Maternal emotion regulation, reactions to childrens’ negative emotions and youth’s adjustment

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Secção de Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde, Núcleo de Psicologia da Saúde e da Doença), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2016Parents that are able to adequately self-regulate emotions will be more capacitated to help their children regulate their emotions. These processes influence the socialization of child’s emotions and have an undeniable influence on the child’s emotional and social development. Parental emotion regulation also involves the ability to tolerate the child’s negative emotions. When parents are unable to tolerate and be exposed to emotionally charged situations, they might try and change their form and frequency to avoid or reduce exposure. Parental Experiential Avoidance (parental EA) represents this inability. The purpose of this study was to study the relationships between maternal emotion regulation, maternal reactions to child’s negative emotions, and child’s adjustment. Additionally, we intended to analyze gender and age group differences in regard to Mothers’ Emotion Regulation and Mothers’ Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions. The sample was composed by 247 portuguese mothers that filled out on-line two scales to evaluate their emotion regulation (EREP) and reactions to child’s emotions (CCNES) and a questionnaire pertaining to their child’s (3 to 15 years old) adjustment (SDQ). Results, overall, supported the hypothesis. Maternal negative reactions/negative emotion regulation was positively statistically significant correlated to child’s adjustment problems; and the maternal constructive reactions/positive emotion regulation was positively statistically significant correlated to child’s positive adjustment. Negative and positive maternal emotion regulation dimensions were positively statistically significant correlated to, respectively, negative and constructive maternal reactions to child’s negative emotions. The results also showed significant differences between girls and boys regarding Emotion-Focused Reactions, wherein mothers used it more on girls than on boys. Mothers used less Distress Reactions with pre-school children but more Emotion-Focused Reactions compared with elementary school children, pre-adolescents and adolescents. Mother’s used Minimization Reactions significantly less with pre-school children in comparison with other age groups. For Emotional Inaction, mothers presented significantly higher levels for adolescents than for pre-school children.A autorregulação parental integra processos cognitivos, comportamentais e afetivos diferentes que, em conjunto, proporcionam aos pais a capacidade de planear e antecipar, de regular emoções, de cooperar com outros, de avaliar resultados e remodelar ações. Mais concretamente, a capacidade de regulação emocional dos pais é muito importante para gerir as situações quotidianas de interação com os filhos, mas também para ajudar as crianças a regular as suas próprias emoções. Um pai que é capaz de se autorregular será capaz de adequadamente pôr em prática capacidades que se traduzam na resolução de problemas, estabelecimento de objetivos, implementação de mudanças comportamentais e agir, com o objetivo final de proporcionar um desenvolvimento positivo para os filhos. A operacionalização adotada pelo presente estudo da regulação emocional parental inclui não só a capacidade dos pais regularem e expressarem as próprias emoções adequadamente, mas também a capacidade dos pais de serem atentos, reconhecerem e compreenderem as emoções da criança; e de aceitarem e tolerarem as emoções negativas reconhecendo o papel das emoções positivas e negativas na vida da criança e na parentalidade. Esta última dimensão é particularmente relevante, tendo em conta que capacidade de tolerar emoções é importante para uma adequada regulação emocional parental como o revelam os estudos mais recentes sobre o Evitamento Experiencial parental (EE parental). As reações parentais à emocionalidade negativa das crianças são uma componente importante do processo de socialização das emoções da criança, que dependem da capacidade dos pais se regularem emocionalmente. Os resultados de estudos anteriores revelam que o ajustamento da criança é influenciado pelas reações parentais às suas emoções que podem ser tanto apoiantes como não-apoiantes, e que ditam o clima emocional familiar, causando impacto na forma como a criança encara a experiência emocional. De forma geral, as diversas reações parentais às emoções dos filhos podem em diferentes graus desenvolver uma sensação de segurança emocional, sentimentos positivos face às relações sociais e uma regulação emocional adequada que se traduzem num ajustamento positivo geral. O presente estudo teve como objetivo geral a compreensão da relação entre regulação emocional maternal, reações maternais às emoções negativas da criança, e o ajustamento da criança. Os objetivos mais específicos foram: 1) explorar a relação entre a regulação emocional maternal e as reações maternas às emoções negativas da criança, 2) analisar a relação entre estas duas dimensões parentais e o ajustamento da criança, 3) e analisar as diferenças entre géneros e grupos etários relativamente às dimensões parentais. A amostra de estudo foi constituída por 247 mães portuguesas (idades entre 22 e 58) que preencheram on-line duas escalas relativas às suas reações à emocionalidade negativa das suas crianças (Reações Parentais às Emoções Negativas dos Filhos - CCNES) e à sua regulação emocional (Escala de Regulação Emocional Parental - EREP), e um questionário relativo à adaptação das suas crianças (Questionário de Capacidades e Dificuldades - SDQ). As crianças deste estudo tinham idades entre os 3 e 15 anos. Os dados deste estudo foram recolhidos no contexto de um projeto de investigação mais alargado “Projeto-P” desenvolvido por Barros, Pereira e Marques (2016) Apesar do estudo mais alargado prever a participação de pais e de mães, o estudo foi realizado apenas com mães, uma vez que os pais tiveram uma baixa adesão (n=25). Os resultados do estudo apoiaram, maioritariamente, as hipóteses formuladas. As correlações positivas entre as escalas que refletem dificuldades na regulação emocional da mãe (EREP) e as reações negativas das mães às emoções da criança (CCNES) apoiam a ideia de que uma regulação parental positiva é importante para que os pais possam reagir de forma mais construtiva às emoções das crianças. Em relação às associações entre as duas dimensões parentais e o ajustamento das crianças, reações negativas da mãe às emoções negativas das crianças e regulação emocional negativa da mãe revelaram uma correlação positiva e estatisticamente significativa com os indicadores de problemas de ajustamento da criança e uma correlação negativa com os indicadores de ajustamento positivo da criança. Estes resultados, embora correlacionais corroboram a ideia geral de que a regulação emocional dos pais e as reações parentais às emoções dos filhos têm um impacto no desenvolvimento emocional e social da criança. Em relação às diferenças de sexo da criança, apenas se encontrou uma diferença estatisticamente significativa entre mães de crianças do sexo feminino e mães do sexo masculino para as Reações Focadas nas Emoções, corroborando uma ideia de que, o sexo da criança instiga formas diferentes do socialização da emoções dos pais. Quanto às diferenças entre grupos etários, as mães utilizaram menos Reações de Perturbação Emocional (Distress) com crianças em idade pré-escolar (3-5 anos) do que com crianças de idade escolar (6-9 anos) e pré-adolescentes (10-13 anos), e utilizaram mais Reações Focadas na Emoções com crianças em idade pré-escolar (3-5 anos) do que com pré-adolescentes (10-13 anos) e adolescentes (14-15 anos). Adicionalmente, as mães utilizaram mais Reações de Minimização à medida que a idade da criança avançava, sendo que usaram significativamente menos com crianças em idade pré-escolar (3-5 anos) em comparação com os outros três grupos etários. Finalmente, para Inação Emocional, as mães apresentaram significativamente valores mais elevados para adolescentes (14-15 anos) do que para crianças em idade pré-escolar (3-5 anos). No geral, os pais de crianças mais velhas apresentam menos Reações Focadas nas Emoções e mais Reações de Minimização por comparação aos pais de crianças mais novas, sendo isto consistente com a ideia que as capacidades das crianças de se autorregularem emocionalmente melhoram ao longo do tempo fazendo com que os pais não tenham de intervir tanto. As diferenças para Inação Emocional mostraram-se consistentes com a ideia de que, em idades mais precoces (3-5 anos), os pais sabem reagir e intervir nas reações emocionais dos seus filhos. Esta capacidade varia ao longo do tempo sendo que na adolescência pode diminuir graças a questões de conflito muito comuns nesta fase que facilitam reações parentais inadequadas às situações de emocionalidade negativa dos adolescentes As limitações dos estudo são identificadas e exploradas, e são apresentadas orientações para estudos futuros

Space, image and display in Russian Central Asia, 1881-1914

This thesis investigates the relationship between environment and empire in late tsarist Central Asia, and suggests that the making and unmaking of space was integral to the imperial experience. It contends that land and its representation were crucial to processes undertaken on local and imperial scales to re-fashion parts of Central Asia from a ‘vast’, ‘alien’ and ‘inhospitable’ colony into an integrated frontier of empire. In examining the environment as a site for the physical enactment and negotiation of Russian rule, the chapters investigate how imperial settlers interacted with the region’s built and natural landscapes, through the planning of transport routes, the creation of settlements, irrigation, afforestation and planting projects. I use visual sources as the project’s access points into the Russian spatial imaginary: vital interfaces between material and metaphorical space that documented the changing environment but were also used to project future ambitions, to inscribe meaning, and to appropriate, segregate, contest and re-order terrain. Environment, image and the spatial imagination were entwined in a symbiotic relationship, with attempts to modify Central Asia’s landscapes, and the visual representations of these actions, revealing that the concept of Turkestan as a monolithic colonial space underwent significant fragmentation. The physical and imaginative transformation of terrain gave rise to new characterisations of the region as a modern, connected, innovative and fertile site, notions that were debated and disputed by a variety of state and sub-state actors in Central Asia and the imperial centre. I argue that the public circulation of images speaks to the importance of the environment as a visual component in the legitimisation of Russia’s presence on Central Asian soil, and as a key arena for the evolution of local and imperial spatial identities, some of which threatened to precipitate the eventual dissolution of the Turkestan Governor Generalship

Outcomes of preexisting diabetes mellitus in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.PURPOSE: Preexisting diabetes is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in cancer. We examined the impact of incident cancer on the long-term outcomes of diabetes. METHODS: Using the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink, we identified three cohorts of diabetes patients subsequently diagnosed with breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer, each matched to diabetic noncancer controls. Patients were required to have survived at least 1 year after cancer diagnosis (cases) or a matched index date (controls), and were followed up to 10 years for incident microvascular and macrovascular complications and mortality. Multivariate competing risks regression analyses were used to compare outcomes between cancer patients and controls. RESULTS: Overall, there were 3382 cancer patients and 11,135 controls with 59,431 person-years of follow-up. In adjusted analyses, there were no statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in diabetes complication rates between cancer patients and their controls in any of the three cancer cohorts. Combined, cancer patients were less likely (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.88; 95% CI = 0.79-0.98) to develop retinopathy. Cancer patients were more likely to die of any cause (including cancer), but prostate cancer patients were less likely to die of causes associated with diabetes (HR 0.61; 95% CI = 0.43-0.88). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: There is no evidence that incident cancer had an adverse impact on the long-term outcomes of preexisting diabetes. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: These findings are important for cancer survivors with preexisting diabetes because they suggest that substantial improvements in the relative survival of several of the most common types of cancer are not undermined by excess diabetes morbidity and mortality.This study was funded by the Population Research Committee, Cancer Research UK. Quality and Outcomes of Care for Chronic Conditions in Older Patients Diagnosed with Breast, Colorectal, or Prostate Cancer Compared to Non-Cancer Controls: An Observational Study Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Reference # 16609. 1 July 2013–29 February, 2016. In addition, Dr. Keating is supported by K24CA181510 from the US National Cancer Institute

Outcomes of preexisting diabetes mellitus in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.PURPOSE: Preexisting diabetes is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in cancer. We examined the impact of incident cancer on the long-term outcomes of diabetes. METHODS: Using the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink, we identified three cohorts of diabetes patients subsequently diagnosed with breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer, each matched to diabetic noncancer controls. Patients were required to have survived at least 1 year after cancer diagnosis (cases) or a matched index date (controls), and were followed up to 10 years for incident microvascular and macrovascular complications and mortality. Multivariate competing risks regression analyses were used to compare outcomes between cancer patients and controls. RESULTS: Overall, there were 3382 cancer patients and 11,135 controls with 59,431 person-years of follow-up. In adjusted analyses, there were no statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in diabetes complication rates between cancer patients and their controls in any of the three cancer cohorts. Combined, cancer patients were less likely (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.88; 95% CI = 0.79-0.98) to develop retinopathy. Cancer patients were more likely to die of any cause (including cancer), but prostate cancer patients were less likely to die of causes associated with diabetes (HR 0.61; 95% CI = 0.43-0.88). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: There is no evidence that incident cancer had an adverse impact on the long-term outcomes of preexisting diabetes. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: These findings are important for cancer survivors with preexisting diabetes because they suggest that substantial improvements in the relative survival of several of the most common types of cancer are not undermined by excess diabetes morbidity and mortality.This study was funded by the Population Research Committee, Cancer Research UK. Quality and Outcomes of Care for Chronic Conditions in Older Patients Diagnosed with Breast, Colorectal, or Prostate Cancer Compared to Non-Cancer Controls: An Observational Study Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Reference # 16609. 1 July 2013–29 February, 2016. In addition, Dr. Keating is supported by K24CA181510 from the US National Cancer Institute

Quality of diabetes care in breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordPURPOSE: Overlooking other medical conditions during cancer treatment and follow-up could result in excess morbidity and mortality, thereby undermining gains associated with early detection and improved treatment of cancer. We compared the quality of care for diabetes patients subsequently diagnosed with breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer to matched, diabetic non-cancer controls. METHODS: Longitudinal cohort study using primary care records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, United Kingdom. Patients with pre-existing diabetes were followed for up to 5 years after cancer diagnosis, or after an assigned index date (non-cancer controls). Quality of diabetes care was estimated based on Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators. Mixed effects logistic regression analyses were used to compare the unadjusted and adjusted odds of meeting quality measures between cancer patients and controls, overall and stratified by type of cancer. RESULTS: 3382 cancer patients and 11,135 controls contributed 44,507 person-years of follow-up. In adjusted analyses, cancer patients were less likely to meet five of 14 quality measures, including: total cholesterol ≤ 5 mmol/L (odds ratio [OR] = 0.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-0.90); glycosylated hemoglobin ≤ 59 mmol/mol (adjusted OR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.70-0.85); and albumin creatinine ratio testing (adjusted OR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.75-0.91). However, cancer patients were as likely as their matched controls to meet quality measures for other diabetes services, including retinal screening, foot examination, and dietary review. CONCLUSIONS: Although in the short-term, cancer patients were less likely to achieve target thresholds for cholesterol and HbA1c, they continued to receive high-quality diabetes primary care throughout 5 years post diagnosis. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: These findings are important for cancer survivors with pre-existing diabetes because they indicate that high-quality diabetes care is maintained throughout the continuum of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.This study was funded by the Population Research Committee, Cancer Research UK. Quality and Outcomes of Care for Chronic Conditions in Older Patients Diagnosed with Breast, Colorectal, or Prostate Cancer Compared to Non-Cancer Controls: An Observational Study Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Reference # 16609. 1 July 2013–29 February, 2016. In addition, Dr. Keating is supported by K24CA181510 from the US National Cancer Institute

Initial fixation placement in face images is driven by top-down guidance

The eyes are often inspected first and for longer period during face exploration. To examine whether this saliency of the eye region at the early stage of face inspection is attributed to its local structure properties or to the knowledge of its essence in facial communication, in this study we investigated the pattern of eye movements produced by rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) as they free viewed images of monkey faces. Eye positions were recorded accurately using implanted eye coils, while images of original faces, faces with scrambled eyes, and scrambled faces except for the eyes were presented on a computer screen. The eye region in the scrambled faces attracted the same proportion of viewing time and fixations as it did in the original faces, even the scrambled eyes attracted substantial proportion of viewing time and fixations. Furthermore, the monkeys often made the first saccade towards to the location of the eyes regardless of image content. Our results suggest that the initial fixation placement in faces is driven predominantly by ‘top-down’ or internal factors, such as the prior knowledge of the location of “eyes” within the context of a face

Automated data analysis to rapidly derive and communicate ecological insights from satellite-tag data: A case study of reintroduced red kites

Analysis of satellite-telemetry data mostly occurs long after it has been collected, due to the time and effort needed to collate and interpret such material. Such delayed reporting does reduce the usefulness of such data for nature conservation when timely information about animal movements is required. To counter this problem we present a novel approach which combines automated analysis of satellite-telemetry data with rapid communication of insights derived from such data. A relatively simple algorithm (comprising speed of movement and turning angle calculated from fixes), allowed instantaneous detection of excursions away from settlement areas and automated calculation of home ranges on the remaining data Automating the detection of both excursions and home range calculations enabled us to disseminate ecological insights from satellite-tag data instantaneously through a dedicated web portal to inform conservationists and wider audiences. We recommend automated analysis, interpretation and communication of satellite tag and other ecological data to advance nature conservation research and practice

Social interactions through the eyes of macaques and humans

Group-living primates frequently interact with each other to maintain social bonds as well as to compete for valuable resources. Observing such social interactions between group members provides individuals with essential information (e.g. on the fighting ability or altruistic attitude of group companions) to guide their social tactics and choice of social partners. This process requires individuals to selectively attend to the most informative content within a social scene. It is unclear how non-human primates allocate attention to social interactions in different contexts, and whether they share similar patterns of social attention to humans. Here we compared the gaze behaviour of rhesus macaques and humans when free-viewing the same set of naturalistic images. The images contained positive or negative social interactions between two conspecifics of different phylogenetic distance from the observer; i.e. affiliation or aggression exchanged by two humans, rhesus macaques, Barbary macaques, baboons or lions. Monkeys directed a variable amount of gaze at the two conspecific individuals in the images according to their roles in the interaction (i.e. giver or receiver of affiliation/aggression). Their gaze distribution to non-conspecific individuals was systematically varied according to the viewed species and the nature of interactions, suggesting a contribution of both prior experience and innate bias in guiding social attention. Furthermore, the monkeys’ gaze behavior was qualitatively similar to that of humans, especially when viewing negative interactions. Detailed analysis revealed that both species directed more gaze at the face than the body region when inspecting individuals, and attended more to the body region in negative than in positive social interactions. Our study suggests that monkeys and humans share a similar pattern of role-sensitive, species- and context-dependent social attention, implying a homologous cognitive mechanism of social attention between rhesus macaques and humans

Generation of Functional CLL-Specific Cord Blood CTL Using CD40-Ligated CLL APC

PMCID: PMC3526610This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited