Mental Health among Former Child Soldiers and Never-Abducted Children in Northern Uganda

The present study aimed to evaluate posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems in former Ugandan child soldiers in comparison with civilian children living in the same conflict setting. Participants included 133 former child soldiers and 101 never-abducted children in northern Uganda, who were interviewed about exposure to traumatic war-related experiences, posttraumatic stress symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems. Results indicated that former child soldiers had experienced significantly more war-related traumatic events than nonabducted children, with 39.3% of girls having been forced to engage in sexual contact. Total scores on measures of PTSD symptoms, psychological distress, and emotional and behavioral problems were significantly higher among child soldiers compared to their never-abducted peers. Girls reported significantly more emotional and behavioral difficulties than boys. In never-abducted children, more mental health problems were associated with experiencing physical harm, witnessing the killings of other people, and being forced to engage in sexual contact

Student-teacher socioemotional interactions, student’s focus of attention and emotional arousal in environmentally sensitive students

Literature has shown how student-teacher interaction influence children’s wellbeing and learning. Such interactions may also capture bystanders’ attention causing emotional arousal and taking away the focus of attention form the assigned task. The present study assessed the relation between student-teacher socioemotional interactions, student’s focus of attention and emotional arousal also accounting for environmental sensitivity. Through an eye tracker apparatus, we registered 95 primary school children’s pupil diameters while watching a student-teacher interaction scene. Sympathetic response and focus of attention were registered while different interaction scenes took place. Children self-reported on environmental sensitivity and perceived classroom climate. A mixed effects regression model for second pass pupil dilatation showed that attention was captured by different scenes based on their previous classroom experiences. The sympathetic response-attention link was moderated by environmental sensitivity. More sensitive children were more emotionally aroused when looking at the teacher scolding a sad child or a kind teacher having a child respond to her aggressively. Incongruent socio-emotional exchanges caused grater arousal in highly sensitive children compared to low sensitive ones. Based on the finding we planned an intervention to promote emotionally positive and in-tune teacher-student interactions to avoid students’ distraction and sympathetic arousal, especially in more environmentally sensitive students

The Role of Inhibition in Conceptual Learning from Refutation and Standard Expository Texts

conceptual change, expository text, inhibition, refutation text, science learning

Webpage reading: Psychophysiological correlates of emotional arousal and regulation predict multiple-text comprehension

This study aimed to investigate psychophysiological responses while reading multiple webpages on a debated topic. We measured heart rate (HR) as an index of emotional arousal and heart rate variability (HRV) as an index of emotional regulation. Forty-seven lower secondary school students in grade 7 read four webpages varying for reliability and position on the topic of the potential health risks associated with the use of mobile phones, while their cardiac activity was registered. Post-reading performance of multiple-text comprehension at intertextual level was measured by an essay, which was coded for sourcing (reference to the source information and connection with its content) and argumentation on the topic. Results showed that the type of webpage did not differentiate HR and HRV while reading. However, HR and HRV predicted comprehension across texts as reflected in argumentation, after controlling for prior knowledge and reading comprehension. Specifically, HR was a negative predictor and HRV a positive predictor; the less the students were emotionally reactive to the content read and the more they were able to self-regulate while reading, the greater their multiple-text comprehension, such as the ability to argue about the debated topic. Theoretical and practical contributions of the study are discussed

Emotional intelligence buffers the effect of physiological arousal on dishonesty

We studied the emotional processes that allow people to balance two competing desires: benefitting from dishonesty and keeping a positive self-image. We recorded physiological arousal (skin conductance and heart rate) during a computer card game in which participants could cheat and fail to report a certain card when presented on the screen to avoid losing their money. We found that higher skin conductance corresponded to lower cheating rates. Importantly, emotional intelligence regulated this effect; participants with high emotional intelligence were less affected by their physiological reactions than those with low emotional intelligence. As a result, they were more likely to profit from dishonesty. However, no interaction emerged between heart rate and emotional intelligence. We suggest that the ability to manage and control emotions can allow people to overcome the tension between doing right or wrong and license them to bend the rules

La valutazione dello stress e delle strategie di coping

Stress e coping sono due aspetti strettamente legati tra loro che entrano in gioco quando le richieste dell\u2019ambiente superano le capacit\ue0 adattive di un individuo provocando dei cambiamenti fisiologici e psicologici (stress) che richiedono la messa in atto di specifiche strategie, psicologiche e comportamentali, per farvi fronte (coping) (Lazarus, Folkman, 1984). Questi costrutti sono particolarmente importanti nel momento in cui il bambino si trova a dover affrontare una situazione di cambiamento potenzialmente traumatica, come quella legata al contesto medico-pediatrico. Lo stress pu\uf2 essere studiato secondo tre diverse prospettive: la prospettiva ambientale, che si focalizza solo sull\u2019esperienza oggettiva dello stress (scale di eventi di vita o dei piccoli stress quotidiani); la prospettiva psicologica, che unisce l\u2019evento stressante alla percezione dell\u2019impatto di questo (osservazione diretta dei comportamenti di attivazione del bambino e scale self-report di valutazione degli stati emotivi negativi); infine, la prospettiva biologica, che si focalizza sull\u2019attivazione delle riposte fisiologiche (misurazione del cortisolo salivare e del tono vagale). Le strategie di coping al dolore sono quelle risposte comportamentali e cognitive che vengono messe in atto dagli individui per far fronte a episodi che causano dolore. La ricerca in questo campo non \ue8 caratterizzata da un\u2019omogeneit\ue0 di teorizzazioni e quindi esistono diversi strumenti per l'assessment delle strategie di coping anche in campo pediatrico. Si possono per\uf2 anche individuare delle similitudini nei differenti metodi disponibili per la misurazione del coping: sono tutti inventari self-report da somministrare al bambino o al suo genitore e quello che cambia \ue8 il tipo e il numero di strategie. Il capitolo di conclude sottolineando l\u2019importanza della valutazione degli interconnessi costrutti di stress e coping in ambito pediatrico, dato che l\u2019efficacia di specifiche strategie di coping influenza il successivo adattamento del bambino a situazioni stressanti come quella del dolore fisico e dell\u2019ospedalizzazione. La comprensione della relazione dinamica tra stress, coping e le variabili psico-sociali pu\uf2 guidare i clinici nello sviluppo di interventi efficaci e funzionali