Enrolling and retaining mothers of substance-exposed infants in drug abuse treatment.

This study provided an experimental test of a drug abuse treatment enrollment and retention intervention in a sample of 103 Black mothers of substance-exposed infants. Significantly more women assigned to the Engaging Moms Program enrolled into drug abuse treatment than did women assigned to the control condition (88% vs. 46%). Sixty-seven percent of participants in the Engaging Moms Program received at least 4 weeks of drug abuse treatment compared with 38% of the control women. However, there were no differences between the groups 90 days following treatment entry. Logistic regressions revealed that readiness for treatment predicted both short-term and long-term treatment retention. The Engaging Moms Program has considerable promise in facilitating treatment entry and short-term retention, but it did not influence long-term retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's coping with marital conflict and their adjustment and physical health: Vulnerability and protective functions.

Children's strategies for coping with parental marital conflict were examined as predictors, mediators, and moderators of the relations between marital conflict and 8- to 11-year-olds' internalizing, externalizing, and physical health problems. In the context of marital conflict, a higher level of active coping and support coping combined was a protective factor against girls' depression symptoms and self-esteem problems and both boys' and girls' health problems. Further, avoidance coping was a vulnerability factor for externalizing, internalizing, and physical health problems in boys, and distraction coping was protective against children's depression and health problems. These findings extend the literature by delineating coping strategies that either protected children against, or heightened their vulnerability to, adjustment and health problems associated with exposure to parental marital conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital status and quality in middle-aged women: Associations with levels and trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors.

The current study compared cardiovascular risk profiles and trajectories (i.e., within-person changes) of women who were married or cohabitating and who had high relationship satisfaction with those of women with moderate or low satisfaction and with those of women who were single, divorced, and widowed. Participants were 493 women from the Healthy Women Study, a prospective investigation of health during and after the menopausal transition. Risk factors were measured across more than 5 occasions and 13 years, on average. Data were analyzed using a multilevel modeling technique. Overall, women in relationships with high satisfaction had lower levels of biological, lifestyle, and psychosocial risk factors when compared with the other groups. In some cases, women in satisfying marriages also showed a lower risk trajectory on risk factors relative to other women. Hence, marriage appears to confer health benefits for women, but only when marital satisfaction is high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in selective attention and perceptual load during visual search.

Three visual search experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that age differences in selective attention vary as a function of perceptual load (E. A. Maylor & N. Lavie, 1998). Under resource-limited conditions (Experiments 1 and 2), the distraction from irrelevant display items generally decreased as display size (perceptual load) increased. This perceptual load effect was similar for younger and older adults, contrary to the findings of Maylor and Lavie. Distraction at low perceptual loads appeared to reflect both general and specific inhibitory mechanisms. Under more data-limited conditions (Experiment 3), an age-related decline in selective attention was evident, but the age difference was not attributable to capacity limitations as predicted by the perceptual load theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A vacation from work: Changes in work and nonwork outcomes.

Compared pre- and postvacation measures in 6 areas: job satisfaction, job involvement (measured as central life interest [JIC] and as importance of performance to self-esteem), organizational commitment, turnover intention, and life satisfaction. Responses obtained from 92 female and 36 male employees (mean age 39 yrs) in technical, administrative, clerical, and service positions 1 wk prior to and 1 wk following their vacations indicate that the vacation had a significant overall effect on the variables studied, even with sex, education, income, and occupational prestige included as covariates. Specifically, JIC decreased and both life satisfaction and turnover intention increased. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that vacation satisfaction and an interaction term involving the prevacation measure and vacation satisfaction increased the predictability of the postvacation measure by 7% in 2 cases: life satisfaction and job satisfaction. Length of vacation did not contribute significantly to the prediction of any of the postvacation variables. The decrease in JIC is discussed in terms of the relative salience of work and nonwork domains and the allocation of psychological resources. Overall, the results are viewed as supporting an open-systems model of organizational behavior. (75 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

It's a small world after all: contrasting hierarchical and edge networks in a simulated intelligence analysis task

This article presents the rationale behind an important enhancement to a socio-technical model of organisations and teams derived from military research. It combines this with empirical results which take advantage of these enhancements. In Part 1, a new theoretical legacy for the model is developed based on Ergonomics theories and insights. This allows team communications data to be plotted into the model and for it to demonstrate discriminate validity between alternative team structures. Part 2 presents multinational data from the Experimental Laboratory for Investigating Collaboration, Information-sharing, and Trust (ELICIT) community. It was surprising to see that teams in both traditional hierarchical command and control and networked 'peer-to-peer' organisations operate in broadly the same area of the model, a region occupied by networks of communication exhibiting 'small world' properties. Small world networks may be of considerable importance for the Ergonomics analysis of team organisation and performance. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: This article is themed around macro and systems Ergonomics, and examines the effects of command and control structures. Despite some differences in behaviour and measures of agility, when given the freedom to do so, participants organised themselves into a small world network. This network type has important and interesting implications for the Ergonomics design of teams and organisations.     

Expectancies for counseling in relation to premature termination.

Expectations about counseling may be one process variable which influences early premature termination. Expectations About Counseling questionnaire (EAC) scores of clients who continued in counseling to a mutually agreed-upon termination point were compared with those of clients who terminated therapy after one session without counselor agreement. Groups were equivalent in sex ratios and matched for problem type. There were no differences in precounseling expectations for premature versus appropriate terminations regardless of problem type. Results are discussed in terms of suggestions for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client and counselor verbal category systems for the analysis of trainees' counseling.

Developed a set of operationally defined verbal behavior categories for clients, the client verbal behavior system (CL-VBS), and for counselors, the counselor verbal behavior system (CO-VBS), to match the categories in the training models developed by R. R. Carkhuff and W. A. Anthony (1979) and by A. F. Ivey and J. Authier (1978) to study the acquisition of the skills and their impact on client responses and outcomes. Experts (the 1st 2 authors) established the content validity. Reliability was ascertained by examining agreement among 12 judges and their concordance with a criterion set by the authors. Both reliabilities were highly significant. The criterion analysis revealed sources of errors which showed how to improve the systems' designs and training in a 2nd study with an additional 6 judges (graduate counseling students). As a result of this study, the CL-VBS and the CO-VBS are ready for the study of the efficacy of the Carkhuff and Ivey training models, the impact of counselor skills on clients, reciprocal interaction effects, and the impact of these factors on client outcomes. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"I can tell when my blood pressure is up, can't I?"

44 21–61 yr old insurance company employees were measured on blood pressure, mood and symptoms (using self-administered checklists), and predictions of their blood pressures, twice daily for 10 days. 20 Ss had elevated blood pressure, and 24 did not. The measures were correlated within-Ss to determine if blood pressure predictions were associated with moods, symptoms, or blood pressure readings and if moods and symptoms were related to blood pressure. Data show that self-predictions of blood pressure were most strongly associated with reported symptoms, next with reported moods, and least with actual blood pressure. A comparison of Ss who were accurate in predicting their blood pressure with those who were not showed no differences in blood pressure levels, systolic blood pressure variation, self-esteem, or private body-consciousness. Ss' beliefs that they could monitor blood pressure were little influenced by contrary information. Results suggest it would be an error to encourage Ss to believe they can successfully treat blood pressure elevations by monitoring symptoms related to blood pressure change. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minors' ability to identify risks and benefits of therapy.

62 10–20 yr olds with learning or behavior problems and with or without prior therapy experience were asked to list potential risks and benefits of entering therapy. The most frequently identified risks were self-disclosure, discomfort with the therapist, violations of confidentiality, and poor therapy effectiveness. The most frequently cited benefits were solving problems, providing someone with whom to talk, and learning new things. A relationship was found between age and experience and the tendency to discuss therapy in more abstract ways. However, even young Ss and those with no therapy experience were able to identify relevant and practical concerns that were appropriate to their situations and their developmental needs. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)