A comparison of social skills in delinquent and nondelinquent adolescent girls using a behavioral role-playing inventory

Delinquent behavior in adolescent girls may be related to deficits in social skills; that is, some girls may behave maladaptively because they lack the skills to perform more competently. During the 1st phase of this research, the Problem Inventory for Adolescent Girls (PIAG) was developed to measure competence in social situations. The 2nd phase of the research compared the performance of carefully matched groups of 29 delinquent and 29 nondelinquent girls (mean age 16.25 yrs) on the inventory. The PIAG significantly discriminated between the groups; 40 of the 52 individual items also discriminated between the delinquent and nondelinquent Ss. 10 of the 12 nondiscriminating items were those for which the criteria had been developed by teenagers. This suggests that delinquency is more closely related to skill deficits in interacting with adult authority figures than to skill deficits with peers. Items on the inventory generally were independent of one another and lacked an interpretable clustering pattern. A discriminant analysis yielded a function that resulted in 85% of the Ss being correctly assigned to their appropriate delinquent or nondelinquent group on the basis of their performance on the inventory. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Social skills, expectancies, and drinking in adolescents

Research in the field of teenage drinking behavior has shown relationships between both social skills and drinking and alcohol expectancies and drinking. The present research investigated the comparative power of both of these sets of variables in predicting teenage drinking behavior, as well as looking at the contribution of more global cognitive structures. It was hypothesised that adolescents with high alcohol involvement would be discriminated from those with low involvement on the basis of social skills, cognitive structures, and alcohol expectancies. Seven hundred thirty-two adolescents participated in the study. Results indicated that adolescent alcohol involvement was associated with social skills deficits, positive alcohol expectancies, and negative cognitive structures concerning parents and teachers. The results revealed that, although the bulk of the variance in drinking behavior was explained by the independent effects of social skills and expectancies, the interaction of the two constructs explained an additional and significant proportion of the variance. Implications for preventive and treatment programs are discussed

An exploration of the relationship between expression of hostility and the anxiety disorders

The purpose of the present study was to investigate differences between four anxiety disorder groups with respect to their levels of hostility. Patients with diagnoses of panic disorder, agoraphobia with panic, generalized anxiety disorder and social phobia were compared as regards their performance on the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ). Results showed that while the groups did not differ on their extrapunitiveness, there were significant differences on intropunitive scores, with social phobics showing the most self criticism and guilt, followed in order by the agoraphobics with panic, generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder subjects. Scores on the Anxiety Symptoms and Consequences Scale were used to predict intropunitiveness and extrapunitiveness for each diagnostic group. Results showed that intropunitiveness was related to anxiety symptoms differently for each diagnostic group. Overall, the study indicates that intropunitive hostility may be an important feature of anxiety disorders, especially panic with and without agoraphobia, and that the finding is worth further exploration with longitudinal studies

Migraine association and linkage analyses of the human 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT2A) receptor gene

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5HT), commonly known as serotonin, which predominantly serves as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, has long been implicated in migraine pathophysiology. This study tested an Mspl polymorphism in the human 5HT2A receptor gene (HTR2A) and a closely linked microsatellite marker (D13S126), for linkage and association with common migraine. In the association analyses, no significant differences were found between the migraine and control populations for both the Mspl polymorphism and the D13S126 microsatellite marker. The linkage studies involving three families comprising 36 affected members were analysed using both parametric (FASTLINK) and non-parametric (MFLINK and APM) techniques. Significant close linkage was indicated between the Mspl polymorphism and the D13S126 microsatellite marker at a recombination fraction (θ) of zero (lod score=7.15). Linkage results for the Mspl polymorphism were not very informative in the three families, producing maximum and minimum lod scores of only 0.35 and 0.39 at recombination fractions (θ) of 0.2 and 0.00, respectively. However, linkage analysis between the D13S126 marker and migraine indicated significant non-linkage (lod2) up to a recombination fraction (θ) of 0.028. Results from this study exclude the HTR2A gene, which has been localized to chromosome 13q14-q21, for involvement with common migraine

Association between preoperative plasma sRAGE levels and recovery from cardiac surgery

Background. The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) is an inflammation-perpetuating receptor, and soluble RAGE (sRAGE) is a marker of cellular RAGE expression. This study investigated whether raised plasma levels prior to surgery of sRAGE or S100A8/A9 (a RAGE ligand) were associated with longer duration of hospital care in patients undergoing cardiac surgery necessitating cardiopulmonary bypass. Methods. Patients (n=130) undergoing elective cardiac surgery were enrolled prospectively. Plasma sRAGE and S100A8/A9 concentrations were measured before and 2 h after surgery. Results. Preoperative plasma sRAGE increased significantly (P˂0.0001) from 1.06 ng/mL (IQR, 0.72-1.76) to 1.93 ng/mL (IQR, 1.14-2.63) 2 h postoperatively. Plasma S100A8/9 was also significantly (P˂0.0001) higher 2 h postoperatively (2.37 g/mL, IQR, 1.81-3.05) compared to pre-operative levels (0.41 g/mL, IQR, 0.2-0.65). Preoperative sRAGE, but not S100A8/A9, was positively and significantly correlated with duration of critical illness (r=0.3, P=0.0007) and length of hospital stay (LOS; r=0.31, P˂0.0005). Multivariate binary logistic regression showed preoperative sRAGE to be, statistically, an independent predictor of greater than median duration of critical illness (odds ratio 16.6, P=0.014) and to be, statistically, the strongest independent predictor of hospital LOS. Conclusion. Higher preoperative plasma sRAGE levels were associated with prolonged duration of care in adults undergoing cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass.</p

Association of a low density lipoprotein receptor microsatellite variant with obesity

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a microsatellite polymorphism located towards the 3' end of the low density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) is associated with obesity. DESIGN A cross-sectional case-control study. SUBJECTS One hundred and seven obese individuals, defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≤ 26 kg/m2, and 163 lean individuals, defined as a BMI < 26 kg/m2. MEASUREMENTS BMI, blood pressure, serum lipids, alleles of LDLR microsatellite (106 bp, 108 bp and 112 bp). RESULTS There was a significant association between variants of the LDLR microsatellite and obesity, in the overall tested population, due to a contributing effect in females (χ2 = 12.3, P = 0.002), but not in males (χ2 = 0.3, P = 0.87). In females, individuals with the 106 bp allele were more likely to be lean, while individuals with the 112 bp and/or 108 bp alleles tended to be obese. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that in females, LDLR may play a role in the development of obesity