The 2009 special issue of Training and Education in Professional Psychology focused on competency areas and assessment-related issues, presenting 2 seminal articles: "Competency Benchmarks: A Model for Understanding and Measuring Competence in Professional Psychology Across Training Levels" ("Benchmarks";Fouad et al., 2009) and "Competency Assessment Toolkit for Professional Psychology" ("Toolkit"; Kaslow et al., 2009). The Benchmarks outlined and described competency areas encompassing both foundational and functional competencies, while the Toolkit (a partner to the Benchmarks) reviewed a variety of methods and considerations for competency assessment. However, as noted at the time (i.e.

Psychopathy and depression have rarely been studied together despite relatively high rates of both in court-referred adolescent samples. To determine if youth high in psychopathy and depression experience more psychosocial difficulties, the current study examined psychopathy and depression in 103 adolescent offenders using two well-validated assessments: The Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 1996/2003) and the depression scale of the Adolescent Psychopathology Scale (APS; Reynolds, 1998). Findings showed that psychopathy and depression interact to statistically predict much higher levels of anger, aggression, interpersonal problems, and substance use. Implications for these findings include that youth who are high in psychopathy and come in contact with the law are also at high risk for numerous problems. Clinical implications driven from the current findings are that assessment and treatment programs in juvenile justice settings should be tailored and systematized to address externalizing and internalizing symptoms in youth and also to consider the co-occurrence of the two. Juvenile justice systems might also benefit from developing clinical practices that require assessment and treatment units to undergo program training to ensure that they (a) account for possible co-occurring effects of commonly assessed disorders and (b) adequately treat complex youth mental health problems with customized treatment programs. Such training would allow for more effective treatment affording youth greater opportunities to succeed in society.

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There is a paucity of information concerning normative reference ranges on standardized measures of profession-wide competencies for the purpose of conducting formative assessments. The present study draws from a convenience sample to provide developmental (first/second half of training year) normative data for use in formative assessments of individual trainees and program-level quality improvement processes. Data reveal the anticipated pattern of competency scores generally improving across any given training year, with the strongest gains in competencies tied to assessment, supervision, and advocacy. A secondary aim, which emerged after study launch, was to evaluate whether training disruptions due an infectious viral pandemic (COVID-19) exerted demonstrable impacts at the aggregate level on trainee competency development. This sample of doctoral trainees evidenced no pandemic-associated suppression of Competency attainment. Rather, this sample of trainees evidenced growth in focal competencies tied to policy creation, systemschange, management structure, and leadership. Training implications are discussed. Public Significance StatementData from this study underscore the value of formative assessments in monitoring competency development and informs appropriate interpretation of meaningful profession-wide competencies.

Introduction Sleep is a critical behavior predicting mental health and depressive symptomatology in young adults.The extant scientific literature generally focuses on self-reported sleep measures over relatively short time frames. Here, we examine whether actigraphy-measured sleep variables early in the academic semester predict depressive symptomatology at the end of the semester among first and second year college students. There is currently debate in the sleep literature about which sleep variables are the most robust predictors of depression among young adults. In this study, we evaluate total sleep time, midpoint sleep time, and sleep variability where variability is defined by the mean-squared successive difference (MSSD) of midpoint sleep as predictors of depression. Methods The sample consisted of 160 first and second year college students at a private American university. The students completed a beginning and end of semester assessment of depressive symptomatology using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and wore a Fitbit throughout the semester to capture sleep features of interest: total sleep time (TST), midpoint sleep, and midpoint MSSD. Results When controlling for beginning of semester CES-D, early semester (weeks 3–6) midpoint sleep MSSD significantly (p < 0.05) predicted increased end of semester CES-D. These effects were specific to the sleep variability measure (MSSD). Total sleep time and sleep chronotype (i.e. midpoint sleep) were not significant predictors of end of semester depressive symptomatology. Conclusion Early semester sleep window variability among college freshmen, particularly during stressful midterm exams, is a robust risk factor for depression among college students. This work contributes to initial actigraphy studies suggesting that MSSD measures of sleep window variability foster increased mental health risks among young people. This work calls for further investigation to understand possible causal relationships between sleep variability and mental health. Support This work was supported by the Life@CMU project funded by the Carnegie Mellon University Provost’s Office.