Discernment of Children's True and False Memory Reports: Police Officers and Laypersons

Adults' ability to accurately evaluate children's statements can have far-reaching consequences within the legal system. This study examined the evaluations of police officers ("experts") and laypersons ("nonexperts") when presented with videotaped interviews of children aged 3 and 5 years who provided either true or false reports or denials. Participants were drawn from several counties in the eastern United States. Children's interview statements fell within four statement types: accurate reports, false reports, accurate denials, and false denials. Both groups of participants displayed overbelief in false denials. Several control variables predicted accuracy, including children's age and children's race. A significant interaction emerged: Experts (vs. nonexperts) had greater odds of being accurate when judging false reports (vs. false denials). These findings highlight the challenges adults face when distinguishing between various types of children's statements. The results have important implications for legal contexts, emphasizing that fact finders need to be mindful of the risks associated with both overaccepting false denials and accepting false reports.

Predictors of non-offending caregiver support in cases of child sexual abuse

BACKGROUND

In cases of child sexual abuse (CSA), a supportive non-offending caregiver (NOC) is important for the child's overall well-being and adjustment. NOC support is also predictive of CSA cases moving forward to prosecution. Limited research has studied CSA case factors in relation to NOC supportive behaviors across numerous support dimensions.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated what case details predicted four different dimensions of caregiver support.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS

In this secondary analysis, a sample of 500 CSA cases from four prosecutors' offices in one New England state from 2009 to 2013 were randomly selected and reviewed.

METHOD

This study used regression analysis to test 13 case characteristics (e.g., disclosure of abuse, NOC's relationship to perpetrator) as predictors of NOC support dimensions: belief of victim, support of prosecution, protection of victim, and whether a child protective services neglect report was filed against the caregiver.

RESULTS

When the perpetrator was their romantic partner, the NOC was less likely to protect and believe the child victim, yet more likely to support prosecution. NOCs were more likely to demonstrate belief when the child disclosed to them first.

CONCLUSION

Our findings reveal the importance of the key case factors that are predictive of NOC support. This is the first study to examine these many case factors in relation to these four dimensions of support. Knowledge of these predictors can play an important role in better understanding the complexity of NOC support predictors and facilitating interventions designed to enhance such support.

Compassion Fatigue and Family Caregivers Caring in End-Stage Heart Failure

Background: Compassion fatigue is a negative consequence impacting caregivers of chronic illness, such as heart failure. Reliance on family caregivers is expected to rise, placing importance on recognizing family caregiver characteristics that contribute to compassion fatigue. Purpose: This study specifically examined the associations of characteristics of family caregivers caring for end-stage heart failure, compassion satisfaction, social desirability, and the family caregiver-nursing provider relationship on compassion fatigue. Methods: An adapted interaction model of client health behavior guided this cross-sectional survey, which comprised a demographic questionnaire, the Professional Quality-of-Life Scale, the caregiver-provider relationship assessment, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale Short Form (Form C), and the Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale. Results: There were 127 family caregivers (FCGs), primarily those who have been a caregiver for longer than 1 year (78.4%), who completed the entire survey. Increased compassion satisfaction and positive caregiving effects were associated with decreased compassion fatigue (p < .001), while increased social desirability was associated with increased compassion fatigue (p < .001). A positive family caregiver-nursing provider relationship was related to decreased compassion fatigue (p < .001). More compassion fatigue was seen with lower spiritual status (p < .001). Implications: The chronic progression of heart failure presents opportunities for nursing providers to assess caregivers and offer frequent interventions. Family caregivers may not ask for help. Nursing providers must foster relationships with family caregivers to prevent negative consequences and mitigate compassion fatigue. Future research on the nursing provider relationship and FCGs is needed.

Why is subjective stress severity a stronger predictor of health than stressor exposure? A preregistered two-study test of two hypotheses

Subjective stress severity appraisals have consistently emerged as better predictors of poor health than stressor exposure, but the reason for this is unclear. Subjective stress may better predict poor health for one of at least two reasons. First, because stressor exposure measures consider all stressors as equal, stress severity measures-which "weight" stressors by self-reported severity-might better predict poor health simply by not treating all stressors as being equally impactful. Second, subjective stress appraisals may index important individual differences in stress vulnerability. We tested these two possibilities in this preregistered, two-study manuscript. Across these two different studies, subjective stress severity was a better predictor of poor health than independently weighted stress severity or stressor exposure. These results demonstrate that, beyond weighting of stressful experiences, subjective stress severity indexes health-relevant individual differences. Moreover, the results suggest that subjective stress severity may be the preferred stress summary metric even when derived from imprecise stress assessment instruments.

Dispelling a Myth: Reevaluating the Predictive Validity of Rape Myth Acceptance for Likelihood of Engaging in Sexual Violence

Sexual violence prevention on college campuses has received significant recent attention. A prevalent intervention paradigm has centered around re-educating young people around consent and reduce endorsement of "rape myths," based on the correlation between rape myths and sexual violence incidents. Yet many of these programs have not measurably reduced sexual assaults. We evaluated the predictive value of a rape myth measure, as compared with other predictors (criminal history, childhood victimization, aggressive tendencies, substance use, and empathy), in predicting self-reported acts of forcible and incapacitated sexual assault in college-age men (N = 304) from 45 U.S. states. Across three logistic regression model pairs, rape myths were weakly associated with violence when considered as sole predictors. However, this predictive power dissipated when other predictors were included. Comprehensive models accounted significantly better for variability in outcomes; with criminal history demonstrating consistent predictive effects. Based on these findings, we recommend further research into prevention programming based on other predictors of violence.

Identifying Obstetric Mistreatment Experiences in U.S. Birth Narratives: Application of Internationally Informed Mistreatment Typologies

BACKGROUND

Traumatic births are those resulting in feelings of distress that persist after the birth experience. Health care providers may play a role in these experiences through various forms of mistreatment. Analyses of global birth experiences have generated several domains of mistreatment. This study applies these evidence-based domains of mistreatment as an a priori coding scheme for analysis of 96 oral narratives of U.S.-based births to describe the nature of perceived mistreatment using participants' own descriptions of experiences.

METHOD

Ninety-six transcripts of oral birth stories from 61 participants were coded using the domains of mistreatment experiences described by the Bohren et al.'s (2015) systematic review of obstetric mistreatment.

RESULTS

N = 131 individual experiences of perceived obstetric mistreatment were identified in 41 out of 96 narratives (42.7%). The most frequent types of experiences were Poor Rapport (90 incidences) and Failure to Meet Professional Standards of Care (29).

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Although most women in our study did not perceive any instances of obstetric mistreatment during their childbirth, over 40% of participants noted at least one event that fit one of the typologies we used as a framework for analysis. Visibility and review of the types of perceived mistreatment experiences that occur during birth enables health system leaders to implement prevention and accountability strategies. Most instances of perceived mistreatment during birth may be prevented through intentional implementation of individualized, respectful, supportive care during labor and birth.

The Scope and Nature of Reading Comprehension Impairments in School-Aged Children with Higher-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study of 8-16-year-olds was designed to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension impairments are part of the social communication phenotype for many higher-functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Students with HFASD (n = 81) were compared to those with high attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptomatology (ADHD; n = 39), or typical development (TD; n = 44), on a comprehensive battery of oral language, word recognition, and reading comprehension measures. Results indicated that students with HFASD performed significantly lower on the majority of the reading and language tasks as compared to TD and ADHD groups. Structural equation models suggested that greater ASD symptomatology was related to poorer reading comprehension outcomes; further analyses suggested that this relation was mediated by oral language skills.

A Comprehensive Examination of Reading Heterogeneity in Students with High Functioning Autism: Distinct Reading Profiles and Their Relation to Autism Symptom Severity

The goal of this study was to identify unique profiles of readers in a sample of 8-16 year olds with higher functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and examine the profiles in relation to ASD symptom severity. Eighty-one students were assessed utilizing a comprehensive reading battery that included basic word reading, language, and comprehension. Using Latent Profile Analysis, four empirically distinct profiles of readers emerged. Next, using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (Lord et al., Autism diagnostic observation schedule, 2nd edn, Western Psychological Services, Torrance, CA, 2012), analyses were conducted to determine if significant differences existed between profiles as a result of ASD symptomatology. Findings demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of reading profiles in students with HFASD and significant differences between the reading profiles and ASD symptom severity.

Individual Pooling for Group-Based Modeling Under the Assumption of Ergodicity

Psychology principally utilizes nomothetic, interindividual approaches to model phenomena of interest. However, it is the case that these approaches do not always capture the processes for each individual in the sample. If the research is focused on individual processes, confining analysis to the idiographic level may be more appropriate. One way to overcome the nomothetic inability to capture idiographic processes is to identify those participants who meet the criteria of ergodicity and restrict analysis to the resulting sample. Under these conditions it is quantitatively justifiable to create a group model without concern that it may fail to represent each member's idiographic process. In this study we explore the utility of such a method by (a) applying an ergodic pooling test to a sample of dyads (N = 128) who provided daily (T = 50) self-reports of affect, (b) applying an ergodic pooling test to samples (N = 4) of simulated ergodic time series data (T = 50, 250, and 1,000),

Management of bleeding renal angiomyolipomas by transcatheter embolization following CT diagnosis

Renal angiomyolipomas are commonly associated with spontaneous hemorrhage which can be life-threatening and may require radical nephrectomy for control of hemorrhage. Transcatheter embolization was used in 2 cases of spontaneously bleeding angiomyolipomas; permanent control was achieved in 1 case and temporary control in the other. This more conservative approach was made possible by our ability to diagnose these benign renal tumors confidently using computed tomography.