Intervention Effects follow from Scope Rigidity in Turkish

Intervention effects in Turkish wh-questions can be obviated by the overt movement of the wh-phrase past the intervener. This cross-linguistically robust method of intervention obviation raises an important question: what is it that bans the covert movement of the wh-phrase? I argue that this question finds a natural answer in Scope Rigidity, a general restriction on the availability of inverse scope. Importantly, including wh-phrases in the domain of Scope Rigidity calls for a scopal account of wh-phrases. I argue that this general approach has welcome consequences in explaining the source of intervention effects and in predicting what can intervene, and can even accommodate how extraction islands containing wh-phrases behave in intervention configurations.

Effects of a Brief Video Intervention on Attitudes Toward Counseling Services

This study investigated the effects of a brief video intervention on attitudes toward counseling services. Two hundred and seventy-seven participants were divided into four groups (anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant, fearful-avoidant, and secure) by their attachment scores. Then, the participants of each group were randomly assigned to three conditions (stigma-reducing, utility-enhancing, and control). A split-plot factorial design was performed to examine the intervention effects. The results indicate that the stigma-reducing video intervention was more effective for the anxious-preoccupied group, whereas the utility-enhancing video intervention was more effective for the dismissive-avoidant group than other groups. These results suggest the importance of implementing strategies tailored to each attachment group.

Agreeing and Moving across Traces: On Why Lower Copies May Be Transparent or Opaque

Within Minimalism, traces are often taken to be transparent for agreement and movement across them, which raises the question of how this could be properly accounted for within the copy theory of movement. This paper examines wh-traces in multiple wh-questions and argues that traces (lower copies) may or may not induce intervention effects depending on whether or not they are fully specified.

Predictors of adolescents’ response to Young Person’s Face IT: A web-based intervention to improve psychosocial adjustment to having an appearance-affecting condition (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Adolescents with a condition affecting their appearance that results in a visible difference can be at risk of psychosocial distress and impaired adjustment. Evidence for the effectiveness of existing interventions in improving psychosocial outcomes is limited and relevant treatment can be difficult to access. Young Person’s Face IT (YPF), a novel self-guided web-based intervention, has demonstrated potential in reducing social anxiety in adolescents with visible differences. However, more knowledge is needed regarding factors that contribute to variations in intervention effects in order to identify which adolescents may benefit most from YPF. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify predictors related to overall intervention effects following adolescents’ use of YPF. METHODS N=71 adolescents (61% girls; mean age 13.98, range 11–18 years) with a wide range of visible differences completed primary (body esteem and social anxiety symptoms) and secondary (perceived stigmatization, life disengagement, and self-rated health) outcome measures, at baseline and post-intervention. Predictor variables were demographic (age and gender), psychosocial (frequency of teasing experiences related to aspects of body and appearance, and depressive and/or anxiety symptoms), and intervention-related (time spent on YPF) factors. RESULTS Backward multiple regression revealed that higher intervention effects were predicted by gender, baseline frequency of teasing experiences, levels of depressive and/or anxiety symptoms, and time spent on YPF. However, the results were limited by low proportion of explained post-intervention variance, ranging from 1.6 to 24.1%. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that adolescent boys, adolescents who experience higher levels of psychosocial distress related to their visible difference, and adolescents that spend sufficient time on YPF, may obtain better overall intervention effects. CLINICALTRIAL NCT03165331

Impact of Modelling Approach on the Estimation of Government Intervention Effects in COVID-19

The efficacy of government interventions in epidemic has become a hot subject since the onset of COVID-19. There is however much variation in the results quantifying the effects of interventions, which is partly related to the varying modelling approaches employed by existing studies. This paper therefore aims to examine how the choice of modelling approach would affect the estimation results of intervention effects, by experimenting with different modelling approaches on a same data set composed of the 500 most affected U.S. counties. We compare the most frequently used methods from the two classes of modelling approaches, which are Bayesian hierarchical model from the class of computational approach and difference-in-difference from the class of natural experimental approach. We find that computational methods are likely to produce larger estimates of intervention effects due to simultaneous voluntary behavioral changes. In contrast, natural experimental methods are more likely to extract the true effect of interventions. Among different difference-in-difference estimators, the two-way fixed effect estimator seems to be an efficient one. Our work can inform the methodological choice of future research on this topic, as well as more robust re-interpretation of existing works, to facilitate both future epidemic response plans and the science of public health.

The Moderating Effect of Caregiver Engagement in Transitional Care Intervention Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

As chronically ill adults age, increased fluctuations in health status result in frequent care transitions. Caregiver engagement is often a core component of evidence-based transitional care interventions, yet little is known about the relative contribution of this element to observed outcomes. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize evidence of caregiver engagement in randomized control trials (RCT’s) of transitional care interventions, estimate the overall intervention effects on all-cause hospital readmissions, and test caregiver engagement as a moderator of interventions’ effects. Relative risk was the effect size, and the overall effect was estimated using inverse variance weighting. Fifty-four studies met criteria, representing 31,399 participants and 65 effect sizes. The weighted sample mean age was 64 years. The majority (64%) of interventions targeted participants with specific diagnoses, such as heart disease, but more than half (54%) lacked caregiver engagement components. Among all reviewed studies of transitional care interventions, the overall effect on all-cause readmissions at 1 month was non-significant (p=.123, k=28). However, intervention effects at 2 or more months were significant (RR=0.89, 95% CI: 0.82, 0.97, p=.007, k=26), indicating a 12% reduction in the relative risk of all-cause readmissions among intervention participants compared to controls. Caregiver engagement was found to moderate intervention effects (p=.05). Specifically, interventions that included caregiver engagement produced more robust effects (RR=0.83, 95% CI: 0.75, 0.92, p=.001), than those without such engagement (RR=0.97, 95% CI: 0.87, 1.08, p=.550). Findings suggest that transitional care interventions need to more explicitly engage caregivers as active partners in order to optimize patient outcomes.

The AgingPLUS Trial: Intervening to Promote Physical Activity in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

This paper investigated whether the AgingPLUS program promotes physical activity in middle-aged and older adults by examining outcomes at weeks 4 and 8 with baseline scores included as covariates. The analyses assessed intervention effects on negative views of aging (NVOA), physical activity (CHAMPS), physical function (SPPB, VO2max), and accelerometry measures (e.g., minutes sedentary). We found significant intervention effects on NVOA (p < .001) and frequency of moderate intensity exercise (p = 0.048), but no significant effects on physical function, VO2max, or the accelerometry measures. Standardized effect sizes for the significant effects ranged from 0.31 to 1.03 standard deviation units. These findings suggest that AgingPLUS improved motivational factors for engaging in physical activity but did not lead to objective changes in physical activity in the short term. Further research will investigate the mediational role of these motivational factors in enhancing physical activity over the longer term (6 months).