Exploring the Association Between Peace of Mind and Academic Engagement: Cross-Sectional and Cross-Lagged Panel Studies in the Philippine Context

Peace of mind (PoM) has been associated with positive psychological and well-being outcomes. However, it seems that limited research has been done to assess the role of PoM in the educational setting. The present study addressed this gap through examining the association of PoM with academic engagement via a cross-sectional (Study 1) and a two-wave cross-lagged study (Study 2) in the Philippine setting. Results of hierarchical regression in Study 1 revealed that PoM was positively associated academic engagement even after controlling for relevant demographic variables, positive affect, and life satisfaction. In Study 2, results of the cross-lagged structural equation modeling showed that Time 1 PoM was associated with higher extent of Time 2 academic engagement even after controlling for autoregressor effects, Time 1 positive affect, and Time 1 life satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Peers influence adolescent reward processing,but not response inhibition

Most adolescent risk taking occurs in the presence of peers. Prior research suggests that peers alter adolescents’ decision making by increasing reward sensitivity and the engagement of regions involved in the processing of rewards, primarily the striatum. However, the potential influence of peers on the capacity for impulse control, and the associated recruitment of the brain’s control circuitry, has not yet been adequately examined. In the current study, adolescents underwent functional neuroimaging while they completed interleaved rounds of risk-taking and response-inhibition tasks. Social context was manipulated such that the participants believed they were either playing alone and unobserved, or watched by an anonymous peer. Compared to those who completed the tasks alone, adolescents in the peer condition took more risks during the risk-taking task and exhibited relatively heightened activation of the striatum. Activity within this striatal region also predicted individual differences in overall risk taking. In contrast, the presence of peers had no effect on behavioral response inhibition and had minimal impact on the engagement of typical cognitive control regions. In a subregion of the anterior insula engaged mutually by both tasks, activity was again found to be sensitive to social context during the risk-taking task, but not during the response-inhibition task. These findings extend the evidence that the presence of peers biases adolescents towards risk taking by increasing reward sensitivity rather than disrupting cognitive control.     

The Reflections on Forgiveness Framework: A Framework to Understand Older Adults’ Forgiveness Development over the Life Course

Journal of Adult Development - The present study uncovers how older adults have reported learning about forgiveness throughout the life course. We used a series of 22 semi-structured interviews to...