Reliability and validity of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire in a sample of European adolescents--the HELENA study

BACKGROUND: Since stress is hypothesized to play a role in the etiology of obesity during adolescence, research on associations between adolescent stress and obesity-related parameters and behaviours is essential. Due to lack of a well-established recent stress checklist for use in European adolescents, the study investigated the reliability and validity of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ) for assessing perceived stress in European adolescents. METHODS: The ASQ was translated into the languages of the participating cities (Ghent, Stockholm, Vienna, Zaragoza, Pecs and Athens) and was implemented within the HELENA cross-sectional study. A total of 1140 European adolescents provided a valid ASQ, comprising 10 component scales, used for internal reliability (Cronbach α) and construct validity (confirmatory factor analysis or CFA). Contributions of socio-demographic (gender, age, pubertal stage, socio-economic status) characteristics to the ASQ score variances were investigated. Two-hundred adolescents also provided valid saliva samples for cortisol analysis to compare with the ASQ scores (criterion validity). Test-retest reliability was investigated using two ASQ assessments from 37 adolescents. RESULTS: Cronbach α-values of the ASQ scales (0.57 to 0.88) demonstrated a moderate internal reliability of the ASQ, and intraclass correlation coefficients (0.45 to 0.84) established an insufficient test-retest reliability of the ASQ. The adolescents' gender (girls had higher stress scores than boys) and pubertal stage (those in a post-pubertal development had higher stress scores than others) significantly contributed to the variance in ASQ scores, while their age and socio-economic status did not. CFA results showed that the original scale construct fitted moderately with the data in our European adolescent population. Only in boys, four out of 10 ASQ scale scores were a significant positive predictor for baseline wake-up salivary cortisol, suggesting a rather poor criterion validity of the ASQ, especially in girls. CONCLUSIONS: In our European adolescent sample, the ASQ had an acceptable internal reliability and construct validity and the adolescents' gender and pubertal stage systematically contributed to the ASQ variance, but its test-retest reliability and criterion validity were rather poor. Overall, the utility of the ASQ for assessing perceived stress in adolescents across Europe is uncertain and some aspects require further examination.The HELENA Study takes place with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT-2005-007034)

Peer victimization and its impact on adolescent brain development and psychopathology

Chronic peer victimization has long-term impacts on mental health; however, the biological mediators of this adverse relationship are unknown. We sought to determine whether adolescent brain development is involved in mediating the effect of peer victimization on psychopathology. We included participants (n = 682) from the longitudinal IMAGEN study with both peer victimization and neuroimaging data. Latent profile analysis identified groups of adolescents with different experiential patterns of victimization. We then associated the victimization trajectories and brain volume changes with depression, generalized anxiety, and hyperactivity symptoms at age 19. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed time-by-victimization interactions on left putamen volume (F = 4.38, p = 0.037). Changes in left putamen volume were negatively associated with generalized anxiety (t = -2.32, p = 0.020). Notably, peer victimization was indirectly associated with generalized anxiety via decreases in putamen volume (95% CI = 0.004-0.109). This was also true for the left caudate (95% CI = 0.002-0.099). These data suggest that the experience of chronic peer victimization during adolescence might induce psychopathology-relevant deviations from normative brain development. Early peer victimization interventions could prevent such pathological changes.</p

“To be able to change, you have to take risks #fitspo”: Exploring correlates of fitspirational social media use among young women

Posting and viewing fitspiration-related content is a new social media trend. Although some say that fitspiration inspires women towards an empowered body image, others argue that fitspirational social media use may negatively influence women’s body image. To address these concerns, the current study (359 women; ages 18–28 years) investigated how exposure to four types of fitspirational social media messages related to three indicators of body image: body dissatisfaction, compulsive exercise, and situated optimism related to body goals. Moreover, we investigated the role of two individual difference variables in predicting women’s exposure to fitspirational messages and moderating the relationships between exposure and indicators of body image: thin-ideal internalization and fit-ideal internalization. Overall, the study provides support for both positive and negative correlates of fitspirational social media use. In addition, the findings provide initial evidence that individual difference variables differentially predict exposure to certain types of fitspirational content and moderate the relationship between fitspirational social media and body image related variables. Thus, this study emphasizes that the relationship between fitspirational social media and body image involves a complex interaction between characteristics of consumers and the exact content that is being consumed

Navigating a muscular and sexualized Instagram feed:An experimental study examining how Instagram affects both heterosexual and nonheterosexual men’s body image

Despite nearly equal Instagram use rates between men and women, research on the effects of Instagram use on body image has mainly focused on women, and continued research on visual social media is warranted. To fill this gap, we conducted a 2 (image muscularity; high vs. low) × 2 (image sexualization; high vs. low) + 1 (control) between-subjects online experiment among 133 young adult men. Among all participants, we examined the moderating effect of sexual orientation, hypermasculinity, and trait appearance-related social comparison. We considered internalized homophobia among men who did not identify as exclusively heterosexual. Results demonstrated no main or interaction effects of condition on intention to exercise. There was a small but significant main effect of condition on state body image, with scores significantly lower in the muscular/nonsexualized condition in comparison to the control. Further, the effect of exposure to muscular Instagram images was stronger among men higher in trait appearance-related social comparison and among nonheterosexual men higher in internalized homophobia. These results suggest that similar to findings among women, exposure to certain types of Instagram images can have small, negative body image effects on men, which are conditional on individual differences

De spiegel van de sociale media: Een exploratieve studie naar de online zelfpresentatie van tweens [Using what social media has to offer: Pre-teens' online self-presentation practices]

Veel socialemediaplatformen hanteren het beleid dat gebruikers ten minste 13 jaar moeten zijn. Desondanks blijkt uit onderzoek dat het gebruik van sociale media door Amerikaanse en Europese (waaronder Nederlandse) kinderen al voor die leeftijd begint, namelijk in de zogenaamde tween-periode van 8 tot 12 jaar (Hollaway, Green & Livingstone, 2013; Lobe, Livingstone, Ólafsson & Vodeb, 2011; Livingstone, Ólafsson & Staksrud, 2013; Rideout, 2015). Het gebruik van sociale media kan voor tweens zowel risico’s als kansen met zich meebrengen. Aan de ene kant zijn er zorgen over het gebruik van sociale media door tweens voor hun privacy (Davis, 2013; Weeden, Cooke & McVey, 2013) en hebben sommige tweens er negatieve ervaringen mee, bijvoorbeeld als gevolg van cyberpesten (Arslan, Savaser, Hallett & Balci, 2012; Baas, De Jong & Drossaert, 2013; Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig & Ólafsson, 2011). Ook kan het gebruik van sociale media leiden tot objectificatie van het eigen lichaam en een negatief zelfbeeld (Veldhuis, Alleva, Bij de Vaate, Keijer & Konijn, 2020). Aan de andere kant bieden sociale media mogelijke voordelen in de psychosociale ontwikkeling (Shapiro & Margolin, 2014; Valkenburg & Peter, 2011). Tweens kunnen op sociale media met anderen in contact komen (Barbovschi, Macháčková & Ólafsson, 2015; Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014; Quinn & Oldmeadow, 2013) en er oefenen met sociale vaardigheden (Bryce & Fraser, 2014; Koutamanis, Vossen, Peter & Valkenburg, 2013). English abstract: The current study explores pre-teens' self-presentation on social media and investigates to what extent they capitalize on social media's opportunities to reflect on, visually alter, and receive feedback on their self-presentations. We conducted an online school-based study among 600 8-12-year olds in the Netherlands. The majority (55%) of pre-teens had a social media account and this percentage increased with age. Most pre-teens with a social media account shared messages and pictures, thought carefully about what (not) to post, and received (positive) feedback. Photo editing was less popular, but more common among girls. Receiving negative feedback was also uncommon, but more frequent among boys and younger pre-teens. Younger pre-teens were also less likely to reflect before posting. Pre-teens thus practice self-presentation on social media and become more skilled at this with age. Social media may help pre-teens develop impression management skills, which are central to pre-teen development

De spiegel van de sociale media: Een exploratieve studie naar de online zelfpresentatie van tweens [Using what social media has to offer: Pre-teens' online self-presentation practices]

Item does not contain fulltextVeel socialemediaplatformen hanteren het beleid dat gebruikers ten minste 13 jaar moeten zijn. Desondanks blijkt uit onderzoek dat het gebruik van sociale media door Amerikaanse en Europese (waaronder Nederlandse) kinderen al voor die leeftijd begint, namelijk in de zogenaamde tween-periode van 8 tot 12 jaar (Hollaway, Green & Livingstone, 2013; Lobe, Livingstone, Ólafsson & Vodeb, 2011; Livingstone, Ólafsson & Staksrud, 2013; Rideout, 2015). Het gebruik van sociale media kan voor tweens zowel risico’s als kansen met zich meebrengen. Aan de ene kant zijn er zorgen over het gebruik van sociale media door tweens voor hun privacy (Davis, 2013; Weeden, Cooke & McVey, 2013) en hebben sommige tweens er negatieve ervaringen mee, bijvoorbeeld als gevolg van cyberpesten (Arslan, Savaser, Hallett & Balci, 2012; Baas, De Jong & Drossaert, 2013; Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig & Ólafsson, 2011). Ook kan het gebruik van sociale media leiden tot objectificatie van het eigen lichaam en een negatief zelfbeeld (Veldhuis, Alleva, Bij de Vaate, Keijer & Konijn, 2020). Aan de andere kant bieden sociale media mogelijke voordelen in de psychosociale ontwikkeling (Shapiro & Margolin, 2014; Valkenburg & Peter, 2011). Tweens kunnen op sociale media met anderen in contact komen (Barbovschi, Macháčková & Ólafsson, 2015; Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014; Quinn & Oldmeadow, 2013) en er oefenen met sociale vaardigheden (Bryce & Fraser, 2014; Koutamanis, Vossen, Peter & Valkenburg, 2013). English abstract: The current study explores pre-teens' self-presentation on social media and investigates to what extent they capitalize on social media's opportunities to reflect on, visually alter, and receive feedback on their self-presentations. We conducted an online school-based study among 600 8-12-year olds in the Netherlands. The majority (55%) of pre-teens had a social media account and this percentage increased with age. Most pre-teens with a social media account shared messages and pictures, thought carefully about what (not) to post, and received (positive) feedback. Photo editing was less popular, but more common among girls. Receiving negative feedback was also uncommon, but more frequent among boys and younger pre-teens. Younger pre-teens were also less likely to reflect before posting. Pre-teens thus practice self-presentation on social media and become more skilled at this with age. Social media may help pre-teens develop impression management skills, which are central to pre-teen development.22 p

<i>HMG-I/Y</i> Is a c-Jun/Activator Protein-1 Target Gene and Is Necessary for c-Jun–Induced Anchorage-Independent Growth in Rat1a Cells

Abstract The transcription complex activator protein-1 (AP-1) plays a role in a diverse number of cellular processes including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. To identify AP-1–responsive target genes, we used a doxycycline-inducible c-Jun system in Rat1a cells. The HMG-I/Y chromatin binding protein was found to be up-regulated by c-Jun. Following induction of c-Jun expression, Rat1a cells under nonadherent growth conditions have sustained HMG-I/Y mRNA expression and 2-fold higher protein than uninduced cells. HMG-I/Y promoter reporter assays show that HMG-I/Y promoter activity increases in the presence of c-Jun expression, and gel mobility shift assays demonstrate that induced c-Jun binds to an AP-1 consensus site at position −1,091 in the HMG-I/Y promoter. Suppression of HMG-I/Y expression by its antisense sequence significantly reduces the ability of c-Jun–overexpressing Rat1a cells to grow in an anchorage-independent fashion. HMG-I/Y transforms Rat1a cells (although the colonies are smaller than that observed for the cells overexpressing c-Jun). Taken together, these results suggest that HMG-I/Y is a direct transcriptional target of c-Jun necessary for c-Jun–induced anchorage-independent growth in Rat1a cells.</jats:p