Vincent Mancini

The Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis as a Framework for Understanding the Association Between Motor Skills and Internalizing Problems: A Mini-Review

Poor motor skills have been shown to be associated with a range of psychosocial issues, including internalizing problems (anxiety and depression). While well-documented empirically, our understanding of why this relationship occurs remains theoretically underdeveloped. The Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis by Cairney et al. (2013) provides a promising framework that seeks to explain the association between motor skills and internalizing problems, specifically in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The framework posits that poor motor skills predispose the development of internalizing problems via interactions with intermediary environmental stressors. At the time the model was proposed, limited direct evidence was available to support or refute the framework. Several studies and developments related to the framework have since been published. This mini-review seeks to provide an up-to-date overview of recent developments related to the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis. We briefly discuss the past research that led to its development, before moving to studies that have investigated the framework since it was proposed. While originally developed within the context of DCD in childhood, recent developments have found support for the model in community samples. Through the reviewed literature, this article provides support for the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis as a promising theoretical framework that explains the psychosocial correlates across the broader spectrum of motor ability. However, given its recent conceptualization, ongoing evaluation of the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis is recommended.

Prevention of internalizing disorders in 9–10 year old children: efficacy of the Aussie Optimism Positive Thinking Skills Program at 30-month follow-up

The Aussie Optimism: Positive Thinking Skills Program (AOPTP) is a school-based prevention program aimed at addressing anxious and depressive symptoms in children aged 9–10 years. Nine-hundred and ten students from 22 Australian primary schools situated in low socio-economic areas were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group, and assessed at a 30-month follow up. Those in the intervention group received the AOPTP program, where the control group continued to receive the regular health education course. Students completed self-report measures regarding their levels of depression, anxiety, and attribution style. Parents also reported on their childrens externalizing and internalizing problems outside of school. There were no significant differences between groups in regard to anxiety or depression, as well as no significant differences in attributional styles. Parents reported significantly less hyperactive behaviors from children in the intervention group. This finding suggests that AOP-PTS has the capacity to treat externalizing problems at a medium term effect. The decrease in the externalizing problems provides evidence of a partial medium term intervention effect. Future studies should continue to evaluate the program at a long term follow up.

The Relationship between Motor Skills, Perceived Social Support, and Internalizing Problems in a Community Adolescent Sample

Objectives: Poor motor skills are associated with a range of psychosocial consequences, including internalizing (anxious and depressive) symptoms. The Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis provides a causal framework to explain this association. The framework posits that motor skills impact internalizing problems through an indirect effect via perceived social support. However, empirical evaluation is required. We examined whether motor skills had an indirect effect on anxious and depressive symptoms via perceived family support domains. Methods: This study used a community sample of 93 adolescents (12–16 years). Participants completed measures of motor skills, perceived social support across three dimensions (family, friend, and significant other), depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms. Age, gender, verbal IQ, and ADHD symptoms were included as control variables. Results: Regression analysis using PROCESS revealed that motor skills had an indirect effect on depressive symptoms via perceived family support, but not by perceived friend support or significant other support. The negative association between motor skills and anxious symptoms was not mediated by any perceived social support domain. Conclusions: Findings are consistent with previous literature indicating an association between motor skills and internalizing problems. However, we identified a different pattern of relationships across anxious and depressive symptoms. While anxiety and depressive symptoms were highly correlated, motor skills had an indirect effect on depressive symptoms via perceived family support only. Our findings highlight the importance of family support as a potential protective factor in the onset of depressive symptoms. This study provides partial support for the Elaborated Environmental Stress Hypothesis, however further research is required.

Building Community Capacity in Bereavement Support: Lessons Learnt From Bereaved Caregivers

Background: Most bereaved people do not require specialist intervention, yet building community capacity in providing bereavement support is underdeveloped. While family caregivers indicate a need for more information about bereavement, there is little evidence to guide what this information might contain. Objective: The study’s purpose was to inform bereavement support by determining the advice people bereaved through expected deaths in palliative care have for others in that situation. Design: Four funeral providers posted a questionnaire to previous clients who had used their services 6 to 24 months prior and 678 bereaved people responded. Setting/Participants: The sample size for this study comprised 265 bereaved people whose relative used palliative care services. Measurements: The questionnaire comprised 82 questions about caregiving, bereavement support, current bereavement-related distress, and 2 open-ended questions concerning their bereavement, one of them on advice they have to other people in the same situation. Results: Family caregivers (n = 140) of people who received palliative care responded to the open-ended question about advice for others. An open content analysis yielded 3 themes—preparations for bereavement, utilizing social networks, and strategies for dealing with grief. Conclusions: Bereaved family caregivers’ experiential knowledge can be harnessed to progress the development of bereavement care strategies for the good of the community. These responses could be incorporated into information brochures, posters, and other community education avenues in order to upskill palliative care bereavement volunteers and the wider community so that bereaved family caregivers are best supported.

Australian Aboriginal perspectives of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

[Extract] The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been based on a western concept of health, a concern when considering a non-western culture such as Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The lack of statistical data on the extent of ADHD in the Aboriginal community is another concern, a situation similar to many other mental health problems in the Indigenous population. Furthermore, no Australian studies have mentioned specific information on the prevalence of ADHD in Aboriginal communities. The WA Aboriginal Child Health Survey, however, reported that Aboriginal children had a higher risk of hyperactivity problems (15.8%) when compared to 9.7% for non-Aboriginal children (Zubrick et al., 2005).

The pilot and evaluation of a postnatal support Group for Iraqi Women in the year following the birth of their baby

The current study involved conducting a pilot test of a culturally sensitive support group program developed to assist Iraqi women in the year following the birth of their baby (CSSG-B) in Perth, Western Australia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the social validity of the program. It was hypothesized that women involved in the program would find the program to be socially valid and culturally appropriate, and will also report lower levels of depressive symptomatology and higher levels of social support, following the group intervention. Participants were 12 Iraqi Arabic speaking women, who had a child less than 12 months of age. The program was based on Iraqi womens explanatory models (Kleinman, 1978; Di Ciano et al., 2010) of the birth and motherhood experience. Social validity ratings were obtained during the implementation of the program in order to assess the level of acceptability of the intervention. A one-group pre-test–post-test design was used to determine if depressive symptoms had decreased during the course of the intervention and social support had increased. Results indicated that Iraqi Arabic speaking women found the support group intervention acceptable and relevant and there was a significant decrease in scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) from pre-test to post-test. These results that the culturally sensitive group intervention was culturally acceptable and was associated with decreased levels of depressive symptomatology.

Motor skills and internalizing problems throughout development: An integrative research review and update of the environmental stress hypothesis research

BACKGROUND The Environmental Stress Hypothesis provides a conceptual framework detailing the complex relationship between poor motor skills and internalizing problems. AIMS This integrative research aimed to synthesize studies that have evaluated complex pathways posited in the framework. METHOD This study followed the four stages of an integrative research review: (i) problem formation and research aims, (ii) literature search and data collection, (iii) data evaluation and analysis, and (iv) results and discussion. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Twelve peer-reviewed, English language studies published within 2010-2018 were identified. These used mostly cross-sectional, correlational methods and provided varying levels of support for relationships posited in the framework in samples spanning early childhood to adulthood. Compared to intrapersonal factors (e.g., self-esteem/ perceived competence), interpersonal factors (e.g., social support, peer problems) were found to more strongly and consistently mediate the relationship between motor skills and internalizing problems. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS There is growing empirical support for many of the Environmental Stress Hypothesis pathways. However, research to date is limited in the ability to establish causal relationships between variables, which is integral to the Environmental Stress Hypothesis. Intervention studies provide a useful type of experimental research that could establish causality between variables, while working to improve the physical and psychosocial functioning of people with poor motor skills.

Learning analytics messages: Impact of grade, sender, comparative information and message style on student affect and academic resilience

Abstract Learning analytics enable automated feedback to students through dashboards, reports and alerts. The underlying untested assumption is that providing analytics will be sufficient to improve self-regulated learning. Working within a feedback recipience framework, we begin to test this assumption by examining the impact of learning analytics messages on student affect and academic resilience. Three hundred and twenty undergraduate students completed an online survey and were exposed to three randomly assigned learning analytics alerts (High Distinction, Pass, and Fail grades). Multivariate analyses of variance indicated significant differences between grade levels (large effects), with higher positive affect and lower resilience in response to High Distinction alerts than Pass or Fail alerts. Within each hypothetical grade level, there were no differences in student affect and academic resilience. Based upon systematic changes in feedback sender, message style or whether comparative peer achievement was included or not. These findings indicate that grade level has the largest impact on both affect and academic resilience. The failure of message and sender characteristics to impact on activities that promote self-regulated learning suggests we need to look beyond these characteristics of individual messages to identify drivers of engaging students in self-regulated learning.