ABSTRACT
Trauma symptoms, recovery patterns, and life stressors of children between the ages of 9 and 18 (n = 387) following Hurricane Katrina were assessed using an adapted version of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool for Children and Adolescents (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2005). Based on assessments 2 and 3 years after the hurricane, most children showed a decrease in posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms over time. Students were also classified into outcome trajectories of stress resistant, normal response and recovery, delayed breakdown, and breakdown without recovery (A. S. Masten & J. Obradovic, 2008). Age, gender, and life stressors were related to these recovery patterns. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of building and maintaining supportive relationships following disasters.
Subject(s)
Cyclonic Storms , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Disasters , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis , Adolescent , Age Factors , Child , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Louisiana , Male , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Sex Factors , Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Students/psychology , Students/statistics & numerical data , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Neuropsychologists are increasingly called upon to conduct evaluations with individuals involved in personal injury litigation. While the inclusion of measures of effort within a test battery may help clinicians determine whether a client has put forth full effort, attorney coaching may allow dishonest clients to circumvent these efforts. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which frequently used measures of effort are susceptible to coaching, as well as to explore and classify strategies undertaken by coached malingering simulators. Overall, coached simulators performed significantly better on 7 of 14 measured variables. Potential improvements in the external validity of the simulation design were also explored.
Subject(s)
Forensic Psychiatry , Malingering/diagnosis , Malingering/psychology , Memory, Short-Term , Psychometrics/methods , Adolescent , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Intelligence Tests , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data , Reproducibility of Results , Verbal Learning , Young AdultABSTRACT
Malingering research typically uses analog simulation design or differential prevalence design among "real" patients. Both have been criticized for methodological limitations in external and internal validity, respectively. Samples of simulated malingerers were compared to suspected malingerers to examine generalizability of analog findings. Overall results support the use of simulation designs. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that stringent selection of suspected malingerers maintains internal validity of the differential prevalence design. A second focus, to determine if demographic matching of simulated malingerers is necessary, showed that matching on age and race is not necessary.
