Socialization of Emotion and Offspring Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers with Childhood-Onset Depression

This study examines how mothers with and without a history of childhood-onset depression respond to their 3-9 year-old children's emotions. Mother-child dyads included 55 offspring of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depressive disorders and 57 offspring of never-depressed mothers. Mothers with a history of childhood depression were less likely than control mothers to respond in supportive ways to their children's negative emotions and were more likely to magnify, punish, or neglect their children's negative emotions. Magnification, neglect, and punishment of children's negative emotions were concurrently associated with children's internalizing symptoms, and neglect and punishment were associated with internalizing over a one year follow-up. Maternal neglect of children's negative emotion was positively associated with later internalizing symptoms for children who already had higher internalizing symptoms at the initial assessment. Findings suggest that atypical socialization of emotion may be one mechanism in the development of internalizing disorders.     

Mother-Daughter Mutual Arousal Escalation and Emotion Regulation in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Adolescence is a period of heightened emotionality, and difficulties with emotion regulation during adolescence are associated with the...     

The bystander effect in an N-person dictator game

Dozens of studies show that bystanders are less likely to help victims as bystander number increases. However, these studies model one particular situation, in which victims need only one helper. Using a multi-player dictator game, we study a different but common situation, in which a recipient’s welfare increases with the amount of help, and donors can share the burden of helping. We find that dictators transfer less when there are more dictators, and recipients earn less when there are multiple dictators. This effect persisted despite mechanisms eliminating uncertainty about other dictators’ behavior (a strategy method and communication). In a typical public goods game, people seem to transform the situation into an assurance game, willing to contribute if certain others will too. Despite similarities, people do not treat a recipient’s welfare like a public good. Instead, people seem to transform the situation into a prisoner’s dilemma, refusing to help whatever others do.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: The Mediating Role of Parenting Styles on Toddlers' DSM-Related Symptoms

Although the intergenerational transmission of trauma has been well documented, the pathways by which trauma symptoms are passed between parents and children remain unclear. This study examined the mediating role of parenting styles in the transmission of maternal trauma to children. Participants were a sample of 105 mothers of toddlers (18–30 months old). Mothers who had experienced interpersonal trauma were more likely to have an authoritarian parenting style, including verbal hostility, physical coercion, and low nurturance. Verbal hostility especially predicted more prevalent and increasing toddler symptoms associated with affective, hyperactive, and oppositional defiant disorders. Thus, the verbal hostility component of authoritarian parenting could serve as a major intergenerational pathway between maternal trauma and early child symptoms.     

The McLean Study of Adult Development (MSAD): overview and implications of the first six years of prospective follow-up

The McLean Study of Adult Development (MSAD) began 12 years ago. It is the first NIMH-funded prospective study of the course and outcome of borderline personality disorder (BPD). After careful analysis of the first six years of follow-up, 5 main findings concerning the symptomatic and psychosocial course of BPD have emerged from this study. The first finding is that remissions are far more common than previously recognized (about 74%). The second is that these remissions are quite stable and thus, recurrences are quite rare (about 6%). The third finding is that completed suicides are far more rare than anticipated (about 4% vs. 10%). The fourth finding is that a "complex" model of borderline psychopathology best describes BPD. In this model, some symptoms resolve relatively quickly, are the best markers for the disorder, and are often the immediate reason for needing costly forms of treatment, such as psychiatric hospitalizations. We termed these symptoms (e.g., self-mutilation, help-seeking suicide threats or attempts) acute symptoms. Other symptoms resolve more slowly, are not specific to BPD, and are closely associated with ongoing psychosocial impairment. We termed such symptoms (e.g., chronic feelings of intense anger, profound abandonment concerns) temperamental symptoms. Fifth, it was also found that borderline patients were improving psychosocially over time, particularly remitted borderline patients; psychosocial functioning of remitted patients continued to improve as time progressed, suggesting that they were somewhat belatedly achieving the milestones of young adulthood and not simply returning to a prodromal level of functioning. Taken together, these results suggest that the prognosis for BPD is better than previously recognized.     

IMAG(IN)ING THE BUDDHIST BRAIN: EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

Buddhism has captured the imagination of many in the modern (Western) world. Recently, scientists have seemed eager to discover whether claims about Buddhist meditation can be verified experimentally. Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence that mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow practitioners to achieve different levels of awareness, as measurable for instance in reaction times to stimuli. The goal of this section of articles in Zygon is to address recent developments in this area. The contributions address a wide array of questions, although they certainly do not cover the whole ground of what one may consider “problems” of meditation. Yet, we believe that the issues addressed here have widespread implications and that they constitute a strong argument for the richness of the meditation domain.