Forensic researchers and practitioners continue to face challenges when attempting to differentiate deceptive response styles, notably when comparing malingering and factitious disorder. However, due to the great disparities in research available, forensic examiners may not be adequately informed for considering factitious presentations as a competing hypothesis to malingering. De-emphasis of factitious disorders may also be attributed to the lack of empirical research and poor conceptual understanding of the disorder. Velsor and Rogers conducted a thorough review of various factitious motivations, drawing a parallel to Rogers' explanatory models of malingering. Due to the need for a systematic measure of FPPs, the Inventory of Self and Interpersonal Problems (I-SIP) was developed, largely based on the explanatory models of FPP. The current study employed a construct validity approach to the I-SIP to examine its convergent and discriminant validity in a sample of 80 inpatients from a private psychiatric hospital. Providing strong evidence of construct validity of the I-SIP, dramatic differences emerged between malingered and factitious presentations with extremely large effect sizes (ds = 1.09 – 3.62). In particular, results indicated strong support for the nurturance explanatory model of FPPs, as over-investment in treatment providers was an especially strong discriminator (d = 3.62). Moreover, …

Prevalence of mental health concerns among young adults is high and continues to increase. As a specific subset of young adults, NCAA student-athletes seem to experience these concerns at a similar or greater prevalence than their non-athlete, age-matched peers. Despite the number of college student-athletes who are experiencing mental health concerns, understanding how mental health impacts sport performance has not been robustly studied and has not included the diversity of identities present in the athlete population. Thus, I explored the beliefs of 266 college student-athletes who represented diverse identities and sports regarding how mental health impacts sport performance. Responses were collected using an on-line survey and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Overall, as well as by gender, race/ethnicity, and sport type, 96.4% to 100.0% of participants believed that mental health impacts sport performance. From thematic analysis emerged three themes and various subthemes: (a) cognitive disruptions (concentration, confidence, self-talk, motivation, mindset, and decision-making), (b) the stress of being a student-athlete (life impact sport, team factors, sport impacts mental health), and (c) a mind-body connection (mind correlates with body, and mental health symptoms impact sport performance). Post-hoc cluster analysis by demographic and sport-type variables did not reveal clustering; these variables …

Elevated social anxiety is a well-documented risk factor for developing problematic alcohol use behaviors. Adolescents with high social anxiety often report drinking for coping-related reasons, and drinking to cope has been linked to both acute and chronic alcohol use problems. Research further suggests that parenting is a primary socialization domain in terms of adolescent alcohol use onset and trajectory; however, no work has yet examined the role of parenting factors in the relation between social anxiety and coping motives for drinking. The current study investigated the role of two parenting dimensions, rejection/warmth and psychological control, on the link between social anxiety and problematic drinking motives. Drawing from an ongoing assessment of an inpatient program, the sample consisted of 94 girls and boys (ages 11-17 years). Regression analyses evaluated main effects of social anxiety, rejection, psychological control, the interactive effects of the parenting dimensions, and the three-way interaction of both parenting dimensions with social anxiety on coping motives for alcohol use. As expected, social anxiety was positively and statistically significantly related to coping motives when examined via raw scores, proportional values, and in the final model. Further, zero-order correlations indicated a positive, statistically significant relation between proportional coping motives and both …

Using a strong invariance structural equation modeling approach, the current study explored the role of parental styles, along with age and IQ, on the expression of psychopathic personality facets in a large (N = 734) male sample of Hispanic and non-Hispanic offenders. Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses revealed evidence of strong invariance across ethnic groups for the psychopathy and parenting scales (CFI = .95; RMSEA .03). Person-centered analyses examining psychopathic versus non-psychopathic cases demonstrated that the former reported greater levels of dysfunctional parenting, particularly abuse. Structural equation modeling results highlighted differential relationships between the variables of interest as a function of race/ethnicity.

Having a secure attachment to God may act as a buffer against stress. Secure attachment to God has been positively associated with adaptive outcomes following stress, such as higher levels of stress-related growth and fewer maladaptive symptoms including depression, prolonged grief, and traumatic distress. However, relatively few studies have empirically tested the relationship between attachment to God and resilience and posttraumatic growth. Thus, the current study explored the potential associations and pathways through which attachment to God is associated with resilience and posttraumatic growth in a sample of 303 suddenly and/or traumatically bereaved individuals. The current study found that (a) God attachment avoidance is a unique negative predictor of resilience and posttraumatic growth even when controlling for adult attachment, (b) self-compassion and meaning-making mediate the association between God attachment anxiety and resilience/posttraumatic growth, (c) secure attachment to God is associated with higher levels of resilience than insecure attachment styles, but not with posttraumatic growth, and (d) an increased number of secondary losses is associated with lower levels of resilience. I conclude by discussing my findings in light of the extant literature on attachment to God, resilience, and posttraumatic growth. By better understanding attachment to God and how it may relate …