Automatic anxiety recognition method based on microblog text analysis

Mental health has traditionally been assessed using a self-report questionnaire. Although this approach produces accurate results, it has the disadvantage of being labor-intense and time-consuming. This study aimed to extract original text information published by users on the social media platform (Sina Weibo). A machine learning method was used to train the model and predict the anxiety state of the user automatically. Data of 1,039 users were collected. First, Weibo users were invited to fill the anxiety self-assessment scale. All original text data ever published by the users were collected. Second, the Simplified Chinese-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (SC-LIWC) were extracted for feature selection and model training. We found that the model achieved the best performance when the XGBoostRegressor algorithm was used. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the model predicted scores and self-reported scores was moderate (r = 0.322). In addition, we tested the reliability of the model, and found that the model had high reliability (r = 0.72). The experimental results further showed that the model was feasible and effective and could use the digital footprints to predict psychological characteristics

Art and Play Therapy for Children with Anxiety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can be defined as, “Excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation), occurring more days than not for at least 6 months, about a number of events or activities (such as work or school performance)” (DSM- V, 2013). Generalized Anxiety Disorder is one of many disorders that can be detected in children as early as infancy. As the child grows, both internal and external factors contribute to the development of anxiety disorders diagnosed by the presentation of the symptoms of excessive worry, etc. There are many methodological studies that have been conducted to test children and evaluate for these symptoms such as: self assessment surveys, one to one interviews, and medical tools that can identify symptoms of the disorder. While detecting different types of anxiety is crucial to researchers, it is even more essential to find treatments that can prevent these symptoms from manifesting into more severe forms of anxiety later in life. Studies have shown that both Art and Play Therapy can increase feelings of general wellness and self esteem, especially in group therapy dynamics, thus diminishing the anxiety symptoms. Within these therapeutic settings, children can practice social networking and overcome types of anxiety that can distract children from healthy growth

Embracing the positive: an examination of how well resilience factors at age 14 can predict distress at age 17

Abstract: One-in-two people suffering from mental health problems develop such distress before or during adolescence. Research has shown that distress can predict itself well over time. Yet, little is known about how well resilience factors (RFs), i.e. those factors that decrease mental health problems, predict subsequent distress. Therefore, we investigated which RFs are the best indicators for subsequent distress and with what accuracy RFs predict subsequent distress. We examined three interpersonal (e.g. friendships) and seven intrapersonal RFs (e.g. self-esteem) and distress in 1130 adolescents, at age 14 and 17. We estimated the RFs and a continuous distress-index using factor analyses, and ordinal distress-classes using factor mixture models. We then examined how well age-14 RFs and age-14 distress predict age-17 distress, using stepwise linear regressions, relative importance analyses, as well as ordinal and linear prediction models. Low brooding, low negative and high positive self-esteem RFs were the most important indicators for age-17 distress. RFs and age-14 distress predicted age-17 distress similarly. The accuracy was acceptable for ordinal (low/moderate/high age-17 distress-classes: 62–64%), but low for linear models (37–41%). Crucially, the accuracy remained similar when only self-esteem and brooding RFs were used instead of all ten RFs (ordinal = 62%; linear = 37%); correctly predicting for about two-in-three adolescents whether they have low, moderate or high distress 3 years later. RFs, and particularly brooding and self-esteem, seem to predict subsequent distress similarly well as distress can predict itself. As assessing brooding and self-esteem can be strength-focussed and is time-efficient, those RFs may be promising for risk-detection and translational intervention research

Shedding Light on the Complex Picture of Psychosocial Factors that Promote Mental Health in Young People

Across the world about half a billion people suffer from mental health problems each year. Most of such mental distress starts to manifest before or during adolescence. Childhood adversity (CA) is strongly associated with mental health problems. Resilience factors (RFs), such as self-esteem or social support, reduce mental health problems following CA. While a multitude of knowledge exists for single RFs, a more holistic understanding of the RF landscape is lacking. Such knowledge is however crucial, as we otherwise miss out on important interrelations between RFs (e.g. family support → self-esteem → friendships), and as a focus on single RFs may overestimate their importance and ecological validity. With my doctoral research I aimed to take on this challenge, by conducting six projects. I focused on emotional, social, behavioural, and cognitive factors, rather than on the underlying biological or higher-order cultural factors, to specifically study those RFs that can be directly targeted in psychosocial interventions. The first project is a preregistered systematic review with which I aimed to identify empirically supported RFs, on the individual-, family- and community-level. Building on the notion that examining single RFs may not be sufficient to understand the system that protects individuals from developing mental health problems, the second project was aimed at examining the interrelations of those 10 RFs that were identified in the systematic review and were assessed in our population-based adolescent cohort (N > 1K). With the third project I took the research question of how RFs are interconnected a step further and tried to unravel RF changes during the vulnerable period between early (age 14) and later adolescence (age 17). The fourth project was aimed at shedding light on the relative importance as well as on the predictive value with which RFs reduce subsequent mental health problems, as such knowledge may inform risk and mental-health screening. In the fifth project I explored how RFs mitigate the relationship between CA and subsequent mental health problems, by testing a series of direct-effect, moderation and mediation models. Such information may be vital as different effects may hold different implications for intervention research. The sixth and last project was aimed at investigating the most important RFs from the previous projects, high self-esteem and low brooding, in response to a natural stressor. More specifically, I studied those two RFs before, during and after a stress-inducing exam period in medical students, to find out whether the RFs change from before to after the stressor, and whether they co-evolve with mental distress (i.e. mutual change). My doctoral research revealed that RFs indeed cut across multiple ecological levels (i.e. individual, family and community level) and that every level has a notable impact on mental health. This clearly underpins the importance of more holistic RF research. Moreover, I showed that RFs can be described as a promotive system. The RFs seemed to enhance each other less in adolescents with a CA history, compared to adolescents without a CA history. This potential disadvantage of the RF system in adolescents with CA was only detected at age 14, more proximally after CA. However, most pathways between RFs and distress did not change from earlier to later adolescence, which indicates that some deleterious effects that are associated with CA do not seem to wane over the course of adolescence. Furthermore, I found that brooding (abstract, negative-focussed, and repetitive thinking) and self-esteem (quest for nurturing and optimizing self-worth) seem to be particularly promising transdiagnostic factors for risk and mental-health screening. Those RFs had the highest relative importance and predicted subsequent distress similarly well as distress could predict itself. Brooding and self-esteem were also among those RFs that best described the deleterious relationship between CA and subsequent mental health, and may therefore be fruitful targets for psycho-education as well as for psychosocial intervention research. Last but not least my research revealed that both high self-esteem and low brooding before exams mitigate increase in mental distress during the stress-inducing exams, suggesting that both have a potentially promising prevention effect. Moreover, self-esteem during exams fostered recovery of mental distress after exams, suggesting that self-esteem may also be a fruitful target for treatments at times of stress. Of course, all findings need replication in independent samples, and derived conjectures need to be tested in translational (intervention) studies. All in all, my doctoral research has not only enhanced the empirical understanding of the complex landscape of RFs, but has also shed light on potentially time-efficient and strength-based RF targets. Therefore, my findings offer valuable recommendations for public mental health and clinical intervention research.Medical Research Council, Pinsent Darwin, and Sackler Fundin