The future of chaplaincy in a secularized society: a mixed-methods survey from the Netherlands.

The spiritual care profession in the Netherlands is going through significant changes, including an increasing demand for secular and multi-faith spiritual care, a move towards professionalization and formulating 'best practices', as well as a broadening of the scope of chaplains' activities.In October 2019, 405 Dutch healthcare chaplains completed an online mixed methods survey with open and closed-ended questions about their work situation and professional identity. Quantitative analyses showed that most respondents evaluated current developments in chaplaincy in a positive way. Qualitative findings showed trends towards interconfessional and secular spiritual care, outpatient spiritual care and the emergence of evidence-based chaplaincy. Participants who responded most negatively to those developments criticized evidence-based approaches for measuring the effects of chaplaincy, unstable financing structures, and the encroachment of other professions upon the domain of spiritual care.

Spiritual conversation model for patients and loved ones in palliative care: a validation study.

OBJECTIVES: In palliative care, validated tools for professionals that facilitate day-to-day spiritual conversations with patients and loved ones are scarce. The objective of this study was to validate the Diamond spiritual conversation model across different palliative care settings as well as professional and educational levels. METHODS: An online survey was filled in by 387 professionals providing palliative care for patients in hospice, home care, hospital and nursing home settings. The five polarities of the Diamond model: holding on-letting go, doing-undergoing, remembering-forgetting, me-the other and believing-knowing were operationalised and evaluated on reported occurrence. RESULTS: In conversations with patients, palliative care professionals reported letting go of loved ones (81.8%), dealing with pain and suffering (88.1%), dealing with issues from the past (67.2%), dealing with own versus loved one's wishes (69.4%) and giving meaning to death (66.7%) as themes occurring regularly to very often. In conversations with loved ones, this was 70.8%, 78.5%, 55.4%, 68,8% and 62%, respectively. Respondents working in hospices reported these themes significantly more than those working in home care settings, nursing homes or hospitals. Nurse assistant respondents reported the themes significantly less than nurses or chaplains. CONCLUSION: From the perspective of professionals providing palliative care in different palliative care settings, the Diamond model offers a validated framework for addressing relevant spiritual themes for patients and loved ones.

Enhancing the integration of chaplains within the healthcare team A qualitative analysis of a survey study among healthcare chaplains.

Background: Spiritual well-being is considered an important component of health and is increasingly integrated at all levels of healthcare. Delivering good integrated spiritual care requires coordination between different colleagues in which interprofessional collaboration is crucial. However, this interprofessional collaboration is not always self-evident. What spiritual care entails, is often poorly understood by their healthcare colleagues. Developing a shared professional identity is a crucial component of the shift towards professionalisation in chaplaincy. Objectives: We aim to answer the following research question: how do healthcare chaplains in the Netherlands describe their work and their professional identity in relation to other healthcare professionals? Design and subjects: Analysis of open-ended questions of a survey among healthcare chaplains regarding professional self-understanding in the Netherlands. Results: 107 Dutch chaplains working in a healthcare setting completed the five open-ended questions in the survey. The field of healthcare chaplaincy is changing from an exclusive focus at patients, towards more activities at staff and organisational level such as educating other healthcare professionals and, being involved in ethics and policy making. Conclusions: Our research shows that the professional self-understanding of chaplains entails many leads to foster interprofessional collaboration. At the same time, there are concerns about the professional identity of the chaplain which is not always clear to every healthcare professional. Healthcare teams can benefit from an extensive integration of chaplains in the healthcare team, by including the non-patient-related activities of chaplains, such as staff training, moral deliberation and policy advice.

Arithmetic, reading and writing performance has a strong genetic component: A study in primary school children.

Even children attending the same primary school and taught by the same teacher differ greatly in their performance. In the Netherlands, performance at the end of primary school determines the enrollment in a particular level of secondary education. Identifying the impact of genes and the environment on individual differences in educational achievement between children is important. The Netherlands Twin Register has collected data on scores of tests used in primary school (ages 6 to 12) to monitor a child's educational progress in four domains, i.e. arithmetic, word reading, reading comprehension and spelling (1058 MZ and 1734 DZ twin pairs), and of a final test (2451 MZ and 4569 DZ twin pairs) in a large Dutch cohort. In general, individual differences in educational achievement were to a large extent due to genes and the influence of the family environment was negligible. Moreover, there is no evidence for gender differences in the underlying etiology.

Childhood ODD and ADHD Behavior: The Effect of Classroom Sharing, Gender, Teacher Gender and Their Interactions.

One criterion for a diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-IV) diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is that symptoms are present in at least two settings, and often teacher ratings are taken into account. The short Conners' Teacher Rating Scales-Revised (CTRS-R) is a widely used standardized instrument measuring ODD and ADHD behavior in a school setting. In the current study CTRS-R data were available for 7, 9 and 12-year-old twins from the Netherlands Twin Register. Measurement invariance (MI) across student gender and teacher gender was established for three of the four scales (Oppositional Behavior, Hyperactivity and ADHD Index) of the CTRS-R. The fourth scale (ATT) showed an unacceptable model fit even without constraints on the data and revision of this scale is recommended. Gene-environment (GxE) interaction models revealed that heritability was larger for children sharing a classroom. There were some gender differences in the heritability of ODD and ADHD behavior and there was a moderating effect of teacher's gender at some of the ages. Taken together, this indicates that there was evidence for GxE interaction for classroom sharing, gender of the student and gender of the teacher.

Polygenic scores associated with educational attainment in adults predict educational achievement and ADHD symptoms in children.

The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 3 to 7 per cent of all school aged children are diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Even after correcting for general cognitive ability, numerous studies report a negative association between ADHD and educational achievement. With polygenic scores we examined whether genetic variants that have a positive influence on educational attainment have a protective effect against ADHD. The effect sizes from a large GWA meta-analysis of educational attainment in adults were used to calculate polygenic scores in an independent sample of 12-year-old children from the Netherlands Twin Register. Linear mixed models showed that the polygenic scores significantly predicted educational achievement, school performance, ADHD symptoms and attention problems in children. These results confirm the genetic overlap between ADHD and educational achievement, indicating that one way to gain insight into genetic variants responsible for variation in ADHD is to include data on educational achievement, which are available at a larger scale.

[Multiple births in the Netherlands]. / Meerlinggeboorten in Nederland.

In the Netherlands, between 2005 and 2011 the twin birth rate decreased from 18.6 to 15.9 per 1000 deliveries. The rise in the number of twin births in the 1980s and 1990 s is not only the consequence of a increase in the number dizygotic twins, but also of a small increase in the number of monozygotic twins. On IVF treatment single embryo transfer is increasingly taking place. This has led to a reduction of dizygotic twins but this does not prevent the development of monozygotic twins. In total, the number of twin pregnancies after IVF treatment has decreased from 803 in 2003 (21.7% of all pregnancies following IVF treatment) to 381 (8.5%) in 2011. Despite the big decline in the perinatal mortality rate over recent years, the risk of still birth or infant death clearly remains much higher in pregnancies with multiples than with singletons. The average gestational age of both monozygotic and dizygotic twins has decreased.

The Young Netherlands Twin Register (YNTR): longitudinal twin and family studies in over 70,000 children.

The Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) began in 1987 with data collection in twins and their families, including families with newborn twins and triplets. Twenty-five years later, the NTR has collected at least one survey for 70,784 children, born after 1985. For the majority of twins, longitudinal data collection has been done by age-specific surveys. Shortly after giving birth, mothers receive a first survey with items on pregnancy and birth. At age 2, a survey on growth and achievement of milestones is sent. At ages 3, 7, 9/10, and 12 parents and teachers receive a series of surveys that are targeted at the development of emotional and behavior problems. From age 14 years onward, adolescent twins and their siblings report on their behavior problems, health, and lifestyle. When the twins are 18 years and older, parents are also invited to take part in survey studies. In sub-groups of different ages, in-depth phenotyping was done for IQ, electroencephalography , MRI, growth, hormones, neuropsychological assessments, and cardiovascular measures. DNA and biological samples have also been collected and large numbers of twin pairs and parents have been genotyped for zygosity by either micro-satellites or sets of short nucleotide polymorphisms and repeat polymorphisms in candidate genes. Subject recruitment and data collection is still ongoing and the longitudinal database is growing. Data collection by record linkage in the Netherlands is beginning and we expect these combined longitudinal data to provide increased insights into the genetic etiology of development of mental and physical health in children and adolescents.

Applications of calendar instruments in social surveys: a review.

Retrospective reports in survey interviews and questionnaires are subject to many types of recall error, which affect completeness, consistency, and dating accuracy. Concerns about this problem have led to the development of so-called calendar instruments, or timeline techniques. These aided recall procedures have been designed to help respondents gain better access to long-term memory by providing a graphical time frame in which life history information can be represented. In order to obtain more insights into the potential benefits of calendar methodology, this paper presents a review of the application of calendar instruments, their design characteristics and effects on data quality. Calendar techniques are currently used in a variety of fields, including life course research, epidemiology and family planning studies. Despite the growing interest in these new methods, their application often lacks sufficient theoretical foundation and little attention has been paid to their effectiveness. Several recent studies however, have demonstrated that in comparison to more traditional survey methods, calendar techniques can improve some aspects of data quality. While calendar instruments have been shown to be potentially beneficial to retrospective data quality, there is an apparent need for methodological research that generates more systematic knowledge about their application in social surveys.