Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization on the Neurobiology Underlying Adolescent Emotion Processing: A Multimethod fMRI Study

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Parents’ emotion socialization (ES) practices impact socioemotional development throughout adolescence. Little is known, however, regarding...     

The Before Baby Relationship Checkup: A Couples-Based Intervention to Reduce Relationship Risk Factors for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Relationship conflict and lack of partner support are risk factors for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. An intervention to strengthen couples’ relationships before birth may reduce relationship risk factors for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, though no research has explored this to date. The aims of this Stage 1 open-series non-experimental proof of concept study were to adapt the ‘Marriage Checkup’, an evidence-based intervention for relationship distress, as a preventative intervention for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and to assess its feasibility and acceptability. Pregnant women receiving care at a university-based obstetric practice, and their partners, were recruited. Ten couples participated in the Before Baby Relationship Checkup, a personalized relationship health service offered in the obstetric clinic. Quantitative and qualitative data gathered suggests the intervention is feasible to implement in an obstetric setting, and acceptable to perinatal couples. Specific adaptations to the Marriage Checkup for perinatal couples are warranted and further testing is needed to evaluate efficacy.

     

Examination of the factor structure and concurrent validity of the Langer Mindfulness/Mindlessness Scale

Langer's theory of mindfulness proposes that a mindful person seeks out and produces novelty, is attentive to context, and is flexible in thought and behavior. In three independent studies, the factor structure of the Langer Mindfulness/Mindlessness Scale was examined. Confirmatory factor analysis failed to replicate the four-factor model and a subsequent exploratory factor analysis revealed the presence of a two-factor (mindfulness and mindlessness) solution. Study 2 demonstrated that the two factors assessed discrete constructs and were not merely products of acquiescence. Support was also found for a nine-item, one-factor model comprised solely of mindfulness items. On comparing models, Study 3 suggested the superiority of the one-factor mindfulness model. Finally, a preliminary investigation of the concurrent validity of the revised nine-item Langer Mindfulness/Mindlessness Scale is presented. The current article offers researchers a revised version of a mindfulness measure derived from a cognitive perspective.     

Set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying a limited-capacity focus of attention

Recent work has shown that contingent attentional capture effects can be especially large when multiple attentional sets for color guide visual search (Moore & Weissman, 2010). In particular, this research suggests that detecting a target-colored (e.g., orange) distractor leads the corresponding attentional set (e.g., identify orange letters) to enter a limited-capacity focus of attention in working memory, where it remains briefly while the distractor is being attended. Consequently, the ability to identify a differently-colored (e.g., green) target 100-300 ms later is impaired because the appropriate set (e.g., identify green letters) cannot also enter the focus of attention. In two experiments, we investigated whether such set-specific capture can be reduced by preemptively occupying the focus of attention. As predicted, a target-colored central distractor presented 233 ms before a target-colored peripheral distractor eliminated set-specific capture arising from the peripheral distractor. Moreover, this effect was observed only when the central distractor's color (e.g., orange) (a) matched a different set than the upcoming peripheral distractor's color (e.g., green) and (b) matched the same set as the upcoming central target's color (e.g., orange). We conclude that the same working memory limitations that give rise to set-specific capture can be preemptively exploited to reduce it.     

Carryover effect of joint attention to repeated events in chimpanzees and young children

Gaze following is a fundamental component of triadic social interaction which includes events and an object shared with other individuals and is found in both human and nonhuman primates. Most previous work has focused only on the immediate reaction after following another’s gaze. In contrast, this study investigated whether gaze following is retained after the observation of the other’s gaze shift, whether this retainment differs between species and age groups, and whether the retainment depends on the nature of the preceding events. In the social condition, subjects (1- and 2-year-old human children and chimpanzees) witnessed an experimenter who looked and pointed in the direction of a target lamp. In the physical condition, the target lamp blinked but the experimenter did not provide any cues. After a brief delay, we presented the same stimulus again without any cues. All subjects looked again to the target location after experiencing the social condition and thus showed a carryover effect. However, only 2-year-olds showed a carryover effect in the physical condition; 1-year-olds and chimpanzees did not. Additionally, only human children showed spontaneous interactive actions such as pointing. Our results suggest that the difference between the two age groups and chimpanzees is conceptual and not only quantitative.     

The Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Behavior: Rodent and Primate Studies

The use of alcohol by women during pregnancy is a continuing problem. In this review the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol from animal models are described and related to studies of children and adults with FASD. Studies with monkeys and rodents show that prenatal alcohol exposure adversely affects neonatal orienting, attention and motor maturity, as well as activity level, executive function, response inhibition, and sensory processing later in life. The primate moderate dose behavioral findings fill an important gap between human correlational data and rodent mechanistic research. These animal findings are directly translatable to human findings. Moreover, primate studies that manipulated prenatal alcohol exposure and prenatal stress independently show that prenatal stress exacerbates prenatal alcohol-induced behavioral impairments, underscoring the need to consider stress-induced effects in fetal alcohol research. Studies in rodents and primates show long-term effects of prenatal and developmental alcohol exposure on dopamine system functioning, which could underpin the behavioral effects.     

Activation During Observed Parent–Child Interactions with Anxious Youths: A Pilot Study

Parent–child interaction paradigms are often used to observe dysfunctional family processes; however, the influence of such tasks on a participant’s level of activation remain unclear. The aim of this pilot project is to explore the stimulus value of interaction paradigms that have been commonly used in child anxiety research. Twenty-nine parent–child dyads with clinically anxious (n = 16) and non-anxious (n = 13) youths engaged in a series of tasks (threat and non-threat) used in previous studies of parenting and youth anxiety. Heart rate (HR) data, as an indicator of physiological activation, were collected across tasks, and participants rated the perceived representativeness of their interactions in the laboratory to their usual behavior at home. Significant HR changes were observed for both parent and child. Change in child HR from baseline to non-threat task was smaller than change in HR from baseline to threat tasks. Change in parent HR from baseline to ambiguous situations tasks was smaller than changes from baseline to other threat tasks. Differences in HR change between anxious and non-anxious children were explored. Participants rated laboratory interactions as similar to those experienced in the home. Results suggest that presumably emotionally-charged discussion tasks may produce increased activation compared to tasks that were designed to be more neutral. Implications for future research and limitations are discussed.     

Stress and Chronic Illness: the Case of Diabetes

Globally, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses. Managing T2DM is a major challenge now affecting the lives of around 200 million people. Even when medication, diet, and physical activity regimens are maintained, blood sugar levels might not be effectively controlled because stress triggers the release of sugar into the blood. This makes the management of stress an important adjunct to the treatment of T2DM. Stress includes both life stress, the major issues that people face in their lives, such as job loss, divorce, or death of a loved one, and daily hassles, smaller everyday problems, such as deadlines for work, traffic hold-ups, or family disagreements. The stress levels created by these events are exacerbated by the stress created by the demands of managing diabetes. In this paper, we first examine the evidence for the relationship between stress and poor blood sugar control in people with T2DM. Then, we consider research that has examined the impact of various stress management strategies on blood sugar level. Finally, we discuss some promising psychological techniques for managing stress that could be helpful for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. We note the double benefit of physical activity, which directly assists in the metabolism of sugar from the blood and indirectly reduces acute stress and chronic stress reactivity, thus providing a buffer against the effects of stress for people with T2DM.