Mental health in Swedish children living in joint physical custody and their parents' life satisfaction: A cross‐sectional study

This study compared the psychological symptoms of 129 children in joint physical custody with children in single care and nuclear families, using a nationally representative 2011 survey of 1,297 Swedish children aged between four and 18 years. The outcome measure was the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and its association with three dimensions of parental life satisfaction was investigated. Linear regression analyses showed higher SDQ‐scores for children in joint physical custody (B = 1.4, p < 0.001) and single care (B = 2.2, p < 0.001) than in nuclear families, after adjustment for socio‐demographic variables. The estimates decreased to 1.1 and 1.3, respectively, after being adjusted for parental life satisfaction ( p < 0.01). Our findings confirm previous research that showed lower symptom scores for children in nuclear families than children in single care and joint physical custody. Parental life satisfaction should be investigated further as a possible explanation of differences in symptom load between children in different living arrangements.     

Is Therapist Support Needed? Comparing Therapist- and Self-Guided Internet-Based CBT for Somatic Symptom Distress (iSOMA) in Emerging Adults

Persistent somatic symptoms of varying etiology are very common in emerging adults and can lead to distress and impairment. Internet-delivered interventions could help to prevent the burden and chronicity of persistent somatic symptoms. This study investigated the impact of therapist guidance on the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral Internet intervention for somatic symptom distress (iSOMA) in emerging adults, as a secondary analysis of a two-armed randomized controlled trial. We included 149 university students (83.2% female, 24.60 yrs) with varying degrees of somatic symptom distress who were either allocated to the 8-week intervention with regular, written therapeutic guidance (iSOMA guided) or to the control group (waitlist), which was afterwards crossed over to receive iSOMA with guidance-on-demand (iSOMA-GoD). Primary outcomes were somatic symptom distress (assessed by the PHQ-15) and psychobehavioral symptoms of the somatic symptom disorder (assessed by the SSD-12) at pre- and post-treatment. Secondary outcomes included depression, anxiety, and disability. Both treatments showed statistically significant pre-post improvements in primary (iSOMA-guided: d = 0.86–0.92, iSOMA-GoD: d = 0.55–0.63) and secondary outcomes. However, intention-to-treat analysis revealed non-significant between-group effects for all outcomes (ps ≥ .335), after controlling for confounding variables, and effect sizes were marginal (d = −0.06 to 0.12). Overall, our findings indicate that Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy with regular guidance is not unequivocally superior to guidance-on-demand in alleviating somatic symptom distress and associated psychopathology in emerging adults. As a next step, non-inferiority studies are needed to test the robustness of these findings and their impact on clinical populations.     

日常小团体多样性与老年人身体症状的关系：团体积极情绪的中介作用和心理压力感的调节作用

采用日记追踪法,以53名老年人为被试,探讨日常小团体的多样性对其身体症状的影响及机制。结果显示:(1)日常小团体内多样性负向预测老年人当天的身体症状;(2)在个体内水平,团体积极情绪在老年人小团体内多样性对身体症状的关系中起中介作用;(3)心理压力感能够跨层正向调节日常小团体内多样性对每日身体症状的影响。研究结果有助于揭示小团体多样性如何与老年人身体症状相联系,以及两者之间的关系在何种条件下更强,这对于老年人身体症状的干预工作具有一定实践意义。     

Trauma-Focused CBT in the Context of Parental Chronic Medical Conditions: A Case Report

Parental chronic medical conditions (CMCs) are relatively common and have been shown to impact children’s psychosocial functioning. Previous research suggests that, for some youth, parental CMCs may be conceptualized as a form of traumatic stress. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is a multicomponent, evidence-based intervention that is designed to reduce symptoms of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety, as well as behavioral problems, among children and adolescents. Despite its robust empirical support, however, no known studies have utilized this treatment approach to address the mental health needs of youth affected by parental CMCs. The purpose of this article is to describe the application of TF-CBT to treat an adolescent male whose mother was diagnosed with a CMC, which had resulted in continuous family stressors since his birth. Results suggest that TF-CBT offers a promising approach for treating symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depression among children of parents with CMCs, and clinical trials to investigate its effectiveness among this population may be warranted.     

Positive mental imagery and mental health amongst university students in Pakistan

Mental health problems amongst university students pose a major public health challenge, and this is particularly the case in Pakistan. Alongside broader societal and cultural pressures, cognitive factors likely also play a role in the development of and resilience to mental health problems and may provide a feasible target for interventions. The current study built on previous research in primarily European samples investigating the relationship between one cognitive factor, positive future-oriented mental imagery, and mental health, extending this to a sample of university students in Pakistan (N = 1838). In a cross-sectional design, higher vividness of positive future-oriented mental imagery was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and higher levels of positive mental health amongst participants completing questionnaire measures on paper (N = 1430) or online (N = 408). In the sample completing the measures on paper, these relationships remained statistically significant even when controlling for socio-demographic and mental health-related variables. The results provide a foundation for further investigating positive mental imagery as a potential mechanism of mental health and intervention target amongst university students in Pakistan.     

青少年感恩与创伤后应激障碍症状的关系:社会支持和心理弹性的中介作用

在"5.12"汶川地震后18个月时,采用青少年感恩量表、社会支持评定量表、心理弹性量表和创伤后应激障碍自评量表,对都江堰地区1439名经历地震的青少年进行问卷调查,考察感恩、社会支持、心理弹性与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状的关系。结果表明:(1)感恩、社会支持和心理弹性均与PTSD症状呈显著的负相关,相关系数分别为-0.18,-0.17和-0.24;(2)感恩不仅直接影响PTSD症状,而且还通过社会支持和心理弹性的部分中介作用间接影响PTSD症状,中介效应占总效应的62%。     

Authenticity in relationships and depressive symptoms: A gender analysis

The current study examined authenticity in relationships, defined as the ability to be open and honest in meaningful relationships, in multiple contexts (i.e., with parents, peers). The goal of the study was to examine and compare the relation between authenticity in relationships and depressive symptoms in a sample of 435 14-year-old adolescent girls and boys. Structural equation modeling results indicated that the model predicted approximately one-third of the variance in depressive symptoms for girls, and almost half of the variance in depressive symptoms for boys. In addition, the strength of the relation between authenticity with parents and depressive symptoms was statistically equivalent for boys and girls. These results indicate the importance of authenticity with parents in predicting depressive symptoms, for both boys and girls.     

Socialization of Emotion and Offspring Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers with Childhood-Onset Depression

This study examines how mothers with and without a history of childhood-onset depression respond to their 3-9 year-old children's emotions. Mother-child dyads included 55 offspring of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depressive disorders and 57 offspring of never-depressed mothers. Mothers with a history of childhood depression were less likely than control mothers to respond in supportive ways to their children's negative emotions and were more likely to magnify, punish, or neglect their children's negative emotions. Magnification, neglect, and punishment of children's negative emotions were concurrently associated with children's internalizing symptoms, and neglect and punishment were associated with internalizing over a one year follow-up. Maternal neglect of children's negative emotion was positively associated with later internalizing symptoms for children who already had higher internalizing symptoms at the initial assessment. Findings suggest that atypical socialization of emotion may be one mechanism in the development of internalizing disorders.     

Bulimic symptomatology: the role of adaptive perfectionism, shape and weight concern, and self-esteem

An interactive model implicating high perfectionism, high weight and shape concern, and low self-esteem in the onset and maintenance of bulimic symptoms ( [Bardone et?al., 2000] and [Vohs et?al., 1999] ) has received mixed support. This study aimed to replicate the cross-sectional model in a clinical sample of women with eating disorders, and to investigate whether the model could predict changes in binge eating and purging at the end of treatment. Eating disorder outpatients (n = 353) completed measures of perfectionism, weight/shape concern, self-esteem, and bulimic symptoms at pre-treatment and discharge. Contrary to the hypotheses, the three-way interaction did not predict binge eating or purging cross-sectionally or prospectively as a moderator of psychotherapy outcome. It was concluded that the robustness of the interactive model seems questionable and may be impacted by an inadequate conceptualization of the perfectionism construct.