Ecological Networks and Community Attachment and Support Among Recently Resettled Refugees

Interventions aimed at enhancing mental health are increasingly centered around promoting community attachment and support. However, few have examined and tested the specific ecological factors that give rise to these key community processes. Drawing from insights from the ecological network perspective, we tested whether spatial and social overlap in routine activity settings (e.g., work, school, childcare) with fellow ethnic community members is associated with individuals’ attachment to their ethnic communities and access to social resources embedded in their communities. Data on routine activity locations drawn from the Refugee Well‐Being Project (based in a city in the Southwestern United States) were used to reconstruct the ecological networks of recently resettled refugee communities, which were two‐mode networks that comprise individuals and their routine activity locations. Results indicated that respondents’ community attachment and support increased with their ecological network extensity—which taps the extent to which respondents share routine activity locations with other community members. Our study highlights a key ecological process that potentially enhances individuals’ ethnic community attachment that extends beyond residential neighborhoods.     

Positive mental health moderates the association between depression and suicide ideation: A longitudinal study

Background/Objective: Depression and suicide ideation regularly occur together. Yet, little is known about factors that buffer individuals against the development of suicide ideation. The present study investigated, whether positive mental health buffers the association between depression and suicide ideation in a longitudinal study design. Methods: A total of 207 German students (70.3% female; age: M = 26.04, SD = 5.33) were assessed at a baseline evaluation and again twelve months later. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires. Linear hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Positive mental health was considered to moderate the impact of depression on suicide ideation – controlling for age and gender. Results: Positive mental health was shown to moderate the impact of depression on suicide ideation: in those students who reported higher levels of positive mental health, depression severity showed no association with suicide ideation over time. Conclusion: Positive mental health seems to confer resilience and should be taken into account, when assessing individuals for suicide risk.     

Équivalence de la version en français pour le Canada et de la version originale états-unienne de l’Adult Self-Report

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the equivalence of the French-Canadian version of the Adult Self-Report (ASR; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003) to its original English (USA) version. Both the original English version and the newly translated French-Canadian version were administered to 251 bilingual students from four Canadian provinces (Manitoba, New-Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec), with a one to two weeks interval. Correlations varying from 0.72 to 0.87 indicated a high degree of correspondence between the scales of the two versions. Cohen's d calculated using Morris and DeShon's (2002) formula for within-subjects designs indicate that differences between mean scores varied from near-zero (d = 0.01) to small (d = 0.19), and suggest that they are not clinically significant. Ordinal alpha coefficients for the scales of the French-Canadian version varied from 0.66 to 0.96 but are inferior to those of the English version in seven of the eleven scales. Globally, results indicate that the equivalence of the French-Canadian version to the original English version of the ASR is sufficient to recommend its use.     

Mental Health Utilization Among Diverse Parenting Young Couples

Mental health issues often become apparent as adolescents emerge into young adulthood. The use of mental health services is low among adolescents and young adults, and use is particularly low among minorities. In this study, we examine mental health utilization among diverse young parenting couples. The sample consisted of 296 couples. We used the social–personal framework to examine personal, family, partner relationship, and environmental predictors for using mental health services. We used the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model to assess actor and partner effects on mental health utilization. We also examined moderator effects for gender and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. We found that being female, being White, higher income, more conduct problems, and less anxious romantic attachment predicted mental health utilization. Significant moderator effects included depression × gender, depression × medical insurance, and stress × Latino. Implications for community mental health practice include conducting mental health assessments during medical visits and systematic mental health follow‐up for individuals and couples with identified mental health and support needs. Future research should include married couples and the spouse’s influence on mental health use and examine relevant parenting factors that may also predict mental health utilization among couples.     

Judging the Goring Ox: Retribution Directed Toward Animals

Prior research on the psychology of retribution is complicated by the difficulty of separating retributive and general deterrence motives when studying human offenders (Study 1). We isolate retribution by investigating judgments about punishing animals, which allows us to remove general deterrence from consideration. Studies 2 and 3 document a “victim identity” effect, such that the greater the perceived loss from a violent animal attack, the greater the belief that the culprit deserves to be killed. Study 3 documents a “targeted punishment” effect, such that the responsive killing of the actual “guilty” culprit is seen as more deserved than the killing of an almost identical yet “innocent” animal from the same species. Studies 4 and 5 extend both effects to participants' acceptance of inflicting pain and suffering on the offending animal at the time of its death, and show that both effects are mediated by measures of retributive sentiment, and not by consequentialist concerns.     

The German TEIQue-SF: Factorial structure and relations to agentic and communal traits and mental health

Recent research illuminated the links between Agency, Communion, trait emotional intelligence (TEI), and internalizing mental health difficulties (IMHDs). However, for a more complete picture, unmitigated Agency and Communion have also to be considered. Drawing on a sample of N = 405 female occupational therapists, the present study examined (a) the factorial validity of the German TEI Questionnaire Short Form, (b) the relations of TEI to Agency, Communion, and their unmitigated variants, and (c) a multiple predictor-TEI-IMHDs mediation model. The factor structure suggested by TEI theory fitted approximately to the data. Agency and Communion related positively and both unmitigated traits related negatively to TEI. Indirect effects via TEI on IMHDs emerged for all four traits. The results help to integrate TEI within the Agency–Communion framework and suggest that TEI is an important intervening variable that helps to clarify the links of agentic and communal traits to mental health.     

Motor imagery ability and internal representation of movement in children with probable developmental coordination disorder

It has been hypothesised that deficits in the functioning of the mirror neuron system (MNS) and internal modelling may contribute to the motor impairments associated with DCD. These processes can be explored behaviourally through motor imagery paradigms. Motor imagery proficiency of children with and without probable DCD (pDCD) was examined using a complex hand rotation task to explore whether motor imagery strategies could be used during more complex tasks. Forty-four boys aged 7–13 years participated, 22 with pDCD (mean = 9.90 years ± 1.57) and 22 controls (mean = 9.68 years ± 1.53). Participants completed the task twice: with and without motor imagery instructions. Stimuli were presented in two rotational axes – palm/back, and eight 45° rotational steps. Both groups showed evidence of following the biomechanical and postural constraints of actual movements. Responses of children with pDCD were slower and less accurate than controls, with group differences increasing alongside task complexity. A greater impact of biomechanical constraints for accuracy was observed in the DCD group. The response characteristics of children with pDCD likely reflects a reduced capacity to mentally manipulate a body schema and reduced visuo-motor processing capabilities. Behaviourally, these processes are linked to MNS and internal modelling function, suggesting deficits in these systems may contribute to the movement difficulties characteristic of DCD.     

Understanding intentions from actions: Direct perception,inference, and the roles of mirror and mentalizing systems

This review asks whether observers can obtain information about others’ intentions from observation of their actions; and if so, whether this process is performed using direct perceptual or inferential processes (prominent examples of each being the intention understanding theory of mirror neuron function, and mentalizing accounts of intention understanding, respectively). I propose four conditions that should be fulfilled in order to support a direct perception account, and suggest that only two of these conditions are supported by the existing data. I then propose and review three further sources of evidence which have the potential to inform this debate, concluding that the data do not support the direct perception account. In particular, mirror neurons may be involved in lower-level processes of action perception, but there is no evidence to support their involvement in the type of higher-level intention understanding that is proposed by the direct perception account.