Commitments to help by children: Effects on subsequent prosocial self-attributions

Children of both sexes and at several ages were or were not induced to make a commitment to help hospitalized children by sorting papers

Personality and Socialization Correlates of Vicarious Emotional Responding

The relations of personality and family characteristics to adults’ negative vicarious emotional responses to sympathy and distress films were examined. Ss reported more sympathy and less personal distress and exhibited less skin conductance as well as heart rate deceleration when viewing a sympathy-evoking film. Dispositional emotional intensity and fantasy empathy were associated with greater self-reported emotional responding and higher skin conductance. Dispositional perspective taking and personal distress were positively and negatively correlated, respectively, with reported vicarious responding to the sympathy film when Ss were administered instructions to imagine the emotions of those in the films. Family cohesiveness was associated with reported sympathy and sadness in reaction to the sympathy fi lm, whereas the expression of subordinate and positive emotional states in the home of origin was associated with women’s reported responsivity

[In Press] Effectiveness of interventions on feeding difficulties among people with dementia : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine non-pharmacological interventions for helping people with dementia who experience feeding difficulties in order to improve their nutritional status. Methods: The articles were searched using PsycINFO, Medline, PubMed, CINAHL and Cochrane. Two independent investigators critically appraised eligible studies. The PRISMA guidelines and checklist were used. The possibility of risk of bias was assessed using a tool to assess the quality of randomised control trials (RCT) and non-RCT studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted as a method of synthesis. The Cochrane Review Manager (RevMan 5.4) was used for meta-analysis. Results: The systematic review and meta-analysis included seven publications. Six interventions were identified and categorised as: eating ability training for people with dementia, staff training and feeding assistance and support. The meta-analysis found evidence of the effect of eating ability training on feeding difficulty, quantified by the Edinburgh Feeding Evaluation in Dementia scale (EdFED) with a weighted mean difference of −1.36 (95% confidence interval: −1.84 to −0.89, p<0.001) and on self-feeding time. A spaced retrieval intervention showed a positive effect on EdFED. The systematic review discovered that while feeding assistance had a positive effect on feeding difficulty, staff training had no effect. According to the meta-analysis, these interventions had no effect on improving the nutritional status of people with dementia. Conclusions: None of the included RCTs met the Cochrane risk-of-bias criteria for randomised trials. This review found that direct training for people with dementia and indirect feeding support from care staff resulted in fewer meal-time difficulties. More RCT studies are needed to determine the efficacy of such interventions