Definitions and Measurement Tools for Assessing Parental Reactions to LGB People Coming Out: A Critical Review.

Parental responses to young people's coming out as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) are a crucial experience in identity formation and subsequent mental health outcomes. However, how parents react to coming out varies and remains relatively imprecise in the literature. The aim of the present critical review was to explore and discuss the different definitions and measurement tools used in studies assessing perceived parental reactions to the coming out of LGB people aged 18 years and over. Following PRISMA guidelines, a review of 14 selected articles was carried out to examine the different tools used. Then, based on this selection of articles, a review of the different proposed definitions of parental reactions was carried out. Analysis revealed that the Perceived Parental Reactions Scale emerged as the most widely used and most appropriate international scale for capturing the diversity of perceived parental reactions. Then, parental responses were often addressed in a dichotomous manner, focusing primarily on acceptance or rejection. Future studies will need to consider a more nuanced approach to understanding parental reactions to coming out.

The structure of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised: Global distress, Somatization, Hostility, and Phobic Anxiety scales are reliable and robust across community and clinical samples from four European countries.

While the reliability of SCL-90-R subscales is often questioned, five relatively recent European studies have examined the factor structure of SCL-90-R using a bifactor model and concluded that most of these subscales are reliable. However, examination of their results shows that three subscales, Somatization, Hostility, and Phobic Anxiety, consistently had significantly higher reliability than the other six across clinical and community samples recruited in three very different European countries, Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands. The objective of this study was to examine whether this "top-3″ would be found in a sample from a fourth European country, France. To do this, we had 696 university students (387 women, 56 %) complete the SCL-90-R and we examined the reliability of the scales of this questionnaire by testing a bifactor model using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM). Our results confirmed that, in our sample, the three scales presented a higher reliability than the other six scales. It therefore seems that there exists, at least in the European cultural area, a stable structure of the SCL-90-R comprising a global distress factor and three reliable and robust specific factors: Somatization, Hostility, and Phobic Anxiety.

A reliable instrument for making use of an overly neglected source of information on personality: The French adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2 (Bfi-2) informant-report form.

OBJECTIVES: The assessment of personality traits is most often based on self-report. However, a growing body of research has shown that informant-report is a valuable and too often overlooked source of unique information. The aim of this study was to validate the French version of the informant-report form of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) which assesses 15 facet traits in addition to the five major trait domains. METHODS: We asked 699 psychology and sports science and technology students to describe a person they knew well using the BFI-2 and obtained 661 valid records with demographic information. The data were analyzed using a bi-factor exploratory structural equation model with five bifactors corresponding to the Big Five domains, and three group factors (facets) each. RESULTS: This model had an excellent overall fit. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the five domains were very satisfactory and the McDonald's omega coefficients were even better. The scales that measured the five major factors were therefore highly reliable, although Extraversion was somewhat less so. The scales measuring facets all had high reliability as measures of the whole formed by the major factor and the group factor. In addition, ten of them were reliable measures of their specific factor, and the remaining five appeared to be pure measures of the five domains. CONCLUSIONS: The informant-report form of the BFI-2 is a reliable instrument which is easy and quick to administer. These qualities should enable clinicians and researchers to exploit the much-neglected source of original information provided by informant-reports.

Emotion Regulation Scale and Mindfulness Scale in School Aged Children: Construction and Validation of French Versions.

Few measuring scales seem to evaluate Mindfulness and emotion regulation in school aged children. This article aims to present four studies describing the construction and validation of two French measuring scales for children: French Emotion Regulation Scale for Children (FERS-C) and Mindfulness Scale for Children French version (MSC-F). We discuss the elaboration and choice of the items for each measure, examine their phrasing and comprehensibility from the children's standpoint. The main sample consisted of 421 non-clinical, 6 to 12 years old children, who consented to fill out the measuring scales in order to test the factor structure. Additionally, we assessed and confirmed temporal stability and determined convergent validity. Results support that both scales appear to be reliable emotion regulation and mindfulness measures for school aged children. Results also reveal a relevant factor structure for both measures. The results of these studies support that the two scales are appropriate and useful measures of mindfulness and emotion regulation capacities for school aged children. In conclusion, we call for further research to improve and develop measures assessing child mindfulness skills in both clinical and research contexts.

The attitudes of European medical students towards the clinical importance of neuroanatomy.

The attitudes of medical students towards the clinical importance of neuroanatomy have been little studied. Because it has been reported that medical students find neuroanatomy difficult and can have 'neurophobia', here we test the hypothesis that early-stage medical students across Europe have a low regard for neuroanatomy's clinical relevance. The work was conducted under the auspices of the Trans-European Pedagogic Research Group (TEPARG), with just over 1500 students from 12 European medical schools providing responses to a survey (52% response rate) that assessed their attitudes using Thurstone and Chave methodologies. Regardless of the university surveyed, and of the teaching methods employed for neuroanatomy, our findings were not consistent with our hypothesis. However, the students had a less favourable opinion of neuroanatomy's importance compared to gross anatomy; although their attitudes were more positive than previously reported for histology and embryology. The extent to which neuroanatomy plays a significant role in the early years of medical education is moot. Nevertheless, we conclude that in addition to newly recruited medical students being informed of the subject's role in a healthcare profession, we advocate the use of modern imaging technologies to enhance student understanding and motivation and cognisance of the core syllabus for the subject being developed by the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA).

Relation between cognitive restraint and weight: Does a content validity problem lead to a wrong axis of care?

The aim of this research is to examine the relation between weight and cognitive restraint (CR), which is the intention to control food intake in order to maintain or lose weight, in a general French population sample. Is CR more prevalent in individuals with obesity than overweight, underweight or normal-weight subjects in this cross-sectional study? Are people affected by obesity non-restrained eaters? A total of 507 French people (80.2% women and 19.8% men), aged 18-78 years, responded to an online questionnaire. It appears that the most used questionnaire measuring CR has content validity problems as it seems to measure effective control and not the intention. Therefore, a numeric scale was used to answer the questions. Even if it is not possible in this study to test a causal link with latent variable modelling, our results seem to show that people with obesity more frequently intend to eat less or to eat healthier and/or to eat less sugar and fat than other people in order to control their weight. However, people affected by obesity do not succeed in so doing. These results raise the question of treatments advocating the increase of self-control. Finally, it would be necessary to obtain a real, scientific consensus on what CR is and on how to measure it in order to study the most effective treatments for people with overweight or obesity.

Attitudes and Responses of Medical Students and Professional Anatomists to Dissecting Different Regions of the Body.

Although there have been many studies assessing emotional responses of medical students to the dissecting room experience, little is known about whether dissecting particular regions of the human body cause more concern than others. Furthermore, no studies have been conducted on the concerns of professional anatomists. In this study, we assessed the hypothesis that medical students are more concerned about the dissection of the face, the perineum and the extremities of the limbs. We also hypothesized that there are gender differences. For the reactions of a group of professional anatomists from the United States and Europe we hypothesized that they were less concerned than the medical students and showed no differences across the regions of the body. The hypotheses were tested by means of questionnaires distributed to medical students at Cardiff University and at the Descartes Paris University who had recently completed their anatomy courses and to anatomists working at universities in Europe and the USA. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the ethical committees at the Cardiff School of Biosciences and at Paris and all data was obtained by consent of the respondents and remained confidential. The findings were complex, although the level of concern was low overall. Some regional differences were discerned, particularly concerning the face, the perineum, the hand and the female chest. Anatomists were less concerned than the students and female students and female anatomists showed more concern than their male counterparts. Few differences were discerned however between student respondents who had positive and neutral attitudes to gender "politics" and those who espoused negative views. We recommend that, at the start of an anatomy dissection course, time is spent dealing with sensitive issues (including equality and diversity issues), emotional responses, and matters pertaining to mortality. However, we argue that this should not involve hiding regions of the body, nor overreacting to the natural anxiety of students, since doing either of these things could enhance negative reactions and stifle the progress of the student from being a layperson to a competent healthcare professional. Clin. Anat. 32:253-267, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Resilience in Haiti: is it culturally pathological?

Not for the first time in recent history, the people of Haiti have been obliged to fall back on their resilience strategies in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. Following the powerful earthquake that struck the country on 12 January 2010, the entire population had to find the resources to survive in the face of extensive material damage and loss of life: over 222 000 dead, more than 300 000 injured and between 4000 and 7000 amputees (UNDP, 2010).

A Review of Psychopathology Features, Personality, and Coping in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1.

BACKGROUND: The last literature review on psychopathological features in Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 had been conducted by Ambrosini and Nurnberg in 1979. Since that date, many researches had been carried out. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is (i) to systematically obtain and evaluate the relevant literature on psychopathological features, personality, and coping in individuals with adult phenotypes of Myotonic Dystrophy type 1. (ii) To summarize current research findings and draw conclusions for future research. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted on Pubmed, PubPsych, PsycInfo, Science Direct, and Scopus covering the period of January 1979 to July 2017. RESULTS: In view of our literature review, patients show mild psychopathological problems, such as interpersonal difficulties, lack of interest, dysphoria, concern about bodily functioning, and hypersensibility. However, they do not experience more psychiatric disorder in comparison to the general population, except for personality disorders and depression. We discussed problems concerning depression's assessment tool. Patients also present symptoms of several personality disorders: avoidant personality disorder was the most common. Finally, coping strategies relative to limitations resulting from their disease have a negative impact on their quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 patients did not present homogeneous psychopathological and psychological features. However, based on tendencies observed among Myotonic Dystrophy type 1 patients, elements to conceptualize their social difficulties are provided.

The perceptions of anatomists in the US and Europe of the skills and attributes required of newly-recruited medical students.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Admission procedures for recruiting students to medical school vary considerably across the world. Notwithstanding such variability, it is important to know what skills and attributes (including attitudes and personality traits) are required of the students by their teachers on entering medical school. PROCEDURES: Anatomists are often the teachers who first meet the students as they enter medical school and this report analyses, by means of a paper-based questionnaire, the putative skills required of their medical students by anatomists from the U.S.A. and Europe. Questionnaires were distributed to 150 anatomists, of varying ages and teaching experience, with 108 responding with completed questionnaires (i.e. 72% returns). FINDINGS: The findings from a questionnaire suggest that there are few differences between anatomists in the U.S.A. and Europe, even though medical students are postgraduates in the U.S.A. but undergraduates in Europe. Furthermore, the skill requirements expected of the students differed only slightly according to the gender and age of the anatomists and to whether or not they had clinical qualifications. In order of perceived importance, the most important skills and attributes required of the students were found to be: good study skills, memory/factual retention, conscientiousness, emotional stability, understanding of biology (but not chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, or understanding of the scientific method), life-long learning skills, ability to study independently, problem-solving abilities, readiness to be challenged, communication skills, and teamwork skills. CONCLUSIONS: Anatomists within the U.S.A. and Europe essentially agree on the skills and attributes initially required of their medical students, as well as those not deemed initially important. These findings are presented with the view of enhancing admission policies and procedures for admitting students into medical schools.

Medical students and professional anatomists do not perceive gender bias within imagery featuring anatomy.

Previous studies suggest that, while both medical students and professional anatomists recognize the importance of gender issues and do not wish to associate with sexism, most are unaware of the possible negative aspects of sexism within anatomy (Morgan et al. , J. Anat. 224:352-365; , Clin. Anat. 29:892-910). To further investigate this issue, we provided second year medical students at Cardiff University (n = 293) and at the University of Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité (n = 142) and professional anatomists (n = 208) with a questionnaire inviting them to address the possibility that gender factors within anatomical imagery (both historical and contemporary) hinder the dispassionate representation of anatomy. Ethical approval for the survey was obtained from the universities at both Cardiff and Paris. In the light of previous findings, the hypothesis tested was that medical students and professional anatomists do not perceive a gender bias when reflected in imagery that is based on anatomical iconography. Our survey results support this hypothesis and suggest that most students and anatomists are unaware of the possible negative aspects of sexism within the culture of anatomy. We consequently recommend that teachers of anatomy and authors of anatomical textbooks should be aware of the possibility of adverse effects on professional matters relating to equality and diversity issues when using imagery. Clin. Anat. 30:711-732, 2017. © 2017Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The attitudes of medical students in Europe toward the clinical importance of histology.

Many studies have been undertaken to assess the attitudes of medical students to the clinical importance of gross anatomy. However, much less is known about their attitudes toward the clinical importance of histology. Using Thurstone and Chave methods to assess attitudes, over 2,000 early stage medical students across Europe provided responses to a survey that tested the hypothesis that the students have a high regard for histology's clinical relevance. Regardless of the university and country surveyed, and of the teaching methods employed for histology, our findings were not consistent with our hypotheses, students providing a more moderate assessment of histology's importance compared to gross anatomy but more positive than their attitudes toward embryology. Histology should play a significant role in medical education in terms of appreciating not just normal structure and function but also pathology. We conclude that teachers of histology should pay special attention to informing newly-recruited medical students of the significant role played by histology in attaining clinical competence and in underpinning their status as being learned members of a healthcare profession. This work was conducted under the auspices of the Trans-European Pedagogic Research Group (TEPARG). Clin. Anat. 30:635-643, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sexism within anatomy as perceived by professional anatomists and in comparison with the perceptions of medical students.

Two hundred and eight professional anatomists responded to a questionnaire inviting them to address the possibility that social/gender factors hinder the dispassionate representation of anatomy. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from Cardiff University. The results of the survey provided comparisons with the attitudes of medical students that have previously been reported (Morgan et al., 2014). Although a few differences were discerned between females and males in our surveys and between anatomists and medical students, overall our findings suggest that, while both professional anatomists and medical students recognize the importance of gender issues and do not wish to associate with sexism, most are unaware of the possible negative aspects of sexism within anatomy. We recommend that teachers of anatomy should become more aware of the possibility of adverse effects on professional matters relating to equality and diversity issues. Clin. Anat. 29:892-910, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An assessment of the anatomical knowledge of laypersons and their attitudes towards the clinical importance of gross anatomy in medicine.

If it is accepted that increasingly we live within a consumerist society then axiomatically 'ownership' of medical training does not belong to political authorities (whether governmental or medical), nor to the medical profession, nor indeed to the teachers, educationalists and even the students but to the laypersons in society who are patients or potential patients (viz. the clients/recipients of medical care). As yet, however, there has been no attempt to evaluate how much anatomy laypersons know and what their attitudes are towards the importance of anatomy in medicine. By means of a questionnaire, we have conducted a survey of laypersons' attitudes to anatomy in the U.K. and France. Results suggest that, regardless of gender, age, socioeconomic groupings, level of education, or in the presence of some cultural differences between the U.K. and France, laypersons have a reasonable understanding and knowledge of gross anatomy (being weakest on understanding function) and have strong beliefs that gross anatomy is crucial for medical education, holding the view that the medical profession's esteem would be diminished if anatomy were not a significant part of the medical curriculum and if human cadaveric material was not employed in medical training. Thus, laypersons' perceptions about the importance of gross anatomy should be factored into the organisation of medical training, not just to provide important information and skills for future medical/surgical practitioners, but also to help maintain the esteem of the medical profession.

Medical students' attitudes towards science and gross anatomy, and the relationship to personality.

Assessment of the personalities of medical students can enable medical educators to formulate strategies for the best development of academic and clinical competencies. Previous research has shown that medical students do not share a common personality profile, there being gender differences. We have also shown that, for French medical students, students with personality traits associated with strong competitiveness are selected for admission to medical school. In this study, we further show that the medical students have different personality profiles compared with other student groups (psychology and business studies). The main purpose of the present investigation was to assess attitudes to science and gross anatomy, and to relate these to the students' personalities. Questionnaires (including Thurstone and Chave analyses) were employed to measure attitudes, and personality was assessed using the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Data for attitudes were obtained for students at medical schools in Cardiff (UK), Paris, Descartes/Sorbonne (France), St George's University (Grenada) and Ankara (Turkey). Data obtained from personality tests were available for analysis from the Parisian cohort of students. Although the medical students were found to have strongly supportive views concerning the importance of science in medicine, their knowledge of the scientific method/philosophy of science was poor. Following analyses of the BFI in the French students, 'openness' and 'conscientiousness' were linked statistically with a positive attitude towards science. For anatomy, again strongly supportive views concerning the subject's importance in medicine were discerned. Analyses of the BFI in the French students did not show links statistically between personality profiles and attitudes towards gross anatomy, except male students with 'negative affectivity' showed less appreciation of the importance of anatomy. This contrasts with our earlier studies that showed that there is a relationship between the BF dimensions of personality traits and anxiety towards the dissection room experience (at the start of the course, 'negative emotionality' was related to an increased level of anxiety). We conclude that medical students agree on the importance to their studies of both science in general and gross anatomy in particular, and that some personality traits relate to their attitudes that could affect clinical competence.

Sexism and anatomy, as discerned in textbooks and as perceived by medical students at Cardiff University and University of Paris Descartes.

Contemporary textbooks of anatomy and surface anatomy were evaluated to ascertain whether they were gender-neutral. The evidence of this, and previous studies, suggests that, both in terms of imagery and text, many textbooks lack neutrality. To further investigate such matters, we provided second-year medical students studying at Cardiff University (n = 293) and at the Paris Descartes University (n = 142) during the 2011-2012 academic year with a questionnaire inviting them to address the possibility that social/gender factors hinder the dispassionate representation of anatomy. Ethical approval was obtained from both Cardiff and Paris universities. Eighty-six percent of the students at Cardiff and 39% at Paris Descartes responded and provided data for analysis. The hypothesis tested is that medical students perceive a gender bias that is reflected in the books they read and the tuition they receive. Our findings suggest that, while students recognise the importance of gender issues and do not wish to associate with sexism, most are unaware of the possible negative aspects of sexism within anatomy. In this respect, the findings do not support our hypothesis. Nevertheless, we recommended that teachers of anatomy and authors of anatomy textbooks should be aware of the possibility of adverse effects on professional matters relating to equality and diversity issues.