Adaptive family functioning and emotion regulation capacities as predictors of college students' appraisals and emotion valence following conflict with their parents

This study examined whether the relationship between college students' adaptive family functioning and the valence of emotions following recent conflict with their parents is mediated by both distal constructs (psychological coping resources and mood regulation expectancies) and the more proximal construct of cognitive appraisals about the desirability or undesirability of the conflict experience. Participants were 609 undergraduate students enrolled in a large, US southwestern university. The results of applying proposed mediational models to these data, developed for both paternal and maternal conflict, suggested theoretically meaningful associations between the antecedent construct of adaptive family functioning, mediating variables of coping resources, mood regulation expectancies, and cognitive appraisals, and the outcome variable of emotional valence. The results of this study may be useful in identifying psychological resources and patterns of thinking about stressful events that affect emotional reactions.     

Evolution of sciences and education

We have to fight against scientism if we are to escape from the clutches of an omni‐present techno‐science. But we must also answer the yearning for meaning. A solid general culture, an ability to discern and to resist, a return to epistemology are all ways of putting science back in its real place.     

Racial exclusion causes acute cortisol release among emerging-adult African Americans: The role of reduced perceived control

ABSTRACT

Racial discrimination contributes to stress-related health disparities among African Americans, but less is known about the acute effects of racial exclusion on the hypo-pituitary-adrenocortical response and psychological mediators. Participants were 276 Black/African American emerging-adults (54% female; M _age = 21.74, SD = 2.21) who were randomly assigned to be excluded or included by White peers via the game Cyberball. Racial exclusion (vs. inclusion) predicted: greater negative affect (F(1, 276) = 104.885, p < .0001), lower perceived control (F(1, 276) = 205.523, p < .0001), and greater cortisol release (F(1, 274) = 4.575, p = .033). Racial exclusion’s impact on cortisol release was mediated by lower perceived control (95% CI: .027, .112), but not negative affect (?.041, .013). These findings suggest that racial exclusion contributes to acute cortisol release, and that reduced perceived control is a consequence of racial discrimination that has important implications for the health of those who experience discrimination.