Alice Frye

Youth Top Problems: using idiographic, consumer-guided assessment to identify treatment needs and to track change during psychotherapy.

OBJECTIVE To complement standardized measurement of symptoms, we developed and tested an efficient strategy for identifying (before treatment) and repeatedly assessing (during treatment) the problems identified as most important by caregivers and youths in psychotherapy. METHOD A total of 178 outpatient-referred youths, 7-13 years of age, and their caregivers separately identified the 3 problems of greatest concern to them at pretreatment and then rated the severity of those problems weekly during treatment. The Top Problems measure thus formed was evaluated for (a) whether it added to the information obtained through empirically derived standardized measures (e.g., the Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001] and the Youth Self-Report [YSR; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001]) and (b) whether it met conventional psychometric standards. RESULTS The problems identified were significant and clinically relevant; most matched CBCL/YSR items while adding specificity. The top problems also complemented the information yield of the CBCL/YSR; for example, for 41% of caregivers and 79% of youths, the identified top problems did not correspond to any items of any narrowband scales in the clinical range. Evidence on test-retest reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, sensitivity to change, slope reliability, and the association of Top Problems slopes with standardized measure slopes supported the psychometric strength of the measure. CONCLUSIONS The Top Problems measure appears to be a psychometrically sound, client-guided approach that complements empirically derived standardized assessment; the approach can help focus attention and treatment planning on the problems that youths and caregivers consider most important and can generate evidence on trajectories of change in those problems during treatment.

Stages of change and the group treatment of batterers: a randomized clinical trial.

A stages-of-change motivational interviewing (SOCMI) treatment approach was compared with a standard cognitive behavioral therapy gender reeducation (CBTGR) approach in a sample of 528 English-speaking and Spanish-speaking male batterers who were randomly assigned to 49 26-week groups in either condition. Blind ratings of therapist adherence differentiated the two conditions. Language spoken neither predicted outcome nor interacted with treatment. The SOCMI curriculum led to significant reductions in female partners’ reports of physical aggression at follow-up, but not to changes in self-reported aggression. Men who were initially less ready to change benefited more from the SOCMI approach while men who were more ready to change benefited more from the CBTGR approach. Results suggest the importance of tailoring abuser intervention programs to individuals’ initial readiness to change.

Fine-Scale Population Structure of Rainbow Trout in the Spokane River Drainage in Relation to Hatchery Stocking and Barriers

Abstract We used 13 microsatellite loci to examine population structure in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss collected from 20 tributaries and 3 main stems in the greater Spokane River drainage. Populations displayed some excess homozygosity and linkage disequilibrium, which was more pronounced in upper tributary collections and probably the result of small effective population sizes or structuring within tributaries. In general, population structure followed geographic structure; collections from creeks within sub-drainages were the most closely related, and collections from different tributaries were genetically distinct. Comparisons with cutthroat trout O. clarkii indicated little to no introgression. Comparisons with steelhead (anadromous rainbow trout), coastal rainbow trout O. mykiss irideus, and inland rainbow trout from hatcheries suggested introgression by hatchery fish into some wild populations. Introgression was suspected in populations from stocked tributaries and tributaries that lacked barr...

Diverse Patterns in the Development of Depressive Symptoms Among Emerging Adults

This article examines depressive symptoms over a 4-year period in a racially diverse community sample of 1,143 18- to 22-year-old emerging adults using latent growth and mixture modeling and data collected at three time points. Participants were high school seniors randomly chosen from nine public schools in a metropolitan region in the Northeastern United States. Mixture analyses yielded four distinct groups: one large group with low, stable rates of depression, a smaller group who began with higher levels of depression that then declined steeply, a group who began with moderate levels that steeply increased, and a small group with high stable rates of depressive symptoms. We examined risks for depressive symptoms including poverty status, African American race, Hispanic ethnicity, gender, and trauma history, controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) as represented by maternal education. Some risks predicted membership in more than one symptom group, lending support to the idea that emerging adulthood is a period of diverse outcomes, in which previous circumstances may predict to multiple pathways, and established risk factors do not always lead to poor outcomes.

Can Sex Education Delay Early Sexual Debut

In this study, we examine whether a nine-lesson sex education intervention, “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works,” implemented in sixth grade, can reduce the number of adolescents who might otherwise become “early starters” of sexual activity (defined as heterosexual intercourse) by seventh grade. Participants were 548 boys and 675 girls who completed surveys in both sixth grade (baseline) and seventh grade (follow-up). The sample was 35% Latino, 32% Black, 24% White, 3% Asian, and 6% biracial. Students randomly assigned to the control condition were 30% more likely to initiate sex by follow-up when controlling for having had sex by sixth grade, demographic variables, and a tendency to give socially desirable responses. This finding is noteworthy because previous research has identified early starters to be prone to poor outcomes in sexual health, family formation, economic security, and incarceration and few middle school interventions have shown an effect on behavioral outcomes.

Motivated to seek help: Masculine norms and self-regulated motivation in self-help groups.

Endorsement of masculine norms has been identified as a factor contributing to men’s lower rates of seeking professional help for physical and emotional distress, compared with women. To better understand the mechanisms for men’s help seeking, in the present study, we applied the framework of self-determination theory (SDT), a theory of development and motivation, (Ryan & Deci, 2000b) to the domain of self-help groups (SHGs). To the SDT framework, we incorporated endorsement of the masculine norms for self-reliance and emotional control as predictors of motivation for help seeking. Data came from surveys completed by 160 attendees of SHGs hosted by the Self-Help and Recovery Exchange (SHARE!) of Los Angeles County. Structural equation analysis supported a model illuminating the links between endorsement of self-reliance and emotional control, autonomous self-regulation for help seeking, fulfillment of basic psychological needs, and well-being in the domain of SHGs.

Building Professional Development for Urban Public Preschools: Experiences and Reflections

This ECEPD project implemented a professional development (PD) protocol within a large public school system. The PD was designed to provide support for both teachers and their instructional partners in implementation of two curricula designed to foster childrens language, literacy, math competencies, and overall cognitive development. The specifics of the PD are outlined including its development, coaching strategies, training approaches, and coursework components. Results of the evaluation of the project are also highlighted and discussed. Analyses indicated that teachers showed significant growth in relation to the implementation of the curriculums and the PD efforts of both the district and the intervention, with less-experienced teachers showing the highest levels of growth. In addition, results indicated a significant difference between the intervention and the control group teachers in their developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices, with intervention teachers indicating higher levels of developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. The challenges to field work in a large and ever-changing school system are discussed, and recommendations for further PD are made.