Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common childhood mental health conditions. An ADHD diagnosis is associated with adverse near- and long-term outcomes such as academic difficulties, social deficits, and poor family relationships. Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is a common evidence-based treatment for childhood ADHD associated with significant and large-magnitude improvements across multiple functional domains; however, nearly two-thirds of children exhibit persistent symptoms and impairment following treatment. Empirical evidence has established parents’ quality of BPT skill use as an important mechanism of BPT response, but less is known about the factors that predict parents’ skill use. The goal of the current study was to explore whether parental cognitive errors (i.e., distorted cognitions parents hold regarding their parenting and their child) and treatment engagement attitudes (i.e., how interesting and helpful parents find treatment) predict skill use quality. The current study comprised a secondary data analysis of a randomized control trial of the Child Life and Attention Skills (CLAS) program (N=199), a behavioral intervention for children with ADHD-Inattentive Presentation. First, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine whether subdomains of cognitive errors exist within this population, and two factors were observed: parent behavior errors (i.e., distorted cognitions about parents’ own parenting behavior) and child behavior errors (i.e., distorted cognitions parents have regarding their child’s behavior). This two-factor structure was then utilized in mediation analyses to examine the effect of parent and child behavior errors on quality of skill use via treatment engagement attitudes. Results from these analyses demonstrated that parent behavior errors significantly predicted quality of skill use, such that parents with higher levels of parental behavior errors demonstrated lower quality skill use, but no evidence of mediation was observed. Finally, moderated mediation models explored the impact of parent psychopathology (i.e., parental ADHD and depression) on mediational relations and found no evidence of moderation. Findings suggest that targeting parental cognitive errors, particularly cognitions about parents’ own parenting behavior, may be a novel target to improve BPT skill use and child outcomes.

Implementation challenges associated with low community effectiveness rates include low levels of client responsiveness to the intervention, less than ideal intervention fidelity, and low levels of provider quality of intervention delivery. The literature is mixed on how group leader fidelity/quality of delivery are associated with client responsiveness, and research on adolescents and ethnoracially diverse clients is particularly lacking. The current study examined group leader fidelity and quality of delivery as predictors of adolescent in-session group responsiveness to the first session of the Bridges intervention which is a universal, family-based, substance use prevention program delivered in Title I middle schools. Participants consisted of 325 adolescents across 30 intervention groups. Three separate observational coding teams coded group leader fidelity, group leader quality of delivery, and adolescent in-session group responsiveness to the program. Overall percentage of fidelity met was calculated. Next, two confirmatory factor analysis models were conducted on the responsiveness and quality of delivery data of session 1, and factor scores were extracted. Hierarchical linear regression was then conducted to predict adolescent responsiveness with group leader fidelity in step 1 and group leader quality of delivery in step 2. There were no significant associations between predictor variables and adolescent in-session group responsiveness. Findings suggest that group leader implementation constructs do not appear to account for a significant amount of the variance in adolescent group responsiveness during the first session. Future research should examine other variables that are relevant in influencing adolescent program engagement with larger sample sizes.

Subjective social status (SSS) is a marker of perceived social rank that has been linked with depressive symptoms over and above objective socioeconomic status (SES), but longitudinal studies are limited. SSS has been theorized to capture perceived relative versus absolute deprivation and the corresponding psychosocial processes underlying status-based disparities in health. The literature suggests that upward social comparisons inherent in appraising SSS may confer psychosocial risk, which may in turn increase risk for depressive symptoms and stress-related inflammation involved in the pathogenesis of depression. However, no studies have examined whether interpersonal and biological factors simultaneously contribute to the inverse relation between SSS and depressive symptoms. This study examined whether (1) lower SSS was longitudinally associated with increased depressive mood symptoms, independent of income, and (2) whether higher social strain and lower social support simultaneously mediated the SSS— depressive mood symptoms relation directly and indirectly through higher interleukin-6 (IL-6). This study utilized secondary data from a representative community sample of 804 middle-aged adults taking part in a study of healthy aging between 2007 and 2012. Plasma levels of IL-6 and self-reported SSS, social support, and social strain were assessed at baseline, followed by an assessment of depressive mood symptoms by phone interview on average 20 months later. Results from multiple regression analysis revealed that lower SSS predicted higher depressive symptoms at follow-up after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and baseline depressive mood symptoms. Path analysis indicated that social strain significantly mediated the relation between SSS and depressive mood symptoms, but not after adjustment for baseline mood symptoms. Lower social support mediated the relation between lower SSS and higher depressive symptoms, but relations were non-significant in adjusted models. Contrary to predictions, paths including IL-6 were not significant. Lower SSS may represent a robust risk factor for subsequent depressive mood symptoms above and beyond income, in line with the conceptualization of SSS as a measure of relative deprivation. Further research examining biopsychosocial mechanisms would elucidate the implications of perceived low status and inform intervention efforts aimed at reducing the global burden of depressive symptoms.

Ecological systems theory argues that multiple nested systems impact child development. This study used a moderated mediation pathway to examine whether presence of a grocery store, number of fast-food restaurants, outdoor play space, and outdoor play safety affected children’s blood pressure and BMI through variation in healthy family habits. Maternal perceived neighborhood social and cultural cohesion was examined as a moderator of the mediated effect. Data was collected from 214 mother–child dyads via biological measurement, maternal-report surveys, and geocoding of children’s neighborhoods using Google Earth. Zero-order correlations showed that higher number of fast-food restaurants in a child’s neighborhood was correlated with less engagement in healthy family habits and lower child BMI z-score. In all models, higher neighborhood social and cultural cohesion was associated with more engagement in healthy family habits. No statistically significant mediated effects or moderation of the mediated effects were found. Future directions may aim to identify which objective neighborhood environment indicators influence child health and what are potential variables mediating the relation.

Humans achieve coordination within and across themselves through the use of coupling. Coupling is the term for an informational linkage that allows two independent processes to eventually coordinate together. Coupling between the motor and respiratory system is evident within people through the signaling of the nervous system. However, little has been known about the degree of coordination that can be attained across two people regarding their respiratory patterns. The current study tested whether unintentional coordination of respiration across two people could be achieved when both people were intentionally coordinating their motor movements. Participants were assigned the position of leader or follower, where the leader followed the rhythm of a metronome to lift their leg to and the follower coordinated their leg-lift with the leader’s using their vision, as instructed. During the experiment the movements of each participant’s knee and their respiration were recorded. Relative phase was used as a measure of coordination. Results show that motor coordination was achieved, consistent with past studies, but that there was no coordination of respiration across the participants. This is most likely due to individual differences in physiology and the lack of coupling between the two separate respiratory systems. Although internal motor-respiratory patterns may have coordinated in a multi-frequency manner within each participant, the outward phasing of their respiration showed no such relationship. This study highlights the importance of a multi-frequency approach when observing coordination within and across physiological systems.

A handheld metal noisemaker known as a “clicker” is widely used to train new behaviors in dogs; however, evidence for the superior efficacy of clickers as opposed to providing solely primary reinforcement or other secondary reinforcers in the acquisition of novel behavior in dogs is almost entirely anecdotal. Three experiments were conducted to determine under what circumstances a clicker may result in acquisition of a novel behavior more rapidly or to a higher level compared to other readily available reinforcement methods. In Experiment 1, three groups of 30 dogs each were trained to emit a novel sit and stay behavior of increasing duration with either the delivery of food alone, a verbal stimulus paired with food, or a clicker with food. The group that received only a primary reinforcer reached a significantly higher criterion of training success than the group trained with a verbal secondary reinforcer. Performance of the group experiencing a clicker secondary reinforcer was intermediate between the other two groups, but not significantly different from either. In Experiment 2, three different groups of 25 dogs each were shaped to emit a nose targeting behavior and then perform that behavior at increasing distances from the experimenter using the same three methods of positive reinforcement as in Experiment 1. No statistically significant differences between the groups were found. In Experiment 3, three groups of 30 dogs each were shaped to emit a nose-targeting behavior upon an array of wooden blocks with task difficulty increasing throughout testing using the same three methods of positive reinforcement as previously. No statistically significant differences between the groups were found. Overall, the findings suggest that both clickers and other forms of positive reinforcement can be used successfully in training a dog to perform a novel behavior, but that no positive reinforcement method has significantly greater efficacy than any other.