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David S Bennett

Publications and source records attributed to David S Bennett.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Impersistence of depression in youth: Implications for drug study design.

Food and Drug Administration data show that most anti-depressant studies in youth do not show drug effect. The few positive studies used rigorous diagnostic screening procedures, suggesting major depressive disorder (MDD) may not be a persistent condition in a subgroup of youth. To investigate persistence of MDD, we serially assessed a cohort of inpatients admitted to the hospital with a clinical diagnosis of MDD. Assessments included a structured diagnostic interview, the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents-Revised (DICA-R), and measures of depressive symptomatology. Of 66 subjects (40 girls; mean age, 14.4 +/- 2.2 years), 34 (51.5%) met DICA-R criteria for MDD at the initial postadmission assessment. Of these, only 8 (23.5%) met DICA-R criteria for MDD at any subsequent assessment. Similar reductions were found on other ratings of depression. In conclusion, MDD did not persist in this sample. The findings suggest a multigated assessment procedure should be employed before randomization in antidepressant clinical trials.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Relations of parental report and observation of parenting to maltreatment history.

Parenting assessments (the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, CTSPC; and a mother-child observation) were examined for their ability to identify mothers with a history of physically abusing or neglecting their child. Participants were mothers of 139 children (age 3 to 6 years; 58 with a history of maltreatment). Mothers with a history of maltreatment reported higher scores on the Neglect, Nonviolent Discipline, and Psychological Aggression subscales of the CTSPC. These group differences, however, were limited to mothers who acknowledged a history of maltreatment, as mothers who concealed their maltreatment history rated themselves similar to controls. Observation of parental behaviors during a brief, nonstressful task did not discriminate mothers who maltreated from mothers who did not maltreat. The findings suggest that parental report using the CTSPC may be useful in assessing parenting behaviors among mothers with a history of maltreatment, although socially desirable responding is a significant problem.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Gender differences in adolescent depression: do symptoms differ for boys and girls?

BACKGROUND: Limited prior research suggests that depressed women are more likely to experience certain symptoms of depression than are depressed men. The purpose of this study was to examine whether such gender differences in depressive symptoms are present during adolescence. METHODS: The Childhood Version of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered to adolescents presenting for evaluation at an outpatient clinic (n=383; ages 11.9 to 20.0). RESULTS: Depressed girls and boys had similar symptom prevalence and severity ratings for most depressive symptoms. However, depressed girls had more guilt, body image dissatisfaction, self-blame, self-disappointment, feelings of failure, concentration problems, difficulty working, sadness/depressed mood, sleep problems, fatigue, and health worries than depressed boys on some comparisons. In contrast, depressed boys had higher clinician ratings of anhedonia, depressed morning mood, and morning fatigue. LIMITATIONS: Longitudinal research is needed to test whether such relatively gender-specific symptoms play different roles in the onset, maintenance, or remittance of depression for boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that, in general, the experience of depression is highly similar for adolescent girls and boys. However, some gender differences previously found among depressed adults appear to be present by adolescence, possibly suggesting somewhat distinct etiologies for depression among males and females.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Antecedents of emotion knowledge: Predictors of individual differences in young children.

Individual differences in emotion knowledge were examined among 188 4-year-old, predominantly African American children. Cognitive ability and negative emotionality, maternal characteristics (parenting, verbal intelligence, and depressive symptoms), environmental risk, and child sex were examined as predictors of emotion knowledge. Regression analyses indicated that cognitively skilled children who resided in relatively low risk environments with verbally intelligent mothers possessed greater emotion knowledge. Proximal (4-year) child cognitive ability was a stronger predictor than distal (2-year) cognitive ability. Positive parenting at 4 years was correlated with child emotion knowledge, but this relation disappeared when parenting was examined in the context of other predictors. These findings highlight the potential role of child cognitive ability, along with environmental risk and maternal verbal intelligence, in children's emotion knowledge and demonstrate the importance of examining a variety of predictors for their unique contribution to emotion knowledge.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Young children's adjustment as a function of maltreatment, shame, and anger.

Maltreated children are at increased risk for behavior problems. This study examines a model in which shame mediates the potential relation between maltreatment and anger, and anger mediates the potential relation between shame and behavior problems. Participants were 177 children (ages 3 to 7 years) and their mothers, 90 of whom had histories of perpetrating neglect and/or physical abuse. Physical abuse, but not neglect, was related to increased shame during an evaluative task; shame was related to increased anger; and anger to teacher ratings of total behavior problems and externalizing problems. Age moderated the relation between physical abuse and adjustment, as abuse was related to more total problems only among the younger children. Anger was a significant mediator of shame and both behavior problems and externalizing problems. Shame, anger, age, and type of maltreatment appear to be important factors in explaining variance in behavioral adjustment following a history of maltreatment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Does the Organization of Emotional Expression Change Over Time? Facial Expressivity From 4 to 12 Months.

Differentiation models contend that the organization of facial expressivity increases during infancy. Accordingly, infants are believed to exhibit increasingly specific facial expressions in response to stimuli as a function of development. This study tested this hypothesis in a sample of 151 infants (83 boys and 68 girls) observed in 4 situations (tickle, sour taste, arm restraint, and masked stranger) at 4 and 12 months of age. Three of the 4 situations showed evidence of increasing specificity over time. In response to tickle, the number of infants exhibiting joy expressions increased and the number exhibiting interest, surprise, and surprise blends decreased from 4 to 12 months. In tasting a sour substance, more infants exhibited disgust and fewer exhibited joy and interest expressions, and fear and surprise blends over time. For arm restraint, more infants exhibited anger expressions and anger blends and fewer exhibited interest and surprise expressions and surprise blends over time. In response to a masked stranger, however, no evidence of increased specificity was found. Overall, these findings suggest that infants increasingly exhibit particular expressions in response to specific stimuli during the 1st year of life. These data provide partial support for the hypothesis that facial expressivity becomes increasingly organized over time.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Creation of a web-based lecture series for psychiatry clerkship students: initial findings.

OBJECTIVE: In recent years, the trend in medical education has been to utilize clerkship settings outside the medical school. Subsequently, students rotate at distant sites from the main campus and have lectures of varying quantity and quality. The objective of the present study was to standardize the core didactic experience for students in the Psychiatry clerkship by using web-based lectures and to assess student satisfaction with such lectures. METHODS: Students completed a brief satisfaction questionnaire after viewing both web-based and live lectures. RESULTS: Students rated both web-based and live lectures positively, although overall satisfaction ratings were higher for live lectures. Shelf-exam scores improved for the current year, suggesting that learning was not negatively affected by the use of web-based lectures. CONCLUSIONS: Web-based lectures appear to be a feasible and satisfactory way to ensure didactic comparability across clinical sites.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed2004

Reactive vs. proactive antisocial behavior: differential correlates of child ADHD symptoms?

This study examines the relation between proactive and reactive antisocial behavior with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Caregivers of children aged 8 to 15 (n = 84) being evaluated at a child psychiatry outpatient clinic served as participants. Given the conceptual similarity between reactive antisocial behavior (ASB) and particular ADHD symptoms, we hypothesized that ADHD symptoms would be more closely related to reactive than to proactive ASB. Based on peer deviancy training models of ASB, we also hypothesized that the relation between ADHD symptoms and proactive ASB would increase from middle childhood to adolescence. Both hypotheses were supported. These findings suggest that reactive ASB is relatively specific to ADHD symptoms, and that intervening before early adolescence may be critical to prevent the onset of comorbid proactive ASB.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

On Specifying Specificity: Facial Expressions at 4 Months.

Izard (2004/this issue) clarifies the position of differential emotions theory by proposing a distinction between hard and soft versions of event-emotion expression relations. We concur that the best design to examine situational specificity in facial expressions is one that utilizes multiple stimulus situations assessed over multiple occasions and ages. However, the problem of how to identify, a priori, a family of stimulus situations remains. We offer an example from our own recent work demonstrating how facial expressions and physiological indexes may converge to indicate the presence of a meaningful family of stimulus situations. Specifically, we found evidence for a family of frustrating, goal-blocking events that elicited expressions and cortisol responses indicative of anger at 4 months. Yet, individual differences exist in that these situations also elicited expressions and cortisol changes indicative of sadness. Identification of a more comprehensive set of such situations throughout infancy will allow researchers to more systematically examine the degree to which situational specificity of emotions is present.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Inhibitory motor control at five years as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure.

This study examined children's (n = 140, age 5 years) ability to inhibit a motor response as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure. We hypothesized that cocaine-exposed children would perform worse than unexposed children on the Contrary Tapping task. Results indicated that cocaine exposure, high environmental risk, male gender, and low child IQ each were related to poorer inhibitory control. An interaction indicated that cocaine effects were specific to children who lived in relatively low-risk environments. Cocaine-exposed children made an error sooner than unexposed children in low-risk environments but in the same trial as both exposed and unexposed children living in high-risk environments. Potential underlying mechanisms and the importance of examining cocaine exposure effects in the context of children's existing environment are discussed.

Child Development↗
PubMed2002

Children's intellectual and emotional-behavioral adjustment at 4 years as a function of cocaine exposure, maternal characteristics, and environmental risk.

The authors examined 223 children at age 4 years for the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, exposure to other substances, maternal and environmental risk factors, and neonatal medical problems on IQ, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems. Regression analyses showed that maternal verbal IQ and low environmental risk predicted child IQ. Cocaine exposure negatively predicted children's overall IQ and verbal reasoning scores, but only for boys. Cocaine exposure also predicted poorer short-term memory. Maternal harsh discipline, maternal depressive symptoms, and increased environmental risk predicted externalizing problems. In contrast, only maternal depressive symptoms predicted internalizing problems. These findings indicate that early exposure to substances is largely unrelated to subsequent IQ or adjustment, particularly for girls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Facial Expressivity at 4 Months: A Context by Expression Analysis.

The specificity predicted by differential emotions theory (DET) for early facial expressions in response to 5 different eliciting situations was studied in a sample of 4-month-old infants (n = 150). Infants were videotaped during tickle, sour taste, jack-in-the-box, arm restraint, and masked-stranger situations and their expressions were coded second by second. Infants showed a variety of facial expressions in each situation; however, more infants exhibited positive (joy and surprise) than negative expressions (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness) across all situations except sour taste. Consistent with DET-predicted specificity, joy expressions were the most common in response to tickling, and were less common in response to other situations. Surprise expressions were the most common in response to the jack-in-the-box, as predicted, but also were the most common in response to the arm restraint and masked-stranger situations, indicating a lack of specificity. No evidence of predicted specificity was found for anger, disgust, fear, and sadness expressions. Evidence of individual differences in expressivity within situations, as well as stability in the pattern across situations, underscores the need to examine both child and contextual factors in studying emotional development. The results provide little support for the DET postulate of situational specificity and suggest that a synthesis of differential emotions and dynamic systems theories of emotional expression should be considered.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Taxonicity of adolescent melancholia: a categorical or dimensional construct?

A taxometric analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis that the latent structure of melancholia in adolescents is categorical. Two taxometric procedures were used: Mean Above Minus Below a Cut (MAMBAC) and Maximum Covariance (MAXCOV) analyses. Participants were 378 adolescents presenting for a depression evaluation. Indicators of melancholia were constructed using items from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children (K-SADS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The indicators of melancholia were consistent with a categorical latent variable. The findings suggest that the latent structure of melancholia in adolescents is similar to its previously identified categorical structure in adults. Implications for clinical research are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Medical students' perceptions of child psychiatry: pre- and post-psychiatry clerkship.

OBJECTIVE: The U.S. is facing a severe shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists (CAPs). While medical students have been relatively disinterested in psychiatry, little research has examined their perceptions of CAP. The present study examined student perceptions of CAP and general psychiatry, and whether these perceptions changed during the psychiatry clerkship. METHODS: Students completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of CAP and general psychiatry as a career choice on the first and last day of their clerkship. RESULTS: The opportunity to help children was most frequently perceived to be a positive aspect of CAP. The most frequently reported negative aspects were that CAP is emotionally stressful, a perception that decreased during the clerkship, and that there is a lack of family/societal support for children, a perception that increased during the clerkship. More students reported that CAP is respected compared to general psychiatry. Students estimated CAP salaries to be higher than general psychiatry salaries, but only at the end of the clerkship. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for the recruitment of medical students into CAP are discussed, including the potential importance of exposing students to diverse patient populations and requiring a CAP experience during the clerkship.

Adult↗