College students and cyberbullying: how social media use affects social anxiety and social comparison

Cyberbullying is defined as aggression intending to inflict harm on others by electronic communication technologies. Cyberbullying has become more common as social media has grown and is accompanied by negative mental health consequences. Research on cyberbullying and mental health in adolescents suggests cyberbullying victimization moderates the relationship between social comparison and social anxiety, but little is known about this phenomenon in college students. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the relationship between cyberbullying, social anxiety, and social comparison amongst college students. A convenience sample of 486 undergraduate students from southern Texas and northern Ohio completed a PyschData survey that assessed social anxiety, social comparison, experiences with be a cyberbullying victim, perpetrator, or both. We found that social anxiety was associated with cyberbullying victimization and perpetration; however, social comparison was not. Cyberbullying victimization was not a moderator between social comparison and anxiety, suggesting that unlike adolescence, college students\u27 experiences with these constructs may be unique to their developmental level

The Relationship Between Negative Expressivity, Anger, and PTSD Symptom Clusters

More investigation is needed to understand how specific posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters relate to the internal experience of anger and overt negative behaviors in response to anger (negative expressivity). We investigated whether anger mediated relations between PTSD symptom clusters and negative expressivity. Multiple regression revealed lower PTSD intrusion symptoms associated with higher levels of negative expressivity. Anger mediated this relationship. Higher avoidance symptoms related to higher negative expressivity. Clinical implications, limitations, and strengths are discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Perceived Burdensomeness and Thwarted Belongingness Influence the Childhood Polyvictimization and Suicide Ideation Association among Hispanic Undergraduates

The present study examined the mediating effect of perceived burdensomeness (PB) and thwarted belongingness (TB) in the association between childhood polyvictimization and suicide ideation (past week) among 528 Hispanic college students. Nearly 10% reported polyvictimization, 19.8% had suicide ideation, and polyvictimization was a risk factor of suicide ideation through PB and TB. The indirect effect through PB was stronger than the indirect effect through TB. Interventions should focus on PB and TB to alleviate suicide ideation among Hispanic undergraduate students

Latent Classes of Childhood Poly-victimization and Associations with Suicidal Behavior among Adult Trauma Victims: Moderating Role of Anger

The aims of the present study were first to identify discrete patterns of childhood victimization experiences including crime, child maltreatment, peer/sibling victimization, sexual violence, and witnessing violence among adult trauma victims using latent class analysis; second, to examine the association between class-membership and suicidal behavior, and third to investigate the differential role of dispositional anger on the association between class-membership and suicidal behavior. We hypothesized that those classes with accumulating exposure to different types of childhood victimization (e.g., poly-victimization) would endorse higher suicidal behavior, than the other less severe classes, and those in the most severe class with higher anger trait would have stronger association with suicidal behavior. Respondents were 346 adults (N = 346; Mage = 35.0 years; 55.9% female) who had experienced a lifetime traumatic event. Sixty four percent had experienced poly-victimization (four or more victimization experiences) and 38.8% met the cut-off score for suicidal behavior. Three distinct classes emerged namely, the Least victimization (Class 1), the Predominantly crime and sibling/peer victimization (Class 2), and the Poly-victimization (Class 3) classes. Regression analysis controlling for age and gender indicated that only the main effect of anger was significantly associated with suicidal behavior. The interaction term suggested that those in the Poly-victimization class were higher on suicidal behavior as a result of a stronger association between anger and suicidal behavior in contrast to the association found in Class 2. Clinical implications of findings entail imparting anger management skills to facilitate wellbeing among adult with childhood poly-victimization experiences

Characterizing underlying cognitive components of ADHD presentations and co-morbid diagnoses – A diffusion decision model analysis

Objective. To Explore whether subtypes and comorbidities of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) induce distinct biases in cognitive components involved in information processing. Method. Performance on the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA-CPT) was compared between 150 children (aged 7-10 years) with ADHD, grouped by DSM-5 presentation (ADHD-C, ADHD-I) or co-morbid diagnoses (anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder [ODD], both, neither), and 60 children without ADHD. Diffusion decision modeling decomposed performance into cognitive components. Results. Children with ADHD had poorer information integration than controls. Children with ADHD-C were more sensitive to changes in presentation modality (auditory/visual) than those with ADHD-I and controls. Above and beyond these results, children with ADHD+anxiety+ODD had larger increases in response biases when targets became frequent than children with ADHD-only or one comorbidity. Conclusion. ADHD presentations and comorbidities have distinct cognitive characteristics quantifiable using DDM and IVA-CPT. We discuss implications for tailored cognitive-behavioral therapy

The unique relationship between childhood sexual abuse, self-injury and suicide ideation: The mediating role of emotion dysregulation

Child sexual abuse (CSA) has serious short-term and long-term effects, including non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal ideation (SI). One possible thread linking CSA to NSSI and suicide risk is emotion dysregulation. The current study assessed whether facets of emotion dysregulation mediated relations of NSSI behaviours and functions, and SI. Participants (N = 121; Mean age = 18.69, age-range 18–22; 78 per cent female), college students with a history of childhood trauma, completed an online survey. Results indicated that facets of emotion dysregulation (i.e. clarity, non-acceptance) mediated the relationship between CSA and SI. CSA was associated with automatic negative reinforcement, social negative and social positive reinforcement NSSI functions, but was not associated with NSSI behaviours. Emotion dysregulation facets did not mediate the relationship between CSA and NSSI functions. Findings highlight the need to help CSA survivors have clarity and acceptance of emotional experiences to reduce SI risk

Family Cohesion Moderates the Relationship between Acculturative Stress and Depression in Japanese Adolescent Temporary Residents

Acculturative stress is a risk factor for depression, and may be important in the risk for depression among acculturating Japanese adolescents. However, little to no research has been published on the mental health of acculturating Japanese adolescents. Further, although family cohesion has been shown to be protective against depression across ethnic groups, no prior research has examined family cohesion as a protective factor for Japanese adolescents. To examine these relationships, 26 Japanese temporary resident adolescents and 76 parents in the Midwest were recruited to participate. Moderate to strong correlations between acculturative stress, depression, likelihood for and seriousness of family conflict were found. A regression analysis found that likelihood for family conflict moderated the relationship between acculturative stress and depression. Findings broaden our understanding of the role of acculturative stress and family conflict on depression risk for Japanese adolescent immigrants

Coping competence and hopelessness moderate the influence of perceived burdensomeness on suicidal ideation in undergraduate college students

According to the interpersonal theory of suicide, the perception of imposing a burden on loved ones increases the risk for suicidal ideation. Little research, however, has examined the interaction of burdensomeness with cognitive variables in predicting suicidal ideation in college students even though the relationship between burdensomeness and ideation may be contingent on levels of cognitive risk factors. The present study thus examined the relationships between burdensomeness, hopelessness, coping competence, and suicidal ideation. Questionnaires were administered to 279 undergraduate students from a university in the Midwest United States. After controlling for depression, hopelessness, and coping competence, burdensomeness significantly predicted ideation and accounted for variance above and beyond the control variables. Moreover, the relationship between burdensomeness and suicidal ideation was significantly moderated by coping competence and hopelessness. The findings suggest that perceived burdensomeness plays a critical role in the risk for suicide in college students. More specifically, the findings suggest that coping competence and hopelessness can be ideal targets for interventions as changes in these variables may attenuate the association between perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation