Social Support from Sponsorships as a Moderator of Acculturative Stress: Predictors of Effects on Refugees and Asylum Seekers

N = 63 refugees and asylum seekers, 27 women and 36 men with a mean age of 33.08 years (SD = 10.3) from Chechnya and Afghanistan were granted sponsorships for six months and were randomized to an intervention and a waiting-list control group. Only participants with a history of traumatization benefited from the intervention. For the traumatized sub-sample, sponsorships led to a significant and stable decrease in anxiety, depression, and psychological problems as compared to the control group, with effect sizes comparable to those of psychotherapy. The effects being rather palliative than instrumental, however, sponsorships did not instigate improvements in acculturation, societal contact, or coping capability. Women benefited more from the intervention than men, and Afghans more than Chechen.     

Enrichment designs using placebo nonresponders

Enrichment designs that select placebo nonresponders have gained much attention during the last years in areas with high placebo response rates, eg, in depression. Proposals were made that re‐randomize patients who did not respond to placebo during a first study phase as the sequential parallel design (SPD). This design uses in a second phase an enriched patient population where the treatment effect is expected to be more pronounced. This may be problematic if an effect in the overall population is claimed. Proposals were made to combine the treatment effects in the overall population from study phase 1 and the enriched population from study phase 2, alleviating but not solving the issue of a potential selection bias. This paper shows how this bias corresponding to the effect difference between the overall population and the enriched population depends on the variability of a potential subject‐by‐treatment interaction. Sample sizes are given, which lead to a significant result in the combining test with a given probability if actually the average effect in the overall population is zero. If, on the other hand, no subject‐by‐treatment interaction is given, the enrichment is shown to be inefficient. We conclude that enrichment designs using placebo nonresponders are not able to claim a positive average effect in the overall population if a subject‐by‐treatment interaction cannot be excluded. It cannot be used to demonstrate positive efficacy in the overall population in a pivotal phase III trial but may be used in early phases to demonstrate varying treatment effects between patients.     

青少年对父母亲职及亲子关系质量的认知：香港与上海的比较

本研究最基本的问题是：香港和上海的青少年在父母控制，亲子关系质量，以及心理健康方面是否存在着差异。香港（3，017名）和上海（3，022名）的中学生对以下几方面表达了自己的观点：父母行为控制、父母心理控制、透过中国文化本土观念评估的父母管教、父母对传统中国文化亲职信念的认同、亲子关系质量，以及心理健康。从数据中可以得出以下结论：1）相对于上海的父母，香港父母的行为控制较弱，就传统中国文化管教观念而言的管教较弱，对传统中国文化管教子女信念的认同较弱，但他们的心理控制较强；2）相对于上海的青少年，香港的青少年认为亲子关系质量较差，他们的心理健康较差，并不太愿意在放学后回家，与父母或其他成年人在一起。