Revisiting a taxonomy of social anxiety and assertiveness in adolescence: evidence for a cognitive approach

This research explored a taxonomy combining social anxiety and assertiveness and further applied a cognitive approach for predicting those constructs in adolescents. Participants were 679 adolescents (mean age = 16.68; 61.3% female) who self-reported on interpersonal assertive schemas, negative automatic social thoughts, social anxiety, and assertive behavior. Social anxiety and assertive behavior were grouping variables in a cluster analysis, resulting in three groups: assertive, indifferent, and socially anxious adolescents. The moderator role of the groups was then studied within a structural equation model proposing both social anxiety and assertive behavior to be predicted by cognitive schemas and automatic thoughts. This model fitted all three groups, portraying assertive behavior as directly predicted by cognitive structures whereas social anxiety was directly dependent on automatic thoughts. Assertive deficit and social anxiety seem to co-occur and fit within a theoretical and practical cognitive approach, demanding careful consideration of specific symptomology in adolescent social anxiety. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved

A Social Anxiety Mobile-Based CBT Intervention for College Students and Therapists: Theoretical Framework

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating disorder marked by an intense anxiety and fear of negative evaluation in social situations. It has a significant negative impact on college students and college counselling services, which are usually responsible for helping students with mental health problems on campus, face an increasing demand, few resources and thus are often overloaded. Mobile interventions (mhealth) are becoming a very promising solution to face these challenges, facilitating access to mental health interventions. Our study aims to explore college students’ mobile app use and preferences and expose the development process of a mobile app to support face-to-face intervention for SAD. An initial study included 296 college students, from which we identified 11.3% students with SAD (G1); 78.1% students without SAD (G2) and 8.8% students attending therapy (G3). A brief questionnaire explored app use and preferences. To evaluate SAD symptomatology we used the social interaction and performance anxiety and avoidance scale (SIPPAS) and the Sheehan disability scale (SDS). Based on this study and mhealth literature we exposed the developing process of a mobile app for social anxiety. Our results indicate that students are frequent users of mobile apps and tend to consider more important app content, utility and security/privacy, particularly students with SAD, give more emphasis on security/privacy features. Also, all students with SAD attending therapy considered that it would be relevant and that they would adhere to a mobile app to support treatment. Thus, a mobile app for students with SAD under treatment was developed to assist students with homework assignments between sessions. In general, mHealth interventions are well received among students in therapy, however it is important to continue to develop and conceptualize these interventions according to their specific needs and characteristics

Promoting a compassionate motivation in detained youth: A secondary analysis of a controlled trial with the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program

This study aims to assess the efficacy of the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP in promoting a compassionate motivation among male detained youth, also testing its role as a potential mechanism of change on the reduction of psychopathic traits. A treatment group (n = 58) and a control group (n = 61) answered a set of self-report measures on psychopathic traits, shame, fears of compassion, social safeness, self-compassion, and compassion for others at three timepoints: baseline, posttreatment, and 6 months’ follow-up. Treatment participants attended the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP. Controls received the treatment as usual delivered at juvenile detention facilities. The treatment effects were tested with latent growth curve models. At baseline, no significant differences between groups were found. Results from latent growth curve models showed that condition was a significant predictor of change over time observed in all outcome measures, even after controlling for psychopathic traits scores. When compared with the control group, the treatment group showed a significant decrease on shame and fears of compassion and a significant increase on social safeness, self-compassion, and compassion for others over time (medium-to-large effect sizes; growth modeling analysis d ranging from .57 to .96). It was also observed that increases in self-compassion and, in some cases, decreases in fears of receiving compassion, were crucial to the decrease of psychopathic traits. These findings suggest that the PSYCHOPATHY.COMP is a promising approach to promote a compassionate motivation in these youth, strengthening their rehabilitation odds. Increasing self-compassion and decreasing fears of receiving compassion should be considered when designing intervention programs for detained youth.

ERP correlates of error processing during performance on the HalsteadCategory Test

The Halstead Category Test (HCT) is a neuropsychological test that measures a person's ability to formulate and apply abstract principles. Performance must be adjusted based on feedback after each trial and errors are common until the underlying rules are discovered. Event-related potential (ERP) studies associated with the HCT are lacking. This paper demonstrates the use of amethodology inspired on Singular SpectrumAnalysis (SSA) applied to EEG signals, to remove high amplitude ocular andmovement artifacts during performance on the test. This filtering technique introduces no phase or latency distortions, with minimum loss of relevant EEG information. Importantly, the test was applied in its original clinical format, without introducing adaptations to ERP recordings. After signal treatment, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) wave, which is related to error-processing, was identified. This component peaked around 250ms, after feedback, in fronto-central electrodes. As expected, errors elicited more negative amplitudes than correct responses. Results are discussed in terms of the increased clinical potential that coupling ERP informationwith behavioral performance data can bring to the specificity of theHCT in diagnosing different types of impairment in frontal brain function.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Soft Skills Inventory: Developmental procedures and psychometric analysis

When attending and participating in Higher Education, students face a multitude of personal, social, and work-related challenges, which may increase the risk of developing psychopathological symptomatology. To date, there is no instrument that grasps the non-technical skills that may help prepare students to respond to these challenges. This paper presents the development and psychometric properties of the Soft Skills Inventory (SSI). The inventory was developed based on theoretical and empirical findings on the skills associated with academic and professional success, and on students’ perception. The SSI was tested with 2030 Portuguese students (of which 77.1% were female) using a two-stage approach: item calibration and model generation (n = 1033), followed by model validation (n = 997). Item calibration analyses led to retaining 49 items that were organized into six-factors: self-determination, resilience, empathy, assertiveness, social support, and teamwork. This measurement model was further validated and proved to be an invariant, and thus credible, tool to compare male and female students on those relevant skills. All measures attained good internal consistency, with alphas ranging from .76 to .88. Female students scored significantly higher than males on self-determination, empathy, social support and teamwork. On the other hand, male students scored significantly higher on resilience. No significant differences were found between men and women for assertiveness. Psychometric analysis showed that the SSI is a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate students intra and interpersonal skills. The SSI may help identify gaps in soft skills and guide targeted interventions to support a more positive student experience in Higher Education

A Social Anxiety Mobile Intervention for College Students Attending Therapy: A Usability and Acceptability Study

Social anxiety is significantly prevalent among college students and frequently leads to school dropout and academic underachievement. Since university counseling services are often overburdened, a mobile-based cognitive behavioral intervention was designed to support students attending therapy for social anxiety and therapists. Our main goals are to evaluate usability and acceptability of this technological system developed by a multidisciplinary team. Twenty students and three therapists participated in the usability studies. To evaluate usability we utilized a thinking aloud and question asking protocol, and the system usability scale (SUS) to assess usability and satisfaction. SPICA app demonstrated usability scores above average and the large majority of students agreed that the app was easy to use and that they would use it frequently. As for the therapist platform (database) preliminary results indicated that the database is useful but some alterations are still necessary. SPICA app demonstrated usability and acceptability among college students. A more rigorous study is needed to assess the therapist platform but preliminary results demonstrate acceptability