Redefining the endophenotype concept to accommodate transdiagnostic vulnerabilities and etiological complexity

In psychopathology research, endophenotypes are a subset of biomarkers that indicate genetic vulnerability independent of clinical state. To date, an explicit expectation is that endophenotypes be specific to single disorders. We evaluate this expectation considering recent advances in psychiatric genetics, recognition that transdiagnostic vulnerability traits are often more useful than clinical diagnoses in psychiatric genetics, and appreciation for etiological complexity across genetic, neural, hormonal and environmental levels of analysis. We suggest that the disorder-specificity requirement of endophenotypes be relaxed, that neural functions are preferable to behaviors as starting points in searches for endophenotypes, and that future research should focus on interactive effects of multiple endophenotypes on complex psychiatric disorders, some of which are \u27phenocopies\u27 with distinct etiologies

A mechanism-focused approach to the science of behavior change: An introduction to the special issue

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science Of Behavior Change initiative (SOBC; https://commonfund.nih.gov/behaviorchange)—supported by the NIH Common Fund (https://commonfund.nih.gov/)—is an explicit effort to address the stymied and siloed behavior change field. As described in this Special Issue, SOBC represents a fundamental change in the way that research on initiation, personalization, and maintenance of behavior change is being conducted and applied. In this editorial, we highlight key contributions of SOBC in these areas

Differentiating Instruction to Close the Achievement Gap for Special Education Students Using Everyday Math

Thesis advisor: Robert J. StarrattThis case study examined teacher collaboration and teacher change while in the process of differentiating instruction in the area of mathematics in an elementary school. The project included a two-tier professional development opportunity for the staff. Professional development sessions focusing on specific mathematics skills were offered in lieu of traditional faculty meetings and thirteen, teacher volunteers in grades K-3 participated in bi-monthly study groups. The study describes the journey of the thirteen teachers as they identified successful strategies for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners. The study explored how job-embedded professional development offered teachers the resources and support to meet together during the school day to engage in dialogue about their students' progress, difficulties encountered when teaching specific concepts and skills, and proactively planning in order to differentiate instruction effectively. The study focused on collaboration as a method for learning together in an adult learning environment and improving current teacher practices. The research was qualitative with the school principal as both researcher and participant-observer of the study. Data instruments used for the participants involved in this study were pre- and post-implementation surveys of the entire staff, semi-structured interviews of the thirteen teacher volunteers, observations of meetings, teachers' reflective journals, and field notes. Findings indicated that there was an increase in the teachers' use of differentiated instruction in the area of math. While teachers most often differentiated lessons by ability, teachers experimented with differentiating by interest as well as addressing the students' varying learning styles. In addition, teachers found that the embedded study groups were valuable in helping them to collaborate with their peers and improve their practice in teaching mathematics to all learners. In a profession where continual renewal is necessary, it is essential for educators to be provided with adequate time to review current practices, reflect on the strategies that are most successful, and refine their craft in order to provide opportunities that will maximize student thinking and learning.Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education

Physiological regulation of stress in referred adolescents: The role of the parent-adolescent relationship

Background: Psychopathology in youth appears to be linked to deficits in regulating affective responses to stressful situations. In children, high-quality parental support facilitates affect regulation. However, in adolescence, the role of parent-child interaction in the regulation of affect is unclear. This study examined physiological reactivity to and recovery from stress in adolescents at risk for psychopathology, and their associations with internalising and externalising problems and parent-adolescent interactions. Methods: A total of 99 adolescents (M = 13.57 years, SD= 1.83) with a history of mental health problems underwent the Alarm Stress Task and were reunited with their primary caregiver after the stressor, while the physiological responses of the parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and sympathetic (pre-ejection period) systems were measured. The quality of parent-adolescent interaction was determined from observations of secure-base seeking and providing during the task. Affect regulation was measured as physiological reactivity and recovery after the stressor. Results: Adolescents with high levels of externalising problems and low levels of secure-base support showed weaker parasympathetic reactivity and recovery. Higher level of adolescent secure-base seeking was associated with stronger sympathetic reactivity and recovery. Conclusions: Secure-base interactions between parents and adolescents facilitate physiological regulation of stress, especially for adolescents with externalising symptomatology. © 2009 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

On the Meaning of the “P Factor” in Symmetrical Bifactor Models of Psychopathology: Recommendations for Future Research From the Bifactor-(S−1) Perspective

Symmetrical bifactor models are frequently applied to diverse symptoms of psychopathology to identify a general P factor. This factor is assumed to mark shared liability across all psychopathology dimensions and mental disorders. Despite their popularity, however, symmetrical bifactor models of P often yield anomalous results, including but not limited to nonsignificant or negative specific factor variances and nonsignificant or negative factor loadings. To date, these anomalies have often been treated as nuisances to be explained away. In this article, we demonstrate why these anomalies alter the substantive meaning of P such that it (a) does not reflect general liability to psychopathology and (b) differs in meaning across studies. We then describe an alternative modeling framework, the bifactor-(S−1) approach. This method avoids anomalous results, provides a framework for explaining unexpected findings in published symmetrical bifactor studies, and yields a well-defined general factor that can be compared across studies when researchers hypothesize what construct they consider “transdiagnostically meaningful” and measure it directly. We present an empirical example to illustrate these points and provide concrete recommendations to help researchers decide for or against specific variants of bifactor structure

Increases in Arousal are More Long-Lasting than Decreases in Arousal: On Homeostatic Failures During Emotion Regulation in Infancy

In emotion regulation, negative or undesired emotions are downregulated, but there are also opponent processes to emotion regulation—in which undesired emotions are exacerbated dynamically over time by processes that have an amplifying or upregulating impact. Evidence for such processes has been shown in adults, but little previous work has examined whether infants show similar patterns. To examine this, we measured physiological arousal in 57 typical 12 month olds while presenting a 20‐min mixed viewing battery. Fluctuations in autonomic arousal were measured via heart rate, electrodermal activity, and movement. We reasoned that if transitions in autonomic arousal are random (stochastic), then (1) arousal would be normally distributed across the session, and (2) episodes where arousal exceeded a certain threshold above the mean should be as long‐lived as those where arousal exceeded the same threshold below the mean. In fact we found that (1) heart rate and movement (but not electrodermal activity) were positively skewed, and (2) that increases in arousal have a lower extinction probability than decreases in arousal. Our findings may suggest that increases in arousal are self‐sustaining. These patterns are the opposite of the homeostatic mechanisms predicted by naïve approaches to emotion regulation

Mechanisms of comorbidity, continuity, and discontinuity in anxiety-related disorders

We discuss comorbidity, continuity, and discontinuity of anxiety-related disorders from the perspective of a two-dimensional neuropsychology of fear (threat avoidance) and anxiety (threat approach). Pharmacological dissection of the "neurotic" disorders justifies both a categorical division between fear and anxiety and a subdivision of each mapped to a hierarchy of neural modules that process different immediacies of threat. It is critical that each module can generate normal responses, symptoms of another syndrome, or syndromal responses. We discuss the resultant possibilities for comorbid dysfunction of these modules both with each other and with some disorders not usually classified as anxiety related. The simplest case is symptomatic fear/anxiety comorbidity, where dysfunction in one module results in excess activity in a second, otherwise normal, module to generate symptoms and apparent comorbidity. More complex is syndromal fear/anxiety comorbidity, where more than one module is concurrently dysfunctional. Yet more complex are syndromal comorbidities of anxiety that go beyond the two dimensional fear/anxiety systems: depression, substance use disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Our account of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-anxiety comorbidity entails discussion of the neuropsychology of externalizing disorders to account for the lack of anxiety comorbidity in some of these. Finally, we link the neuropsychology of disorder to personality variation, and to the development of a biomarker of variation in the anxiety system among individuals that, if extreme, may provide a means of unambiguously identifying the first of a range of anxiety syndromes

Verbal, Facial and Autonomic Responses to Empathy-Eliciting Film Clips by Disruptive Male Adolescents with High Versus Low Callous-Unemotional Traits

This study examined empathy-related responding in male adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD), high or low on callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Facial electromyographic (EMG) and heart rate (HR) responses were monitored during exposure to empathy-inducing film clips portraying sadness, anger or happiness. Self-reports were assessed afterward. In agreement with expectations, DBD adolescents with high CU traits showed significantly lower levels of empathic sadness than healthy controls across all response systems. Between DBD subgroups significant differences emerged at the level of autonomic (not verbal or facial) reactions to sadness, with high CU respondents showing less HR change from baseline than low CU respondents. The study also examined basal patterns of autonomic function. Resting HR was not different between groups, but resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was significantly lower in DBD adolescents with high CU traits compared to controls. Results support the notion that CU traits designate a distinct subgroup of DBD individuals

Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) in Spanish Adolescents: Factor Structure and Rasch Analysis

The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) is an instrument employed to measure the generalized ability to regulate behavior. Self-regulation is related to the management of risk behaviors, such as drug abuse or anti-social behaviors. The SRQ has been used in young adult samples. However, some risk behaviors are increasing among adolescents. The aim of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the SRQ among Spanish adolescents. While controlling for method effects, the data showed goodness of fit with the four-factor solution and 17 items (Goal setting, Decision making, Learning from mistakes, and Perseverance), and the four sub-scales were unidimensional according to the Rasch analysis. The Rasch model itself was shown to be reliable, but not at the level of persons. This means that the instrument was not sensitive enough to discriminate people with different self-regulation levels. These results support the use of the Spanish Short SRQ in adolescent samples. Some suggestions are made to improve the instrument, particularly in its application as a diagnostic tool