Family Economic Strain and Adolescent Aggression during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Roles of Interparental Conflict and Parent–Child Conflict

Although the link from family economic strain to adolescent aggression has frequently been hypothesized, the results are mixed. Both interparental conflict and parent–child conflict are considered to be potential mediators of this link. However, the empirical evidence supporting this proposition is lacking. The present study investigated the direct effect of family economic strain on adolescent aggression as well as indirect effects through interparental conflict and parent–child conflict. Based on multi-informant data from 971 families with a child in middle and high schools in Y City, in Shanxi Province, structural equation modeling is conducted to examine the proposed theoretical model. Findings show that family economic strain has no significant direct impact on adolescent aggression. Interparental conflict and parent–child conflict mediate the link between family economic strain and adolescent aggression simultaneously and sequentially. This study expands current literature and deepens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between family economic strain and adolescent aggression. Implications for policies and interventions to reduce the risk of adolescent aggression are discussed.

     

The phenomenology and temporal distributions of autobiographical memories elicited with emotional and neutral cue words

In this study we examined whether the temporal distribution of autobiographical memory changes when different types of cue words are used to elicit the memories, and how the type of cue word affects the phenomenal characteristics of the memories. A total of 76 participants, ranging in age from 21 to 69 years, were presented with 22 cue words (emotional, emotion-provoking, and neutral). They were asked to recall a personal event and to complete the Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (Rubin, Schrauf, & Greenberg, 2003, 2004) for each cue word. Results showed that the phenomenological properties of autobiographical memories which were cued with emotional and emotion-provoking words were rated higher than those of memories which were cued with neutral words, and that the peak in the temporal distributions of the autobiographical memories that were cued with emotional or emotion-provoking words were located later than the peak of the distribution of the memories that were cued with neutral words.     

Wartime faith-based reactions among traumatized Kosovar and Bosnian refugees in the United States

In William James' view, one function of prayer is a faith-based, conscious approach to a higher power when in distress. Accordingly, this study investigates the use of private prayer among Muslim war refugees from Kosovo and Bosnia (N?=?138). Results show that these refugees were highly traumatized and most counted on private prayer for coping with their wartime difficulties. Four major types of prayer familiar to Americans were employed by roughly two-thirds to 86% of this sample. As expected, most types of prayer were associated with both wartime traumatic distress and greater religiousness. Also, 77% used prayer so that their enemies would “pay for what they have done.” However, this type of prayer was predicted only by higher levels of education and not by religiousness or traumatization. The need for examining the general and specific social contexts of prayer, such as war and terror, and prayer itself, perceived as a common human experience, are discussed. A structural equation model indicated that war-related trauma was associated directly only with negative religious coping but indirectly with positive coping, mediated by levels of emotional distress. Religiousness was related directly only to positive coping. These findings are discussed with respect to their theoretical and clinical implications.     

Detrimental Effects of Discrimination on Mental Health in Asian Americans: Counteracting Roles of Religious Involvement

Few studies have examined the role of religious involvement as a potential protective factor in the mental health of Asian Americans. Using the first national sample from the National Latino and Asian American Study (2002–2003), this study explored the direct effect of religious attendance on the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and self-rated mental health in Asian Americans (n = 2,095), above and beyond that of discrimination and acculturation factors. Hierarchical regression models associated (a) gender and discrimination with generalized anxiety disorder, and (b) gender, employment status, English proficiency, and discrimination with self-rated mental health. Including religious attendance added explanatory power to both models, indicating its influence on mental health. There was no interaction between religious attendance and discrimination, suggesting a suppressing rather than stress-buffering effect of religious attendance. These patterns suggest future investigation in the relationship between religious involvement and mental health in relation to subcultural differences among Asian Americans.     

Mechanisms for attentional modulation by threatening emotions of fear,anger, and disgust

Appropriately attending to threatening environmental stimuli is evolutionarily adaptive and crucial for survival. This study revealed that nonconscious attentional modulation of disgust has different behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) patterns, as compared to fear and anger. To facilitate its evolutionary purpose of avoidance, disgust first diverts rather than attracts attention. Accordingly, the N1 was smaller in a validly than in an invalidly disgust-cued condition. Furthermore, the frontal P3a for disgust, anger, and fear was found to be larger in the valid than in the invalid condition, which was interpreted as an involuntary switching of attention toward threat-related events to mobilize cognitive resources for action or defense. On the contrary, the parietal P3b only occurred at the conscious level; the enhanced P3b indicated that more cognitive resources were being allocated toward the task-relevant but previously less attended location, to ensure the effective achievement of task goals. In addition, group comparisons between individuals with low and high disgust sensitivity showed that the ERP differences between the disgust and the anger/fear conditions at the unconscious level may be attributed only to individuals with high disgust sensitivity. These findings, together with previous knowledge of the effects of fear and anger on attention, strengthen our confidence in the two-stage scheme of attentional modulation by threats, which consists of an early stage of bottom-up response scaling of sensory processing (reflected by the P1 and N1) and a later stage of top-down integration and regulation of emotion and behavior (reflected by the P3).     

In the Face of Terrorism: Evidence that Belief in Literal Immortality Reduces Prejudice Under Terrorism Threat

Based on terror management theory, previous research has shown that terrorism threat increases prejudice against Muslims and is mediated by death‐related thoughts. Because this effect was found on a correlational level, it remains unclear whether terrorism threat increases prejudice against Muslims because of enhanced death‐related thoughts or the opposite: terrorism threat increases death‐related thoughts because of stronger prejudice against Muslims. To disentangle this shortcoming, we varied death‐related thoughts by systematically manipulating the belief in literal immortality. Using two studies, we found that participants exposed to terrorism pictures (vs. controls) had increased prejudice against both Muslims (Study 1) and immigrants (Study 2) when they were led to believe that literal immortality does not exist but not when they were led to believe that it does exist. Mediation analysis indicated that this effect was mediated by death‐related thoughts. This provides further evidence that terrorism threat increases prejudice because of death‐related thoughts.     

Cultural differences in the dialectical and non-dialectical emotional styles and their implications for health

Previous cross-cultural studies have repeatedly demonstrated that East Asians are more likely to show a dialectical emotional style than Americans, but do not distinguish between specific types of dialectical emotional styles. Using an age diverse sample, we found that compared to Americans, Japanese are more likely to experience both positive and negative emotions moderately frequently (i.e., moderate dialectical), but are no more likely to experience them frequently (i.e., high dialectical). Thus, dialectical emotions prevalent in East Asia may be characterised by a "middle way" rather than by emotional extremes. Furthermore, we explored whether dialectical emotion types are associated with better health profiles depending on cultural background. Our results show that the moderate dialectical type is associated with fewer physical symptoms in Japan than in the USA. Together, these findings show the cultural differences in the experience of balanced positive and negative emotions and their health correlates.     

A longitudinal study of the moderating effects of social capital on the relationships between changes in human capital and ikigai among Japanese older adults

Ikigai, one of the indices of well‐being, tends to decline with age because resources relating to ikigai decline. However, there are individual differences in this decline. This study tested for maintenance of ikigai among Japanese elderly, using a longitudinal study investigating the moderating role of social capital on the effects of changes in human capital on ikigai. We conducted a panel survey targeting 1,068 people (M age = 73.01 years) in 2013, and 686 people in 2017. The variables were ikigai, changes in human capital (self‐rated financial status, physical health) and social capital (social networks, trust in others), educational level, and control variables. Multiple regression analyses revealed the interaction effects of changes in physical health and changes in social networks (strong ties, weak ties) on follow‐up ikigai. Post hoc analyses indicated that declines in physical health predicted declines in ikigai among those whose social networks (strong ties and weak ties) had declined in the 4‐year study, but these relationships were not significant among those whose social networks had increased. The results suggest that older adults can weaken the adverse effect of a decline in human capital on ikigai by maintaining or increasing social networks.     

不同年龄视觉通道错误记忆的实验研究

两个实验运用DRM研究范式 ,分别以汉字词和彩色图片为材料 ,揭示了青年、中年和老年人都存在基于概念结构的视觉关联性错误记忆以及在自由回忆、再认、抵御犯关联性错误记忆及抵抗外界无关因素干扰等情节长时记忆能力的各个方面随年龄发展变化的不同特点 ,并发现对信息来源的监控评定水平受信息材料性质及年龄因素的影响     

Developmental transition of EEG spectra to alpha band in a sample of children with developmental disabilities

Developmental transition of EEG spectra to alpha band of 14 children with developmental disabilities (from 7 yr. and 3 mo. to 16 yr. and 1 mo. of age at the first EEG recording: M= 13.2, SD=2.6; 6 girls and 8 boys) was studied by auto-power spectrum analysis longitudinally. The results showed the mean age (14.1 yr. to 14.8 yr. in the four regions of the frontal, central, parietal, and occipital regions) for subjects and their mean frequency (4.2 Hz to 4.7 Hz in the 4 regions) at which EEG shift started from theta band, and those means (15.1 yr. to 15.7 yr. and 9.5 Hz to 9.6 Hz in the 4 regions) at which EEG shift reached the alpha band. Prior EEG research on healthy children has shown that approximately 10 years of age is critical for developmental transition of EEG spectra to alpha frequencies. It is suggested that the present data showed a delay of this critical age for this sample of children with developmental disabilities relative to 10 years for healthy children reported by Katada, et al. and Benninger, et al.