The Association Between Self-Critical Rumination and Parenting Stress: The Mediating Role of Mindful Parenting

Self-critical rumination is a type of rumination focused on the content of self-critical thoughts. Although self-criticism and rumination are two maladaptive psychological processes with a negative effect on parenting, including parenting stress, the role of self-critical rumination on parenting outcomes has never been explored. The aim of this study is to analyze the role of self-critical rumination on parenting stress and examine whether mindful parenting dimensions (listening with full attention, compassion for the child, non-judgmental acceptance of parental functioning, emotional awareness of the child, and self-regulation in parenting) mediate this association. The moderating role of child’s age in the direct and indirect effects was also examined. A sample of 265 Portuguese mothers of children/adolescents from the general community completed measures of self-critical rumination, mindful parenting, and parenting stress. Self-critical rumination was negatively associated with all mindful parenting dimensions and positively associated with parenting stress. However, only non-judgmental acceptance of parental functioning and emotional awareness of the child dimensions were significant mediators of the relationship between self-critical rumination and parenting stress. The link between self-critical rumination and parenting stress as well as the indirect effects were not moderated by the child’s age. This study identifies an important maladaptive psychological process (self-critical rumination) that explains individual differences in parenting and a mechanism that may account for the link between self-critical rumination and parenting stress, which can both be modified through intervention.     

The Network Structure of Childhood Psychopathology in International Adoptees

International adoptees are at an increased risk of emotional and behavioral problems, especially those who are adopted at an older age. We took a new approach in our study of the network structure and predictability of emotional and behavioral problems in internationally adopted children in Finland. Our sample was from the on-going adoption study and comprised 778 internationally adopted children (387 boys and 391 girls, mean age 10.5 (SD 3.4) years). Networks were estimated using Gaussian graphical models and lasso regularization for all the children, and separately for those who were adopted at different ages. The results showed that anxiety/depressive symptoms, social problems, and aggressiveness were the most central symptom domains. Somatic symptoms were the least central and had the weakest effect on the other domains. Similarly, aggressiveness, social problems, and attention problems were high in terms of predictability (73–65%), whereas internalizing problems were relatively low (28–56%). There were clear but local age-group differences in network structure, symptom centrality, and predictability. According to our findings, network models provide important additional information about the centrality and predictability of specific symptom domains, and thus may facilitate targeted interventions among international adoptees.     

A systematic review of psychoneuroimmunology-based interventions

Psychoneuroimmunology-based interventions are used to attenuated disease progression and/or side effects of pharmacological treatment. This systematic review evaluates the different therapeutic and/or clinical psychoneuroimmunology-based interventions associated to both psychological, neuroendocrine and immunological variables. The review was conducted for all English, Portuguese and Spanish language articles published between 2005 and 2015. Independent investigators analyzed 42 studies concerning human psychoneuroimmunology-based interventions. Decreased levels of cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine (stress-related hormones) were associated to interventions like yoga, meditation, tai chi, acupuncture, mindfulness, religious/spiritual practices, cognitive behavior therapy, coping and physical exercises. Moreover, those interventions were also associated to reductions in inflammatory processes and levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in cancer, HIV, depression, anxiety, wound healing, sleep disorder, cardiovascular diseases and fibromyalgia. Despite the associations between PNI variables and clinical/therapeutic interventions, only one study evidenced significant effects on a disease progression.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Recta Ratio Agibilium</Emphasis> in a medical context: the role of virtue in the physician-patient relationship

Acting for the good of the patient is the most fundamental and universally acknowledged principle of medical ethics. However, given the complexity of modern medicine as well as the moral fragmentation of contemporary society, determining the good is far from simple. In his philosophy of medicine, Edmund Pellegrino develops a conception of the good that is derived from the internal morality of medicine via the physician-patient relationship. It is through this healing relationship that rights, duties, and privileges are defined for both physicians and patients. Moreover, this relationship determines the characteristics or virtues that are necessary to engage in the medical telos. This paper addresses the role of the moral virtues in clinical medicine and the physician-patient relationship. First, it provides a brief background of the Aristotelian foundations of virtue-ethics. Second, it delves into Pellegrino’s philosophy of medicine understood as a practice oriented towards a teleological goal. Third, it relates the telos of medicine to the notion of the medical community as a fundamentally moral community. Finally, it concludes with a section that creates a dialogue between virtue ethics and principlism.     

Sympathetic reactivity in late pregnancy is related to labour onset in women

Stress regulation during pregnancy is considered to be connected to the timing of labour initiation. Although increasing knowledge is emerging on the regulation of parturition, there is currently no way to predict the start of spontaneous labour in women. The main aim of this study was to assess pain threshold and the sympathetic nervous system response to cold pain in relation to the onset of labour in healthy pregnant women. Ninety-three pregnant women were recruited and assessed for skin conductance (SC) activity during a cold pressor test in gestational week 38. Pain threshold and cold endurance were also measured and the results were compared with data obtained from hospital records. Seventy-four women had a spontaneous labour onset and a valid SC measurement. SC activity during the cold pressor test decreased significantly with the number of days left to spontaneous parturition. This may indicate a gradual decrease in sympathetic autonomic nervous system reactivity even during the last weeks of pregnancy. Measuring SC activity during mild stress provocation is a rapid and non-invasive means to study variation in sympathetic reactivity during pregnancy, and may be useful in research on stress regulation in pregnancy and its relation to labour initiation.     

Motion-detecting mechanisms: Dual input devices?

Displacement thresholds for luminance step edges were measured for a wide range of contrasts and mean luminances. Thresholds for extended edges (longer than about 0.5°) are determined not by contrast but rather by the amplitude (L_max-L_min) of the luminance change produced by the displacement. Arguing from the standpoint of the Marr-Ullman model of movement detection, we had expected that thresholds might be jointly determined by both contrast and amplitude. Using a range of edges of different lengths, we found that differential effects of luminance and contrast can be revealed: for short edges (less than about 0.5°) thresholds are influenced by both amplitude and contrast, while for more extensive edges only amplitude has an influence. The results are consistent with the properties of a mechanism that has two separate inputs, one from a spatial operator that is contrast-dependent and one from a temporal operator that is amplitude-dependent. The spatial operator is markedly sensitive to changes in edge extent, the temporal operator much less so. The output of the spatial operator saturates early as a function of contrast.     

Theory of Mind and Executive Functions in Young Bilingual Children

Few studies have explored the relationship between theory of mind (ToM), executive function (EF), and bilingualism at the same time. In this study 14 young bilingual children were compared with monolingual children on a test battery composed of 5 ToM tests, 5 EF tests, and 1 test of general language ability. The result showed that despite significantly lower verbal ability, the bilingual children outperformed the monolingual ones on tests of EF. There were no differences in ToM performance. The authors argue that there is a strong relationship between bilingualism and EF, but, contrary to results from earlier studies, they could not find any relationship between bilingualism and ToM. EF did not predict ToM performance. Lack of a significant relationship could be due to the children's young age and consequently their low scores on the ToM tasks.     

Quality of Life (QoL) in a Brazilian Sample of Older Adults: The Role of Sociodemographic Variables and Depression Symptoms

The aim of the present study was to identify relevant variables associated with Quality of Life (QoL) in older adults. Older adults, up to 60 years old, were interviewed. Subjects were recruited through convenience sampling. 339 paticipants, who were stratified by gender, age, and subjective perception of health and illness, answered questions on sociodemographic issues, QoL (WHOQOL-100) and depressive symptomathology (Beck Depression Inventory—BDI). The multiple linear regression analysis showed associations of overall perception of QoL with depression levels, subjective perception of health status and gender. The individual analysis of each domain concluded that depression levels are correlated to all QoL domains, while health status was associated with physical, psychological, independence level and social relationship domains. Other variables were also assessed. The assessment of older adults concerning their QoL perceptions is associated with gender, age, marital status, social class, literacy rate, perception of health, and more substantially associated with depressive symptoms levels. Nevertheless, some limitations of this study and further ones are suggested.     

Marital Relationship,Body Image and Psychological Quality of Life among Breast Cancer Patients: The Moderating Role of the Disease’s Phases

In this cross-sectional study we analyzed the links between marital quality and intimacy, body image, and psychological quality of life (PQoL) of breast cancer patients, as well as the moderating role of cancer phase (treatment, survivorship) on the aforementioned links. We also evaluated whether body image mediated the associations between marital relationship variables and PQoL. An analysis of the data from 128 patients (66 undergoing treatment, 62 survivors) indicated that the majority of links between variables were significant only during the treatment phase. Mediating effect of body image on the associations between relationship variables and PQoL was found only at the treatment phase.