Effectiveness of a brief dialectical behavior therapy intensive-outpatient community health program.

Standard dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), with its 12-month format, has a documented record of efficacy. While emerging evidence is supportive of DBT adaptations in community mental health settings and brief, intensive formats, many of these studies are limited by sample size of its DBT group, by omission of program completion rates and specific data from program noncompleters, and by focusing solely on symptom-focused measures-which inadvertently omits observing gains associated with well-being. We used a nonexperimental design to assess client outcomes on pathology-focused and positive-psychology measures in a brief DBT intensive-outpatient Community Mental Health Center in the midwestern United States for program graduates and program dropouts who completed at least two surveys (n = 77). This is the shortest average program length (M = 19.01 days) known for a DBT program. Scores on measures of depression (d = 0.41), anxiety (d = 0.5), stress (d = 0.5), and difficulties in emotion regulation (d = 0.51) all decreased from entrance to exit. Scores on measures of mindfulness (d = 0.43), Snyder's hope (d = 0.51), and integrative hope (d = 0.41) increased from entrance to exit. These results provide evidence that pathology decreases and measures associated with well-being increase in this brief, intensive-outpatient community health DBT program. This study provides support for future investigations of brief, intensive community health programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the psychometric properties of the Integrative Hope Scale's English translation in a mixed-diagnostic community health sample.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective is to provide preliminary evidence of the English translation of the Integrative Hope Scale (IHS). Hope is a critical concept for recovery. Synthesizing from other hope models, Schrank and colleagues developed the IHS. Although translated into five languages, no known studies assess the IHS's English translation within a clinical sample. Additionally, no known studies investigate the IHS's relationships with mental health measures in a mixed-diagnostic clinical sample. METHOD: To address these gaps in the literature, we used confirmatory factor analyses, alpha, and omega reliability coefficients, and correlational analyses to assess the IHS within a suburban, mixed-diagnostic intensive outpatient community mental health sample (n = 125) in the midwestern United States. RESULTS: While poorest fit was found within the one-factor model, the four-factor oblique, higher-order, and bifactor models showed improved fit. Reliability for the total score was good, with subscales ranging from acceptable to good. Significant relationships were found for the IHS in expected directions with measures of hope and depression at a large effect size and anxiety and stress at a moderate effect size. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This study provides preliminary evidence that the IHS may have the potential to serve as a central measure of hope. Given hope's role within recovery and given its relationships with mental health measures shown in this mixed-diagnostic clinical sample, the IHS should continue to be investigated by researchers, clinicians, and clients, especially in recovery-focused programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A Meta-Analysis of Video Modeling Interventions to Enhance Job Skills of Autistic Adolescents and Adults.

Background: Autistic transition-aged youth and young adults face many societal barriers to competitive integrated employment (CIE). Existing evidence-based practices (EBPs) for autistic individuals, such as video modeling (VM), may be a viable on-the-job training method to enhance employment experiences and outcomes for this population. Methods: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to synthesize VM studies to teach job skills for autistic individuals. We applied the Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education to evaluate the methodological rigor of included studies using a weighted coding scheme. We further evaluated methodologically sound studies by calculating an omnibus Tau-U effect size. Results: Twenty articles met our inclusion criteria, and 11 of those studies were classified as methodologically sound according to the CEC's criteria. Results indicate that VM is an EBP to improve job skills of autistic individuals. The overall effect size for methodologically sound studies was strong (0.91), but most studies occurred in contrived or school-based employment settings rather than CIE settings in the local labor market. Conclusions: Employers, transition professionals, and related service providers can consider VM a viable method to teach job skills to autistic employees. However, additional research conducted in CIE settings is needed to better understand the effects of VM in contexts where autistic employees earn regular wages. Lay summary: Why was this study done?: Autistic adolescents and adults often experience barriers obtaining employment in their local communities. They may also benefit from on-the-job supports for successful employment. Video modeling is one intervention technique that has been used to teach a variety of skills to autistic individuals. Video modeling involves creating short video clips that show the person how to do specific skills or tasks. We wanted to learn about how video modeling has been used to teach job skills to autistic employees.What was the purpose of this study?: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of research studies that used video modeling to teach job skills to autistic employees. Understanding how video modeling interventions can be used in employment settings may help autistic employees have more positive work experiences.What did the researchers do?: The researchers analyzed the video modeling research studies with autistic participants aged 14 years or older. We evaluated the quality of each study, type of employment setting, type of job skill, and how much the job skills improved. We used a criteria established by a professional organization, the Council for Exceptional Children, to evaluate the quality of the research studies.What were the results of the study?: We analyzed 20 research studies and found that video modeling was an overall effective intervention to teach job skills to autistic adolescents and adults. However, most of the studies focused on general job tasks rather than employment-related social skills. In addition, most of the studies were conducted in employment settings where the autistic employees did not earn regular wages, such as school settings or internships. We encourage future researchers to study how video modeling can be used to promote competitive integrated employment in community settings.What do these findings add to what was already known?: Prior research studies have used video modeling to teach skills such as academic, play, and social skills to autistic children and youth. This study showed us that video modeling is an effective intervention to teach job skills to autistic adolescents and adults.What are the potential weaknesses of the study?: There are disagreements about how to evaluate the quality of research studies in the field of special education. We used a popular criterion by the Council for Exceptional Children organization, but our results may be different from other researchers. We also did not find a large number of studies, so some of our findings should be considered with caution.How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: These findings demonstrate that video modeling is an effective on-the-job training method for autistic employees. Autistic adults can use video modeling at work to learn new job skills. Employers, job coaches, and secondary transition professionals could use brief videos to support autistic employees.

The Effects of a Technology-Based Self-monitoring Intervention on On-Task, Disruptive, and Task-Completion Behaviors for Adolescents with Autism.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often present with difficulty in sustaining engagement, attention, and have disruptive behavior in classroom settings. Without appropriate intervention, these challenging behaviors often persist and negatively impact educational outcomes. Self-monitoring is a well-supported evidence-based practice for addressing challenging behaviors and improving pro-social behaviors for individuals with ASD. Self-monitoring procedures utilizing a handheld computer-based technology is an unobtrusive and innovative way of implementing the intervention. A withdrawal design was employed to assess the effectiveness of a technologically-delivered self-monitoring intervention (I-Connect) in improving on-task and task completion behaviors and decreasing disruptive behavior with four adolescents with ASD. Results demonstrated improvements in on-task and task completion behaviors across all four participants and disruptive behavior improved for two participants.