Behavioral Disciplines and Activities Commons^™

An Evaluation Of Wayfinding Abilities In Adolescent And Young Adult Males With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Yingying Yang, Weijia Li, Dan Huang, Wei He, Yanxi Zhang, Edward Merrill

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background

Wayfinding refers to traveling from place to place in the environment. Despite some research headway, it remains unclear whether individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show strengths, weaknesses, or similarities in wayfinding compared with ability-matched typically developing (TD) controls.

Method

The current study tested 24 individuals with ASD, 24 mental-ability (MA) matched TD (MA-TD) controls, and 24 chronological-age (CA) matched TD (CA-TD) controls. Participants completed a route learning task and a survey learning task, both programmed in virtual environments, and a perspective taking task. Their parents completed questionnaires assessing their children’s everyday wayfinding activities and competence.

Results

Overall, CA-TD …

Analytic Hierarchy Process: An Innovative Technique For Culturally Tailoring Evidence-Based Interventions To Reduce Health Disparities, Jaime A. Corvin, Isabella Chan, Claudia X. Aguado, Ian Dollman, Junius Gonzales

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

Latinos in the United States represent a disproportionate burden of illness and disease and face barriers to accessing health care and related resources. Culturally tailored, evidence-based interventions hold promise in addressing many of these challenges. Yet, ensuring patient voice is vital in the successful development and implementation of such interventions. Thus, this paper examines the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to inform the augmentation and implementation of an evidence-based chronic disease self-management programme for underserved Latinos living with both minor depression and chronic illness. The process of AHP allows for direct input from the individuals that would utilize such …

The Effects Of Criminal Embeddedness On School Violence In Brazil, Elenice De Souza De Souza Oliveira, Braulio Figueiredo Alves Da Silva, Silvio Segundo Salej Higgins

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines the influence of criminal embeddedness on the intensity of criminal behavior among primary and secondary school students in a large Brazilian city. A database conceived by the Center for the Study of Crime and Public Security at the Federal University in Minas Gerais is used to analyze the involvement of youths displaying delinquent behavior at home or at school and how school performance and peer relationships are effected. Based on differential association and learning theories, the main hypotheses are (1) the greater the criminal embeddedness, the lower the degree of school satisfaction as well as future expectation …

Commentary: Community Partnered Research: Driving Sensemaking, Managing Knowledge, And Moving Mental Health Care To New Heights, Junius J. Gonzales, Carmen Moten

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

No abstract provided.

Scale Development For Perceived School Climate For Girls’ Physical Activity, Amanda Birnbaum, Kelly R. Evenson, Robert W. Motl, Rod K. Dishman, Carolyn C. Voorhees, James F. Sallis, John P. Elder, Marsha Dowda

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Objectives: To test an original scale assessing perceived school climate for girls' physical activity in middle school girls. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: CFA retained 5 of 14 original items. A model with 2 correlated factors, perceptions about teachers' and boys' behaviors, respectively, fit the data well in both sixth and eighth-graders. SEM detected a positive, significant direct association of the teacher factor, but not the boy factor, with girls' self-reported physical activity. Conclusions: School climate for girls' physical activity is a measurable construct, and preliminary evidence suggests a relationship with physical activity.

Psychosocial Correlates Of Physical Activity And Sedentary Leisure Habits In Young Adolescents: The Teens Eating For Energy And Nutrition At School Study, Amanda Birnbaum, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Leslie Lytle, Glenn A. Phillips, David M. Murray, Martha Y. Kubik

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

BACKGROUND: Low levels of physical activity (PA) and highly sedentary leisure habits (SLH) in youth may establish behavioral patterns that will predispose youth to increased chronic disease risk in adulthood. The purpose of this paper was to examine associations of demographic and psychosocial factors with self-reported PA and SLH in young adolescents. METHODS: A general linear mixed model predicted self-reported PA and SLH in the spring from demographic and psychosocial variables measured the previous fall in 3798 seventh grade students. RESULTS: PA and SLH differed by race, with Caucasian students reporting among the highest PA and lowest SLH. Perceptions of …

Are Suicide Attempters Who Self-Mutilate A Unique Population?, Barbara Stanley, Marc Gameroff, Venezia Michalsen, John Mann

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

OBJECTIVE: Individuals who mutilate themselves are at greater risk for suicidal behavior. Clinically, however, there is a perception that the suicide attempts of self-mutilators are motivated by the desire for attention rather than by a genuine wish to die. The purpose of this study was to determine differences between suicide attempters with and without a history of self-mutilation.

METHOD: The authors examined demographic characteristics, psychopathology, objective and perceived lethality of suicide attempts, and perceptions of their suicidal behavior in 30 suicide attempters with cluster B personality disorders who had a history of self-mutilation and a matched group of 23 suicide …

Functioning And Well-Being Of Patients In A Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Clinic, Steven A. Epstein, Junius Gonzales, Patricia Stockton, David M. Goldstein, Bonnie L. Green

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

Outpatient consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry clinics are valuable settings for research and teaching endeavors. However, little is known about psychiatric symptoms and health status of persons treated in such settings. In this study, 80 persons seen in an outpatient C-L psychiatry clinic were compared with 100 persons seen in a mood disorder clinic on a variety of self-report instruments. Outpatient C-L clinic patients were found to have significantly poorer health status than mood clinic patients on the following domains as measured by the RAND instrument: general health perception, pain, physical functioning, and role functioning due to physical problems. Both groups had …

Mental Disorders In Primary Care Services: An Update, Junius Gonzales, Kathryn M. Magruder, Samuel J. Keith

Publications from Provost Junius J. Gonzales

Frank mental disorders, such as depression and panic disorder, are prevalent in primary care; they cause people substantial suffering and interfere with daily functioning. Even subthreshold or "subsyndromal" conditions, with fewer symptoms than necessary for making a diagnosis, cause substantial morbidity. Recent literature on mental disorders in primary care, where many, if not most, people with mental health problems are seen, is reviewed with focus on recognition and diagnosis issues, management of these problems in primary care, obstacles to accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment, and prevention issues. In addition to a review of recent research, there is an effort to …