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Identifying the underlying mechanisms in teacher burnout reduction and prevention is of crucial importance for today's' educators' wellbeing. Emphasizing the role of protective factors, the present study investigates the relationships between teacher burnout factors and specific cognitive, socialemotional and motivational variables. Eighty-one high school teachers (Mage = 42.48, SD = 7.97) completed questionnaires measuring their burnout levels, rational beliefs, social-emotional competencies, and basic psychological need satisfaction. Results show significant negative correlations between emotional exhaustion and basic needs satisfaction, and social-emotional competencies, and significant positive associations between need satisfaction, socialemotional competencies and personal accomplishment. Depersonalization shows the similar pattern of associations with basic needs satisfaction and social-emotional competencies, but is the only burnout factor significantly related to rational beliefs. Furthermore, rational beliefs mediate the relationship between basic needs satisfaction and depersonalization. Results also show that basic needs satisfaction is a significant mediator in the relationship between social-emotional competencies and all three burnout factors. Implications of these results in the development and implementation of teacher burnout prevention and intervention programs are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive behaviour therapy through cognitive restructuring is often used to challenge the dysfunctional thoughts regarding pain. Adjacent, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) uses acceptance or cognitive diffusion techniques to change the function of negative pain thoughts rather than modify their content. Previous research has shown that acceptance increases the pain tolerance. This study sought to replicate and extend these findings by comparing the impact of acceptance with that of cognitive restructuring and distraction in a sample of participants with induced pain using cold water. Participants (N=95) received a detailed training how to successfully apply these strategies when experiencing pain and then practiced the assigned technique as homework for 1 week. Before the training, after the training and after 1-week practice participant's measures of pain intensity and pain tolerance were taken. Results suggest that these strategies are equally effective in increasing pain tolerance and decrease pain intensity but work through distinct processes of change. Findings are discussed in the context of theoretical and practical implications and provide further directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematic Internet use (PIU) in adolescents is associated with parental mental health. However, no study investigated mechanisms which can explain this relationship. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate parental PIU, parenting dimensions and adolescent mental health as significant mediators of the relationship between parental mental health and adolescent PIU. Two-hundred-twenty-two parents (Mage = 41.36; SD = 3.05) and adolescents (Mage = 15.91; SD = .95) participated in this cross-sectional study. Results indicated significant associations between parental mental health, namely parental social anxiety symptoms and parental depressive symptoms, parental PIU, positive parenting, adolescent emotional problems and adolescent PIU. Multiple mediation analysis indicated that parental PIU, positive parenting and adolescent emotional problems were significant mediators in the relationship between parental mental health and adolescent PIU. Implications for prevention and intervention programs for PIU involving both adolescents and their parents are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Despite the fact that worry is a common experience in children, its etiology is underinvestigated. The current study examines the intergenerational transmission of worry from mothers to offspring using a path analysis approach. Design. Four-hundred-and-seventy-seven children and adolescents (age range: 9 to 17 years) and their mothers filled in questionnaires regarding their general level of worry as well as their interpretation biases. Results. Data pointed in the direction of a complex model in which maternal worry is associated with children's worry either directly, or via unique paths including mothers' interpretation biases, mothers' expectancies of children's interpretations and children's interpretation biases. Conclusions. These findings suggest that worry could be transmitted across generations via both direct and indirect pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychology was founded in Romania at the beginning of the XX century, by students of Wilhelm Wundt who graduated at Leipzig University (i.e., the first psychology laboratory in the world). Eduard Gruber introduced psychology in Iasi, Constantin Radulescu-Motru in Bucharest, and Florian Stefanescu-Goanga in Cluj-Napoca. From the very beginning, Romanian psychology was an active national and international player, completely integrated in the international psychology movement. However, starting with the rise of the communist regime (1945), Romanian psychology was less and less supported and eventually forbidden, both in universities (from 1977 to 1991) and research institutes (from 1982 to 1991). After the Anticommunist Revolution of 1989, psychology was reintroduced in Romanian academic and research settings (starting with 1991). However, due to almost 25 years of isolation from internationals standards, the newly started programs were generally based on outdated paradigms. In this article we identified active, visible, high impact, and eminent Romanian psychologists, based on key international criteria used in international university rankings and/or for academic promotion at world-class universities. Comparisons with international benchmarks are presented. Implications for educational and administrative decisions and policies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning Disorder (LD) and Reading Disorders (RD) are characterized by difficulties in operating with written symbols. The aim of this research was to investigate the role of visual spatial processing and letter recognition in Romanian children with LD and RD and low IQ. The first study, involved 25 children (N=13 test group, and control group, N=12) which took part in a Letter Labyrinth task. Results indicate towards an underlying common cause for confusion between visual stimuli (letters numbers and shapes). In the second study, 21 children completed a recognition task. The findings suggest that difficulties in differentiating between letters and numbers for children with LD and RD persist despite letter acquisition and that these categories are not well structured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that empathy deficits are considered an important barrier for the social development of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study compares the empathic responses between a group of children with ASD and a group of typically developing (TD) children. We included 63 children, out of which 26 had a diagnosis of ASD. We used an empathy task which simulated leg pain and an observational grid to assess four dimensions of empathy: affective responding, behavior activation, verbal empathic initiations and prosocial behaviors. The results showed that children with ASD had a lower performance at the affective responding and behavior activation dimensions, as compared with TD children, but there were no differences between the two groups in verbal empathic initiations and prosocial behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A clinical trial was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of the Rational Positive Parenting program in reducing child externalizing behavior problems. One hundred and thirty parents were assigned to one of the following: 10 weeks of enhanced cognitive-behavioral parent program (Rational Positive Parenting program); 10 weeks of standard cognitive-behavioral program; or the wait-list condition. The enhanced program incorporated two sessions specifically focused on teaching parents strategies for emotion regulation, whilst otherwise including the same parenting strategies, group format and length as the standard program. Both cognitive-behavioral parent programs proved to be efficacious, with the enhanced program bringing more generalized improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intergenerational transmission of anxiety is thought to be a main contributor to the high prevalence of anxiety disorder in both children and adults. Cognitive factors are assumed to play a key role in the intergenerational transmission of anxiety, but it is not fully clear how they act. This study was aimed to investigate maternal and children negative interpretation biases as mediators between maternal social anxiety and anxious symptoms in children. We used a cross-sectional design. Four hundred and twenty-three mothers (M age = 39.46, SD = 6.58) and their children (M age = 11.69, SD = 3.63; 54.1% girls) were recruited. Multiple mediation analysis showed that both maternal and children negative interpretation biases acted as significant mediators between maternal social anxiety and children's anxious symptoms, indirect effect = 0.008, SE = 0.004, 95% CI = [0.002; 0.021]. Results highlight the complexity of the relationship between distal and proximal cognitive factors involved in generating child anxiety and point to the importance of addressing both maternal and child cognitive distortions when addressing child anxiety in a clinical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the capacity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) 1.5-5 DSM-oriented scales to discriminate children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from children with other clinical disorders: attention deficit and/or hyperkinesia disorder (ADHD), developmental delay. Data were collected from 233 children aged 1.5-5 years divided into 4 groups (ASD, ADHD, developmental delay, healthy control subjects). The CBCL 1.5-5 was completed by the caregivers. We used analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe posthoc, and multiple logistic regression to test performance differences in the five scales between the four groups of subjects included in the study. Scores on the pervasive developmental problems scale differentiate the ASD group from the ADHD group, and the control group, but there are no significant performance differences for this scale between the ASD group and the developmental delay group. The pervasive developmental problems scale demonstrated a significantly better discriminative performance than a random test, with a sensitivity range between 67.96 and 96.12 and specificity range between 67.65 and 88.57. Consistent with previous research, the results confirm the scale effectiveness as a screening tool for the various emotional and behavioral problems associated with ASD, ADHD or developmental delay diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric childhood disorders. Good clinical practices are therefore needed regarding both assessment and therapy. In which assessment is concerned, valid instruments are available, one of the last developments in the field being the virtual reality guided assessment (VirtualClassroom). Regarding intervention, the multimodal, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) oriented approach is the most frequently employed. However, this approach has some limitations, one of them concerning ecological validity. Our VR-based intervention addresses this issue, by providing a high ecological validity therapeutic tool. We do not propose a new therapeutic paradigm. We instead move the intervention from the clinician's office into the virtual classroom, where we still use cognitive restructuring and the behavioral techniques of the classic intervention. This paper highlights the implementation of the psychotherapeutic principles of ADHD therapy in the VR environment. The different features of this instrument are designed to address specific cognitive-behavioral modifications involved in the therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the unique contribution of irrational beliefs and negative bias interpretations in predicting child anxiety, based on cognitive models of anxiety. We used a cross-sectional design. Five hundred seventy one volunteers (M age = 13.008, SD = 1.192; 53.73% girls) completed measures of irrationality, negative bias interpretations, and anxiety. In line with theoretical assumptions, our results showed that negative interpretation bias acted as a partial mediator between irrational beliefs and child anxiety, indirect effect = .025, SE = .008, 95% CI = [.012; .045]. Noteworthy, irrationality remained a significant predictor of child anxiety level when controlling for negative bias interpretation, B = .211, SE = .024, p < .001. These results point to the importance of irrational beliefs in relation to child anxiety, beyond negative bias interpretation. Therefore, we suggest that cognitive bias modification procedures, designed to modify negative interpretation biases, could benefit from targeting irrational beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre- and post-surgical distress, as well as pre- and post-surgical pain, are amongst some of the psychologically relevant matters of medical intervention in patients with amputated limbs. Distress and pain represent clinical problems of great importance for amputees, as both have considerable impact on patients' personal lives, work, and social interactions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of pre- and post-surgical distress and their relationship to amputation-related pain in patients with lower limb amputations. Results show that levels of distress and pain, while decreasing significantly, remain in the clinical range following surgical intervention. As for predictors of residual limb pain, results show that post-surgical anxiety is the single significant predictor of pain in this sample. Results point to the importance of targeting postsurgical anxiety during psychological interventions as to reduce patients' levels of pain and to improve physical and psychological functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]