Religious Beliefs,Religious Contexts,and Perceived Interactions with Ex-Offenders

Religious institutions can provide a means of support and resources for many people, particularly, individuals who have criminal histories, specifically parolees, sex offenders, and insanity acquittees. When these individuals are released into the community, they often face difficulties in acquiring shelter, work, and social support. Out of their own volition or as a result of faith-based prison programs, they might turn to religious institutions for help reintegrating into the community. However, whether congregation members are more or less accepting of these individuals is unaddressed in the current literature. Two studies assess the relationship between religious beliefs, religious contexts, legal attitudes, and perceived social interactions with parolees, sex offenders, and insanity acquittees. Results suggest that religious beliefs, legal attitudes, and religious contexts play an important role in individuals’ perceived interactions with these individuals. Religious contexts, specifically, might facilitate more positive social interactions with parolees. Implications are discussed.     

Parasympathetic Regulation and Inhibitory Control Predict the Development of Externalizing Problems in Early Childhood

The current report examined the longitudinal relations between cognitive self-regulation, physiological self-regulation, and externalizing problems. At age 4 (n = 98; 49 girls) and 6 (n = 87; 42 girls), children completed the Day-Night task, which taps the inhibitory control dimension of executive function. During the task, cardiac activity was measured and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was derived as an index of parasympathetic activity. Mothers reported on externalizing problems. A cross-lagged path model was used to estimate longitudinal predictions while controlling for stability in all constructs over time. Earlier inhibitory control negatively predicted later externalizing problems, but not vice versa. However, RSA reactivity moderated this link; better inhibitory control predicted fewer externalizing problems only when reactivity to the Day-Night task ranged from mild RSA suppression to RSA augmentation. Externalizing problems at 6 years were highest among preschoolers who augmented RSA but showed poor inhibitory control performance, suggesting that risk for psychopathology may be better delineated by viewing self-regulation from an integrated, multi-system perspective.     

Increased parasympathetic activity and ability to generate positive emotion: The influence of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on emotion flexibility

Cross-species behavioral research suggests that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene (rs6265, Val66Met), influences behavioral inflexibility. This SNP has not yet been linked to variability in emotion-related behaviors, despite broader evidence suggesting an association may be present. This investigation explored the role of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism in emotion response behaviors measured during a lab-based emotional provocation. Specifically, the influence of BDNF Val66Met in emotion flexibility was explored in a sample of healthy adults (N?=?120), emotion responses were recorded during the emotional provocation on multiple dimensions, in response to emotionally-evocative videos of negative then positive valence. These results suggest that Met carriers exhibit decreased parasympathetic responding, and reduced ability to generate positive emotion, relative to Val homozygotes. These findings are the first to suggest an association between the Met allele and a pattern of responding indicative of emotion inflexibility that might afford greater risk for psychopathology.     

Sources of evaluation of parental behaviors as predictors of achievement outcomes

Parents contribute to their children’s academic achievements by supporting their basic psychological needs. Parents’ need supporting behaviors (NSB) were expected to predict positive academic outcomes such as students’ academic performance and persistence intentions. The present study tested the contribution of parental NSB by distinguishing which of the source of evaluation (parent or adolescent) or specific NSB (autonomy support, involvement, structure) was a better predictor of youths’ academic performance and persistence intentions. This prospective study used a sample of 435 mother–adolescent dyads and 246 father–adolescent dyads, who completed two questionnaires a year apart. Results suggested that poor agreement between sources precluded the adoption of a multitrait-multimethod model. Using distinct factors for mothers, fathers, and adolescents to evaluate each NSB, different predictions were found for each outcome. Our results showed stronger contributions for paternal behaviors than for maternal ones, from the perspective of both students and their parents. These findings are examined in light of theories and research on parenting and education.     

An Exploration of the Relationship Between Spirituality and State and Trait Anger Among Medical Students

There is a dearth of studies exploring spiritual attitudes of medical students from developing countries and its relationship to anger. This study was conducted to assess spiritual attitudes and their relationship with anger in a set of medical students in southern India. In this cross-sectional observational study, medical students who were undergoing clinical rotations were offered participation. Selected demographic data were obtained. The participants were rated using the Spiritual Attitudes Inventory [SAI, which comprises of Duke Religiosity Index, Existential Well-Being Scale (EWBS), Negative Religious Coping and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scale] and State and Trait Anger Expression Inventory 2. Out of 98 students approached, 82 participated (response rate 83.6 %). The mean age of sample was 20.7 years (±0.9 years) with a slight preponderance of females (54.9 %). SAI scores correlated well significantly with subscale scores. Gender had no difference on the SAI or subscale score. Differences were found between self-reported religion and EWBS scores (Kruskal–Wallis χ ² = 8.891, p = 0.012). Total SAI score had a significant negative correlation with state anger, trait anger and anger expression. High levels of spirituality may be correlated with lower levels of state anger, trait anger and anger expression in medical students.     

Religious Confession and Symptom Severity: A Prospective Comparative Study

Little research has been done on comparing confessions regarding mental health. In the present study, 320 people (78 Buddhists, 77 Catholics, 89 Protestants and 79 Muslims) were compared in terms of their symptom severity. Buddhists and Protestants had lower scores than Catholics and Muslims for obsessive–compulsive behavior and hostility. Muslim group had the highest comparative scores for psychoticism. Buddhists and Protestants had comparatively low scores for paranoid ideation and overall symptom severity, with Catholics and Muslims having high ones. Results reveal that confession should be taken in account in psychological research and diagnosis, since it is explicitly associated with psychological well-being.     

‘Give Me a Reason to Live!’ Examining Reasons for Living Across Levels of Suicidality

Scholarly research focusing on social psychological factors (e.g. mental health) and social environmental factors (e.g. childhood trauma) has found these measures to be correlated with suicidality. However, such literature has tended to overlook what may impact one’s reasons for living. Using a sample of over 1,200 students from a Canadian university, the goal of the current study is to empirically test, by employing multivariate nested regression models (by levels of suicidal behaviour), known and relative unknown correlates with reasons for living, with a particular focus on strength of religious faith, which is a well-known predictor for suicidality, but less studied as a reason for living. Results show that, among students with serious suicidal ideation and/or a previous suicide attempt, the strongest predictor for student’s reasons for living was strength of religious faith. Strength of religious faith has seldom been acknowledged or identified as an important measure in assessing one’s reasons to live. These findings have implications for the role of religiosity among suicidality research, especially studies that focus on reasons for living.