Mental health and religiosity: the role of experiential avoidance in the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress

Several studies have considered religiosity to be a protective factor against several mental health difficulties. However, other studies suggest the opposite, that is, that religiosity is a risk factor associated with psychological symptoms. In this context, there are no studies that evaluate this relationship considering the role of experiential avoidance, which is a predictive transdiagnostic variable of various mental health disorders. This study evaluated the relationship between experiential avoidance, attitudes toward religion, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of believers using a non-experimental cross-sectional design in the city of Valdivia, Chile. Results indicate that experiential avoidance is positively related to symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, being the only predictor variable of the three symptomatic dimensions. Engaging in regular religious practice was not associated with religious literalness or experiential avoidance, while religious literalism was negatively associated with stress. Finally, Evangelicals showed a more regular religious practice than Catholics, while Catholics showed a higher index of religious literality; however, these differences were not associated with mental health. The clinical implications of these results are discussed (AU)

Children's age matters: Parental burnout in Chilean families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For families all over the world, going through a pandemic has presented a number of challenges. In particular, social distancing measures involving the closure of schools and day care centers, as well as increasing work hours at home, made parents face very demanding situations. However, we know little about whether parents' burnout levels are influenced by the age of their children. This study sought to determine whether levels of parental burnout (PB) are higher in families with at least one child under the age of four than in families with older children (5 to 18 years). The second goal was to explore whether having children under 4 years of age moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 651 participants (525 mothers and 126 fathers) since May 18th until August 27th, 2020. The main results showed that child age is a predictor of PB. Besides, having a child aged 0-4 years old moderates the relationship between parental cooperation and PB. Finally, it was found that in cases where there was at least one child under 4 years of age in the family, with one of the partners who worked remotely, the respondent's PB rose by 7.9 points. The implications of these results with respect to the consideration of children's ages in the different parental scenarios were discussed.

Role of connexin channels in the retinal light response of a diurnal rodent.

Several studies have shown that connexin channels play an important role in retinal neural coding in nocturnal rodents. However, the contribution of these channels to signal processing in the retina of diurnal rodents remains unclear. To gain insight into this problem, we studied connexin expression and the contribution of connexin channels to the retinal light response in the diurnal rodent Octodon degus (degu) compared to rat, using in vivo ERG recording under scotopic and photopic light adaptation. Analysis of the degu genome showed that the common retinal connexins present a high degree of homology to orthologs expressed in other mammals, and expression of Cx36 and Cx43 was confirmed in degu retina. Cx36 localized mainly to the outer and inner plexiform layers (IPLs), while Cx43 was expressed mostly in cells of the retinal pigment epithelium. Under scotopic conditions, the b-wave response amplitude was strongly reduced by 18-ß-glycyrrhetinic acid (ß-GA) (-45.1% in degu, compared to -52.2% in rat), suggesting that connexins are modulating this response. Remarkably, under photopic adaptation, ß-GA increased the ERG b-wave amplitude in degu (+107.2%) while reducing it in rat (-62.3%). Moreover, ß-GA diminished the spontaneous action potential firing rate in ganglion cells (GCs) and increased the response latency of ON and OFF GCs. Our results support the notion that connexins exert a fine-tuning control of the retinal light response and have an important role in retinal neural coding.