National-Level Schoolwork Pressure, Family Structure, Internet Use, and Obesity as Drivers of Time Trends in Adolescent Psychological Complaints Between 2002 and 2018.

Little is known about societal processes that contribute to changes in adolescent mental health problems. This study aims to fill this gap using data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study between 2002 and 2018 (ncountries = 43, nindividuals = 680,269, Mage = 14.52 (SD = 1.06), 51.04% female), supplemented with other international data. National-level psychological complaints increased more strongly among girls than boys. National-level schoolwork pressure, single-parent households, time spent on internet, and obesity were generally rising. In both boys' and girls' samples, increases in national-level schoolwork pressure, obesity, and time spent on internet use were independently associated with increases national-level psychological complaints. However, national-level obesity and psychological complaints were more strongly related among girls than boys. Results highlight the potential impact of societal-level processes on adolescent mental health problems.

Changes in women's assertiveness in response to status and roles: a cross-temporal meta-analysis, 1931-1993.

Across two meta-analyses, American women's assertiveness rose and fell with their social status from 1931 to 1993. College women and high school girls' self-reports on assertiveness and dominance scales increased from 1931 to 1945, decreased from 1946 to 1967, and increased from 1968 to 1993, explaining about 14% of the variance in the trait. Women's scores have increased enough that many recent samples show no sex differences in assertiveness. Correlations with social indicators (e.g., women's educational attainment, women's median age at first marriage) confirm that women's assertiveness varies with their status and roles. Social change is thus internalized in the form of a personality trait. Men's scores do not demonstrate a significant birth cohort effect overall. The results suggest that the changing sociocultural environment for women affected their personalities, most likely beginning in childhood.

If you can't join them, beat them: effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior.

Social exclusion was manipulated by telling people that they would end up alone later in life or that other participants had rejected them. These manipulations caused participants to behave more aggressively. Excluded people issued a more negative job evaluation against someone who insulted them (Experiments 1 and 2). Excluded people also blasted a target with higher levels of aversive noise both when the target had insulted them (Experiment 4) and when the target was a neutral person and no interaction had occurred (Experiment 5). However, excluded people were not more aggressive toward someone who issued praise (Experiment 3). These responseswere specific to social exclusion (as opposed to other misfortunes) and were not mediated by emotion

The age of anxiety? Birth cohort change in anxiety and neuroticism, 1952-1993.

Two meta-analyses find that Americans have shifted toward substantially higher levels of anxiety and neuroticism during recent decades. Both college student (adult) and child samples increased almost a full standard deviation in anxiety between 1952 and 1993 (explaining about 20% of the variance in the trait). The average American child in the 1980s reported more anxiety than child psychiatric patients in the 1950s. Correlations with social indices (e.g., divorce rates, crime rates) suggest that decreases in social connectedness and increases in environmental dangers may be responsible for the rise in anxiety. Economic factors, however, seem to play little role. Birth cohort, as a proxy for broad social trends, may be an important influence on personality development, especially during childhood.

That swimsuit becomes you: sex differences in self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance.

Objectification theory (B. L. Fredrickson & T. Roberts, 1997) posits that American culture socializes women to adopt observers' perspectives on their physical selves. This self-objectification is hypothesized to (a) produce body shame, which in turn leads to restrained eating, and (b) consume attentional resources, which is manifested in diminished mental performance. Two experiments manipulated self-objectification by having participants try on a swimsuit or a sweater. Experiment 1 tested 72 women and found that self-objectification increased body shame, which in turn predicted restrained eating. Experiment 2 tested 42 women and 40 men and found that these effects on body shame and restrained eating replicated for women only. Additionally, self-objectification diminished math performance for women only. Discussion centers on the causes and consequences of objectifying women's bodies.