Contextual influences on the perception of pregnant women who use drugs: Information about women's childhood trauma history reduces punitive attitudes.

Punitive attitudes and consequences (e.g., incarceration) for prenatal illicit drug use persist in the United States despite evidence that these policies are ineffective and even harmful to women and children. For instance, the threat of these consequences can deter women from seeking healthcare, prenatal care, and drug treatment. Punitive responses may persist due to pejorative public perceptions of pregnant women who use illicit drugs. Although there is evidence that contextual information about prenatal drug use (e.g., drug type) can change such perceptions, other contextual influences are unknown. This experimental study tested whether receiving contextual information about a pregnant woman who uses drugs (specifically, her childhood trauma history) reduces punitive and increases supportive attitudes toward the woman. In a vignette-based 2(pregnancy status: pregnant/not pregnant) x 2(history of childhood trauma: interpersonal/non-interpersonal) between-subjects design, young adult university participants (N = 461) were randomly assigned to read a vignette about a woman who uses methamphetamine. Punitive attitudes were significantly reduced by information that the pregnant woman had a history of childhood trauma, especially interpersonal (versus non-interpersonal) trauma (ηp2 = .115). Supportive attitudes were not impacted (ηp2 = .005). Information about the pregnant woman's trauma history predicted less agreement with incarcerating her, only indirectly, through less punitive attitudes (R2 = .21). Reductions in punitive attitudes were on the order of 1.5-2 points on 5-point self-report scales and controlled for participant gender and political conservatism. Results have practical implications for interdisciplinary work aimed at unlocking greater support for policies that help pregnant women make safe, informed decisions with dignity and access to healthcare.

Parental Misattribution of Environmental Stress Reaction Symptoms to Autism.

OBJECTIVE: This research aims to characterize parental misattribution to autism of challenging child behaviors related to environmental stress. METHODS: To identify differences between parental concern about behavioral challenges and child diagnoses, researchers reviewed records of children assessed at a child development clinic (N = 50, mean age = 4.38), genetics clinic (N = 26, mean age = 4.59), and therapeutic preschool (N = 30, mean age = 3.75), comparing referral information with child diagnoses postassessment. Surveys of parental and teacher concerns regarding children at therapeutic preschool who were not referred for consultation (N = 49) were reviewed and compared with the referral population to assess for referral bias. RESULTS: A high rate of parental concern about autism/neurodevelopmental disabilities was found in therapeutic preschool referrals (63%) and the child development clinic (74%), with fewer concerns in the genetics clinic (19%), in contrast with substantially lower numbers ultimately diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (13%, 32%, and 8%, respectively). Across clinics, parents demonstrated greater concern about autism than environmental stress. In all clinics, more children had symptoms related to environmental stress than referrals suggested. Seventy-seven percent of children in the therapeutic preschool, 30% in the child development clinic, and 47% in the genetics clinic were diagnosed with trauma and stressor-related disorders. The results from children not referred for consultation suggest that referral bias plays a role in this phenomenon because parents of these children express similar levels of concern about their child's development (32%) and challenges related to environmental stressors (29%). CONCLUSION: The results suggest a tendency for parents seeking consultation to attribute to autism behavioral symptoms related to environmental stress.

Beliefs and Behaviors of Pregnant Women with Addictions Awaiting Treatment Initiation.

Substance use during pregnancy poses clear risks to children's healthy development. However, women with addictions face unique barriers to accessing substance abuse treatment and often delay or avoid treatment seeking. The objective of this study was to examine women's beliefs about the impact of use on the developing baby and to examine the protective behaviors that women with addictions engage in during the period of time between when they first find out they are pregnant and when they begin substance abuse treatment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 women who were either pregnant or postpartum and who had used illicit substances during pregnancy. All participants were currently receiving inpatient substance abuse treatment services to address their addiction and were asked to retrospectively report on their experiences. Interviews were transcribed, imported into a qualitative data analysis software, and iteratively coded for themes. Women reported being concerned about the impact of substance use on the developing baby, in particular, about the physical and long-term developmental consequences of prenatal exposure. Given these concerns, women described trying to protect the baby from harm on their own, outside of accessing traditional treatment services. They sought information anonymously, increased their engagement in health-promoting behaviors, and decreased their use of alcohol and other drugs. The results suggest that women who use alcohol and other drugs during pregnancy are often motivated to protect their baby from harm and are engaging in harm reduction behaviors prior to accessing treatment services.

Fractionating the left frontal response to tools: dissociable effects of motor experience and lexical competition.

A number of theories about the evolution of language posit a close (and perhaps causal) relationship between tool use and speech. Consistent with this idea, neuroimaging studies have found that tool knowledge retrieval activates not only a region of the left premotor cortex involved in hand action, but also an adjacent region that is typically described as a language center. We examined whether this pattern of activation is best described as the result of a single process, related to both action and language, or the result of two independent processes. We identified two distinct neural components that jointly contribute to this response: a posterior region centered in the premotor cortex, which responds to motor knowledge retrieval, and an anterior region centered in the left frontal operculum, which responds to lexical competition. Crucial to the interpretation of the premotor response, individual variation in motor experience was highly correlated with the magnitude of the response in the premotor cortex, but not in the prefrontal cortex.