Differences In Psychosocial Functioning Research Articles

A preliminary study of multidimensional pain inventory profile differences in predicting treatment outcome in a heterogeneous cohort of patients with chronic pain.

The objective was to evaluate whether the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) is effective for predicting response to interdisciplinary treatment in a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic pain. Changes in patients' profiles to a predominantly adaptive coping status after treatment also were assessed. A prospective study was conducted of patients with an array of pain conditions. A standard evaluation battery, including measures of self-reported pain and disability, psychosocial functioning, helpfulness of the program, and medication use, was used for all patients before and after treatment. The MPI status of patients was evaluated and differential response to treatment was assessed. Sixty-five consecutive patients with chronic pain were evaluated before and immediately after participation in an interdisciplinary pain treatment program. This heterogeneous pain-condition cohort was also differentiated on the basis of the MPI to evaluate potential differential response to treatment. Results revealed significant improvement among these patients with chronic pain when a comprehensive interdisciplinary pain-management program was administered. This improvement was seen across the variety of outcomes evaluated, including narcotic medication use. Most important, the MPI subgroup classification did not significantly predict the degree of positive treatment outcome; all subgroups improved. Although there were major differences in psychosocial functioning before treatment, the MPI was not found to significantly predict response to interdisciplinary treatment in a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic pain. Thus, a comprehensive interdisciplinary treatment program may achieve its full effectiveness across a wide array of pain/disability-related outcome variables, regardless of initial MPI profile categorization.

Risk Factors for Alcohol Use Among Inner-City Minority Youth: A Comparative Analysis of Youth Living in Public and Conventional Housing

SUMMARY National survey data indicate that drug use among our nation's secondary school youth is once again on the rise. Nowhere is this concern more dramatic than with inner-city youth who seem disproportionately affected by the risks associated with drug use. Urban youth residing in public housing developments may be extremely vulnerable as a result of their exposure to high rates of crime, unrelenting poverty, and drug use. To better understand the role of public housing conditions in the etiology of adolescent drug use, we examined a sample of youth living in hosing developments and youth living in conventional housing. Correlates and preductors of alcohol and drug use included measures of cognitive efficasy, Social influences, normative expectations, drug-refusal skills, family managment, psychological distress, and alcohol-related expectancies. Overall, there were few significant mean differences in psychosocial functioning or drug behaviour for the two groups. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses indicated that public housing status buffered against the negative effects of high levels of percieved alcohol availability on drinking behaviour, whereas youth living in conventional housing with high grades reported lower alcohol involvement. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for developing effective prevention approaches targeting urban youth residing in public housing.

The utility of dual diagnosis services for consumers from nonwhite ethnic groups

Differences in psychosocial functioning, symptoms, service use, and costs for 40 nonwhite consumers of mental health services and 92 white consumers were compared at baseline and six months in a controlled clinical trial of three dual diagnosis interventions. At six months nonwhite consumers had lower psychosocial functioning than white consumers as measured by self-report and clinicians' ratings. Nonwhite consumers received significantly less supportive treatment than white consumers. Qualitative data from staff interviews indicated that nonwhite consumers had inadequate community and family supports due to a variety of problems. Although the nonwhite consumers had outcomes similar to those of white consumers, the complex needs of the nonwhite consumers warrant additional staff resources and culturally sensitive services in dual diagnosis treatment programs.

Gender, ethnic group, and grade differences in psychosocial functioning during middle adolescence?

Prior research has found significant differences between ethnic groups in identity formation. However, most investigations have either failed to include or adjust for SES level differences. To reassess possible differences in psychosocial development between African American, American Indian, Mexican American, and White American 10th–12th grade male and female adolescents (n=123), ethnic groups were compared according to passive-active dimensions delineated in identity, sex role orientation, and locus of control. A series of analyses of covariance (using education level of father and mother as covariates) were computed using ethnicity, grade, and gender in the factorial model as main effects. Consistent with previous research, White adolescents scored significantly lower than the other groups on ideological foreclosure. Overall, however, more similarity than differences between the four ethnic groups were found. Older students were observed to be more psychosocially mature, and males scored higher than females on identity diffusion. Marginal support was gained for the proposed passive-active delineations of the dependent variables.

Continuity of difficult temperament in adolescence: Relations with depression, life events, family support, and substance use across a one-year period

This longitudinal study examined the continuity of temperamental difficulty among a school-based sample of middle adolescents (n=975) over a one-year period. Of the participants, 25% were classified as difficult at one or both measurement occasions and over 40% were classified as temperamentally discontinuous. Repeated measures multivariate analyses of covariance analyses identified mean differences in psychosocial functioning by temperamental continuity groups and by gender. Temperamental difficulty was associated with higher levels of depression, stressful life events, use of some substances, and lower levels of perceived family support. Gender differences were indicated for family support, depression, life events, and alcohol use.

Symptoms versus a diagnosis of depression: Differences in psychosocial functioning.

Symptoms versus a diagnosis of depression: Differences in psychosocial functioning.

Short Stature: A Psychosocial Burden Requiring Growth Hormone Therapy?

Changes in the diagnosis of endocrine-based growth disorders and the advent of biosynthetic growth hormone have altered the long-standing policy of treating only those individuals with "classic" growth hormone deficiency. One justification for treating short children is to improve their psychosocial adaptation. The present investigation assessed the positive and negative behavioral adaptation, self-perceptions of domain-specific competencies, and global self-worth of a large, diagnostically heterogeneous sample of children and adolescents referred to pediatric endocrinologists for a growth evaluation. All patients seen in a pediatric endocrine clinic (180 boys and 78 girls; 4 to 18 years) with a height at the fifth percentile or lower were included. Parents of all participating children completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Patients 8 years and older completed the Self-Perception Profile and those 11 years and older, in addition, completed the Youth Self Report. Short-stature (SS) subjects were compared with normative and psychiatric samples. The SS boys were described by parents as being significantly less socially competent and showing more behavioral and emotional problems than a normative sample selected for mental health. However, they were significantly more socially competent and showed fewer psychopathologic symptoms than a psychiatric referred sample of comparable age. The SS boys described themselves as less socially active but did not report more behavior disturbance than the normative sample. The SS boys' self-perceptions of domain-specific competencies and global self-worth were comparable to a normative comparison group with the exception that older subjects (13 years or older) described their athletic abilities more positively and their work competence more negatively. The SS girls were, with few exceptions, indistinguishable from the normal comparison groups on both parent- and self-report measures of social competency and behavior disturbance. Younger SS girls (ages 8 to 12 years) described their athletic competence and behavioral conduct more positively than the comparison group on the self-esteem questionnaire. Patient height deficit was unrelated to scores on the three questionnaires. Finally, no statistically significant differences in psychosocial functioning were detected between children with "normal-variant" SS and those with pathologic growth disorders. SS and those with pathologic growth disorders. Short-stature girls show more adaptive psychosocial functioning than SS boys. In either sex, SS does not appear to be associated with clinically significant psychosocial morbidity. Severity of the height deficit does not correlate with the level of behavioral adaptation. These observations challenge the justification of providing growth hormone therapy for all short children to improve their psychosocial functioning.

Children with no place to call home: Survival in the cars and on the streets

The author reports the results of a study about how 200 children between the ages of 6 and 12 understand and cope. with their homelessness. This study is theoretically framed and empirically grounded in the person-in-environment tradition of social work. Data collected through interviews with the children and questionnaires completed by their teachers were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analysis. Statistically significant differences in psychosocial functioning in the classroom, personal meaning of homelessness, and coping with concept of self as homeless were found between the 65 children identified as academically successful and the 135 identified as demonstrating academic problems.

Relationships between hemispheric lateralization, sex hormones, quality of parenting and adjustment in 47,XXY males prior to puberty.

This paper reports findings of a study examining the degree to which intelligence, levels of sex-steroids and gonadotropins, quality of parenting and laboratory-based measures of left and right hemispheric specialization are associated with individual differences in psychosocial functioning in pre-pubertal 47,XXY males. The results indicate that activity level and freedom from tendencies towards withdrawal in these subjects are best predicted by the normality of their left hemispheric functioning.