Working Memory Spans as Predictors of Spoken Word Recognition and Receptive Vocabulary in Children with Cochlear Implants

The present study investigated whether individual differences in working memory could account for a significant proportion of the variance in the open-set word recognition and receptive vocabulary skills of prelingually deafened, pediatric cochlear implant recipients, after the contribution of known predictors was taken into account. The contributions of four measures of working memory were examined separately for children using oral communication (OC) (n = 32) and Total Communication (TC) (n = 29). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC) digit-spans, requiring immediate recall of auditory-only lists in both forwards and backwards directions were, collected. Two versions of a novel "memory span game" were also administered: One required memory for sequences of colored lights; the other assessed memory for colored lights presented in conjunction with auditory color-names. A contribution from working memory was observed only for the span tasks that incorporated an auditory processing component. These results suggest a relationship between working memory and the examined outcome measures that is specific to the auditory modality, partially linked to communication mode, and not related to individual differences in a general-purpose component of working memory.     

The sense-of-coherence and the capability of performing daily occupations in persons with chronic pain

OBJECTIVES: It may be helpful for occupational therapists who promote enabling occupations among persons with chronic pain, to understand the relationship between the persons feelings of meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability in life and their capability to perform daily occupations. AIM: The aim of this study was to describe and investigate how these concepts of person and occupational performance of 27 daily occupations in terms of "effort", "inconvenience", "avoidance", "give up", "frequency" and "satisfaction" were related to each other. DESIGN: A prospective correlative study was conducted. METHOD: A consecutive series of eighty-four patients with chronic pain completed a structured interview and responded to the self-assessment instruments Sense-of-Coherence Scale (SOC-13) and Capability of Performing Daily Occupations (CPDO). RESULTS: Weak but significant correlation (p < 0.05) were found between the SOC-13 sub-scale "manageability" and the specific occupations "physical exercise / training" (r = - 0.24), "climb stairs" (r = - 0.27) "social activity" (r= - 0.25) and "wash the laundry" (r = - 0.30), as well as between the SOC-13 sub-scale "meaningfulness" and the CPDO occupations "grocery shopping" (r = -0.22), "performing meals" (r = - 0.24), and "wash the laundry" (r = - 0.31) and the CPDO question "frequency of performing occupations" r = -0.22). The participants' mean value (mean = 58) of SOC-13 was below the other populations represented in a literature review. The mean values for CPDO (3.4-4.3) (optimal score is zero) showed that the participants perceived themselves having activity limitations concerning performance of daily occupations, and the performance area of work productive activities were experienced as more disabling. The degree to which the participants perceived themselves having a strong sense of coherence or being disabled by pain varied greatly both for the results of SOC-13 ( range 32-90 points) and CPDO (range 1.1-7.8 points). CONCLUSION: The expected significant relationship between a person's sense of coherence and the performance of daily occupations was partly verified with weak significant correlations. In clinical practice the assessment instruments are suggested to be of value in rehabilitation clinics for occupational therapists who work with people with chronic pain.     

Winding Stairs: A sampling tool to compute sensitivity indices

Sensitivity analysis aims to ascertain how each model input factor influences the variation in the model output. In performing global sensitivity analysis, we often encounter the problem of selecting the required number of runs in order to estimate the first order and/or the total indices accurately at a reasonable computational cost. The Winding Stairs sampling scheme (Jansen M.J.W., Rossing W.A.H., and Daamen R.A. 1994. In: Gasman J. and van Straten G. (Eds.), Predictability and Nonlinear Modelling in Natural Sciences and Economics. pp. 334–343.) is designed to provide an economic way to compute these indices. The main advantage of it is the multiple use of model evaluations, hence reducing the total number of model evaluations by more than half. The scheme is used in three simulation studies to compare its performance with the classic Sobol' LP. Results suggest that the Jansen Winding Stairs method provides better estimates of the Total Sensitivity Indices at small sample sizes.     

The moderating effects of culture on peer deviance and alcohol use among high-risk African-American Adolescents

African-American adolescents have lower rates of alcohol consumption than White youth. However, African-American youth suffer disproportionately more adverse social, mental, and physical health outcomes related to alcohol use. Affiliating with negative peers is a risk factor for alcohol initiation and consumption. Cultural variables have shown moderating effects against other risk factors for African-American youth and therefore were the focus of this study. Specifically, we tested whether three culturally-relevant variables, Africentric beliefs, religiosity, and ethnic identity were promotive or protective for alcohol initiation and use within the context of negative peer affiliations. The sample consisted of 114 at-risk African-American adolescents whose ages ranged from 13 to 20. Participants were administered a questionnaire with measures of alcohol initiation and use, peer risk behaviors, ethnic identity, Africentric beliefs, religiosity, and demographic items. Peer risk behaviors accounted for significant percentages of the variance in age of alcohol initiation, lifetime use, and current and heavy alcohol use after adjusting for age and gender. Cultural variables showed both promotive and protective effects. Africentric beliefs were promotive of delayed alcohol initiation, whereas both Africentrism and religiosity moderated peer risk behaviors effect on alcohol initiation. Africentric beliefs were also inversely related to lifetime alcohol use revealing a promotive effect. Moreover, there were significant protective effects of ethnic identity and religiosity on heavy alcohol consumption. One implication of these findings is that prevention programs that infuse cultural values and practices such as Africentrism, ethnic identity, and religiosity may delay alcohol initiation and reduce use especially for youth with high risk peers.     

Mindful relating: exploring mindfulness and emotion repertoires in intimate relationships

This study tested the theory that mindfulness contributes to greater intimate relationship satisfaction by fostering more relationally skillful emotion repertoires. A sample of married couples was administered measures of mindful awareness, emotion skills, and marital quality. We hypothesized that mindfulness would be associated with both marital quality and partners' emotion skills and that the association between mindfulness and marital quality would be mediated by emotion repertoire skill. Findings suggested that emotion skills and mindfulness are both related to marital adjustment, and that skilled emotion repertoires, specifically those associated with identifying and communicating emotions, as well as the regulation of anger expression, fully mediate the association between mindfulness and marital quality. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Self-expansion as a mediator of relationship improvements in a mindfulness intervention

In a recent randomized controlled trial, couples participating in a mindfulness-based relationship enhancement program demonstrated significant improvements in relationship satisfaction and relationship distress (Carson, Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004). Here we report on a multiple mediation analysis of these couples' improvements. Potential mediators included measures of couples' engagement in exciting self-expanding activities, couples' ability to accept one another's difficult characteristics, and individual partners' ability to relax. Results indicate that to a large extent, the mindfulness-related relationship improvements can be attributed to partners' sense that they were participating in exciting self-expanding activities together during the course of the intervention. The implications of these findings for future mindfulness research are discussed.     

Normative beliefs as risk factors for involvement in unhealthy weight control behavior

OBJECTIVE: The authors' aim in this study was to determine, after adjustment for the effects of body mass index and sociodemographic measures, whether sex-specific weight control norms would have significant independent relationships with the weight control behavior of college women and men. PARTICIPANTS: The authors used an anonymous questionnaire to assess a sample of 470 college students, aged 18 to 26 years, attending either a 2- year community college or a 4-year public university. METHODS: To calculate body mass index, the authors objectively measured the height and weight of each participant. They conducted separate discriminant function analyses for women and men. RESULTS: The discriminant function analyses clearly indicated that weight control norms of same-sex, close friends were the best discriminators of involvement in weight control. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that perceived peer norms may be important but overlooked risk factors for engaging in unhealthy weight control practices. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in the context of student health promotion.     

Fertility Following an Unintended First Birth

Research on unintended fertility tends to focus on births as isolated events. This article expands previous research by examining the relationship between early unintended childbearing and subsequent fertility dynamics in the United States. Data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth show that 27.5% of mothers report an unintended first birth. We use event history methods to show that these women are significantly more likely than women with an intended first birth to have an unintended second birth than to have either no second birth or an intended second birth, net of sociodemographic characteristics. An unintended first birth also increases the risk of having an unintended third birth relative to no birth or an intended birth, independent of the intendedness of the second birth. We conclude that early unintended fertility is a strong signal of high risk for subsequent unintended fertility.