Ruth Beatson

Humans rule! The effects of creatureliness reminders, mortality salience and self-esteem on attitudes towards animals

This research paper presents findings from an experimental investigation of the attitudes that people hold towards animals when they are reminded of the fact that humans and animals are creatures alike. We tested the hypothesis that mortality salience (MS) would lead participants reminded of human creatureliness to evaluate animals more negatively, especially when they reported lower self-esteem. Student participants were randomly assigned to conditions in which MS was made salient and thoughts about human creatureliness were manipulated. Participants then reported their attitudes towards animals. Lending support to the hypothesis of this study, MS led participants with lower self-esteem to rate animals more negatively, when they were reminded of human-animal similarity. The implications of these results for understanding peoples attitudes towards animals were discussed.

Attitudes toward animals : the effect of priming thoughts of human-animal similarities and mortality salience on the evaluation of companion animals.

Human attitudes toward nonhuman animals are complex and quite contradictory. They can range between extremely negative (animal cruelty) to positive (treating companion animals like human surrogates). Attitudes toward animals are especially negative when people think about human creatureliness and personal mortality. This paper investigates peoples attitudes toward highly valued animals (companion animals). The research presented here tested whether companion-animal caregivers would respond to reminders of human creatureliness and mortality salience (MS) with more negative attitudes toward pets. Participants completed an online survey in which MS and human-creatureliness conditions were manipulated. Results showed that, under MS, even pet owners responded to reminders of human creatureliness with less positive attitudes toward the average pet. Thus, the effects observed in previous research extend to more popular animals, even among people with presumably positive attitudes toward animals.

Experiences of discrimination and positive treatment from health professionals: A national survey of adults with mental health problems

Objective: To systematically investigate the scope and nature of discrimination and positive treatment experienced by adults with mental health problems when using health services in an Australian population-based survey. Methods: Australian adults (n = 1381) who reported a mental health problem or scored high on a screening questionnaire were interviewed about their experience of discrimination and positive treatment from healthcare professionals. Descriptions of experiences were content-analysed to identify key characteristics. Results: In all, 11.8% of respondents reported discrimination from a health professional in the past 12 months. The most common types of discrimination included being treated dismissively, being judged and not being listened to, particularly regarding personal history and treatment needs. In contrast, 40.4% reported being treated more positively by their health professional because of their mental health problem. Key types of positive treatment by health professionals were being supportive and understanding and being a good listener. Good quality care approaches were also appreciated, including making a referral, being engaged in the treatment process, regularly checking the status of the person’s mental health and providing information. Conclusion: A minority of respondents with mental health problems had experienced discrimination from their healthcare professional, potentially interfering with recovery. Anti-stigma education interventions for healthcare professionals should address how to increase knowledge and understanding of mental health problems, reduce negative attitudes and encourage supportive behaviours.

Predictors of south-eastern Australian householders’ strengths of intentions to self-evacuate if a wildfire threatens: two theoretical models

Householder evacuation in the face of a wildfire threat is the survival option advocated by fire agencies. However, late evacuation is common and has resulted in loss of life. The primary aim of this study was to investigate potential predictors of householders’ strength of intention to leave early in response to a bushfire threat warning. A survey of 584 residents of bushfire-prone locations in south-eastern Australia was conducted. Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and protection motivation theory (PMT) were used to explore predictors of strength of householders’ intentions to leave, or to stay and defend following a bushfire warning. TPB was a useful predictor of strength of intention to leave, but PMT was not such a useful predictor of strength of intention to leave. Householder efficacy and self-characterisation were important contributors, whereas perceptions of severity and susceptibility to threat were not found to be significant contributors. Neither model performed well in predicting strength of intention to stay and defend. The findings are discussed in relation to community wildfire safety research and practice.

Translational delivery of Cool Little Kids to prevent child internalising problems: randomised controlled trial

Objective: To determine whether a population-delivered parenting programme assists in preventing internalising problems at school entry for preschool children at-risk with temperamental inhibition. Methods: Design: a randomised controlled trial was used. Setting: the setting was 307 preschool services across eight socioeconomically diverse government areas in Melbourne, Australia. Participants: a total of 545 parents of inhibited 4-year-old children: 498 retained at 1-year follow up. Early intervention: Cool Little Kids parenting group programme was implemented. Primary outcomes: the primary outcomes were child DSM-IV anxiety disorders (assessor blind) and internalising problems. Secondary outcomes: the secondary outcomes were parenting practices and parent mental health. Results: At 1-year follow up (mean (standard deviation) age = 5.8 (0.4) years), there was little difference in anxiety disorders between the intervention and control arms (44.2% vs 50.2%; adjusted odds ratio = 0.86, 95% confidence interval = [0.60, 1.25], p = 0.427). Internalising problems were reduced in the intervention arm (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: abnormal – 24.2% vs 33.0%; adjusted odds ratio = 0.56, 95% confidence interval = [0.35, 0.89], p = 0.014; symptoms – mean (standard deviation) = 2.5 (2.0) vs 2.9 (2.2); adjusted mean difference = –0.47, 95% confidence interval = [–0.81, –0.13], p = 0.006). Parents’ participation in the intervention was modest (29.4% attended most groups, 20.5% used skills most of the time during the year). A priori interaction tests suggested that for children with anxious parents, the intervention reduced anxiety disorders and internalising symptoms after 1 year. Conclusion: Offering Cool Little Kids across the population for inhibited preschoolers does not impact population outcomes after 1 year. Effects may be emerging for inhibited children at highest risk with parent anxiety. Trial outcomes will continue into mid-childhood.

Confirmatory processes in attitude transmission: the role of shared reality

In social communication, do message senders’ expectations about message recipients play any role in the construction of social stereotypes? In particular, can senders’ expectations about recipients’ attitudes toward social groups initiate a confirmatory process whereby both senders and recipients come to hold the expected attitudes when there is no basis for them? In Study 1 senders composed messages biased in the direction of randomly assigned expectations about a recipients attitudes toward students living on campus by selectively modifying items of gossip. Senders also subsequently reported attitudes biased in the direction of their messages. In Study 2 yoked participants read the original messages and formed attitudes that reflected the biased content of the original messages. Importantly, this confirmatory effect of attitude transmission was heightened by receivers’ perceptions that shared reality was created with the sender.

Mortality Salience and Cultural Cringe: The Australian Way of Responding to Thoughts of Death

Terror Management Theory predicts that mortality salience (MS) instigates cultural worldview defenses, especially among individuals with lower self-esteem. That MS intensifies positive evaluations of pro-U.S. essay authors, and negative evaluations of anti-U.S. essay authors have been documented as supportive evidence. However, the evidence to date may have been limited to where praising for the former and rejection of the latter authors is consistent with a shared cultural script and thus normative. In the case of Australian people, the cultural script of cringe prescribes them to evaluate their country modestly and to reject high praise of their country. We therefore predicted that MS (vs. control) should lead Australians, with low self-esteem in particular, to evaluate pro-Australia essay authors less positively while not affecting their evaluations of anti-Australia essay authors. Results from two studies were consistent with this prediction. It is important to distinguish MS effects on adherence to cultural norms from those on reaffirming collective self-esteem, and to consider relevant cultural scripts when interpreting evidence for worldview defenses.

Predicting Temperamentally Inhibited Young Children’s Clinical-Level Anxiety and Internalizing Problems from Parenting and Parent Wellbeing: a Population Study

The aim of this study was to explore how some temperamentally inhibited young children and not others in the general population develop anxiety disorders and broader clinical-level internalizing (anxious/depressive) problems, with a focus on the family. A brief screening tool for inhibition was universally distributed to parents of children in their year before starting school across eight socioeconomically diverse government areas in Melbourne, Australia (307 preschool services). Screening identified 11% of all children as inhibited. We invited all parents of inhibited children to participate in a longitudinal prevention study. Participants were 545 parents of inhibited pre-schoolers (78% uptake) of whom 498 (91%) completed assessment one year later and 469 (86%) two years later. Parents completed questionnaires to assess parenting practices, parent wellbeing, and child internalizing problems. Parents also engaged in structured diagnostic interviews to assess child anxiety disorders. During the follow up period close to half of the inhibited young children had anxiety disorders and one in seven had clinical-level internalizing problems, with girls perhaps at higher risk. The family variables significantly predicted inhibited children’s anxiety disorders and broader internalizing problems. For child anxiety disorders, overinvolved/protective parenting was particularly important for girls and boys, and poorer parent wellbeing contributed. For child anxious/depressive problems, harsh discipline was a consistent predictor for girls and boys, and poorer parent wellbeing again contributed. These etiological findings support early intervention for temperamentally inhibited young children that focuses on the family environment to prevent the development of mental health problems.

Effect of Hierarchy Legitimacy on Low Status Group Members' Attributions for Ingroup and Outgroup Failures

Previous research has shown that people have a tendency to explain successes and failures in ways that favor their ingroups relative to outgroups. However, there has been a dearth of research examining whether social-contextual factors such as group status and hierarchy legitimacy moderate such intergroup attributions. Participants in this study were assigned to a low status group, and perceived hierarchy legitimacy was then experimentally manipulated; the extent to which ingroup versus outgroup failures were attributed to several causes was measured. When low status was considered illegitimate, ingroup failure was attributed to external causes (task difficulty, bad luck) more so than outgroup failure. Implications and directions for future research examining consequences and mediating processes are discussed.

An 8-week peer-led parenting intervention reduces parent-reported behavioural problems in socially disadvantaged children

ED FROM Day C, Michelson D, Thomson S, et al. Evaluation of a peer led parenting intervention for disruptive behaviour problems in children: community based randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2012;344:e1107. Correspondence to: Daniel Michelson, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Research Unit, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London SE5 8AF, UK; daniel.m.d.michelson@kcl.ac.uk Sources of funding Guys and St Thomas’ Charity and the London Borough of Southwark. ▸ References are published online at http://ebmh.bmj.com CO M M EN TA RY Externalising behaviour problems are an international public health issue, affecting up to one in five young people. 2 Parenting interventions based on social learning theory demonstrate success in many randomised trials. A key question in the field is how to move towards population implementation of effective parenting strategies. A cutting-edge concern is how to transfer knowledge about effective parenting practices for child externalising problems from highly trained professionals to widespread adoption in the community. 3 Day et al provide an exciting window into implementation. This is a rigorous randomised trial in a community setting with traditionally hard to reach families. The 8-week parenting intervention applies social learning theory principles and achieves outcomes that parallel before clinical trials. Importantly, the intervention was delivered by local parent-peers, carefully trained over 60 h with ongoing supervision support. Perhaps, this provides a model for future wide-scale dissemination. Experts could first demonstrate clinical efficacy under ideal conditions, then train locally recruited peer leaders to deliver the same programme within a randomised trial evaluation, before moving to dissemination (state/ national) that applies identical training, supervision and implementation procedures. An aspect of this study that appears critical is that parents could take part only if (A) they were seeking help for their child’s behaviour problem and (B) they committed to weekly attendance at the parenting group sessions. Such high caregiver motivation could be central to positive outcomes for children’s externalising problems. Population trials inviting families to participate regardless of initial motivation show lower intervention adherence and outcome effects. Perhaps, population dissemination of parenting programmes with demonstrated effectiveness in randomised trials should focus on making them available in the community to all parents who express a need for help (to primary health providers and school staff) and who can commit to attending the full intervention programme. Jordana K Bayer, Ruth Beatson Department of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia Competing interests None. 80 EBMH August 2012 Vol 15 No 3 Therapeutics