Invited Commentary: Childhood and Adolescent Obesity: Psychological and Behavioral Issues in Weight Loss Treatment

The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity has tripled in the past three decades. This increase has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in obesity-related health complications among American youth. Thus, many obese youth are now experiencing illnesses that will threaten their life expectancy in the absence of significant weight loss. Despite these concerns, a relatively modest body of research has focused on the treatment of adolescent obesity. Results from trials investigating the efficacy of behavioral and pharmacological treatments, like studies of these interventions with adults, suggest that individuals typically lose 5–10% of their initial weight. Unfortunately, weight regain is common. Given the increase in the number of obese adolescents, coupled with the modest results from more conservative treatment approaches, it is not surprising that bariatric surgery for adolescents who suffer from extreme obesity has grown in popularity. The weight losses after surgery are impressive and many adolescents, like adults, experience significant improvements in their physical and mental health postoperatively. However, only a small fraction of adolescents and adults who are heavy enough for bariatric surgery present for surgical treatment. Among those who undergo surgery, a significant minority appear to struggle with a number of behavioral and psychosocial issues that threaten their lifelong success. With all of this in mind, the current obesity problem in the United States and other Westernized countries likely will present a significant challenge to both current and future medical and mental health professionals who work with adolescents and young adults.     

Development of a psychometric typology of child molesters: implications for treatment

Cluster analysis of psychometric data measuring offense-specific and socioadequacy problems from a sample of 437 untreated child molesters was carried out. This analysis identified three clusters: Cluster 1 contained men who reported low levels of self-esteem and intimacy and an inability to deal with negative emotions, Cluster 2 contained men who demonstrated a poor understanding of the harm caused to their victims, and Cluster 3 contained offenders who had global offense-specific and socioaffective problems. However, there were no significant differences among the three groups of child molesters in their offense characteristics or their risk levels to support the clustering. It is suggested that these psychological clusters have implications for differing treatment interventions with these three groups.     

Increasing Cognitive Load to Facilitate Lie Detection: The Benefit of Recalling an Event in Reverse Order

In two experiments, we tested the hypotheses that (a) the difference between liars and truth tellers will be greater when interviewees report their stories in reverse order than in chronological order, and (b) instructing interviewees to recall their stories in reverse order will facilitate detecting deception. In Experiment 1, 80 mock suspects told the truth or lied about a staged event and did or did not report their stories in reverse order. The reverse order interviews contained many more cues to deceit than the control interviews. In Experiment 2, 55 police officers watched a selection of the videotaped interviews of Experiment 1 and made veracity judgements. Requesting suspects to convey their stories in reverse order improved police observers' ability to detect deception and did not result in a response bias.     

Secondary Traumatic Stress in the Courtroom: Suggestions for Preventing Vicarious Trauma Resulting from Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

The internet and social media have added to an increase in sexual imagery. As a result, law enforcement, judicial officers and court ordered counselors will be exposed to an increase of images. While not every individual will experience post‐traumatic stress symptoms, it is anticipated there is risk for impact. The impact of viewing images can include an increase in vicarious trauma symptoms, burnout, and a possible decrease in impartiality. This paper offers suggestions for self‐care in the services of preventing collateral damage.     

Reflections on the Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Juvenile Court Outcomes and Efforts to Enact Change

American Journal of Criminal Justice - There are persistent racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. The current paper reviews how and whether public and private strategies...     

Establishing Trust in the Illegal Wildlife Trade in China

This study focusses on the role of trust in the illegal distribution of protected wildlife in China. This research attempts to contribute to the literature by disentangling the establishment of trust within the illegal wildlife trade based on ethnographic fieldwork between 2011 and 2016. Both traders and consumers are resorting to mechanisms of trust to foster exchange and to increase credibility of their agreements. This study discusses the existence of such mechanisms of trust within wildlife trafficking networks that are rather characteristic of illegal wildlife trade in China.

     

Guardians Ad Litem and Children's Attorneys in Arizona: A Qualitative Examination of the Roles

An ongoing debate exists with little research support concerning the differences in the roles of guardians ad litem (GAL) and children's attorneys (CA) in dependency cases. Through qualitative interviews, this study examined GALs’ and CAs’ perceptions and execution of roles. Both executed their roles similarly and agreed the best interests of the child and the child's wishes are important. Shared goals included child safety, ensuring the child's voice is heard, keeping the family together, and minimizing the distress to the child. Challenges to executing their roles were often systemic, including overwhelmed courts and lack of community resources to serve clients’ needs.     

Aggression and sleep: a daylight saving time natural experiment on the effect of mild sleep loss and gain on assaults

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of a mild, short-term sleep loss/gain on assault rates.

Methods

Using National Incidence Based Reporting System data and city-reported data from Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, we calculated the difference in assault rates on the Monday immediately following daylight saving time (DST) as compared to the Monday a week later using a Poisson quasi-maximum likelihood estimator model. The same analyses were performed to examine effects of the return to standard time in the fall. We employed several falsification checks.

Results

There were 2.9% fewer (95% CI: –4.2%, ?1.6%, p < 0.0001) assaults immediately following DST, when we lose an hour, as compared to a week later. In contrast, there was a 2.8% rise in assaults immediately following the return to standard time, when an hour is gained, as compared to a week later (95% CI: 1.5%, 4.2%, p < 0.0001). Multiple falsification analyses suggest the spring findings to be robust, while the evidence to support the fall findings is weaker.

Conclusions

This study suggests that mild and short-term changes in sleep do significantly affect rates of assault. Specifically, there is support for the theory that mild sleepiness possibly associated with an hour loss of sleep results in reduced assaults. This contradicts the simple inverse relationship currently suggested by most of the correlational literature. This study and the mixed findings presented by experimental studies indicate that measurement variability of both sleep and aggression may result in conflicting findings.