Current research aimed on finding an answer to the question 'How do the personal and work-related characteristics of professionals at the Youth Protection Table coincide with the decision about...Show moreCurrent research aimed on finding an answer to the question 'How do the personal and work-related characteristics of professionals at the Youth Protection Table coincide with the decision about whether or not to proceed with an investigation by child protection services?'. Previous studies have shown that there is often a lack of consensus among youth professionals when making a placement decision (Lindsey, 2004; De Haan et al., 2019). Research showed that personal and work-related characteristics, such as years of work experience and educational background play an important role (Van der Asdonk et al., 2019; De Haan et al., 2019). Knowing that large numbers of families in the Netherlands have dealings with youth care, and wanting to give them proper protection, it is important to gain full knowledge about the way characteristics of youth professionals influence decision-making processes and possible interrelated aspects (Graham et al., 2015). In this study, this has been investigated regarding the decision to lead, or not lead, families to a mandatory youth protection framework. Measured are specifically the variables work experience, level of education, attitude towards forced help, perceived work stress and perceived support in the workplace. Current research did not show any significant relationships between these variables and the decision to lead families to involuntary youth care. This lack of significant correlations may be ascribed to, among other things, a low variance in the sample and a less than expected scale of the sample. Based on the current research, it cannot be concluded that individual characteristics of youth professionals play a role in decision-making processes, but it cannot be said that these connections do not exist either. Follow-up research must further clarify the exact nature of these possible relations. Discussed implications may improve future research-design.Show less
Consideration of future consequences (CFC) is one of the constructs that make up future oriented thinking. Not much is known about how CFC is formed or how it can be changed. Previous studies show...Show moreConsideration of future consequences (CFC) is one of the constructs that make up future oriented thinking. Not much is known about how CFC is formed or how it can be changed. Previous studies show that CFC is negatively related to self-defeating behavior and positively related to goal achievement. The goal of the present study was to reestablish these relations with a more generalized definition of self-defeating behavior and goal achievement in different domains. Apart from this, the present study had the goal of determining whether CFC could be changed through a VR- or smartphone application over the course of three weeks. 193 first year students from Leiden University (92,7% female) participated in the study. The participants were divided among three conditions: a VR-condition, a smartphone app-condition and a control condition. At the start of the study, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire measuring CFC and self-defeating behavior. In addition, all participants set goals for themselves to complete. The degree to which they had achieved these goals was measured after three weeks, along with a second measurement of CFC. It was found through a regression analysis that CFC showed a significant correlation with self-defeating behavior, meaning CFC predicted this behavior. A regression analysis between CFC and goal achievement showed no significant correlation, meaning that CFC did not predict goal achievement. Finally, a repeated measures ANOVA indicated that there was no significant improvement of CFC after three weeks of using the intervention. Although no significant difference was found, perhaps an intervention that is used for a longer time period or a domain specific intervention could yield more successful results in improving CFC. More research is needed in defining the underlying constructs of self-defeating behavior and goal achievement, as well as evaluating possible ways to stimulate awareness of future consequences.Show less
Background: previous research showed the relationship between the risk status of the mother and child aggression. Attachment has also been related to child aggression and this includes prenatal...Show moreBackground: previous research showed the relationship between the risk status of the mother and child aggression. Attachment has also been related to child aggression and this includes prenatal attachment. If prenatal attachment moderates the relationship between risk status and child aggression, an intervention could be implemented to improve the prenatal attachment in order to prevent or reduce aggression by the child. Research question: Does prenatal attachment moderate the relationship between the risk status of the mother and the aggression of 20-month-old children? Methods: Maternal risk status and prenatal attachment were assessed during pregnancy and aggression was assessed when the children were 20 months old. The mothers were divided into two groups, one group consisted of high risk mothers and the other of low risk mothers (based on criteria by the World Health Organization and a weighted count of the number of risk factors). The mothers completed the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (MAAS) during the first assessment (pregnancy) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) during the 4th assessment when the children were approximately 20 months old. Analyses of variance were used to examine whether prenatal attachment moderated the association between risk status and child aggression. Results: The risk status of the mother predicted the aggression of the 20-month-old child. There also was a significant relationship between prenatal attachment and risk status. There were no significant relations between prenatal attachment and aggression. Lastly, prenatal attachment did not moderate the relation between the risk status of the mother and the aggression of the child. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the relation between the risk status of the mother and the aggression of the 20-month-old child. An intervention could be introduced when a mother is categorized as high risk. Further research is needed to see which factors could moderate the relationship between the risk status of the mother and the aggression of the child.Show less
Children with Klinefelter may face difficulties in their later life when it comes to social emotional development and behavior problems (Bruining et al., 2009). This could lead to behavior- and...Show moreChildren with Klinefelter may face difficulties in their later life when it comes to social emotional development and behavior problems (Bruining et al., 2009). This could lead to behavior- and emotion regulation problems including anxiety. During a stressful life event it is crucial to be able to control/use cognitive emotion regulation strategies (Thompson, 1994). If this fails, it can lead to behavior- or social development problems. Although separate results from previous studies suggest a link between anxiety, regulation problems and stressful life events, this possible coherence has not been studied yet for Klinefelter children. Method: To investigate this, 95 children in the age of 1-7 years (of which 51 children with Klinefelter) and their parents participated in a series of questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist, Children’s Behavior-/Early Childhood Behavior-/VMG Life Events Questionnaire). Results: Children with Klinefelter were found to be more anxious and showed a less expressive internal regulation state compared to the control group, according to their parents. According to the CBQ/ECBQ Reactivity/Soothability subscale results, children with Klinefelter showed less expressive (blunted) emotions when they were in pain, upset or experienced an exciting activity/event. In addition, stressful life events turned out to be a predictor for anxious depressed behavior in children with Klinefelter. There was also no interaction found for the degree of stressful life events and anxious/depressed or reactivity/soothability behavior within the Klinefelter- or control group. Conclusion: Children with Klinefelter experience more anxiety/depressed behavior and less expressive internal regulation state than children without Klinefelter. An association between stressful life events and anxiety/depressed behavior is found within children with Klinefelter, but there is no evidence found for a coherence between stressful life events and regulation problems. Furthermore, no interaction was found between the degree of stressful life events and anxious/depressed or reactivity/soothability behavior within the Klinefelter- or control group.Show less
Background: Autism is a complex disorder with a variety of symptoms and differences in their severity. Previous research indicates that within the core symptoms of autism there are differences in...Show moreBackground: Autism is a complex disorder with a variety of symptoms and differences in their severity. Previous research indicates that within the core symptoms of autism there are differences in the behavioral expressions in boys and girls with autism characteristics. Yet not enough is known about the sex differences within autism and the associated behavioral expressions that influence quality of life (QoL). Using this research, it is investigated to what extent the degree of autism characteristics is related to social cognition and QoL in boys and girls. Method: The study has a cross-sectional research design. The research group consist 22 boys and 20 girls in primary and secondary school age. The SRS was used to measure the degree of autism characteristics. QoL was questioned with the Cantril-ladder self-assessment questionnaire and social cognition was measured with the VR perspective taking test. Results: The results confirm that neither social cognition nor degree of autism characteristics are predictors of QoL. In addition, gender does not influence the relationship between social cognition and the degree of autism characteristics. This is also the case with the relationship between the QoL and the degree of autism characteristics. Conclusion: The data suggest some interesting findings about the sex differences in boys and girls with autism and the view of QoL in this group children. Both boys and girls experience limitations within social cognition. The way in which these restrictions are deal with differs. To meet the expectations of others, people with autism use different techniques to hide their autism. This may have a negative impact on QoL. In future research it is necessary to have more knowledge about the sex differences in people with autism characteristics.Show less
The current study focused on the influence of social cognition on cognitive and affective empathy and whether the LPE-label and socioeconomic status fulfilled moderating roles in the relationships...Show moreThe current study focused on the influence of social cognition on cognitive and affective empathy and whether the LPE-label and socioeconomic status fulfilled moderating roles in the relationships between these socioemotional aspects for adolescent boys with conduct disorder (CD). The aim of the study was to focus on these relations within the CD-group itself, since most research compared CD-youth with healthy controls, thereby omitting the heterogeneity of CD. Moreover, the relationship between social cognition and empathy, both socioemotional aspects, within the CD-group itself had not been examined yet. The different socioemotional aspects were measured using questionnaires, such as the Basic Empathy Scale and the Social Responsiveness Scale. These were completed by 49 adolescent boys, aged from fifteen to nineteen years, with a severe form of CD. Two double moderation regression analyses were performed to explore the relationship between social cognition and the dependent factors cognitive and affective empathy. For cognitive empathy there were no significant relationships found. For affective empathy significant relationships were present. First of all, there was a negative effect of social cognition on affective empathy, higher levels of social cognition were linked to lower levels affective empathy. This could be explained by the fact that CD-youth with higher social cognition capacities know how to take advantage of others, therefore being more manipulative without having to empathize with them. Secondly, as expected, there was a positive effect of LPE: the CD/LPE+ group scored significantly lower on affective empathy than the CD/LPE- group. Additionally, there were no significant moderations of LPE-label and socioeconomic status found for both cognitive and affective empathy. To conclude, having better social cognition skills as well as CD/LPE+ were related to lower levels of affective empathy, not cognitive empathy, in adolescent boys with severe CD.Show less
De effectiviteit van de leerstrategie ‘voorspellingen maken’ is al eerder onderzocht en aangetoond, maar nog niet tegenover een passieve leerstrategie gezet. Het maken van voorspellingen werd in...Show moreDe effectiviteit van de leerstrategie ‘voorspellingen maken’ is al eerder onderzocht en aangetoond, maar nog niet tegenover een passieve leerstrategie gezet. Het maken van voorspellingen werd in eerder onderzoek vergeleken met andere generatieve leerstrategieën. In het huidige onderzoek wordt het maken van voorspellingen vergeleken met een passieve strategie: herhalen. Hierbij werd er gekeken naar de invloed van deze leerstrategieën op het onthouden van numerieke feitjes. Dit onderzoek is uitgevoerd bij 111 participanten. De bedoeling was om inzicht te krijgen in het effect op verschillende leeftijdsgroepen, waarbij kinderen (10-13 jaar) vergeleken werden met jongvolwassenen (18-26 jaar). Daarnaast werd er in het huidige onderzoek gekeken naar het effect van prediction error (voorspellingsfout) op de leerprestaties in beiden leeftijdsgroepen. Ten slotte werd er onderzocht of goed gokken invloed heeft op de leerprestatie. Er werd een interactie-effect gevonden waarbij kinderen meer profiteerden van het maken van voorspellingen dan herhalen ten opzichte van jongvolwassenen. Bij jongvolwassenen was er geen significant verschil in het gebruik van leerstrategieën. Daarnaast werd gevonden dat zowel kinderen als jongvolwassenen beter presteren als er sprake is van verwachtingsconsistente voorspellingen en grote verwachtings-schendende voorspellingen. Er zou gesteld kunnen worden dat voorspellingen maken effectief is om te gebruiken bij het geven van instructie bij kinderen. Verder onderzoek is nodig om inzicht te krijgen in andere aspecten die invloed hebben op het maken van een voorspelling.Show less
Sibling aggression is a common phenomenon which can lead to negative outcomes on the development of children. Aggression between siblings can possibly be explained by the quality of the sibling...Show moreSibling aggression is a common phenomenon which can lead to negative outcomes on the development of children. Aggression between siblings can possibly be explained by the quality of the sibling relationship and gender. The aim of the current study is to investigate whether anger in response to a sibling, as an indicator of the quality of the sibling relationship, is related to sibling aggression and whether gender plays a moderating role. A sample of 18 sibling pairs (oldest sibling: aged 10 to 18 years, M = 14, SD = 1.9) participated. The aggression between siblings was measured with the sibling version of the Conflict Tactics Scale, CTS2-SP. To measure anger in response to provocative behavior of the sibling a Virtual Reality (VR) task was used. The provocative behavior was believed to be controlled by their sibling but was actually an avatar. The participants were also asked if they believed if their sibling controlled the avatar during the VR task. The scores of the oldest sibling of the pairs were included. The results showed that anger in response to the sibling was not related to sibling aggression and that participants showed equal aggression towards their sibling. Also, no gender differences were found between participants in the link between anger and aggression, so gender did not play a moderating role. It seems that gender differences in siblings play a smaller role than in boys and girls for showing aggression. The results suggest that aggression between siblings might be more normal and accepted than aggression between boys and girls and that siblings may be more used to each other compared to non-family related children. However, further research is needed, to understand the phenomenon of sibling aggression even better in order to prevent it, since the consequences of sibling aggression can be profoundly serious.Show less
This research study explores the differences in executive functioning (EF) between normally developing children and children with Sex Chromosome Trisomies (SCT) between 1 and 8 year old. Rather...Show moreThis research study explores the differences in executive functioning (EF) between normally developing children and children with Sex Chromosome Trisomies (SCT) between 1 and 8 year old. Rather than the typical karyotype XX or XY, people with SCT have three sex chromosomes, resulting in karyotype XXY, XYY or XXX. Executive functions can be defined as mental processes that allow people to control their actions. The BRIEF, BRIEF-P and MEFS were utilized to obtain information about the development of EF. A total of 147 participants between the ages of 2,8 and 7,6 years old took part in the study. 74 participants with SCT (Mage= 4,8, SD = 1,3) and 70 (Mage= 4,5, SD = 1,0) participants without SCT. Analysis methods used were independent samples t-tests, correlations and Fisher-Z transformations. It was found that there are differences in executive functioning as a whole between children with and without SCT. The differences in working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility are small. Bigger differences between children with and without SCT were found with regards to their emotional control and cognitive flexibility. The research concludes that developmental delay regarding executive functioning is visible in children with SCT before the age of 8 years old. When children mature these differences become more obvious as the gap between what is expected with regards to EF increases faster than children with SCT improve their EF skills. Additional research is needed in order to discover whether the EF profile found is unique for children with SCT and what implications this has. Future studies should also investigate the ways EF impacts children with SCT and which treatments yields the most benefits for them. Support with regards to the development of EF in children with SCT is crucial in order to enable them to maximize the possibilities in their lives.Show less
This study investigated Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Executive Functioning (EF) in people with Coffin-Siris Syndrome (CSS) in the Netherlands. The main research question was wether...Show moreThis study investigated Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Executive Functioning (EF) in people with Coffin-Siris Syndrome (CSS) in the Netherlands. The main research question was wether differences in ADL and EF existed CSS-patients different types of genetic mutations. The differences between the groups of genetic mutations were examined taking into account the intercorrelation of ADL and EF, and the age of the (groups of) patients. In the study, 73 patients with Coffin-Siris Syndrome participated (N=73), divided into 2 groups: one group with the genetic mutation ARID1B and 1 group with other genetic mutations. The study data was obtained through the de Voorbereidende vragenlijst Coffin Siris Syndroom poli. This study revealed that no distinction could be made between different genetic mutations with respect to EF, F(1,26) = .21; p = .652. The same is true for ADL, F(1,31) =1.29; p = .264. On average, the groups with different genetic mutations did not score significantly different from each other to distinguish between them. It was also found that when corrected for age, no distinction could be made between the different genetic mutations. There were no significant influences of age in either EF (p= .478) or ADL (p= .214). When looking at the entire target group of CSS patients, rather than the groups of genetic mutations, the study found that initially there does not appear to be a relationship between EF and ADL, r = .33, p = .053. However, the study does show a significant positive weak relationship between EF and ADL when adjusted for age, r = .35, p = .049. Thus the study did not find sufficient results to imply a distinction between different gene mutations in ADL and EF in clinical practice. However, there does seem to be a relationship between EF and ADL in CSS patients. Research with larger groups of CSS-patients with the ARID1B- and other mutations is necessary in order to reveal potential differences.Show less
