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Studying the human brain during interpersonal interaction allows us to answer many questions related to motor control and cognition. For instance, what happens in the brain when two people walking side by side begin to change their gait and match cadences? Adapted from the neuroimaging techniques used in single-brain measurements, hyperscanning (HS) is a technique used to measure brain activity from two or more individuals simultaneously. Thus far, HS has primarily focused on healthy participants during social interactions in order to characterize inter-brain dynamics. Here, we advocate for expanding the use of this electroencephalography hyperscanning (EEG-HS) technique to rehabilitation paradigms in individuals with neurological diagnoses, namely stroke, spinal cord injury (SCI), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We claim that EEG-HS in patient populations with impaired motor function is particularly relevant and could provide additional insight on neural dynamics, optimizing rehabilitation strategies for each individual patient. In addition, we discuss future technologies related to EEG-HS that could be developed for use in the clinic as well as technical limitations to be considered in these proposed settings.

As members of a social species, we spend most of our time interacting with others. In interactions, we tend to mutually align our behavior and brain responses to communicate more effectively. In a semi-computerized version of the Rock-Paper-Scissors game, we investigated whether people show enhanced interpersonal neural synchronization when making explicit predictions about others’ actions. Across four experimental conditions, we measured the dynamic brain activity using the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning method. Results showed that interpersonal neural synchrony was enhanced when participants played the game together as they would do in real life in comparison to when they played the game on their own. We found no evidence of increased neural synchrony when participants made explicit predictions about others’ actions. Hence, neural synchrony may depend on mutual natural interaction rather than an explicit prediction strategy. This study is important, as it examines one of the presumed functions of neural synchronization namely facilitating predictions.

Objectives: Recovery and empowerment have evolved into key objectives in the treatment and care of people with severe mental illness (SMI), and interest has grown in the role of social relationships in recovery. This study is the first to explore whether attachment styles are related to levels of empowerment, and secondly, whether attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are associated with lower empowerment levels, independently of quality and frequency of social contact. Design: We used a cross-sectional design. Methods: In a sample of 157 participants with SMI in outpatient care, associations between attachment (Revised Adult Attachment Scale), self-reported social functioning, and empowerment (Netherlands Empowerment List) were assessed. Results: Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were both associated with lower levels of empowerment. A stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the prediction of empowerment was significantly improved by adding attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance to quality and frequency of social contact. Attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and quality of social contact were significant predictors; frequency of social contact was not. Conclusions: Although our design does not allow causal conclusions, our results highlight the importance of interpersonal processes and behaviours as routes to improving empowerment for people with SMI. A promising approach might thus consist of securing attachment bonds with significant others so that the self and the other are perceived as reliable resources. Our findings also feature the importance of reciprocity and equality in social relationships. Taken together, our study emphasizes the value of social, contextualized interventions in recovery work for people with SMI. Practitioner points: Working towards attachment safety in interpersonal relations may be important in recovery-oriented treatment and care for people with severe mental illness (SMI). Helping people with SMI to recognize and change how they tend to relate themselves to others may promote engagement and effectiveness of recovery-oriented treatment and care. Reciprocity and equality in social relationships as vital complements to the more one-sided nature of ‘standing alongside’ and offering support may be important requisites for empowerment.

The Japanese government has made efforts towards the advancement of women into society; thereby, the proportion of female managers has been increasing. Recent reports have shown that managers tend to be in poor health condition. However, little research has been conducted to examine the psychological health of female managers. Therefore, the aim of our study was to reveal the difference of psychological distress by occupational position in female workers with focus on occupational stress. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017 via an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire distributed to workers in Tsukuba City, Japan. Student unpaired t test was used to compare occupational stress and psychological distress by occupational position. Binomial logistic regressions were used to analyze factors that affect psychological distress separately in managers and non-managers. A total of 1543 women (168 managers, 1375 non-managers) were analyzed. Managers showed higher occupational stress but lower psychological distress than non-managers. Problems in interpersonal relationships was positively associated with psychological distress, whereas occupation as a researcher/academic was negatively associated with psychological distress in managers. Mental workload and problems in interpersonal relationships were positively associated with psychological distress, whereas reward from work and support were negatively associated with psychological distress in non-managers. Managers and non-managers both showed an association between psychological distress and problems of interpersonal relationships. Non-managers might have higher psychological distress due to lower reward from work. It is important to increase reward from work and to develop female workers’ interpersonal skills in order to reduce the psychological distress of female workers.

We review the past 25 years of research addressing challenges people living with diabetes experience in their daily lives related to social contexts, i.e. in their family, at work and in society at large, and identify research gaps. We found that young people with diabetes, as they develop through to adulthood, are exposed to considerable risks to their physical and mental health. Family‐system interventions have had mixed outcomes. Research in this area would benefit from attention to ethnic/cultural diversity, and involving fathers and other family members. In adults with diabetes, social support relates to better diabetes outcomes. While family member involvement in care is likely to affect health and psychosocial outcomes of the person with diabetes, key elements and mediators of effective family interventions need to be identified. The challenges of diabetes management at work are under‐researched; distress and intentional hyperglycaemia are common. When depression is comorbid with diabetes, there are increased work‐related risks, e.g. unemployment, sickness absence and reduced income. Research to support people with diabetes at work should involve colleagues and employers to raise awareness and create supportive environments. Stigma and discrimination have been found to be more common than previously acknowledged, affecting self‐care, well‐being and access to health services. Guidance on stigma‐reducing choice of language has been published recently. Resilience, defined as successful adaptation to adversity such as stigma and discrimination, requires studies relevant to the specific challenges of diabetes, whether at diagnosis or subsequently. The importance of the social context for living well with diabetes is now fully recognized, but understanding of many of the challenges, whether at home or work, is still limited, with much work needed to develop successful interventions., What's new? The biopsychosocial model and social ecological theory posit that understanding of the 'interpersonal context of illness' will lead to interventions that will improve health outcomes.The last 25 years of psychosocial research have shown that the social context of people with diabetes is of great importance to clinical, behavioural and psychological outcomes. Social support and resilience are beneficial, whereas stigma and discrimination negatively impact self‐care, self‐esteem and emotional well‐being.Professionals should be mindful of the social context of diabetes throughout the lifespan. Development and implementation of research‐based interventions are needed to support people with diabetes at the interpersonal and societal/environmental levels. Workplaces and diabetes services and organizations need to develop a culture of support for people with diabetes and strive to minimize stigmatization and foster stigma resistance.

Introduction Choice of appropriate nutrition has a special place, which variations in dietary nutrient can potentially be involved in growth deficits in preterm neonates. Aim to investigate the effect of protein supplementation in very low birth weight (VLBW= birth weight under 1500 grams) infants on neurological growth in the third year of birth. Material and methods We investigated neurological growth in two groups of control and intervention (each group, n= 18 subjects). The intervention group includes 3-year-old children who weighting less than 1200 grams at birth and have received protein supplementation at the course of NICU hospitalization, protein was added to maternal milk when the amount of milk reaches to 100 cc/kg/day, at this time parenteral nutrition was discontinued and the volume of feeding was increased 20cc/kg/day until reached to 150-180cc/kg/day. We also added the fortifier to breast milk at this time (FMS- Aptamil- DANON). The fortification and the protein supplementation were stopped when the weight of the baby reached to 1500 grams. The control group was fed similar to the intervention group, without protein supplemental intake. Neurodevelopmental outcomes were evaluated using ASQ, NEWSHA and BINS tools. Results There was no significant difference between the mean head circumference in the two groups (p=0.209). There was no significant relationship between neurological growth rate evaluated by BINS tool in two groups (p=0.266). There was a significant correlation between the neurological development assessed by the ASQ tool in the areas of communication (p=0.014) and gross motor (p=0.001) in the two groups, however, no significant relationship was found in terms of fine motor (p=0.63), problem solving (p=0.07) and personal-social relationships in both groups (p=0.152). There was a significant correlation between neurological development evaluated using the NEWSHA tool in terms of auditory (p=0.031), verbal language (p=0.024), cognitive (p=0.007), social connection (p=0.034) and motor (p=0.002) in the two groups. Conclusion Protein intake in preterm infants didn't reveal long term effects on the growth of head circumference. Moreover, it was capable of improving neurological growth in the areas of communication and gross motor (based on the ASQ) and auditory, verbal language, cognitive, social connection, and motor (based on the NEWSHA).

Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) are typically derived from individual preferences over health episodes. This paper reports the first experimental investigation into the effects of collective decision making on health valuations, using both time trade-off (TTO) and standard gamble (SG) tasks. We investigated collective decision making in dyads, by means of a mixed-subjects design where we control for learning effects. Our data suggest that collective decision making has little effect on decision quality, as no effects were observed on decision consistency and monotonicity for both methods. Furthermore, QALY weights remained similar between individual and collective decisions, and the typical difference in elicited weights between TTO and SG was not affected. These findings suggest that consulting with others has little effect on health state valuation, although learning may have. Additionally, our findings add to the literature of the effect of collective decision making, suggesting that no such effect occurs for TTO and SG. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10198-019-01155-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Funding: Wellcome Trust Seed Award (203846/Z/16/Z). While the links between colonial psychiatry and racism figure prominently in histories of the diagnosis, treatment and institutionalisation of the mentally ill in Africa, there is an absence of patient-centred accounts, in the analysis of the efforts of the colonial-era subjects themselves to be pro-active not merely as the mentally ill, by clinical or court definition, but as persons embedded in social relationships with their kin and significant others. Moreover, despite an emerging scholarship, little is known of the experience of European settlers. In this respect there is a need for a more balanced representation, one that shows the ambivalence of colonial psychiatry and its reach into the lives of colonial subjects, Africans and Europeans alike. In this paper I focus on the narratives of a settler in German South West Africa and her efforts to escape diagnosis and institutionalisation. In building on a feminist approach to illness narratives, in particular on the idea of bearing empathic witness, I will explore the ways in which illness narratives can reveal the complex moral and political economies of the colonial world. Publisher PDF

OBJECTIVE: Patients and partners both cope individually and as a dyad with challenges related to a breast cancer diagnosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of a psychological attachment-oriented couple intervention for breast cancer patients and partners in the early treatment phase.METHODS: A randomised controlled trial including 198 recently diagnosed breast cancer patients and their partners. Couples were randomised to the Hand in Hand (HiH) intervention in addition to usual care or to usual care only. Self-report assessments were conducted for both patients and partners at baseline, postintervention (5 months), and follow-up (10 months), assessing cancer-related distress, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and dyadic adjustment. Patients' cancer-related distress was the primary outcome.RESULTS: Cancer-related distress decreased over time in both patients and partners, but the intervention did not significantly affect this decrease at postintervention (P = .08) or follow-up (P = .71). A significant positive effect was found on dyadic adjustment at follow-up for both patients (P = .04) and partners (P = .02).CONCLUSIONS: There was no significant effect of the HiH intervention cancer-related distress. The results suggest that most couples can cope with cancer-related distress in the context of usual care. However, the positive effect on dyadic adjustment implies that the HiH intervention benefitted both patients and partners. Future studies should investigate how to integrate a couple focus in usual cancer care to improve dyadic coping in the early treatment phase.

Background The perceived threat of a contagious virus may lead people to be distrustful of immigrants and out-groups. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the salient politicized discourses of blaming Chinese people for spreading the virus have fueled over 2000 reports of anti-Asian racial incidents and hate crimes in the United States. Objective The study aims to investigate the relationships between news consumption, trust, intergroup contact, and prejudicial attitudes toward Asians and Asian Americans residing in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare how traditional news, social media use, and biased news exposure cultivate racial attitudes, and the moderating role of media use and trust on prejudice against Asians is examined. Methods A cross-sectional study was completed in May 2020. A total of 430 US adults (mean age 36.75, SD 11.49 years; n=258, 60% male) participated in an online survey through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. Respondents answered questions related to traditional news exposure, social media use, perceived trust, and their top three news channels for staying informed about the novel coronavirus. In addition, intergroup contact and racial attitudes toward Asians were assessed. We performed hierarchical regression analyses to test the associations. Moderation effects were estimated using simple slopes testing with a 95% bootstrap confidence interval approach. Results Participants who identified as conservatives (β=.08, P=.02), had a personal infection history (β=.10, P=.004), and interacted with Asian people frequently in their daily lives (β=.46, P Conclusions Experiencing racial prejudice among the Asian population during a challenging pandemic can cause poor psychological outcomes and exacerbate health disparities. The results suggest that conservative ideology, personal infection history, frequency of intergroup contact, traditional news exposure, and trust in social media emerge as positive predictors of prejudice against Asians and Asian Americans, whereas people who get COVID-19 news from left-leaning and balanced outlets show less prejudice. For those who have more trust in social media and digital news, frequent use of these two sources is associated with lower levels of prejudice. Our findings highlight the need to reshape traditional news discourses and use social media and mobile news apps to develop credible messages for combating racial prejudice against Asians.

Background To track and reduce the spread of COVID-19, apps have been developed to identify contact with individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 and warn those who are at risk of having contracted the virus. However, the effectiveness of these apps depends highly on their uptake by the general population. Objective The present study investigated factors influencing app use intention, based on the health belief model. In addition, associations with respondents’ level of news consumption and their health condition were investigated. Methods A survey was administered in Flanders, Belgium, to 1500 respondents, aged 18 to 64 years. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate relationships across the model’s constructs. Results In total, 48.70% (n=730) of respondents indicated that they intend to use a COVID-19 tracing app. The most important predictor was the perceived benefits of the app, followed by self-efficacy and perceived barriers. Perceived severity and perceived susceptibility were not related to app uptake intention. Moreover, cues to action (ie, individuals’ exposure to [digital] media content) were positively associated with app use intention. As the respondents’ age increased, their perceived benefits and self-efficacy for app usage decreased. Conclusions Initiatives to stimulate the uptake of contact tracing apps should enhance perceived benefits and self-efficacy. A perceived barrier for some potential users is privacy concerns. Therefore, when developing and launching an app, clarification on how individuals’ privacy will be protected is needed. To sustain perceived benefits in the long run, supplementary options could be integrated to inform and assist users.

Background The health conditions of Japanese salespersons may be adversely affected by their lifestyle. Face-to-face or on-site health interventions are not convenient for salespersons because of their tendency for out-of-office sales. Previous studies showed that mobile health (mHealth) interventions (compared to usual practice) have great potential to promote physical activity. For Japanese salespersons, mHealth can offer additional convenience to change their physical activity habits because they can access the mHealth contents anytime and anywhere. However, the specific elements that are most important to maintain physical activity levels using an mHealth approach remain unclear. Objective We aimed to identify elements that account for both a high average physical activity level and can help to prevent a decrease in physical activity during a 9-week intervention period. Methods Salespersons were recruited from 11 Japanese companies. A team-based walking intervention was held from October to December 2018 (for a total of 9 weeks), during which the walking step data were recorded by smartphone apps. Average walking steps of each participant during the intervention and the difference in walking steps between the initial and the final week were respectively used as dependent variables. The effects of team characteristics (ie, frequency of communication with team members and team size) and behavioral characteristics (ie, number of days with recorded steps on the apps) on the average walking steps, and the difference in walking steps between the initial and the final week were estimated using multiple and multilevel regression analyses. Results Of the 416 participants, walking step data of 203 participants who completed postintervention assessments were included in the analyses. Multiple regression analysis of the average walking steps showed that the number of days with recorded steps was positively correlated with the log-transformed average walking steps (β=.01, P Conclusions This study showed that the elements accounting for high average walking steps and those preventing the decrease in walking steps from the initial to the final week differed. Behavioral characteristics correlated positively with average walking steps. Team characteristics (ie, regular communication and a smaller team size) significantly correlated with preventing a decrease in walking steps.

Background Previous research suggests that artificial agents may be a promising source of social support for humans. However, the bulk of this research has been conducted in the context of social support interventions that specifically address stressful situations or health improvements. Little research has examined social support received from artificial agents in everyday contexts. Objective Considering that social support manifests in not only crises but also everyday situations and that everyday social support forms the basis of support received during more stressful events, we aimed to investigate the types of everyday social support that can be received from artificial agents. Methods In Study 1, we examined publicly available user reviews (N=1854) of Replika, a popular companion chatbot. In Study 2, a sample (n=66) of Replika users provided detailed open-ended responses regarding their experiences of using Replika. We conducted thematic analysis on both datasets to gain insight into the kind of everyday social support that users receive through interactions with Replika. Results Replika provides some level of companionship that can help curtail loneliness, provide a “safe space” in which users can discuss any topic without the fear of judgment or retaliation, increase positive affect through uplifting and nurturing messages, and provide helpful information/advice when normal sources of informational support are not available. Conclusions Artificial agents may be a promising source of everyday social support, particularly companionship, emotional, informational, and appraisal support, but not as tangible support. Future studies are needed to determine who might benefit from these types of everyday social support the most and why. These results could potentially be used to help address global health issues or other crises early on in everyday situations before they potentially manifest into larger issues.

In this article, we explore the power of shared embodiment for the constitution of an affective community. More specifically, we examine how people afflicted by long-term, arduous experiences of war, migration, and discrimination sensually articulate and, at least temporarily, renegotiate feelings of non/belonging, care, and in/exclusion. Methodologically, we draw on emplaced ethnography and systematic phenomenological go-alongs with a group of elderly migrants, born and raised in different parts of Vietnam, who had arrived in Germany within different legal–political frameworks and who, during the time of our psychological–anthropological research, frequented the same psychotherapeutic clinic. We apply the notion of “affective communities” (Zink in Affective Societies: Key Concepts. Routledge, New York, 2019) to grasp how the group experienced a sensual place of mutual belonging outside the clinic when moving through different public spaces in Berlin as part of their therapy. Particular attention is paid to the participants’ embodied and emplaced memories that were reactivated during these excursions. Shared sensations and spatiality, we argue, made them feel they belonged to an ephemeral community of care that was otherwise hardly imaginable due to their distinct individual biographies, contrasting political attitudes, and ties to different social collectives. In analyzing this affective community, we highlight how significant spatio-sensorial modes of temporal solidification can be in eliciting embodied knowledge that positively contributes to therapeutic processes.

BackgroundBeing socially connected is related to well-being, and one way of avoiding social isolation is to deepen existing relationships. Even though existing relationships can be reinforced by regular and meaningful communication, state-of-the-art communication technologies alone do not increase the quality of social connections. Thus, there is a need for the involvement of a trained human facilitator in a network of older adults, preferably for a short period, to promote the deepening of their relationships.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that a human-facilitated, media-sharing social networking system can improve social connection in a small group of older people, who are more vulnerable to social isolation than most, and deepen their relationships over a period of a few weeks.MethodsWe conducted the design and evaluation of Media Parcels, a novel human-facilitated social networking system. Media Parcels is based on the metaphor of a facilitator collecting and delivering parcels in the physical mail. Extending the metaphor, the system supports a facilitator in designing time-based dialogue requesting parcels from participants that bring out their memories and feelings, in collecting the parcels, wrapping them in annotations that communicate the corresponding requests, and delivering the wrapped parcel to a target person. Qualitative evaluation was carried out in two trials with a group of three people each, one with family members (children and father; aged 55, 56, and 82 years old) and the other with a group of friends (aged 72, 72, and 74 years old), over two weeks. In each trial, data were collected in three interviews (pre-, mid-, and posttrial) and via system logging.ResultsCollected data indicate positive social effects for deepening and developing relationships. The parcel metaphor was easily understood and the computational system was readily adopted. Preferences with regard to media production or consumption varied among participants. In the family group, children preferred receiving media parcels (because of their sentimental value) to producing them, whereas the father enjoyed both. In the friendship group, preferences varied: one friend enjoyed both producing and receiving, while the other two preferred one over the other. In general, participants reported a preference for the production of items of a certain type depending on the associated content. Apart from having a strong engagement with the system, participants reported feeling closer to each other than usual.ConclusionsFor both groups, Media Parcels was effective in promoting media sharing and social connections, resulting in the deepening of existing relationships. Its design informs researchers who are attempting to promote social connection in older adults.

Reduced social motivation is hypothesised to underlie social behavioural symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The extent to which rewarding social stimuli are granted privileged access to awareness in ASD is currently unknown. We use continuous flash suppression to investigate whether individuals with and without ASD show privileged access to awareness for social over nonsocial rewarding scenes that are closely matched for stimulus features. Strong evidence for a privileged access to awareness for rewarding social over nonsocial scenes was observed in neurotypical adults. No such privileged access was seen in ASD individuals, and moderate support for the null model was noted. These results suggest that the purported deficits in social motivation in ASD may extend to early processing mechanisms.

Background: Older adults living in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) often experience limited opportunities for social connection despite close proximity to peers, which has implications for mental health and quality of life (QoL). The introduction of large-scale undergraduate health student placements in RACFs may enhance opportunities for meaningful engagement through social connection, although this remains unexplored. Objective: This research explores whether interpersonal encounters between health students and RACF residents influence residents’ opportunities for social connection and QoL. Methods: A mixed methods design was employed which included questionnaire data from residents, and qualitative interview data from residents, family members and RACF staff. Data were collected during and after student placements to allow for an in-depth exploration of residents, family members and staff perspectives. Results: Forty-three participants (28 residents, 10 staff and five family members) were recruited during 2014. Overall, many residents had clinical levels of depression, mild cognitive impairment and multiple morbidities, however reported moderate-to-good QoL. Thematic analysis was undertaken on interview transcripts, and three themes emerged: (i) social isolation and loneliness fostered by residents’ age-related conditions, (ii) students expand socially supportive connections beyond the RACF and (iii) meaning making by sharing health experiences, which was found to help renegotiate older adults’ pervasive narrative of vulnerability. Conclusion: Supported and structured health student placements in RACFs enable older adults to participate in meaningful encounters with younger people. These encounters focus on sharing health experiences and address long-standing issues of isolation and loneliness by providing opportunities for social connection.

ObjectivesExisting scholarship in social gerontology has paid relatively little attention to broader loving emotions, such as compassionate and altruistic love, as potentially meaningful mechanisms for improving later-life psychological well-being outside a family framework.MethodDrawing from a 3-wave longitudinal survey of community-dwelling older residents (n = 334) of Miami, Florida, we utilized generalized estimating equation models to examine the influence of changes in compassionate love (i.e., feeling love toward other persons and experiencing love from others) on depressive symptoms over time. We also explored cross-sectional relationship between compassionate love and positive and negative affects.ResultsAn increase in the feeling of being loved (β = −0.77, p < .001) and feeling love for others (β = −0.78, p < .001) led to a decline in odds of reporting greater levels of depressive symptoms over time. The odds of reporting higher level of positive affect were significantly greater for older adults who reported feeling loved by others (β = .63, p < .001) and expressed love for other people (β = 0.43, p < .05). Older adults who felt loved and expressed love for other people, respectively, had 0.71 and 0.54-point lower ordered log odds of reporting higher negative affect than those who reported lower levels of love. The statistically significant impact of feeling loved on all well-being outcomes was maintained even after adjustment for altruistic attitudes and emotional support. Except for depressive symptoms, such adjustments explained the positive influence of love for others on well-being outcomes.DiscussionOur findings underscore the powerful influence of both receiving and giving loving emotions for the maintenance of later-life psychological well-being.

Background: Early-life institutional deprivation produces disinhibited social engagement (DSE). Portrayed as a childhood condition, little is known about the persistence of DSE-type behaviours into, presentation during, and their impact on, functioning in adulthood. Aims: We examine these issues in the young adult follow-up of the English and Romanian Adoptees study. Method: A total of 122 of the original 165 Romanian adoptees who had spent up to 43 months as children in Ceauşescu's Romanian orphanages and 42 UK adoptees were assessed for DSE behaviours, neurodevelopmental and mental health problems, and impairment between ages 2 and 25 years. Results: Young adult DSE behaviour was strongly associated with early childhood deprivation, with a sixfold increase for those who spent more than 6 months in institutions. However, although DSE overlapped with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms it was not, in itself, related to broader patterns of mental health problems or impairments in daily functioning in young adulthood. Conclusions: DSE behaviour remained a prominent, but largely clinically benign, young adult feature of some adoptees who experienced early deprivation.

Introduction Hemodialysis is one of major stresses in patients' daily lives since there is no other path for life maintenance but to accept the machine and its' related rules. Purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with dependency on dialysis machine as reported by the patients. Material and methods The sample of the study included 250 patients undergoing hemodialysis. For data collection a questionnaire specially designed for the needs of the research was used. More specifically, socio-demographic and clinical characteristics as well as several other self-reported variables were collected. Results Of the 250 participants, 53.2% was men while 65.2% was aged over 60 years. The study showed that 44% of the patients reported that their life depended very much on hemodialysis machine. Statistically significant association was observed between dependency on dialysis machine as reported by the patients and gender (p=0.030), education (p=0.022), job (p=0.001) and place of residence (p=0.001). Additionally, statistically significant association was observed between dependency on dialysis machine as reported by the patients and the degree of information about their problem (p=0.001) and whether patients reported adherence to treatment guidelines (p=0.001) or followed the proposed diet (p=0.001). Finally, statistically significant association was observed between dependency on dialysis machine as reported by the patients and relations with nursing staff (p=0.001), whether patients had noticed change in body image (p=0.001), whether they faced difficulties in social (p=0.001) and family environment (p=0.030), whether they hid their problem (p=0.006), whether they needed help in daily activities (p=0.001) and whether their lifestyle had changed (p=0.001). Conclusions Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics as well as hemodialysis patients' beliefs are associated with machine dependency. This study contributed in outlining factors affecting dependency on dialysis machine, thus reinforcing multidisciplinary health care teams to develop interventions in order to address hemodialysis patients' needs.

Lay health workers (LHWs) can improve access to services and adherence to treatment, as well as promoting self-care and prevention. Their effect in promoting uptake and adherence in pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has not been tested. PR is the most effective treatment for the symptoms and disability of COPD, but this effectiveness is undermined by poor rates of completion. Trained LHWs with COPD, who also have first-hand experience of PR, are well placed to help overcome the documented barriers to its completion. The relationship between LHWs and patients may be one of the keys to their effectiveness but it has been little explored. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used with the aim of examining the LHW-patient partnership in a feasibility study of trained PR-experienced LHWs used to support COPD patients referred to PR. Twelve volunteers with COPD who completed LHW training supported 66 patients referred for PR. All 12 of these LHWs gave end-of-study interviews, 21 COPD patients supported by LHWs were also interviewed. Patients reported that the LHWs were keen to share their experiences of PR, and that this had a positive impact. The enthusiasm of the LHWs for PR was striking. The common bond between LHWs and patients of having COPD together with the LHWs positive, first-hand experience of PR were dominant and recurring themes in their relationship.

This study investigates the level of agreement between problem gamblers and their concerned significant others (CSOs) regarding the amount of money lost when gambling. Reported losses were analyzed from 266 participants (133 dyads) seeking treatment, which included different types of CSO-gambler dyads. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) concerning the money lost when gambling during the last 30 days were calculated based on the timeline followback. In order to model reports that were highly skewed and included zeros, a two-part generalized linear mixed-effects model was used. The results were compared from models assuming either a Gaussian, two-part gamma, or two-part lognormal response distribution. Overall, the results indicated a fair level of agreement, ICC = .57, 95% CI (.48, .64), between the gamblers and their CSOs. The partner CSOs tended to exhibit better agreement than the parent CSOs with regard to the amount of money lost, ICCdiff = .20, 95% CI (.03, .39). The difference became smaller and inconclusive when reports of no losses (zeros) were included, ICCdiff = .16, 95% CI (- .05, .36). A small simulation investigation indicated that the two-part model worked well under assumptions related to this study, and further, that calculating the ICCs under normal assumptions led to incorrect conclusions regarding the level of agreement for skewed reports (such as gambling losses). For gambling losses, the normal assumption is unlikely to hold and ICCs based on this assumption are likely to be highly unreliable. Funding Agencies|Svenska Spels Independent Research Council [2013-0015]

Genital pain is a social experience that needs to be studied as a dyadic interaction between partners. The present study relied on a sample of 42 heterosexual couples to examine the level of congruence between both partners' ratings of pain and sexual arousal in response to experimentally induced vaginal pressure that served as a simulation of vaginal sensations during penetration. We also inferred the men's ability to estimate their partner's level of pain and sexual arousal. Because the relationship has shown to influence pain estimations, we considered the moderating role of perceived partner responsiveness and relationship satisfaction. We found higher disagreement in pain ratings when vaginal pressure was induced in the context of a sexual film compared to a neutral film, with men overestimating the level of pain in women. Also sexual arousal ratings diverged between partners, with men underestimating their partners' level of sexual arousal during the induction of vaginal pressure, regardless of whether they were watching a sexual or neutral film. Importantly, the level of congruence between actual and estimated ratings of pain and sexual arousal depended on how relationally satisfied men and women were and how validated and supported women felt by their male partner. These results make an important contribution to the growing literature on the social determinants of sexual pain experiences.

The article Behavioral Artistry: Examining the Relationship Between the Interpersonal Skills and Effective Practice Repertoires of Applied Behavior Analysis Practitioners, written by Kevin Callahan, was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on August 29, 2019 without open access. With the author(s)' decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on August, 2019 to © The Author(s) 2019 and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Sotos syndrome is a congenital overgrowth syndrome associated with intellectual disability. This study investigated communicative abilities of children with Sotos syndrome (n = 31), using the Children’s Communication Checklist, second edition. A cross-syndrome approach was used to establish the specificity of these abilities. Children with Williams syndrome (n = 34) were used as a comparison group. In both groups, the majority of participants had communicative impairment. Children with Sotos syndrome had an uneven pragmatic language profile and greater impairment with social relations, compared with restricted interests. Overall, children with Sotos syndrome had difficulties with both language structure and pragmatic language and a specific profile of relative difficulty with using nonverbal communication, using context-appropriate language and understanding peer relationships.\ud \ud

© 2018 The Authors Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Rationale, aims, and objectives: Much of the literature concerned with health care practice tends to focus on a decision-making model in which knowledge sits within the minds and bodies of health care workers. Practice theories de-centre knowledge from human actors, instead situating knowing in the interactions between all human and non-human actors. The purpose of this study was to explore how practice arises in the moment-to-moment interactions between general dental practitioners (GDPs), patients, nurses, and things. Method: Eight GDPs in two dental practices, their respective nurses, 23 patients, and material things were video-recorded as they interacted within clinical encounters. Videos were analysed using a performative approach. Several analytic methods were used: coding of interactions in-video; pencil drawings with transcripts; and dynamic transcription. These were used pragmatically and in combination. Detailed reflective notes were recorded at all stages of the analysis, and, as new insights developed, theory was sought to help inform these. Results: We theorized that knowing in dental practice arises as actors translate embodied knowing through sayings and doings that anticipate but cannot predict responses, that knowing is constrained by the interactions of the practice but that the interactions at the same time are a collective bricolage—using the actors' respective embodied knowing to generate and solve problems together. Conclusion: Practices are ongoing ecological accomplishments to which people and things skilfully contribute through translation of their respective embodied knowing of multiple practices. Based on this, we argue that practices are more likely to improve if people and things embody practices of improvement.

Parents tend to modulate their movements when demonstrating actions to their infants. Thus far, these modulations have primarily been quantified by human raters and for entire interactions, thereby possibly overlooking the intricacy of such demonstrations. Using optical motion tracking, the precise modulations of parents’ infant‐directed actions were quantified and compared to adult‐directed actions and between action types. Parents demonstrated four novel objects to their 14‐month‐old infants and adult confederates. Each object required a specific action to produce a unique effect (e.g. rattling). Parents were asked to demonstrate an object at least once before passing it to their demonstration partner, and they were subsequently free to exchange the object as often as desired. Infants’ success at producing the objects’ action‐effects was coded during the demonstration session and their memory of the action‐effects was tested after a several‐minute delay. Indicating general modulations across actions, parents repeated demonstrations more often, performed the actions in closer proximity and demonstrated action‐effects for longer when interacting with their infant compared to the adults. Meanwhile, modulations of movement size and velocity were specific to certain action‐effect pairs. Furthermore, a ‘just right’ modulation of proximity was detected, since infants’ learning, memory, and parents’ prior evaluations of their infants’ motor abilities, were related to demonstrations that were performed neither too far from nor too close to the infants. Together, these findings indicate that infant‐directed action modulations are not solely overall exaggerations but are dependent upon the characteristics of the to‐be learned actions, their effects, and the infant learners., Parents’ infant‐ and adult‐directed demonstrations of four novel objects with opaque action‐effects were recorded using optical motion tracking. For all objects, parents demonstrated actions closer (i.e. higher proximity) and showed effects longer when interacting with their infants compared to adult partners. Additionally, auditory‐effect actions were performed more slowly, and for two of the actions parents made larger movements for their infants than for adults.

Open Access article In the philosophy of technology after the empirical turn, little attention has been paid to language and its relation to technology. In this programmatic and explorative paper, it is proposed to use the later Wittgenstein, not only to pay more attention to language use in philosophy of technology, but also to rethink technology itself—at least technology in its aspect of tool, technology-in-use. This is done by outlining a working account of Wittgenstein’s view of language (as articulated mainly in the Investigations) and by then applying that account to technology—turning around Wittgenstein’s metaphor of the toolbox. Using Wittgenstein’s concepts of language games and form of life and coining the term ‘technology games’, the paper proposes and argues for a use-oriented, holistic, transcendental, social, and historical approach to technology which is empirically but also normatively sensitive, and which takes into account implicit knowledge and know-how. It gives examples of interaction with social robots to support the relevance of this project for understanding and evaluating today’s technologies, makes comparisons with authors in philosophy of technology such as Winner and Ihde, and sketches the contours of a phenomenology and hermeneutics of technology use that may help us to understand but also to gain a more critical relation to specific uses of concrete technologies in everyday contexts. Ultimately, given the holism argued for, it also promises a more critical relation to the games and forms of life technologies are embedded in—to the ways we do things.

Previous research has suggested that adolescents’ exposure to sexually explicit internet material (SEIM) may result in sexual uncertainty because the content of SEIM may conflict with what adolescents have learned about sex. However, research on which type of adolescent is most susceptible to the relation between SEIM use and sexual uncertainty is lacking. This study therefore investigated whether the relationship between SEIM use and sexual uncertainty depends on within-gender differences in sexual dispositions (i.e., impersonal sex orientation and hypergendered orientation). Using data from a representative two-wave panel survey among 1765 Dutch adolescents (aged 13–17), I found that SEIM use predicted sexual uncertainty only among girls with a low hypergendered orientation and girls with a relatively high impersonal sex orientation.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Agent-based modeling is a widely applicable in silico method. In this study, it showed pain expression and helping others to be evolutionarily viable behaviors under some conditions., Predictions which invoke evolutionary mechanisms are hard to test. Agent-based modeling in artificial life offers a way to simulate behaviors and interactions in specific physical or social environments over many generations. The outcomes have implications for understanding adaptive value of behaviors in context. Pain-related behavior in animals is communicated to other animals that might protect or help, or might exploit or predate. An agent-based model simulated the effects of displaying or not displaying pain (expresser/nonexpresser strategies) when injured and of helping, ignoring, or exploiting another in pain (altruistic/nonaltruistic/selfish strategies). Agents modeled in MATLAB interacted at random while foraging (gaining energy); random injury interrupted foraging for a fixed time unless help from an altruistic agent, who paid an energy cost, speeded recovery. Environmental and social conditions also varied, and each model ran for 10,000 iterations. Findings were meaningful in that, in general, contingencies that evident from experimental work with a variety of mammals, over a few interactions, were replicated in the agent-based model after selection pressure over many generations. More energy-demanding expression of pain reduced its frequency in successive generations, and increasing injury frequency resulted in fewer expressers and altruists. Allowing exploitation of injured agents decreased expression of pain to near zero, but altruists remained. Decreasing costs or increasing benefits of helping hardly changed its frequency, whereas increasing interaction rate between injured agents and helpers diminished the benefits to both. Agent-based modeling allows simulation of complex behaviors and environmental pressures over evolutionary time.

ObjectiveTo examine the associations between adolescents’ diet quality and their perceived relatives’ and peers’ diet engagement and encouragement.DesignCross-sectional study performed in European countries. Diet quality was scored using the Diet Quality Index for Adolescents (DQI-A) based on four components: quality, diversity, balance and meal frequency. Perceived diet quality engagement and perceived encouragement of the relatives/peers were assessed using the questions ‘How healthy is each of the following persons’ diet?’ and ‘How often does each of the following persons encourage you to eat a healthy diet?’SettingVienna, Ghent, Lille, Athens, Heraklion, Pecs, Rome, Dortmund, Zaragoza and Stockholm.SubjectsHealthy adolescents (n 2943).ResultsThe perceived engagement level of the mother, father and sister was each positively associated with the DQI-A (PPPPPConclusionsThese findings highlight the role of social engagement and encouragement of relatives and peers in adolescents’ diet quality. Intervention or promotion programmes aimed at enhancing diet quality in adolescents should target both family and peers.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe and gain more knowledge about the phenomenon of the inner child in relation to health and well-being reflected in events during childhood experienced by adults. Method: In this hermeneutical phenomenological study, 20 adults, 10 men and 10 women aged 22–68, were interviewed. Results: The analysis of the data illuminated the phenomenon of the inner child in one theme: Gaining useful life lessons through childhood experiences, made up by four sub-themes: Sharing relationships, playing to heal, being strong or frail and supporting the next generation. Conclusion: The participants’ experiences of events during childhood were illuminating the phenomenon of the inner child as promoting or hindering health and well-being and impact human adaptation throughout life. Our findings indicate that the participants learned useful life lessons suggesting that experiences during childhood can help us to adapt across the life span and over generations, and this is the essence of the inner child. Our findings also contribute to the health literacy discussion and detail how knowledge and action competency is developed in mental, social and existential dimensions of health and well-being.

The aim of the present study is to explore interpersonal dimensions of the presence of older patients at team meetings. The theoretical foundation of the study is grounded in caring science and lifeworld phenomenology. The results from two empirical studies, that indicated the need for a more in-depth examination of the interpersonal relationships when an older patient is present at a team meeting, were further explicated by philosophical examination in the light of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy. The empirical studies were performed in a hospital ward for older people, where the traditional rounds had been replaced by a team meeting, to which the patients were invited. The analysis of the general structure and philosophical examination followed the principles of reflective lifeworld research. The philosophical examination is presented in four meaning structures: mood as a force in existence; to exist in a world with others; loneliness in the presence of others; and the lived body as extending. In conclusion, professionals must consider patients’ existential issues in the way they are expressed by the patients. Existence extends beyond the present situation. Accordingly, the team meeting must be seen in a larger context, including the patients’ life as a whole, as well as the ontological and epistemological foundations on which healthcare is based.Key words: Care, older patients, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, qualitative research(Published: 19 February 2015)Citation: Int J Qualitative Stud Health Well-being 2015, 10: 26590 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.26590

Little is known about how emotions expressed by others influence social decisions and associated brain responses in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated the neural mechanisms underlying fairness decisions in response to explicitly expressed emotions of others in boys with ASD and typically developing (TD) boys. Participants with ASD adjusted their allocation behavior in response to the emotions but reacted less unfair than TD controls in response to happiness. We also found reduced brain responses in the precental gyrus in the ASD versus TD group when receiving happy versus angry reactions and autistic traits were positively associated with activity in the postcentral gyrus. These results provide indications for a role of precentral and postcentral gyrus in social-affective difficulties in ASD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3159-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

To gain further insight into psychosexual functioning, including behaviors, intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects, in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), comprehensive, multi-informant measures are needed. This study describes (1) the development of a new measure of psychosexual functioning in both parent- and self-reports (Teen Transition Inventory; TTI) covering all three domains of psychosexual functioning (i.e. psychosexual socialization, psychosexual selfhood, and sexual/intimate behavior). And (2) the initial testing of this instrument, comparing adolescents with ASD (n = 79 parent-report; n = 58 self-report) to Typically Developing (TD) adolescents (n = 131 parent-report; n = 91 self-report) while taking into account gender as a covariate. Results from both informants indicate more difficulties regarding psychosexual socialization and psychosexual selfhood in the ASD group. With regard to sexual/intimate behavior, only parents reported significantly more problems in adolescents with ASD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3071-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Previous placebo-controlled experimental studies have shown that a single dose of MDMA can increase emotional empathy in the multifaceted empathy test (MET) without affecting cognitive empathy. Although sufficiently powered to detect main effects of MDMA, these studies were generally underpowered to also validly assess contributions of additional parameters, such as sex, drug use history, trait empathy and MDMA or oxytocin plasma concentrations. The present study examined the robustness of the MDMA effect on empathy and investigated the moderating role of these additional parameters. Participants ( n = 118) from six placebo-controlled within-subject studies and two laboratories were included in the present pooled analysis. Empathy (MET), MDMA and oxytocin plasma concentrations were assessed after oral administration of MDMA (single dose, 75 or 125 mg). Trait empathy was assessed using the interpersonal reactivity index. We confirmed that MDMA increased emotional empathy at both doses without affecting cognitive empathy. This MDMA-related increase in empathy was most pronounced during presentation of positive emotions as compared with negative emotions. MDMA-induced empathy enhancement was positively related to MDMA blood concentrations measured before the test, but independent of sex, drug use history and trait empathy. Oxytocin concentrations increased after MDMA administration but were not associated with behavioral effects. The MDMA effects on emotional empathy were stable across laboratories and doses. Sex did not play a moderating role in this effect, and oxytocin levels, trait empathy and drug use history were also unrelated. Acute drug exposure was of significant relevance in the MDMA-induced emotional empathy elevation.

During a 9-month period, 100 persons with SMI were given approx. 73 USD per month above their normal income. Sixteen of the subjects were interviewed. The interviews were analysed according to the methods of thematic analysis. The money was used for personal pleasure and to re-establish reciprocal relations to others. The ways in which different individuals used the money at their disposal impacted their sense of self through experiences of mastery, agency, reciprocity, recognition and security. The findings underline the importance of including social circumstances in our understanding of mental health problems, their trajectories and the recovery process.

Background Care provided by student doctors and nurses is well received by patients in hospital and primary care settings. Whether the same is true for aged care residents of nursing homes with mild cognitive decline and their family members is unknown. Objective To investigate the perspectives of aged care residents with mild cognitive decline and their family members on interdisciplinary student placements in two residential aged care facilities (RACF) in Tasmania. Design, setting and participants A mixed methods design was employed with both qualitative and quantitative data collected. All participants were interviewed and completed a questionnaire on residents' quality of life, during or after a period of student placements in each facility (October–November, 2012). Qualitative data were coded for themes following a grounded theory approach, and quantitative data were analysed using SPSS. Results Twenty-one participants (13 residents and 8 family members) were recruited. Four themes were identified from the qualitative data and included (i) increased social interaction and facility vibrancy; (ii) community service and personal development, (iii) vulnerability and sensitivity (learning to care) and (iv) increased capacity and the confidence of enhanced care. Residents' quality of life was reported to be mostly good in the presence of the students, despite their high care needs. Conclusion Residents with mild cognitive decline and their family members perceive a wide array of benefits of student provided care in RACFs including increased social interaction. Future quantitative research should focus on whether changes in care occur for residents as a result of student involvement.

A positive relationship exists between functional health and religion. We present an empirical definition of religion and describe the key elements of religious behavior, building a model that can be used to explore the presumed relationship between religion and health. Semi-structured interactive interviews were conducted with 22 participants over a 6-month period. Head Start programs and churches located in the inner city of a large metropolitan area. Twenty-two African American women were aged from 21 to 45. We focus on social relationships and propose that prophet-created religions mimic kinship relationships and encourage kinship-like cooperation between members.

"Thinking too much", and variations such as "thinking a lot", are common idioms of distress across the world. The contextual meaning of this idiom of distress in particular localities remains largely unknown. This paper reports on a systematic study of the content and cause, consequences, and social response and coping related to the local terms |x’an n|a te and |eu-ca n|a te, both translated as "thinking a lot", and was part of a larger ethnographic study among the Khwe of South Africa. Semi-structured exploratory interviews with community members revealed that "thinking a lot" refers to a common experience of reflecting on personal and interpersonal problems. Consequences were described in emotional, psychological, social, behavioral, and physical effects. Coping strategies included social support, distraction, and religious practices. Our contextualized approach revealed meanings and experiences of "thinking a lot" that go beyond a psychological state or psychopathology. The common experience of "thinking a lot" is situated in socio-political, economic, and social context that reflect the marginalized and displaced position of the Khwe. We argue that "thinking a lot" and associated local meanings may vary across settings, may not necessarily indicate psychopathology, and should be understood in individual, interpersonal, community, and socio-political dimensions.

Understanding risk factors of problematic gambling is prerequisite to effective intervention design to alleviate the negative consequences of gambling. This study explored the personal, social and environmental risk factors of problematic gambling in four high schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, among students (N = 422) ranging from 12 to 21 years of age. Results from the cross-sectional survey showed that personal feelings (e.g., self-esteem, false perceptions about winning, drug abuse), social factors (e.g., peer influence, parental gambling), and environmental factors (e.g., accessibility of gambling venues, advertisements) were significant correlates of problematic gambling. The study also revealed that men were more at risk for severe problematic gambling than females. Among the identified types of gambling activities, the most prevalent ones were playing cards followed by flipping coin and pool gambling while internet gambling was among the least reported gambling activities. By identifying personal, social and environmental correlates of risky gambling activities this study provides evidence-based information for the systematic design and evaluation of educational interventions to prevent problematic gambling in young people.

Objectives Informal caregivers experience daily hassles – a form of persistent stress, as a consequence of caregiving. This study aimed to develop and test a new theoretical model of health information-seeking behaviour, the Knowledge Hassles Information Seeking Model (KHISM). KHISM hypothesized that the knowledge hassles of caregivers – daily stressors experienced while dealing with tasks which require knowledge about the safety and effectiveness of the care-recipients' medicines – would influence caregivers' willingness to assist their care-recipient to use an Australian medication management service, Home Medicines Review (HMR). Methods A cross-sectional postal survey was conducted among 2350 members of Carers (NSW, Australia). Respondents were included in the study if they were involved in medication-related tasks for their care-recipient and were not paid as caregivers. Also, their care-recipient needed to be taking more than five medicines daily or more than 12 doses daily and had not yet experienced HMR. Structural equation modelling was used to test the model. Results A total of 324 useable surveys were returned yielding a response rate of 14%. Respondents were quite willing to assist their care-recipient to use HMR (willingness). The model predicted 51% of the variation in willingness. Knowledge hassles increased positive outcome expectancy (β = 0.40, P

Aim To understand the experiences of young women with a disorder of sex development when sharing information about their body with healthcare professionals, friends and intimate partners. Background Disorders of sex development are lifelong conditions that create bodily difference such as absence of reproductive organs which can impact on young women's fertility and sexual experiences. Design Interpretive phenomenological analysis with thirteen young women (14-19 years old) with a disorder of sex development. Methods The young women chose to participate in either a face-to-face semi-structured interview or to complete a paper diary between 2011–2012. Results A superordinate theme focusing on the meaning bodily differences held for these young women is presented through three themes: self-awareness and communicating this to others; actualizing intimacy; and expressing meaning of altered fertility to self or professionals or partners. During early adolescence, the young women were guarded and reticent about sharing personal information about their disorder of sex development but as they moved towards adulthood, some of the young women learnt to engage in conversations with more confidence. Frustrations about their bodily differences and the limitations of their bodies were talked about as factors which limited physical spontaneity, impacted on their perceived sexual fulfilment and challenged the development or sustainability of close friendships or intimate partnerships. The young women wanted empathic, sensitive support from knowledgeable health professionals to help them understand their bodies. Conclusion Attachment and a ‘sense of being’ were the concepts that were closely linked to the young women's development of a secure identity.

International audience; This paper addresses the working practices of a mobile mental health outreach team in a large French city, one that 'targets' homeless people with severe psychiatric disorders who are considered 'hard to reach' by the public health authorities and medical services. Analysis of the team's work--where acts of curing and caring are closely tied--reveals the importance of moving beyond a polarized vision of cure and care. The paper departs from much of the literature on the medicalization of social problems by arguing that medicalization is not only a means of social control, but has ethical value as well. In examining the practices of frontline health workers, it aims to show that integrating the methods and theoretical approaches of social work in medical practice is necessary to address the specific problems of homeless people, to enable health professionals to pursue medical cures, and to challenge the shortcomings of public policy.

Objective: To assess the internal validity and reliability of a multisource feedback (MSF) program by China Medical Board for resident physicians in China. Method: Multisource feedback was used to assess professionalism, interpersonal and communication skills. 258 resident physicians were assessed by attending doctors, self-evaluation, resident peers, nurses, office staffs, and patients who completed a sealed questionnaire at 19 hospitals in China. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess reliability. Validity was assessed by exploratory factor analyses and by profile ratings. Results: 4128 questionnaires were collected from this study. All responses had high internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach's α> 0.90), which suggests that both questions and form data were internally consistent. The exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation for the evaluators' questionnaires was able to account for 70 to 74% of the total variance. Conclusion: The current MSF assessment tools are internally valid and reliable for assessing resident physician professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills in China.

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the structural characteristics and gambling behavior among video lottery terminal (VLT) gamblers. The study was ecological valid, because the data consisted of actual gambling behavior registered in the participants natural gambling environment without intrusion by researchers. Online behavioral tracking data from Multix, an eight game video lottery terminal, were supplied by Norsk-Tipping (the state owned gambling company in Norway). The sample comprised the entire population of Multix gamblers (N = 31,109) who had gambled in January 2010. The individual number of bets made across games was defined as the dependent variable, reward characteristics of a game (i.e., payback percentage, hit frequency, size of winnings and size of jackpot) and bet characteristics of a game (i.e., range of betting options and availability of advanced betting options) served as the independent variables. Control variables were age and gender. Two separate cross-classified multilevel random intercepts models were used to analyze the relationship between bets made, reward characteristics and bet characteristics, where the number of bets was nested within both individuals and within games. The results show that the number of bets is positively associated with payback percentage, hit frequency, being female and age, and negatively associated with size of wins and range of available betting options. In summary, the results show that the reward characteristics and betting options explained 27 % and 15 % of the variance in the number of bets made, respectively. It is concluded that structural game characteristics affect gambling behavior. Implications of responsible gambling are discussed. publishedVersion

Contains fulltext : 102966.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Recent research suggests that heterosexual men's (but not heterosexual women's) cognitive performance is impaired after an interaction with someone of the opposite sex (Karremans et al., 2009). These findings have been interpreted in terms of the cognitive costs of trying to make a good impression during the interaction. In everyday life, people frequently engage in pseudo-interactions with women (e.g., through the phone or the internet) or anticipate interacting with a woman later on. The goal of the present research was to investigate if men's cognitive performance decreased in these types of situations, in which men have little to no opportunity to impress her and, moreover, have little to no information about the mate value of their interaction partner. Two studies demonstrated that men's (but not women's) cognitive performance declined if they were led to believe that they interacted with a woman via a computer (Study 1) or even if they merely anticipated an interaction with a woman (Study 2). Together, these results suggest that an actual interaction is not a necessary prerequisite for the cognitive impairment effect to occur. Moreover, these effects occur even if men do not get information about the woman's attractiveness. This latter finding is discussed in terms of error management theory. 6 p.

An implicit assumption in research on adolescents’ use of sexually explicit internet material (SEIM) is that they may feel more attracted to such material than adults, given the "forbidden" character of SEIM for minors. However, systematic comparisons between adolescents’ and adults’ SEIM use and of its antecedents are missing. We conducted a two-wave panel survey among a nationally representative sample of 1,445 Dutch adolescents and a nationally representative sample of 833 Dutch adults. Adolescents’ and adults’ SEIM use was similar. When significant differences in the SEIM use occurred, they indicated that adults used SEIM more often than adolescents. Male adults were the most frequent users of SEIM. No difference in the antecedent structure of SEIM use emerged between adolescents and adults. In both groups, males, sensation seekers, as well as people with a not exclusively heterosexual orientation used SEIM more often. Among adolescents and adults, lower life satisfaction increased SEIM use. Our findings suggest that the frequency of SEIM use and its antecedents are largely the same among adolescents and adults.

Self, peer and teacher reports of social relationships were examined for 60 high-functioning children with ASD. Compared to a matched sample of typical children in the same classroom, children with ASD were more often on the periphery of their social networks, reported poorer quality friendships and had fewer reciprocal friendships. On the playground, children with ASD were mostly unengaged but playground engagement was not associated with peer, self, or teacher reports of social behavior. Twenty percent of children with ASD had a reciprocated friendship and also high social network status. Thus, while the majority of high functioning children with ASD struggle with peer relationships in general education classrooms, a small percentage of them appear to have social success.

People with ASD have deficits in their social skills and may therefore experience lower relationship satisfaction. This study investigated possible mechanisms to explain whether and how autistic traits, measured with the AQ, influence relationship satisfaction in a non-clinical sample of 195 married couples. More autistic traits were associated with lower relationship satisfaction for husbands but not for wives. Multiple mediation analyses revealed that husbands’ responsiveness towards their wives, trust, and intimacy mediated this link between autistic traits and relationship satisfaction. These findings suggest that autistic traits may hamper men’s relationship satisfaction because they impede relationship-specific feelings and behavior. There was no partner-effect of autistic traits, indicating that more autistic traits do not necessarily influence the partner’s perceptions of relationship satisfaction.