Search

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder appear to experience high levels of psychological distress, yet little is known about the prevalence of psychological disorders in this population. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the proportion of these parents who experience clinically significant psychopathology. Articles reporting proportions of psychological disorders in a sample of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder were located. The initial search returned 25,988 articles. Thirty-one studies with a total sample of 9208 parents were included in the final review. The median meta-analytic proportions were 31% (95% confidence interval = [24%, 38%]) for depressive disorders, 33% (95% confidence interval = [20%, 48%]) for anxiety disorders, 10% (95% confidence interval = [1%, 41%]) for obsessive-compulsive disorder, 4% (95% confidence interval = [0%, 22%]) for personality disorders, 2% (95% confidence interval = [1%, 4%]) for alcohol and substance use disorders and 1% (95% confidence interval = [0%, 5%]) for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Significant heterogeneity was detected in these categories. Further research is needed to gain more insight into variables that may moderate parental psychopathology. This review and meta-analysis is the first to provide prevalence estimates of psychological disorders in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.

Deficits in cognitive flexibility are thought to underpin the core symptom of repetitive and restricted patterns of behaviour in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Studies investigating this relationship, however, report inconsistent results. This is partly due to the variable nature of measures used to assess the construct of flexibility. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether ASD traits differentially predict cognitive flexibility performance on lab-based neurocognitive measures relative to behavioural self-reports in a non-clinical sample of young adults. Our results indicate that ASD traits exclusively predict performance on behavioural self-reports of cognitive flexibility. These findings highlight the possibility that behavioural self-reports are a better index than lab-based neurocognitive measures to capture cognitive flexibility impairments in individuals with ASD.

BackgroundLow uptake rates of traditional gambling treatments highlight the need for innovative treatment modalities. Smartphone apps can provide unprecedented access to real-time ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) delivered in people’s everyday lives. ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of GamblingLess: Curb Your Urge, the first smartphone app–delivered EMI that aims to prevent gambling episodes by reducing craving intensity in people seeking help for gambling problems. MethodsThis study was a single-arm, 5-week acceptability and feasibility trial (1-week baseline and 4-week intervention periods) involving ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) delivered 3 times daily. The EMAs measured gambling episodes, cravings, and self-efficacy. Web-based evaluations at baseline, postintervention, and 1-month follow-up measured gambling outcomes (severity, cravings, frequency, expenditure, and self-efficacy) and the intervention’s perceived helpfulness, relevance, burden, satisfaction, and impact in relation to gambling cravings. ResultsA total of 36 participants, of whom 22/36 (61%) were male and 34/36 (94%) were problem gamblers, completed the baseline measures, with 61% (22/36) completing the postintervention evaluation and 58% (21/36) completing the follow-up evaluation. The intervention was considered acceptable, as participants perceived all intervention content to be above average in helpfulness and the EMA to be highly relevant but somewhat burdensome. Participants reported that they were satisfied with the intervention and that the intervention improved their knowledge, attitudes, awareness, behavior change, intention to change, and help-seeking behavior for gambling cravings. Regarding the intervention’s feasibility, compliance rates for the EMA (51%) and EMI (15%) were low; however, the intervention was used 166 times, including 59 uses within 60 minutes of EMA completion and 107 on-demand uses. Regarding the intervention’s preliminary effectiveness, descriptive EMA data showed that, compared with the baseline period, 71% and 72% reductions in the average number of gambling episodes and craving occurrences were reported in the intervention period, respectively. In addition, clustered paired-sample two-tailed t tests revealed a significant 5.4% reduction in real-time craving intensity (P=.01) immediately after intervention use, which increased to 10.5% (P=.01), where use was recommended based on craving occurrence. At the group level, significant medium-to-large reductions were observed in mean gambling symptom severity (P=.01 and .003), cravings (P=.03 and .02), frequency (P=.01 and .004), and expenditure (P=.04 and .003) at postintervention and follow-up; moreover, increased mean gambling self-efficacy and craving self-efficacy (P=.01 and .01) were observed at postintervention and increased gambling self-efficacy (P=.04) was observed at follow-up. At the individual level, over a quarter of participants (6/22, 27% to 10/21, 48%) could be categorized as recovered or improved regarding their gambling symptom severity and cravings. ConclusionsThe results support the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of this app-delivered EMI for preventing gambling episodes through craving management in people with gambling problems, which has implications for extending the reach of evidence-based treatment to moments of vulnerability in people’s everyday lives.

Purpose: In this study pupillometry was used to investigate the allocation of attentional resources associated with sentence comprehension in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Eighteen children with SLI (age: M = 6.4 years) and 18 typically developing (TD) children (age: M = 6.3 years) participated in the study. A sentence comprehension task was presented that comprised items designated as easy or hard. Easy sentences contained 4 or 5 words, and hard sentences contained 6 or 7 words. Results: For the TD group, pupil size was significantly larger when comprehending hard sentences compared with easy sentences. There was no effect of sentence difficulty on pupil size in the SLI group. Comparisons between groups revealed pupil sizes for the SLI group were significantly larger than those for the TD group for easy sentences. There were no group differences for the hard sentences. Conclusion: In TD children, pupillometry was sensitive to the attentional demands associated with sentence comprehension. Between-subjects comparisons indicated that the TD group allocated less attention than did the children with SLI for the easy sentences but not for the hard sentences. This study provides evidence of attentional differences between children with SLI and TD children under conditions of low processing demands.

Background: Reading difficulties (RDs) and behaviour problems (BPs) are two common childhood problems that have a high degree of stability and often negatively affect well-being in both the short and longer terms. Aims: The study aimed to shed light on the unique and joint consequences of these two childhood problems for educational and occupational outcomes in early adulthood. Sample: Data were drawn from a life-course longitudinal study of psychosocial development, the Australian Temperament Project. Methods: Parent and teacher reports and a standard reading test were used to define four groups of children at 7-8 years: RDs only; BPs only; both problems; and neither problem. These groups were followed forward to ascertain educational attainment and employment status at 19-20 and 23-24 years. Results: Each childhood problem was a unique risk for poorer educational and occupational outcomes, with co-occurring problems significantly increasing the risk of poorer educational outcomes. Further analyses revealed that the effects of childhood BPs on occupational status were mediated by secondary school non-completion, but childhood RDs were not. Conclusions: The findings point to the importance of screening and early intervention to prevent or minimize the development of these two childhood problems, as well as continuing to support vulnerable children to increase their likelihood of secondary school completion.

Objective: Negative urgency (NU) and distress tolerance (DT) are two similar yet distinct constructs with putative transdiagnostic relevance, particularly across psychopathology characterized by impulsivity (e.g., substance use disorders [SUD], eating disorders featuring binging and/or purging ED‐B/P, and borderline personality disorder [BPD]). Yet, there remains a lack of research into NU and DT across SUD, ED‐B/P, and BPD symptomatology in clinical populations. The present study sought to elucidate the transdiagnostic utility of NU and DT across impulsive‐type psychology by examining the unique and interactive roles of NU and DT across SUD, ED‐B/P, and BPD symptomatology within a treatment‐seeking sample of young people. Method: Participants (N = 385; 62.3% female; aged 16–25 years) were recruited from youth health services across Melbourne, Australia. Participants completed an online survey including self‐report measures of NU and DT as well as SUD, ED‐B/P, and BPD symptoms. Mixed effects logistic regression was used to explore unique and interactive associations of NU and DT with symptoms. Results: Both NU (adjusted odds ratio [ORadj] = 1.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.16, 1.28]) and global DT (ORadj = 0.59; 95% CI = [0.47, 0.74]) uniquely predicted symptoms. However, associations with global DT and most of its components differed across psychopathology types. No significant interactions between NU and DT in predicting symptoms were found. Conclusions: These results support the transdiagnostic utility of NU across SUD, ED‐B/P, and BPD, while suggesting the role of DT across these disorders is more nuanced. These findings have important implications for NU and DT as potential intervention targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) is a widely used measure of parent emotion socialization; however, it is a lengthy measure and it is unclear whether all items are appropriately aligned with, and fully capture, the underlying constructs. We aimed to examine content validity of the CCNES, evaluate the theoretical alignment between the CCNES and Gottman, Katz and Hooven's meta-emotion theory, and develop two short-forms. Participants were parents of children aged 4 to 10 years (N = 937) from the longitudinal study the Child and Parent Emotion Study (https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e038124). Content experts qualitatively evaluated parent-report items of the CCNES and additional items that measured empathy. Nineteen of the 84 items were found to not align with the meta-emotion theory. The latent structures of the CCNES and empathy subscales were quantitatively evaluated via confirmatory factor analysis. Items with poor psychometric properties were subsequently removed. An 18-item short-form (three emotion coaching subscales, three emotion dismissing subscales) and 6-item brief short-form (one emotion coaching subscale, one emotion dismissing subscale) with strong psychometric properties were created using a calibration sample (n = 468, that is, 50% of N = 937) and cross-validated with a validation sample. The short-form CCNES measures provide viable, theoretically consistent alternatives to the original CCNES measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]