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Biomedical subjects

N Kalter

Publications and source records attributed to N Kalter.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Anticipating parental death in families with young children.

Findings from a community study of parentally bereaved children demonstrate that forewarning of death is not associated with more favorable mental health outcomes than is sudden death of a parent. The applicability of the of the general anticipatory grief literature to the circumstances of children facing the loss of a parent is called into question, and the need to assess more carefully the effect on children of a parent's protracted terminal illness is emphasized.

Adolescent↗

Preventive intervention groups for parentally bereaved children.

A model of time-limited intervention groups for parentally bereaved children is described, and common emergent themes are discussed. These suggest that youngsters continue to struggle with death-related stress well beyond the time of the loss. The need to maintain an emotional attachment to internal representations of the deceased parent appears to be an important component of the bereavement process.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Divorced women: individual differences in stressors, mediating factors, and adjustment outcome.

Individual differences in exposure and response to stress in a sample of 56 divorced mothers were examined. Compared with normative data, the sample reported significantly more negative life events, more psychiatric symptoms, and poorer social adjustment. Social support and income emerged as the mediating factors most strongly associated with adjustment outcome.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Children of divorce: predictors of change following preventive intervention.

Fifty-three fourth- and fifth grade children were tested on postdivorce adjustment immediately before and six months after participation in an eight-week preventive intervention program. At follow-up, most showed positive change, with those at special risk for adjustment problems showing substantial gains. Results did not vary with sociodemographic or divorce circumstances.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Predictors of children's postdivorce adjustment.

Six hypotheses to explain how divorce may affect the trajectory of child development were tested using standardized measures and sociodemographic data. Correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed that the parent adjustment hypothesis received the strongest support. Boys appeared sensitive to events and behavior in their mothers' lives, while girls seemed attuned to mothers' internal states.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Perceptions of quality of life following divorce: a study of children's prognostic thinking.

The general quality of latency-aged children's prognostic thinking and the way in which they view the long-range impact of divorce upon peer adaptation are explored. When interviewed about responses to two fictional peers with marked behavior problems, 80 children in the third and fifth grades displayed an optimism in their prognostic thinking about the future of these peers. In general, peers from divorced homes were perceived as having a more positive future adjustment than peers from intact homes. However, male subjects from disrupted homes revealed a significantly pessimistic orientation regarding the impact of divorce upon the future; females from disrupted homes had a strikingly optimistic view. Implications for school-based interventions are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Locus of control in children of divorce.

Scores on the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children (N-SLOCSC) were compared for third and fifth grade boys and girls from intact versus maritally disrupted family backgrounds. Significant main effects for each independent variable revealed that fifth graders more than third, boys more than girls, and the marital disruption more than the intact group, exhibited higher internality in their locus of control scores. These findings strongly suggest that experiencing a parental divorce in childhood has a significant influence on generalized perceptions of personal control and effectance, perceptions which may ultimately mediate both short- and long-term outcomes in children's post-divorce adjustment.

Age Factors↗

Inferential statistical methods for strengthening the interpretation of laboratory test results.

Laboratory test results for the diagnosis of psychiatric illness usually are reported descriptively despite the ready availability of appropriate inferential statistics. A test's sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic confidence are conditional probabilities. Confidence intervals may be calculated for these probabilities in any given study. Statistical tests for comparing the results of several studies use techniques for planned and posterior comparisons applied to contingency tables. These established statistical methods aid in the interpretation of laboratory test findings.

Depressive Disorder↗

The effect of fluoride and strontium application on dentin: in vivo and in vitro studies.

The effectiveness of topical 2% sodium fluoride applied with and without 10% strontium chloride pretreatment was compared in patients complaining of tooth hypersensitivity. In addition the radiopacity of 2% sodium fluoride and 25% strontium chloride treated dentin was studied in vitro. Reduction of sensitivity to cold and mechanical stimuli was evaluated during a period of 3 months by pain scoring in the exposed cervical dentin of homologous teeth on the two sides of the jaws. There was a significant decrease in the sensitivity of the exposed cervical dentin after treatment with sodium fluoride solution with or without pretreatment with strontium chloride solution. At the end of the experimental period the combined strontium and fluoride treatment was found to be more effective than that of fluoride alone in reducing sensitivity to cold. The increase in radiodensity of dentin samples immersed in strontium chloride was statistically significant, while there was no significant increase in density for the samples immersed in sodium fluoride solutions. A mineralization process is possibly the effective means by which fluoride or strontium diminishes sensitivity of dentin.

Adult↗

Children's understanding of their emotionally disturbed peers: a replication.

Despite increasing recognition of the early importance of peer relations, virtually no systematic information exists on the way in which normal children view their emotionally disturbed peers. This paper reports a replication of recent findings on children's use of the concept of emotional disturbance. Ss were 40 fourth and sixth graders. Five vignettes that described one normal and four emotionally disturbed boys were read to individual Ss; who were interviewed about their understanding of the central figures (CFs). Interviews were coded to a 5-point scale of degree of perceived emotional disturbance. Earlier findings were replicated to a remarkable degree. Ss differentiated among the CFs in a manner congruent with clinician judges' ratings. Grade differences indicate the differential attention to and valuing of specific behaviors, rather than global differences in perception of emotional disturbance.

Affective Symptoms↗

The multiproblem family presents in a children's outpatient psychiatric clinic.

This study focuses on children from multiproblem families when they appear at an outpatient psychiatric clinic for children. The sample consisted of the first 50 children and their families referred to a large children's outpatient psychiatric facility early in 1974. A multiproblem family was defined in terms of the number of helping agencies and/or professionals contacted by family members within the 3-year period prior to the current psychiatric evaluation and by the number of households in which the designated child patient had lived. Eighteen percent of the 50 cases met the criteria established for a multiproblem family. These indicators successfully differentiated multiproblem from nonmultiproblem families along a number of socioeconomic, demographic, family health, and family stability dimensions. Special difficulties encountered in psychiatrically evaluating children of such multiproblem families are presented, and ways of dealing with them are discussed.

Child↗