Transcreation of validated smoking relapse-prevention booklets for use with Hispanic populations.

This report describes the steps taken to develop an evidence-based series of current smoking relapse-prevention booklets for Hispanic smokers.

Preliminary investigation of web-camera delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This study reports a waitlist controlled randomized trial of family-based cognitive-behavioral therapy delivered via web-camera (W-CBT) in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Thirty-one primarily Caucasian youth with OCD (range=7-16years; 19 male) were randomly assigned to W-CBT or a Waitlist control. Assessments were conducted immediately before and after treatment, and at 3-month follow-up (for W-CBT arm only). Primary outcomes included the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS), clinical global improvement rates, and remission status. When controlling for baseline group differences, W-CBT was superior to the Waitlist control on all primary outcome measures with large effect sizes (Cohen's d≥1.36). Thirteen of 16 youth (81%) in the W-CBT arm were treatment responders, versus only 2/15 (13%) youth in the Waitlist arm. Similarly, 9/16 (56%) individuals in the W-CBT group met remission criteria, versus 2/15 (13%) individuals in the Waitlist control. Gains were generally maintained in a naturalistic 3-month follow-up for those randomized to W-CBT. This preliminary study suggests that W-CBT may be helpful in reducing obsessive-compulsive symptoms in youth with OCD. Given considerable access issues, such findings hold considerable promise for treatment dissemination.

Cultural Acceptability of a Smoking Relapse Prevention Intervention for Pregnant Women in Puerto Rico: Providers' Feedback.

Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to quit smoking during pregnancy, indicating that relapse-prevention interventions may benefit this population. We conducted qualitative interviews with health care providers in Puerto Rico who serve pregnant women regarding the cultural acceptability of Libres Para Siempre Por Mi Bebé y Por Mi (transcreated from the English version, Forever Free for Baby and Me), a smoking relapse-prevention booklet series. Providers praised the overall quality of the content, interactive activities, vignettes, and partner booklet. Recommendations included condensing the content, and distributing the booklets during one-on-one counseling and via "charlas"(community themed presentations). Overall, these smoking relapse-prevention materials are culturally acceptable among health care providers, yet there is a need to attend to local cultural preferences for delivering the intervention.

Telling perfectionists about their perfectionism: Effects of providing feedback on emotional reactivity and psychological symptoms.

A randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted to determine the efficacy of receiving feedback in a sample of maladaptive perfectionists. A total of 60 young adults were randomly assigned to a feedback intervention or control group. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was utilized to analyze the effects of perfectionism over time, as well as the effects of treatment condition on the relationship between perfectionism and outcomes. Measures of interest included emotional reactivity, self-esteem, and psychological distress. Findings revealed that providing feedback to maladaptive perfectionists reduced self-reported global symptomatic distress as well as emotional reactivity. The results are discussed in light of treatment implications, especially with regard to the manner in which perfectionists respond to therapeutic interventions. Overall, study findings suggest that a brief, low-cost feedback intervention is effective at decreasing psychological distress in maladaptive perfectionists and may serve as a beneficial precursor to individual therapy or counseling.

Are males and females sexually abused as children socially anxious adults?

It is well documented that childhood sexual abuse is associated with deleterious outcomes in the areas of anxiety, depression, and sexual functioning. However, very little research has been conducted to specifically investigate childhood sexual abuse's relationship to adult social anxiety in both males and females. Participants included 250 undergraduate students from a large metropolitan university. Results indicated that almost one-third of males and a little over a third of females reported being sexually abused as a child or adolescent. Although a large portion of the sample exhibited socially anxious symptomology, childhood sexual abuse did not place males and females at increased risk for social anxiety. The use of a nonclinical, college student sample may provide researchers the opportunity to investigate resiliency in individuals with a history of childhood sexual abuse.

Appearance motives to tan and not tan: evidence for validity and reliability of a new scale.

BACKGROUND: Risk for skin cancer is increased by UV exposure and decreased by sun protection. Appearance reasons to tan and not tan have consistently been shown to be related to intentions and behaviors to UV exposure and protection. PURPOSE: This study was designed to determine the factor structure of appearance motives to tan and not tan, evaluate the extent to which this factor structure is gender invariant, test for mean differences in the identified factors, and evaluate internal consistency, temporal stability, and criterion-related validity. METHOD: Five-hundred eighty-nine females and 335 male college students were used to test confirmatory factor analysis models within and across gender groups, estimate latent mean differences, and use the correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha to further evaluate the reliability and validity of the identified factors. RESULTS: A measurement invariant (i.e., factor-loading invariant) model was identified with three higher-order factors: sociocultural influences to tan (lower order factors: media, friends, family, significant others), appearance reasons to tan (general, acne, body shape), and appearance reasons not to tan (skin aging, immediate skin damage). Females had significantly higher means than males on all higher-order factors. All subscales had evidence of internal consistency, temporal stability, and criterion-related validity. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers a framework and measurement instrument that has evidence of validity and reliability for evaluating appearance-based motives to tan and not tan.

Effects of completing sexual questionnaires in males and females with histories of childhood sexual abuse: implications for institutional review boards.

Few studies have sought to examine empirically the immediate effects of participation in sexual abuse research. The present study investigated the effects of childhood sexual abuse on measures of personality and psychological functioning in 250 males and females. The null hypothesis was that sexually abused and nonabused groups would show no significant differences between pre-and post-testing on measures of state anxiety, state depression, and state anger. No significant differences between pre-and post-testing were observed between nonabused, abused, and severely abused participants. In addition, there were no gender differences among the groups. Findings from this study support those of Savell, Kinder, and Young (2006) and have significant implications for Institutional Review Boards (IRB) as they suggest that participation in childhood sexual abuse or sexuality research does not place sexually abused individuals at greater than minimal risk for immediate increases in anxiety, depression, or anger.