Early Childhood Care in the Former East Germany and Mental Stress in Adulthood.

BACKGROUND: It is still debated in Germany whether early childhood care outside the family might cause mental stress in adulthood. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR-the former East Germany before unification), children were often cared for outside the family from a very early age. METHODS: To determine the relation between early childhood care outside the family and mental stress in adulthood, we carried out a survey among 1575 persons who were born and socialized in the GDR. They were classified into four care groups according to the age at which they were first cared for outside the family. Associations with depressiveness, somatization disorders, and anxiety disorders in adulthood were tested with logistic regression analysis. Care group-specific prevalences of experiences of abuse and neglect in childhood were estimated with analysis of variance. RESULTS: Comparisons of persons cared for outside the family before the age of three, or from the age of three onward, with persons cared for within the family in their preschool years did not reveal any difference with respect to depressiveness (odds ratio [OR] = 0.95; 95% confidence interval [0.58; 1.55]; OR = 1.05 [0.63; 1.74]), somatization disorders (OR = 1.11 [0.74; 1.67]; OR = 1.09 [0.71; 1.66]), or anxiety disorders (OR = 0.87 [0.46; 1.64]; OR = 1.12 [0.59; 2.10]). Nor were there any intergroup differences with respect to experiences of abuse and neglect. Certain features of the very small group of children who had long-term care outside the family are discussed in the article. CONCLUSION: No relation was found between earlychildhood care in day-care centers in the GDR and mental stress in adulthood. The data were too sparse for any conclusions about specific aspects of care outside the home (e.g., quality or child-rearing norms).

Gender differences in the prevalence of mental distress in East and West Germany over time: a hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis, 2006-2021.

PURPOSE: Mental distress has become a major public health concern. Temporal trends in psychological distress are complex and depend on numerous factors. In this study, we examined age-period-cohort effects for mental distress including gender and German region over a 15 years' time span. METHODS: Data on mental distress from ten cross-sectional surveys of the general German population, covering the years from 2006 to 2021, was used. Hierarchical age-period-cohort analyses including gender and German region as predictors were performed to disentangle age, period, and cohort effects. The Patient Health Questionnaire-4 was used as a brief screener for mental distress. RESULTS: We found significant period and cohort effects, with peek values for mental distress in the years 2017 and 2020 and for the oldest birth cohort (born before 1946). Age did not affect mental distress when cohort- and period effects as well as gender and German region were considered. An interaction effect for gender and the German region was found. Women in West Germany reported significantly higher mental distress compared to women in East Germany. Compared to men, women reported the highest prevalence in both regions. CONCLUSION: Important political events as well as major crises can lead to an increase of mental distress in societies. Furthermore, an association between birth cohort and mental distress could be linked to socialization effects of that certain time, causing traumatic experiences or a specific coping style within this cohort group. Prevention and intervention strategies could benefit from acknowledging structural differences linked to period and cohort effects.

['Against Nature'-On the social psychological dimension of the alliance between conspiracy beliefs and spirituality in COVID-19 protests. A case study]. / "Wider die Natur" ­ Zur sozialpsychologischen Dimension des Bündnisses von Verschwörungsdenken und Spiritualität in den Corona-Protesten. Eine Fallanalyse.

In the light of increasingly loud and highly visible public protests against protective measures and policies against COVID-19, the concept of conspirituality has recently gained a lot of attention. It is used to theoretically grasp the ideological glue of the heterogeneous milieu of protesters. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we show how, in conspirituality, elements of conspiracy beliefs are intertwined with esoteric-spiritual ideas. Going back to occultic milieus, these worldviews are then diffused and slowly popularized. Second, using depth-hermeneutic analyses of a biographical interview with a protest participant, we show that fragments of ideology are ingested in an idiosyncratic manner and interlaced with existing subjective interpretive patterns. This will further reveal the fundamental insecurities caused by the pandemic itself and by the political attempts to deal with its effects. Against this background, we conclude that conspirituality serves as a pattern of 'crooked cure', mitigating inner conflicts (co-)produced by society. This is achieved by protectively ascribing unbearable affects, ambivalences, and anxieties, but also unfulfilled desires of harmony, security, and comfort either to nature or to malignant conspirators.

Mental health and life satisfaction in East and West Germany: Effects of generation and migration of citizens.

Objective: The reunification of Germany after the separation between 1949 and 1990 has offered a unique chance of studying the impact of socialization, political transformation, and migration on mental health. The purpose of this article was to compare mental distress, resources, and life satisfaction (1) between residents of East and West Germany and migrants who have fled from East to West Germany before reunification and (2) between three generations. Methods: We assessed anxiety, depression, resilience, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, comparing groups based on their residency and migration, as well as three different birth cohorts. Using a representative survey of 2006, analyses of variance show the differences between these groups. Based on a representative survey (N = 4,530), the effects of gender (53.6% women), residency/migration (74.4% grown up in the West, 20.4% in the East, 5.3% migrants from the East to the West) from three generations (32% born until 1945, 39% until 1967, and 29% to 1989), and positive and negative mental health indicators were analyzed. Results: Women reported higher distress and lower resilience. Residents of the Western states reported the lowest burden of distress (depressive and anxiety symptoms) and the highest overall life satisfaction, exceeding residents from the Eastern states and migrants from the Eastern to the Western states. Migrants from the Eastern to the Western states, however, reported the lowest resilience and self-esteem. They reported lower satisfaction with income, living conditions (compared to the Western residents), and the lowest levels of satisfaction with family (compared to East and West). Conclusion: Overall, our data point to inequalities between the Eastern and Western states regarding mental health 16 years after reunification favoring the residents of the Western states by lower distress and life satisfaction. Our data attest to the stresses and adjustments associated with migration from the Eastern to the Western states before reunification. A lower level of mental health and life satisfaction in the oldest generation may be related to the sequelae of World War II and also to aging.

[Associations of Internal Migration and Somatoform Symptoms, Depression, and Anxiety in a German Representative Sample]. / Somatisierung, Depressivität und Angst bei Binnenmigrierten in einer deutschen repräsentativen Stichprobe.

AIM: The aim of the present study was to determine, if internal German migration was associated with mental distress, somatoform symptoms, depression, and anxiety. METHODS: Data from two representative studies from 2020 and 2021 were analysed (N=4922). Mental distress, including the dimensions somatoform symptoms, depression, and anxiety, was assessed with the short version of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-18). Linear regression analyses were performed to examine associations between internal migration and mental distress while controlling for sociodemographic factors (gender, age, partner, household equivalised income, and education). RESULTS: Internal migrants from East to West Germany reported more mental distress, somatoform symptoms, depression, and anxiety than those who grew up and stayed in the East. This finding remained after controlling for sociodemographic factors. No differences were found between internal migrants from West to East Germany and those who grew up and stayed in West Germany. DISCUSSION: German internal migration should be taken into account when examining differences in mental health in East and West Germany. Our results suggest that particularly the group that had moved from the Eastern to the Western part of Germany reported significantly signs of mental distress.

Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education.

Modern theories of authoritarianism have stressed the importance of threat to the expression of authoritarian attitudes and intolerance. Arguably, authoritarian tendencies may have increased during COVID-19 pandemic, a major threat to life and security. One issue arising when comparing mean scores is that of measurement invariance. Meaningful comparisons are only possible, if latent constructs are similar between groups and/or across time. This prerequisite is rarely ever tested in research on authoritarianism. In this study, we aim to analyze the short scale for authoritarianism KSA-3 by investigating its measurement invariance on two levels (three first-order and one second-order factors) and latent mean changes using two German representative samples (N = 4,905). Specifically, we look at differences before and during the pandemic (2017 vs. 2020). While measurement invariance holds across both levels in all conditions, we find a decrease in latent means in 2020, contrary to expectations and established theories. Moreover, latent means differ with regard to gender, education, and east-west Germany. We conclude that analyses of latent means and measurement invariance instead of mean comparisons with composites should become the standard. Future studies should focus on threat as a moderator between authoritarianism and intolerance, and on possible interactions with context variables.

[Psychological Distress in Former Eastern and Western States 30 Years After the Reunification]. / Psychische Belastungen in den alten und neuen Bundesländer 30 Jahre nach Mauerfall.

OBJECTIVE: Investigating the effects of internal migration on somatoform complaints (GBB-8) as well as psychological distress (PHQ-4; captures symptoms of anxiety and depression). METHODS: A representative sample from 2019 is used and divided into four groups (West, East, East-West, West-East). A variance analysis was conducted. RESULTS: The West group reports significantly more distress and somatoform symptoms than the East group. The group East-West report significantly more distress and somatoform complaints. CONCLUSION: The influence of internal migration, especially from East to West Germany, should be considered in future studies.

Detecting Authoritarianism Efficiently: Psychometric Properties of the Screening Instrument Authoritarianism - Ultra Short (A-US) in a German Representative Sample.

With right-wing-extremist and -populist parties and movements on the rise throughout the world, the concept of authoritarianism has proven to be particularly valuable to explain the psychological underpinnings of these tendencies. Even though many scales to measure the different dimensions of authoritarianism exist, no short screening instrument has been tested and validated on a large scale so far. The present study examines the psychometric properties of the screening instrument Authoritarianism - Ultrashort (A-US) in three representative German samples (n = 2,524, n = 2,478, and n = 2,495). Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the A-US demonstrated acceptable internal consistency. Model fit was good and correlations with related constructs indicated convergent validity in both samples. Construct validity was demonstrated using the original version of the scale. The instrument proved to be invariant across sex, employment status, and education, but not across different age groups. Finally, the analyses showed that differences in the A-US are associated with sociodemographic variables. Potential causes and effects of these findings are discussed. Based on these results, the A-US proved to be a valuable and highly efficient tool to screen for authoritarian tendencies.