Family Functioning in Latino Families of Children with ADHD: The Role of Parental Gender and Acculturation

It has been well established that parents of children with ADHD report significantly higher levels of parenting stress (Heath, Curtis, Fan, & McPherson, 2015) and chaos in the home (Wirth et al., 2017) than parents of children without ADHD. Parents of children with ADHD also report feeling less efficacious in their parenting abilities compared to parents of children without ADHD (Primack et al., 2012). To date, a majority of the literature on ADHD has focused on European American children and families, resulting in a paucity of research and clinical practice with ethnic minority families of youth with ADHD, specifically among Latinos (Alegría et al., 2007; Eiraldi et al., 2006). The current study aimed to build upon recent research on ADHD among Latino children and their families by exploring contextual and cultural factors, such as parental gender and acculturation, which may account for variations in parenting experiences among Latino parents of children with ADHD. The present study utilized secondary data analysis to analyze pre-treatment ratings of parenting stress, home chaos, and parental efficacy among a sample of Latino mothers and fathers (n = 46), who were recruited as a part of a larger study. Results indicated that Latina mothers of children with ADHD report higher levels of parenting stress than Latino fathers of children with ADHD; however, no significant parental gender differences were found in pre-treatment ratings of parental efficacy and home chaos. Additionally, several significant relationships were found between parental acculturation, parental gender and parenting variables. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed

Mobile Music: a musical therapy assistance device

Children suffering from Cerebral Palsy often undergo gait therapy in order to strengthen and coordinate their trunks and legs. The patients often feel unmotivated to perform their gait training because the physical movements associated with it are difficult and there is no immediate reward. Physical therapists (PT) will often play music as an incentive to get the children focused on their physical therapy, but this is inefficient and impedes the PT from analyzing and tuning the patients\u27 gait. Mobile Music is a small device designed for automating musical therapy during gait training. In this paper, we go through several design iterations in order to create a cheap, ergonomic device that will sense motion and use musical stimulation in order to encourage active participation in gait training. While we had some difficulties implementing the motion sensing algorithm in the final device, testing done in the prototype phase showed promising results in accurately detecting participation in physical therapy. We have determined that the problems associated with these are likely due to timing issues in the microcontroller unit due to multiple reasons and the lack of feedback to the device of the audio streaming state. With the addition of a mobile application and some slight changes to the code implementation of the motion sensing algorithm, we believe that these problems can be fixed. Because of the improvement in media player control that a mobile app enables, a newer, lower powered system configuration can be implemented that reduces audio output noise as well as reduce power consumption. These improvements combined with the low cost and simple interface could make Mobile Music into a very viable product with the potential to help children with movement disorders improve their gaits

Races of Mankind: the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman

Book Review of Races of Mankind: the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman, by Marianne Kinkel. ISBN 9780252036248. Reviewed by Susan Malkoff Moon

Family Functioning in Latinx Families of Children with ADHD: The Role of Parental Gender and Acculturation

Objectives: It has been well-established that parents of children with ADHD report significantly higher levels of parenting stress and home chaos, and lower levels of parental efficacy than parents of children without ADHD. Unfortunately, most of the extant ADHD literature has focused on European American children and families, resulting in a paucity of research focusing on ethnic minority families of children with ADHD. The current study aimed to expand what is known about Latinx parents of children with ADHD by exploring contextual and cultural factors, such as parental gender and acculturation, which may account for variations in parenting experiences within this population. Methods: The present study utilized secondary data analysis to analyze ratings of parenting stress, home chaos, and parental efficacy among a sample of Latinx mothers and fathers of children with ADHD (n= 46 dyads). Results: Results indicated that Latinx mothers of children with ADHD reported higher levels of parenting stress than Latinx fathers of children with ADHD; however, no significant parental gender differences were found in ratings of parental efficacy or home chaos. Additionally, several significant relationships were found between parental acculturation and family functioning variables. Conclusions: Latinx families of children with ADHD are an understudied and underserved population within the field of clinical psychology. The current study provides critical information on Latinx family functioning within the context of ADHD treatment, specifically pertaining to the complex interplay of parenting and acculturation variables

Parental ADHD Knowledge in Latinx Families: Gender Differences and Treatment Effects

Objective The current study aimed to extend findings of a study comparing two psychosocial treatments for ADHD in Latinx youth by examining if parental ADHD knowledge improves following treatment and if parental gender differences in ADHD knowledge exist. Method Following a comprehensive ADHD assessment, 58 Latinx families of school-aged children (mean age of 8 years) were randomly assigned to either culturally-adapted treatment (CAT) or standard evidence-based treatment (EBT). Parents completed an ADHD Knowledge measure both pre- and post-treatment. Results/Conclusion Latinx mothers demonstrated greater knowledge of ADHD symptomatology than fathers at pre-treatment. CAT resulted in improvements in parental knowledge of ADHD for both mothers and fathers, whereas standard EBT resulted in no change in maternal knowledge and reduced paternal knowledge of ADHD symptomatology. Clinical implications will be discussed

Biochemical and Ultrastructural Changes in Tetrahymena pyriformis During Starvation *

Certain of the ultrastructural and biochemical changes occurring during the first 25 hr of starvation in Tetrahymena pyriformis were studied. Ultrastructurally, numerous profiles of degenerating mitochondria were seen in the early stages of starvation. The presence of oxidizable substrate such as glucose and acetate did not prevent this degeneration. Numerous large nucleoli were formed, many of which seemed to be passing into the cytoplasm as forming autophagic vacuoles. There was a transient increase in Oil Red O-positive bodies, presumably lipid (triglycerides). The extent and duration of this increase were pronounced in the presence of acetate. The lipid droplets appeared to arise within the cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum. Lipid reserves were apparently utilized prior to carbohydrates, as the disappearance of lipid droplets preceded glycogen utilization, both in the presence of acetate and in the absence of exogenous substrate. A considerable loss of cellular protein also occurred. In cells from inorganic medium supplemented with glucose, glycogen occupied much of the cell, leaving only islands of cell organelles. Acid phosphatase was localized, ultrastructurally, mainly in autophagic vacuoles which contained mitochondria and other cell organelles, and in association with small, double-membraned structures which seemed to be sequestering small areas of cytoplasm. Such sequestered areas also appeared within larger autophagic vacuoles. Residual bodies containing concentric whorls of myelin-like membranes surrounding a more solid core accumulated during starvation. Acid phosphatase activity decreased in amount but not in specific activity. The specific activity of cathespin doubled or tripled, but there was little change in total enzyme.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73300/1/j.1550-7408.1968.tb02113.x.pd

Mice with reduced DAT levels recreate seasonal-induced switching between states in bipolar disorder.

Developing novel therapeutics for bipolar disorder (BD) has been hampered by limited mechanistic knowledge how sufferers switch between mania and depression-how the same brain can switch between extreme states-described as the "holy grail" of BD research. Strong evidence implicates seasonally-induced switching between states, with mania associated with summer-onset, depression with winter-onset. Determining mechanisms of and sensitivity to such switching is required. C57BL/6J and dopamine transporter hypomorphic (DAT-HY 50% expression) mice performed a battery of psychiatry-relevant behavioral tasks following 2-week housing in chambers under seasonally relevant photoperiod extremes. Summer-like and winter-like photoperiod exposure induced mania-relevant and depression-relevant behaviors respectively in mice. This behavioral switch paralleled neurotransmitter switching from dopamine to somatostatin in hypothalamic neurons (receiving direct input from the photoperiod-processing center, the suprachiasmatic nucleus). Mice with reduced DAT expression exhibited hypersensitivity to these summer-like and winter-like photoperiods, including more extreme mania-relevant (including reward sensitivity during reinforcement learning), and depression-relevant (including punishment-sensitivity and loss-sensitivity during reinforcement learning) behaviors. DAT mRNA levels switched in wildtype littermate mice across photoperiods, an effect not replicated in DAT hypomorphic mice. This inability to adjust DAT levels to match photoperiod-induced neurotransmitter switching as a homeostatic control likely contributes to the susceptibility of DAT hypormophic mice to these switching photoperiods. These data reveal the potential contribution of photoperiod-induced neuroplasticity within an identified circuit of the hypothalamus, linked with reduced DAT function, underlying switching between states in BD. Further investigations of the circuit will likely identify novel therapeutic targets to block switching between states