Faculty Bibliography

Examined three aspects of childhood anxiety and peer liking: (1) whether or not children can detect anxiety in age mates, (2) the degree to which peer-reported anxiety, self-reported anxiety, and presence of anxiety disorders are associated with peer liking, and (3) whether or not self-reported anxiety and presence of anxiety disorders are associated with peer liking after controlling for peer-reported anxiety. Peer raters (N=20; age 9.5-12.8) watched and rated videotaped speech samples of anxiety disordered (AD; N=62; age 9.5-13.5) and non-anxiety disordered (NAD; N=18; age 9.5-13.5) target children. Peer-rated anxiety was positively correlated with target children's self-reported anxiety and was higher among AD children and among children with social phobia (SP). Peer liking was inversely related to peer-reported anxiety and was lower for target children with SP. Target children with SP were liked less regardless of how anxious peers reported them to be. Peer rater and target child demographics did not moderate the relationship between peer-rated anxiety and peer liking. Theoretical and clinical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Reviews the book, Clinical manual of pediatric psychosomatic medicine: Mental health consultation with physically ill children and adolescents by Richard J. Shaw and David R. DeMaso (2006). This essential book is dedicated specifically to the field of pediatric consultation-liaison psychiatry. The authors explain that they have organized their text into three sections: an overview of the field, specific clinical phenomena, and approaches to treatment. Broadly, the book is indeed organized so, but its 16 chapters present an eclectic collection of themes too diverse to be neatly categorized. The diversity of themes is held together by handy charts, sensible recommendations, and sensitive discussions. The clarity of writing makes the text smooth to read, a great feat given its abundant scholarship and extensive range. This text is thorough and creative in its choice of subjects, but is not complete. Conspicuously absent are sections on eating disorders, child abuse and neglect, and suicide attempts. The authors point out that these disorders are not diagnoses of exclusion. Indeed, the approach to a patient with a somatoform disorder necessitates inclusion more than exclusion: the inclusion of a multiplicity of social, psychic, developmental and biologic elements within a patient's life may be more telling than the exclusion of known illness, which may in any case be present.

The accountability movement in psychology has resulted in practitioners increasingly using evidence-based interventions and treatment modalities to treat client problems. Behavioral consultation is one framework that practitioners can utilize in providing empirically supported services. In order to demonstrate the use of effective, evidence-based psychological practices, however, practitioners must carefully consider how they document their services and their outcomes. This article examines factors that practitioners must consider when writing reports on behavioral consultation cases. In addition, this article reviews 18 critical components that should be included in comprehensive behavioral consultation reports.

The expression psychopathology in general and child psychopathology in particular, is affected by multiple sources of variance. Some of these sources include gender differences, informant differences, and age-related differences. In this paper, we discuss how these sources of variance complicate both research and clinical management. We argue that the current diagnostic system would be aided by the inclusion of a quantitative axis that can take these sources of variance into account. We reason that the fields of genomics and neuroscience are prepared to move the field of developmental psychopathology forward, but need a diagnostic system that allows for these sources of variance to be controlled. We demonstrate how in Conduct Disorder, inclusion of dimensional information would allow the clinician or researcher to demonstrate not only the presence or absence of pathology, but also the degree to which the disorder is manifested in a particular individual. Because dimensional approaches are already used widely as an alternative measure of psychopathology, we argue that there is reason to consider dimensionalizing some aspects of the DSM.

This article presents the results of a study examining correlates of urban African American youth HIV knowledge. The influence of family level factors (e.g., family communication, parental AIDS knowledge and myths regarding HIV transmission, along with family composition and family income) are examined. In addition, the current study explores the influence of racial socialization processes, specifically the influence of religious/spiritual coping, extended family caring, cultural pride reinforcement and racial awareness teaching (Stevenson, 1994; 1995; 1997) on youth HIV knowledge. Multivariate analyses revealed a significant association between youth HIV knowledge and being reared in a single parent home. Further, in every model, controlling for all types of racial socialization processes, family communication was significantly associated with youth HIV knowledge. Implications are drawn regarding the development of culturally and contextually specific HIV prevention programming for African American youth and their families