Working memory and emotional interpretation bias in a sample of Syrian refugee adolescents.

The number of adolescent refugees around the world has been continuously increasing over the past few years trying to escape war and terror, among other things. Such experience not only increases the risk for mental health problems including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but also may have implications for socio-cognitive development. This study tested cognitive-affective processing in refugee adolescents who had escaped armed conflict in Syria and now resided in Istanbul, Turkey. Adolescents were split into a high trauma (n = 31, 12 girls, mean age = 11.70 years, SD = 1.15 years) and low trauma (n = 27, 14 girls, mean age = 11.07 years, SD = 1.39 years) symptom group using median split, and performed a working memory task with emotional distraction to assess cognitive control and a surprise faces task to assess emotional interpretation bias. The results indicated that high (vs. low) trauma symptom youth were ~ 20% worse correctly remembering the spatial location of a cue, although both groups performed at very low levels. However, this finding was not modulated by emotion. In addition, although all youths also had a ~ 20% bias toward interpreting ambiguous (surprise) faces as more negative, the high (vs. low) symptom youth were faster when allocating such a face to the positive (vs. negative) emotion category. The findings suggest the impact of war-related trauma on cognitive-affective processes essential to healthy development.

A Spanish adaptation of the mindfulness in parenting questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The Mindfulness in Parenting Questionnaire (MIPQ) is a self-report instrument to measure how much parents practice mindful parenting. The main aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the MIPQ. METHOD: A total of 271 parents of adolescents completed the MIPQ along with questionnaires about their mindfulness trait, parenting style, and their children's resilience and symptoms of depression. Their adolescent children completed questionnaires about their own depressive symptoms, their perception of their parents' parenting style, and their perceived stress. RESULTS: Factor analyses suggested a two-factor structure corresponding to Being in the Moment with the Child and Mindful Discipline. Moreover, the MIPQ showed good internal consistency and was related to parent's dispositional mindfulness and positive parenting as well as to adolescents' resilience and (negatively) to their depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: The Spanish version of the MIPQ exhibits good psychometric properties and is an easily applicable test for the assessment of mindful parenting.