ABSTRACT
This study deals with sibling emotional response to the stress of childhood cancer in a brother or sister. Sixty-two healthy siblings aged 9 to 18 participated in the study. The children were asked to complete self-report questionnaires on state anxiety, loneliness, and self-control. The findings showed that the stress elicited emotional responses. Anxiety was related to the child's age and duration of the sibling's cancer, and loneliness was related to the child's sex and rank in the family. The outcomes also demonstrated a link between self-control as a coping skill and anxiety and loneliness as emotional distress responses. Healthy siblings' higher self-control rates were associated with their lower anxiety and loneliness reports. These findings support Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) theory on stress, appraisal, and coping. The results also highlight the need to train and impart children with learned resourcefulness in order to increase their self-control skills and improve their coping with and adjustment to siblings' serious illness.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Death , Neoplasms/psychology , Psychology, Child , Sibling Relations , Adaptation, Psychological , Adolescent , Anxiety/psychology , Child , Family/psychology , Female , Humans , Internal-External Control , Israel , Male , Social Isolation/psychology , Social Support , Stress, Psychological/psychologyABSTRACT
The ability of 11-to 12-year-old children and their parents to infer each other's anxiety level under the threat of missile attacks during the 1991 Gulf War in Israel was investigated. An information exchange model for appraising other people's emotions served as the basis for predicting agreement rates among family members. As predicted, children's ratings of parental anxiety were primarily associated with their own anxiety (projected information), whereas parents' ratings of their spouses' and their children's anxiety were primarily predicted from spouses' self-reported anxiety (target-emitted information) and spouses' evaluations of the children's anxiety (shared information), respectively. Mother-father concordance on ratings of each other's and children's anxiety was significantly higher than parent-child agreement on parental and child anxiety. Agreement on parental anxiety among the 3 sources was partially a function of physical closeness among informants. The results suggest that at least within the nuclear family, under an external threat inferences about each other's anxiety level are partly based on social exchange of emotionally relevant information. However, it remains for future research to determine how exactly emotionally relevant information is communicated and processed.
Subject(s)
Anxiety/psychology , Life Change Events , Parent-Child Relations , Parents/psychology , Adult , Child , Humans , Self-Assessment , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This study compared the efficacy of retention control training (RCT) in two groups of children suffering from nocturnal enuresis: a younger group of 15 children aged 4 to 5 years and an older group of 15 children aged 7 to 8 years. To control for family history, frequency, and type of enuresis, only children with primary nocturnal enuresis who had a family history of enuresis and who wet the bed 4 to 7 nights per week were included. RCT was found to be an effective treatment for young children who were closer to the final stage of bladder development, but not for older children. RCT may be used for older children as a preliminary treatment to increase functional bladder capacity, after which treatment of enuresis should be continued by other methods, such as bell-and-pad reinforcement programs.
Subject(s)
Enuresis/rehabilitation , Exercise Therapy/methods , Toilet Training , Urinary Bladder/growth & development , Age Factors , Child , Child Development , Child, Preschool , Enuresis/physiopathology , Female , Humans , Male , UrodynamicsABSTRACT
This paper presents the problematic features of making decisions related to the assessment and treatment of children, highlighting the importance of the diagnostic procedure in determining the need and type of therapy. Difficulties in assessing children are discussed in terms of the reliability of assessors, evaluation techniques, information sources, and children's functioning in different settings. Unique, complicating childhood characteristics are depicted: most disorders' normative basis in children's development; rapid, continuous change; gaps between cognitive, affective, behavioral, and chronological developmental stages; and high spontaneous recovery rates. Within an emphasis on the therapist's need for self-awareness and flexibility of child assessment and treatment methods, decision-making guidelines to evaluate the need for therapy are suggested and case examples are provided.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Personality Assessment , Psychotherapy/methods , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Humans , Male , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
This paper discusses the common cognitive features characterizing children's most frequently referred problems, with an emphasis on the difficulties' prevalence, gender ratio, and family incidence. The efficacy of cognitive treatments is examined in terms of dropping-out, regression, and generalization. In view of Piaget's notion on the concrete thinking of children, it is suggested that cognitive therapy be adopted for children by translating abstract, holistic concepts into concrete examples and by relating to day-to-day events which children can use, relate to and understand. Two cases studies are presented to illustrate the cognitive therapeutic process with young children.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/methods , Concept Formation , Encopresis/therapy , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Encopresis/psychology , Family Therapy , Humans , Male , Professional-Patient RelationsABSTRACT
The study describes an intervention package for the treatment of sleep disorders in a 4-year-old girl, using a multiple-baseline design. The subject's sleep disorders included several undesirable habits: never going to sleep in her own bed; waking up several times during the night, screaming and shouting for hours; and entering her parents' bed and insisting on staying there. The intervention package was carried out with the parents, the child, and her sister. It was based on the disconnection of the contingencies between behavior and outcome; rewards; praise; and time-out. The whole process was terminated in 8 weeks, and maintenance levels were assessed via follow-up after three and six months.
Subject(s)
Behavior Therapy/methods , Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/therapy , Social Environment , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Parent-Child Relations , Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders/psychologyABSTRACT
1. Typical adenylate cyclase (AC) responses to guanine nucleotides were found in membranes of pig circumvallate (CV) taste papillae. 2. Sucrose stimulated AC activity in the CV membranes and this stimulation was GTP dependent and tissue specific. 3. The stimulatory effect of sucrose in the CV membranes was dependent on the concentration of membranes used in the AC assay. 4. This study provides the first biochemical data on cellular transduction of taste in the pig, compares positively to preliminary results in cattle and supports recent suggestions for a role of cAMP in sweet taste transduction.
Subject(s)
Adenylyl Cyclases/metabolism , Sucrose/physiology , Taste Buds/enzymology , Animals , Cattle , Cell Membrane/enzymology , Enzyme Activation , Female , Male , Swine , Taste Buds/ultrastructureABSTRACT
The non-nutritive sweetener, saccharin, was found to stimulate significantly the activity of adenylate cyclase in membranes derived from skeletal muscle of rat. Sodium saccharin enhanced adenylate cyclase activity in a dose-related manner, and this activation appeared to be dependent on the presence of guanine nucleotides, suggesting the involvement of GTP-binding proteins. In membranes derived from the liver, however, sodium saccharin had an effect which was dependent on the concentration of membranes used in the adenylate cyclase assay. In high concentrations of membranes, sodium saccharin had a stimulatory effect, while in low concentration an inhibition was observed.
