Family functioning, socio-economic status and adolescent’s depressive symptoms: the mediating role of hopelessness.

Research has shown that difficulties in family functioning contribute to developing adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Additionally, little research has been conducted in order to analyze socio-economic status (SES) differences in the relationship between family functioning and adolescent depressive symptoms. This study examined the relationships between the family variables included in the MacMaster Model of Family Functioning (MMFF), SES and depressive symptoms, as well as the mediating effects of hopelessness. Participants were 643 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (49% male) drawn from secondary schools in Málaga (Spain). They completed the Family Assessment Device, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and a socio-economic measure. We used conditional process analysis to test the moderation effect of gender and a dual mediation model with family functioning and hopelessness as mediators. Results showed that both family functioning as a whole and each MMFF variable, as well as SES, predicted adolescents’ depressive symptoms. In addition, gender moderated the relationship of roles assignment and behavioral control with adolescents’ depressive symptoms, which suggests the need for interventions directed to enhance family rules and boundaries, especially for boys. Finally, we found a serial mediational role of family functioning and hopelessness in the relationship between SES and depressive symptoms, suggesting that the effect of family SES on adolescents’ depressive symptoms through the development of hopelessness should also be targeted.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Family functioning characteristics involved in adolescent depressive symptoms

Research has shown that family functioning contributes to depressive symptoms in adolescents, with a wide range of family functioning characteristics associated to adolescent depressive symptoms. However, these family attributes have been studied through different studies, methodologies and theoretical frameworks, and do not allow envisaging a single whole picture of the family attributes associated to adolescent depressive symptoms. The objective of this study was to overcome this deficit. We followed a systematic approach and used the Family Assessment Device (FAD), which comprehensively identify six family variables in which healthy and unhealthy families differ: Problem Solving (PS), Communication (CM), Roles (RL), Affective Responsiveness (AR), Affective Involvement (AI) and Behaviour Control (BC). Independent regression analyses conducted for each variable showed that all the FAD variables significantly predicted BDI scores. However, when the six variables were introduced simultaneously in the same equation to control for the shared explained variance, only AR and AI showed significant effects, with BC approaching significance. These results were confirmed through Prat measure, which showed that the non-overlapping effects of AR, AI and BC accounted for virtually the whole variance explained by the FAD dimensions. Conclusions at both methodological and applied levels emerge from these results. At a methodological level, these results prove the need for controlling the shared variance between family variables before deriving any conclusion about their role. At an applied level, they showed that the family affective aspects are the most important regarding adolescent depression, with only behaviour control playing a role within the non-affective variables.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Nanostructured tungsten as a first wall material for the future nuclear fusion reactors

The lack of materials able to withstand the severe radiation conditions (high thermal loads and atomistic damage) expected in fusion reactors is the actual bottle neck for fusion to become a reality. The main requisite for plasma facing materials (PFM) is to have excellent structural stability since severe cracking or mass loss would hamper their protection role which turns out to be unacceptable. Additional practical requirements for plasma facing materials are among others: (i) high thermal shock resistance, (ii) high thermal conductivity (iii) high melting point (iv) low physical and chemical sputtering, and (v) low tritium retention

Capabilities of Nanostructured Tungsten for Plasma Facing Material

One of the bottle necks for fusion to become a reality is the lack of materials able to withstand the harsh conditions taken place in a reactor environment. In particular, plasma facing materials (PFM) have to resist large radiation fluxes and thermal loads. Nowadays, tungsten is one of the most attractive materials proposed for PFM. However, it is known that the irradiation of tungsten with H leads to surface blistering and subsequent cracking and exfoliation which is unacceptable. In particular, these effects have been observed to be more severe when W is subjected to pulse irradiation

Moderating effects of gender in the relationships between daily stress, coping styles and hopelessness depression in adolescents

The hopelessness depression (HD) theory assumes a number of contributing factors to the development of hopelessness expectations and HD symptoms. Studies carried out to test HD theory have generally supported the prediction that a negative attributional style contributes to the development of hopelessness expectations and HD symptoms, although the evidence is less consistent for adolescents. Due to these inconsistent results, as well as the assumption advanced by HD theory that other factors aside from attributional style may contribute to the development of HD, in this study we examined the potential role of adolescents’ daily stress and coping styles as contributing factors to HD at these ages, and the effects of gender on these relationships. Seiffge-Krenke (1995) showed that stress in daily life plays a particularly relevant role during adolescence and described three coping styles used by adolescents to face daily stress: active and internal approach-oriented styles, which are considered functional and complementary, and avoidant style, considered dysfunctional. In this study, secondary students (N = 480; aged 13–17) completed the Hopelessness Scale (Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974), the Hopelessness Depression Symptoms Questionnaire (Metalsky & Joiner, 1997), the Problem Questionnaire ((Seiffge-Krenke, 1995) and the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995). To test the role of daily stress and coping styles in the prediction of hopelessness expectations and HD symptoms, two four-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. In these analyses, gender was introduced first, daily stress was introduced second, the three coping styles were entered in a third step, and the moderating effects of gender on the associations of the predictor variables (daily stress and each coping style) with the criterion variables (hopelessness expectations or HD symptoms) were introduced in a fourth step. Results showed a moderating effect of gender on the relationship between daily stress and hopelessness expectations, which revealed a significant effect for boys despite the fact that girls experienced more daily stress than boys, thus suggesting an inoculation effect in girls. It was also found a gender-dependent role of coping styles in the prediction of HD symptoms, revealing a protective effect for the active style in girls and for the internal style in boys. This suggests that girls would benefit from being more action-prone and boys more reflection-prone in order to prevent HD. These findings indicate that programmes aimed to promote coping skills in adolescents would benefit from being gender-adapted.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Family functioning, hopelessnes and adolescents' depressive symptoms: moderating effects of gender, age and socio-economic status

Research has shown that difficulties in family functioning contribute to developing adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Since family functioning is primarily defined by broadband variables like cohesion or support, which represent family functioning as a whole, it is necessary to carry out a more fine-grained analysis of the family variables that are involved in the development of depressive symptoms at these ages. This study examined the relations between the family variables included in the MacMaster Model of Family Functioning (MMFF) and adolescents’ depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating effects of socio-demographic characteristics. Participants were 643 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years (49% male) drawn from secondary schools in Málaga (Spain). They completed the Family Assessment Device, which assesses the MMFF variables: problem solving, communication, roles, affective responsiveness, affective involvement and behavior control; the Beck Depression Inventory; the Beck Hopelessness Scale; and a socio-economic measure. The analytic strategy used was regression analysis, testing moderation and mediation effects. Results showed that both family functioning as a whole and each MMFF variable, as well as socio-economic status (SES), predicted adolescents’ depressive symptoms. In addition, gender moderated the relation of family behavior control and roles with depressive symptoms. Moreover, age moderated the relation between family affective involvement and depressive symptoms. Also, SES moderated the relation of family behavior control, roles, communication and affective responsiveness with depressive symptoms. Finally, both family functioning and SES contributed to hopelessness, which partially mediated the effect of family functioning on depressive symptoms, and totally mediated the effect of SES on depressive symptoms. These results point to the importance of identifying the family variables that are relevant for the design of interventions to prevent affective disturbances in adolescents with different socio-demographic characteristics. The effect of low family SES on adolescents’ depressive symptoms through the development of hopelessness should also be targeted.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The role of affective family attributes and family rules in the prediction of depressive symptoms in adolescents

Depressive symptoms in adolescents are a major problem in today’s society, and it is well established that family environment, as well as sociodemographic variables, such as sex, age and socio-economic status (SES), contributes to them. However, family attributes are not accurately defined, some of them sharing characteristics but differing in labels, which reveals the different theoretical and methodological frameworks of the studies focusing on family attributes. Thus, the genuine family attributes responsible for the depressive symptoms when both sociodemographic variables and other family attributes are controlled remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to rise above these limitations both employing an inclusive and widely used measure of family attributes, the Family Assesment Device (FAD), and a methodological approach that allow identifying the family attributes that contribute to depressive symptoms, but also isolating the effect of each family attribute from others, thus revealing their real/unique effects. For this purpose, we used regression analyses, as well as Pratt’s measure, which qualifies us to quantify the non-shared amount of depressive symptoms explained for each family attribute. Our results showed that, although all the family variables measured by FAD seemed to be related to depressive symptoms, when a proper analysis was carried out that controlled for the overlapping between them, only affective responsiveness (AR), affective involvement (AI), and behavioural control (BC) genuinely predicted adolescent depressive symptoms. As a conclusion, our results showed that, as expected, the affective family attributes (AR and AI) are of paramount importance to prevent adolescent depression but, interestingly, also revealed that the existence and obedience of rules within the family (BC) also play an important role to its prevention.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

The association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and preterm delivery: a prospective study with a multivariable analysis.

To determine whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19 disease) exposure in pregnancy, compared to non-exposure, is associated with infection-related obstetric morbidity. We conducted a multicentre prospective study in pregnancy based on a universal antenatal screening program for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Throughout Spain 45 hospitals tested all women at admission on delivery ward using polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) for COVID-19 since late March 2020. The cohort of positive mothers and the concurrent sample of negative mothers was followed up until 6-weeks post-partum. Multivariable logistic regression analysis, adjusting for known confounding variables, determined the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of the association of SARS-CoV-2 infection and obstetric outcomes. Preterm delivery (primary), premature rupture of membranes and neonatal intensive care unit admissions. Among 1009 screened pregnancies, 246 were SARS-CoV-2 positive. Compared to negative mothers (763 cases), SARS-CoV-2 infection increased the odds of preterm birth (34 vs 51, 13.8% vs 6.7%, aOR 2.12, 95% CI 1.32-3.36, p = 0.002); iatrogenic preterm delivery was more frequent in infected women (4.9% vs 1.3%, p = 0.001), while the occurrence of spontaneous preterm deliveries was statistically similar (6.1% vs 4.7%). An increased risk of premature rupture of membranes at term (39 vs 75, 15.8% vs 9.8%, aOR 1.70, 95% CI 1.11-2.57, p = 0.013) and neonatal intensive care unit admissions (23 vs 18, 9.3% vs 2.4%, aOR 4.62, 95% CI 2.43-8.94, p  This prospective multicentre study demonstrated that pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 have more infection-related obstetric morbidity. This hypothesis merits evaluation of a causal association in further research

Patients with Crohn's disease have longer post-operative in-hospital stay than patients with colon cancer but no difference in complications' rate

BACKGROUNDRight hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection are used to treat benign conditions like Crohn's disease (CD) and malignant ones like colon cancer (CC).AIMTo investigate differences in pre- and peri-operative factors and their impact on post-operative outcome in patients with CC and CD.METHODSThis is a sub-group analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology's prospective, multi-centre snapshot audit. Adult patients with CC and CD undergoing right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection were included. Primary outcome measure was 30-d post-operative complications. Secondary outcome measures were post-operative length of stay (LOS) at and readmission.RESULTSThree hundred and seventy-five patients with CD and 2,515 patients with CC were included. Patients with CD were younger (median = 37 years for CD and 71 years for CC (P < 0.01), had lower American Society of Anesthesiology score (ASA) grade (P < 0.01) and less comorbidity (P < 0.01), but were more likely to be current smokers (P < 0.01). Patients with CD were more frequently operated on by colorectal surgeons (P < 0.01) and frequently underwent ileocecal resection (P < 0.01) with higher rate of de-functioning/primary stoma construction (P < 0.01). Thirty-day post-operative mortality occurred exclusively in the CC group (66/2515, 2.3%). In multivariate analyses, the risk of post-operative complications was similar in the two groups (OR 0.80, 95%CI: 0.54-1.17; P = 0.25). Patients with CD had a significantly longer LOS (Geometric mean 0.87, 95%CI: 0.79-0.95; P < 0.01). There was no difference in re-admission rates. The audit did not collect data on post-operative enhanced recovery protocols that are implemented in the different participating centers.CONCLUSIONPatients with CD were younger, with lower ASA grade, less comorbidity, operated on by experienced surgeons and underwent less radical resection but had a longer LOS than patients with CC although complication's rate was not different between the two groups

The GenTree leaf collection: inter- and intraspecific variation of leaf traits in seven forest tree species across Europe

These datasets include leaf traits (morphological -morpho.traits- and chemical -chemical-traits-) from tree populations of seven forest species across their European distribution. It includes a third file with the survey site