Impact of Perceived Stress, Anxiety-Depression and Social Support on Coping Strategies of Parents Having A Child With Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome.

PURPOSE: Previous reports have indicated that raising a child with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) could be considered a stressful experience. Thus our study aimed to assess the impact of perceived stress (i.e. parental cognitive perception of their child's disorder) and social support (number of people surrounding the subject providing support) on coping strategies-defined as processes of restoring balance between excessive demands and inadequate resources-of parents having a child with GTS. METHODS: Twenty-eight parents of 21 patients with GTS (aged 6 to 16years) completed questionnaires on perceived stress (ALE Scale), social support (SSQ6), coping strategies (WCC-R) and anxiety-depression (HAD). RESULTS: Principal component analysis showed a negative correlation between social support on one side and perceived stress and anxiety/depression on the other. Problem- and emotion-focused coping both correlated with social support, all of them being independent from perceived stress and anxiety/depression. Hierarchical ascendant classification showed three clusters of individuals in our parents' groups: i) those having high scores in perceived stress and anxiety-depression; ii) those having high scores in social support associated with low scores in perceived stress; iii) parents having lower than average scores on both problem- and emotion- focused coping and social support. CONCLUSION: Our results reinforce the need for developing training programs for parents with GTS children to better understand and tolerate the disorder to decrease their stress.

[Early detection of autism spectrum disorders: emerging symptoms and biomarkers]. / Dépistage précoce des troubles du spectre autistique: symptômes émergents et bio-marqueurs.

Early recognition of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in patients before the age of 24 months significantly enhances the prognosis of affected children. That's why researchers try to identify behavioral and/or neurophysiological precursors in the first months of life of children. Prospective studies are specifically performed in infant siblings at risk of ASD. The longitudinal high-risk sibling studies of ASD follow a cohort of children with an older sibling already diagnosed with ASD. Of these, 10-20% will be diagnosed with ASD during their third year. This review aims to summarize the clinical and neurophysiological studies investigating early markers associated with the emergence of autistic symptoms in children.

Shared executive dysfunctions in unaffected relatives of patients with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Executive dysfunctions have been studied as a potential endophenotype associated with the genetic basis of autism. Given that recent findings from clinical and molecular genetic studies suggest that autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) could share a common pattern of heritability, we assessed executive functions as a possible common cognitive endophenotype in unaffected family members of individuals with either autism or OCD. METHODS: Five tests assessing executive functions (Tower of London, verbal fluency, design fluency, trail making and association fluency) were proposed to 58 unaffected first-degree relatives (parents and siblings) of probands with autism and 64 unaffected first-degree relatives of OCD patients. Results were compared with those of 47 healthy controls matched for age, sex, and level of education. RESULTS: In the Tower of London test, both groups of unaffected relatives showed significantly lower scores and longer response times compared with controls. No differences were observed between autism and OCD relatives and healthy controls in the four other tasks (verbal fluency, design fluency, trail making test and association fluency). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show the existence of executive dysfunction in the unaffected first-degree relatives of probands with OCD, similar to those observed in the relatives of patients with autism. These results support and extend previous cognitive studies on probands indicating executive dysfunctions in autism and OCD. Planning and working memory processes could thus represent a common cognitive endophenotype in autism and OCD that could help in the identification of genes conferring vulnerability to these disorders.

Fringe phenotypes in autism: a review of clinical, biochemical and cognitive studies.

Progress in identifying the genetic vulnerability factors in autism requires correct identification of the inherited phenotype(s). This can be achieved not only by the accurate description of the affected subject but also by the identification of vulnerability traits in non-affected relatives of autistic probands. This review will focus on this last strategy and principally on clinical, biochemical and cognitive traits.

The study of social representations in children and adolescents: Lessons from a review of the literature / O estudo das representações sociais entre crianças e adolescentes: Lições de uma revisão de literatura / El estudio de las representaciones sociales de niños y adolescentes: Enseñanzas de una revista de literatura

An ad hoc review of the existing literature concerning the study of social representations (SRs; Moscovici, 1961/1976) in children and adolescents was conducted in order to put forward theoretical and methodological proposals on the study and development of SRs, and to highlight future directions. The review was performed using the PsycINFO database (up to September 2016), and included 60 eligible works. While the main part of the work sample does not mention theoretical and/or methodological implications (41.7%), other contributions highlight the necessity to take into account: (a) the active role of children/adolescents as well as their social interactions in the creation of SRs, (b) the relevance of studying SRs in these populations for developing the theory of SRs, (c) the expression of SRs in children's everyday actions, (d) the use of suitable methods for children/adolescents, and (e) the link between the psychology of development and the theory of SRs.

Foi realizada uma revisão da literatura existente sobre o estudo das representações sociais (RSs; Moscovici, 1961/1976) em crianças e adolescentes com a finalidade de apresentar propostas teóricas e metodológicas para o estudo do desenvolvimento das RSs, e de apontar futuras direções. Realizada a partir da base de dados PsycINFO (até setembro 2016) esta revisão incluiu 60 trabalhos. Enquanto a maior parte dos trabalhos analisados não menciona as suas implicações teóricas e/ou metodológicas (41,7%), outras contribuições salientam a necessidade de se considerar: (a) o papel ativo das crianças/adolescentes, assim como as suas interações sociais na elaboração de RSs; (b) a relevância de se estudar as RSs destas populações para o desenvolvimento da teoria das RSs; (c) a expressão das RSs nas ações cotidianas de crianças; (d) o uso de métodos adaptados à população de crianças/adolescentes e (e) a relação entre a psicologia do desenvolvimento e a teoria das RSs.

Una revista ad hoc de la literatura sobre el estudio de las representaciones sociales (RS; Moscovici, 1961/1976) de los niños y adolescentes ha sido realizada para profundizar las proposiciones teóricas y metodológicas de los estudios del desarrollo de las RSs, y para favorecer futuras orientaciones. Apoyándose en la plataforma PsycINFO (hasta septiembre de 2016), esta revista cuenta 60 investigaciones elegibles. La mayor parte de esos trabajos no evocan las consecuencias teóricas y/o metodológicas (41,7%). Pero otras contribuciones subrayan la necesidad de tomar en cuenta: (a) el papel activo de los niños/adolescentes, tanto como sus interacciones sociales, en la elaboración de la RSs, (b) la relevancia de estudiar las RSs de esas poblaciones para desarrollar la teoría de las RSs, (c) la expresión de las RSs en las acciones cotidianas de los niños, (d) el uso de metodologías adecuadas para niños/adolescentes, y (e) el vínculo entre la psicología del desarrollo y la teoría de las RSs.