Long. Designs: Interventions and RCTs

Question 1

What are the limitations of identifying causality with developmental research?

Answer 1

Duration of development/confounds; experience different environments which affect our outcomes
Control vs Validity; Can’t control what happens outside the lab
Negative outcomes? Not ethical

Question 2

What can experimental longitudinal designs also be called?

Answer 2

Interventions over time

Question 3

What are the goals for interventions

Answer 3

To identify methods to correct or prevent problems in a developmentally vulnerable population
Generate knowledge that can be applied broadly

Question 4

What are the limitations of within-subject intervention designs?

Answer 4

Maturation
Testing effects

Question 5

What design is Costello et al (2003) an example of?

Answer 5

Between subjects natural intervention

Question 6

What was Costello et al (2003) initially investigating and what happened half way through the study?

Answer 6

Mental health outcomes in North Carolina
Casino was built in the native American reservation and proceeds get split amongst the residents of the conservation

Question 7

What did Costello (2003) find from their study?

Answer 7

Before the Casino, there were high rates of behavioural problems (conduct and oppositional defiant)
After Casino, due to the change in poverty, there was a reduction in behavioural problems
Supports social causation

Question 8

What are the limitations of the study?

Answer 8

Why did it only improve conduct and oppositional defiant behavioural problems?
Selection bias

Question 9

What are the general limitations of between subject interventions?

Answer 9

Selection bias
Placebo Affect
Compensatory rivalry

Question 10

How do we introduct randomness to overcome the limitations of between-subject interventions?

Answer 10

remove the pretest as it assumes all the participants are the same

Question 11

What is the Bucharest Early Intervention Project?

Answer 11

1000s of children in Romania in 1988 were put into institutions due to increase in child abandonment due to demands from the governments for parents to produce more children but they couldn’t afford it
Wanted to see the effects of putting some children into an intervention e.g Foster care

Question 12

Describe the procedure of Zeanah et al’s (2003) study with the BEIP

Answer 12

18-20 families
Visits to foster parents every 10-15 days
EEG measures
Observational procedures
RCT
Interviews - attachment
Tests for attention, visual impairment, lang etc

Question 13

What were the results of Zeanah et al’s (2003) study?

Answer 13

Some developed quicker when in foster care
Many domains were found to have no benefit or slow effects
Romanian government implemented a foster care programme

Question 14

What are some limitations of Zeanah et al’s (2003) study?

Answer 14

Self-selection bias of foster parents
Participant drop out - due to agreeing not to interfere they lost a lot of ptps due to being adopted or returning to bio patents
Ethics - those not allocated to foster care will be negatively impacted

Question 15

What 5 things should you consider before deciding to intervene

Answer 15

Context sensitivity, ethics, intent-to-treat, design, control group

Question 16

What should be considered for Context sensitivity?

Answer 16

Does it impose of subjective beliefs?
Is the intervention appropriate for the context?
Does the design of the intervention generalise to other contexts? - Nurse visits for low income parents in UK vs US
Selection bias of intervener

Question 17

What should be considered for control group?

Answer 17

Paired assignment vs random
Placebo condition vs Alt intervention
Are the ptps aware of group membership = compensatory rivalry or resentful demoralisation
Is random assignment preserved?

Question 18

What could affect intent-to-treat?

Answer 18

Unintended alterations to randomisation;
- access to alt intervention
- accidental or failure to administer intervention
- adherence to intervention
- Bleed effects

Question 19

What ethical considerations should there be?

Answer 19

non-interference
participant compensation; coercion vs freedom to withdraw

Question 20

What 5 things should be considered for the evaluations and production of an intervention?

Answer 20

Feasibility
Develop OR Identify Intervention
Implementation
Evaluation

Question 21

What intervention was used in Hane et al’s (2015) study of quality of maternal caregiving in a neonatal intensive care unit?

Answer 21

Family Nurture Intervention

Question 22

What was the goal of the Family Nurture Intervention in Hane et al’s (2015)

Answer 22

Improve the emotional connection between a mother and premature infants through focal soothing, skin and eye contact and value based sessions

Question 23

What did the control group recieve instead of the FNI in Hane et al’s (2015) study?

Answer 23

Standard care

Question 24

What was the goal of the Family Nurture Intervention in Hane et al’s (2015)

Answer 24

Improve the emotional connection between a mother and premature infants through focal soothing, skin and eye contact and value-based sessions

Question 25

How did they operationalise quality of maternal care in Hane et al’s (2015) study?

Answer 25

a single session of coding behaviour of feeding and holding

Question 26

What are the limitations of the study

Answer 26

Only one session of coding for feeding and holding - reliability?
Doesn’t go beyond discharge from hospital - does it work beyond this?

Question 27

What did Humphrey’s et al (2015) analyse in the follow up study of the BEIP?

Answer 27

Psychopathology (and ADHD) at age 12

Question 28

How did Humphrey’s et al (2015) measure psychopathology?

Answer 28

Diagnostic interview

Question 29

What were the results from Humphrey et al’s (2015) study?

Answer 29

Institutionalised children had higher rates of ADHD and psychopathology
Stability of foster care also affected this

Question 30

What are the limitations of the Humphrey et al’s (2015) study

Answer 30

Small sample due to being follow up and high drop out
Caregiver report of clinical interview

Question 31

What intervention was used in Wimer et al’s (2011) study?

Answer 31

Room to Grow

Question 32

How was involved in the Room the Grow intervention in Wimer et al’s (2011) study?

Answer 32

Given books, toys, community support, regular contact with social work and therapy

Question 33

What are the limitations of Wimer et al’s (2011) study

Answer 33

Follow up only taken from 1 time point
Ethics - stop being given support which is of high value
doesn’t look at effects of baseline socio-economic status