Fast Feet Forward: A sports group for looked-after children and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as an early intervention to process trauma and reduce distress

Looked-after children (LAC) and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) are likely to have experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in their developmental years, leading to poorer outcomes in their health and psychosocial development. A novel, exercise-based early intervention utilising bilateral movements for UASC and adoptive children (An early intervention framework for the emotional health and wellbeing of unaccompanied minors, 2020) called Fast Feet Forward (FFF) has shown promise in providing relief from trauma symptoms. This study seeks to replicate the effectiveness of FFF and extend it to a new population of traumatised children. Two groups of FFF occurred with 18 children participating. Results revealed a statistically significant decrease in distress and an increase in positive cognitions for UASC, showing effective processing of trauma-related hotspots. The LAC cohort also demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in distress and disturbance. Support is demonstrated for the efficacy of FFF as a cost-effective and resiliency-building early intervention treatment utilising bilateral movements for traumatised populations, especially UASC.     

Can the Media Help Women Be Better at Math? Stereotype Threat,Selective Exposure,Media Effects,and Women's Math Performance

This study examines women's media selections when under the gender–math stereotype threat and the subsequent media effects on their math performance through the lens of the Selective Exposure Self‐ and Affect‐Management (SESAM) model, mood management theory, and social comparison theory. Female college students were randomly assigned to the stereotype threat condition or the control condition; then, they selectively browsed magazine pages showing female role models in stereotypical domains (beauty or family) and counterstereotypical domains (career or science) before taking the math test. The results show that women spent more time on career magazines when under threat, and this selective exposure's effect on their math performance was moderated by their assimilation to the role models.     

The time course of negative repetition effects in post-cue naming

It has previously been shown that when picture pairs are repeated across blocks in a post-cue naming task, former distractors are named faster than former targets: the “negative repetition effect” (Mayall, Humphreys, & Kotsanis, 2002). In the present study the time course of this effect was examined. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the effect became apparent after a lag of only two intervening trials, with former targets being named faster than former distractors after a lag of zero trials. Experiment 2 used a new baseline condition with repeated picture pairs for which no response was required on the first presentation. Comparisons with this baseline indicated that the negative repetition effect is the result of suppression of former targets as opposed to facilitation of former distractors. The results support the proposal of Mayall et al. that the negative repetition effect reflects a form of speech monitoring that is applied when there is competition in the process of mapping from semantics to name representations.     

Favourable Employment Status Change and Psychological Depression: A Two‐year Follow‐up Analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

This study examines the relationship between favourable employment change and well‐being. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, respondents who were inadequately employed (i.e. unemployed or underemployed, N = 1,160) in 1992 were followed up in 1994. Results suggest that among the unemployed in 1992 (time‐1), higher depression at time‐1 was significantly associated with decreased odds of both adequate employment and underemployment relative to unemployment at time‐2 (1994). Among the underemployed at time‐1, gender moderated the relationship between time‐1 depression and employment at time‐2. The odds of employment (both adequate and underemployment) were higher for males than females at lower levels of depression, but this gender advantage fell as depression increased. Additional analyses revealed that any employment at time‐2 relative to unemployment was significantly associated with lower depression in 1994 when controlling for time‐1 depression and other important background variables. Neither time‐1 status (unemployment versus underemployment) nor type of time‐2 employment (adequate versus underemployment) were significantly associated with later depression.