Mindfulness, happiness, and anxiety in a sample of college students before and after taking a meditation course.

OBJECTIVE: To explore differences in mindfulness, happiness, and perceived anxiety in a sample of college students before and after taking a meditation course. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were college students at a primarily undergraduate institution enrolled in an experiential meditation class (n = 74) and a non-meditation class comparison group (n = 73). METHODS: The study design was a before-after observational study with two groups and three dependent variables: the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Subjective Happiness Scale. RESULTS: Students in the meditation course increased average subjective happiness and mindfulness attention awareness. Mindfulness scores increased and anxiety decreased more for students in the meditation class compared to students in the psychosocial class. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides evidence that taking a semester long meditation course is associated with improvements in college student well-being.

Predictors and Correlates of Inattentive/Overactive Behaviors in Internationally Adopted Children.

Children adopted internationally following deprived early care have an elevated risk for difficulties with inattention/overactivity (Kreppner et al., 2001 ). The current study sought to identify predictors of inattention/overactivity and child and adoptive family challenges that co-occur with inattention/overactivity difficulties in a sample of internationally adopted children. Forty-eight children (mean age at adoption = 57.98 months, SD = 47.7 months) were examined at 3 yearly assessments, which included semistructured interviews, parent ratings, and neuropsychological assessment with children. Results revealed that older age at adoption, longer time in the adoptive home, and smaller family size were associated with greater parent-rated difficulties with inattention/overactivity. Additionally, greater inattention/overactivity difficulties were associated with poorer expressive language and reading performance, poorer child emotional-behavioral outcomes, and poorer adoptive family functioning. Given the increase in difficulties over time in the adoptive home, longer-term follow-up may be helpful to ensure appropriate intervention. Additionally, interventions may need to be more comprehensive given the connection between inattentive/overactive behaviors and other areas of functioning.

Impaired-driving recidivism among repeat offenders following an intensive court-based intervention.

PURPOSE: Repeat impaired-drivers resist successful rehabilitation. This paper describes and evaluates an innovative court-based intervention for repeat impaired-driving offenders, the driving under the influence (DUI) Intensive Supervision Program (DISP) developed in Multnomah County, Oregon. METHODS: The hazard of re-offending was compared between DISP participants (N=460) and a comparison group (N=497). The stratified Cox proportional hazards model was used to model the hazard of re-offense, adjusting for matching criteria and stratified by county of residence. RESULTS: Adjusted hazard of DUI re-offense for DISP participants was 0.52 that of comparison offenders (95% CI=0.36-0.76). DISP clients also had lower arrest rates for driving while revoked/suspended and for all other traffic offenses. CONCLUSION: Preliminary results suggest the DISP is an effective means of reducing recidivism among repeat impaired-driving offenders.

Diagnostics for the exponential normal growth curve model.

The exponential normal regression model provides a flexible parametric approach to constructing growth charts or centile curves. We develop diagnostics for this model, with a special emphasis towards assessing the impact of individual cases on estimated centile curves. We also propose a standardized score residual that assesses the fit of individual cases to the location, scale, and skewness functions, respectively. An application of the proposed diagnostics is presented.