Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Urban African-American High School Students.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current study was to examine the relations among mindfulness, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, and stressful life events (SLEs) in African-American urban adolescents. Another aim was to examine mindfulness as a moderator of the relation between SLEs and PTSD symptom severity in this population. METHOD: Eighty-eight African-American high school students from a low-income urban community completed measures of demographics, PTSD symptom severity, SLEs, and mindfulness. RESULTS: Mindfulness was significantly negatively related to PTSD symptom severity, r(86) = -.70, p < .001, 95% CI [-.58, -79], and SLEs were significantly positively related to PTSD symptom severity, r(86) = .29, p = .003, 95% CI [.09, .47]. Mindfulness was an independent predictor of PTSD symptom severity after accounting for SLEs, B = -1.16, t(84) = -9.06, p < .001, 95% CI [-1.41, -0.90], and SLEs were an independent predictor of PTSD symptom severity after accounting for mindfulness, B = 0.49, t(84) = 2.92, p = .004, 95% CI [0.16, 0.82]. Mindfulness did not moderate the relation between SLEs and PTSD symptom severity, B = -.003, t(84) = -0.15, p = .89, 95% CI [-.04, .03]. IMPLICATIONS: This study has implications for both mindfulness as a potential protective factor against PTSD symptom severity and SLEs as a potential risk factor for increased PTSD symptom severity in African-American urban adolescents.

Rigor and reproducibility for data analysis and design in the behavioral sciences.

The rigor and reproducibility of science methods depends heavily on the appropriate use of statistical methods to answer research questions and make meaningful and accurate inferences based on data. The increasing analytic complexity and valuation of novel statistical and methodological approaches to data place greater emphasis on statistical review. We will outline the controversies within statistical sciences that threaten rigor and reproducibility of research published in the behavioral sciences and discuss ongoing approaches to generate reliable and valid inferences from data. We outline nine major areas to consider for generally evaluating the rigor and reproducibility of published articles and apply this framework to the 116 Behaviour Research and Therapy (BRAT) articles published in 2018. The results of our analysis highlight a pattern of missing rigor and reproducibility elements, especially pre-registration of study hypotheses, links to statistical code/output, and explicit archiving or sharing data used in analyses. We recommend reviewers consider these elements in their peer review and that journals consider publishing results of these rigor and reproducibility ratings with manuscripts to incentivize authors to publish these elements with their manuscript.

Psychometric properties of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) in racial minority adolescents from low-income environments.

No study has yet assessed the psychometric properties of scores from any mindfulness measure in racial minority adolescents from low-income environments. The present study examined the reliability and validity of Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) scores in a nonclinical sample of late adolescents (N = 92) from low-income neighborhoods who predominantly identified as African American. Findings confirmed a one-factor structure for responses to the 10 CAMM items as well as adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .88). In support of validity, CAMM scores demonstrated large significant negative correlations with scores from measures of constructs that should be negatively related to mindfulness, including depressive symptoms, worry, ruminative coping, and involuntary engagement responses to stress. Thus, CAMM scores appear to reliably and validly assess mindfulness in racial minority adolescents from low-income environments. Having a psychometrically sound mindfulness measure for this population will aid in understanding the mechanisms by which mindfulness-based interventions work, which could lead to improved interventions and outcomes for this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychometric properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire - IV (GAD-Q-IV) in postpartum mothers.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a mental disorder of which the main feature is persistent and impairing worry. GAD symptoms are common for women during the postpartum period and GAD prevalence rates have been reported as higher in postpartum mothers than in the general population. Currently, little psychometric evidence exists for a screening measure to detect the possible presence of diagnosable GAD for postpartum women. The purpose of this investigation was to gather psychometric information for the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV (GAD-Q-IV; Newman et al., 2002) with a sample of postpartum mothers. Factor analyses were conducted to determine the factor structure of the GAD-Q-IV in postpartum women. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine a range of potential GAD-Q-IV cut-off scores for detecting the likely presence of GAD in postpartum women. Results from this study provided evidence to justify a 1-factor structure for the GAD-Q-IV responses from postpartum women, which demonstrated structural, metric, and scalar invariance over time. Findings from these analyses provided evidence of incremental validity, as there was a significant increase in predicting GAD diagnoses when GAD-Q-IV responses were used compared with another measure of postpartum depression. Last, using ROC analysis, a range of GAD-Q-IV cut-off scores was determined, which can be applied to screening for the likely presence or absence of GAD in postpartum women. The evidence presented in this study suggests that the GAD-Q-IV could be a viable screening measure used to identify the likely presence of GAD in postpartum women so that further evaluations and treatments can be recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record

Maternal postnatal depression and anxiety and their association with child emotional negativity and behavior problems at two years.

Postnatal maternal depression is associated with poorer child emotional and behavioral functioning, but it is unclear whether this occurs following brief episodes or only with persistent depression. Little research has examined the relation between postnatal anxiety and child outcomes. The present study examined the role of postnatal major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptom chronicity on children's emotional and behavioral functioning at 24 months. Following postnatal screening mothers (n = 296) were identified as having MDD, GAD, MDD and GAD, or no disorder at 3 months postnatal; the average age was 32.3 (SD = 5.0), 91.9% self-identified as Caucasian, and 62.2% were married. Maternal disorder symptom severity was assessed by questionnaires and structured interview at 3, 6, 10, 14, and 24 months postpartum. At 24 months, child emotional negativity and behavior were assessed using questionnaires and by direct observation. Latent trait-state-occasion modeling was used to represent maternal disorder symptom chronicity; both stable trait and time-specific occasion portions of maternal symptomatology were examined in relation to child outcomes. Only the stable trait portion of maternal MDD and GAD symptom severity were related to maternal report of child behavior problems and higher levels of emotional negativity. Persistent maternal MDD, but not GAD, symptom severity was related to higher levels of child emotional negativity as measured observationally. These data suggest that children's behavior problems and emotional negativity are adversely affected by persistent maternal depression, and possibly anxiety. This has implications for interventions to prevent negative effects of postnatal psychopathology on children. (PsycINFO Database Record

A comparison and integration of structural models of depression and anxiety in a clinical sample: Support for and validation of the tri-level model.

Prominent structural models of depression and anxiety arise from 2 traditions: (a) the tripartite/integrative hierarchical model based on symptom dimensions, and (b) the fear/anxious-misery model based on diagnostic comorbidity data. The tri-level model of depression and anxiety was developed to synthesize these structural models, postulating that narrow (disorder-specific), intermediate (fear and anxious-misery), and broad (general distress) structural factors are needed to most fully account for covariation among these symptoms. Although this model has received preliminary support (Prenoveau et al., 2010), the current study compares it with the above established models and seeks to validate the best-fitting structure. We evaluated the tri-level model and alternative structural models in a large clinical sample (N = 1,000) using bifactor analysis. In exploratory and confirmatory subsamples, the tri-level model provided a good fit to the data and each of the 3 levels (narrow, intermediate, and broad) accounted for substantial variance; this model provided a superior fit relative to more parsimonious competing structural models. Furthermore, impairment was independently associated with all 3 levels of the tri-level model, comorbidity was most closely linked to the broad tri-level dimensions, and the factors generally showed the expected convergent/discriminant associations with diagnoses. Results suggested several revisions to prior research: (a) worry may be best modeled at the broadest structural level, rather than as an indicator of anxious-misery or fear; (b) social interaction anxiety may belong with anxious-misery, rather than fear; and (c) obsessive-compulsive disorder is generally associated with fear disorders, but hoarding is associated with both fear and anxious-misery. (PsycINFO Database Record

Item analysis of the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire in community treatment centers.

The present study extends the item-level psychometric information of the Leeds Dependence Questionnaire (LDQ; Raistrick et al., 1994) that has been purported to measure psychological dependence and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems-10th edition substance dependence criteria. Prior research on the LDQ has not established item-level properties or the degree of differential item functioning (DIF) by gender and substance type. Principal component and Mokken scale analyses were used to assess unidimensionality and monotonicity of the responses to the scale items, respectively. Graphical and statistical methods examined the model-data fit of the graded response model and two-parameter logistic model of LDQ responses (n = 1,681) obtained from 2 community treatment centers. DIF analysis was performed on gender (men = 1,313, women = 353) and substance (alcohol = 821, opiates = 528) groups. The 2PL achieved the best model-data fit. Three items provided little information about standing on the underlying construct, indicating that they are likely not good indicators of the "pure" psychological construct the LDQ aims to measure. Overall, the LDQ offers the greatest precision in quantifying psychological dependence in a clinical sample along the lower to mid ranges of this construct. Uniform DIF was present in Item 7 of the dichotomized responses by substance (alcohol vs. opiates). DIF by gender was not found in any of the LDQ items. Recommendations include revising the scaling and discussing the need to obtain LDQ data from different levels of care and primary identified substance. (PsycINFO Database Record

Interaction of CD38 Variant and Chronic Interpersonal Stress Prospectively Predicts Social Anxiety and Depression Symptoms Over Six Years.

Variation in the CD38 gene, which regulates secretion of the neuropeptide oxytocin, has been associated with several social phenotypes. Specifically, rs3796863 A allele carriers have demonstrated increased social sensitivity. In 400 older adolescents, we used trait-state-occasion modeling to investigate how rs3796863 genotype, baseline ratings of chronic interpersonal stress, and their gene-environment (GxE) interaction predicted trait social anxiety and depression symptoms over six years. We found significant GxE effects for CD38 A-carrier genotypes and chronic interpersonal stress at baseline predicting greater social anxiety and depression symptoms. A significant GxE effect of smaller magnitude was also found for C/C genotype and chronic interpersonal stress predicting greater depression; however, this effect was small compared to the main effect of chronic interpersonal stress. Thus, in the context of chronic interpersonal stress, heightened social sensitivity associated with the rs3796863 A allele may prospectively predict risk for social anxiety and (to a lesser extent) depression.

Response to Comment on "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science".

Gilbert et al. conclude that evidence from the Open Science Collaboration's Reproducibility Project: Psychology indicates high reproducibility, given the study methodology. Their very optimistic assessment is limited by statistical misconceptions and by causal inferences from selectively interpreted, correlational data. Using the Reproducibility Project: Psychology data, both optimistic and pessimistic conclusions about reproducibility are possible, and neither are yet warranted.

Registered Replication Report: Hart & Albarracín (2011).

Language can be viewed as a complex set of cues that shape people's mental representations of situations. For example, people think of behavior described using imperfective aspect (i.e., what a person was doing) as a dynamic, unfolding sequence of actions, whereas the same behavior described using perfective aspect (i.e., what a person did) is perceived as a completed whole. A recent study found that aspect can also influence how we think about a person's intentions (Hart & Albarracín, 2011). Participants judged actions described in imperfective as being more intentional (d between 0.67 and 0.77) and they imagined these actions in more detail (d = 0.73). The fact that this finding has implications for legal decision making, coupled with the absence of other direct replication attempts, motivated this registered replication report (RRR). Multiple laboratories carried out 12 direct replication studies, including one MTurk study. A meta-analysis of these studies provides a precise estimate of the size of this effect free from publication bias. This RRR did not find that grammatical aspect affects intentionality (d between 0 and -0.24) or imagery (d = -0.08). We discuss possible explanations for the discrepancy between these results and those of the original study.

Measuring Positive Emotion With the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties of the Anhedonic Depression Scale.

Low positive emotion distinguishes depression from most types of anxiety. Formative work in this area employed the Anhedonic Depression scale from the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ-AD), and the MASQ-AD has since become a popular measure of positive emotion, often used independently of the full MASQ. However, two key assumptions about the MASQ-AD-that it should be represented by a total scale score, and that it measures time-variant experiences-have not been adequately tested. The present study factor analyzed MASQ-AD data collected annually over 3 years (n = 618, mean age = 17 years at baseline), and then decomposed its stable and unstable components. The results suggested the data were best represented by a hierarchical structure, and that less than one quarter of the variance in the general factor fluctuated over time. The implications for interpreting past findings from the MASQ-AD, and for conducting future research with the scale, are discussed.

Prospective associations of low positive emotionality with first onsets of depressive and anxiety disorders: Results from a 10-wave latent trait-state modeling study.

Unipolar depressive disorders and anxiety disorders co-occur at high rates and can be difficult to distinguish from one another. Cross-sectional evidence has demonstrated that whereas all these disorders are characterized by high negative emotion, low positive emotion shows specificity in its associations with depressive disorders, social anxiety disorder, and possibly generalized anxiety disorder. However, it remains unknown whether low positive emotionality, a personality trait characterized by the tendency to experience low positive emotion over time, prospectively marks risk for the initial development of these disorders. We aimed to help address this gap. Each year for up to 10 waves, participants (n = 627, mean age = 17 years at baseline) completed self-report measures of mood and personality and a structured clinical interview. A latent trait-state decomposition technique was used to model positive emotionality and related personality traits over the first 3 years of the study. Survival analyses were used to test the prospective associations of low positive emotionality with first onsets of disorders over the subsequent 6-year follow-up among participants with no relevant disorder history. The results showed that low positive emotionality was a risk marker for depressive disorders, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, although evidence for its specificity to these disorders versus the remaining anxiety disorders was inconclusive. Additional analyses revealed that the risk effects were largely accounted for by the overlap of low positive emotionality with neuroticism. The implications for understanding the role of positive emotionality in depressive disorders and anxiety disorders are discussed.

Post-extinction conditional stimulus valence predicts reinstatement fear: relevance for long-term outcomes of exposure therapy.

Exposure therapy for anxiety disorders is translated from fear conditioning and extinction. While exposure therapy is effective in treating anxiety, fear sometimes returns after exposure. One pathway for return of fear is reinstatement: unsignaled unconditional stimuli following completion of extinction. The present study investigated the extent to which valence of the conditional stimulus (CS+) after extinction predicts return of CS+ fear after reinstatement. Participants (N = 84) engaged in a differential fear conditioning paradigm and were randomised to reinstatement or non-reinstatement. We hypothesised that more negative post-extinction CS+ valence would predict higher CS+ fear after reinstatement relative to non-reinstatement and relative to extinction retest. Results supported the hypotheses and suggest that strategies designed to decrease negative valence of the CS+ may reduce the return of fear via reinstatement following exposure therapy.

Human fear conditioning and extinction: timing is everything or is it?

A differential fear conditioning paradigm was used with 107 healthy undergraduate participants to evaluate the effect of conditioned stimulus (CS) temporal properties on fear acquisition and extinction. Two minute duration CSs were used for Day 1 fear acquisition. Participants were randomized to receive either 1, 2, or 4min CS durations during Day 2 extinction. Extinction re-test was examined on Day 3 using the original acquisition CS duration (2min). Findings indicated that participants who were aware of the CS+/unconditioned stimulus (US) contingency (n=52) develop a temporal expectation about when the unconditioned stimulus will be delivered. Although the shorter duration CS resulted in greater fear reduction during extinction, cessation of fear responding at re-test was the same for CS extinction durations ranging from half the CS acquisition duration to twice the CS acquisition duration. Thus, extinction performance did not predict extinction at re-test, which could have important implications for optimizing exposure therapy for anxiety disorders.

Are anxiety and depression just as stable as personality during late adolescence? Results from a three-year longitudinal latent variable study.

Although considerable evidence shows that affective symptoms and personality traits demonstrate moderate to high relative stabilities during adolescence and early adulthood, there has been little work done to examine differential stability among these constructs or to study the manner in which the stability of these constructs is expressed. The present study used a three-year longitudinal design in an adolescent/young adult sample to examine the stability of depression symptoms, social phobia symptoms, specific phobia symptoms, neuroticism, and extraversion. When considering one-, two-, and three-year durations, anxiety and personality stabilities were generally similar and typically greater than the stability of depression. Comparison of various representations of a latent variable trait-state-occasion (TSO) model revealed that whereas the full TSO model was the best representation for depression, a trait stability model was the most parsimonious of the best-fitting models for the anxiety and personality constructs. Over three years, the percentages of variance explained by the trait component for the anxiety and personality constructs (73-84%) were significantly greater than that explained by the trait component for depression (46%). These findings indicate that symptoms of depression are more episodic in nature, whereas symptoms of anxiety are more similar to personality variables in their expression of stability.

Testing a hierarchical model of anxiety and depression in adolescents: a tri-level model.

The present study examined the structural relationships among anxiety and depressive symptoms in a sample of high school juniors. The best-fitting structural representation was a tri-level hierarchical arrangement with a broad general factor (general distress), two factors of intermediate breadth (anxious-misery and fears), and five conceptually meaningful, narrow group factors. In accord with the integrative hierarchical model of anxiety and depression, the results supported a structure with a symptom factor central to major depression, and other symptom factors specific to particular anxiety disorders. These group factors displayed significant, unique associations with clinician severity ratings (CSRs) for their respective DSM diagnoses. The hierarchical arrangement demonstrated temporal invariance over a one-year period and configural and partial metric invariance in females and males. Implications for DSM classification and arrangement of anxiety and depressive disorders are discussed as is how present findings help bridge existing research conducted at symptom and diagnostic levels.

Evaluating the invariance and validity of the structure of dysfunctional attitudes in an adolescent population.

Form A of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-A), a self-report measure of depressive beliefs, is widely used to test Beck's cognitive model of depression. The present study is the first to evaluate the DAS-A factor structure in an adolescent population of 542 high school juniors and the first to examine a hierarchical model. Findings support the existence of a hierarchical structure consisting of two conceptually meaningful group factors (Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval), a method factor consisting of reverse-worded items, and a general factor, which accounts for 65% of the variance in total scores. The general factor is related to sociotropy, autonomy, and neuroticism, whereas the Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval factors demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity with respect to autonomy and sociotropy. The structure displays partial metric invariance in female and male students as well as in Caucasian and Non-Caucasian students.

Interoceptive fear conditioning as a learning model of panic disorder: an experimental evaluation using 20% CO(2)-enriched air in a non-clinical sample.

Despite the role afforded interoceptive fear conditioning in etiologic accounts of panic disorder, there are no good experimental demonstrations of such learning in humans. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the interoceptive conditioning account using 20% carbon dioxide (CO(2))-enriched air as an interoceptive conditioned stimulus (CS) (i.e., physiologically inert 5-s exposures) and unconditioned stimulus (US) (i.e., physiologically prepotent 15-s exposures). Healthy participants (N=42) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a CS-only, contingent CS-US pairings, or unpaired/non-contingent CS and US presentations. Electrodermal and self-report (e.g., distress, fear) served as indices of conditioned emotional responding. Results showed greater magnitude electrodermal and evaluative fear conditioning in the paired relative to the CS-only condition. The explicitly unpaired condition showed even greater electrodermal and evaluative responding during acquisition, and marked resistance to extinction. The latter results are consistent with the possibility that the unpaired procedure constituted a partial reinforcement procedure in which CO(2) onset was paired with more extended CO(2) exposure on 50% of the trials. Overall, the findings are consistent with contemporary learning theory accounts of panic.

Repeated exposure to 20% CO2 challenge and risk for developing panic attacks: a controlled 6- and 12-month follow-up in a nonclinical sample.

Among ethical concerns associated with biological challenge procedures is the risk of potentiating panic attacks in otherwise healthy persons who have no history of panic. The aim of the present study was to determine if repeated exposure to 20% CO2 challenge increases the risk of developing panic attacks in a nonclinical sample. One hundred and fifty-five (39.5%) of 392 participants who underwent a 20% CO2 challenge procedure and 51 (63.0%) of 81 controls who breathed only room air were evaluated for panic attacks using the Panic Attack Questionnaire-Revised both at 6 and 12 months after the experiment. The percentage of participants who developed subsequent panic attacks did not differ significantly between the CO2 challenge group and the room air controls. High dose CO2 challenge does not increase the risk of subsequent panic attacks in nonclinical populations; it is a safe paradigm for use in psychopathology research with healthy individuals.