnosed with the different criteria demonstrated the same amount of inappropriate social behavior. Thus, individuals projected to no longer meet criteria for ASD appear to have clinically significant social impairments requiring intervention.

Although the conclusions of research examining the impact of emotional arousal on associative memory are mixed (e.g., Mather & Nesmith, 2008; Zimmerman & Kelley, 2010), it has recently been suggested that associative memory should be enhanced by arousal when encoding is intentional rather than incidental (Mather & Sutherland, 2011). Research has also suggested that arousing items are more subject to interference effects in memory than non-arousing items. These predictions were explored across two experiments. In both experiments, participants intentionally encoded a series of picture pairs that consisted of two neutral pictures, two negatively arousing pictures, or one neutral picture and one negatively arousing picture. A recognition test assessed participants associative memory for picture pairs as well as item memory for individual pictures. In Experiment 1 it was found that, even with intentional encoding, emotional arousal did not enhance associative recognition. In addition, arousal did not interact with the effects of interference. However, the results did show that repetition enhanced memory for neutral pictures more than arousing pictures. Research concerning the impact of arousal on memory typically finds that the enhancing effect of emotional arousal on memory is usually more apparent after a delay because of improved consolidation (e.g., McGaugh, 2004). Experiment 2 investigated the effect of emotional arousal on associative memory performance after a 48-hour delay. Emotional arousal led to poorer associative recognition. As in Experiment 1, repetition appeared to disproportionally enhance memory for neutral items. Overall, these studies found no evidence that associative recognition is enhanced by emotional arousal.

The effects of an iPad-based intervention, given to six children with autism while writing a creative story, were evaluated through a multiple-baseline, alternating treatment, single subject design. The researcher targeted the effectiveness of the iPad by alternating with paper and pencil. Participants were required to write stories, based on one-word topic prompts, either using the iPad or a pencil and paper. The resulting stories were scored by a set of blind raters. The raters were either given a sentences rubric or a paragraph rubric depending on the participant‟s age. One of the participant‟s data was omitted from the study. Results indicated a significant difference between treatment rubric raw scores for two of the participants in different directions. A difference between proficiency scores for the same two participants was also demonstrated. The remaining three participants had less significant results, with one participant maintaining the same proficiency level and eventually narrowing the difference between treatment raw scores.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics 21.5% of women and 3.6% of men were identified as victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) between 2001 and 2005 (Catalano, 2007). However, it is likely that these are underestimated rates due to un-reported incidents of IPV. A national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention found that 35.6% of women and 28.5% of men reported having experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some time in their life (Black, Basile, Breiding, Smith, Walters et al., 2011). Several attempts have been made to address the problem of IPV and increase understanding of the processes related to ending or changing violent relationships (e.g., Anderson, 1997; Burke, Gielen, McDonnell, O'Campo, & Maman, 2001; Little & Kantor, 2002; McPhail, Busch, Kulkarni, & Rice, 2007). Additional research addressing the process through which violence occurs may further our knowledge regarding how to intervene in and prevent IPV. Previous research has suggested that stress and coping models, in particular, Scheier and Carver's (2003) model of behavioral self-regulation, may be useful in understanding relationship violence (Armstrong & Fiore, 2010). Studies using aspects of this model have been found to be effective in describing the influence of positive expectancies, goals, and goal changes on the behaviors of individuals coping with cancer (Scheier & Carver, 2001), AIDS (Moskowitz, Folkman, Collette, & Vittinghoff, 1996) and heart disease (Boersma, Maes, Joekes, & Dusseldorp, 2006). However, this model has yet to be applied to the stress and coping that accompanies relationship violence. The following study applies Scheier and Carver's model of behavioral self-regulation to better understand the influence of positive expectancies, goals, and coping on relationship violence in a community sample of young adults (ages 18-25).