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Secure attachment relationships have been linked to social competence in at-risk children. In the current study, we examined the role of parent secure base scripts in predicting at-risk kindergarteners' social competence. Parent representations of secure attachment were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between lower family cumulative risk and children's social competence. Participants included 106 kindergarteners and their primary caregivers recruited from three urban charter schools serving low-income families as a part of a longitudinal study. Lower levels of cumulative risk predicted greater secure attachment representations in parents, and scores on the secure base script assessment predicted children's social competence. An indirect relationship between lower cumulative risk and kindergarteners' social competence via parent secure base script scores was also supported. Parent script-based representations of the attachment relationship appear to be an important link between lower levels of cumulative risk and low-income kindergarteners' social competence. Implications of these findings for future interventions are discussed.

Research Findings: Early reading and mathematics skills predict later academic success, and child self-regulation and secure parent–child relationships are both predictors of early academic skills. Self-regulatory and family relationship factors have rarely been studied together as predictors of early academic success in populations of young children at risk for academic difficulties. This study examined child self-regulation and parents’ representations of parent–child relationships as predictors of young children’s academic achievement. Participants were 106 kindergartners attending charter schools that served impoverished neighborhoods in a large city. In a path analysis, child self-regulation and parental secure base script scores each uniquely predicted kindergartners’ academic achievement at the end of the school year when several key covariates were accounted for. Practice or Policy: Children’s self-regulation skills should be assessed at school entry to help identify the children at greate...

This study examined mental health problems among children of Iraqi refugees, most of whom were Christian. Exposure to potentially traumatic events was hypothesized to predict more symptoms of depression and traumatic stress. Moreover, youth reports of supportive relationships with parents and positive feelings about school were examined in relation to mental health problems. These promotive factors were expected to mitigate the hypothesized association between traumatic event exposure and mental health problems. Participants were 211 youth recruited from agencies and programs serving Iraqi refugees in a large metropolitan area in the United States. The hypotheses were partially supported. Youth who reported experiencing more potentially traumatic events endorsed more traumatic stress and depression symptoms. After accounting for exposure to potentially traumatic events and other covariates, youth who reported more positive feelings about school endorsed fewer symptoms of traumatic stress, and youth who reported more supportive relationships with parents endorsed fewer symptoms of depression. In addition, there was an interaction between potentially traumatic events and relationships with parents when predicting depression symptoms. Youth endorsed higher levels of depression symptoms when they reported less supportive relationships, regardless of the amount of traumatic event exposure, whereas youth endorsed lower levels of depression symptoms when they reported more supportive relationships with parents, but only at low levels of traumatic event exposure. Otherwise, the main effects were not qualified by interactions between potentially traumatic event exposure and the promotive factors. The findings from this study have implications for future research, policy, and practice with children of refugees. (PsycINFO Database Record

This study examined cumulative risk, temperament traits, and their interplay as predictors of internalizing, externalizing, and sleep problems in at-risk toddlers. Participants were 104 low-income mother-toddler dyads recruited from Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) sites in a large city. The sample was primarily African American, and mothers were 21 years of age or younger at the child’s birth. The dyads were assessed when the toddlers were approximately 18 months old and again at 24 months of age. Though all toddlers were from low-income families with young mothers, the families varied in the degree to which other contextual risk factors were present. A cumulative risk index was calculated based on five contextual factors: maternal education, neighborhood dangerousness, social support, household overcrowding and single parenting. In multiple regressions, cumulative risk predicted sleep and externalizing problems. In addition, negative affectivity predicted all three domains of problem behaviors, effortful control predicted fewer externalizing problems, and surgency predicted fewer internalizing problems. Moreover, low negative affectivity buffered the association between cumulative risk and both internalizing and sleep problems. These findings suggest that it is important to consider children’s temperament traits in conjunction with the constellation of family risks when designing prevention programs to reduce the prevalence of behavior problems early in life.

We conducted a meta-analysis on the effects of client preferences on treatment satisfaction, completion, and clinical outcome. Our search of the literature resulted in 34 empirical articles describing 32 unique clinical trials that either randomized some clients to an active choice condition (shared decision making condition or choice of treatment) or assessed client preferences. Clients who were involved in shared decision making, chose a treatment condition, or otherwise received their preferred treatment evidenced higher treatment satisfaction (ESd = .34; p < .001), increased completion rates (ESOR = 1.37; ESd = .17; p < .001), and superior clinical outcome (ESd = .15; p < .0001), compared to clients who were not involved in shared decision making, did not choose a treatment condition, or otherwise did not receive their preferred treatment. Although the effect sizes are modest in magnitude, they were generally consistent across several potential moderating variables including study design (preference versus active choice), psychoeducation (informed versus uninformed), setting (inpatient versus outpatient), client diagnosis (mental health versus other), and unit of randomization (client versus provider). Our findings highlight the clinical benefit of assessing client preferences, providing treatment choices when two or more efficacious options are available, and involving clients in treatment-related decisions when treatment options are not available.

Maternal depressive symptoms predict negative child behaviors, including internalizing problems. However, protective factors, such as positive emotionality and positive parenting behaviors, may play an important a role in attenuating associations between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems. This manuscript presents two studies that examined buffers of links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. Each study examined samples of primarily African American families with young children in an impoverished large city in the Midwestern United States. Families were recruited from kindergarten classes and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) centers. In both studies, indicators of mothers' positivity, as measured by text based analysis of positive emotion word use or behavioral observation of positive parenting behaviors, attenuated links between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing problems. The results suggest that risk for internalizing problems within the context of maternal depressive symptoms is reduced when parents experience and express more positive emotions and behaviors.

Insulin secretion from the pancreas is pulsatile. The precise site and function of the pacemaker that regulates insulin periodicity in humans have not been determined. We isolated human pancreatic islets from five cadaver organ donors by collagenase digestion and density gradient purification. After 24 h of culture in CMRL-1066 medium at 37 degrees C, aliquots of 200 islets were perifused (1 ml/min for 120 min) with glucose and other secretagogues in oxygenated Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution at 37 degrees C. Samples for insulin measurement were taken every minute, and insulin secretion was analyzed by the Clifton and Steiner cycle detection technique. With 3.3 mM glucose (n = 17), insulin oscillations were demonstrated with a periodicity of 9.8 +/- 0.1 min (means +/- SE), mean amplitude was 16.8 +/- 1.8 pM, and overall mean insulin release was 43.8 +/- 4.2 pM. With 16.7 mM glucose (n = 14), no change of insulin periodicity was observed (10.2 +/- 0.9 min), mean amplitude was 41.4 +/- 10.2 pM (P0.01 vs. 3.3 mM glucose), and mean insulin release was 118.2 +/- 19.2 pM (P0.01 vs. 3.3 mM glucose). Both at 3.3 and 16.7 mM glucose, the addition of 1.4 mM glucagon (n = 4), 15 mM arginine (n = 4), or 100 micrograms/ml tolbutamide (n = 4) caused no change of insulin periodicity but enhanced mean amplitude and mean insulin release compared with glucose alone. These results show that a pacemaker is located within the islets that regulates pulsatile insulin secretion in humans; the pacemaker is remarkably stable, because its periodicity is not affected by factors altering insulin secretion.

Highly purified islets of Langerhans were prepared in the present study from adult pigs by collagenase digestion and density gradient purification. After overnight culture, the tissue was equilibrated with DMSO at 25 degrees C, supercooled to -7.5 degrees C, nucleated, slowly cooled at 0.25 degrees C/min to -40 degrees C, and stored at -130 degrees C. Then, after variable periods of storage, the islets were rapidly thawed at 37 degrees C. Postthaw actual islet and islet equivalent (150-microns sized islets) recovery were 75 +/- 7% and 66 +/- 4%, respectively. The frozen-thawed porcine islets maintained good morphology on histological staining by hematoxylin-eosin and aldehyde-fuchsin. Upon perifusion, basal insulin secretion was 43 +/- 10 and 67 +/- 18 pmol/L from noncryopreserved, control islets, and cryopreserved islets, respectively (P = 0.2). Peak insulin release at 16.7 mmol/L glucose was 85 +/- 28 pmol/L from noncryopreserved islets and 157 +/- 48 pmol/L from the frozen-thawed islets (P = 0.1). When 10 mmol/L theophylline was added to 16.7 mmol/L glucose, the secretion of the hormone peaked to 221 +/- 83 (control islets) and 479 +/- 140 pmol/L (cryopreserved islets, P = 0.1). Total insulin secretion differed significantly for the noncryopreserved and the cryopreserved islets at both 16.7 mmol/L (1412 +/- 306 vs. 3756 +/- 764 pmol/L, respectively, P = 0.007) and 16.7 mmol/L glucose plus 10 mmol/L theophylline (2161 +/- 371 vs. 7505 +/- 2075 pmol/L, respectively, P = 0.011). Normoglycemia was restored within 7 days from implantation in temporarily immunosuppressed (aL3T4 antibody) mice with streptozotocin-induced diabetes by transplanting 1500-2000 cryopreserved porcine islets under the kidney capsule. Mean survival time of frozen-thawed islet xenografts (39 +/- 3 days) was similar to that of noncryopreserved islet xenografts (43 +/- 6 days). This study demonstrates that cryogenic storage is feasible of isolated porcine islets, with the frozen-thawed pancreatic endocrine tissue maintaining morphological integrity and both in vitro and in vivo viability. Further studies are needed to define the effect of cryopreservation on the immunogenic properties of porcine islets.

It is still a controversial question whether insulin suppresses its own secretion. We prepared pure human islets from three pancreases by collagenase digestion and density gradient purification. Aliquots of 200 islet equivalents (IE, 150-μm sized-islets) were sequentially perifused at 37°C with 3.3 mmol/l glucose (3.3G, 40 min), 16.7 mmol/l glucose (16.7G, 30 min) and again 3.3G (30 min) after 24 h, 37°C culture in CMRL 1066 medium with or without the addition of either 200 or 400 μU/ml human insulin in the incubation medium (6 replicates each). Insulin secretion was assessed by C-peptide (Cp) measurement in the perufusate. Without added insulin (C) and with 200 (Ins200) or 400 (Ins400) μU/ml added insulin, basal Cp release was 0.12±0.03, 0.14±0.02 and 0.14±0.04 ng/ml, respectively. At 16.7G, the first-phase secretion peak (expressed as Cp value) was significantly lower with Ins200 (0.47±0.13 ng/ml,P