Social threat attentional bias in childhood: Relations to aggression and hostile intent attributions.

The goal of this study was to examine the ways attentional bias to social threat-measured across multiple attentional processes-is related to both child aggression and a well-established cognitive correlate of aggression (namely, hostile intent attributions). A community sample of 211 children (51% male; 9-12 years; 55% Caucasian) participated in our cross-sectional correlational design. Social threat attentional bias was measured through task performance on dot-probe, attentional shifting, and temporal order judgment tasks; each task measured different attentional processes. Aggression was measured by parent- and child-report. Hostile intent attributions were measured through child responses to vignettes involving peer conflict or rejection. Attentional bias to social threat within early phases of attentional processing (i.e., attentional prioritization; stimuli presented for <200 ms in temporal order judgment task) was significantly and positively related to both aggression and hostile intent attributions. Attentional bias to social threat within attentional orienting (stimuli presented for 500 ms in dot-probe task) was positively and significantly related to hostile intent attributions. Attentional bias to social threat within attentional shifting (stimuli presented for multiple seconds) was not significantly related to aggression or hostile intent attributions. Higher levels of aggression and of hostile intent attributions were associated with an attentional bias to social threat within early, but not later, phases of attentional processing. These results suggest specificity in identifying dysfunctional attentional processes that may underlie aggression and aggression-related cognitive biases.

Parents' Attributions for Negative and Positive Child Behavior in Relation to Parenting and Child Problems.

Previous research has stressed the importance of parents' attributions and parenting for child problems. Based on social cognitive models, studies have focused on the interrelations among parents' child-responsibility attributions for negative behavior, harsh parenting, and child problems. Little is known about the extent to which child-responsibility attributions for positive behavior and other types of parenting play a role in these models. The purpose of this study was to examine whether parents' child-responsibility attributions for positive and negative child behaviors are related to child problems, and whether these relations are mediated by harsh, lax, and positive parenting. Mothers' and fathers' attributions and parenting were examined separately. A community sample of 148 couples and their 9- to 12-year-old child (50% boys) participated in the study. Mothers and children participated by completing questionnaires and a laboratory interaction task. Fathers participated by completing the same questionnaires as mothers. Harsh parenting was the only parenting variable that uniquely mediated the relations between more child-responsibility attributions for (a) negative child behaviors and child problems for both parents and (b) the inverse relation between attributions for positive child behaviors and child problems for fathers. Findings confirm the importance of harsh parenting and demonstrate the importance of parents' attributions for positive child behaviors in relation to decreasing harsh parenting and child problems. Clinically, it may be useful not only to reduce child-responsibility attributions for negative behaviors but also to increase the extent to which parents give their child credit for positive behaviors.

Parent and Child ADHD Symptoms in Relation to Parental Attitudes and Parenting: Testing the Similarity-Fit Hypothesis.

OBJECTIVE: We tested the similarity-fit hypothesis that predicts more positive parenting when both parent and child have high levels of ADHD symptoms compared to when only one does. METHOD: Mothers and fathers of 156, 5 to 13 year old sons participated (110 boys with ADHD, 46 without). Parent inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were examined, in interaction with child ADHD, as predictors of parental tolerance, empathy, encouragement of child autonomy, and positive parenting. RESULTS: Several interactions of parent ADHD symptoms and child ADHD were detected which suggested that for parents with low levels of symptoms, the presence of child ADHD was associated with less positive parenting attitudes and behavior, but this negative relation between positive parenting and child ADHD was dampened among parents with more ADHD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Considered alongside the well documented parenting difficulties associated with parental ADHD, our findings suggest that parental ADHD symptoms also may help to mitigate some of the challenges facing families of children with ADHD.

How student nurses can influence care quality.

With support from NHS England, NHS Improving Quality and universities, student nurses have run conferences across the country on pressure ulcer prevention. The success of the events suggests that, as emerging nurse leaders, students recognise they have a key role in educating, motivating and galvanising their peers around a shared purpose.

Maternal and paternal attributions in the prediction of boys' behavior problems across time.

We examined the extent to which mother and father attributions for child behavior problems predict child behavior problems over time, accounting for the other parent's attributions, initial child problems and the child's attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) status. Parents of 7- to 12-year-old boys with (n = 26) and without (n = 38) ADHD participated. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) as a measure of their son's behavior problems as well as the Written Analogue Questionnaire, reporting their attributions for child behavior problems. Parents completed the SDQ a second time 7 months later. Both mother and father attributions were associated with child behavior problems at Time 1 and again 7 months later. However, when ADHD status and the other parent's attributions for child behavior were controlled, only father attributions predicted child behavior problems, and continued to be uniquely predictive of child behavior problems at Time 2 even with initial child behavior problems controlled. Father attributions provide unique information above and beyond mother attributions when considering current and future child behavior problems.

Attributions for parents' behavior by boys with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Attributions for parents' behavior were examined in a sample of boys with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Sixty-six boys (mean age = 9.75 years) rated attributions for their mothers' and their fathers' behavior, across positive and negative scenarios, and along four attribution dimensions (parent ability, parent effort, task difficulty, and child responsibility). Three-way interactions emerged among child ADHD status, parent gender, and attribution type, and among scenario valence, parent gender, and attribution type. All children rated attributions higher in the positive scenarios, and attributions of child responsibility higher for fathers than mothers. Children rated task-related attributions higher for mothers in negative scenarios, but higher for fathers in positive scenarios. Boys with ADHD rated child responsibility attributions higher than controls, across all scenarios. Results highlight important differences in children's perceptions of their parents' behavior that may have implications for understanding parent-child relationships in families of children with and without ADHD.

How Well Does Australian Animal Welfare Policy Reflect Scientific Evidence: A Case Study Approach Based on Lamb Marking.

The development and substance of animal welfare policy is subject to a range of social, cultural, economic, and scientific influences that commonly vary within and between countries. Discrepancies in policy can create confusion and mistrust among stakeholders and consumers and limit the ability to create a uniform minimum level of requirements to safeguard animal welfare, as well as create a level 'playing field' for farmers when trading with other jurisdictions. The livestock sector is receiving growing scrutiny globally for real and perceived violations of animal welfare, for example, the practice of mulesing in Australia. This article explores animal welfare legislation within Australia and how it reflects the scientific evidence surrounding routine husbandry practices in sheep, including tail docking, castration, and mulesing. While there is some variation between state and territory legislation, the most notable concern is the lack of enforceable recommendations surrounding the evidence-based use of analgesia and anaesthesia for painful husbandry procedures. The age at which these procedures are recommended to be performed is relatively consistent across Australian jurisdictions, but there is a marked difference compared to international legislation. The global context of animal welfare legislation, public perception, and producer perception of these procedures are also discussed, highlighting the difficulty of creating robust animal welfare legislation that promotes a good standard of welfare that is respected worldwide whilst being practical in an Australian setting given our unique geography and climatic conditions.

Interparent childrearing disagreement, but not dissimilarity, predicts child problems after controlling for parenting effectiveness.

Parental differences regarding childrearing may be operationalized as actual dissimilarity in the parenting actions or goals of the parents, or as perceived conflict or disagreement related to these dissimilarities. This study tested whether these two types of parental differences are each associated with child problems, independent of the contributions of parenting effectiveness. A community sample of 160 couples with a firstborn child (ages 2-5 years) participated. Mothers and fathers independently completed measures of childrearing disagreement, parenting behaviors and goals, and child behavior. Interparent childrearing disagreement accounted for unique variance in child internalizing and externalizing problems, even after controlling for family income, marital satisfaction, and parenting effectiveness. Dissimilarity in mother and father parenting behaviors (but not goals) was associated with child problems at the bivariate level, but not after controlling for parenting effectiveness.

The Neuroimmune Interface and Chronic Pain Through the Lens of Production Animals.

Communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the immune system has gained much attention for its fundamental role in the development of chronic and pathological pain in humans and rodent models. Following peripheral nerve injury, neuroimmune signaling within the CNS plays an important role in the pathophysiological changes in pain sensitivity that lead to chronic pain. In production animals, routine husbandry procedures such as tail docking and castration, often involve some degree of inflammation and peripheral nerve injury and consequently may lead to chronic pain. Our understanding of chronic pain in animals is limited by the difficulty in measuring this pathological pain state. In light of this, we have reviewed the current understanding of chronic pain in production animals. We discuss our ability to measure pain and the implications this has on animal welfare and production outcomes. Further research into the neuroimmune interface in production animals will improve our fundamental understanding of chronic pain and better inform human clinical pain management and animal husbandry practices and interventions.

Mothers' predictions of their son's executive functioning skills: relations to child behavior problems.

This study examined mothers' ability to accurately predict their sons' performance on executive functioning tasks in relation to the child's behavior problems. One-hundred thirteen mothers and their 4-7 year old sons participated. From behind a one-way mirror, mothers watched their sons perform tasks assessing inhibition and planning skills. Before each task, mothers predicted how their sons would perform. Both the absolute discrepancy between mothers' predictions and their child's performance (summing both mothers' over- and under-estimations), and the mothers' under-estimations of their child's performance accounted for significant variance in reports of child behavior problems. These predictions were significant even with the child's age and level of task performance controlled. The results suggest that a mother's lack of ability to accurately predict her child's executive functioning skills may contribute to the development of child problems, perhaps through increased difficulties in parenting in a manner that is responsive to the child's abilities.

Impact of Chorea on Self-care Activity, Employment, and Health-care Resource Use in Patients with Huntington's Disease.

Background: Chorea is recognized as a prototypic motor feature of Huntington's disease (HD), but its effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not been fully explored. This study describes the impact of chorea on HRQoL in patients with HD. Objective: To determine the impact of HD-related chorea on employment, self-care activities, activities of daily living, and health-care resource utilization (HCRU). Methods: Data were drawn from the Adelphi HD Disease Specific Programme, a real-world point-in-time survey of 144 neurologists and 427 patients in the United States between July and October 2017. HD patients with and without chorea were identified and examined for differences in employment status, reasons for employment changes, self-care activities, and modifications to cope with involuntary movements. Bivariate tests and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment methods were used to determine differences in outcomes between patients with and without chorea. Results: HD patients with (n=287) and without (n=140) chorea were identified. Patients with chorea were less likely to be employed full-time (16.7% vs 25.7%; P<0.04) and more likely to be on long-term sick leave (17.4% vs 5.0%; P<0.01). The onset of motor symptoms in HD-related chorea patients coincided with a change in employment status (42.7% vs 20.8%; P<0.01). Among those still working (n=145), more than two-fifths of patients with chorea required changes to their workplace and required these changes more frequently (45% vs 17%; P<0.001). HD patients with chorea required aid to help them get around significantly more frequently than those without chorea (55% vs 34%; P<0.001). Discussion: These results demonstrate that HD patients with chorea experienced greater negative impact to employment, self-care activities, and HCRU than patients without chorea experienced. These patients were more likely to stop working due to motor, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms; require modifications in the home and workplace; and need more assistance from caregivers than patients without chorea. Conclusions: Patients with HD-related chorea have greater detriments to emotional, interpersonal, and professional functioning that could be improved by reducing chorea.

The Relations Among Stress, Executive Functions, and Harsh Parenting in Mothers.

Stress is a common experience that can spillover into parenting, which in turn has important implications for child behavior. Parents' executive functioning (EF) may buffer the association between feelings of stress and parenting. However, using lower socioeconomic status (SES) and household chaos as indicators of stress, research has demonstrated inconsistent patterns with regard to this moderating role of EF. This study's first aim examined the moderating role of maternal EF on the associations between SES and household chaos, and harsh parenting. The second aim investigated the effects of experimentally induced stress on harsh parenting and whether maternal EF moderated these effects. A final sample of 101 mothers of 6 to 10-year-old children participated by completing measures of EF, household chaos, SES, and harsh parenting. Additionally, mothers were randomly assigned to either a stress group or a control group. Throughout the stress (or control) induction, mothers rated their harsh parenting in response to child misbehavior vignettes. Findings revealed that stronger EF reduced the association between household chaos and harsh parenting. There were no significant effects of SES or experimentally induced stress on harsh parenting, and EF was not a significant moderator for these stressors. These results highlight the buffering role of EF for more chronic stressors such as household chaos. SES and more acute stress, as manipulated by the TSST, at least in the current sample, may be less relevant.

Maternal ADHD Symptoms and Parenting Stress: The Roles of Parenting Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Neuroticism.

OBJECTIVE: ADHD symptoms in adults are consistently related to stress in a variety of domains, although whether the link between ADHD symptoms and stress is direct, or accounted for or moderated by other variables, is little studied. We used a cross-sectional design to examine whether parenting self-efficacy accounts for the relation between maternal ADHD symptoms and parenting stress, and whether levels of maternal neuroticism moderate this relation. METHOD: A nonclinical sample of mothers of 120, six- to 12-year-old children completed surveys online. RESULTS: Maternal ADHD symptoms were associated with parenting stress, but this relation was accounted for by parenting self-efficacy beliefs. Neuroticism did not moderate the relations among these variables. Covariate analyses indicated that although parenting self-efficacy beliefs remain a robust predictor of parenting stress, the relation between maternal ADHD symptoms and parenting stress can be better accounted for by other variables. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the importance of self-efficacy beliefs and demonstrate that ADHD symptoms are not sufficient to understand the experience of parenting.

Mothers' Attributions for Positive and Negative Child Behavior: Associations With Mothers' ADHD Symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown that parent attributions for child behavior have important implications on the parent-child relationship. The current study investigates whether mothers' level of ADHD symptoms is associated with their child-responsibility attributions for positive and negative child behavior. METHOD: Seventy-nine mothers of 6- to 11-year-old boys participated in this online study. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their attributions, their ADHD symptoms, and their child's behavior. RESULTS: All mothers offered more child-responsibility attributions for positive behaviors than for negative behaviors. However, mothers with greater levels of ADHD symptoms did this to a lesser extent, blaming their child relatively more for negative behavior and giving their child relatively less credit for positive behavior. CONCLUSION: This is the first study demonstrating the association between mothers' ADHD symptoms and child-responsibility attributions. It is possible that these relatively more negative attributions could be underlying some of the parenting difficulties reported by parents with ADHD.

Novel measures of response performance and inhibition in children with ADHD.

Fifteen children with ADHD aged 8 to 12 years and age and gender matched controls performed two different stopping tasks to examine response performance and inhibition and their respective moment-to-moment variability. One task was the well-established stop-signal task, while the other was a novel tracking task where the children tracked a spaceship on the screen until an alarm indicated they should stop. Although performance was discrete in the stop signal task and continuous in the tracking task, in both tasks latencies to the stop signal were significantly slowed in children with ADHD. Go performance and variability did not significantly differ between ADHD and control children in either task. Importantly, stopping latency in the novel spaceship tracking task also was more variable in children with ADHD. As stopping variability cannot be measured using the standard stop signal task, the new task offers compelling support for the heretofore untested prediction that stopping is both slowed and more variable in children with ADHD. The results support a response inhibition impairment in ADHD, whilst limiting the extent of an intra-trial variability deficit.

Acceptability of behavioral and pharmacological treatments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: relations to child and parent characteristics.

One-hundred nine mothers of 5- to 12-year-old boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) participated. Mothers read case descriptions of boys with ADHD and of boys with both ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Half of the mothers were randomly assigned to read descriptions of behavioral parent training and half to read descriptions of stimulant medication as treatments for the children in the case descriptions. Mothers rated the acceptability and effectiveness of the treatments and provided information on their experiences with both types of treatment. Mothers rated behavioral parent training as more acceptable than medication. There was no difference in ratings of the effectiveness of the two treatments in the scenarios, and mothers rated medication as more effective than behavioral strategies with their own children. Comorbidity of ADHD and ODD did not influence ratings of acceptability or effectiveness. Mothers' ratings of the acceptability of behavioral parent training were related to how much they believed in these strategies and how effective the strategies were with their own children. Although mothers' ratings of the acceptability of medication were related to their beliefs in this form of treatment, they were not related to perceptions of effectiveness of medication for their own child. Implications for understanding the difficulties faced by parents of children with ADHD in treatment decision-making are presented.

What is the social impact of ADHD in girls? A multi-method assessment.

This study explores the social impact of ADHD, with and without opposition-defiant behaviour (ADHD+ODD (n= 22) and ADHD-only (n= 18)), in 9- to 12- year old girls compared to girls without ADHD (n= 40). Girls played a computer game involving simulated players, and mothers and teachers completed rating scales. In general, mothers and teachers saw girls with ADHD+ODD as more overtly and relationally aggressive and less prosocial than girls with ADHD-only, who were seen as more overtly and relationally aggressive and less prosocial than control girls. On the computer game, girls with ADHD+ODD were more overtly aggressive, more directly relationally aggressive, and showed less skilled behaviour than the other groups. Girls with ADHD-only showed less covert, indirect relational aggression and more socially awkward interactions than girls in the control group on the computer game. In all, the results indicate that girls with ADHD, with and without ODD behaviour, engage in socially detrimental behaviours.

Controlled Social Interaction Tasks to Measure Self-Perceptions: No Evidence of Positive Illusions in Boys with ADHD.

Studies have suggested that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) possess a Positive Illusory Bias (PIB) where they have higher self-perceptions of competence than more objective measures of their competence. However, recent research calls into question the primary methodology of these studies, that is, difference scores. This study investigated the PIB in boys with ADHD within the social domain using a novel methodology that refrains from using difference scores. Eighty-one 8- to 12-year-old boys with and without ADHD completed social interaction tasks where their actual social performance was made comparable, allowing for tests of between-group differences in self-perceptions that do not rely on difference scores. In addition, to examine whether clarity of social feedback moderates the presence of the PIB, the social tasks presented unclear, clear positive, or clear negative feedback. Boys rated how well they performed in each social interaction task, and these ratings were compared between ADHD and non-ADHD groups. Compared to the non-ADHD group, boys with ADHD did not show a PIB in their ratings of performance on the social tasks. There also was no moderation of boys' ratings by type of feedback received. In contrast, when the PIB was calculated using difference scores based on child and parent ratings of child competence, boys with ADHD showed a PIB compared to boys without ADHD. These findings call attention to the need to re-examine the phenomenon of the PIB using methodologies outside of difference scores.

The use of compensatory strategies in adults with ADHD symptoms.

This study examined the use of compensatory strategies reported by adults with ADHD symptoms and their relation to measures of functioning. Forty-nine adults (55.1 % female) completed a structured diagnostic interview to assess ADHD, and responses were coded for compensatory strategies: Adaptation, Paying Attention, Organization, External Support, and Avoidance. The majority of adults with ADHD symptoms reported using compensatory strategies, and their reported strategy use in childhood was related to their use in adulthood. No gender differences were found in the use of strategies, although Organization and External Support were used more often for inattention than for hyperactive/impulsive symptoms. Use of the compensatory strategy, Adaptation, was significantly related to measures of functioning, and the use of strategies reduced the negative relationship between ADHD symptoms and parenting difficulties. Results encourage the development of compensatory strategies among adults with ADHD symptoms, as well as provide recommendations for treatment programs.