156 research outputs found
Disorganized attachment in adolescence: Emotional and physiological dysregulation during the Friends and Family Interview and a conflict interaction.
The current study examined the effects of attachment on autonomy, relatedness, and emotion regulation during an attachment interview (Friends and Family Interview; FFI) and a Parent×Child Conflict interaction (Family Interaction Task; FIT) in 49 adolescents (11 to 17 years old). Disorganized adolescents displayed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and at a lower extent than organized ones in the FIT with mothers but not with fathers. Disorganized adolescents also showed a steeper decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) than organized ones, during both the FFI and the FITs. Moreover, disorganized adolescents responded with a more marked increase in skin conductance level to the FIT with mothers than organized individuals. Dismissing adolescents showed behaviors promoting autonomy and relatedness less frequently and to a lesser extent than secure ones, while displaying more often behaviors undermining autonomy and relatedness in the FITs. Dismissing adolescents also showed a more pronounced decrease in HRV during the FFI than secure and preoccupied individuals; no differences were found between these groups in HRV during the FITs. The results suggest that disorganized adolescents had more difficulties in regulating their emotions during both the FFI and the FITs, whereas dismissing individuals seemed effectively challenged only during the interview
Gaming passion contributes to the definition and identification of problematic gaming
Even if for most people playing video games is a healthy leisure activity, a minority of vulnerable users present an excessive use associated to negative consequences (e.g., psychosocial maladjustment, sleep interference) and functional impairment. The current study first aims to identify psychological factors that contribute to discriminate highly involved (but healthy) gamers from problematic gamers. For that purpose, we used a cluster analysis approach to identify different groups of gamers based on their profiles of passion towards gaming (using the Dualistic Model of Passion). Another objective of the present study is to explore, using supervised machine-learning, how gaming disorder symptoms, assessed within the substance use disorder framework (e.g., tolerance, withdrawal), might be linked to harmonious and/or an obsessive passion for gaming. Three distinct clusters of gamers were identified based on their passion profiles, including risky gamers, engaged gamers, and casual gamers. Supervised machine-learning algorithms identified that specific gaming disorder symptoms (salience, mood modification, tolerance, low level of conflict) were predominantly related to harmonious passion, whereas others (withdrawal, high level of conflict, relapse) were more directly related to obsessive passion. Our results support the relevance of person-centered approaches to the treatment of problematic gaming
Rumination and Age: Some Things Get Better
Rumination has been defined as a mode of responding to distress that involves passively focusing one's attention on symptoms of distress without taking action. This dysfunctional response style intensifies depressed mood, impairs interpersonal problem solving, and leads to more pessimistic future perspectives and less social support. As most of these results were obtained from younger people, it remains unclear how age affects ruminative thinking. Three hundred members of the general public ranging in age from 15 to 87 years were asked about their ruminative styles using the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ), depression and satisfaction with life. A Mokken Scale analysis confirmed the two-factor structure of the RSQ with brooding and reflective pondering as subcomponents of rumination. Older participants (63 years and older) reported less ruminative thinking than other age groups. Life satisfaction was associated with brooding and highest for the earlier and latest life stages investigated in this study
Motivational Interviewing to Increase Physical Activity Behavior in Cancer Patients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trials
OBJECTIVE:
This pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed at evaluating the feasibility and potential efficacy of a motivational interviewing (MI) intervention to increase physical activity (PA) behavior in cancer patients.
METHODS:
Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group with standard care plus 12 MI sessions within 12 weeks or a control group with standard care only. The number of recruited participants and the modality of recruitment were recorded to describe the reach of the study. The acceptability of the study was estimated using the attrition rate during the intervention phase. The potential efficacy of the intervention was evaluated by analyzing the PA behavior.
RESULTS:
Twenty-five participants were recruited within the 16-month recruitment period (1.6 participants per month). Five participants (38.5%) from the experimental group (n = 13) and one participant (8.3%) from the control group (n = 12) dropped out of the study before the end of the intervention phase. No group by time interaction effect for PA behavior was observed at the end of the intervention.
CONCLUSION:
Due to the low recruitment rate and compliance, no conclusion can be drawn regarding the efficacy of MI to increase PA behavior in cancer patients. Moreover, the current literature cannot provide any evidence on the effectiveness of MI to increase PA in cancer survivors. Future RCTs should consider that the percentage of uninterested patients to join the study may be as high as 60%. Overrecruitment (30% to 40%) is also recommended to accommodate the elevated attrition rate
Mental health and the overall tendency to follow official recommendations against COVID-19: A U-shaped relationship?
This paper investigates the association between several mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness) and the overall tendency to follow official recommendations regarding self-protection against COVID-19 (i.e., overall compliance). We employ panel data from the COME-HERE survey, collected over four waves, on 7,766 individuals (22,878 observations) from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. Employing a flexible specification that allows the association to be non-monotonic, we find a U-shaped relationship, in which transitions to low and high levels of mental health are associated with higher overall compliance, while transitions to medium levels of mental health are associated with less overall compliance. Moreover, anxiety, stress, and loneliness levels at baseline (i.e., at wave 1) also have a U-shaped effect on overall compliance later (i.e., recommendations are followed best by those with lowest and highest levels of anxiety, stress, and loneliness at baseline, while following the recommendations is lowest for those with moderate levels of these variables). These U shapes, which are robust to several specifications, may explain some of the ambiguous results reported in the previous literature. Additionally, we observe a U-shaped association between the mental health indicators and a number of specific health behaviours (including washing hands and mask wearing). Importantly, most of these specific behaviours play a role in overall compliance. Finally, we uncover the role of gender composition effects in some of the results. While variations in depression and stress are negatively associated with variations in overall compliance for men, the association is positive for women. The U-shaped relation in the full sample (composed of males and females) will reflect first the negative slope for males and then the positive slope for females
Discourses of sexual relationships in a sample of German and British young people: a Q methodological study
Young people live in an environment which sexualises young people, particularly women, along traditional gender roles. This, in parallel with a silence about positive sexuality in policy development, means that sexual double standards prevail in young people’s lives. The aim of this study was to explore the discourses young women and men from two European countries, Germany and England, draw on when making sense of sexual relationships, and how these are steeped in the local cultural climate and messages. The study used Q methodology and included 65 German and English young people between 16 and 19 years of age. Six accounts emerged: sex as responsible, intimate and shared experience; sex as joint fun; ideal versus reality; sex has to be responsible, consensual and shared; caring relationships offer the perfect context for fulfilling sex; and equality between partners. The importance of cultural context in the availability of specific dominant and alternative discourses is discussed with a focus on how this influences young people’s sense-making with regard to sexuality and sexual relationships. Future directions for research are highlighted
Komplexe interozeptive Veränderungen bei Essstörungen: Eine Untersuchung physiologischer, behavioraler, kognitiver und emotionaler Aspekte kardialer Interozeption
peer reviewedEinleitung Interozeption bezeichnet die Wahrnehmung von Signalen aus dem
Körperinneren. Sie wird seit langem als transdiagnostischer ätiologischer Faktor
für Essstörungen diskutiert. Der Annahme einer generell reduzierten Interozeptionsfähigkeit
bei Essstörungen stehen rezent gemischte Befunde gegenüber.
Problematisch in vorhandenen Studien ist die Beschränkung auf einzelne
Aspekte der Interozeption und einzelne Diagnosegruppen. Um diese Schwächen
zu überwinden, untersuchte die vorliegende Studie physiologische, behaviorale,
kognitive und emotionale Aspekte der Herzschlagwahrnehmung bei
Anorexia nervosa (AN), Bulimia nervosa (BN) und Kontrollpersonen ohne Essstörung.
Methoden Bei 146 Teilnehmerinnen (AN = 38, BN = 35, Kontrollpersonen = 73)
wurden während einer Ruhephase und einer Herzschlagwahrnehmungsaufgabe
EKG und EEG abgeleitet. Ausgewertet wurden Herzschlag-evozierte Hirnpotenziale
(zentralnervöse Verarbeitung kardialer Reize; physiologisch), Herzschlagwahrnehmung
(interozeptive Akkuranz; behavioral), Vertrauen in die
eigene Herzschlagwahrnehmung (interozeptive Sensibilität; kognitiv) und die
emotionale Bewertung der Herzschlagwahrnehmung.
Ergebnisse Patientinnen mit AN wiesen höhere Herzschlag-evozierte Hirnpotenziale
auf; Patientinnen mit AN und BN bewerteten die Herzschlagwahrnehmung
negativer als die Kontrollgruppe. Für die Herzschlagwahrnehmung und
das Vertrauen darin ergaben sich keine signifikanten Gruppenunterschiede.
Schlussfolgerung Anstatt eines übergreifenden interozeptiven Defizits ergab
sich ein komplexes Bild interozeptiver Veränderungen. Bei unveränderter Herzschlagwahrnehmung
wiesen Patientinnen mit AN eine verstärkte zentralnervöse
Verarbeitung des Herzschlags auf. Beide Essstörungsgruppen erlebten die
Herzschlagwahrnehmung als aversiv. Explorative Korrelationsanalysen legten
einen Zusammenhang von verstärkter und aversiver interozeptiver Verarbeitung
mit Ängstlichkeit nahe. Essgestörtes Verhalten könnte der Unterdrückung
aversiver Körperempfindungen und Emotionen dienen. Eine multidimensionale
Betrachtung von Interozeption ist unerlässlich für die Entwicklung von ätiologischen
Modellen und Behandlungsansätzen.3. Good health and well-bein
Atomistic simulation of PDADMAC/PSS oligoelectrolyte multilayers: Overall comparison of tri- And tetra-layer systems
By employing large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of atomistically resolved oligoelectrolytes in aqueous solutions, we study in detail the first four layer-by-layer deposition cycles of an oligoelectrolyte multilayer made of poly(diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride)/poly(styrene sulfonate sodium salt) (PDADMAC/PSS). The multilayers are grown on a silica substrate in 0.1 M NaCl electrolyte solutions and the swollen structures are then subsequently exposed to varying added salt concentration. We investigated the microscopic properties of the films, analyzing in detail the differences between three- and four-layer systems. Our simulations provide insights into the early stages of growth of a multilayer, which are particularly challenging for experimental observations. We found rather strong complexation of the oligoelectrolytes, with fuzzy layering of the film structure. The main charge compensation mechanism is for all cases intrinsic, whereas extrinsic compensation is relatively enhanced for the layer of the last deposition cycle. In addition, we quantified other fundamental observables of these systems, such as the film thickness, water uptake, and overcharge fractions for each deposition layer. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry
Enhanced sequential carrier capture into individual quantum dots and quantum posts controlled by surface acoustic waves
Individual self-assembled Quantum Dots and Quantum Posts are studied under
the influence of a surface acoustic wave. In optical experiments we observe an
acoustically induced switching of the occupancy of the nanostructures along
with an overall increase of the emission intensity. For Quantum Posts,
switching occurs continuously from predominantely charged excitons (dissimilar
number of electrons and holes) to neutral excitons (same number of electrons
and holes) and is independent on whether the surface acoustic wave amplitude is
increased or decreased. For quantum dots, switching is non-monotonic and shows
a pronounced hysteresis on the amplitude sweep direction. Moreover, emission of
positively charged and neutral excitons is observed at high surface acoustic
wave amplitudes. These findings are explained by carrier trapping and
localization in the thin and disordered two-dimensional wetting layer on top of
which Quantum Dots nucleate. This limitation can be overcome for Quantum Posts
where acoustically induced charge transport is highly efficient in a wide
lateral Matrix-Quantum Well.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure
- …