Cognitive bias in the chick anxiety-depression model.

Cognitive bias is a phenomenon that presents in clinical populations where anxious individuals tend to adopt a more pessimistic-like interpretation of ambiguous aversive stimuli whereas depressed individuals tend to adopt a less optimistic-like interpretation of ambiguous appetitive stimuli. To further validate the chick anxiety-depression model as a neuropsychiatric simulation we sought to quantify this cognitive endophenotype. Chicks exposed to an isolation stressor of 5m to induce an anxiety-like or 60 m to induce a depressive-like state were then tested in a straight alley maze to a series of morphed ambiguous appetitive (chick silhouette) to aversive (owl silhouette) cues. In non-isolated controls, runway start and goal latencies generally increased as a function of greater amounts of aversive characteristics in the cues. In chicks in the anxiety-like state, runway latencies were increased to aversive ambiguous cues, reflecting more pessimistic-like behavior. In chicks in the depression-like state, runway latencies were increased to both aversive and appetitive ambiguous cues, reflecting more pessimistic-like and less optimistic-like behavior, respectively.

A controlled social skills training for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) have significant social skills deficits. The efficacy of a child friendship training (CFT) versus a delayed treatment control (DTC) was assessed for 100 children ages 6 to 12 years with FASD. Children in the CFT showed clear evidence of improvement in their knowledge of appropriate social behavior, and according to parent report, CFT resulted in improved social skills and fewer problem behaviors compared with DTC. Gains were maintained at 3-month follow-up. After receiving treatment, the DTC group exhibited similar improvement. Teachers did not report improvement as a function of social skills treatment. The findings suggest that children with FASD benefit from CFT but that these social skills gains may not be observed in the classroom.

Relationship of family environment and parental psychiatric diagnosis to impairment in ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: Family environmental factors as well as parental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) status have shown associations with variability in ADHD. The purpose of the present study was to examine the links among family environment, parental psychiatric diagnosis, and child impairment within a sample of ADHD-affected sibling pairs (ASPs) ages 5 to 18 years. METHOD: Parents in 220 ASP families completed a measure of family functioning, the Family Environment Scale. Children's impairment was measured by clinical ratings of global functioning and by maternal ratings of behavior. RESULTS: Parents of children with ADHD rate their families as higher in conflict and lower in achievement and organization than normative samples. High family conflict is significantly associated with impairment in ADHD ASPs accounting for approximately 40% of the sibling similarity in impairment. Parental psychiatric diagnosis revealed no significant direct link to sibling impairment, but rather a significant indirect link to impairment mediated by family conflict. Direct associations with parental diagnosis depend on birth order of the ASP members despite the comparable mean impairment scores for older and younger ADHD siblings. CONCLUSIONS: There are strong links between impairment in children with ADHD and family environment. Different processes and mechanisms may contribute to impairment in different children in the same family.

Factor structure and validation of the juvenile sex offender assessment protocol (J-SOAP).

The Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol (J-SOAP) was first developed in 1994 in response to the need for a structured method of assessing risk of recidivism among juvenile sexual offenders (R. A. Prentky, B. Harris, K. Frizzell, & S. Righthand, 2000). Over the ensuing years the scale has been subjected to a series of studies that have sought to examine its psychometric properties and its validity. The current paper reports on results from three of these studies, one of which looks at the factor structure of the items. The other two studies examine concurrent validity by looking at J-SOAP Scales 1 and 2 in relation to the Level of Service Inventory-Youth Version with: Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLSICMI) (R. D. Hoge & D. A. Andrews, 1996) and other selected variables and discriminant validity by looking at the ability of J-SOAP scales to differentiate between juvenile sex offenders in the community and juvenile sex offenders in residential placement. The revision of the scale is discussed based on the research that has developed the scale and the research that has employed it.

Popularity, friendship quantity, and friendship quality: interactive influences on children's loneliness and depression.

A mediational model positing that the effects of popularity on children's loneliness and depression are passed through indexes of friendship experiences was tested using structural equation modeling. Children (193 3rd through 6th graders) completed a battery of sociometric and self-report questionnaires from which measures of popularity, multiple friendship dimensions (i.e., quantity and quality of best and good friendships), and loneliness and depression were derived. Confirmation of a slightly modified model supported the mediational hypothesis. Although popularity exerted no direct impact on the adjustment indexes, it strongly influenced friendship, which, in turn, affected depression through its strong association with loneliness. It appears that popularity is important for setting the stage for relationship development, but that it is dyadic friendship experiences that most directly influence feelings of loneliness and depression.