Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with child-parent neural synchrony during competition.

Interpersonal neural synchrony (INS) occurs when neural electrical activity temporally aligns between individuals during social interactions. It has been used as a metric for interpersonal closeness, often during naturalistic child-parent interactions. This study evaluated whether other biological correlates of social processing predicted the prevalence of INS during child-parent interactions, and whether their observed cooperativity modulated this association. Child-parent dyads (n = 27) performed a visuospatial tower-building task in cooperative and competitive conditions. Neural activity was recorded using mobile electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets, and experimenters coded video-recordings post-hoc for behavioral attunement. DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTRm) was measured, an epigenetic modification associated with reduced oxytocin activity and socioemotional functioning. Greater INS during competition was associated with lower child OXTRm, while greater behavioral attunement during competition and cooperation was associated with higher parent OXTRm. These differential relationships suggest that interpersonal dynamics as measured by INS may be similarly reflected by other biological markers of social functioning, irrespective of observed behavior. Children's self-perceived communication skill also showed opposite associations with parent and child OXTRm, suggesting complex relationships between children's and their parents' social functioning. Our findings have implications for ongoing developmental research, supporting the utility of biological metrics in characterizing interpersonal relationships.

Defining early education quality using CLASS-observed teacher-student interaction.

In this paper we argue that the quality of early education programs or classrooms can be defined in terms of features of teachers' interactions with students observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, or CLASS. We present evidence suggesting that dimensions of teacher-student interactions can be described, observed, and measured consistently across cultures and countries and that such dimensions also have modestly positive influence student development and learning. Evidence is summarized indicating that interactions can also be improved systematically through professional development interventions. The paper relies on a framework that describes core features of effective teacher-student interactions present across countries' highly varied settings and cultural contexts. Limitations of the study include exclusive reliance on the CLASS and that most countries were not low or middle income. We discuss the cross-cultural applicability of the framework and outline suggestions for education policy and practice and future directions for research.

Integrating Research-Supported Coaching Practices Into Secondary Teachers' Team Meetings: Early Indications of Potential to Impact Collaborations, Classroom Interactions, and Student Engagement.

The My Teaching Partner-Secondary (MTPS) program demonstrated improvements in classroom interactions and student outcomes in secondary schools using one-on-one coaching between study staff and teachers. Despite promising results, the time, cost, and oversight from a university research team may pose barriers to adoption of coaching programs like MTPS at scale. The My Teaching Team (MTT) project sought to translate key ingredients from MTPS into existing professional development contexts that are already built into many middle and high school educators' weekly schedules: co-planning or professional learning community meetings. Six teams of secondary teachers (N = 30 teachers) participated in a pilot test of the usability of MTT materials across 5 months in one school year. Three teams elected to use MTT materials, and three elected to be a comparison group who continued their typical practices. Teams adopting MTT materials were observed to do so with good implementation integrity, and reported satisfaction with the intervention. Compared to typical practice teams, those using MTT were observed to spend more meeting time discussing teaching practice and less time discussing logistics/mechanics, and engaged in more video sharing and feedback to team members in the MTT sessions that explicitly encouraged this. The number of MTT meetings completed by a team, as well as spending more time discussing teaching practices and video sharing (but not feedback provided) during team meetings, predicted students' self-reports of greater engagement and observations of higher levels of emotional support provided in the classroom. Implications for translating empirically supported interventions from the lab to real-world school settings are discussed.

Beyond Classroom Academics: A School-Wide and Multi-Contextual Perspective on Student Engagement in School.

School engagement researchers have historically focused on academic engagement or academic-related activities. Although academic engagement is vital to adolescents' educational success, school is a complex developmental context in which adolescents also engage in social interactions while exploring their interests and developing competencies. In this article, school engagement is re-conceptualized as a multi-contextual construct that includes both academic and social contexts of school. The authors begin by describing how the characteristics of these contexts provide the opportunities and resources for adolescents to engage in academic learning and social interactions throughout school. Motivational theories are then used as an operational framework for understanding how adolescents become engaged in school, which is followed by a discussion about how adolescents' academic and social engagement interact to shape their academic achievement. The article concludes with implications for practice and future research.

Absenteeism in the First Decade of Education Forecasts Civic Engagement and Educational and Socioeconomic Prospects in Young Adulthood.

Much has been established about the short-term consequences of missing school, yet little is known about the longer-term outcomes of absenteeism. To address this gap in knowledge, the current study considered the consequences of school absenteeism between kindergarten and eighth grade for the behavioral, economic, and educational outcomes of young adults. Participants were drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (age 22-23; 54% female and 86% White, n = 648). The findings indicated that individuals who were more regularly absent from school were not more frequently engaged in risky, deviant, or criminal behaviors in young adulthood. However, those who were more regularly absent described being less likely to be politically engaged, reported themselves as experiencing greater economic difficulties, with less optimal educational outcomes, and as marginally more likely to have a child. The outcomes of absenteeism were largely cumulative and there was little evidence to suggest that the outcomes of absenteeism varied across urban and rural communities or as a function of socioeconomic status. Taken together, this study provides new insight into the long-term consequences of missing school and points to the importance of addressing absenteeism in the first ten years of students' educational careers.

Classroom Quality and Adolescent Student Engagement and Performance in Mathematics: A Multi-Method and Multi-Informant Approach.

Mathematics learning, engagement, and performance are facilitated by quality interactions within the classroom environment. Researchers studying high-quality interactions in mathematics classrooms must consider adopting multiple methods of data collection so as to capture classroom quality from all perspectives. As such, this longitudinal study examined student, teacher, and observer perspectives of interaction quality in mathematics classrooms and their predictive associations with mathematics outcomes. Data were collected during the fall and spring semesters of the 2015-2016 school year from 1501 students in 150 mathematics classes (n = 499 fifth graders, 523 seventh graders, 479 ninth graders; 51% female; 51% European American, 30% African American, and 19% other ethnic background; 52% qualifying for free/reduced price lunch). Observer and aggregated student reports of interaction quality at the classroom level were moderately correlated with one another, and these reports predicted student mathematics engagement and performance. Individual student reports of interaction quality also predicted math engagement and performance; yet, teacher reports of interaction quality did not align with student or observer perspectives. Furthermore, teacher reports did not predict student mathematics outcomes. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Parental involvement and African American and European American adolescents' academic, behavioral, and emotional development in secondary school.

This study examined longitudinal trajectories of parental involvement across middle and high school, and how these trajectories related to adolescents' academic, behavioral, and emotional adjustment. In addition, ethnic and socioeconomic status differences in longitudinal associations and the potential moderating role of parental warmth were assessed. Longitudinal growth modeling technique was used to describe trajectories of different types of parental involvement and adolescent outcomes over 7th, 9th, and 11th grades (mean ages = 12.9, 14.3, and 17.2 years, respectively) on an ethnically and economically diverse sample of 1,400 adolescents (51% female, 56% African American, 39% European American, 5% others). Each aspect of parental involvement contributed differentially but significantly to adolescent outcomes. Finally, parental warmth moderated the associations between providing structure at home and adolescent grade point average and problem behavior.

Thinking about a close relationship differentially impacts cardiovascular stress responses among depressed and nondepressed women.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with depression and low social support are at elevated risk for developing cardiovascular disease--presumptively through mechanisms involving dysregulated stress physiology. While depressed individuals often report diminished social support and elevated levels of social distress, few studies have examined how social factors impact stress-related cardiovascular activity in depressed samples. Accordingly, we evaluated the social modulation of stress-related cardiovascular activity in a sample of 38 medically healthy, unmedicated depressed and nondepressed individuals. METHODS: Cardiovascular and psychological measures were obtained before and after depressed and nondepressed women engaged in a speech stress task. To evaluate the impact of social factors on stress responses, half of the women completed the speech stress task first, while the other half completed the speech stress after engaging in a relationship-focused imagery task. RESULTS: Nondepressed women who first thought about a close relationship displayed global attenuations in blood pressure throughout the subsequent stress task, consistent with a stress-buffering effect of perceived social support. Conversely, depressed women who first thought about a close relationship displayed global elevations in blood pressure throughout the subsequent stress task, consistent with a stress-enhancing effect of perceived social distress in depressed women. CONCLUSION: Thinking about a close relationship differentially impacted subsequent cardiovascular activity during an evocative stressor in depressed and nondepressed women. Understanding the social context in which stress is experienced may aid in identifying, and ultimately attenuating, cardiovascular risks observed among patients with major depressive disorder.

Cardiac vagal control in nonmedicated depressed women and nondepressed controls: impact of depression status, lifetime trauma history, and respiratory factors.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of acute stress and relationship-focused imagery on cardiac vagal control, as indicated by levels of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), in depressed and nondepressed women. Impairment in cardiac parasympathetic (vagal) control may confer risk for cardiac mortality in depressed populations. METHODS: Electrocardiogram and respiratory rate were evaluated in 15 nonmedicated depressed women and 15 matched controls during two laboratory conditions: 1) a relationship-focused imagery designed to elicit vagal activation; and 2) a speech stressor designed to evoke vagal withdrawal. RESULTS: As expected, the relationship-focused imagery increased RSA (F(3,66) = 3.79, p = .02) and the speech stressor decreased RSA (F(3,66) = 4.36, p = .02) across women. Depressed women exhibited lower RSA during the relationship-focused imagery, and this effect remained after control for respiratory rate and trauma history (F(1,21) = 5.65, p = .027). Depressed women with a trauma history exhibited the lowest RSA during the stress condition (F(1,22) = 9.61, p = .05). However, after controlling for respiratory rate, Trauma History × Task Order (p = .02) but not Trauma History × Depression Group (p = .12) accounted for RSA variation during the stress condition. CONCLUSION: Depression in women is associated with lower RSA, particularly when women reflect on a close love relationship, a context expected to elicit vagal activation and hence increase RSA. In contrast, depression-related variation in stressor-evoked vagal activity seems to covary with women's trauma history. Associations between vagal activity and depression are complex and should be considered in view of the experimental conditions under which vagal control is assessed, as well as physiological and behavioral factors that may affect vagal function.

Describing depression: congruence between patient experiences and clinical assessments.

OBJECTIVES: Efforts to describe depression have relied on top-down methods in which theory and clinical experience define depression but may not reflect the individuals' experiences with depression. We assessed the degree of overlap between academic descriptions of depression and patient-reported symptoms as conceptualized in the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System(®) (PROMIS(®)). By extension, this work assesses the degree of overlap between current clinical descriptions of depression and patient-reported symptoms. DESIGN: In this content analysis study, four focus groups were conducted across two sites to elicit symptoms and the experience of depression from depressed and medically ill patients. METHODS: Depressed and medically ill patients were asked to describe symptoms that characterize depression. Data were transcribed and then coded using an a priori list of 43 facets of depression derived from extant depression measures. RESULTS: Participants described 93% of the symptoms from the a priori list, supporting the validity of current depression measures. Interpersonal difficulties were underscored as was anger. In general, results from the focus groups did not require the generation of new items for depression and supported the content validity of the PROMIS hierarchical framework and item pool created originally. CONCLUSIONS: This work supports the validity of current depression assessment, but suggests further investigation of interpersonal functioning and anger may add to the depth and breadth of depression assessment.

Emotional and cardiovascular reactivity to a child-focused interpersonal stressor among depressed mothers of psychiatrically ill children.

BACKGROUND: Impairment in maternal interpersonal function represents a risk factor for poor psychiatric outcomes among children of depressed mothers. However, the mechanisms by which this effect occurs have yet to be fully elucidated. Elevated levels of emotional or physiological reactivity to interpersonal stress may impact depressed mothers' ability to effectively negotiate child-focused conflicts. This effect may become particularly pronounced when depressed mothers are parenting a psychiatrically ill child. METHODS: The current feasibility study evaluated mothers' emotional and cardiovascular reactivity in response to an acute, child-focused stress task. Twenty-two depressed mothers of psychiatrically ill children were recruited from a larger clinical trial; half were randomly assigned to receive an adapted form of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-MOMS), while the other half received treatment as usual (TAU). For comparison purposes, a matched sample of 22 nondepressed mothers of psychiatrically healthy children was also evaluated. RESULTS: Depressed mothers receiving minimal-treatment TAU displayed the greatest increases in depressed mood, heart rate, and diastolic blood pressure in response to the child-focused stress task, and significantly differed from the relatively low levels of reactivity observed among nondepressed mothers of healthy children. In contrast, depressed mothers receiving IPT-MOMS displayed patterns of reactivity that fell between these extreme groups. Maternal stress reactivity was associated not only with maternal psychiatric symptoms, but also with levels of chronic parental stress and maternal history of childhood emotional abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Future, more definitive research is needed to evaluate depressed mothers' interpersonal stress reactivity, its amenability to treatment, and its long-term impact on child psychiatric outcomes.

Photosensitivity in panic disorder.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study is to evaluate abnormal light-related behavior in patients with panic disorder (PD). METHODS: We administered the Photosensitivity Assessment Questionnaire to 30 subjects with PD and to 40 healthy subjects. The Photosensitivity Assessment Questionnaire is a self-report questionnaire that evaluates two dimensions of photosensitivity: photophilia and photophobia. RESULTS: Compared to healthy controls, PD subjects reported significantly higher scores on the photophobia (P<.003) and significantly lower scores on the photophilia (P<.001) questions. CONCLUSIONS: Subjects with PD indicated that they tolerate and seek light to a significantly lower degree than normal controls.

Evidence of dysregulated peripheral oxytocin release among depressed women.

OBJECTIVE: Oxytocin is a hypothalamic neuropeptide that plays a key role in mammalian female reproductive function. Animal research indicates that central oxytocin facilitates adaptive social attachments and modulates stress and anxiety responses. Major depression is prevalent among postpubertal females, and is associated with perturbations in social attachments, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress axis, and elevated levels of anxiety. Thus, depressed women may be at risk to display oxytocin dysregulation. The current study was developed to compare patterns of peripheral oxytocin release exhibited by depressed and nondepressed women. METHODS: Currently depressed (N = 17) and never-depressed (N = 17) women participated in a laboratory protocol designed to stimulate, measure, and compare peripheral oxytocin release in response to two tasks: an affiliation-focused Guided Imagery task and a Speech Stress task. Intermittent blood samples were drawn over the course of two, 1-hour sessions including 20-minute baseline, 10-minute task, and 30-minute recovery periods. RESULTS: The 10-minute laboratory tasks did not induce identifiable, acute changes in peripheral oxytocin. However, as compared with nondepressed controls, depressed women displayed greater variability in pulsatile oxytocin release over the course of both 1-hour sessions, and greater oxytocin concentrations during the 1-hour affiliation-focused imagery session. Oxytocin concentrations obtained during the imagery session were also associated with greater symptoms of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: Depressed women are more likely than controls to display a dysregulated pattern of peripheral oxytocin release. Further research is warranted to elucidate the clinical significance of peripheral oxytocin release in both depressed and nondepressed women.

Infertility and psychiatric morbidity.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between psychiatric disorders and infertility. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Fertile and infertile volunteer couples in an academic research setting. PATIENT(S): Eighty-one infertile couples recruited from an infertility center before fertility treatment and 70 fertile controls recruited from an obstetrics and gynecology clinic. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The presence of Axis 1 psychiatric disorders. RESULT(S): The occurrence of current psychiatric disorders was significantly higher among infertile subjects than among fertile controls, especially for adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood (16% vs. 2%) and for binge eating disorder (8% vs. 0). CONCLUSION(S): Our data highlight that a percentage of infertile patients have already developed a psychiatric disorder at the time of their first contact with a specialized fertility service. Possible applications are discussed, including the recommendation that gynecologists screen for clinical or subclinical psychiatric disorders in infertility patients and offer treatment accordingly.