Hierarchical Linear Modeling in Organizational Research: Longitudinal Data Outside the Context of Growth Modeling

Organizational researchers, including those carrying out occupational stress research, often conduct longitudinal studies. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; also known as multilevel modeling and random regression) can efficiently organize analyses of longitudinal data by including within- and between-person levels of analysis. A great deal of longitudinal research has been conducted in the context of growth studies in which change in the dependent variable is examined in relation to the passage of time. HLM can treat longitudinal data, including data outside the context of the growth study, as nested data, reducing the problem of censoring. Within-person equation coefficients can represent the impact of Time t − 1 working conditions on Time t outcomes using all appropriate pairs of data points. Time itself need not be an independent variable of interest

Critical note on the usefulness of attention deficit as a clinical syndrome

Parental ratings of overactivity are unrelated to teachers\u27 ratings of overactivity or to laboratory measures of inattention. Teachers\u27 ratings of overactivity correlate strongly with teachers\u27 ratings of inattention as well as to laboratory measures of inattention. Teachers\u27 ratings of inattention, however, are unrelated to laboratory measures of inattention when IQ is controlled. There are considerable definitional problems relating to the symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention, making it difficult create a behavioral definition of the psychiatric syndrome of attention deficit disorder

Persistent emotional disorder in children with neurological soft signs

Provides clinical details in the form of 11 case vignettes from a prospective epidemiological study that found the combination of childhood \u27soft\u27 signs and anxious behavior to be a strong risk factor for adolescent emotional disorders. The original study conducted a neuropsychiatric assessment of 180 African-American adolescents (aged 16–18 yrs) who had been followed through childhood. The at-risk Ss exhibited a persistent and specific pattern of both motor abnormalities and anxiety, obsessional compulsive, or depressive symptoms over time. The form of at-risk Ss\u27 neurological and psychiatric abnormalities is consistent with a link between motor system abnormalities and emotional disorders

Are We Ready and Willing to Address the Mental Health Needs of Children? Implications From September 11th

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40308/2/Schonfeld_Are We Ready and Willing_2004.pd

Minor physical anomalies: Modifiers of environmental risk for psychopathology

Tested the hypothesis that minor physical anomalies (MPAs) modify an adolescent\u27s vulnerability to environmental risk factors for psychopathology. 118 male 17-yr-olds who had been evaluated as 7-year-olds received a comprehensive neuropsychiatric evaluation. The evaluation included standardized assessments of environmental risk factors for psychiatric impairment, neurological signs, IQ, MPAs, and psychiatric impairment. The relationship between psychiatric status and environmental risk was examined as a function of the MPA profile. There was a significant interaction between MPAs and environmental risk in predicting psychiatric status. Environmental risk was more predictive of psychiatric impairment at age 17 in Ss with high scores on the MPA scale than in Ss with low scores on the scale. This relationship was particularly apparent in Ss with conduct disorder. MPAs also exhibited relationships with 2 childhood factors, neurological soft signs and Verbal IQ, that had been shown to predict adolescent psychopathology in prior reports on this cohort

Dopamine overdose hypothesis: Evidence and clinical implications

About a half a century has passed since dopamine was identified as a neurotransmitter, and it has been several decades since it was established that people with Parkinson's disease receive motor symptom relief from oral levodopa. Despite the evidence that levodopa can reduce motor symptoms, there has been a developing body of literature that dopaminergic therapy can improve cognitive functions in some patients but make them worse in others. Over the past two decades, several laboratories have shown that dopaminergic medications can impair the action of intact neural structures and impair the behaviors associated with these structures. In this review, we consider the evidence that has accumulated in the areas of reversal learning, motor sequence learning, and other cognitive tasks. The purported inverted‐U shaped relationship between dopamine levels and performance is complex and includes many contributory factors. The regional striatal topography of nigrostriatal denervation is a critical factor, as supported by multimodal neuroimaging studies. A patient's individual genotype will determine the relative baseline position on this inverted‐U curve. Dopaminergic pharmacotherapy and individual gene polymorphisms can affect the mesolimbic and prefrontal cortical dopaminergic functions in a comparable, inverted‐U dose‐response relationship. Depending on these factors, a patient can respond positively or negatively to levodopa when performing reversal learning and motor sequence learning tasks. These tasks may continue to be relevant as our society moves to increased technological demands of a digital world that requires newly learned motor sequences and adaptive behaviors to manage daily life activities. © 2013 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder SocietyPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102168/1/mds25687.pd

Neurological soft signs and school achievement: The mediating effects of sustained attention

Citation: Schonfeld, I. S., Shaffer, D., & Barmack, J.E. (1989). Neurological soft signs and school achievement: The mediating effects of sustained attention. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 575-596. doi:10.1007/BF0091772

Ten-year consistency in neurological test performance of children without focal neurological deficit

To assess \u27soft-sign\u27 persistence and its correlates outside a referred sample, 159 members of a local birth cohort of the United National Collaborative Perinatal Project were traced and their performance on six neurological test scales was measured at age 17 by examiners blind to their status at age seven. A comparison group was also formed, who had been \u27sign-free\u27 at age seven. On four of the six tests (dysdiadochokinesis, mirror movements, dysgraphesthesia and motor slowness) index boys did significantly worse than the comparison boys; by contrast, index girls scored significantly worse than comparisons only on motor slowness

Conduct Disorder and cognitive functioning: Testing three causal hypotheses

Studied the relation between cognitive functioning, as evidenced by IQ and achievement test performance, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) categories of conduct disturbance, using data from Black adolescents who were members of collaborative perinatal project from birth to age 7 yrs. At age 17 yrs, Ss and their parents were administered a battery of instruments that included standardized psychiatric diagnostic interviews as part of a call-back study. Analyses were compatible with the hypothesis that deficiencies in cognitive functioning are causally related to adolescent conduct disorder as defined by DSM—III. Results suggest that the relation of cognitive functioning to psychiatric status was specific to conduct disorders. Results were incompatible with the hypothesis that conduct problems lead to deficits in cognitive functioning. The 3 most important factors in accounting for age-17 conduct disorder were cognitive functioning, parent psychopathology, and early aggression

The Pediatrician and Disaster Preparedness

Recent natural disasters and events of terrorism and war have heightened society's recognition of the need for emergency preparedness. In addition to the unique pediatric issues involved in general emergency preparedness, several additional issues related to terrorism preparedness must be considered, including the unique vulnerabilities of children to various agents as well as the limited availability of age- and weight-appropriate antidotes and treatments. Although children may respond more rapidly to therapeutic intervention, they are at the same time more susceptible to various agents and conditions and more likely to deteriorate if not monitored carefully.The challenge of dealing with the threat of terrorism, natural disasters, and public health emergencies in the United States is daunting not only for disaster planners but also for our medical system and health professionals of all types, including pediatricians. As part of the network of health responders, pediatricians need to be able to answer concerns of patients and families, recognize signs of possible exposure to a weapon of terror, understand first-line response to such attacks, and sufficiently participate in disaster planning to ensure that the unique needs of children are addressed satisfactorily in the overall process. Pediatricians play a central role in disaster and terrorism preparedness with families, children, and their communities. This applies not only to the general pediatrician but also to the pediatric medical subspecialist and pediatric surgical specialist. Families view pediatricians as their expert resource, and most of them expect the pediatrician to be knowledgeable in areas of concern. Providing expert guidance entails educating families in anticipation of events and responding to questions during and after actual events. It is essential that pediatricians educate themselves regarding these issues of emergency preparedness. For pediatricians, some information is currently available on virtually all of these issues in recently produced printed materials, at special conferences, in broadcasts of various types, and on the Internet. However, selecting appropriate, accurate sources of information and determining how much information is sufficient remain difficult challenges. Similarly, guidance is needed with respect to developing relevant curricula for medical students and postdoctoral clinical trainees