Day 3 :
- Infant and Pediatric Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
Session Introduction
Marcia Baker,Karol Kumpfer
University of Utah, USA
Title: Cost effectiveness of a new strengthening families program 7-17 years DVD for reducing oppositional defiant disorders and adolescent behavioral health disorders
Time : 10:00-10:35
Biography:
Marcia Baker is the business owner of Advanced Training Third Coast which provides substance abuse prevention training and consultation/evaluation. She is a PhD candidate in Health Psychology with a projected graduation of Dec. 2015. She has extensive experience supervising programs in the substance abuse treatment, prevention and behavioral health field. She is a trainer for Strengthening Families Training Certification and Towards No Drug Abuse Certification program for substance abuse prevention professionals and teaches/ trains adjunct in the field of substance abuse, prevention and mental health for numerous colleges and educational institutions. She currently is a Lecturer/Mental Health Program Coordinator with Springfield College in Houston, Texas. Awards and accomplishments include: 2007, Hope Award in Houston from Sierra Tucson, 2008, Addiction Professional of the Year ,Houston, 2008, Appointed by the Mayor of Houston to Drug Policy Task Force for Prevention, 2009, Vice President of Texas Association of Addiction Professionals Houston Chapter and in 2013 nominated for White House Champion of Change for Public Health and Prevention
Abstract:
Background: Oppositional Defiant Disorders have increased in children and mental health disorders including SUDs in adolescents. Unfortunately lower SES parents are spending less time with these high risk children. This session will begin with a review of family risk, protection and resilience factors that make family based interventions the most successful prevention programs according to many independent reviews (e.g., the Oxford University Cochrane Reviews, NIDA, UNODC, WHO). The most effective family interventions for prevention and early intervention will be presented based on authors’ reviews for last 20 years for our government and United Nations. One of the most effective is the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a family skills training program where in 7 to 14 weekly group classes, parents and youth have separate classes first and then a joint practice session which teach parenting, family and youth social skills. SFP is cost effective at $11 saved per dollar spent, yet costly to administer-$500 to $1000/family for a 7-14 week group. Recent epigenetic 10-year longitudinal studies have found that SFP can reduce genetically inherited behavioral health disorders related to short alleles of the 5-HTTLPR serotonin gene and the 7-repeat dopamine gene (i.e., diagnosed depression, anxiety, SUDs, HIV, and delinquency) by 50%. Because of these positive results, culturally adapted SFP versions are now in 36 countries with similar positive results to its 14 RCTs, half by independent research teams. Methods: To reduce costs to $5/family, a new universal 10-14 session SFP 7 to 17 Years DVD was created for home and clinic use in English and Spanish audio tracks. It was evaluated with families who completed a confidential online survey to win prizes. A 10-14 session SFP family group version was also created and tested with high-risk families in schools and agencies as a comparison condition in a quasi-experimental repeated measures 2 group×2 (pre-and post-test) design. 21 parent, family and child behavioral outcomes were measured using the SFP questionnaire composed of standardized clinical instruments. Within and between group results were analyzed using 2×2 ANOVAs and compared to the SFP 10- and 14-session norms. Results: Compared to the group version, the Home Use DVD outcomes revealed 18 of 21 statistically significant outcomes and almost as large Cohen’s d effect sizes for parenting (d=.48 vs. 65) and family outcomes (d=.69 vs. .70) but better youth results (d=.54 vs. .48). The best youth results were for the DVD family group version that were better than the EBP SFP 3-16 Years age versions. Conclusions: Because of the positive results on positive parenting, child maltreatment and reduced depression and behavioral disorders, the new DVDs and family group curriculum are being widely disseminated at cost to have a broader behavioral health and public health impact. This presentation could include DVD video clips and interactive role plays, plus questions and answer period.
Maria Abram
Paris Descartes University
Title: Postoperative improvement of episodic memory in children and adolescents with temporo-sylvian cysts: A study using virtual reality and autobiographical events
Time : 10:55-11:30
Biography:
Maria Abram has just completed her PhD at the age of 30 years at Paris Descartes University where she currently teaches Cognitive Psychology to undergraduate students. She is specialized in Neuropsychology. She also collaborates with Necker Children’s Hospital (Department Of Pediatric Neurosurgery) in Paris, assessing episodic memory in young patients with temporo-sylvian cysts and with focal brain lesions. She has published two articles in international scientific journals, and is currently writing three more. She has set out to find a Post-Doctoral position in North America
Abstract:
Episodic memory (EM), the ability to recall experienced events (‘what’) in their spatial (‘where’) and temporal (‘when’) context, is important in learning new information and in daily life functioning. Temporo-sylvian cysts (TSC) are quite common lesions of the arachnoid and potentially affect EM due to their localization. Some studies have revealed post-operative improvement of cognitive functioning in pediatric TSC patients, yet the functioning of EM in these patients has not been systematically studied. Our aim was to assess EM with ecological (virtual reality (VR), controlled but close to daily life environment and autobiographical events) and standard tests before and after decompression of a TSC in children. In a group of 65 patients aged from 5 to 16 years, 18 have been re-assessed one year after surgery. Results revealed post-operative improvements regarding navigation time as well as recall of simple and detailed factual information on the VR EM test. The ability to recall an autobiographical event also improved, whereas no changes occurred on standard tests. This suggests that TSC decompression in children and adolescents has a beneficial influence on EM functioning in a more ecological context. Considering the importance of EM functioning in school and daily life it is therefore seems that ecological assessments of EM via VR and autobiographical memories could help guide decisions about the patients’ treatment since they complete standard tests
James McCarthy
Pace University,USA
Title: Multidimensional views of childhood psychosis and multimodal treatment
Time : 11:30-12:05
Biography:
James McCarthy is the Director of Field Training and Associate Professor of Psychology, Pace University, Doctor of Psychology program in School-Clinical Child Psychology in New York City and Clinical Professor of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY. His interests include severe psychopathology in children and adults, trauma studies, cognition and training in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and he has published widely in the professional literature. He is the author and editor of a number of books. His current book “Psychosis in Childhood and Adolescence” is published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
Abstract:
Etiological studies, investigations of high risk populations and outcome studies have all contributed to a better understanding of the clinical features and the course of early onset mood disorder-related psychosis, schizophrenia and trauma related psychosis in children and youth. However, recent neurobiological studies and revolutionary advances in knowledge about brain structure and functioning haven’t been easily translated into innovative treatment approaches for children and adolescents with severe and chronic psychotic disorders. Psychosis in youth entails shifting internal emotional states of lived experience as well as the features of psychiatric disorders which frequently interfere with social, emotional and cognitive maturation. Although psychotic disorders in children and adolescents are often continuous with adult-onset psychotic disorders, comprehensive, multimodal treatment that includes psychotherapy and supportive family interventions as well as antipsychotic medication offer the best hope of restoring the psychotic youth to age-appropriate maturation in all spheres of functioning. This article synthesizes recent research advances while arguing for the need for long-term comprehensive care and treatment for children and adolescents with psychotic disorders that includes the importance of psychotherapy.
Maria Abram
Paris Descartes University,France
Title: Past and future episodic memory development from childhood to young adulthood-comparison of autobiographical memory and virtual reality tasks
Time : 12:05:12:40
Biography:
Maria Abram has completed her PhD at the age of 30 years at Paris Descartes University where she currently teaches Cognitive Psychology to undergraduate students. She is specialized in Neuropsychology. She also collaborates with Necker Children’s Hospital (Department Of Pediatric Neurosurgery) in Paris, assessing episodic memory in young patients with temporo-sylvian cysts and with focal brain lesions. She has published two articles in international scientific journals, and is currently writing three more. She has set out to find a Post-Doctoral position in North America.
Abstract:
With the episodic memory (EM) humans recall past and imagine future events and remember executing future actions. EM can be assessed with laboratory based tasks (recall of past information and future actions, retrospective and prospective memory) and autobiographical events (past and future autobiographical memory). Past EM aspects develop progressively until adolescence when feature binding (what, where, when) is required. Prospective memory development depends on action types but it improves until young adulthood with complex tasks. Most developmental studies of future autobiographical memory have focused on young children and adults, leaving a gap between these two groups. We thus aimed to compare past and future EM aspects and mechanisms from young school children to young adults, confronting more ecological laboratory tasks in virtual reality with autobiographical tasks. Results in 61 participants (ages 5 to 25 years) suggest a more progressive development of the future aspect of EM, whereas its past aspect is globally functional by adolescence. Autobiographical and virtual reality performance correlate with each other, executive functions and narrative abilities; Virtual reality memory depends on executive functions, past and future autobiographical memory and (only future memory) on theory of mind, whereas autobiographical memory abilities depend on virtual reality based prospective memory in addition to executive functions and age. A reciprocal link appeared between the two future aspects of EM (personal events and time-based actions). In conclusion, past and future EM functioning in virtual environments and in daily life is strongly inter-linked and has at least partly common development and mechanisms, suggesting a tri-temporal approach of EM.
Cecilia O Odejobi
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Title: Parenting styles and child-feeding among Yoruba community in Nigeria
Time : 13:40-14:15
Biography:
Cecilia O Odejobi is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Her area of specialization is on Indigenous Language (Yoruba Language), as well as Curriculum Studies. She has published several articles in national and international reputable journals. She has also attended and presented research papers at national and international conferences. She is currently the Director of the Institute of Education.
Abstract:
Parenting styles have been established as predictors of social and moral behaviors in children but the extent to which this could influence the feeding habit of children has not been thoroughly examined. The few studies carried out on this issue examined the specific behaviors of European-American parents but nothing has been done on children feeding habits and parenting styles of African parents, especially the Yoruba’s. This needs to be examined as children\'s feeding is becoming an issue of concern in terms of obesity, low weight, choosy or picky and the like. To carry out the study four objectives were raised as follows: To examine the parenting styles among Yoruba mothers, assess child feeding practices with Yoruba mothers, determine the relationship between parenting styles and feeding practices of Yoruba mothers and examine the influence of parental factors on parenting styles and child feeding habits. Two hundred and fifty (250) Yoruba mothers were purposively selected based on ethnicity and possession of children in care centers. So also, fifty (50) caregivers of the parents\' children participated in the study. Two instruments were used namely: Parent-Child Feeding Styles (PCFS) that measured parents\' pattern and manner of feeding their children. Also, Caregivers\' Child Feeding Reports (CCFR) used to gather information about children\'s feeding habits. Data were analyzed using percentage, chi-square and Pearson Moment Correlation. The findings were presented and recommendations were made.