Supporting Treatment Selection in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Educational Workshop with Acceptance and Commitment Training

In the present study, the benefits of integrating acceptance and commitment training (ACT) into an educational workshop for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were investigated. A sample of 23 parents (18 mothers and 5 fathers) of children with ASD aged 4 to 26 years were randomly assigned to participate in either the ACT workshop (i.e., treatmentrelated information supplemented with ACT) or the Support workshop (i.e., treatment-related information with supplemented general parent support). Parents’ knowledge of ASD treatment selection, acceptance of ASD-related thoughts and emotions, ASD-related cognitive fusion, and willingness to select evidence-based treatments were measured at preworkshop, postworkshop, and three-month follow-up time points. Parents’ feedback regarding their experiences was also gathered via open-ended items embedded within questionnaires completed by participants at postworkshop and follow-up. Repeated measures analyses of variance revealed increases in treatment selection knowledge from preworkshop to postworkshop for both groups and these gains were maintained at follow-up. Trajectories of change in parents’ acceptance and cognitive fusion differed significantly by group over time, with ACT workshop participants showing increases in acceptance and decreases in cognitive fusion over time. However, the differences in acceptance and cognitive fusion between groups failed to reach statistical significance at postworkshop and follow-up time points. Unexpectedly, participants’ willingness to select evidence-based treatments decreased over time in both groups. Although acceptance and cognitive fusion were not found to moderate the relation between participants’ treatment selection knowledge and their willingness to select evidence-based treatments, evidence for a positive relation between increases in parents’ acceptance from postworkshop to follow-up and their willingness to select evidence-based treatments at follow-up was found. Participants in both groups identified treatment information as the most important thing they learned in the workshop. Support workshop participants revealed that they most liked the treatment information, while ACT workshop participants revealed that they most liked the ACT-specific content. Participant satisfaction ratings were high for both workshops and participants reported feeling more knowledgeable and confident in their ability to effectively select treatments for their children at follow-up. Results of the study demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating ACT into educational community workshops for parents of children with ASD. Although neither workshop was associated with increased willingness to select evidence-based treatments, increases in treatment selection knowledge were observed in both groups, with preliminary support for additional benefits of increased acceptance and decreased cognitive fusion in the ACT workshop group. Further implications are discussed, as well as strengths and limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research

Factors Impacting Athletic Identity in an Adolescent Population

Please enjoy Volume 7, Issue 1 of the JSMAHS. In this issue, you will find Professional, Graduate, and Undergraduate research abstracts, and case reports. Thank you for viewing this 7th Annual OATA Special Edition

Editorial: Helping Scientists to Communicate Well for all Considered: Strategic Science Communication in an Age of Environmental and Health Crises

From documenting evidence-based science communication training programs to examining issues of intersectionality and inclusivity in science communication, each of the 12 articles in this special issue offers a unique perspective on science communication, public engagement, and inclusivity. The case studies of training programs provide helpful lessons learned that have broad applicability. The descriptions of how social scientific and rhetorical approaches have been used to enhance inclusive science communication offer new insights into more effective science communication practices. Our hope is that, taken together, these articles will inspire improvements in our collective ability to more effectively and equitably apply scientific research to meet societal needs

Do the SCOFF items function differently by food-security status in U.S. college students?: Statistically, but not practically, significant differences

Despite food insecurity (FI) being associated with eating disorders (EDs), little research has examined if ED screening measures perform differently in individuals with FI. This study tested whether items on the SCOFF performed differently as a function of FI. As many people with FI hold multiple marginalized identities, this study also tested if the SCOFF performs differently as a function of food-security status in individuals with different gender identities and different perceived weight statuses. Data were from the 2020/2021 Healthy Minds Study (N = 122,269). Past-year FI was established using the two-item Hunger Vital Sign. Differential item functioning (DIF) assessed whether SCOFF items performed differently (i.e., had different probabilities of endorsement) in groups of individuals with FI versus those without. Both uniform DIF (constant between-group difference in item-endorsement probability across ED pathology) and non-uniform DIF (variable between-group difference in item-endorsement probability across ED pathology) were examined. Several SCOFF items demonstrated both statistically significant uniform and non-uniform DIF (ps < .001), but no instances of DIF reached practical significance (as indicated by effect sizes pseudo ΔR2 ≥ 0.035; all pseudo ΔR2's ≤ 0.006). When stratifying by gender identity and weight status, although most items demonstrated statistically significant DIF, only the SCOFF item measuring body-size perception showed practically significant non-uniform DIF for perceived weight status. Findings suggest the SCOFF is an appropriate screening measure for ED pathology among college students with FI and provide preliminary support for using the SCOFF in individuals with FI and certain marginalized identities

Context Matters: A Theory of Semantic Discriminability for Perceptual Encoding Systems

People's associations between colors and concepts influence their ability to interpret the meanings of colors in information visualizations. Previous work has suggested such effects are limited to concepts that have strong, specific associations with colors. However, although a concept may not be strongly associated with any colors, its mapping can be disambiguated in the context of other concepts in an encoding system. We articulate this view in semantic discriminability theory, a general framework for understanding conditions determining when people can infer meaning from perceptual features. Semantic discriminability is the degree to which observers can infer a unique mapping between visual features and concepts. Semantic discriminability theory posits that the capacity for semantic discriminability for a set of concepts is constrained by the difference between the feature-concept association distributions across the concepts in the set. We define formal properties of this theory and test its implications in two experiments. The results show that the capacity to produce semantically discriminable colors for sets of concepts was indeed constrained by the statistical distance between color-concept association distributions (Experiment 1). Moreover, people could interpret meanings of colors in bar graphs insofar as the colors were semantically discriminable, even for concepts previously considered "non-colorable" (Experiment 2). The results suggest that colors are more robust for visual communication than previously thought.Comment: To Appear in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphic

Circadian Clocks for All Meal-Times: Anticipation of 2 Daily Meals in Rats

Anticipation of a daily meal in rats has been conceptualized as a rest-activity rhythm driven by a food-entrained circadian oscillator separate from the pacemaker generating light-dark (LD) entrained rhythms. Rats can also anticipate two daily mealtimes, but whether this involves independently entrained oscillators, one ‘continuously consulted’ clock, cue-dependent non-circadian interval timing or a combination of processes, is unclear. Rats received two daily meals, beginning 3-h (meal 1) and 13-h (meal 2) after lights-on (LD 14∶10). Anticipatory wheel running began 68±8 min prior to meal 1 and 101±9 min prior to meal 2 but neither the duration nor the variability of anticipation bout lengths exhibited the scalar property, a hallmark of interval timing. Meal omission tests in LD and constant dark (DD) did not alter the timing of either bout of anticipation, and anticipation of meal 2 was not altered by a 3-h advance of meal 1. Food anticipatory running in this 2-meal protocol thus does not exhibit properties of interval timing despite the availability of external time cues in LD. Across all days, the two bouts of anticipation were uncorrelated, a result more consistent with two independently entrained oscillators than a single consulted clock. Similar results were obtained for meals scheduled 3-h and 10-h after lights-on, and for a food-bin measure of anticipation. Most rats that showed weak or no anticipation to one or both meals exhibited elevated activity at mealtime during 1 or 2 day food deprivation tests in DD, suggesting covert operation of circadian timing in the absence of anticipatory behavior. A control experiment confirmed that daytime feeding did not shift LD-entrained rhythms, ruling out displaced nocturnal activity as an explanation for daytime activity. The results favor a multiple oscillator basis for 2-meal anticipatory rhythms and provide no evidence for involvement of cue-dependent interval timing

Midday Meals Do Not Impair Mouse Memory

Nocturnal mice fed in the middle of the light period exhibit food anticipatory rhythms of behavior and physiology under control of food-entrainable circadian clocks in the brain and body. This is presumed to be adaptive by aligning behavior and physiology with predictable mealtimes. This assumption is challenged by a report that daytime feeding schedules impair cognitive processes important for survival, including object memory and contextual fear conditioning assessed at two times of day. To further evaluate these effects, mice were restricted to a 6&thinsp;h daily meal in the middle of the light or dark period and object memory was tested at four times of day. Object memory was not impaired by daytime feeding, and did not exhibit circadian variation in either group. To determine whether impairment might depend on methodology, experimental procedures used previously to detect impairment were followed. Daytime feeding induced food anticipatory rhythms and shifted hippocampal clock genes, but again did not impair object memory. Spontaneous alternation and contextual fear conditioning were also not impaired. Hippocampal memory function appears more robust to time of day and daytime feeding schedules than previously reported; day-fed mice can remember what they have seen, where they have been, and where it is dangerous

Factors Influencing Common Raven Occurrence and Density Across Cold-Desert Sagebrush Ecosystems of the Southwestern U.S.

Common ravens (Corvus corax) are a predator of eggs and chicks of numerous species including greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). Raven abundance and distribution is increasing within sagebrush ecosystems as a result of anthropogenic resource subsidies. Despite concerns about subsequent predation pressure on sage-grouse, broad-scale spatial information about raven populations remains lacking. We used hierarchical occupancy and distance sampling models to map raven density and distribution in response to natural and anthropogenic landscape covariates using \u3e15,000 point count surveys occurring within the Great Basin region since 2007. Anthropogenic factors contributing to greater raven occurrence included increased road density, presence of transmission lines, agricultural activity, and presence of roadside rest areas. Natural landscape characteristics included lower elevations with greener vegetation (NDVI), greater stream and habitat edge densities, and lower percentages of big sagebrush (A. tridentate spp.). Many of these same environmental factors influenced spatial variation in raven density, although the effects varied by field site. Both raven occurrence and density tended to increase in valleys with networks of agricultural fields, ranches, roads, and distribution lines. These features likely subsidize local raven populations, which then move into more remote shrubland environments with negative consequences for sage-grouse populations. We used the relationships identified in our model to make predictions of raven density and distribution across the Great Basin landscape. We show how these model outputs can be used to guide management decisions where raven distributions overlap with breeding sage-grouse concentration areas. Findings are preliminary and provided for timely best science

Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory – Clinician Rated Version (EPSI-CRV)

The files in this record contain supplemental information about the EPSI-CRV including: a copy of the EPSI-CRV, suggested training plan, training videos with an example of completed ratings, and a list of items that were removed during the final development process.The Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory – Clinician Rated Version (EPSI-CRV) is a semi-structured interview that was designed to assess dimensional constructs of eating-disorder psychopathology and generate current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual- Fifth Edition (DSM-5) eating-disorder diagnoses. The EPSI-CRV is based on the self-report version of the EPSI (Forbush et al., 2013). There are 13 modules (or sections) within the EPSI-CRV. Eight modules measure content that is assessed in the self-report version of the EPSI, including: Body Dissatisfaction, Binge Eating, Cognitive Restraint, Excessive Exercise, Restricting, Purging, Muscle Building, and Negative Attitudes Towards Obesity. Five additional modules are included to derive DSM-5 diagnoses. The five DSM-5 modules include: Subjective Binge Episodes, Binge Eating Disorder, Low Weight, Overvaluation of Weight and Shape, and Fear of Weight Gain. The average administration time is approximately 38 minutes. The EPSI-CRV is designed to be used by clinicians and researchers working with adults with eating disorders across a range of settings. The interview may be useful for making admissions decisions, treatment planning, and discharge planning, as well as for research studies