Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum (HEARTS): A feasibility test of an online class co-designed and co-taught with autistic people

This study tested the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a six-session online class on healthy relationships for autistic individuals ages 18–44 years old ( N = 55). The content of the Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum class was informed by formative research with 25 autistic individuals, and developed collaboratively by two non-autistic professionals and seven autistic self-advocates. Fifty-five autistic people participated in Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum and completed pre- and post-surveys. The study found that it was feasible to deliver Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum online. Pairing an autistic and non-autistic person to co-teach was well-received. Participants decreased hostile automatic thoughts ( p < 0.05), involvement in dating abuse in intimate relationships ( p < 0.05), fight-or-flight response ( p < 0.05), and rejection sensitivity ( p < 0.001). Participants experienced improved flourishing ( p < 0.001), coping with rejection and jealousy ( p < 0.001), motivation to engage with others for socializing ( p < 0.05), self-compassion ( p < 0.05), and positive thinking ( p < 0.05). Scores on a measure of interpersonal competence did not change, and loneliness did not decrease. The majority of participants reported high satisfaction with the class. Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum is a promising healthy relationships promotion class that should be evaluated through a randomized controlled trial. Lay abstract The Healthy Relationships on the Autism Spectrum class is unique because autistic people helped to develop it and co-taught it. It is an online, six-session class. The class was piloted in 2020–2021 with 55 autistic people who were ages 18–44 years old. This feasibility study found that most people who took the class liked it. Surveys filled out by the students before and after the class showed that they became less sensitive to rejection, used more positive thinking skills, and were more interested in being social. However, the class may not have made them feel less lonely. The team that invented the class is using the feedback to improve it. The class holds promise for improving the quality of friendships and dating relationships for autistic adults and should be tested further.

A pilot randomized controlled trial of the shogi-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy (S-CBT) preventive stress management program

Background Shogi is a traditional board game in Japan. A preventive stress management program based on Shogi-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy (S-CBT) was applied in the Japanese municipality of Kakogawa City. The study aimed to develop an S-CBT preventive stress management program for the elderly and determine its efficacy. Methods The participants were 67 elderly men with amateur-level Shogi skills. They were randomly assigned to either the S-CBT group (n = 33) or the waiting-list control group (n = 34). The S-CBT program was conducted over six 90-min sessions. The outcome measures were recorded using K6 instrument, the Japanese version of the abbreviated Lubben Social Network Scale, five items on cognitive behavioral functioning, and subjective well-being scale. Results and conclusions The dropout rates of the S-CBT group and waiting-list control groups were 36.4 and 44.1%, respectively. Effect sizes (Cohen’s d) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for each group. Domains that changed immediately after the S-CBT intervention were problem-solving skills, self-reinforcement, and negative automatic thoughts. Future research should promote mental and physical health through the design of intervention programs using familiar materials. Trial registration University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN CTR) UMIN000036003.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Positive Psychology & VR in Special Education

In the era of rapid change, special education is in the quest to ‘drive up standards’ with alternative intervention strategies ensuring optimal outcomes for parents, teachers and learners. Automatic thoughts, negative beliefs and implicit bias demotivate, disrupt students’ behavior, and lower the quality of learning outcomes. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a psychological approach that employs appropriate techniques to help individuals deal with their dysfunctional schemas. The present paper aims at reviewing the research studies regarding the effectiveness of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) in challenging situations as those that people with disabilities face. In addition, we will co-examine the possible applications of NLP on virtual reality (VR) environments. The findings of this review support the idea that neuro-linguistic programming provides influencing strategies for students with special educational needs to be rapidly engaged in those states of mind that eliminate implicit bias and promote positive behaviors and academic achievement. It was found that VR is in line with NLP methodology contributing to unintended bias reduction, cultivating users’ ability to change perspective with flexibility, expecting a positive future and perceiving themselves more realistically with less symptoms of depression. This study takes the view of a new pedagogy in Special Education that integrates the overlapping areas of neurolinguistic programming, positive and social psychology and recognizes their role in developing brain rewiring and sub-conscious training techniques -even in virtual environments-.

ANXIETY DISORDERS AND THE FREQUENCY OF NEGATIVE THOUGHTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT SPECIAL LEARNING DISABILITIES

<p>Special Learning Disabilities (SLD) are often accompanied by negative thoughts of self-assessment, deficits in social interactions and psycho-emotional problems as well, which hinder the development and the smooth integration of children diagnosed with SLD into their environment. This research attempts to investigate the association of negative self-assessment thoughts and anxiety disorders with Special Learning Disabilities in a sample of sixty Greek-speaking children in 4th, 5th and 6th grades with and without SLD, including their parents. The tools used for this purpose are the Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS), and the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS-CH) self-report questionnaire, which assess anxiety disorders. Parents were asked to answer the corresponding Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Parents Edition (SCAS-P) symptom-monitoring questionnaire. According to the results compared to their normal development peers, children with SLD had a higher incidence of negative thoughts, which is more likely to lead to symptoms of anxiety disorders; their parents in fact were able to perceive the severity or frequency of these symptoms in their children. In addition, the frequency of negative thoughts and symptoms related to anxiety disorders seemed to be influenced by the student’s condition (with or without SLD), but not by gender and age. </p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0982/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Stress events and Changes in Dysfunctional Attitudes and Automatic Thoughts Following Recovery from Depression in Inpatient Psychotherapy: Mediation Analyses with Longitudinal Data

Background Stressful event exposure, dysfunctional attitudes (DA), negative automatic thoughts (NAT), and declining positive automatic thoughts (PAT) have been associated with depressive relapse/recurrence. Few studies have investigated the course of these variables and their relevance for relapse/recurrence in remitted depression. Methods Following successful inpatient treatment, in 39 remitted depressive patients, stressful events, DA, NAT, PAT, and depressive relapse/recurrence were assessed five times during a 16-month follow-up. Data were analyzed with mixed effect models, and mediation effects were tested. Results Stressful events after discharge correlated with depressive relapse/recurrence. This association was mainly mediated by a stress-related decline of PAT within four months post discharge. Patients’ DA were relatively stable during the observation period and did not depend on stressful events, indicating DA as a risk trait for depressive relapse/recurrence. Mediation analyses revealed that independent of stress, DA were linked to depressive relapse/recurrence through more NAT. Conclusion Our findings suggest stressful events evoke relapse/recurrence in remitted depression through rapid deterioration of PAT after discharge from inpatient therapy. DA are expressed through NAT which additionally contribute to higher risk of depressive relapse/recurrence. Consequently, maintenance therapy requires techniques to promote the maintenance of PAT, and to effectively restructure DA and NAT.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Korean Tinnitus Patients

Cognitive behavioral therapy, first introduced by Beck in the 1950s to treat depression by integrating cognitive and behavioral therapies, is now an established psychotherapy technique used to treat insomnia, chronic pain, and anxiety. Currently, cognitive behavioral therapy is widely used to treat tinnitus in European countries, and the efficacy and safety of the treatment have been proven through randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses. Although interest in cognitive behavioral therapy for tinnitus is increasing in Korea, there are limited reports. Because many studies so far have targeted patients in Western countries, it is difficult to apply the same to domestic patients due to cultural and linguistic differences, the absence of standardized guidelines, and limitations in clinic hours. We experienced various cases in which tinnitus was effectively treated simultaneously with pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, so here we report an introduction to the program along with a literature review. Cognitive behavioral therapy was performed as a 4-week program in our hospital, and progress was evaluated through Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI). After each weekly 20-minute individual counseling session, a take-home writing task was given to the patient. The main goal was to guide the patient to discover and correct automatic thoughts related to their tinnitus symptoms. This paper aimed to introduce a specific scheme on how to perform cognitive behavioral therapy for domestic tinnitus patients.

Does Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Function Primarily as an Experientially Avoidant Behaviour within Aotearoa New Zealand?

<p>Theoretical, empirical, and experiential attempts at disentangling the functions of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) have been driven by the desire to answer the complex question: Why do people engage in self-injurious behaviours? A recently developed behavioural model of NSSI—the Experiential Avoidance Model (EAM; Chapman, Gratz, & Brown, 2006)—proposes that self-injury functions primarily as a form of negatively reinforced, experiential avoidance and places particular emphasis on emotional avoidance. Experiential avoidance is conceptualised as a behavioural process whereby people are unwilling to tolerate distressing emotions, thoughts, memories, or physical sensations and engage in behaviours to change, avoid, or escape from these aversive, intrapersonal experiences (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996). Although the results of international studies support the key assumptions of this model to varying degrees (Klonsky, 2007; Klonsky & Glenn, 2008; Nock & Prinstein, 2004), the EAM has never been empirically evaluated within Aotearoa New Zealand. To determine whether experiential avoidance is the primary function of NSSI for people living within Aotearoa New Zealand, I designed and conducted three studies. For my first study, I interviewed 24 people who had engaged in nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviours in the previous 12 months about the antecedents and consequences of their most recent episode of self-injury. The interviews were analysed using a framework based on behavioural principles, which I developed for the purpose of this research. This method of analysis, which I called Interpretative Functional Analysis, allowed me to identify, and then compare, the functions served by discrete self-injurious episodes. Results supported the EAM (Chapman et al., 2006) in that self-injury episodes functioned predominantly as attempts to avoid or escape from intense, negative emotional experiences. Cognitive avoidance, however, also played a significant role in the self-injury trajectory, which highlighted the importance of investigating unwanted thoughts in subsequent studies. The second study involved surveying 198 people across Aotearoa New Zealand who had self-injured in the previous 12 months to further test whether the key assumptions of the EAM (Chapman et al., 2006) apply to a New Zealand-based population. Quantitative findings supported the model and were consistent with extant international studies in that experientially avoidant, intrapersonal functions (i.e., affect regulation and self-punishment) were identified as primary to the reinforcement and maintenance of NSSI. Intrapersonal functions, in general, were more highly endorsed than interpersonal functions. Finally, both negative affect and cognitions decreased following episodes of self-injury, while joviality increased. The increase in positive emotions undermines the EAM's (Chapman et al., 2006) exclusive focus on negative reinforcement, suggesting that positive reinforcement also has an important role to play in the continued use of NSSI. Analyses of the open-ended, survey responses highlighted the impact of particular contextual factors (such as interpersonal conflict and community norms) on the incidence and maintenance of NSSI. Conducting a thematic analysis of the consequences of people's most recent episode of NSSI allowed me to identify two distinct themes within this data corpus. Specifically, through self-injury participants assumed two paradoxical roles, that of transgressor and helper. For my final study, I surveyed university students across two time-points (Time 1 N = 408, Time 2 N = 224) about their general intrapersonal experiences (i.e., emotions and thoughts) and dispositional coping styles (e.g., global experiential avoidance, thought suppression). Negative intrapersonal experiences and avoidant coping styles were found to vary as a function of NSSI history and recency. Negative automatic thoughts and guilt at Time 1 also predicted new episodes of self-injury at Time 2. Additionally, thought suppression, not global experiential avoidance, was identified as a partial mediator of Time 1 relationships between negative intrapersonal experiences and NSSI. To conclude, the findings from this thesis are situated within a global context, and implications for clinical practice and future research studies are discussed.</p>

Does Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Function Primarily as an Experientially Avoidant Behaviour within Aotearoa New Zealand?

<p>Theoretical, empirical, and experiential attempts at disentangling the functions of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) have been driven by the desire to answer the complex question: Why do people engage in self-injurious behaviours? A recently developed behavioural model of NSSI—the Experiential Avoidance Model (EAM; Chapman, Gratz, & Brown, 2006)—proposes that self-injury functions primarily as a form of negatively reinforced, experiential avoidance and places particular emphasis on emotional avoidance. Experiential avoidance is conceptualised as a behavioural process whereby people are unwilling to tolerate distressing emotions, thoughts, memories, or physical sensations and engage in behaviours to change, avoid, or escape from these aversive, intrapersonal experiences (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996). Although the results of international studies support the key assumptions of this model to varying degrees (Klonsky, 2007; Klonsky & Glenn, 2008; Nock & Prinstein, 2004), the EAM has never been empirically evaluated within Aotearoa New Zealand. To determine whether experiential avoidance is the primary function of NSSI for people living within Aotearoa New Zealand, I designed and conducted three studies. For my first study, I interviewed 24 people who had engaged in nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviours in the previous 12 months about the antecedents and consequences of their most recent episode of self-injury. The interviews were analysed using a framework based on behavioural principles, which I developed for the purpose of this research. This method of analysis, which I called Interpretative Functional Analysis, allowed me to identify, and then compare, the functions served by discrete self-injurious episodes. Results supported the EAM (Chapman et al., 2006) in that self-injury episodes functioned predominantly as attempts to avoid or escape from intense, negative emotional experiences. Cognitive avoidance, however, also played a significant role in the self-injury trajectory, which highlighted the importance of investigating unwanted thoughts in subsequent studies. The second study involved surveying 198 people across Aotearoa New Zealand who had self-injured in the previous 12 months to further test whether the key assumptions of the EAM (Chapman et al., 2006) apply to a New Zealand-based population. Quantitative findings supported the model and were consistent with extant international studies in that experientially avoidant, intrapersonal functions (i.e., affect regulation and self-punishment) were identified as primary to the reinforcement and maintenance of NSSI. Intrapersonal functions, in general, were more highly endorsed than interpersonal functions. Finally, both negative affect and cognitions decreased following episodes of self-injury, while joviality increased. The increase in positive emotions undermines the EAM's (Chapman et al., 2006) exclusive focus on negative reinforcement, suggesting that positive reinforcement also has an important role to play in the continued use of NSSI. Analyses of the open-ended, survey responses highlighted the impact of particular contextual factors (such as interpersonal conflict and community norms) on the incidence and maintenance of NSSI. Conducting a thematic analysis of the consequences of people's most recent episode of NSSI allowed me to identify two distinct themes within this data corpus. Specifically, through self-injury participants assumed two paradoxical roles, that of transgressor and helper. For my final study, I surveyed university students across two time-points (Time 1 N = 408, Time 2 N = 224) about their general intrapersonal experiences (i.e., emotions and thoughts) and dispositional coping styles (e.g., global experiential avoidance, thought suppression). Negative intrapersonal experiences and avoidant coping styles were found to vary as a function of NSSI history and recency. Negative automatic thoughts and guilt at Time 1 also predicted new episodes of self-injury at Time 2. Additionally, thought suppression, not global experiential avoidance, was identified as a partial mediator of Time 1 relationships between negative intrapersonal experiences and NSSI. To conclude, the findings from this thesis are situated within a global context, and implications for clinical practice and future research studies are discussed.</p>