Negative cognitive emotion regulation as a predictor of adolescent heart rate variability and entropy under social stress

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive emotion regulation (ER) strategies are particularly important within the framework of anxiety problems amongst youths and how they cope with stressful events. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between both negative and positive ER style and cardiac regulation under stressful conditions.

Design: Eighty-nine adolescents (M?=?13.31 years, SD?=?0.68, 44.94% girls) were exposed to a socially relevant stress induction protocol.

Methods: Participants’ emotion regulation strategies were assessed and their cardiac function was recorded.

Results: A negative ER style predicted heart rate (HR) entropy at the stressful stage after controlling for anxiety scores. In addition, heart rate variability reactivity and recovery and HR entropy recovery were larger (p?<?.05) in the low negative ER style group (n?=?16) than in the high negative ER style group (n?=?23).

Conclusions: Results suggest that individuals with a highly negative ER style have diminished autonomic flexibility.     

Acceptability in France of Induced Abortion for Adolescents

Background: This study investigated the factors affecting the acceptability in France of abortions. Method: 80 study participants from Toulouse and 124 from Metz judged the acceptability of abortion in 64 vignettes composed of five factors: 1) the adolescent's age (15 or 17.5 years), 2) the adolescent's plans to continue schooling or not, 3) the fetus' age (1, 2, 3, or 4 months), 4) the adolescent's parents' agreement or not, and 5) the agreement or not of baby's father. Results: Three clusters were noted: 1) abortion is never acceptable (8% of participants), 2) abortion is always acceptable (23%), and 3) acceptability of abortion depends on the circumstances (63%). In the majority cluster (3), all five factors had significant effects, but the fetus's age accounted for most of the variance (78%). Conclusion: Most subjects in this study judged, in accordance with French law, that the acceptability of induced abortion in minors depends on the circumstances and, in particular, on the fetus' age.     

Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Bullying in Middle School Youth

ABSTRACT

We examined middle school students' attitudes and perceptions of bullying during their middle school years. Participants were categorized along the bully/victim continuum as bullies, victims, bully-victims, and no-status students based on their self-nomination from a survey that queries students about their experiences with bullying (either as a bully, victim, or both), their observations of bullying, and their attitudes toward bullying. The majority of participants were classified as bullies, victims, and bully-victims as 70% of the participants reported involvement with bullying and/or victimization during their middle school years. Participants' perceptions about bullying and attitudes toward bullying were examined at three points in time. Participants' attitudes toward bullying became more supportive of bullying as students progressed through middle school. Additionally, external attributes for bullying were cited across all four status groups as reasons for involvement in bullying. Implications for prevention and intervention programs that address bullying are discussed.     

Art from the Heart

Abstract

This article describes art therapy techniques grounded in a relational-cultural approach used in a middle school group for girls. Art from the Heart is an interactive preventive intervention designed to facilitate increased connections among group members. It is intended to bring together multiethnic groups of urban girls with complex relational histories to learn about growth-fostering relationships, without relying on sophisticated verbal abilities. Specific techniques encourage the expression of “feeling thoughts” and other interpersonal dynamics that do not lend themselves well to words. The interactive nature of the art projects creates a context where interpersonal disconnections can be explored and understood, and connections can be celebrated, both by talking and by making art.     

青少年负性情绪事件性质判断偏向的情绪弹性和性别效应

研究以青少年学生为被试,采用测验和实验的方法考察了情绪弹性和性别变量对青少年在四类负性情绪事件性质的判断偏向上可能产生的影响。结果表明：（1）情绪弹性对青少年加工负性情绪事件信息时的判断偏向产生一定影响,低情绪弹性个体在面对与一般生活情境相关的负性情绪事件时,更倾向于从消极方面对事件的性质加以判断。（2）性别对青少年加工负性情绪事件信息时的判断偏向不产生实质性影响。     

The Prediction of Achievement Motivation Using Performance and Attributional Variables

This study was designed to predict achievement motivation with attributions and performance in English course work among 346 ninth-grade boys and girls. Multiple regression analysis indicated that attribution of success to ability was the best predictor of achievement motivation. This finding diverges from previous work that supports the hypothesis that attribution of success to effort is a better predictor. The use of performance as an indicator variable showed that nonfailing students had higher levels of achievement motivation than did failing students.     

Grief in two guises: ‘Mourning and melancholia’ revisited

¹ 1. A version of this paper was given at the Institute of Psychoanalysis Conference: ‘Mourning and Melancholia through the Life Cycle’, London, 1998. This paper is a re-reading of Freud’s classic paper. The themes of mourning and melancholia are viewed in relation to children and adolescents with illustrations from case histories. Mourning is interpreted in a broader sense: not only as grief (both expectable and traumatic) but as a response to the developmental process itself as phases of childhood are shed and an emerging newer identity is assumed. The author argues that Freud’s paper left the way open to make a number of further distinctions of the processes involved within melancholia.     

Hodgkin's disease in adolescence: A psychoanalytical approach

As a general rule, adolescents suffering from severe organic diseases experience more difficulty than adults and children in recognizing the illness and undergoing treatment, because there is a conflict between accepting the sick body and the sexual body. Dependence on medical treatment, moreover, clashes with the normal drive to autonomy. Long experience as a consultant psychiatrist in the haematology department of a hospital enables the author to propose a hypothesis as to the emotional significance of Hodgkin's disease and chemotherapy, concentrating particular attention on the refusal reaction to the chemotherapy itself. The psychoanalytical psychotherapy of a female adolescent suffering from Hodgkin's disease is presented and discussed to illustrate the theoretical and technical implications.     

Evaluating social fears in late adolescence: Study with a Portuguese sample

This work intends to psychometrically evaluate a measure of social fears for late adolescents, who may differently perceive social fear stimulus. A community sample of 794 late adolescents was recruited and assessed, using the Social Anxiety and Avoidance Scale for Adolescents. Internal structure analysis indicates that late adolescents adopt a unique perspective on social experiences. Internal consistency and convergent validity relating to thoughts typical of social anxiety were found. The instrument may be useful for evaluating social fears throughout adolescence.     

Handbook of adult resilience,edited by John W. Reich,Alex J. Zautra,and John Stuart Hall

This study investigated differences in adolescents’ life satisfaction (LS), apprehension of personal and non-personal events, and the influence of recalled life events on LS. The affective temperament (AFT) classification was the framework for the research. Seventy male and 65 female adolescents participated. AFTs were developed through self-reported affect, generating four temperaments: self-actualizing, high affective, low affective, and self-destructive. LS was also self-reported. Apprehension for events was assessed through two tasks: (1) life event recollection and (2) interpretation and recognition of words in a short story. High and low affectives interpreted and remembered events as both self-actualizers and self-destructives. All AFTs, with the exception of self-destructives, showed positive biases. Only individuals with high positive affect were positively primed for non-personal events. Life events predicted self-destructives’ and low affectives’ LS. Self-actualizers showed higher LS, measured for a second time in a sub-sample, than self-destructives. The importance of the AFTs is discussed.