Callous-unemotional traits and emotion in a detained adolescent sample: a mixed methods approach

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits have been found to be useful in identifying youth who display more stable, severe and aggressive behavior and who are at increased risk for early-onset delinquency and later antisocial and delinquent behavior (Frick & Dickens, 2006; Frick & White,2008). Some studies devoted to understanding how youth with CU traits perceive emotional stimuli have found that youth with these traits have deficits in processing fear and distress in others (Frick and White, 2008). However, there is a paucity of research examining the detailed emotional experiences of youth with CU traits. Thus, the current study aimed to provide a richer understanding of the emotional experiences and perceptions of juvenile delinquents with high CU traits by examining how their emotional reactions and experiences may differ from those with low CU traits. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses were conducted to achieve these aims. It was found that a lower proportion of high CU youth, as compared to low CU youth, were able to identify the scared emotion of the photographed individual. No differences were found between groups on their ability to cite an experience for each emotion, or in their perceived emotional intensity for their experiences. High CU youth were more likely to make plans to evoke negative emotions in others for self-enhancement or to reach a specific goal, more so than low CU participants. A higher number of high CU youth reported that they found emotions hard to express, but perceived anger as easy to express, compared to low CU youth. High CU youth also controlled their fear to a greater extent compared to low CU youth. These findings are important as they shed new light on the relation between CU traits and emotion, and suggest that detained adolescents with CU traits may experience emotions such as guilt and fear, but they may prefer to contain their negative emotions from others. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Positive psychology intervention for girls with conduct problems: a single-case time-series design

Background: Juvenile offenders with psychopathic traits are more likely to have problems in institutional settings and commit more violent and damaging offenses following release, as well as be faced with problems (e.g., lost educational opportunities, drug use) that impede their functioning as young adults. There has been a paucity of interventions focusing on treating youth offenders with psychopathic traits. The Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI; Salekin, 2010) was designed to fulfil this purpose. The current study aimed to examine the effectiveness of PPI in reducing psychopathic traits in a sample of female juvenile offenders. Method: The participants were eight 15-18-year-old adolescent girls with conduct problems placed in a secure residential facility. The PPI was implemented and outcome measures were assessed pre and post-intervention, as well as weekly during the baseline and treatment phases. Group effects and single-case data were examined. Results: As predicted, there was a group reduction in psychopathic traits and increase in positive affect post-intervention. Examining the single-case data found that the PPI demonstrated significant effects for participants with certain characteristics (e.g., having stayed longer in the facility). Conclusions: The PPI appears promising in reducing psychopathic traits and enhancing positive affect in this sample of adolescent girls with conduct problems. The effects for the single case data were not as strong as that of the group level findings. Potential methodological reasons for this are discussed. In addition, ways to adapt sessions of the PPI to further enhance the effectiveness of treatment for adolescent girls with psychopathic traits are outlined. Keywords: psychopathy, positive affect, intervention, adolescence (Published By University of Alabama Libraries

Effects of Spray-Drying Inlet Temperature on the Production of High-Quality Native Rice Starch

Rice starch is a common functional ingredient used in various food applications. The drying regime to obtain dry starch powder is an important processing step, which affects the functional properties of the starch. The application of extreme thermal treatment during the conventional drying process tends to elicit irreversible changes to the rice starch, resulting in the loss of desired functionalities. In a previous study, we reported the development of a novel low temperature spray-drying based process which efficiently dries waxy rice starch, while preserving its physicochemical properties and functionalities. This study, a follow-up to the previous report, evaluated the effect of different spray-drying inlet temperatures on the production yield, physicochemical properties, and functionalities of waxy rice starch. Increasing the inlet temperature from 40 °C to 100 °C resulted in an increase in the process yield from 74.83% to 88.66%, respectively. All spray dried waxy rice starches possessed a low moisture content of less than 15%, and a consistent particle size (median ~6.00 μm). Regardless of the inlet temperatures, the physicochemical functionalities, including the pasting characteristics and flowability, were similar to that of the native waxy rice starch. The molecular and A-type crystalline structure of the waxy rice starches were also conserved. An inlet temperature of 60 °C represented the optimum temperature for the spray-drying process, with a good yield (84.55 ± 1.77%) and a low moisture content (10.74 ± 1.08%), while retaining its native physicochemical functionalities and maximizing energy efficacy