The mediating effect of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies on executive functioning impairment and depressive symptoms among adolescents

Past research results suggest that executive functioning (EF) impairment represents an important vulnerability factor in depression. Little research, however, has examined mechanisms underlying this association. The current study investigates the associations between EF impairment, emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 579 adolescents (320 females, mean age = 12.06 years). Parents reported on adolescents’ EF and general psychopathology, and adolescents self-reported ER strategies and depressive symptoms. The results indicate that greater EF impairment is associated with more depressive symptoms. Youth with greater EF impairment reported more maladaptive ER and less adaptive ER, and maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies jointly mediated the association between EF impairment and depressive symptoms. The results highlight an important role of both maladaptive and adaptive ER in explaining the relationship between EF and depressive symptoms and suggest that clinical interventions targeting ER skills may provide one strategy for the prevention and treatment of depression. Further longitudinal research is needed to replicate these results and evaluate the causality of the relations.     

Posttraumatic growth following pregnancy termination for fetal abnormality: the predictive role of coping strategies and perinatal grief

Background: Research about termination for fetal abnormality (TFA) suggests that it is a traumatic event with potential negative psychological consequences. However, evidence also indicates that following traumatic events individuals may experience growth. Although TFA’s negative psychological outcomes are well documented, little is known of the potential for growth following this event. Therefore, the study’s objectives were to measure posttraumatic growth (PTG) post-TFA, examine the relationship between PTG, perinatal grief and coping, and determine the predictors of PTG.

Design: An online, retrospective survey was conducted with 161 women.

Methods: Eligible participants were women over 18 who had undergone TFA. Participants were recruited from a support organisation. They completed the Brief COPE, Short Perinatal Grief Scale and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory. Data were analysed using regression analyses.

Results: Moderate levels of PTG were observed for “relating to others,” “personal strengths” and “appreciation of life.” “Positive reframing” was a significant predictor of PTG. Despite using mainly “adaptive” coping strategies, women’s grief levels were high.

Conclusions: “Adaptive” coping strategies such as, “positive reframing” are relevant to TFA. They may act as protective factors against distress and as foundations for growth, implicating that interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which aim to reframe women’s experience, may be beneficial.     

Concurrent Validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in an Indigenous Pre-School Population

The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) is a frequently used tool for universal screening of pre-schoolers’ behavioural and emotional problems. However, evidence for its concurrent validity is equivocal and has not been tested in a Māori population. We aimed to evaluate the concurrent validity of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in Māori pre-schoolers (tamariki), aged 4 and 5. We carried out a prospective study of 225 tamariki (46% female) for whom a recent SDQ was available from the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s Before School Check database. A trained nurse carried out a standardised wellbeing and behavioural assessment for these children. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values were calculated, using optimal total difficulty scale threshold values published for the SDQ (parent version SDQ-P; teacher version SDQ-T). Primary outcome: an assessment-based child referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or to a Paediatric outpatient service. Secondary outcomes: assessment-based parental referral to a parenting programme and combined referral. The optimal thresholds for child referral were low for the SDQ-P (13) and SDQ-T (7). Child referral SDQ-P: sensitivity 62%, specificity 83%, positive predictive value 0.35, negative predictive value 0.94. Child referral SDQ-T: sensitivity 77%, specificity 78%, positive predictive value 0.31, negative predictive value 0.96. The findings demonstrate optimal threshold values for referral for Māori on the SDQ-P and SDQ-T are much lower when compared to published thresholds (17 vs. 16). Sensitivity values were also low. A surveillance approach for the assessment of psychosocial problems is recommended for pre-schoolers.     

Stigma towards Mental Health Problems during Childhood and Adolescence: Theory,Research and Intervention Approaches

Many children and teenagers living with mental health problems experience stigma from within their peer group, yet this remains an under-researched topic in developmental science and the broader mental health literature. This paper highlights the limitations of adopting measures, concepts and theories that have exclusively emanated from the adult mental health literature. We argue that the social context of children and adolescents is critical in understanding the development and maintenance of stigma towards those with mental health problems, alongside the changing developmental needs and abilities of children and adolescents. In this article we argue that a theory proposed to explain the development of stereotypes and prejudice in childhood has potential as a framework for integrating existing research findings on mental health stigma in childhood and adolescence and providing direction for further research. The need for interventions that are grounded within the developmental science literature and that explicitly state their theory of change are identified as key research priorities for reducing stigma during childhood and adolescence.     

Building and sustaining work engagement – a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff

This study evaluated whether a participatory action research intervention with nursing staff on acute care older people National Health Service wards in the United Kingdom was effective for increasing work engagement. Mediation analyses between job resources (social support, influence in decision-making), job demands, work-related needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), and work engagement explored the presumed psychological mechanisms underlying the intervention. A non-randomized, matched control group, pretest, post-test design involved three intervention and five control wards. A significant decrease in relatedness, and a borderline significant decrease in competence, was observed in the intervention group compared to the control group, with no effect on work engagement (N = 45). Work-related needs mediated between resources and work engagement, supporting the job demands-resources model and self-determination theory as an underlying explanatory theory. Intervention implementation was difficult, highlighting the need for participant and organizational readiness for change, and strong management support. This is the first known study to apply participatory techniques to increase work engagement in nursing staff and explore the underlying explanatory psychological mechanisms, offering a novel means of taking work engagement research forward. Crucially, it highlights the challenges involved in intervention research and the importance of including evaluations of intervention implementation alongside statistical evaluations to avoid erroneous conclusions.     

Context-specific adjustment of cognitive control: Transfer of adaptive control sets

Cognitive control protects processing of relevant information from interference by irrelevant information. The level of this processing selectivity can be flexibly adjusted to different control demands (e.g., frequency of conflict) associated with a certain context, leading to the formation of specific context–control associations. In the present study we investigated the robustness and transferability of the acquired context–control demands to new situations. In three experiments, we used a version of the context-specific proportion congruence (CSPC) paradigm, in which each context (e.g., location) is associated with a specific conflict frequency, determining high and low control demands. In a learning phase, associations between context and control demands were established. In a subsequent transfer block, stimulus–response mappings, whole task sets, or context–control demands changed. Results showed an impressive robustness of context–control associations, as context-specific adjustments of control from the learning phase were virtually unaffected by new stimuli and tasks in the transfer block. Only a change of the context–control demand eliminated the context-specific adjustment of control. These findings suggest that context–control associations that have proven to be adaptive in the past are continuously applied despite major changes in the task structure as long as the context–control associations remain the same.     

Clustering and switching in unconstrained,phonemic and semantic verbal fluency: the role of age and school type

We investigated the role of age and school type on clustering and switching in verbal fluency tasks (VFTs) with Brazilian children. The children were administered unconstrained, phonemic and semantic VFTs with a duration of 150 or 120 s, respectively. Both age and school type influenced all variables and in terms of performance over time. Older children and private school students outperformed the remainder of the sample, with the first 30 s of each VFT usually being the most productive. Although the size of the clusters produced did not differ between groups, the types of clusters did show some variations, with semantic clusters being the most frequent. Our results revealed strong correlations between switching ability and word production in all three VFTs. In conclusion, the executive functions known as planning and cognitive flexibility play a crucial role in word production by organising and facilitating the recall of lexical information from memory.     

Emotional state and local versus global spatial memory

The present work investigated the effects of participant emotional state on global versus local memory for map-based information. Participants were placed into one of four emotion induction groups, crossing high and low arousal with positive and negative valence, or a control group. They then studied a university campus map and completed two memory tests, free recall and spatial statement verification. Converging evidence from these two tasks demonstrated that arousal amplifies symbolic distance effects and leads to a globally-focused spatial mental representation, partially at the expense of local knowledge. These results were found for both positively- and negatively-valenced affective states. The present study is the first investigation of emotional effects on spatial memory, and has implications for theories of emotion and spatial cognition.     

Quo Vadis? The Capability Space and New Directions for the Philosophy of Educational Research

Amartya Sen’s capability approach creates an evaluative space within which individual well-being is considered in ways that diverge from dominant utilitarian views. Instead of measuring well-being based on the accumulation of wealth and resources by individuals and nations, the capability approach focuses on the opportunities (capabilities) an individual has to choose and pursue a life they have reason to value. The capability space is introduced with an explanation of Sen’s evaluative framework. It is claimed that conceptions of well-being are inextricably linked to our values and views of what constitutes justice, the ‘good life’ and notions of human flourishing. The paper invites philosophical reflection on how the capability approach can inform the development of a research paradigm that furthers our understandings of individual well-being and human flourishing. A specific focus is given to what more can be done to assist children and young people in making the best of their situation in negotiating a valued life for themselves in which they can flourish.