Exposure to severe urban air pollution influences cognitive outcomes, brain volume and systemic inflammation in clinically healthy children

Exposure to severe air pollution produces neuroinflammation and structural brain alterations in children. We tested whether patterns of brain growth, cognitive deficits and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are associated with exposures to severe air pollution. Baseline and 1 year follow-up measurements of global and regional brain MRI volumes, cognitive abilities (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, WISC-R), and serum inflammatory mediators were collected in 20 Mexico City (MC) children (10 with white matter hyperintensities, WMH⁺, and 10 without, WMH⁻) and 10 matched controls (CTL) from a low polluted city. There were significant differences in white matter volumes between CTL and MC children - both WMH⁺ and WMH⁻ - in right parietal and bilateral temporal areas. Both WMH⁻ and WMH⁺ MC children showed progressive deficits, compared to CTL children, on the WISC-R Vocabulary and Digit Span subtests. The cognitive deficits in highly exposed children match the localization of the volumetric differences detected over the 1 year follow-up, since the deficits observed are consistent with impairment of parietal and temporal lobe functions. Regardless of the presence of prefrontal WMH, Mexico City children performed more poorly across a variety of cognitive tests, compared to CTL children, thus WMH⁺ is likely only partially identifying underlying white matter pathology. Together these findings reveal that exposure to air pollution may perturb the trajectory of cerebral development and result in cognitive deficits during childhood.     

To Love and Play: Testing the Association of Adult Playfulness with the Relationship Personality and Relationship Satisfaction

It is hypothesized that playfulness in adults is positively associated with relationship satisfaction and that specific types of attachment and love are related with this trait. Findings, based on two samples of adults that are currently in a relationship (N?=?161 and 598), show that playfulness is positively associated with relationship satisfaction—albeit low in effect size. Playfulness shares about 17 % overlapping variance with different types of love and attachment; particularly, Seduction, low Market Orientation, Attachment, and Love were predictive for playfulness. While gender differences only played a minor role it was shown that playfulness mediates about 5.7 % of the gender differences in the inclination to Sexuality. Overall, findings are in the expected direction. The discussion highlights the importance of considering multidimensional measures for playfulness and satisfaction and gives future research directions.     

Evaluation of Affect in Mexico and Spain: Psychometric Properties and Usefulness of an Abbreviated Version of the Day Reconstruction Method

The aims of the present study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish-language version of the abbreviated Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), and to investigate differences in affective experience in Mexico and Spain. A total of 2,629 adults from Mexico and 4,583 from Spain were interviewed. Information was obtained using an abbreviated version of the DRM, which had been translated into Spanish. Reliability, validity, and the structure of affect were assessed and compared between countries. The diurnal variation of affect, the changes in affect along the life span, time use, and the relationship between affect and socio-demographic characteristics were also analysed. Adequate psychometric properties for the Spanish-language version of the abbreviated DRM were found in both the Mexican and the Spanish samples, and affect tended to improve along the life span in both countries. However, net affect did not have the same distribution function (Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic = 0.25, p < 0.001) in both countries, being higher in Spain. Moreover, both samples showed opposite patterns in the diurnal variation of affect. The results showed that the Spanish-language version of the DRM is a feasible and valid method to measure affect, its diurnal rhythms, and time use in large-scale surveys.     

Presence of meaning and search for meaning as mediators between spirituality and psychological well-being in a South African sample

Spirituality and meaning in life are important pathways to well-being. Research has conceptually and empirically linked spirituality, religiousness and meaning in life. The present study was concerned with investigating presence of meaning (MLQ-P) and search for meaning (MLQ-S) as mediators between spirituality (religious and existential well-being) and hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. A multi-cultural sample of 326 South African students completed the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being (QEWB) and the Mental Health Continuum Short-Form (MHC-SF). Structural equation modelling in Mplus was used to study direct and indirect effects. Findings show that the presence of meaning in life explains more paths between spirituality and psychological well-being than search for meaning. MLQ-P mediated the paths between existential well-being and four of the five indices of psychological well-being. MLQ-S did not mediate any path between spirituality (existential and religious well-being) and psychological well-being outcomes.     

From aesthetics to ethics: Testing the link between an emotional experience of awe and the motive of quixoteism on (un)ethical behavior

Motivation and Emotion - According to the awe-quixoteism hypothesis, one experience of awe may lead to the engagement in challenging actions aimed at increasing the welfare of the world. However,...     

Measurement of Quality of Life in Spanish Regions

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The present paper measures quality of life through a set of dimensions included in the following partial indicators of objective well-being: demography,...     

Estimation of the predictive power of the model in mixed‐effects meta‐regression: A simulation study

Several methods are available to estimate the total and residual amount of heterogeneity in meta‐analysis, leading to different alternatives when estimating the predictive power in mixed‐effects meta‐regression models using the formula proposed by Raudenbush (1994, 2009). In this paper, a simulation study was conducted to compare the performance of seven estimators of these parameters under various realistic scenarios in psychology and related fields. Our results suggest that the number of studies (k) exerts the most important influence on the accuracy of the results, and that precise estimates of the heterogeneity variances and the model predictive power can only be expected with at least 20 and 40 studies, respectively. Increases in the average within‐study sample size () also improved the results for all estimators. Some differences among the accuracy of the estimators were observed, especially under adverse (small k and ) conditions, while the results for the different methods tended to convergence for more optimal scenarios.