COVID-19-related anxiety and the role of social media among Canadian youth.

Background: Current literature indicates that safety measures, including lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, severely disrupted our lifestyle, marked by increased screen time. The increased screen time is mostly associated with exacerbated physical and mental wellbeing. However, the studies that examine the relationship between specific types of screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety among youth are limited. Methods: We examined the usage of passive watching, social media, video games, and educational screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety at the 5-time points (Early-Spring 2021, Late-Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, and Spring 2022) among youth in Southern Ontario, Canada (N = 117, mean age = 16.82, male = 22%, non-White = 21%) and investigated the role of 4 types of screen time in COVID-19 related anxiety. COVID-related anxiety was measured using the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS). Descriptive statistics examined the binary relationships between demographic factors, screen time, and COVID-related anxiety. Also, partially adjusted and fully adjusted binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between the types of screen time and COVID-19-related anxiety. Results: During the late Spring of 2021, when the provincial safety restrictions were most stringent, screen time was the highest among the 5 data collection time points. Further, adolescents experienced the highest COVID-19-related anxiety during this period. On the other hand, young adults experienced the highest COVID-19-related anxiety during Spring 2022. In a partially adjusted model (accounting for other types of screen time), engaging in 1-5 h per day on social media increased the likelihood of experiencing COVID-19-related anxiety compared to those who spend less than 1 h per day (OR = 3.50, 95%CI = 1.14-10.72, p < 0.05). Other types of screen time was not significantly associated with COVID-19-related anxiety. In a fully adjusted model (accounting for age, sex and ethnicity besides four types on screen time), 1-5 h per day of social media remained significantly associated with COVID-19-related anxiety (OR = 4.08, 95%CI = 1.22-13.62, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that COVID-19-related anxiety is associated with youth engagement in social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, parents, and educators should work collaboratively to provide developmentally appropriate approaches to reduce the negative social media impact on COVID-19-related anxiety and promote/foster resiliency in our community during the recovery period.

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Offending as a Function of Acquired Brain Injury Among Men in a High Secure Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Acquired brain injury (ABI) is a serious problem that disproportionately affects individuals in correctional services, but relatively little is known about ABI risks and correlates in forensic psychiatric services. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all admissions to a high secure forensic hospital in Ontario, Canada from January 2009 to December 2012 (n = 637) and collected data on ABI, psychiatric diagnoses, developmental disadvantage, criminal offending, and in-hospital aggression. A k-means cluster analysis was employed to assess risk factors by which men with ABI could be identified and multivariate general linear models were used to identify ABI-related differences in offending history and in-hospital aggression. RESULTS: One-fifth of the men had a documented ABI indicator. Based on our cluster analysis, ABI was more likely to be identified by greater adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), more health problems from pregnancy to childhood, and lower socioeconomic status, suggesting that ABI within the forensic context is associated with greater developmental disadvantage. Men with ABI had more serious pre-admission offences, but not more serious admission offences or in-hospital aggression. Men with ABI were more likely than those without to have higher scores on the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide or to be diagnosed with mood and personality disorders, and less likely to have a schizophrenia diagnosis, suggesting an association between ABI and general mental health pathologies but not with psychotic illness. CONCLUSIONS: The disadvantage of ABI among men in forensic psychiatric hospitals is most likely evinced in antisocial behaviour rather than serious mental illness. Given that ACEs are likely to precede or co-occur with ABI, strategies that mitigate ACEs hold promise for ABI prevention.

Cold-Blooded and on Purpose: A Review of the Biology of Proactive Aggression.

Proactive aggression (PA) is a planned and unprovoked form of aggression that is most often enacted for personal gain or in anticipation of a reward. Frequently described as "cold-blooded" or goal oriented, PA is thought to be associated with low autonomic arousal. With this view in mind, we performed a scoping review of the biological correlates of PA and identified 74 relevant articles. Physiological findings indicated a robust association between PA and reduced resting heart rate, and to a lesser extent a relationship between PA and decreased heart rate and skin conductance reactivity, perhaps indicating dampened sympathetic function. The twin literature identified PA as a heritable trait, but little evidence implicates specific genes in the pathogenesis of PA. Neuroimaging studies of PA pinpoint impaired amygdala function in the assessment and conditioning of aversive stimuli, which may influence the establishment of behavioral patterns. Nodes of the default mode network were identified as possible neural correlates of PA, suggesting that altered function of this network may be involved in the genesis of PA. Given the overlap of PA with reactive aggression and the overall behavioral complexity of PA, it is clear that multiple endophenotypes of PA exist. This comprehensive review surveys the most salient neurobiologically informed research on PA.

Time of Day Matters: An Exploratory Assessment of Chronotype in a Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

A growing body of evidence links the late chronotype to mental illness, aggression, and aversive personality traits. However, much of what we know about these associations is based on healthy cohorts, and it is unclear how individuals with high levels of aggression, including forensic psychiatric populations, but not offenders, are affected. The present study aimed to measure chronotype in a forensic psychiatric inpatient population, evaluate the impact of diagnosis, and identify any interactive relationships between chronotype, diagnosis, aggression, and dark triad traits. Subjects completed the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ), Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire-Short Form (BPAQ-SF), and Short Dark Triad Questionnaire (SD3). We sampled 55 forensic psychiatric patients (52 males) between the ages of 23 and 73 years (mean ± SD: 39.6 ± 14.3 years). Among the patients sampled, 25% were evening types and 36% were morning types. Eveningness was greater in patients with a personality disorder; however, no chronotype differences were found for psychosis patients. Patients without psychosis had a positive association between anger and eveningness, as well as between hostility and eveningness. For subjects with a substance use disorder, morningness was positively associated with narcissism. Conversely, an association between eveningness and greater narcissism was identified in patients who did not have a substance use disorder. These findings suggest that, compared to the general population, evening types are more prevalent in forensic psychiatric populations, with the strongest preference among patients diagnosed with a personality disorder. No differences in chronotype were identified for psychosis patients, which may be related to anti-psychotic medication dosing. Given the sex distribution of the sample, these findings may be more relevant to male populations.

Winter cover crops on processing tomato yield, quality, pest pressure, nitrogen availability, and profit margins.

Much of cover crop research to date focuses on key indicators of impact without considering the implications over multiple years, in the absence of a systems-based approach. To evaluate the effect of three years of autumn cover crops on subsequent processing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production in 2010 and 2011, a field split-split-plot factorial design trial with effects of cover crop type, urea ammonium nitrate fertilizer rate (0 or 140 kg N ha-1 preplant broadcast incorporated) and tomato cultivar (early vs. late) was conducted. The main plot factor, cover crop, included a no cover crop control, oat (Avena sativa L.), winter cereal rye (hereafter referred to as rye) (Secale cereale L.), oilseed radish (OSR) (Raphanus sativus L. var. oleiferus Metzg Stokes), and mix of OSR and rye (OSR + rye) treatments. Cover crop biomass of 0.5 to 2.8 and 1.7 to 3.1 Mg ha-1 was attained in early Oct. and the following early May, respectively. In general, OSR increased soil mineral N during cover crop growth and into the succeeding summer tomato growing season, while the remaining cover crops did not differ from the no cover crop control. The lack of a cover crop by N rate interaction in soil and plant N analyses at harvest suggests that growers may not need to modify N fertilizer rates to tomatoes based on cover crop type. Processing tomato fruit quality at harvest (rots, insect or disease damage, Agtron colour, pH, or natural tomato soluble solids (NTSS)) was not affected by cover crop type. In both years, marketable yield in the no cover crop treatment was lower or not statistically different than all planted cover crops. Partial profit margins over both years were 1320 $ ha-1 higher with OSR and $960 higher with oat compared to the no cover crop control. Thus, results from a systems-based approach suggest that the cover crops tested had no observed negative impact on processing tomato production and have the potential to increase marketable yield and profit margins.