Executive Function Characteristics of Younger Adolescents Identified with Special Educational Needs

Executive functioning (EF) was investigated in 134 young adolescents with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in comparison to 141 students not requiring additional support (Non-SEN peers). These students (11-14 years) completed standardized assessments of vocabulary, decoding and non-verbal reasoning, and verbal and non-verbal EF assessments of inhibition, executive working memory, switching and fluency. Significant group differences were found in all these measures (verbal switching excepted), but no significant differences were found between three SEN subgroups (school action, school action plus, and those with statements) apart from non-verbal inhibition. Cluster analyses suggested that despite significant group differences, both SEN and Non-SEN students were often included in the same clusters. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the best model of EF performance for the SEN group involved an immature organisation. Parents, teachers and students completed the BRIEF questionnaire for ‘inhibit’, ‘working memory’ and ‘shift’. All three groups provided significantly different ratings for the SEN and Non-SEN groups, although the ratings varied for each group. Teachers also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and analyses revealed significantly higher concerns for the SEN group. Binary logistic regressions were conducted to identify predictors of SEN status. Significant predictors from just the EF variables included inhibition, switching/shift and fluency. In the final analysis which included the three standardized assessments the significant predictors were decoding and the BRIEF ‘shift’ construct. The findings have increased the limited knowledge about the characteristics of young adolescent students with SEN. These students were identified as having significantly lower EF abilities than their Non-SEN peers; the structural organization of the EF abilities appears similar to younger individuals, and the most important predictors of their SEN status were decoding and shift. Task management and inflexibility (‘shift’) were important issues for coping with the demands of early secondary school life

Examining the Links Between Challenging Behaviors in Youth with ASD and Parental Stress, Mental Health, and Involvement: Applying an Adaptation of the Family Stress Model to Families of Youth with ASD

Raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) poses unique challenges that may impact parents’ mental health and parenting experiences. The current study analyzed self-report data from 77 parents of youth with ASD. A serial multiple mediation model revealed that parenting stress (SIPA) and parental mental health (BAI and BDI-II) appears to be impacted by challenging adolescent behaviors (SSIS-PBs) and, in turn, affect parental involvement (PRQ), controlling for social skills (SSIS-SSs). Further, the study explored the malleability of parents’ mental health over the course of a social skills intervention, and provides modest evidence that parent depressive symptoms decline across intervention. This study illustrates the importance of considering the entire family system in research on youth with ASD

Personality Psychology and Economics

This paper explores the power of personality traits both as predictors and as causes of academic and economic success, health, and criminal activity. Measured personality is interpreted as a construct derived from an economic model of preferences, constraints, and information. Evidence is reviewed about the "situational specificity" of personality traits and preferences. An extreme version of the situationist view claims that there are no stable personality traits or preference parameters that persons carry across different situations. Those who hold this view claim that personality psychology has little relevance for economics. The biological and evolutionary origins of personality traits are explored. Personality measurement systems and relationships among the measures used by psychologists are examined. The predictive power of personality measures is compared with the predictive power of measures of cognition captured by IQ and achievement tests. For many outcomes, personality measures are just as predictive as cognitive measures, even after controlling for family background and cognition. Moreover, standard measures of cognition are heavily influenced by personality traits and incentives. Measured personality traits are positively correlated over the life cycle. However, they are not fixed and can be altered by experience and investment. Intervention studies, along with studies in biology and neuroscience, establish a causal basis for the observed effect of personality traits on economic and social outcomes. Personality traits are more malleable over the life cycle compared to cognition, which becomes highly rank stable around age 10. Interventions that change personality are promising avenues for addressing poverty and disadvantage.personality, behavioral economics, cognitive traits, wages, economic success, human development, person-situation debate

Domains of Vulnerability, Resilience, Health Habits, and Mental and Physical Health for Health Disparities Research

Health disparities associated with severe mental illness (SMI) have become a major public health concern. The disparities are not directly due to the SMI. They involve the same leading causes of premature death as in the general population. The causes of the disparities are therefore suspected to reflect differences in health-related behavior and resilience. As with other problems associated with SMI, studying non-clinical populations at risk for future onset provides important clues about pathways, from vulnerability to unhealthy behavior and compromised resilience, to poor health and reduced quality of life. The purpose of this study was to identify possible pathways in a sample of public university students. Four domains of biosystemic functioning with a priori relevance to SMI-related vulnerability and health disparities were identified. Measures reflecting various well-studied constructs within each domain were factor-analyzed to identify common sources of variance within the domains. Relationships between factors in adjacent domains were identified with linear multiple regression. The results reveal strong relationships between common factors across domains that are consistent with pathways from vulnerability to health disparities, to reduced quality of life. Although the results do not provide dispositive evidence of causal pathways, they serve as a guide for further, larger-scale, longitudinal studies to identify causal processes and the pathways they follow to health consequences

Early Maladaptive Schemas and negative life events in the prediction of depression and anxiety

This study tested the relationships between Young\u27s (1990, 2003) model of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMSs), negative life events occurring over the past 4 months, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms. We also replicated a design testing the ability of EMSs, negative life events, and their interaction to predict depressive and anxious symptoms and extended the design to include specific categories of negative life events (interpersonal and achievement). Results of this study showed that EMSs are predictive of depressive and anxious symptoms, but that negative life events account for a greater prediction. The EMS model was just as highly associated with and predictive of anxious symptoms as it was with depressive symptoms. The study was the first to examine specific types of negative life events and their relationships with EMSs. EMSs may be more highly associated with negative achievement than with negative interpersonal events but the EMSs appear to be vulnerable to global life stress in general

Understanding Criminal Behaviour in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Neurocognitive Deficits and Social Factors

Individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system than individuals without FASD. Research shows that individuals with FASD are unable to learn from standard methods of punishment, such as incarceration. The objective of this research was to determine how young offenders with an FASD diagnosis differ from young offenders without a diagnosis in order to inform sentencing and treatment options for FASD offenders. Using a pre-existing database of court-referred young offenders, the data of 197 youths were compared. Eighty-six young offenders in this sample were diagnosed with FASD. Information was available on a number of neurocognitive variables, such as cognition, memory, attention, achievement, and language, as well as social data, such as substance use, assistance in school, home stability, and criminal charges. Profile analysis was run on the neurocognitive data for young offenders with and without FASD. The social data were analyzed using a combination of correlation and one-way ANOVAs. Young offenders with FASD differed from young offenders without FASD on severity of impairment on the neurocognitive measures, with individuals with FASD scoring lower that the comparison group. There was no difference in the profile of neurocognitive deficiency between the groups, suggesting that young offenders with FASD have the same profile of impairments as other young offenders but to a more severe degree. There were not found to be any strong or moderate associations between the types of charges accrued and any neurocognitive measure, indicating that deficits likely do not directly lead to offending. Home stability between birth and age seven was particularly important as a protective factor for future crime, and having ever been in foster care was strongly related to number of charges. Current substance use of all kinds was associated with a higher number of charges. Youth with FASD are likely more at risk for criminal behaviour due to lower overall neurocognitive functioning, poor environmental stability, and an interaction of the two. Programs for people with FASD will be required throughout the life span and current correctional programs have yet to be developed for offenders with FASD

Perfiles de ansiedad social y auto-atribuciones académicas en estudiantes de Educación Secundaria ¿De qué hablamos realmente? Precisiones teóricas metodológicas, metodológicas y estadísticas

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between academic self-attributions and subclinical social anxiety in a sample of Spanish adolescents and examine statistically significant differences in academic self-attributions among subgroups of socially anxious youth. Random cluster sampling was conducted. The final sample consisted of 717 Spanish students enrolled in Secondary Education (51% girls) aged 14 to 17 years (M = 15.68, SD = 1.16). The Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and the Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS) were administered. Cluster analysis identified three clusters: (1) students with high social anxiety (n = 102) and high scores on fear of negative evaluation (FNE), anxiety toward strangers or new social situations (SAD-N), and anxiety in social situations in general (SAD-G); (2) students with moderate social anxiety (n = 290) and moderate scores on FNE, SAD-N, and SAD-G; and (3) students with low social anxiety (n = 325) and low scores on FNE, SAD-N, and SAD-G. Multivariate analyses (MANOVA) examined differences in the academic self-attributions across the three clusters of subclinical social anxiety, finding statistically significant differences in the six types of academic self-attributions (Wilks Lambda = .89, F(12,714) = 7.11, p < .001, η2 = .06), including success attributed to ability, success attributed to effort, success attributed to external causes, failure attributed to ability, failure attributed to effort, and failure attributed to external causes. The implications of these findings for Psychology and Education professionals are discussed.El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la relación entre las autoatribuciones académicas y la ansiedad social subclínica en una muestra de adolescentes españoles, así como comprobar si existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas en autoatribuciones académicas entre subgrupos de jóvenes con ansiedad social subclínica. Se realizó un muestreo aleatorio por conglomerados. La muestra final estuvo formada por 717 estudiantes españoles de Educación Secundaria (51 % mujeres) de 14 a 17 años (M = 15.68; DT = 1.16). Se administraron la Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) y la Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS). El análisis de conglomerados identificó tres clústeres: (1) estudiantes con alta ansiedad social (n = 102) y puntuaciones altas en miedo a la evaluación negativa (FNE), ansiedad en situaciones sociales nuevas o ante extraños (SAD-N) y ansiedad en situaciones sociales en general (SAD-G); (2) estudiantes con ansiedad social moderada (n = 290) y puntuaciones moderadas en FNE, SAD-N y SAD-G; y (3) estudiantes con baja ansiedad social (n = 325) y bajas puntuaciones en FNE, SAD-N y SAD-G. Los análisis multivariados (MANOVA) examinaron las diferencias en autoatribuciones académicas entre los tres grupos de ansiedad social subclínica, encontrando diferencias estadísticamente significativas en los seis tipos de autoatribuciones académicas (Lambda de Wilks = .89, F(12,714) = 7.11, p <.001, η2 = .06), incluyendo éxito atribuido a la capacidad, éxito atribuido al esfuerzo, éxito atribuido a causas externas, fracaso atribuido a la capacidad, fracaso atribuido al esfuerzo y fracaso atribuido a causas externas. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos hallazgos para profesionales de la Psicología y de la Educación