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Background: Children and adolescents in residential care have more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than those living in any other type of care. However, there is scant research on risk factors accounting for this accumulation. Objective: To establish the prevalence of ACEs in child residential care and to explore predictors of accumulation and clustering patterns. Method: A cluster-randomized sample of 1275 children ages 5-18 years was drawn from 78 residential care facilities across Romania. Clinical psychologists from Child Protective Services (CPS) aided in the collection of ACEs, family, health and history data. Network analysis was used to explore ACE clustering patterns, while a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial regression provided insights into covariate risk factors. Results: Within the network, influential ACEs were found to be consistent with previous research. However, using expanded ACEs on a high exposure sample, two new clusters emerged: (1) ACEs reported by children at the highest mean ages (abused by a romantic partner, arrested or incarcerated, sexually abused), (2) ACEs pertaining to social exclusion (seriously medically ill, discriminated, bullied). Several risk factors significantly predicted ACE accumulation: craniocerebral trauma, prenatal exposure to drugs, cognitive delay, conduct disorder and frequent change of homes. Institutional placement and special education were found as protective factors. Conclusions: A child in residential care that was institutionalized for reasons other than neglect or abuse had 80% probability of not being ever exposed to any ACEs. Nevertheless, CPS can utilize important risk factors and influential past ACEs to detect children at higher risks of further adversity.

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The Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) is a self-report tool for measuring psychosis-proneness, specifically schizotypy personality traits. This study aims to validate the Romanian version of the O-LIFE questionnaire by analysing the reliability and construct validity of the instrument. Four hundred and seventy two Romanian students aged 16 to 30 completed the questionnaire with no time limit. The findings show that O-LIFE exhibits adequate to high internal consistencies and test-retest reliabilities on all of its four sub-scales, as well as low to moderate inter-scale correlations. The original four factor model, however, did not fit well the sample data. Instead, principal component analysis has pointed towards a six factor solution represented by Cognitive Disorganisation, Unusual Experiences, Introvertive Anhedonia, Impulsivity/Irritability, Magical Thinking and Neurotic Nonconformity. Measures of construct validity and reliability were found adequate for all factors except Neurotic Nonconformity. In the absence of empirical studies that offer clinical validity to this last construct and establish the structural invariance of the instrument, we recommend caution when interpreting the sub-scale. Nevertheless, the study has shown that the Romanian O-LIFE questionnaire has adequate properties and can be used in both clinical and research settings as a valuable and novel tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) has been portrayed as a multipurpose measure of health status, capable of being used in population surveys and in the evaluation of both medical and psychosocial interventions. In the fields of oncology and psycho-oncology, it has been widely used to assess health-related quality of life or disease activity and any changes that occur with regard to them. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to adapt the NHP for the use with Romanian cancer patients and to test its psychometric properties and factorial validity. Methods: The final Romanian adapted NHP was obtained thought translation and blind back-translation by a panel of bilingual experts. Afterwards, a mixed sample of 250 adult cancer patients ages 23-82 years old (M=54.38, SD=11.85) from the Bucharest Institute of Oncology completed both NHP and FACT-G along with 14 questions regarding demographics. FACT-G was used to measure the concurrent validity of NHP scales and to test its usefulness within multi-instrument assessment protocols. Results: The findings show that NHP exhibits adequate internal consistencies, in strong agreement with the literature, as well as moderate inter-scale correlations. Second-order confirmatory factor analysis using WLSMV estimation strongly supported the fit of the original sixfactor model. No additional changes in factor structure or items of the Romanian NHP were warranted by the results of this study. Conclusions: The study has shown that the Romanian NHP questionnaire possesses adequate psychometric properties and can be used with cancer patients in both clinical and research settings. Further research on test-retest reliability and potentially on the weighting system is required to establish its complete equivalence to the original instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pain affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is a primary complaint resulting in physician visits. The roles of cognitive, emotional, social and behavioral factors in the development and treatment of chronic pain have been acknowledged long ago. Psychological treatments to chronic pain have been shown to be successful, with effect sizes generally in the medium to high range and, more recently neuroscientific evidence has confirmed these findings by providing basic knowledge on the neural correlates of psychological modulation of pain experience. Objectives: As medical interventions frequently cannot resolve chronic pain completely, the need for psychological management approaches to chronic pain is increasing. Yet, two shortcomings remain pervasive: (1) many professionals and patients remain reluctant in using them, (2) these approaches remain with no good reason confined to only a few psychotherapy schools. The following article aims to provide a conceptual background on the bases of experiential pain management. Methods: Techniques, principles and guidelines portraying to the U.E.P. philosophy that stem out from the conceptual background will be presented in the second part of the article in which an experiential psychotherapy protocol for pain management will be outlined. Results: The techniques discussed here have proven to be effective in clinical settings on a variety of pain conditions. Conclusions: Due to the increasing involvement of psychologists and psychotherapists in the assessment and treatment of disease-related pain, such as pain secondary to cancer, arthritis or fibromyalgia, applicative methodologies and guidelines need to be provided in order to aid practitioners in their endeavor. Unfortunately, highly personalized (patient centered) approaches such as the experiential ones are harder to disseminate and their efficacy is difficult to quantify in naturalistic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]