Age-related disgust responses to signs of disease.

Previous studies found similarities in adults' disgust responses to benign (e.g. obesity) and actual disease signs (e.g. influenza). However, limited research has compared visual (i.e. benign and actual) to cognitive (i.e. disease label) disease cues in different age groups. The current study investigated disgust responses across middle childhood (7-9 years), late childhood (10-12 years), adolescence (13-17 years), and adulthood (18+ years). Participants viewed individuals representing a benign visual disease (obese), sick-looking (staphylococcus), sick-label (cold/flu), and healthy condition. Disgust-related outcomes were: (1) avoidance, or contact level with apparel the individual was said to have worn, (2) disgust facial reactions, and (3) a combination of (1) and (2). Avoidance was greater for the sick-looking and sick-label than the healthy and obese conditions. For facial reaction and combination outcomes, middle childhood participants responded with greater disgust to the sick-looking than the healthy condition, while late childhood participants expressed stronger disgust towards the sick-looking and obese conditions than the healthy condition. Adolescents and adults exhibited stronger disgust towards sick-label and sick-looking than obese and healthy conditions. Results suggest visual cues are central to children's disgust responses whereas adolescents and adult responses considered cognitive cues.

Daily use of digital technologies to feel better: Adolescents' digital emotion regulation, emotions, loneliness, and recovery, considering prior emotional problems.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents report using digital technologies for emotion regulation (digital ER), with the aim of feeling better (i.e., improving emotions and reducing loneliness). In this 7-day diary study, we investigated associations of digital ER, emotions, and loneliness, and tested whether prior emotional problems moderated these associations. METHOD: Participants were 312 Australian adolescents (Mage = 13.91, SD = 1.52; 44% boys). Daily surveys measured digital ER; end-of-day happiness, sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness; and peak sadness, worry, and anger. End-of day emotions were subtracted from peak emotions to calculate emotion recovery for sadness, worry, and anger. Participants were randomly selected from two symptom strata (high/low) defined by depression and social anxiety measures collected before the diary. Data were analyzed using multilevel path modeling. Cross-level interactions tested whether symptom strata moderated associations. RESULTS: Digital ER was associated with more recovery from peak to end-of-day sadness and worry, but also with increased sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness by the next end-of-day. Higher end-of-day loneliness was associated with increased next-day digital ER. Prior emotional symptoms were not a significant moderator of daily digital ER and emotion associations. CONCLUSION: Adolescents who report more digital ER in a day show more recovery from the peak of negative emotion that day, but this recovery dissipates, with digital ER also associated with increased negative emotion and loneliness by the next day for all adolescents, regardless of prior symptom status. Lonelier adolescents use more digital ER by the next day, suggesting they need support to make social connections-online or offline.

Parental Support and Adolescents' Coping with Academic Stressors: A Longitudinal Study of Parents' Influence Beyond Academic Pressure and Achievement.

Adolescents face many academic pressures that require good coping skills, but coping skills can also depend on social resources, such as parental support and fewer negative interactions. The aim of this study was to determine if parental support and parental negative interactions concurrently and longitudinally relate to adolescents' ways of academic coping, above and beyond the impact of three types of academic stress, students' achievement at school (i.e., grades in school), and age. Survey data were collected from 839 Australian students in grades 5 to 10 (Mage = 12.2, SD = 1.72; 50% girls). Students completed measures of support and negative interactions with parents; academic stress from workload, external pressure (teachers/parents) to achieve, and intrapsychic pressure for high achievement; and ways of academic coping that were grouped into two positive and two negative types. Hypothesized associations were tested concurrently and from one year to the next using path modeling. Beyond the numerous significant influences of academic stress and achievement on coping, and control for age and COVID-19 timing, adolescents with more parental support reported more use of engagement coping (e.g., strategizing) and comfort-seeking, whereas those who reported more negative interactions with parents reported more use of disengagement coping (e.g., concealment) and escape. In the longitudinal model, parental support predicted an increase in engagement and comfort-seeking and a decrease in disengagement coping, whereas negative interaction with parents predicted an increase in disengagement coping. Overall, the findings support the view that coping with academic stressors will continue to depend on parent-adolescent relationships even into the teen years.

A pattern-centered analysis of adolescents' concerns and hopes about future crises: Differences in ways of coping and personal adjustment.

INTRODUCTION: Many adolescents are concerned about global and future crises, such as the health of the planet or terrorism/safety. Yet, adolescents can also express hope about the future. Thus, asking adolescents about their concern and hope could yield subgroups with different ways of coping and personal adjustment. METHOD: Australian adolescents (N = 863; age 10-16) completed surveys to report their concern (worry and anger) and hope about the planet, safety, jobs, income, housing, and technology, as well as their active and avoidant coping, depression, and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Four distinct subgroups were identified using cluster analysis: Hopeful (low on concern and high on hope across all issues, 32%), Uninvolved (low in concern and hope; 26%), Concerned about the Planet (CP, 27%), and Concerned about Future Life (CFL, 15%). When compared (adjusting for age, sex, and COVID timing), the CP subgroup was highest in active coping (e.g., taking action) but moderate in personal adjustment. Hopeful had the most positive adjustment, whereas CFL had the poorest adjustment. Uninvolved were lowest in coping but moderate in adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest ways of coping and adjustment may not always align, in that CP is connected with more active coping but also some cost to personal adjustment, whereas Hopeful is associated with optimal adjustment but perhaps at the cost of active coping. In addition, although CFL adolescents emerged as the at-risk group, the low levels of hope and coping in Uninvolved adolescents raise the possibility that they are at risk of future problems.

Mindfulness, rejection, and recovery of positive mood and friendliness: A Cyberball study.

Experiencing stressful events that threaten feelings of social belonging can have far-reaching negative impacts on well-being, but there are individual differences in sensitivity to threat that might be explained by dispositional traits. In particular, naturally occurring dispositional mindfulness may be one trait that can explain such differences. To test this possibility, a pool of 495 young adults completed a measure of dispositional mindfulness and a subset of 90 (M = 19 years, SD = 1.3), selected to represent the full range of mindfulness scores, participated in an induced social rejection task (Cyberball). Threat appraisal was collected by asking about perceived exclusion and rejection post-Cyberball, and participants reported their mood and friendliness before, after, and at 3-mins of recovery, and their self-esteem and life meaning after Cyberball and at recovery. Participants higher in mindfulness reported better mood and less unfriendliness prior to Cyberball. Directly after playing Cyberball, a more heightened appraisal of threat, but not mindfulness, was associated with worse mood, less friendliness, lower self-esteem, and less life meaning. Mindfulness directly mitigated the negative effects of rejection on feelings of friendliness post rejection. When mindfulness and threat appraisal were considered in interaction, the association of perceived threat with pre- to post- changes in positive mood and friendliness was strongly negative when mindfulness was high relative to low. Further, mindfulness was associated with better recovery of mood and life meaning by 3-min after Cyberball, and these effects were additive rather than interactive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

At the Junction of Clinical and Developmental Science: Associations of Borderline Identity Disturbance Symptoms With Identity Formation Processes in Adolescence.

Developmental scientists describe the role confusion that can occur for adolescents as they are forming a personal identity. Clinical psychologists describe low self-worth, lack of self-clarity, feelings of emptiness, and dissociation as the key elements of identity disturbance, and they link these to borderline personality disorder. In this study, the authors aimed to work at the juncture of these approaches by considering interrelations between four elements of identity disturbance, typical identity formation processes reflective of identity commitment and confusion, and borderline features. Australian youth (N = 505, 63% female and aged 12-20 years) recruited from clinical and community settings reported on identity commitment, exploration and reconsideration, four elements of identity disturbance, and borderline features. Identity confusion (especially reconsideration) and disturbance were associated with elevated borderline symptoms. Emptiness stood out as the strongest correlate of borderline symptoms. Youth reporting greater emptiness were nearly twice as likely to report a high borderline symptom profile.

Associative Learning Processes in the Formation of Intergroup Anxiety and Avoidance in Society.

Laboratory-based aversive conditioning studies have reliably induced fear toward an image of an outgroup member by pairing the image with a fear-inducing, aversive stimulus. However, laboratory-based studies have been criticized for being simplistic in comparison to the complexities of the real world. The current study is the first to apply an aversive conditioning framework to explain the formation of intergroup fear and subsequent anxiety toward, and avoidance of, the outgroup outside the laboratory. Two samples recalled details of their first negative encounter with an African American (N = 554) or Muslim (N = 613) individual, respectively. Congruent with learning theory, participants who reported an unpleasant event with an outgroup member reported more fear during the encounter than did those who did not report experiencing an unpleasant event. Additionally, the intensity of unpleasantness during the first encounter indirectly predicted outgroup avoidance, via retrospectively recalled fear and current levels of intergroup anxiety.

Reintroducing Rationalization: A Study of Relational Goal Pursuit Theory of Intimate Partner Obsessive Relational Intrusion.

Obsessive relational intrusions (ORI) are the repeated and unwanted attempts by one person to initiate or maintain an intimate relationship with a specific, targeted, and unwilling other. To date, ORI has been commonly explained by relational goal pursuit (RGP) theory. Centrally, RGP theory posits that five clusters of goal-related cognitions and emotions explain ORI. These are goal-linking, self-efficacy, rumination, affective flooding, and rationalization. However, while the first four factors have been empirically investigated as predictors of ORI, rationalization has not. Thus, the current study aimed to reintroduce rationalization to the evaluation of the RGP model among heterosexual former intimate partners. Participants (N = 379; 45.6% female, Mage = 34.4) were recruited from North America and completed an online survey assessing the RGP factors and engagement in ORI. Overall, we found that, after the other factors from the RGP model were considered, the inclusion of rationalization increased the variance explained in ORI. Furthermore, the rationalization subfactor of distortion (as opposed to permissiveness) uniquely predicted ORI both at a broad level and across specific clusters of ORI behavior. These findings not only support the inclusion of rationalization within the RGP model but also provide initial evidence that this construct might be the most individually critical to the explanation of a wide array of ORI behaviors. In addition to having implications for the prediction and explanation of ORI, these findings can also be used to direct clinical treatment of ORI perpetrators toward addressing defenses of rationalization.

Does a Facebook-enhanced Mindful Self-Compassion intervention improve body image? An evaluation study.

This study evaluates a brief intervention aimed at improving body image. The intervention comprised a Mindful Self-Compassion workshop complemented by a group discussion on Facebook. Young women (Mage = 18.31), screened for body concerns, were allocated by university campus to a 50-minute workshop intervention (n = 42) or a waitlist control (n = 34). Following the workshop, participants in the intervention group utilized self-compassion techniques when experiencing appearance distress and posted about their experiences on a private Facebook group three times per week for two weeks. Findings showed that, relative to control, the intervention group experienced lower upward appearance comparison, social appearance anxiety, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness, and higher body appreciation and self-compassion, at posttest and 1-month follow-up. All effects, except those for body dissatisfaction, were held at 3-month follow-up. Additionally, common humanity predicted gains in body appreciation from pretest to posttest. The Mindful Self-Compassion intervention involving a Facebook group may have resonated with young women as it allowed them to share moments of self-compassionate body image experiences in a private and supportive environment.

Nutritional parameters associated with hospital admissions in patients being treated for head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE: This study analysed nutritional parameters (baseline body mass index (BMI), weight changes and enteral nutrition (EN) use, and their association with hospital admissions during radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC)). METHODS: A retrospective review of patients diagnosed with HNC and treated with radiotherapy between October 2012 and April 2014 was conducted. Data on each subject's diagnosis, age, sex, chemotherapy, previous surgery, EN use, weight changes, and BMI were examined for their association with hospital admissions during treatment. RESULTS: Eighty-three patients were included, mean age (±standard deviation) = 61 (± 11 years). Thirty-four percent had self-reported weight loss at diagnosis, and mean BMI was 26.2 ± 5.3 kg/m2. Mean weight change during treatment was - 5.1 ± 6.2%. Ten patients used EN, with mean weight stabilisation during EN use (0.3 ± 5.1%). Higher presenting BMI, younger age, and definitive radiotherapy ± chemotherapy predicted greater weight loss (p < 0.05). Critical weight loss ≥ 5% was associated with a higher number of hospital admissions for nutrition reasons (n = 10) (p = 0.011) compared with those without critical weight loss (n = 2). EN use was associated with a higher number of nutrition-related admissions; however, it did not predict length of stay among those admitted. CONCLUSION: Critical weight loss during radiotherapy was associated with unplanned nutrition-related hospital admissions. Higher BMI was associated with greater weight loss during radiotherapy, whilst EN use assisted in weight preservation. Further research around patient selection for nutritional interventions aimed at preventing critical weight loss and unplanned hospital admissions is needed.

Attitudes Toward Euthanasia for Patients Who Suffer From Physical or Mental Illness.

This study examined whether attitudes toward euthanasia vary with type of illness and with the source of the desire to end the patient's life. The study used a 3 (illness type: cancer, schizophrenia, depression) × 2 (euthanasia type: patient-initiated, family-initiated) between-groups experimental design. An online questionnaire was administered to 324 employees and students from a Australian public university following random assignment of participants to one of the six vignette-based conditions. Attitudes toward euthanasia were more positive for patients with a physical illness than a mental illness. For a patient with cancer or depression, but not schizophrenia, approval was greater for patient-, than, family-, initiated euthanasia. Relationships between illness type and attitudes were mediated by perceptions of patient autonomy and illness controllability. Findings have implications for debate, practices, and legislation regarding euthanasia.

Friends and Education: Identity Patterns across Domains and Associations with Emotion Dysregulation and Identity Disturbance.

The task of identity development, which involves distinguishing who one is, and defining and articulating this to others, is a challenging developmental task for most youth. This is made even more challenging when one considers that there are multiple domains of identity development. In the current study, Australia adolescents (N = 336; aged 12-15 years, 46% male) reported their identity status commitment, exploration and reconsideration across two different domains (education and friendship). Cluster analysis was used to evaluate patterns of identity formation within and across domains, and the internalizing symptoms (low self-worth, emotion dysregulation, depressive and anxiety symptoms) and identity disturbance of clusters of youth with different identity status patterns were compared. Results revealed five clusters of committed explorers, committed non-explorers, committed reconsiders, uninvolved, and friend identifiers. Cluster comparisons revealed that, across self-worth, emotion dysregulation and identity disturbance, adolescents in the friend identifiers cluster, who reported high commitment to friendship identity and lower commitment to educational identity relative to their peers, fared worse than adolescents reporting higher than average commitment across both domains, and those reporting high reconsideration in both domains. These findings suggest that the benefit of identity commitment for emotional adjustment may depend somewhat on the domain under investigation, and that evaluating the junction and divergence of different identity domains might identify additional adolescents who are experiencing symptoms of maladjustment.

Meta-analysis of Genetic Modifiers Reveals Candidate Dysregulated Pathways in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that has significant overlap with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Mutations in specific genes have been identified that can cause and/or predispose patients to ALS. However, the clinical variability seen in ALS patients suggests that additional genes impact pathology, susceptibility, severity, and/or progression of the disease. To identify molecular pathways involved in ALS, we undertook a meta-analysis of published genetic modifiers both in patients and in model organisms, and undertook bioinformatic pathway analysis. From 72 published studies, we generated a list of 946 genes whose perturbation (1) impacted ALS in patient populations, (2) altered defects in laboratory models, or (3) modified defects caused by ALS gene ortholog loss of function. Herein, these are all called modifier genes. We found 727 modifier genes that encode proteins with human orthologs. Of these, 43 modifier genes were identified as modifiers of more than one ALS gene/model, consistent with the hypothesis that shared genes and pathways may underlie ALS. Further, we used a gene ontology-based bioinformatic analysis to identify pathways and associated genes that may be important in ALS. To our knowledge this is the first comprehensive survey of ALS modifier genes. This work suggests that shared molecular mechanisms may underlie pathology caused by different ALS disease genes. Surprisingly, few ALS modifier genes have been tested in more than one disease model. Understanding genes that modify ALS-associated defects will help to elucidate the molecular pathways that underlie ALS and provide additional targets for therapeutic intervention.

Publisher Correction: TDP-43 gains function due to perturbed autoregulation in a Tardbp knock-in mouse model of ALS-FTD.

In the version of this article initially published, the footnote number 17 was missing from the author list for the two authors who contributed equally. Also, the authors have added a middle initial for author Justin R. Fallon and an acknowledgement to the Babraham Institute Imaging Facility and Sequencing Core Facility. The errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.

TDP-43 gains function due to perturbed autoregulation in a Tardbp knock-in mouse model of ALS-FTD.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) constitutes a devastating disease spectrum characterized by 43-kDa TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) pathology. Understanding how TDP-43 contributes to neurodegeneration will help direct therapeutic efforts. Here we have created a TDP-43 knock-in mouse with a human-equivalent mutation in the endogenous mouse Tardbp gene. TDP-43Q331K mice demonstrate cognitive dysfunction and a paucity of parvalbumin interneurons. Critically, TDP-43 autoregulation is perturbed, leading to a gain of TDP-43 function and altered splicing of Mapt, another pivotal dementia-associated gene. Furthermore, a new approach to stratify transcriptomic data by phenotype in differentially affected mutant mice revealed 471 changes linked with improved behavior. These changes included downregulation of two known modifiers of neurodegeneration, Atxn2 and Arid4a, and upregulation of myelination and translation genes. With one base change in murine Tardbp, this study identifies TDP-43 misregulation as a pathogenic mechanism that may underpin ALS-FTD and exploits phenotypic heterogeneity to yield candidate suppressors of neurodegenerative disease.

The effectiveness of self-compassion and self-esteem writing tasks in reducing body image concerns.

This study investigated whether single-session self-compassion and self-esteem writing tasks ameliorate the body image concerns evoked by a negative body image induction. Ninety-six female university students aged 17-25 years (Mage=19.45, SD=1.84) were randomly assigned to one of three writing treatment groups: self-compassion, self-esteem, or control. After reading a negative body image scenario, participants completed scales measuring state body appreciation, body satisfaction, and appearance anxiety. They then undertook the assigned writing task, and completed the three measures again, both immediately post-treatment and at 2-week follow-up. The self-compassion writing group showed higher post-treatment body appreciation than the self-esteem and control groups, and higher body appreciation than the control group at follow-up. At post-treatment and follow-up, self-compassion and self-esteem writing showed higher body satisfaction than the control. The groups did not differ on appearance anxiety. Writing-based interventions, especially those that enhance self-compassion, may help alleviate certain body image concerns.

Open-label study of duloxetine for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: This study sought to investigate the efficacy of duloxetine for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (DSM-IV). METHODS: Twenty individuals were enrolled in a 17-week, open-label trial of duloxetine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Data were collected between March 2007 and September 2012. Study measures assessing obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, quality of life, depression, and anxiety were administered at baseline and weeks 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17. The primary outcome measures were the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and Clinical Global Improvement scale. RESULTS: For the 12 study completers, pre- and posttreatment analyses revealed significant improvements (P<.05) on clinician- and self-rated measures of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms and quality of life. Among the 12 completers, more than one-half (n=7) satisfied full medication response criteria. Intention-to-treat analyses (n=20) showed similar improvements (P<.05) on primary and secondary study outcome measures. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that duloxetine may provide a significant reduction in symptoms for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00464698; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00464698?term=NCT00464698&rank=1.

Decision making in avoidance-reward conflict: a paradigm for non-human primates and humans.

Decision making in both animals and humans is influenced by the anticipation of reward and/or punishment. Little is known about how reward and punishment interact in the context of decision making. The Avoidance-Reward Conflict (ARC) Task is a new paradigm that varies the degree of reward and the probability of punishment in a single paradigm that can be used in both non-human primates (NHPs) and humans. This study examined the behavioral pattern in the ARC task in both NHPs and humans. Two adult male NHPs (macaca mulatta) and 20 healthy human volunteers (12 females) participated in the ARC task. NHPs and humans perform similarly on the ARC task. With a high probability of punishment (an aversive air puff to the eye), both NHPs and humans are more likely to forgo reward if it is small or medium magnitude than when it is large. Both NHPs and humans perform similarly on the same behavioral task suggesting the reliability of animal models in predicting human behavior.

Heightened emotional sensitivity intensifies associations between relational aggression and victimization among girls but not boys: a longitudinal study.

Founded in the social process model, the aim of this study was to identify whether the associations of relational aggression with concurrent and subsequent relational victimization differed depending on early adolescents' personal vulnerabilities and gender. The vulnerabilities of interest were social-information processing variables that convey greater emotional sensitivity, including rejection sensitivity, fear of negative evaluation, and avoidance of intimacy. Participants were 358 early adolescents (176 boys, 178 girls) aged 9 to 13 years. Relational aggression and victimization were assessed via peer nominations, whereas the three indicators of emotional sensitivity were assessed via self-report. Overall, results revealed greater relational aggression at Time 1 to be associated with greater relational victimization at both Time 1 and Time 2. However, this finding was qualified by both emotional sensitivity and gender. When considered separately, girls who were relationally aggressive and emotionally sensitive were at increased risk of victimization at both assessment points. In contrast, no link was found between relational aggression and victimization for boys, although relational vulnerabilities did have unique associations with boys' relational victimization. These findings have implications for our understanding of relational aggression and victimization, as well as for the development of interventions aimed at reducing these problems.

Children's social cognition about proactive aggression.

In this study, 6- and 9-year-old children (N=258) observed two instances of proactive aggression (one relational and the other direct aggression) that were committed by members of a group toward out-group members. Participants were either members of the group or independent observers. Analyses of participants' social cognition about the aggressor and the aggression (cause of aggression, moral judgment of aggression, attitudes toward the aggressor, and exclusion of the aggressor) indicated that, overall, group members were more positive toward aggressors than were independent observers. Although intergroup competition was perceived to be the cause of the aggression, participants disapproved of both types of aggression (especially direct aggression), disapproval increased with age, and girls disapproved of relational aggression more than did boys. Group members' social cognition about the aggressor and the aggression comprised a coherent cognitive process for both types of aggression, but the observers' process was simpler and differed by aggression type.