Conscientiousness as a Predictor of the Gender Gap in Academic Achievement.

In recent decades, female students have been more successful in higher education than their male counterparts in the United States and other industrialized countries. A promising explanation for this gender gap are differences in personality, particularly higher levels of conscientiousness among women. Using Structural Equation Modeling on data from 4719 Dutch university students, this study examined to what extent conscientiousness can account for the gender gap in achievement.

Parenting group composition does not impact program effects on children's conduct problems.

Many established parenting programs for children's conduct problems are delivered in groups. Various, and at times conflicting, beliefs exist about whether families fare better in groups with parents that are more similar to them, or in groups that are more diverse. We set out to test these beliefs empirically.

Exploratory study of the course of posttraumatic stress disorder after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs often in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) survivors, but how PTSD develops over time post-aSAH is still unclear. We examined the course of PTSD symptoms during the first year after aSAH.

Method: In this prospective cohort study, the Impact of Event Scale (IES) was applied in 128 patients 3, 6 and 12 months after aSAH.

Predicting the Effectiveness of Work-Focused CBT for Common Mental Disorders: The Influence of Baseline Self-Efficacy, Depression and Anxiety.

Purpose This study examined who benefits most from a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)-based intervention that aims to enhance return to work (RTW) among employees who are absent due to common mental disorders (CMDs) (e.g., depression, anxiety, or adjustment disorder).

Speed Matters: Relationship between Speed of Eye Movements and Modification of Aversive Autobiographical Memories.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an efficacious treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. In EMDR, patients recall a distressing memory and simultaneously make eye movements (EM). Both tasks are considered to require limited working memory (WM) resources.

A trial of parent training for mothers being released from incarceration and their children.

Children of incarcerated mothers are considered at risk for disruptive behavior problems and later delinquency. Parenting may play a key role in this intergenerational transmission of delinquency. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible Years parent training, enhanced with home visits, for (formerly) incarcerated mothers to prevent disruptive behavior problems in their 2- to 10-year-old children, by means of a nationwide randomized controlled trial.

Partner-oriented self-regulation among bereaved parents: the costs of holding in grief for the partner's sake.

Bereavement research has focused on individual rather than interdependent processes in coping with loss. Yet bereavement takes place in a social context, and relationship partners are likely to influence each other's grieving process. We examined the impact of a dynamic, interpersonal phenomenon, partner-oriented self-regulation (POSR): the avoidance of talking about loss and remaining strong in the partner's presence to protect the partner.

Work-focused treatment of common mental disorders and return to work: a comparative outcome study.

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two individual-level psychotherapy interventions: (a) treatment as usual consisting of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and (b) work-focused CBT (W-CBT) that integrated work aspects early into the treatment. Both interventions were carried out by psychotherapists with employees on sick leave because of common mental disorders (depression, anxiety, or adjustment disorder). In a quasi-experimental design, 12-month follow-up data of 168 employees were collected.

The prospective association between psychological distress and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis: a multilevel regression analysis.

Background: Cross-sectional associations suggest a mutual impact of disease activity and psychological distress in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but a prospective association has not been established.

Objective: To examine concurrent and prospective associations between psychological distress and disease activity.

Methods: Patients with RA (N=545, disease duration ≤1 year, age 18-83 years, 69% female, 64% rheumatoid factor (RF) positive) were monitored for 5 years.

Risk factors for bereavement outcome: a multivariate approach.

Bereavement increases the risk of ill health, but only a minority of bereaved suffers lasting health impairment. Because only this group is likely to profit from bereavement intervention, early identification is important. Previous research is limited, because of cross sectional designs, small numbers of risk factors, and use of a single measure of bereavement outcome.

The role of companions in aiding older cancer patients to recall medical information.

Objectives: This study investigates information recall in unaccompanied and accompanied older cancer patients and their companions.

Methods: One hundred cancer patients (aged > or = 65 years) and 71 companions completed a recall questionnaire after a nursing consultation preceding chemotherapy treatment. Recall was checked against the actual communication in video-recordings of the consultations.

The impact of circumstances surrounding the death of a child on parents' grief.

A longitudinal study was conducted among bereaved parents to examine the relationship between the circumstances surrounding the death of their child and psychological adjustment. Two hundred nineteen couples participated at 6, 13, and 20 months post-loss. Examination was made of two categories of factors: those that were determined by the particular death circumstances (e.

Parents grieving the loss of their child: interdependence in coping.

Objectives: A longitudinal study was conducted among bereaved parents, to examine the relationship between parents' own and their partners' ways of coping in terms of the constructs loss-orientation and restoration-orientation (coping strategies based on the bereavement-specific Dual Process Model (Stroebe & Schut, 1999)), and psychological adjustment following the death of their child.

Method: 219 couples participated at 6, 13 and 20 months post-loss. Use of the Actor Partner Interdependence Model within multi-level regression analyses enabled assessment of both actor as well as partner effects, and permitted differentiating these effects according to the gender of the parent.

Patterns of attachment and parents' adjustment to the death of their child.

The impact of adult attachment on psychological adjustment among bereaved parents and the mediating effect of relationship satisfaction were examined among a sample of 219 couples of parents. Data collection took place 6, 13, and 20 months after loss. Use of the actor partner interdependence model in multilevel regression analysis enabled exploration of both individual as well as partner attachment as predictors of grief and depression.

Couples at risk following the death of their child: predictors of grief versus depression.

This longitudinal study examined the relative impact of major variables for predicting adjustment (in terms of both grief and depression) among bereaved parents following the death of their child. Couples (N = 219) participated 6, 13, and 20 months postloss. Use of multilevel regression analyses enabled assessment of the impact of several predictors and facilitated analysis of factors that were either shared by parents or individual.