A diagnostic tool for family and marriage counseling with Muslim couples

This study aimed to describe the development and psychometric properties of a questionnaire for Muslim couples and families based on how couples view and experience marital and family issues. A questionnaire was developed based on relevant literature and fine-tuned by a panel of experts. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1212 heterosexual Muslim individuals of 389 married couples aged 22–55 years old (overall mean age = 38.15 years, SD = 9.47; husbands’ mean age = 38.25 years, SD = 9.23; wives’ mean age = 38.06, SD = 9.70). The participants were divided into two subsamples for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and to draw Pearson correlations with the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) for validation procedures. The results indicate the strong statistical significance of a 22-item five-factor structure: structural attribute satisfaction, marital harmony, emotional and sexual harmony, spouse’s family communication, and religious matters. The factors were interpreted theoretically and indicate a superior level of internal consistency. The validation process indicates that the questionnaire was appropriate for the targeted population. The validated tool is useful for the assessment of marital and family therapy with Muslim couples and families. The WIFAQ Questionnaire for Muslim Couples and Families (WQMCF) fills a critical gap in the market for a family health indicator that can be used in both local and national populations. In health care settings and organizations that provide services to families, the WQMCF may be an important screener of family and marriage counseling in Muslim couples. Individuals, communities, and nations can all benefit from a stronger understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of family health.For valuable feedback on this work we thank all of the psychology and social worker teams in the Family Consulting Center Research. Data collection and preliminary analysis were supported by an award from the Family Consulting Center (WIFAQ) - Qatar (a member of the Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Human Factors in Driving Accidents: A Cognitive Investigation in the Gulf Context

Human factors were reported by researchers to be the reason behind the majority of car accidents; examples of these factors were: inattention, stress, distraction, decision making, drugs and alcohol abuses. Most of such studies were conducted based on western countries and on simulated driving situations, and very few of which used samples of participants who had accidents and/or driving violations in real life situations. To date, no studies at least in the Arab world generally and Gulf area specifically, conducted a comprehensive examination of cognitive functioning as potential predictors of car accidents and driving violations. Thus, the present study aimed at examining the role of cognitive functions (i.e., verbal working memory, attentional control, behavioral control, emotional control, cognitive failure, everyday memory failure, analytical cognitive style, mental planning, and general decision-making) as predictors of traffic accidents and driving violations. This was done based on empirical data from a hundred and thirty two men participants who aged between 24 and 31 years. All participants had driving licenses for more than five years and driving experiences of 8000000 KM and more. They were classified into violators and non-violators as well as accident free and accident involved groups. The cognitive functioning was measured using 5 self-reports and 2 tasks performance: Executive Functioning Scale, General Decision Making Scale, Cognitive Style Index, Cognitive Failure Questionnaire, Everyday Memory Questionnaire, Verbal Working Memory Task and Tower of London Task. A series of ANOVAS as well as stepwise multiple regressions were conducted to test the research hypothesis. Findings showed that there were significant differences between violators and non-violators and between the accident free and accident involved groups in almost all of the considered cognitive factors (P .05). Results also indicated that the attentional control, behavioral control, emotional control, cognitive failure and mental planning factors were the major predictors of traffic violating behaviors and traffic accidents. Moreover, Pearson product-moment correlations showed that there were significant negative correlations between age, driving violations, and cognitive performance and the accidents. These obtained findings underscore the involvement of cognitive functioning in driving behavior and road accidents. Thus, when drivers working memory and/or executive functioning are overloaded, more demands on the cognitive recourses are imposed, which in result makes them vulnerable to wrong or hazardous driving decisions. It was also noted that those with higher mental planning abilities were involved in less moving violations and road accidents. This result was expected because as detected through the study, the more the time people take to move in the planning task, the more accidents and moving violations they report. It was also found that individuals with more driving mileage and holding driving licenses for a longer time period had more violations and driving accidents. In result, our findings contribute to the literature that human cognition such as executive functioning, mental planning and verbal working memory are key factors for predicting driving behavior and traffic accidents, and have many implications in diagnosing and preventing or at least reducing driving violations and road accidents.qscienc

Aberrant driving behaviors as mediators in the relationship between driving anger patterns and crashes among taxi drivers: An investigation in a complex cultural context

Objective: Taxis have become an integrated component of Qatar’s urban transportation network due to their convenience, comfort, and flexibility. Qatar has seen an uptick in the demand for professional taxi drivers. Most Qatari taxi drivers come from developing countries with poor awareness of road safety; therefore, they regularly engage in aberrant driving behavior, leading to traffic violations and crashes. For taxi rides to be safer, it is essential to determine the association between driving aberration and road traffic crashes (RTCs), with an emphasis on the underlying factors that trigger these behaviors. Methods: To this end, we collected the data from taxi drivers relying on standard questionnaires, namely the Driving Anger Scale (DAS) and the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ), together with the real crash data of the same taxi drivers obtained from the police department. We relied on factor analysis to identify the main factors of these tools and then structural equation modeling to predict their causal relationship with RTCs. Results: The results indicated that the component of DAS, namely “illegal driving”, triggered all dimensions of aberrant driving behaviors, whereas hostile gestures had a positive correlation with lapses. In addition, the factor “error” was identified as a significant direct predictor, while the factor “illegal driving” was identified as a significant indirect predictor for RTCs. Regarding demographic characteristics, professional driving experience was found to be negatively associated with RTCs. Conclusion: Driving aberration mediated the impact of driving anger on RTCs. The findings from this study could help road safety practitioners and researchers better understand these relations. In addition, these results could also be very helpful for driving instructors to train taxi drivers in a way to cope with provoking situations.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library. This study was made possible by the internal grant award [QUCG-CENG-21/22-2] from Qatar University

Qatar as full island overnight: Psychological and social consequences of blockade as reflected in the social media

The GCC crisis in which Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain have closed land, sea and air borders going into and from Qatar imposed a host of psychosocial stressors on both Qatari and non-Qatari citizens. This ongoing crisis is contributing to psychological and social problems at both the individual and community levels. Furthermore, pressures are placed on psychological, social, and mental health resources available in Qatar. Therefore, the current economic and political situation calls for a need to assess the resultant psychosocial effects at different levels (individuals families, and communities) and types (emotional, psychological, and social). One method to empirically identify such psychosocial changes emergent from the crisis is to test individuals' reactions in social media, such as Twitter. Methodology: A total of 1238 tweets were collected over a period of 90 days using https:/birdiq.net, 10 thematic representations were codified from 780 tweets. All tweets posted since the blockade started in June 5, 2017 contained a combination of 131 negative words. The 'bad words' were grouped into 10 clusters representing negative emotions. Findings: The results indicated that since the blockade, Qatari residents have begun to use an increasing amount of negative words in their Twitter profiles, indicating adverse tendencies towards the Gulf crisis. Using ten-day intervals up to the point in which this data was collected, significant changes have been observed in the ways in which people expressed themselves on Twitter. These findings are analyzed in the light of literature on the psychological impact of siege blockade and isolation on populations.Scopu

An integrative psychological model for radicalism : Evidence from structural equation modeling

The present study aimed at testing an integrative model that comprises cognitive, psychopathological and psychosocial factors that potentially relate to radicalism as an antecedent condition to radical and terrorist behaviors. A sample of 662 Egyptians (54.83% females and 45.17% males) aged 26, 16 years was administered a comprehensive battery of 25 cognitive, psychopathological and psychosocial measures. The data were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling techniques to test the research hypothesis. The results revealed that the cognitive model, psychopathological model and psychosocial model did not fit the data well individually. However, an integrative model that included 22 psychopathological constructs, five cognitive constructs, and four psychosocial constructs fit the data very well. Both males and females conceptualized the constructs similarly, and there were no significant latent gender mean differences in any constructs involved in the research model, including radicalism. These findings imply that none of the models can solely explain radicalism, whereas the integrative model can. The findings support the notion that radicalism is a product of, but is not limited to, complicated trajectories of cognitive, psychopathological, and psychosocial factors. 2016 Elsevier Ltd.Scopu

False Memory in Adults With ADHD: A Comparison Between Subtypes and Normal Controls

Objectives: To examine the performance on the Deese-Roediger-McDermott task of adults divided into ADHD subtypes and compares their performance to that of healthy controls to examine whether adults with ADHD are more susceptible to the production of false memories under experimental conditions. Method: A total of 128 adults with ADHD (50% females), classified into three Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV-TR) subtypes, were compared with 48 controls. Results: The results indicated that the ADHD participants recalled and recognized fewer studied words than the controls, the ADHD groups produced more false memories than the control group, no differences in either the false positives or the false negatives. The ADHD-combined (ADHD-CT) group recognized significantly more critical words than the control, ADHD-predominantly inattentive (ADHD-IA), and ADHD-predominantly hyperactive-impulsive (ADHD-HI) groups. The ADHD groups recalled and recognized more false positives, were more confident in their false responses, and displayed more knowledge corruption than the controls. The ADHD-CT group recalled and recognized more false positives than the other ADHD groups. Conclusion: The adults with ADHD have more false memories than the controls and that false memory formation varied with the ADHD subtypes. 1 2014, 1 The Author(s) 2014.Scopu

Holistic Management of Schizophrenia Symptoms Using Pharmacological and Non-pharmacological Treatment

Individuals with schizophrenia lead a poor quality of life, due to poor medical attention, homelessness, unemployment, financial constraints, lack of education, and poor social skills. Thus, a review of factors associated with the holistic management of schizophrenia is of paramount importance. The objective of this review is to improve the quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia, by addressing the factors related to the needs of the patients and present them in a unified manner. Although medications play a role, other factors that lead to a successful holistic management of schizophrenia include addressing the following: financial management, independent community living, independent living skill, relationship, friendship, entertainment, regular exercise for weight gained due to medication administration, co-morbid health issues, and day-care programmes for independent living. This review discusses the relationship between different symptoms and problems individuals with schizophrenia face (e.g., homelessness and unemployment), and how these can be managed using pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. Thus, the target of this review is the carers of individuals with schizophrenia, public health managers, counselors, case workers, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists aiming to enhance the quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia

The Reliability, Validity and Normative Scores of the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test for Use With Arab Children

Background: The Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test (BAFRT) is one of the most widely used measures of family dynamics seen from a child's perspective. However, the most common issue surrounding this test is the lack of accurate normative scores for use with non-white ethnic groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the BAFRT's reliability and validity for use with Arab children, as well as to provide normative data for this group. Methods: The BAFRT was translated into Arabic and back-translated to ensure accuracy. The test was administered to a cohort of 394 Arab children, consisting of both cognitively normal children (n = 269) and children diagnosed with a psychological disorder (n = 125), all aged 5-8 years old. Test-retest reliability was assessed using a sub-set of children and validity was tested against clinical status as well as CBCL and SDQ measures. Normative measures were calculated after examining the impact of influencing variables such as age and gender. Results: Statistical analyses showed that in our cohort of Arab children the BAFRT has good test-retest reliability, correlates well with measures of emotional and behavioral adjustment, and discriminates accurately between clinical and non-clinical children. Age, gender, and clinical status all significantly impacted upon BAFRT scores and therefore normative values are presented from our cohort when considering these variables. Conclusion: The normative scores we present will provide researchers and clinicians an appropriate reference point for the comparison of scores from Arab children and a starting point for future research into this area.This article was supported by an award from the Family Consulting Center (Wifaq) - Qatar (a member of The Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the author.Scopu

Cognitive and neural correlates of vitamin D deficiency : focus on healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease

Vitamin D deficiency is a global public health concern due to its influence on health and well-being in which individuals have less than the minimum required concentration of vitamin D in their body and brain. Holick and Chen (2008) have estimated that 1 billion individuals worldwide have vitamin D deficiency. Although the definitive levels of vitamin D have not been agreed upon worldwide, Pettersen (2016) defined levels of vitamin D as follows: insufficient as being levels less than 50 nmol/L, low sufficient being between 50 and 75 nmol/L, high sufficient being between 75 and 100 nmol/L, and supratherapeutic being equal to or more than 100 nmol/L (Pettersen, 2016, p. 467)

Holistic Management of Schizophrenia Symptoms Using Pharmacological and Non-pharmacological Treatment

Individuals with schizophrenia lead a poor quality of life, due to poor medical attention, homelessness, unemployment, financial constraints, lack of education, and poor social skills. Thus, a review of factors associated with the holistic management of schizophrenia is of paramount importance. The objective of this review is to improve the quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia, by addressing the factors related to the needs of the patients and present them in a unified manner. Although medications play a role, other factors that lead to a successful holistic management of schizophrenia include addressing the following: financial management, independent community living, independent living skill, relationship, friendship, entertainment, regular exercise for weight gained due to medication administration, co-morbid health issues, and day-care programmes for independent living. This review discusses the relationship between different symptoms and problems individuals with schizophrenia face (e.g., homelessness and unemployment), and how these can be managed using pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. Thus, the target of this review is the carers of individuals with schizophrenia, public health managers, counselors, case workers, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists aiming to enhance the quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia