Development of Infant High-Intensity Fear and Fear Regulation from 6 to 24 Months: Maternal Sensitivity and Depressive Symptoms as Moderators

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - This study tested bidirectional relations between infant high-intensity fear and fear regulation over 1.5 years, and maternal sensitivity...     

Measurement invariance of the Phubbing Scale across 20 countries

Mobile phone addiction is a robust phenomenon observed throughout the world. The social aspect of mobile phone use is crucial; therefore, phubbing is a part of the mobile phone addiction phenomenon. Phubbing is defined as ignoring an interlocutor by glancing at one's mobile phone during a face-to-face conversation. The main aim of this study was to investigate how the Phubbing Scale (containing 10 items) might vary across countries, and between genders. Data were collected in 20 countries: Belarus, Brazil, China, Croatia, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and USA. The mean age across the sample (N = 7696, 65.8% women, 34.2% men) was 25.32 years (SD = 9.50). The cross-cultural invariance of the scale was investigated using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA) as well as the invariance analyses. Additionally, data from each country were assessed individually via confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs). We obtained two factors, based on only eight of the items: (a) communication disturbances and (b) phone obsession. The 8 items Phubbing Scale.     

Association Between The Search For Meaning In Life And Well-Being In Chinese Adolescents

Theories suggest that having a meaningful life has beneficial effects on adolescent well-being. Encouraging adolescents to search for meaning in their lives is therefore well advised. However, whether and how the search for meaning in life (SMIL) is related to adolescent well-being is unclear. Thus, this study tested the following two hypotheses, based on a sample of 1539 Chinese adolescents in the tenth grade (M_age = 15.8 years): 1) the SMIL promotes adolescent well-being (“SMIL-as-promotor”), and 2) social connectedness mediates the link between the SMIL and adolescent well-being (“connectedness-as-mediator”). Multiple regression analyses revealed that SMIL was positively associated with life satisfaction, self-esteem and positive affect, and negatively associated with negative affect in the adolescents who exhibited low levels of presence of meaning; thus supporting the SMIL-as-promotor hypothesis. Mediation analyses revealed that SMIL was related to social connectedness (i.e., parent-child communication and peer relationship), which, in turn, was linked to the presence of meaning and hedonic well-being (i.e., life satisfaction, self-esteem, positive affect, and negative affect). These findings support the connectedness-as-mediator hypothesis. The implications of these findings for youth prevention programs and intervention services are discussed.

     

Comparing eye movements during position tracking and identity tracking: No evidence for separate systems

There is an ongoing debate as to whether people track multiple moving objects in a serial fashion or with a parallel mechanism. One recent study compared eye movements when observers tracked identical objects (Multiple Object Tracking—MOT task) versus when they tracked the identities of different objects (Multiple Identity Tracking—MIT task). Distinct eye-movement patterns were found and attributed to two separate tracking systems. However, the same results could be caused by differences in the stimuli viewed during tracking. In the present study, object identities in the MIT task were invisible during tracking, so observers performed MOT and MIT tasks with identical stimuli. Observer were able to track either position and identity depending on the task. There was no difference in eye movements between position tracking and identity tracking. This result suggests that, while observers can use different eye-movement strategies in MOT and MIT, it is not necessary.     

Investigating whether maternal memory specificity is indirectly associated with child memory specificity through maternal reminiscing

Maternal reminiscing and remembering has a profound influence on the development of children’s autobiographical remembering skills. The current study investigated the relationships between maternal memory specificity, maternal reminiscing and child memory specificity. Participants consisted of 40 mother–child dyads. Children’s age ranged between 3.5 and 6 years. Mothers and children participated in individual assessments of autobiographical memory specificity. Dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about three past emotional (happy, sad, stressful) events. A positive moderate association was found between maternal autobiographical memory specificity and child autobiographical memory specificity. Maternal autobiographical memory specificity was significantly correlated with mothers’ focus on the task, involvement and reciprocity, resolution of negative feelings, and structuring of narratives in the mother–child reminiscing task. Moderate positive associations were found between maternal focus and structuring and child memory specificity. There was no evidence to suggest maternal elaborative reminiscing style was significantly positively correlated with mother or child memory specificity. Finally, there was support for an indirect pathway between maternal memory specificity and child memory specificity through quality of support and guidance provided by the mother in maternal reminiscing. Theoretical and clinical implications are considered.     

父母冲突对青少年抑郁的影响:认知反应性的中介作用

采用父母冲突儿童知觉量表(CPIC)、抑郁体验问卷(DEQ)、莱顿抑郁敏感指数量表(LEIDS)测量753名高中生,以便分析认知反应性在父母冲突与抑郁之间的中介作用。结果表明:(1)父母冲突显著正向预测认知反应性; 认知反应性显著正向预测青少年抑郁;(2)认知反应性在父母冲突与青少年抑郁之间具有完全中介作用。因此,认知反应性作为中介变量,父母冲突通过认知反应性对青少年抑郁具有稳定的间接作用。     

社会支持的利用度与流动儿童心理韧性的关系:自尊的中介作用

采用社会支持量表、自尊量表和青少年心理韧性量表,对石河子市450名流动儿童进行调查,来探讨流动儿童社会支持与心理韧性的关系,并检验自尊的中介作用,其中社会支持由社会支持的利用度表征。结果表明:(1)社会支持的利用度与流动儿童的心理韧性呈正相关。(2)自尊在社会支持的利用度与心理韧性中起到部分中介作用。社会支持的利用度通过自尊对流动儿童的心理韧性产生更积极的效果。     

Dual Trajectories of Sleep Duration and Cigarette Smoking during Adolescence: Relation to Subsequent Internalizing Problems

Decreasing sleep duration and increasing cigarette smoking of adolescents are major public health concerns. However, research examining connections between the developmental trajectories of the outcomes that are evolving contemporaneously and their relation to long-term outcomes is still lacking. This study examined distinct trajectories of sleep duration and cigarette smoking during adolescence, associations between these trajectories, and links with internalizing problems during young adulthood. Data were collected from 2510 adolescents who participated in a longitudinal study spanning from 2006 through 2014 in northern Taiwan. Group-based dual trajectory modeling was used to examine the dynamic relationships between sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence. Multiple linear regression was used to understand the association between the distinct trajectories and subsequent internalizing problems. Three sleep duration trajectories (short decreasing, typical sleep, and long sleep) and three cigarette smoking trajectories (nonsmokers, late increasing, and escalating smokers) were identified. We found significant inter-relationships for sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence; all atypical sleep duration trajectories conferred increased risks of increased cigarette smoking and vice versa. In addition, the effects of sleep duration and cigarette smoking on later internalizing problems were found to vary by sex and trajectory patterns. These results provide insight regarding the co-development of sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories during adolescence. We also highlight the different roles of sleep duration and cigarette smoking trajectories and their relation to internalizing problems of young adulthood.     

Longitudinal Analysis of Particulate Air Pollutants and Adolescent Delinquent Behavior in Southern California

Animal experiments and cross-sectional human studies have linked particulate matter (PM) with increased behavioral problems. We conducted a longitudinal study to examine whether the trajectories of delinquent behavior are affected by PM_2.5 (PM with aerodynamic diameter?≤?2.5 μm) exposures before and during adolescence. We used the parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist at age 9–18 with repeated measures every ~2–3 years (up to 4 behavioral assessments) on 682 children from the Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior Study conducted in a multi-ethnic cohort of twins born in 1990–1995. Based on prospectively-collected residential addresses and a spatiotemporal model of ambient air concentrations in Southern California, monthly PM_2.5 estimates were aggregated to represent long-term (1-, 2-, 3-year average) exposures preceding baseline and cumulative average exposure until the last assessment. Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to examine the association between PM_2.5 exposure and individual trajectories of delinquent behavior, adjusting for within-family/within-individual correlations and potential confounders. We also examined whether psychosocial factors modified this association. The results sμggest that PM_2.5 exposure at baseline and cumulative exposure during follow-up was significantly associated (p?<?0.05) with increased delinquent behavior. The estimated effect sizes (per interquartile increase of PM_2.5 by 3.12–5.18 μg/m³) were equivalent to the difference in delinquency scores between adolescents who are 3.5–4 years apart in age. The adverse effect was stronger in families with unfavorable parent-to-child relationships, increased parental stress or maternal depressive symptoms. Overall, these findings sμggest long-term PM_2.5 exposure may increase delinquent behavior of urban-dwelling adolescents, with the resulting neurotoxic effect aggravated by psychosocial adversities.     

Rational Inference of Beliefs and Desires From Emotional Expressions

We investigated people's ability to infer others’ mental states from their emotional reactions, manipulating whether agents wanted, expected, and caused an outcome. Participants recovered agents’ desires throughout. When the agent observed, but did not cause the outcome, participants’ ability to recover the agent's beliefs depended on the evidence they got (i.e., her reaction only to the actual outcome or to both the expected and actual outcomes; Experiments 1 and 2). When the agent caused the event, participants’ judgments also depended on the probability of the action (Experiments 3 and 4); when actions were improbable given the mental states, people failed to recover the agent's beliefs even when they saw her react to both the anticipated and actual outcomes. A Bayesian model captured human performance throughout (rs ≥ .95), consistent with the proposal that people rationally integrate information about others’ actions and emotional reactions to infer their unobservable mental states.