Correction to Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive (2006).

Reports an error in "Does Barbie make girls want to be thin? The effect of experimental exposure to images of dolls on the body image of 5- to 8-year-old girls" by Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwell and Suzanne Ive (Developmental Psychology, 2006 Mar, Vol 42[2], 283-292). A substantive error occurs in the Body shape dissatisfaction section on page 287. The sentence describing the calculation of body shape dissatisfaction scores from girls' responses to the Child Figure Rating Scale should instead read as follows: "A body shape dissatisfaction score was computed by subtracting the girl's actual from her ideal body size." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2006-03514-007.) The ubiquitous Barbie doll was examined in the present study as a possible cause for young girls' body dissatisfaction. A total of 162 girls, from age 5 to age 8, were exposed to images of either Barbie dolls, Emme dolls (U.S. size 16), or no dolls (baseline control) and then completed assessments of body image. Girls exposed to Barbie reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape than girls in the other exposure conditions. However, this immediate negative impact of Barbie doll was no longer evident in the oldest girls. These findings imply that, even if dolls cease to function as aspirational role models for older girls, early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage girls' body image, which would contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating and weight cycling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in anxiety and mood disorders.

The present study investigated perceived acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in participants with anxiety and mood disorders. Sixty participants with these disorders and 30 control participants watched an emotion-provoking film and completed self-report measures of their experience and regulation of emotions. The film elicited similar increases in negative emotion for clinical and nonclinical participants; however, clinical participants judged their resulting emotions as less acceptable and suppressed their emotions to a greater extent. The higher level of suppression in the clinical group was attributable to females in the clinical group suppressing their emotions more than females in the nonclinical group. For all participants, high levels of suppression were associated with increased negative emotion during the film and during a postfilm recovery period. Further analyses showed that appraising emotions as unacceptable mediated the relationship between negative emotion intensity and use of suppression in the clinical group. This study extends the literature on emotion regulation to a clinical sample and suggests that judging emotions as unacceptable and suppressing emotions may be important aspects of the phenomenology of emotional disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal association between marital dissatisfaction and alcohol use disorders in a community sample.

The prospective association between marital dissatisfaction and alcohol use disorders (abuse and/or dependence) was evaluated in a randomly selected community sample. Married individuals (N=1,675) from the New Haven Epidemiologic Catchment Area project who did not have a current alcohol use disorder at baseline were followed prospectively for 12 months. Results indicated that baseline marital dissatisfaction was significantly associated with alcohol use disorder diagnosis during follow-up, with dissatisfied spouses being 3.7 times more likely than satisfied spouses to have a diagnosis of current alcohol use disorder at follow-up. The longitudinal association between baseline marital dissatisfaction and current alcohol use disorder diagnosis at follow-up remained significant when controlling for baseline demographic variables and history of alcohol use disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease and the frontotemporal dementias: A longitudinal study of 236 patients.

Using semantic dementia (SD) as a reference point, the authors assessed semantic memory in four other neurodegenerative disorders: progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA), frontal variant frontotemporal dementia (fvFTD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). Individuals with SD were more impaired than other groups on semantic measures and showed a characteristic pattern across tasks: category fluency (CF) worse than letter fluency (LF), naming worse than comprehension, and visual and verbal comprehension equally affected, suggesting disruption to an amodal semantic system. Individuals with AD demonstrated a similar pattern to a milder degree. Although PNFA, fvFTD, and PCA groups had abnormal scores (relative to controls) on most semantic measures, their differing patterns across measures indicate that the apparent semantic impairment in these conditions is largely secondary to other factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chronic illness, pain and health behaviors of community behavioral health clients.

Persons with comorbid medical disorders, along with substance use disorders and mental illness, present complex treatment needs that are seldom addressed. Chronic physical illness negatively affects treatment participation and retention, decreasing effectiveness. Studies documenting higher medical morbidity and mortality in such persons have long been available. Less is known about their health behaviors. Respondents (n = 418) at a community behavioral health center were surveyed for prevalence of illness, pain, health behaviors, and interest in lifestyle change. A total of 73% reported at least one chronic health problem, and nearly half rated their health between fair and very poor. Most reported at least one negative health indicator or behavior (e.g., smoking). Encouragingly, nearly 50% desired lifestyle changes including smoking cessation, exercise, and stress management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling relations between hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents: A four-year prospective study.

This study examined the relations between hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms across 4 years in adolescents who varied with regard to their risk for psychopathology. The sample comprised 240 adolescents assessed in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades regarding their level of peer and academic hassles and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Structural equation modeling was used to construct latent variables of hassles and internalizing and externalizing syndromes. Results varied by informant about the teens' symptoms. For adolescent report, the stress exposure model fit the data best for internalizing syndromes; that is, higher levels of stressors predicted significantly higher levels of self-reported symptoms 1 year later. For mother report of adolescents' symptoms, the stress generation model fit the data best for both internalizing and externalizing syndromes; that is, higher levels of adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as reported by their mothers, significantly predicted higher levels of hassles 1 year later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An expanded perspective on children's mental health.

Comments on three articles (see records 2005-11115-003, 2005-11115-004, and 2005-11115-005) on the status of children's mental health services in the United States, which appeared in the September 2005 issue of the American Psychologist. The current authors suggest that, although this series of articles provides important information, the articles fall short in meeting the mark of comprehensively describing the solutions necessary to effectively address the crisis facing children's mental health in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Protecting the integrity of the legal system: The admissibility of testimony from mental health experts under Daubert/Kumho analyses.

The authors discussed to what degree testimony from social science and mental health experts (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, others) meets admissibility requirements expressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Daubert (1993), Joiner ( General Electric Co. v. Joiner , 1997) and the recent Kumho (1999) decision. They reviewed data on Daubert/Kumho indicia of reliability using 2 exemplar areas of mental health testimony: psychodiagnostic assessment by means of the Rorschach and other "projective" assessment techniques and the diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder and multiple personality disorder (dissociative identity disorder). They concluded that some testimony offered by mental health professionals relating to these concepts should not survive scrutiny under the framework of Daubert , Joiner , and Kumho . (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical assessment of attachment patterns and personality disorder in adolescents and adults.

The relevance of attachment theory and research for practice has become increasingly clear. The authors describe a series of studies with 3 aims: (a) to validate measures of attachment for use by clinicians with adolescents and adults, (b) to examine the relation between attachment and personality pathology, and (c) to ascertain whether factor analysis can recover dimensions of attachment reflecting both interpersonal and narrative style. In 3 studies, experienced clinicians provided psychometric data using 1 of 4 attachment questionnaires (2 adolescent and 2 adult samples). Attachment dimensions predicted both personality pathology and developmental experiences in predictable ways. Factor analysis identified 4 dimensions that replicated across adolescent and adult samples on the basis of a combination of interpersonal and narrative indicators: secure, dismissing, preoccupied, and incoherent/disorganized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined treatment for children with learning disorders.

The causes of learning disorders are numerous and, although some learning difficulties can be remedied by special educative measures only, many such problems, especially when they are more severe represent a disorder of the total personality. In such a case a diagnosis must be established by a team of different specialists. After a careful evaluation a treatment programme is planned and a choice is made among various specific therapies. Very often the treatment of learning disorders must take into account more or less important emotional factors. A combined approach of psychotherapy and remedial teaching is sometimes essential to attain some success in helping a child. Such a combination of treatments requires close cooperation between psychotherapist and special teacher. Their respective roles have to be frequently clarified and both gain in understanding of the child needs through mutual communication. Following the evolution of a child from two points of view demonstrates more and more clearly how the intellectual processes necessary for learning are subject to inhibiting patterns that are observed in neurotic defense mechanisms against emotional conflicts. In some instances this practical knowledge would be necessary to understand why a child does not profit from remedial measures and to determine how new techniques are to be used to help him. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)