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Attachment & Human Development Jun 2024Fathers play a critical yet underappreciated role in adolescent development. To examine contributions of fathers' parenting to attachment in adolescence and adulthood,...
Fathers play a critical yet underappreciated role in adolescent development. To examine contributions of fathers' parenting to attachment in adolescence and adulthood, this longitudinal study followed 184 adolescents from ages 13-24. At age 13, adolescents reported on their fathers' parenting behavior and were observed in a father-teen conflict task; at ages 14 and 24, they completed the Adult Attachment Interview. Adolescents who lived with their father showed higher attachment security at age 14 (Cohen's = .72), compared to those with non-residential fathers. Fathers' positive relatedness and support for teens' psychological autonomy predicted attachment security at age 14. Fathers' aggression predicted attachment insecurity in adolescence, whereas fathers' aggression predicted insecurity in adulthood, illuminating developmental shifts. Pathways to security were moderated by father residential status, adolescent gender, and race. Findings underscore the importance of fathers' presence, autonomy support, and non-aggression in predicting adolescents' state of mind in close relationships.
PubMed: 38869354
DOI: 10.1080/14616734.2024.2366391 -
JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive... Jun 2024People with intellectual and sensory or sensory-motor disabilities tend to have problems performing multistep tasks. To alleviate their problems, technological solutions...
BACKGROUND
People with intellectual and sensory or sensory-motor disabilities tend to have problems performing multistep tasks. To alleviate their problems, technological solutions have been developed that provide task-step instructions. Instructions are generally delivered at people's request (eg, as they touch an area of a computer or tablet screen) or automatically, at preset intervals.
OBJECTIVE
This study carried out a preliminary assessment of a new tablet-based technology system that presented task-step instructions when participants with intellectual and sensory disabilities walked close to the tablet (ie, did not require participants to perform fine motor responses on the tablet screen).
METHODS
The system entailed a tablet and a wireless camera and was programmed to present instructions when participants approached the tablet, that is, when the camera positioned in front of the tablet detected them. Two instructions were available for each task step. One instruction concerned the object(s) that the participants were to collect, and the other instruction concerned the "where" and "how" the object(s) collected would need to be used. For 3 of the six participants, the two instructions were presented in succession, with the second instruction presented once the required object(s) had been collected. For the other 3 participants, the two instructions were presented simultaneously. Instructions consisted of pictorial representations combined with brief verbal phrases. The impact of the system was assessed for each of the 2 groups of participants using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across individuals.
RESULTS
All participants were successful in using the system. Their mean frequency of correct task steps was close to or above 11.5 for tasks including 12 steps. Their level of correct performance tended to be much lower during the baseline phase when they were to receive the task-step instructions from a regular tablet through scrolling responses.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings, which need to be interpreted with caution given the preliminary nature of the study, suggest that the new tablet-based technology system might be useful for helping people with intellectual and sensory disabilities perform multistep tasks.
PubMed: 38865701
DOI: 10.2196/59315 -
PloS One 2024This study aims to investigate the effect of detoxification on acoustic features of Mandarin speech. Speech recordings were collected from 66 male abstinent heroin users...
This study aims to investigate the effect of detoxification on acoustic features of Mandarin speech. Speech recordings were collected from 66 male abstinent heroin users with different durations of drug detoxification, specifically early abstinent users with a detoxification duration of less than 2 years, sustained abstinent users with 2 years of detoxification, and long-term abstinent users with a detoxification duration of more than 2 years. The results of the acoustic analyses showed that early abstinent users exhibited lower loudness, relative energies of F1, F2, and F3, higher H1-A3, and fewer loudness peaks per second, as well as a longer average duration of unvoiced segments, compared to the sustained and long-term abstinent users. The findings suggest that detoxification may lead to a rehabilitation process in the speech production of abstinent heroin users (e.g., less vocal hoarseness). This study not only provides valuable insights into the effect of detoxification on speech production but also provides a theoretical basis for the speech rehabilitation and detoxification treatment of heroin users.
Topics: Humans; Male; Heroin Dependence; Adult; Speech Acoustics; Speech; Young Adult; Language; Inactivation, Metabolic
PubMed: 38865318
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304399 -
Actas Espanolas de Psiquiatria Jun 2024In recent years, the number of adolescents with depression has been increasing annually, with individuals often exhibiting non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior. The...
BACKGROUND
In recent years, the number of adolescents with depression has been increasing annually, with individuals often exhibiting non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behavior. The purpose of this study is to investigate the family (childhood abuse), school (peer victimization), and individual (psychological resilience) factors of adolescents with depression with or without NSSI (the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation [C-FASM] scale), and to analyze the correlation between the above psychological and social factors and the frequency of NSSI, to provide a basis for NSSI prevention and intervention in adolescents with depression.
METHODS
We recruited 355 adolescents with depressive symptoms to participate in this study and divided them into Group NSSI (N = 227) and Group no-NSSI (n-NSSI) (N = 128) based on the C-FASM scale. The Short-Form Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), Multidimensional Peer Visualization Scale (MPVS), and Resilience Scale for Chinese Adolescents (RISC) scores were compared between two groups of adolescents. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between NSSI frequency and the above scores.
RESULTS
Emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, and total CTQ-SF score in Group NSSI were significantly higher than those in Group n-NSSI (all p < 0.001). Physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, attacks on property, and total MPVS score in Group NSSI were significantly higher than those in Group n-NSSI (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.009, p < 0.001, p < 0.001). Goal concentration, emotion regulation, positive perception, family support, interpersonal assistance, and total RISC score in Group NSSI were significantly lower than those in Group n-NSSI (all p < 0.001). The frequency of NSSI was significantly positively correlated with emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, and total CTQ-SF score (r = 0.366, p < 0.001; r = 0.411, p < 0.001; r = 0.554, p < 0.001; r = 0.220, p = 0.001; r = 0.255, p < 0.001; r = 0.673, p < 0.001). The frequency of NSSI was significantly positively correlated with physical victimization, verbal victimization, social manipulation, attacks on property, and total MPVS score (r = 0.418, p < 0.001; r = 0.455, p < 0.001; r = 0.447, p < 0.001; r = 0.555, p = 0.001; r = 0.704, p < 0.001). The frequency of NSSI was significantly negatively correlated with goal concentration, emotion regulation, positive perception, family support, interpersonal assistance, and total RISC score (r = -0.393, p < 0.001; r = -0.341, p < 0.001; r = -0.465, p < 0.001; r = -0.272, p = 0.001; r = -0.160, p = 0.016; r = -0.540, p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings highlight the importance of family (childhood abuse), school (peer victimization), and individual (psychological resilience) factors for NSSI in depressed adolescents, and these factors are closely related to NSSI frequency.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Maintaining a good family environment, solving the problem of peer victimization at school, and developing corresponding measures to improve psychological resilience are of great significance for improving the mental health of depressed adolescents and reducing the risk of NSSI.
Topics: Humans; Adolescent; Self-Injurious Behavior; Male; Female; Child Abuse; Resilience, Psychological; Crime Victims; Depression; Peer Group; Child; Bullying; Correlation of Data
PubMed: 38863041
DOI: 10.62641/aep.v52i3.1650 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jun 2024Despite common clinical complaints about memory for conversation after traumatic brain injury (TBI), the nature and severity of this deficit are unknown. In this...
PURPOSE
Despite common clinical complaints about memory for conversation after traumatic brain injury (TBI), the nature and severity of this deficit are unknown. In this research note, we report feasibility and preliminary data from a new conversation memory study protocol.
METHOD
Participants in this feasibility study were 10 pairs, each including an adult with chronic, moderate-to-severe TBI and their chosen familiar conversation partner. The experiment began with a naturalistic conversation between participants with TBI and their conversation partners. After a filled delay, participants next completed verbal recall for the conversation, which we transcribed and coded for their accuracy relative to the original conversation. Participants also read chosen statements from their original conversation and predicted what each partner would remember in a week. One week later, participants completed a posttest about who said each of the chosen statements, allowing direct comparison to their predictions.
RESULTS
We successfully collected conversation memory data from all 10 pairs, suggesting that this protocol is feasible for future study. In this preliminary sample, people with TBI and their conversation partners did not differ in the accuracy of their recall for the conversation about 20 min after it occurred. When asked to predict their partner's delayed memory, conversation partners were less accurate than participants with TBI because they underestimated how much their partners with TBI would remember.
CONCLUSION
Measuring memory for conversation in TBI is feasible and may advance the characterization of cognitive-communication impairment in TBI, and its heterogeneity, in everyday contexts.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25927513.
PubMed: 38861453
DOI: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00420 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jun 2024The current study examined the predictive role of gestures and gesture-speech combinations on later spoken language outcomes in minimally verbal (MV) autistic children...
PURPOSE
The current study examined the predictive role of gestures and gesture-speech combinations on later spoken language outcomes in minimally verbal (MV) autistic children enrolled in a blended naturalistic developmental/behavioral intervention (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation [JASPER] + Enhanced Milieu Teaching [EMT]).
METHOD
Participants were 50 MV autistic children (40 boys), ages 54-105 months ( = 75.54, = 16.45). MV was defined as producing fewer than 20 spontaneous, unique, and socially communicative words. Autism symptom severity (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition) and nonverbal cognitive skills (Leiter-R Brief IQ) were assessed at entry. A natural language sample (NLS), a 20-min examiner-child interaction with specified toys, was collected at entry (Week 1) and exit (Week 18) from JASPER + EMT intervention. The NLS was coded for gestures (deictic, conventional, and representational) and gesture-speech combinations (reinforcing, disambiguating, supplementary, other) at entry and spoken language outcomes: speech quantity (rate of speech utterances) and speech quality (number of different words [NDW] and mean length of utterance in words [MLUw]) at exit using European Distributed Corpora Project Linguistic Annotator and Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts.
RESULTS
Controlling for nonverbal IQ and autism symptom severity at entry, rate of gesture-speech combinations (but not gestures alone) at entry was a significant predictor of rate of speech utterances and MLUw at exit. The rate of supplementary gesture-speech combinations, in particular, significantly predicted rate of speech utterances and NDW at exit.
CONCLUSION
These findings highlight the critical importance of gestural communication, particularly gesture-speech (supplementary) combinations in supporting spoken language development in MV autistic children.
PubMed: 38861424
DOI: 10.1044/2024_JSLHR-23-00433 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2024In the present study, we aimed to assess the cognition of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) participants in relation to their subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep...
OBJECTIVE
In the present study, we aimed to assess the cognition of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) participants in relation to their subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and to analyse possible moderators of this effect, such as quality of life (European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions, EQ-5D), fatigue (Chadler Fatigue Questionnaire, CFQ), cognitive reserve (Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire, CRC), and subjective cognitive complaints (Memory Failures of Everyday Questionnaire, MFE-30).
METHODS
We included 373 individuals with PCC and 126 healthy controls (HCs) from the NAUTILUS Project (NCT05307549 and NCT05307575) who were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery and various questionnaires.
RESULTS
We found that PCC participants with poor sleep quality had a 4.3% greater risk of immediate verbal memory deficits than those with good sleep quality, as indicated by the greater odds ratio (OR) of 1.043 and confidence interval (CI) of 1.023-1.063. Additionally, their risk of immediate verbal memory disorders was multiplied by 2.4 when their EQ-5D score was low (OR 0.33; CI 0.145-0.748), and they had a lower risk of delayed visual memory deficits with a greater CRC (OR 0.963; CI 0.929-0.999). With respect to processing speed, PCC participants with poor sleep quality had a 6.7% greater risk of deficits as the MFE increased (OR 1.059; CI 1.024-1.096), and the risk of slowed processing speed tripled with a lower EQ-5D (OR 0.021; CI 0.003-0.141).
CONCLUSION
These results indicate that poor subjective sleep quality is a potential trigger for cognitive deficits. Therapeutic strategies to maximize sleep quality could include reducing sleep disturbances and perhaps cognitive impairment in PCC individuals.
PubMed: 38860054
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1382875 -
Acta Neurochirurgica Jun 2024The aim of this case study was to describe differences in English and British Sign Language (BSL) communication caused by a left temporal tumour resulting in discordant...
The aim of this case study was to describe differences in English and British Sign Language (BSL) communication caused by a left temporal tumour resulting in discordant presentation of symptoms, intraoperative stimulation mapping during awake craniotomy and post-operative language abilities. We report the first case of a hearing child of deaf adults, who acquired BSL with English as a second language. The patient presented with English word finding difficulty, phonemic paraphasias, and reading and writing challenges, with BSL preserved. Intraoperatively, object naming and semantic fluency tasks were performed in English and BSL, revealing differential language maps for each modality. Post-operative assessment confirmed mild dysphasia for English with BSL preserved. These findings suggest that in hearing people who acquire a signed language as a first language, topographical organisation may differ to that of a second, spoken, language.
Topics: Humans; Glioblastoma; Sign Language; Craniotomy; Brain Neoplasms; Temporal Lobe; Brain Mapping; Male; Wakefulness; Speech; Multilingualism; Language; Adult
PubMed: 38858238
DOI: 10.1007/s00701-024-06130-x -
PloS One 2024What is the role of working memory over the course of non-native speech category learning? Prior work has predominantly focused on how working memory might influence...
What is the role of working memory over the course of non-native speech category learning? Prior work has predominantly focused on how working memory might influence learning assessed at a single timepoint. Here, we substantially extend this prior work by examining the role of working memory on speech learning performance over time (i.e., over several months) and leverage a multifaceted approach that provides key insights into how working memory influences learning accuracy, maintenance of knowledge over time, generalization ability, and decision processes. We found that the role of working memory in non-native speech learning depends on the timepoint of learning and whether individuals learned the categories at all. Among learners, across all stages of learning, working memory was associated with higher accuracy as well as faster and slightly more cautious decision making. Further, while learners and non-learners did not have substantially different working memory performance, learners had faster evidence accumulation and more cautious decision thresholds throughout all sessions. Working memory may enhance learning by facilitating rapid category acquisition in initial stages and enabling faster and slightly more careful decision-making strategies that may reduce the overall effort needed to learn. Our results have important implications for developing interventions to improve learning in naturalistic language contexts.
Topics: Humans; Memory, Short-Term; Female; Male; Learning; Individuality; Speech; Young Adult; Adult; Decision Making; Language
PubMed: 38857268
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297917 -
Scientific Reports Jun 2024Cochlear implants (CIs) do not offer the same level of effectiveness in noisy environments as in quiet settings. Current single-microphone noise reduction algorithms in...
Cochlear implants (CIs) do not offer the same level of effectiveness in noisy environments as in quiet settings. Current single-microphone noise reduction algorithms in hearing aids and CIs only remove predictable, stationary noise, and are ineffective against realistic, non-stationary noise such as multi-talker interference. Recent developments in deep neural network (DNN) algorithms have achieved noteworthy performance in speech enhancement and separation, especially in removing speech noise. However, more work is needed to investigate the potential of DNN algorithms in removing speech noise when tested with listeners fitted with CIs. Here, we implemented two DNN algorithms that are well suited for applications in speech audio processing: (1) recurrent neural network (RNN) and (2) SepFormer. The algorithms were trained with a customized dataset ( 30 h), and then tested with thirteen CI listeners. Both RNN and SepFormer algorithms significantly improved CI listener's speech intelligibility in noise without compromising the perceived quality of speech overall. These algorithms not only increased the intelligibility in stationary non-speech noise, but also introduced a substantial improvement in non-stationary noise, where conventional signal processing strategies fall short with little benefits. These results show the promise of using DNN algorithms as a solution for listening challenges in multi-talker noise interference.
Topics: Humans; Cochlear Implants; Deep Learning; Speech Intelligibility; Noise; Female; Middle Aged; Male; Algorithms; Speech Perception; Aged; Adult; Neural Networks, Computer
PubMed: 38853168
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63675-8