Natural Spaces, Affect, and ADHD Symptoms – Within-Person Associations in Children’s Daily Life

Spending time in nature can have a positive impact on physical and mental health. With regard to the latter, restorative experiences in nature can for example consist of the enhancement of positive affect, as one aspect of emotional well-being, and the reduction of inattention, as one symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) are dimensionally spread between children and might fluctuate within each child. Importantly, while between-person comparisons suggest that ADHD symptoms are related to the experience of negative affect as well as to increased affect fluctuations, there is not much research investigating the co-variation of ADHD symptoms and affect occurring within a child and in the context of daily life. Assessing daily-life experiences can be implemented by using the methodological approach of ambulatory assessment. This approach enables a researcher to gain insights into the fluctuations of a child’s emotions and cognitions, such as affect and inattention, over a certain period of time and in the context of his or her daily life, such as natural spaces. Since more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, the association between the context of nature in children’s daily life and children’s affect or the ADHD symptom inattention seems to be of great relevance for daily-life research. Overall, the present dissertation focuses on two main research goals which are investigated in three empirical research foci. The first research goal is the investigation of fluctuations of affect and ADHD symptoms and how they are related over time in children’s daily life (Research Focus 1). Second, the restorative effect of children’s daily experiences of natural spaces on affect and on inattention, as an ADHD symptom, is examined (Research Focus 2). As an extension, this second overarching research goal is also reflected in the third empirical research focus. This empirical research focus is on the question of whether restorative experiences of natural spaces are moderated by a child’s overall association with nature (Research Focus 3). Thereby, the association with nature is operationalized as a child’s environmental attitude. Applying an ambulatory assessment design to these overarching research goals, the present dissertation extends former research in two ways. In the first place, the focus of the present research is on fluctuations of affect and ADHD symptoms that occur within individuals over short time periods in addition to the already well-investigated between-person differences. Also, an understanding of restorative experiences from natural spaces as they occur in children’s daily life enriches past research due to its focus on the context in real life instead of examining the effect of nature with experimental research designs. All Research Foci refer to the same study sample. Children (N = 55) of a community sample were asked about their affect and ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) three times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening) over the course of 18 consecutive study days. Moreover, the amount of time spent in natural spaces on a given day was assessed each evening. Background questionnaires from parents and children provided information about a child’s association with nature. Research Focus 1 aimed at the investigation of the within-person relationship – in addition to the already assumed between-person relationship – between negative affect (e.g., depressive) and ADHD symptoms. Focusing on the within-person relationship, it was hypothesized that on occasions when children experience a higher level of ADHD symptoms they also experience enhanced negative affect. In addition, the study examined whether children with increased ADHD symptoms report higher affect fluctuations, which can be regarded as an indicator for emotional impulsivity. The results from a multilevel model confirmed previous findings on the positive relationship between ADHD symptoms and negative affect on a between-person level. However, on a within-person level, negative affect and ADHD symptoms were not related. These findings indicate that children who in general experience more ADHD symptoms also show enhanced negative affect. However, on occasions when children reported a higher level of ADHD symptoms than usual, they did not report an increased negative affect. Moreover, the hypothesis that children with a higher trait level of ADHD symptoms experience more affect fluctuations could not be confirmed. Results are discussed with their implications for future research on intra-individual fluctuations and for practical work with children. Research Focus 2 is concerned with the restorative effect of the amount of time spent in natural spaces on affect and inattention as an ADHD symptom, thereby also focusing on within-person effects in addition to between-person effects. Multilevel models revealed a statistically significant between-person effect for affect, but not for inattention, which indicates that children who in general spent more time in natural spaces over the entire study period also reported enhanced positive affect, but not less inattention. Within-person effects for both outcome variables were not significant. However, significant random effects for both outcome variables indicate that children differ in their particular within-person relationship. Therefore, it was concluded that some children seemed to benefit from their time spent in natural spaces regarding their experience of affect and inattention whereas other children did not seem to benefit. The last research result led to the hypothesis that the assumed recovery after time spent in natural spaces could be moderated by a factor due to differences between the children that is described and analysed in Research Focus 3. The perceived association with nature (operationalized by the child’s environmental attitude) was assumed to moderate the within-person relationship between time spent in nature and positive effects for affective well-being and inattention in children. Correlational analyses revealed no significant results, indicating that children with a stronger environmental attitude do not benefit more from spending time in natural spaces than children with a weaker environmental attitude. Further individual characteristics that could account for the differential associations between time spent in nature and both affective well-being and inattention are discussed. Overall, the present dissertation shows that between-person effects do not necessarily transfer to within-person effects. This is important, particularly with regard to the history of psychological science, in which the focus often laid on differences that occur between people. Moreover, although most within-person effects were not statistically significant, the present dissertation enriches previous research by providing first insights into the within-person fluctuations of affect and ADHD symptoms (in particular, inattention) by using a comprehensive ambulatory assessment study with children. These results can inform further ambulatory assessment studies in children on feasibility, implementation, and sensitivity of assessments

Zooming into daily life : Within-person associations between physical activity and affect in young adults

Funding The first author was funded by the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network [GSC1028], a project of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. Acknowledgements We thank Laura Grube, Leona Hellwig, Parvin Nemati, and Sarah Schmid for their study assistance and all the individuals who participated and made this research feasible.Peer reviewedPostprin

Factor H family proteins in complement evasion of microorganisms

Human-pathogenic microbes possess various means to avoid destruction by our immune system. These include interactions with the host complement system that may facilitate pathogen entry into cells and tissues, expression of molecules that defuse the effector complement components and complexes, and acquisition of host complement inhibitors to downregulate complement activity on the surface of the pathogen. A growing number of pathogenic microorganisms have acquired the ability to bind the complement inhibitor factor H (FH) from body fluids and thus hijack its host protecting function. In addition to FH, binding of FH-related (FHR) proteins was also demonstrated for several microbes. Initial studies assumed that these proteins are complement inhibitors similar to FH. However, recent evidence suggests that FHR proteins may rather enhance complement activation both directly and also by competing with the inhibitor FH for binding to certain ligands and surfaces. This mini review focuses on the role of the main alternative pathway regulator FH in host-pathogen interactions, as well as on the emerging role of the FHR proteins as enhancers of complement activation

Rock Climbing and Acute Emotion Regulation in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder in the Context of a Psychological Inpatient Treatment: A Controlled Pilot Trial

Background: Major depressive disorder is characterized by deficits in emotion regulation. This study examined associations between rock climbing and acute emotion regulating effects in patients with major depression. Patients and methods: In a nonrandomized, controlled study, 40 major depressive disorder inpatients were assigned to either a climbing session (n=20) or a relaxation session (n=20). Positive and negative affect, depressiveness, and coping emotions were assessed immediately before and after the session. Results: Mixed analyses of variance and covariance revealed significant time × group interaction effects for all assessed outcomes (p≤0.012): positive affect and coping emotions significantly increased and negative affect and depressiveness significantly decreased after the climbing session (1.04≤ Cohen’s d ≤1.30), in contrast to a relaxation session (0.16≤ Cohen’s d ≤0.36). Conclusion: The results show that rock climbing is associated with acute emotion regulatory effects. These findings have to be replicated with a randomized design, and future research should pay attention to possible mechanisms of rock climbing in regard to emotion regulation

Neurophysiological markers of ADHD symptoms in typically-developing children

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Neurophysiological correlates of ADHD include changes in the P3 component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Motivated by recent advances towards a more dimensional understanding of ADHD, we investigate whether ADHD-related ERP markers relate to continuous variations in attention and executive functioning also in typically-developing children. ERPs were measured while 31 school children (9–11 years) completed an adapted version of the Continuous Performance Task that additionally to inhibitory processes also isolates effects of physical stimulus salience. Children with higher levels of parent-reported ADHD symptoms did not differ in task performance, but exhibited smaller P3 amplitudes related to stimulus salience. Furthermore, ADHD symptoms were associated with the variability of neural responses over time: Children with higher levels of ADHD symptoms demonstrated lower variability in inhibition- and salience-related P3 amplitudes. No effects were observed for ERP latencies and the salience-related N2. By demonstrating that ADHD-associated neurophysiological mechanisms of inhibition and salience processing covary with attention and executive functioning in a children community sample, our study provides neurophysiological support for dimensional models of ADHD. Also, temporal variability in event-related potentials is highlighted as additional indicator of ADHD requiring further investigation