Sharing Positive Experiences Boosts Resilient Thinking: Everyday Benefits of Social Connection and Positive Emotion in a Community Sample

The influence of shared enjoyment and positive affect (PA) on resilient thinking was examined in 191 middle‐aged adults (40–65 years), participating in a study of resilience. Participants completed diaries assessing positive events, shared enjoyment, PA, and resilient cognitions (RC). Multilevel structural equation modeling was utilized to examine when and who engages in RC. Participants reported more RC on days they experienced more positive experiences. This relationship was explained by shared enjoyment and PA. Level‐1 proportional reduction of variance (PRV) for shared enjoyment, PA, and RC was 9%, 10%, and 35%, respectively. Individuals reporting more positive experiences trended toward a more resilient mindset; PA accounted for this relationship. Shared enjoyment mediated the relationship between interpersonal events and PA. These findings suggest PA is integral to having a resilient mindset, and shared enjoyment is a potential mechanism that may influence PA. Level‐2 PRV for shared enjoyment, PA, and RC was 22%, 21%, and 55%, respectively. RC were associated with less depression and anxiety; and greater well‐being, vitality, and physical functioning at follow‐up.     

The Multilevel Relationships of HIV‐Related Stigma to Child and Caregiver Mental Health among HIV‐Affected Households in South Africa

HIV/AIDS‐related (HAR) stigma is still a prevalent problem in Sub‐Saharan Africa, and has been found to be related to mental health of HIV‐positive individuals. However, no studies in the Sub‐Saharan African context have yet examined the relationship between HAR stigma and mental health among HIV‐negative, HIV‐affected adults and families; nor have any studies in this context yet examined stigma as an ecological construct predicting mental health outcomes through supra‐individual (setting level) and individual levels of influence. Multilevel modeling was used to examine multilevel, ecological relationships between HAR stigma and mental health among child and caregiver pairs from a systematic, community‐representative sample of 508 HIV‐affected households nested within 24 communities in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. Two distinct dimensions of HAR stigma were measured: individual stigmatizing attitudes, and perceptions of community normative stigma. Findings suggest that individual‐level HAR stigma significantly predicts individual mental health (depression and anxiety) among HIV‐affected adults; and that community‐level HAR stigma significantly predicts both individual‐level mental health outcomes (anxiety) among HIV‐affected adults, and mental health outcomes (PTSD and externalizing behavior scores) among HIV‐affected children. Differentiated patterns of relationships were found using the two different stigma measures. These findings of unique relationships identified when utilizing two conceptually distinct stigma measures, at two levels of analysis (individual and community) suggest that HAR stigma in this context should be conceptualized as a multilevel, multidimensional construct. These findings have important implications both for mental health interventions and for interventions to reduce HAR stigma in this context.     

Investigating the interplay between adolescent personality,parental control,and externalizing problem behavior across adolescence

This study explored transactional associations among adolescent personality (i.e., conscientiousness, agreeableness), parental control (i.e., proactive, punitive, psychological control), and externalizing problem behavior (i.e., aggressive or rule-breaking behavior). A three-wave longitudinal study across a two-year time span provided questionnaire data from 1,116 adolescents (M_age Wave 1 = 13.79, 51% boys), 841 mothers, and 724 fathers that was used in random intercept cross-lagged panel models. At the between-person level, adolescent personality, parental control, and externalizing problem behavior were significantly associated. Concerning the within-person level, conscientiousness showed reciprocal associations with externalizing problem behavior (negative), with agreeableness (positive) and punitive control (negative). Our findings observed a reciprocity between adolescent personality and externalizing problem behavior, but also suggest a role for parental control in this interplay.     

Anger rumination partly accounts for the association between trait self-control and aggression

Higher trait self-control is related to less aggression, but the psychological processes underlying this association are largely unknown. This research tested the hypothesis that reduced anger rumination in high self-control individuals may partly account for this association. In seven cross-sectional, longitudinal and daily diary studies (total N = 2689) people high in trait self-control reported less aggression of different types and this relation was partially mediated by less rumination about anger-evoking events. An internal meta-analysis estimated this indirect effect to be of medium size. These findings suggest that a lower propensity to engage in anger rumination may be a crucial working process partly explaining how high trait self-control translates into less aggression. Overcoming anger rumination is a promising avenue to reduce aggression.     

班级欺凌规范与欺凌行为：群体害怕与同辈压力的中介作用

本文通过两个研究探讨了群体因素中的班级欺凌规范如何通过同辈压力、群体害怕影响欺凌行为的发生。研究1为实验研究, 被试为186名小学高年级学生(M_age = 11.36 ± 0.99岁)。结果表明在不同情境(欺凌/非欺凌)的启动下, 各变量得分均具有显著差异; 进一步分析仅发现同辈压力的中介作用边缘显著。研究2为相关研究, 943名小学高年级及初二学生(M_age = 12.00 ± 1.32岁)填写班级欺凌规范、同辈压力和欺凌行为问卷。HLM分析显示同辈压力在班级欺凌规范与欺凌行为起显著中介作用。     

Community Perspectives on Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Little is known about community attitudes toward adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and what factors lead to more positive attitudes. Using a cross-sectional design with a quantitative correlational approach, 60 adults were surveyed regarding experiences, knowledge, and comfort with adults with ASD living in the community. Most participants reported having encountered a person with ASD. Among these participants with personal experience, knowledge about ASD was relatively high. Amount of experience was the only variable associated with comfort. Results suggest that increasing exposure to people with ASD may be more effective in improving community acceptance compared to informational campaigns.     

Social touch alters newborn monkey behavior

In humans, infants respond positively to slow, gentle stroking—processed by C-tactile (CT) nerve fibers—by showing reductions in stress and increases in eye contact, smiling, and positive vocalizations. More frequent maternal touch is linked to greater activity and connectivity strength in social brain regions, and increases children’s attention to and learning of faces. It has been theorized that touch may prime children for social interactions and set them on a path towards healthy social cognitive development. However, less is known about the effects of touch on young infants’ psychological development, especially in the newborn period, a highly sensitive period of transition with rapid growth in sensory and social processing. It remains untested whether newborns can distinguish CT-targeted touch from other types of touch, or whether there are benefits of touch for newborns’ social, emotional, or cognitive development. In the present study, we experimentally investigated the acute effects of touch in newborn monkeys, a common model for human social development. Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), like humans, are highly social, have complex mother-infant interactions with frequent body contact for the first weeks of life, making them an excellent model of infant sociality. Infant monkeys in the present study were reared in a neonatal nursery, enabling control over their early environment, including all caregiver interactions. One-week-old macaque infants (N = 27) participated in three 5-minute counter-balanced caregiver interactions, all with mutual gaze: stroking head and shoulders (CT-targeted touch), stroking palms of hands and soles of feet (Non-CT touch), or no stroking (No-touch). Immediately following the interaction, infants watched social and nonsocial videos and picture arrays including faces and objects, while we tracked their visual attention with remote eye tracking. We found that, during the caregiver interactions, infants behaved differently while being touched compared to the no-touch condition, irrespective of the body part touched. Most notably, in both touch conditions, infants exhibited fewer stress-related behaviors—self-scratching, locomotion, and contact time with a comfort object—compared to when they were not touched. Following CT-targeted touch, infants were faster to orient to the picture arrays compared to the other interaction conditions, suggesting CT-targeted touch may activate or prime infants’ attentional orienting system. In the No-touch condition infants attended longer to the nonsocial compared to the social video, possibly reflecting a baseline preference for nonsocial stimuli. In contrast, in both touch conditions, infants’ looked equally to the social and nonsocial videos, suggesting that touch may influence the types of visual stimuli that hold infants’ attention. Collectively, our results reveal that newborn macaques responded positively to touch, and touch appeared to influence some aspects of their subsequent attention, although we found limited evidence that these effects are mediated by CT fibers. These findings suggest that newborn touch may broadly support infants’ psychological development, and may have early evolutionary roots, shared across primates. This study illustrates the unique insight offered by nonhuman primates for exploring early infant social touch, revealing that touch may positively affect emotional and attentional development as early as the newborn period.     

Education for the future: The emerging paradigm of thrivable education

A new education paradigm is emerging to address the need to educate a planetary citizenry under conditions relevant to the living context of our planet. Key to this new paradigm is the emphasis on lifelong learning and empathy-oriented education—both critical ingredients to the transformative role of education for individual and collective thrivability. This article explores the parameters of this role and the indicators that point to its emerging presence in a variety of education contexts, both formal and informal as well as virtual and face-to-face.     

累并快乐着：服务型领导的收益与代价——基于工作-家庭资源模型视角

服务型领导被以往大量研究证实能够对下属产生积极的影响效果。然而, 我们对服务型领导如何影响领导者自己还知之甚少。基于此, 文章根据工作-家庭资源模型, 探讨了服务型领导的收益与代价。采用经验抽样法, 对广州市76名企业单位中的主管进行为期5天的日记研究, 并运用多层线性模型进行数据分析。结果表明：主管每日从事服务型领导行为既可以产生更多的积极情绪, 从而改善工作-家庭关系, 又可能会引发资源损耗, 从而恶化了工作-家庭关系。主管感知的组织支持是服务型领导行为双刃剑效应的“门阀”, 当主管感知到高的组织支持时, 从事服务型领导行为会带来更多的积极情绪, 而当主管感知到低的组织支持时, 从事服务型领导行为可能更容易增加资源损耗。以上结果能拓宽我们对服务型领导影响效果的认识, 并为如何干预服务型领导行为提供一些新的启发。     

Concordance of teacher-rated and performance-based measures of executive functioning in preschoolers

The most common method used to evaluate child behavior and functioning is rating scales completed by parents and/or teachers. Given that executive functioning (EF) plays a fundamental role in the developing child’s cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional development, it would be ideal if ratings of EF and performance-based EF measures assess the same construct. However, most studies report a small to negligible association between performance-based measures and ratings of EF. There are few studies investigating this association for preschoolers, and most only include parent ratings. Teachers may be more reliable reporters of EF behaviors due to the higher demand for EF skills in the preschool setting than at home and because teachers may have a better sense of what behaviors are normative. In this study, we reviewed the associations between three EF rating scales completed by teachers on 243 preschool children. Results showed small to moderate correlations with EF measures of inhibition and cognitive flexibility/switching for all three scales, with the strongest associations observed between Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS) Behavioral Regulation subscale and child EF measures. Exploratory multivariate path analyses showed that, after controlling for age, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES), Behavioral Regulation significantly predicted performance-based measures of EF and accounted for incrementally more variance in the models. We conclude that in ideal situations, it is best to measure EF using both rating scales and performance-based measures of EF. The CBRS seems to be a sensitive measure of EF in preschoolers and may be a helpful brief screening tool for use with teachers.