How Do Children Experience Mixed Emotion? Piloting an Analogue Emotion Scale

Adults report more sequential and simultaneous experiences of mixed emotion when using an analogue emotion scale (AES) than when completing rating scales due to the temporal dimension of the AES. Research is beginning to show that children experience mixed emotion and report simultaneous experiences increasingly between 5-7 years. These reports however may misrepresent the type, and underestimate the frequency of, simultaneous experiences due to the limitations of the measures. This research piloted the utility of an adapted AES to assess subjective mixed emotion types in childhood. 55 children (23 girls, 22 boys) aged between 4 years 2 months - 6 years 2 months (X=5 years 3 months) participated in the research. They heard vignettes describing single happy, sad and mixed emotion events in an age and gender matched protagonist and completed AES training and tests measures about the protagonists' experiences. Four different AES mixed emotion types were found highlighting a broader range of mixed emotion experiences than previously found and attesting to the utility of the adapted measure

Using visual representations to demonstrate complexity in mixed emotional development across childhood

Previous studies have shown a developmental trend in mixed emotional understanding. As children develop throughout childhood, they begin to recognise simultaneity of positive and negative emotions. However, previous studies have limited ecological validity as they assessed emotion choice using only a single positive and single negative emotion. Therefore, the present study aims to broaden the understanding of mixed emotional development by allowing a wider emotion choice. Mixed emotions were measured using the Analogue Emotions Scale (AES) which allows both intensity of the emotional responses and time to be captured. In the present study 211 children aged 4-10 were divided into one of three protagonist conditions, (self, peer, and adult) and read a vignette about the protagonist moving house. Choosing from seven emotions (happy, calm, surprise, sad, worry, fear, anger) they plotted the intensity and duration of each emotion they thought was represented in the vignette. The present study replicated the developmental trend that younger children are more likely than older children to choose a single emotion, and older children are more likely to perceive more simultaneity of emotion than younger children. This trend was demonstrated in the number of emotions chosen, and also the complexity of the AES pattern plotted. Additionally, the present study extended previous research by demonstrating that by broadening the emotion choice, the emotion interaction is more complex than previous studies were able to show.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Identification of six new susceptibility loci for invasive epithelial ovarian cancer.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 12 epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) susceptibility alleles. The pattern of association at these loci is consistent in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers who are at high risk of EOC. After imputation to 1000 Genomes Project data, we assessed associations of 11 million genetic variants with EOC risk from 15,437 cases unselected for family history and 30,845 controls and from 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 8,211 BRCA2 mutation carriers (3,096 with ovarian cancer), and we combined the results in a meta-analysis. This new study design yielded increased statistical power, leading to the discovery of six new EOC susceptibility loci. Variants at 1p36 (nearest gene, WNT4), 4q26 (SYNPO2), 9q34.2 (ABO) and 17q11.2 (ATAD5) were associated with EOC risk, and at 1p34.3 (RSPO1) and 6p22.1 (GPX6) variants were specifically associated with the serous EOC subtype, all with P < 5 × 10(-8). Incorporating these variants into risk assessment tools will improve clinical risk predictions for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.COGS project is funded through a European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme grant (agreement number 223175 ] HEALTH ]F2 ]2009 ]223175). The CIMBA data management and data analysis were supported by Cancer Research.UK grants 12292/A11174 and C1287/A10118. The Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium is supported by a grant from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund thanks to donations by the family and friends of Kathryn Sladek Smith (PPD/RPCI.07). The scientific development and funding for this project were in part supported by the US National Cancer Institute GAME ]ON Post ]GWAS Initiative (U19 ]CA148112). This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium. Funding for the project was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. The results published here are in part based upon data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project established by the National Cancer Institute and National Human Genome Research Institute (dbGap accession number phs000178.v8.p7). The cBio portal is developed and maintained by the Computational Biology Center at Memorial Sloan ] Kettering Cancer Center. SH is supported by an NHMRC Program Grant to GCT. Details of the funding of individual investigators and studies are provided in the Supplementary Note. This study made use of data generated by the Wellcome Trust Case Control consortium, funding for which was provided by the Wellcome Trust under award 076113. The results published here are, in part, based upon data generated by The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project established by the National Cancerhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3185This is the Author Accepted Manuscript of 'Identification of six new susceptibility loci for invasive epithelial ovarian cancer' which was published in Nature Genetics 47, 164–171 (2015) © Nature Publishing Group - content may only be used for academic research

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

A more nuanced investigation into mixed emotion understanding in children

This thesis investigated mixed emotional development across childhood using the Analogue Emotions Scale (AES). The AES is an underused emotion methodology which offers detailed insight into emotion interactions across both temporal and intensity dimensions. It has been well established that having a good understanding of mixed emotions offers many benefits to children, including advanced Theory of Mind (ToM), greater grit, enhanced peer and non-peer relationships, and being more prosocial. Therefore, the current thesis aimed to explore these themes using the AES to ascertain the developmental trajectory of mixed emotion reporting across childhood and into early adolescences (ages 4-17). This thesis extended the previous developmental literature that uses the AES. First, it replicated across three studies (Chapters 2-4) the developmental trend reported in previous literature and provided a contribution to knowledge by demonstrating the rich and nuanced mixed emotional understanding that children have, by widening the emotional choice provided to the participants in these studies. In Chapter 3, this thesis demonstrated that the emotions provided in a study have a significant impact on the mixed emotional trajectory reported. This was further developed in Chapter 4, which demonstrated that the event provided, upon which mixed emotions is reflected also has a significant effect on the mixed emotions reported. This thesis has made a further original contribution to knowledge by employing a data driven approach to the AES methodology which provided more ecological validity to the AES methodology (Chapters 2-4). This thesis also investigated influencing variables on mixed emotion reporting, such as ToM, grit, alexithymia, and behavioural difficulties. Despite previous literature showing an association between mixed emotions and these factors, the present thesis found that age was a more dominant driver for mixed emotional understanding than ToM, grit or alexithymia. However, whilst it was not found to be a mediator of mixed emotional understanding, Chapter 5 demonstrated a link between behavioural difficulties and mixed emotional understanding

Children’s understanding of mixed emotions in self and other: Verbal reports and visual representations

Patterns of simultaneous experiences of mixed emotion have been found in adulthood using analogue emotion scales (AES) that measure subjective intensity and duration of two emotions in one graph. Children report simultaneous emotions increasingly between 5 and 7 years of age. These reports may underestimate the type of simultaneous experiences. This research piloted an extended interview and AES to assess subjective mixed emotion types in childhood. One hundred and eighty children (91 girls, 89 boys) between 5 years 2 months and 7 years 3 months (M= 6 years 3 months) were allocated to two conditions (self: n= 90, other: n= 90), hearing a vignette describing a mixed emotion event occurring either to another child or to themselves. Loglinear analysis of reported and graphed responses showed simple, sequential, prevalence, inverse, and highly simultaneous emotion experiences. Younger children reported more single and sequential experiences. Older children reported and graphed more simultaneous experiences. Mixed emotion varied by measure type with more prevalence experiences graphed than reported and more inverse experiences reported than graphed. The results indicate the potential for the utility of the adapted AES for use with children

Investigating student wellbeing across an academic year to improve the experience of taught postgraduate students

Students with greater wellbeing typically have higher academic achievement and a better student experience (Humphrey &amp; McCarthy, 1998; Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011). Unfortunately, student wellbeing has been reported to be significantly poorer than the general adult population (Stallman, 2010). This disparity is particularly stark for postgraduate (PGT) students who have been named the ‘forgotten cohort’ (Coneyworth, Jessop, Maden &amp; White, 2019). This is attributed to many challenges unique to PGT students: transitioning to a new environment, change in social support, having higher academic expectations, unstable living environment, financial stress, and juggling responsibilities and expectations (Coneyworth et al., 2019). PGT students have also faced additionalchallenges this academic year due to the pandemic where loneliness, uncertainty and online learning/social interactions have become a source of difficulty.The current study uses a longitudinal mixed method design undertaking both questionnaire (including the CORE-GP wellbeing scale; Evans et al., 2005) and focus group methodologies to understand: 1) PGT wellbeing across the academic year; 2) how PGT wellbeing from a pre-COVID cohort (2018-2019) compares to the current, COVID-impacted cohort; 3) how University policy can support PGT students and what tools can be developed in practice to support their wellbeing. Preliminary results have demonstrated that PGT wellbeing is poorer than undergraduate wellbeing and gets significantly worse throughout the academicyear. Students reported that the following factors can negatively impact wellbeing: social support/infrastructure, juggling responsibilities, COVID-19 and health issues. Encouragingly, students equated good wellbeing to University resources and staff, their social support network, and personal experiences