Kate Erin Jacobs

Living well with chronic pain

ABSTRACT Objective: The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with resilience in chronic pain. Methods: A sequential mixed methods design was used. Six individuals reporting low levels of psychological distress on the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and low levels of pain-related disability on the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire were interviewed about their experiences of living with chronic pain. Participants were recruited from a general medical practice in Victoria, Australia and were interviewed between May and September 2013. Potential participants were identified by treating health professionals as individuals who appeared to be coping well with chronic pain. Results: Factors associated with resilience in chronic pain included social support, confidence for physical activity, optimism and positive thinking. Caring for others was also identified as a novel protective factor. Values driven behaviour may have motivated some participants to optimise their pain management via active coping approaches. Conclusions and implications for practice: This study highlights protective factors that may contribute to resilience in chronic pain. Improved understanding of such factors may help with development of interventions to promote better adjustment to chronic pain conditions.

Evidence-Based Assessment and Intervention for Specific Learning Disability in School Psychology

Historically, the approach to specific learning disability (SLD) identification and recognition not only differs from state to state within Australia but also differs greatly from that in other countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. In actuality, SLDs have not generally been formally recognized or funded in Australian schools. Consequently, SLD identification does not regularly form part of school policy or procedure, with Australian school psychologists generally indicating minimal knowledge and skills in this area. However, community and political support for the formal recognition and funding of SLD students has been increasing in Australia more recently. It is thus timely to consider what constitutes evidence-based assessment of SLDs. While Australian psychologists appear to favor a response-to-intervention (RTI) approach to SLD conceptualization and identification, with this approach having many strengths, when used in isolation RTI is often incapable of accurately identifying SLD and differentiating it from general learning difficulties. Consequently, there have been moves internationally toward analysis of an individual’s pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses, with a number of the currently available methods being based on the extensively researched and well-validated Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities. By advancing our understanding of the structure of human cognitive abilities generally, CHC theory has provided a sound evidence-based framework for understanding the presentation and manifestation of SLD. Such diagnostics provide a much improved basis for the development of individualized academic interventions in support of students with SLD.

Impact of Item Orientation on the Structural Validity of Self-Report Measures An Investigation Using the TAI-G in an Australian Sample

Although test anxiety (TA) has been shown to be prevalent among Australian university students, the 17-item German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI-G) has only recently been shown to be a valid measure for use with Australian university students. However, contention exists within the literature as to whether the Lack of Confidence subscale is better conceptualized as a correlate of TA as opposed to a constituent factor because it has been found to have the weakest subscale intercorrelation. It has been suggested that this may be due to the positive item wording of this subscale, which is in contrast to wording of the other subscales. To test this, the Lack of Confidence subscale items were worded negatively for this study and previously established 30-item, 20-item, and 17-item models of the TAI-G were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 473 Australian university students. In line with expectations, the 17-item TAI-G provided the best fit to the data. Furthermore, in contrast to previous findings, there was no notable difference between models conceptualizing the reworded Lack of Confidence subscale as a correlate of TA and models incorporating it as a factor of TA. Moreover, the reworded Lack of Confidence subscale was found to have the strongest subscale intercorrelations. It was concluded that the 17-item TAI-G with the negatively worded Lack of Confidence subscale provided the most valid measure of TA, with semantically opposed items being detrimental to validity. Implications of these findings are discussed.