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Today — 10 March 2025Main stream

The Role of Negative Symptoms on the Continuum of Psychosis Risk as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Personality and Functioning in Individuals With Psychotic‐Like Experiences

✇Wiley: Early Intervention in Psychiatry: Table of Contents
By: Dawid Kruk， Łukasz Gawęda， Aleksandra Arciszewska‐Leszczuk， Aneta Kalisz， Piotr Błądziński， Dorota Frydecka， Andrzej Cechnicki
8 March 2025 at 09:20

ABSTRACT

Aim

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) may increase the risk of psychosis. Most of the research on PLEs focuses on their positive dimension—for example, hallucinatory-like experiences or delusion-like thoughts. Relatively little is known about the role of PLEs on the continuum of negative symptoms. The aim of this study was to examine whether negative symptoms, both in the experiential and expressive dimensions, could mediate the effects of temperament and character on the level of functioning of individuals with PLEs.

Methods

The study was conducted on 107 healthy young adults with the highest severity of PLEs, selected from a larger sample of 6722 people recruited for another study. Participants were examined using the Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory, the Brief Negative Symptom Rating Scale, and the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale.

Results

Both functioning and certain personality traits, such as harm avoidance, persistence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness, were more strongly associated with the occurrence of experiential rather than expressive negative symptoms. We have developed four models, in which we have shown that the experiential negative symptoms mediated the impact of the temperament and character traits on socio-occupational functioning. In each model, negative symptoms weakened the direct effect of the personality trait on functioning.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that, like at the other stages of psychosis risk, a constellation of specific temperament and character traits is a risk factor for functional decline, which may be partly explained by the effect of experiential negative symptoms. The study also confirms the different impact of the two domains of negative symptoms on functional outcomes, suggesting the need for developing targeted interventions.

The highlighting divide: does highlighting strategy help explain international gaps in reading achievement?

✇Most Recent Articles: Large-scale Assessments in Education
By: Ella Anghel and Matthias von Davier
8 March 2025 at 00:00
While highlighting is one of the most common strategies to enhance reading comprehension, little is known about how highlighting behavior and its relationship with performance varies across cultures. Our purpo...

Involving and Engaging People With Learning Disabilities in the DECODE* Research Project (*Data‐Driven Machine‐Learning Aided Stratification and Management of Multiple Long‐Term Conditions in Adults With Intellectual Disabilities)

✇Wiley: Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities: Table of Contents
By: Amy Faull， Sarah Rabbitte， Reza Kiani， Gyuchan Thomas Jun， Sonal Kuchadia， Heidi Neville， Amar Jobanputra， Satheesh Gangadharan
8 March 2025 at 12:43

ABSTRACT

Some groups of people are underserved in research. This means that they do not take part in research as much as they should. People with learning disabilities do not often take part in research. There are lots of reasons for this, such as researchers not knowing how to (1) make research easy to understand for people with learning disabilities, (2) communicate well with them and (3) hold meetings in places that people can access easily. This paper talks about how the DECODE project included people with learning disabilities in Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) groups which meant that they were able to share their ideas as part of the research team. There were four PPI groups in DECODE: two groups for people with learning disabilities and two groups for family members and carers. Members from local learning disability networks joined the groups. Easy Read information leaflets and posters were used to support people to join the project. We were able to make adjustments so that people could keep coming to the groups. Regular meetings were held and taxis could be booked for people. PPI members had training about research and updates from the researchers about how their work was helping the project. PPI were involved from the start of the project's design. They supported us to make Easy Read information leaflets and told us what was difficult to understand. People with learning disabilities are able to take part in research when reasonable adjustments are made and when researchers take time to get to know people individually.

A Cross‐Cultural Analysis of Infants' Spatial Attention on the Infant Orienting With Attention (IOWA) Task

✇Wiley: Child Development: Table of Contents
By: Michaela C. DeBolt， Bess L. Caswell， Matthews George， Kenneth Maleta， Elizabeth L. Prado， Shannon Ross‐Sheehy， Christine P. Stewart， Lisa M. Oakes
8 March 2025 at 09:24

ABSTRACT

Research with Western samples has uncovered the rapid development of infants' visual attention. This study evaluated spatial attention in 6- to 9-month-old infants living in rural Malawi (N = 511; nBoys$$ {n}_{\mathrm{Boys}} $$ = 255, nYao$$ {n}_{\mathrm{Yao}} $$ = 427) or suburban California, United States (N = 57, nBoys$$ {n}_{\mathrm{Boys}} $$ = 29, nWhite$$ {n}_{\mathrm{White}} $$ = 37) in 2018–2019. Using the Infant Orienting With Attention (IOWA) task, results showed that infants were faster and more accurate to fixate a target when a cue validly predicted the target location and were slower and less accurate when the cue was invalid. However, compared to US infants, Malawian infants took longer to fixate the target and were more accurate. These results both provide information about the development of spatial attention in an underrepresented population and demonstrate differences in spatial attention in infants with different lived experiences.

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Home Rating Scale for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS‐2) in a Türkiye Sample

✇Wiley: Psychology in the Schools: Table of Contents
By: Sevinc Zeynep Kavruk， Figen Turan
8 March 2025 at 19:49

ABSTRACT

This study adapts the “Scales for Identifying Gifted Students (SIGS-2)” into Turkish for use from preschool onward, specifically during the candidate nomination stage. Conducted with 974 parents (675 mothers, 299 fathers) of children aged 5–10, it employs Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to evaluate the scale's structure and reliability. CFA results show excellent fit indices (CFI = 0.998, GFI = 0.994, IFI = 0.998, NFI = 0.993, NNFI = 0.998, RFI = 0.993) and an RMSEA of 0.017, indicating good model fit. Factor loadings ranged from 0.36 to 0.89, and item-total correlations were between 0.32 and 0.79, demonstrating effective discrimination. Reliability coefficients were high, with Cronbach's alpha, McDonald's omega, and Composite Reliability (CR) ranging from 0.87 to 0.96. The SIGS-2 Home Rating Scale aligns well with existing measures and reflects changes in IQ levels, showing its suitability for assessing gifted children in Türkiye. While parental nominations are valuable, they may be less reliable than test results in identifying giftedness.

Supporting Girls' Engineering Habits of Mind With STEM Education

✇Wiley: Psychology in the Schools: Table of Contents
By: Ahmet Erol， Mustafa Erol， Merve Canbeldek Erol
8 March 2025 at 18:43

ABSTRACT

STEM is a field where gender stereotypes regarding men persist. Women are underrepresented compared to men in STEM fields. The social belief that engineering is only for men discourages young girls from pursuing such endeavors. Encouraging young girls to enter STEM fields is crucial to dispel these stereotypes. Therefore, one of the essential aspects of beginning STEM education in early childhood is dismantling the gendered perception of professions. This study aimed to support girls’ engineering habits of mind (EHoM) with STEM education. The participants in the study were eight 5-year-old children. Children participated in six STEM activities for 12 weeks. Two days per week and 120 min per day were devoted to practice. We collected the data using the observation protocol, interview protocol, and reflective diary and analyzed it using content analysis. We explained the results within the context of six fundamental EHoM mentioned previously in the literature: systems thinking, creativity, optimism, collaboration, communication, and attention to ethical considerations. While collaboration, communication, systems thinking, and creativity were the most utilized habits of mind in STEM education, attention to ethical considerations was the least used. The girls found numerous opportunities to support their EHoM in this process. Our findings indicate that STEM education can help girls’ EHoM.

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