The development of spontaneous trait inferences about the actor and spontaneous trait transferences about the informant: Evidence from children aged 8–13 years

In social‐cognitive research, little attention has been paid to the developmental course of spontaneous trait inferences about the actor (STIs about the actor) and spontaneous trait transferences about the informant (STTs about the informant). Using a false recognition paradigm, Study 1 investigated the developmental course of STIs and Study 2 investigated the developmental course of STTs, comparing 8‐, 9‐, 10‐, 11‐, 12‐ and 13‐year olds. The results of Study 1 showed that 8‐year olds could make STIs about the actor, and the magnitude of STIs increased from ages 8 to 10 years, stabilised at the age of 10, 11, 12 years, and decreased from ages 12 through 13 years. The results of Study 2 showed that 8‐year olds could make STTs about the informant, and the magnitude of STTs did not vary with age. In all age groups, the magnitude of STIs about the actor was greater than that of STTs about the informant.     

The Effect of Internal Locus of Control on Career Adaptability: The Mediating Role of Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy and Occupational Engagement

This study examined the mediating roles of career decision‐making self‐efficacy (a domain‐specific motivational variable) and occupational engagement (a behavioral variable) on the relationship between internal locus of control (a general motivational variable) and career adaptability among college students in South Korea (N = 310). The findings extend past research on career adaptability by identifying a relationship among the variables.     

Pre-existing Perceptions of ADHD Predict Children’s Sociometrics Given to Classmates with ADHD

Considerable research documents that even young children possess stigma about mental illness, which may affect how they evaluate peers with mental health conditions. This study examined children’s pre-existing perceptions of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) behaviors as predictors of their subsequent sociometric judgments of classmates with ADHD in a 2-week summer day camp. Participants were previously unacquainted children ages 6.8–9.8 years (113 typically-developing and 24 with ADHD; 48.2% boys; 81% White). Children initially more inclined to interact with a hypothetical classmate with ADHD gave fewer “dislike” nominations to real-life classmates with ADHD at camp. Children who initially believed that ADHD symptoms were uncontrollable gave more “dislike” nominations and lower liking ratings to classmates with ADHD when those classmates displayed severe ADHD symptoms. For children who had ADHD, their attribution of uncontrollability for ADHD symptoms predicted fewer “like” nominations and more “dislike” nominations given to classmates with ADHD. Lastly, children who initially reported they would help a hypothetical classmate with ADHD gave higher liking ratings to classmates with ADHD. These results were found after statistical control of the actual level of ADHD behaviors displayed by the classmates with ADHD. In summary, other children’s pre-existing or stigmatizing perceptions of ADHD behaviors may contribute, in part, to the substantial peer rejection typically experienced by ADHD populations. Findings have implications for understanding peer problems in children with this common mental health condition.     

Telling young children they have a reputation for being smart promotes cheating

The present research examined the consequences of telling young children they have a reputation for being smart. Of interest was how this would affect their willingness to resist the temptation to cheat for personal gain as assessed by a temptation resistance task, in which children promised not to cheat in the game. Two studies with 3‐ and 5‐year‐old children (total N = 323) assessed this possibility. In Study 1, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: a smart reputation condition in which they were told they have a reputation for being smart, an irrelevant reputation control condition, or a no reputation control condition. Children in the smart reputation condition were significantly more likely to cheat than their counterparts in either control condition. Study 2 confirmed that reputational concerns are indeed a fundamental part of our smart reputation effect. These results suggest that children as young as 3 years of age are able to use reputational cues to guide their behavior, and that telling young children they have a positive reputation for being smart can have negative consequences.     

Verbal–spatial IQ discrepancies impact brain activation associated with the resolution of cognitive conflict in children and adolescents

Verbal–spatial discrepancies are common in healthy individuals and in those with neurodevelopmental disorders associated with cognitive control deficits including: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Non‐Verbal Learning Disability, Fragile X, 22q11 deletion, and Turner Syndrome. Previous data from healthy individuals suggest that the magnitude of the difference between verbal IQ (VIQ) and performance IQ (PIQ) scores (the VIQ>PIQ discrepancy) is associated with reduced thickness in frontal and parietal cortices (inferior frontal, anterior cingulate, inferior parietal lobule, and supramarginal gyrus) that support cognitive control. Unknown is whether the VIQ>PIQ discrepancy is associated with functional deficits in these areas in healthy or ill children and adolescents. We assessed the effects of the VIQ>PIQ discrepancy on fMRI BOLD response during the resolution of cognitive conflict in 55 healthy children and adolescents during performance of a Simon Spatial Incompatibility task. As the magnitude of the VIQ>PIQ discrepancy increased, activation of fronto‐striatal, limbic, and temporal regions decreased during conflict resolution (p < .05, corrected). In exploratory analyses, the VIQ>PIQ discrepancy was associated with reduced functional connectivity from right inferior frontal gyrus to right thalamus and increased functional connectivity to right supramarginal gyrus (ps < .03, uncorrected). The VIQ>PIQ discrepancy may be an important aspect of an individual's cognitive profile and likely contributes to, or is associated with, deficient cognitive control processes characteristic of many childhood disorders.     

Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with negatively variable impacts on domains of female sexual function: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

To systematically review the literature to identify the impact of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on specific female sexual function domains. A meta-analysis was performed and the related literature were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM and Web of Science databases, and in reference lists of articles and systematic reviews. Score of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used as the outcome measurement, and mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Five studies were included, including 346 women with RA and 237 healthy female controls. Each domain of the FSFI score: lubrication (MD, ?2.48; 95% CI, ?3.69, ?1.28), orgasm-1.71 (?2.09, ?1.33), sexual desire-1.27 (?1.59, ?0.95), satisfaction-1.67 (?2.18, ?1.16), arousal-1.83 (?2.85, ?0.82), pain-1.57 (?2.43, ?0.70) and the total score ?8.84 (?11.88, ?5.79) were lower in RA women than healthy controls. Furthermore, lubrication dimension was most severely affected especially. This meta-analysis showed that female RA patients scored lower in each dimension of FSFI, mostly in the lubrication domain. It demonstrated that targeted interventions should be done to improve their sexual function. Future well-designed researches with larger sample sizes are necessary to evaluate the potential risk factors which determine female sexual dysfunction.     

Association between cognitive vulnerability to depression - dysfunctional attitudes and glycaemic control among in-patients with type 2 diabetes in a hospital in Beijing: a multivariate regression analysis

This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the relationship between glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and cognitive vulnerability to depression (dysfunctional attitudes) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. A total of 245 valid records from June 2016 to December 2016 were collected from a hospital in Beijing. Participants were asked to complete four questionnaires (Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, and World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Short Form) to assess mental health and quality of life. Multivariate regression analysis was conducted to determine the correlations between HbA1c, mental health, quality of life and other clinical variables. The results showed that dysfunctional attitudes were associated with HbA1c, with a standardized regression coefficient (β) of .13 (p = .01), although 1 h C-peptide (β = ?.75, p < .0001) was the most significant predictor of HbA1c in the regression model. The results indicated that dysfunctional attitudes, as a cognitive vulnerability to depression, were a relevant factor in HbA1c, although further studies are needed to establish the nature of the connection between dysfunctional attitudes and glycaemic control in diabetes patients.     

Training and transfer effects of response inhibition training in children and adults

Response inhibition is crucial for mental and physical health but studies assessing the trainability of this type of inhibition are rare. Thirty‐nine children aged 10‐12 years and 46 adults aged 18‐24 years were assigned to an adaptive go/no‐go inhibition training condition or an active control condition. Transfer of training effects to performance on tasks assessing response inhibition, interference control, working memory updating, task‐switching, and non‐verbal fluid intelligence were assessed during 3‐ and 6‐month follow‐up sessions and/or an immediate post‐training session. Significant training improvements and positive transfer effects to a similar response inhibition task with other stimuli were observed for both children and adults. Reliable albeit short‐lived transfer effects were only found for the children, specifically to working memory updating and task switching. These results suggest some potential for response‐inhibition training programs to enhance aspects of cognitive functioning in children but not adults.     

Vocabulary growth rate from preschool to school‐age years is reflected in the connectivity of the arcuate fasciculus in 14‐year‐old children

The acquisition of language involves the functional specialization of several cortical regions. Connectivity between these brain regions may also change with the development of language. Various studies have demonstrated that the arcuate fasciculus was essential for language function. Vocabulary learning is one of the most important skills in language acquisition. In the present longitudinal study, we explored the influence of vocabulary development on the anatomical properties of the arcuate fasciculus. Seventy‐nine Chinese children participated in this study. Between age 4 and age 10, they were administered the same vocabulary task repeatedly. Following a previous study, children's vocabulary developmental trajectories were clustered into three subgroups (consistently good, catch‐up, consistently poor). At age 14, diffusion tensor imaging data were collected. Using ROI‐based tractography, the anterior, posterior and direct segments of the bilateral arcuate fasciculus were delineated in each child's native space. Group comparisons showed a significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in the left arcuate fasciculus of children in the consistently poor group, in particular in the posterior and direct segments of the arcuate fasciculus. No group differences were observed in the right hemisphere, nor in the left anterior segment. Further regression analyses showed that the rate of vocabulary development, rather than the initial vocabulary size, was a specific predictor of the left arcuate fasciculus connectivity.     

Do relational and structural characteristics of negative school environments independently predict immigrant adolescents’ academic achievement?

A critical issue facing the majority of immigrant adolescents in U.S. public schools is persistent academic underperformance. Using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, this study investigates the extent to which negative social environments in U.S. public schools predict the academic achievement of immigrant adolescents. Importantly, we simultaneously examine the roles of both the relational (individual-level) and structural (school-level) characteristics of these negative social environments. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that immigrant students who are embedded in more negative relationships (e.g., having peers who discriminate against them) have lower levels of academic achievement. These predictive effects of individual-level negative social environments on academic achievement are mediated by both perceived school safety and educational expectations. Furthermore, we find double mediation effects (i.e., three-pathway mediations) via perceptions of school safety and educational expectations. The existence of these double mediation effects implies that relational characteristics strongly predict immigrant adolescents’ perceptions, attitudes, and school outcomes. Finally, we find that structural characteristics of negative social environments in U.S. public schools (i.e., total student enrollment and school-level dropout rate) also negatively predict immigrant adolescent achievement. We discuss the implications of these findings for improving immigrant adolescents’ achievements in U.S. public schools.