[Parental experiences of distance schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: Effects on children with and without mental health problems]. / Ouders over afstandsonderwijs door COVID-19: effecten op kinderen met en zonder psychische problemen.

BACKGROUND: In some lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, schools were closed and children attended distance learning. AIM: To investigate parental experiences of the effects of distance learning on the wellbeing of child and parent(s), and whether this differed between children with and without mental health problems and their parents. METHOD: Parents of children with (n = 192) and without (n = 271) mental health problems reported their experiences with distance learning. We investigated whether experiences differed between groups of parents, and whether experiences were influenced by characteristics of parents. RESULTS: Parents of children with mental health problems reported the quality of distance learning and the ability of their child to participate as lower relative to other parents. These differences increased when parents themselves were in higher need of support. General experiences and the levels of stress reported by parents did not differ between groups. Parents reported an increase in their child’s digital media use, particularly for children with mental health problems. CONCLUSION: Children with mental health problems seem more negatively affected by distance learning, especially when parents have problems themselves. These findings are in line with multiple recent studies and argue for minimizing distance learning.

Effect of dual tasking on a dynamic balance task in children with and without DCD.

The purpose of this study was to compare performance of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and typically developing (TD) children in a dual task paradigm with a dynamic balance task on the Wii Fit as primary task and a concurrent cognitive (counting) or a concurrent bimanual fine motor task as secondary tasks. Using a cross-sectional design, 25 children with DCD and 38 TD children were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd edition (MABC-2) and Divided Attention (DA) task of the KiTAP. Next, the single- and dual-tasks were performed and the level of interference or facilitation of the dual tasks was calculated. Regression analysis determined the predictive value of the DA and MABC-2 component balance outcomes on the dual task performance. On the motor and attentional tasks, the group of children with DCD scored significantly below the level of the TD children. The dual task effect showed similar interference and facilitation of tasks in the different dual-task conditions in both groups. In the dual task-cognitive condition, the divided attention abilities and the MABC-2 balance score predicted 25% of the Wii Fit dynamic balance task performance, whereas in the dual task-motor condition this was higher (31.6%). In both conditions, DA was a stronger predictor than MABC balance score and appears to be an important factor to consider when developing motor task training for children with DCD.

The MMSE should not be the sole indicator of fitness to drive in mild Alzheimer's dementia.

Since Alzheimer's disease may affect driving performance, patients with Alzheimer's disease are assessed on fitness to drive. On-road driving assessments are widely used, and attempts have also been made to develop strategies to assess fitness to drive in a clinical setting. Preferably, a first indication of fitness to drive is obtained quickly after diagnosis using a single test such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The aim of this study is to investigate whether the MMSE can be used to predict whether patients with Alzheimer's disease will pass or fail an on-road driving assessment. Patients with Alzheimer's disease (n = 81) participated in a comprehensive fitness-to-drive assessment which included the MMSE as well as an on-road driving assessment [PLoS One 11(2):e0149566, 2016]. MMSE cutoffs were applied as suggested by Versijpt and colleagues [Acta Neurol Belg 117(4):811-819, 2017]. All patients with Alzheimer's disease who scored below the lower cutoff (MMSE ≤ 19) failed the on-road driving assessment. However, a third of the patients with Alzheimer's disease who scored above the upper cutoff (MMSE ≥ 25) failed the on-road driving assessment as well. We conclude that the MMSE alone has insufficient predictive value to correctly identify fitness to drive in patients with very mild-to-mild Alzheimer's disease implicating the need for comprehensive assessments to determine fitness to drive in a clinical setting.

Reduced emotional empathy in adults with subclinical ADHD: evidence from the empathy and systemizing quotient.

Studies in children with ADHD suggest impairments in social cognitive functions, whereas studies in adults with ADHD are scarce and inconclusive. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between ADHD traits and self-reported social cognitive style in a sample of adults from the general population. For this purpose, a community sample of 685 adults filled out online self-report questionnaires about ADHD symptoms (ADHD Rating Scale, ARS), social cognitive functioning and friendships. The Empathy Quotient (EQ) with the subscales Cognitive Empathy (CE), Emotional Empathy (EE) and Social Skills (SS), and the Systemizing Quotient (SQ) were included for measuring social cognitive style and the Friendship Questionnaire (FQ) for the quality of friendships. Participants who met the DSM-5 criteria on the ARS ('subclinical ADHD'; n = 56) were compared regarding their social cognitive functioning scores with a control group (n = 56) that was matched for age, sex and student status. With small effect sizes, the subclinical ADHD group showed reduced EE scores on the EQ and a more male social cognitive profile. This result was not influenced by sex or ADHD subtype. This study points to a relationship between traits of ADHD and the emotional aspect of empathy, whereas more complex aspects of empathy were unrelated. These findings should be corroborated in clinical patients with ADHD, employing neuropsychological tests rather than self-report questionnaires.

How predictive are sex and empathizing-systemizing cognitive style for entry into the academic areas of social or physical sciences?

Based on the Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) theory, it was hypothesized that the underrepresentation of female students in the physical sciences and the underrepresentation of males in the social sciences relates to differences in E-S cognitive style between the sexes. This hypothesis was tested in 115 physical science students and 155 social science students from a university in the Netherlands. The students completed visuospatial tests and the systemizing quotient-revised (SQ-R) as measures for systemizing, and a Cartoon Prediction test and the empathy quotient (EQ) as measures for empathizing. Independent of sex, the physical science students scored significantly lower than social science students on EQ (with large effect size) and 'brain type' that represents the standardized difference score between EQ and SQ-R (with large effect size). Physical science students, furthermore, scored significantly higher on the Cartoon Prediction task and one of the visuospatial tasks; however, these effects were only small of size. Unlike the scores on the SQ-R and the performance tests, the 'brain type' score of the EQ and SQ-R questionnaires was a good predictor of entry into social or physical sciences. Interestingly, the typical sex differences in more empathizing and less systemizing in females compared to males were only small for EQ and 'brain type', and absent for the SQ-R and the performance tests. This study only partially confirms the E-S theory, because typical sex differences were only minor in this selective sample and only the self-report measures predicted academic area in the absence of a role for sex.

The Empathy and Systemizing Quotient: The Psychometric Properties of the Dutch Version and a Review of the Cross-Cultural Stability.

The 'Empathy Quotient' (EQ) and 'Systemizing Quotient' (SQ) are used worldwide to measure people's empathizing and systemizing cognitive styles. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Dutch EQ and SQ in healthy participants (n = 685), and high functioning males with autism spectrum disorder (n = 42). Factor analysis provided support for three subscales of the abridged 28-item EQ: Cognitive Empathy, Emotional Empathy and Social Skills. Overall, the Dutch EQ and SQ appeared reliable and valid tools to assess empathizing and systemizing cognitive style in healthy adults and high functioning adults with autism. The literature showed good cross-cultural stability of the SQ and EQ in Western countries, but in Asian countries EQ is less stable and less sensitive to sex differences.