Predicting children's internalizing symptoms across development from early emotional reactivity

Current methods of assessing children's emotional reactivity fail to capture individual differences in emotion across contexts that may be meaningfully related to youth psychopathology. We therefore explored the utility of modeling variability in young children's positive and negative emotion across emotionally evocative laboratory tasks to predict later adjustment. At age 3, 409 children completed a battery of laboratory tasks eliciting either positive or negative affect. We used latent difference score (LDS) modeling to predict children's caregiver-reported internalizing symptoms across ages 3, 5, 8, and 11 from variability in their observer-rated positive and negative emotion across laboratory tasks. We found that sex moderated the association between both average and variability measures of children's negative emotion at age 3 and trajectories of their anxious-depressive symptoms across childhood. Measures of emotion variability predicted children's internalizing symptoms above and beyond measures of average emotion. Variability indices also provided unique information about the trajectories of children's symptoms. We discuss implications for the utility of LDS modeling in assessing children's emotional reactivity.     

中国加入WTOP：国内农业政策与体制面临的冲突

中国加入WTO对全球主要农产品贸易国都有重大影响,本国内部的农业政策和体制也将面临重大变化。本文主要讨论中国加入WTO谈判方案中涉及的三个重要领域的变化,即关税壁垒、非关税壁垒和开放国内市场,尤其是这些变化对中国国内农业政策及其体制的影响。     

Educating Students on International Social Work Issues in U.S. Social Work Programs: How Is It Done?

Although social work education standards call for graduates to be able to practice in a global environment, it is unknown how schools are working to accomplish that as well as what supports they have and what the aims of this education are. A survey of all U.S. BSW and MSW program directors found they have multiple goals for introducing international perspectives in social work education and are using a number of methods in the implicit and explicit curriculum, including speakers, study abroad, international internships, and infusion of material in courses and stand-alone courses. Respondents indicated more supports are available at the institutional level than in their program alone. These results have a variety of implications for social work education including how to further integrate this material into courses and increase the number of students who learn this critical material.     

The effect of menstruation on psychiatric hospitalization

This study evaluated the effect of menstruation on psychiatric hospitalization. We conducted a retrospective chart review of the medical records of 177 women who met the eligibility criteria. Data collected included demographic details, primary and secondary diagnoses, date of last menstrual period (LMP), medication adherence, psychiatric hospitalization length of stay, previous psychiatric admissions (including those related to menstruation), discharge referrals, and readmissions. The majority of women were admitted for major depression, were single, Caucasian, and had a mean age of 34. A disproportionate percentage (37%) of women had their LMP within 5 days of psychiatric hospitalization (p = 0.0006). The overall average length of stay was 4.37 days, and 48.3% had a previous psychiatric admission. Medication adherence was routinely not documented (77.4%). Psychiatric hospitalizations for women are significantly greater within 5 days of their LMP. Nursing education and improved documentation are warranted to decrease the potential for readmission.     

Videotaped interviews in child sexual abuse cases: the Texas example

Suchrara writes [1977: 296] that "a child's right to humane treatment must be considered not an option on the part of adults, but an obligation." The use of videotaped interviews as admissible judicial evidence is an important step toward Suchrara's goal; videotaped testimony attempts to balance the emotional, psychological, and developmental needs of the child with the civil liberties afforded to alleged perpetrators. The Texas State Legislature, with the passage of Senate Bill 836, broadened the civil rights of children to include the notion of humane treatment in civil and criminal investigations and proceedings. The Texas law establishes explicit guidelines to enhance the child's dignity in a traumatic and personal experience. Furthermore, the law protects the civil rights of the accused guaranteed by the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The successful implementation of the videotape law, however, depends on the skills and expertise of the social worker. The practitioner must possess specialized training in the dynamics of child sexual abuse and an extensive understanding of related law and legal processes. This expertise is built on a foundation of knowledge and skills required for effective interviewing, counseling, and an exhaustive understanding of human behavior theory. Given the complexity and interplay of law, rights, and human behavior, the social worker requires ongoing training in these areas in order that the interests of all concerned parties be protected. The Texas State Legislature provides an opportunity for the social welfare and legal communities to determine jointly how and to what extent the rights of a victim and an alleged perpetrator may be protected. The law is in hand; the success of its implementation now rests with the practitioners.     

Response distortion in adolescents who smoke: a pilot study

A wide range of data are obtained with self-report. Information obtained from persons using substances is generally reliable and valid, however, many studies show that some proportion of self-reports regarding substance use are inaccurate. This study examines self-reported response distortion in adolescents who received a brief intervention to reduce their smoking. Findings indicate that age and ethnicity of respondent may influence reported response distortion. Factors that appear to influence under- and over-reporting include social desirability and fear of repercussion. Response distortion does not appear to affect rated usefulness of the intervention, nor does intervention type appear to influence whether respondents thought the researcher wanted them to report less use. Results point to the need for further research regarding adolescents and response distortion.     

Challenging Social Work Education’s Urban Legends

Urban legends circulate throughout society, including higher education and social work education. Some academic mythologies take on the status of a tradition—no matter the evidence or lack thereof—and continue to thrive, to influence thinking, and to shape norms, which, in turn, direct behaviors. As with urban legends, academic myths are able to overpower and dismiss the conclusions drawn from critical thinking processes. Accreditation standards, common program structures, and faculty behaviors and expectations have evolved over time grounded in and shaped by various legends. Social work educators applying critical thinking processes to their educational enterprise will be able to challenge with intellectual rigor the profession’s urban legends, which will then result in national standards and program models that are creative, proactive, and forward-thinking.