Intensity of Chronic Low Back Pain and Activity Interference: A Daily Diary Study of the Moderating Role of Cognitive Pain Coping Strategies.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has a significant negative impact on daily functioning, particularly for those with challenges coping adaptively with ongoing pain. However, the dynamics of pain coping in daily life remain understudied. Therefore, we examined the extent to which pain intensity interferes with daily activities, and assessed whether pain coping strategies (as assessed using daily diaries) moderated this link. METHOD: We analyzed diary data from a sample of 84 participants with CLBP who completed daily diaries for up to 30 days rating pain intensity, pain interference with daily activities, and their use of pain coping strategies, including pain rumination (i.e., repetitive thinking about the pain and its causes), reappraisal (i.e., evaluating one's pain less negatively or more positively), and distraction (i.e., diverting attention from the pain). We hypothesized that these coping strategies would moderate the associations between pain and pain interference with daily activities, although in different directions. RESULTS: Results suggest that pain rumination strengthens the association between pain intensity and pain interference both on the person and day level, while pain reappraisal and distraction weaken this association, at the day and person levels, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that those who are more preoccupied with their pain and those who are less likely to reappraise their pain have more pain interference with daily activities. These findings build on prior work on pain coping by using daily diaries and highlight two pain coping strategies that have particular relevance for reducing the impact of CLBP in daily life.

Emotion regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic: risk and resilience factors for parental burnout (IIPB).

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families' lives around the world. The measures used to contain transmission have led to increased stress and put parents at increased risk for parental burnout (PB). The aim of the current study was to examine the association between COVID-related parental stress and PB, and to test whether emotion regulation (ER) moderated this association. We hypothesised that rumination, which is a generally maladaptive ER strategy, would act as a risk factor. In comparison, we hypothesised that reappraisal, which is a generally adaptive ER strategy, would act as a resilience factor. We assessed 8225 parents from 22 countries using an on-line survey, and focused on general stress and parenting stress. These stressors were associated with greater PB. Importantly, parental ER moderated these associations; rumination strengthened the link between stress-related variables and PB, whereas reappraisal weakened it. This study emphasises the negative effect COVID-19 has on parents and highlights key ER risk and resilience factors.

Adolescents' Well-being While Using a Mobile Artificial Intelligence-Powered Acceptance Commitment Therapy Tool: Evidence From a Longitudinal Study.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a critical developmental period to prevent and treat the emergence of mental health problems. Smartphone-based conversational agents can deliver psychologically driven intervention and support, thus increasing psychological well-being over time. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to test the potential of an automated conversational agent named Kai.ai to deliver a self-help program based on Acceptance Commitment Therapy tools for adolescents, aimed to increase their well-being. METHODS: Participants were 10,387 adolescents, aged 14-18 years, who used Kai.ai on one of the top messaging apps (eg, iMessage and WhatsApp). Users' well-being levels were assessed between 2 and 5 times using the 5-item World Health Organization Well-being Index questionnaire over their engagement with the service. RESULTS: Users engaged with the conversational agent an average of 45.39 (SD 46.77) days. The average well-being score at time point 1 was 39.28 (SD 18.17), indicating that, on average, users experienced reduced well-being. Latent growth curve modeling indicated that participants' well-being significantly increased over time (ß=2.49; P<.001) and reached a clinically acceptable well-being average score (above 50). CONCLUSIONS: Mobile-based conversational agents have the potential to deliver engaging and effective Acceptance Commitment Therapy interventions.

Parents' Perceptions of Infants' Nighttime Sleep Patterns Predict Mothers' Negativity: A Longitudinal Study.

OBJECTIVE: Infants' sleeping patterns can influence parents' sleep and their well-being. Infants' sleeping problems can evoke negative emotions from their parents because of the influence the problems have on parents' lives. However, little is known regarding the associations between infants' night sleep patterns and parents' overall negativity toward their children. The objective of this study was to study this association. METHODS: In a longitudinal design, we followed infants and their parents from 9 to 18 months. Overall, 392 families participated in the study. Parents' negativity and children's sleeping patterns were assessed with questionnaires. RESULTS: Parents' negativity and children's sleeping problems showed moderate continuity through the study's 9-month period. Children's sleeping problems at 9 months predicted an increase in mothers' (but not fathers') negativity at 18 months. Parents' negativity was not associated with infants' sleep problems. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that already in infancy, children's tendencies, in this case sleep, can evoke negative emotions in their mothers and highlight infants' roles in the intricate parent-child relationship.

The Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins (LIST) Reaches Adolescence: Genetic and Environmental Pathways to Social, Personality and Moral Development.

The Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins (LIST) focuses on the developmental, genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in children's and adolescents' social behavior. Key variables have been empathy, prosocial behavior, temperament and values. Another major goal of LIST has been to study gene-environment correlations, mainly concerning parenting. LIST includes 1657 families of Hebrew-speaking Israeli twins who have participated at least once in the study. Children's environment and their development are assessed in a multivariate, multimethod fashion, including observed, parent-reported and self-reported data. The current article summarizes and updates recent findings from LIST. For example, LIST provided evidence for the heritability of human values with the youngest sample to date, and the first genetic investigation of adolescents' identity formation. Finally, future aims of LIST are discussed.

A longitudinal genetically informed analysis of parental negativity and children's negative emotionality in middle childhood.

Children's negative emotionality (NE) is frequently associated with parental negativity, but causal understanding of this relationship is limited. In addition, little is known about how genetic and environmental factors affect this relationship during middle childhood. We addressed these gaps by applying a quantitative genetic analysis to cross-lagged associations between mothers' and fathers' parental negativity and children's NE during middle childhood. The sample comprised of 456 families when the children were 6.5 years old, and 401 families when the children were 8/9 years old. Mothers' and fathers' negativity and children's NE were assessed using questionnaires. Results showed that variation in parental negativity was mainly accounted for by the environment shared by children, with some indication of an evocative effect of the children's genes on mothers, but not fathers. Children's NE was accounted for by both genetic and shared environmental influences. Parental negativity and children's NE had moderate continuity over the course of two years. Mothers' (but not fathers') negativity when the children were 6.5 years old predicted change in children's NE (rated by the same or the other parent) toward age 8/9 years, but not the other way around. Shared environmental influences were the main contributor to the association between earlier mothers' negativity and later children's NE. Thus, although children's NE was partially heritable, and parenting too was partially accounted for by children's genes, the association between parental negativity and children's NE, at this age, reflects environmental effects and is compatible with mothers' influence on children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Mothers' and fathers' parenting and longitudinal associations with children's observed distress to limitations: From pregnancy to toddlerhood.

Unraveling factors that influence parenting is of great importance, since parents play an important role in their children's development. In this study we focused on parental prenatal expectations, parents' gender and child's distress to limitations as possible influences on parental behavior and observed the longitudinal associations between mothers' and fathers' parenting and their children's distress to limitations. The first wave of the study took place during early pregnancy, while the second and third waves took place when the children were 9 and 18 months old, respectively. Children's distress to limitations was assessed using observations and parental behavior was assessed using questionnaires. All parental variables showed moderate continuity from pregnancy until the child was 18 months, while children's distress did not. Children's distress when they were 9 months predicted an increase in both parents' negativity at 18 months, while fathers' control at 9 months predicted a decrease in children's distress from 9 to 18 months. The results shed light on the intricate parent-child relationship and emphasize children's role in the parenting they receive, as well as differences between mothers and fathers and their associations with children's distress to limitations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Genetic and environmental contributions to children's prosocial behavior: brief review and new evidence from a reanalysis of experimental twin data.

Children's prosocial behaviors show considerable variability. Here we discuss the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in children's prosocial behavior. Twin research systematically shows, at least from the age of 3 years, a genetic contribution to individual differences in prosocial behavior, both questionnaire-based and observed. This finding is demonstrated across a wide variety of cultures. We discuss the possibility that different prosocial behaviors have different genetic etiologies. A re-analysis of past twin data shows that sharing and comforting are affected by overlapping genetic factors at age 3.5 years. In contrast, the association between helping and comforting is attributed to environmental factors. The few molecular genetic studies of children's prosocial behavior are reviewed, and we point out genome-wide and polygenic methods as a key future direction. Finally, we discuss the interplay of genetic and environmental factors, focusing on both gene×environment interactions and gene-environment correlations.