Analysis of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on functional gastrointestinal disorders among paediatric population.

OBJECTIVE: Functional gastrointestinal disorders are common gastrointestinal diseases. The pathophysiology is multifactorial and psychosocial distress worsens symptoms severity. Since the end of 2019 the world has been facing COVID-19 pandemic. The associated control measures have affected the psychological health of people. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of functional gastrointestinal disorders among Italian children and adolescents. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study sample is composed of 407 patients (187 males, 220 females), aged from 10 to 17 years. The mean age is 14.27 ± 2.24 years. The study was conducted through the Italian version of the Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms-Rome III Version.  The prevalence of each disorder has been calculated as the ratio of affected subjects for each disease and the total number of effective cases for that specific disease. RESULTS: The study demonstrates that the prevalence of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorder in Italian children, during the COVD-19 pandemic, is higher, compared with the one reported in the previous studies. The most frequent disorders are Abdominal Migraine and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first one which provides data of the prevalence of Functional gastrointestinal disorders in sample of Italian adolescents, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study underlines the need to focus on stress management, in order to reduce the effects of the lockdown on the psychological wellness of the youngest.

The association between implicit and explicit affective inhibitory control, rumination and depressive symptoms.

Inhibitory control underlies one's ability to maintain goal-directed behavior by inhibiting prepotent responses or ignoring irrelevant information. Recent models suggest that impaired inhibition of negative information may contribute to depressive symptoms, and that this association is mediated by rumination. However, the exact nature of this association, particularly in non-clinical samples, is unclear. The current study assessed the relationship between inhibitory control over emotional vs. non-emotional information, rumination and depressive symptoms. A non-clinical sample of 119 participants (mean age: 36.44 ± 11.74) with various levels of depressive symptoms completed three variations of a Go/No-Go task online; two of the task variations required either explicit or implicit processing of emotional expressions, and a third variation contained no emotional expressions (i.e., neutral condition). We found reductions in inhibitory control for participants reporting elevated symptoms of depression on all three task variations, relative to less depressed participants. However, for the task variation that required implicit emotion processing, depressive symptoms were associated with inhibitory deficits for sad and neutral, but not for happy expressions. An exploratory analysis showed that the relationship between inhibition and depressive symptoms occurs in part through trait rumination for all three tasks, regardless of emotional content. Collectively, these results indicate that elevated depressive symptoms are associated with both a general inhibitory control deficit, as well as affective interference from negative emotions, with implications for the assessment and treatment of mood disorders.

Ruminative and mood associations for age differences in social and directive reasons to think and talk about life experiences.

Reminiscing, or thinking and talking about our past experiences, can have mood enhancing effects. Rumination is implicated in reminiscence and yet has been shown to have negative effects on mood, with important differences between age groups. However, age differences in the effects of reminiscing on mood, and particularly the effects of rumination within reminiscence, are less explored. Two different age groups completed self-report measures of the positive directive (planning for present and future behaviors) and social (communication) uses of autobiographical memory, as well as maladaptive rumination and depression symptom severity. Young participants (Mean age: 21.82) ruminated more and reported greater frequency of using the directive and social functions of thinking and talking about past experiences than older adults (Mean age: 71.82). These reminiscence processes were also differentially associated with depression symptoms between age groups when tested in structural equation models. In older participants, but not young participants, the directive function was negatively associated with depression severity; in young participants, but not old participants, the social function was negatively associated with depression severity. Furthermore, although depressive and abstract rumination was directly positively related to depression scores in both samples, this association was inverted when the effect of rumination on depression was calculated through functions of reminiscence. The implications of these results for intervention development in older versus young adults, is discussed.

Predictors of stress generation in Turkish young adults: The role of rumination and excessive reassurance seeking.

The stress generation model posits that not only stressful life-events predict depressive symptoms, but also depressive-prone individuals think and behave in ways that make them more vulnerable to experience life-stress. Evidence has supported the bi-directional relationship between stress and depressive symptoms, and there has been an attempt in identifying vulnerability factors for stress generation. Yet, there is a need for studies focusing on multiple risk factors and a replication of findings in non-Western samples. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of rumination and excessive reassurance seeking (ERS) in stress generation in a sample of Turkish young adults. A sample of 318 Turkish college students reported on their rumination, ERS, intensity of stressful life-events and depressive symptoms. A subsample of 162 participants also completed a measure of life-events 5 months later. Cross-sectional results showed that rumination and ERS contribute to life-stress over and above depressive symptoms and gender. Mediational analyses indicated that ERS does not mediate the relationship between rumination and life-stress at 5 months. Rather, rumination fully mediated the relationship between ERS and future life-stress. Results provide evidence for stress generation, and highlight the interconnection between rumination and ERS.

Self-reported Suicidality in Male and Female Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Rumination and Self-esteem.

Rumination and low self-esteem are associated with suicidality, and with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, rumination and self-esteem in relation to suicidality in adults with ASD have not been examined. This cross-sectional study (n = 75; 46 males and 29 females) investigates the relation of rumination and self-esteem to the absence/presence of suicidal ideation (SUIC+/-), history of attempted suicide (HAS), and severity of suicidality. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that self-esteem was significantly associated with SUIC+/-, whereas rumination was significantly associated with HAS. Multiple regression analysis showed that rumination and self-esteem were independently associated with severity of suicidality, but these lose their significant contribution, when statistically controlling for depression. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 66.6%; gender was not a significant factor.

Paths from core belief disruption to post-traumatic stress symptoms and post-traumatic growth among Korean undergraduates: The mediating role of rumination.

The post-traumatic growth (PTG) model proposes that cognitive processing is a key mechanism that leads to growth in the aftermath of traumatic events. Building upon the PTG model, the present study examined the paths from the disruption of core beliefs to post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and PTG via intrusive and deliberate rumination. The sample includes 370 Korean undergraduate students who reported at least one highly stressful experience in their lifetime. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that disruption of core beliefs predicted PTG both directly and indirectly through multiple pathways: via deliberate rumination, intrusive rumination, and the path from intrusive to deliberate rumination. The disruption of core beliefs positively predicted PTSS only through intrusive rumination. No bivariate relationship was found between PTSS and PTG. These findings support the different roles of intrusive rumination and deliberate rumination in mediating the paths from disruption of core beliefs to PTSS and PTG. Implications and limitations of this study were discussed.

Emotion differentiation moderates the effects of rumination on depression: A longitudinal study.

Elevated trait rumination is associated with and predicts onset of major depressive disorder, but not all people with elevated trait rumination develop major depressive disorder. We hypothesize that certain emotional processes weaken the rumination-depression link, protecting against increases in depression. In this prospective longitudinal study, we examined one such process, emotion differentiation-the ability to discern specific emotions. Because higher negative emotion differentiation (NED) facilitates down-regulating negative emotions and the content of rumination tends to be negative, we predicted that NED, but not positive emotion differentiation (PED), would moderate the rumination-depression association, such that rumination would only predict increases in depression when negative emotions are less, not more, differentiated. Over 1 week of experience sampling, 65 community-dwelling adults (M = 38.4 years) repeatedly reported their emotions, from which we computed NED and PED. Participants completed self-report measures of rumination and depression at baseline and a measure of depression 6 months later. Regression analyses suggested that the combination of NED and PED, but not a unique contribution of either NED or PED, interacted with rumination to predict significant changes in depression, after controlling for mean emotion. Specifically, rumination predicted significant increases in depression when emotion differentiation was lower, but not higher. Findings demonstrate longitudinal benefits of emotion differentiation in adults and suggest emotion differentiation as a promising avenue for studying major depressive disorder. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal depressive symptoms, rumination, and child emotion regulation.

Children of depressed mothers are at risk for maladaptive emotion regulation. This study examined a model of maternal rumination that links maternal depressive symptoms to child emotion regulation. A sample of 126 mother-child dyads (65 girls) participated in the current study, at three assessment points when children were age three, four, and five. At all assessment points, mothers reported their depressive symptoms and ruminative response style. Child emotion regulation was assessed observationally from two laboratory tasks, which were designed to elicit anger and sadness. Elevated maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher concurrent rumination. Maternal rumination at child age four predicted that more child focus on distress during sadness-eliciting tasks and less child active distraction during anger-eliciting tasks 1 year later. Additionally, maternal rumination at child age three and four predicted less child passive behaviors in anger-eliciting tasks prospectively. Findings suggest that maternal rumination is predictive of using maladaptive regulatory strategies among children of depressed mothers. This study has significant implications for intervention programs targeting depressed mothers and their children.

Depressive Symptoms, Rumination, and Emotion Reactivity Among Youth: Moderation by Gender.

The emotion context-insensitivity hypothesis (ECI; Rottenberg et al., 2005) posits that depressive symptoms are associated with blunted emotional reactivity and is supported by the results of a meta-analysis (Bylsma et al., 2008). Yet it remains unclear how strongly ECI holds across emotional response domains, whether ECI operates similarly in male and female individuals, and whether this pattern of underreactivity is observed in youth. In contrast, rumination, a cognitive style strongly associated with depressive symptoms, may be associated with heightened reactivity. We assessed the effects of youth's depressive symptoms and rumination on subjective and physiological emotion reactivity (N = 160; Mage = 12.67, SDage = 1.12; 48% female; 94% non-Hispanic). State sadness and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were assessed during a baseline activity (nature video) and a sad mood induction. As hypothesized, depressive symptoms predicted less subjective emotional reactivity, whereas rumination predicted more subjective reactivity. Exploratory analyses revealed that associations for physiological reactivity differed by child gender. ECI may be stronger in terms of subjective rather than physiological emotional reactivity.

A naturalistic investigation of cognitive-affective dysfunction in anorexia nervosa: The role of inefficiency.

OBJECTIVE: Research has shown that rumination and negative affect are elevated in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), but the underlying origins remain unclear. Drawing from the theoretical framework of the Goal Progress Theory of rumination, we propose that heightened feelings of "inefficiency" (i.e., low self-efficacy) in AN might play an important role in these dysfunctional cognitive-affective processes. METHOD: Thirty-two weight-recovered participants with a history of AN and 32 healthy control participants filled out questionnaires regarding rumination and affect six times a day over a period of 2 weeks via ecological momentary assessment in real-life. RESULTS: Analyses via hierarchical as well as conceptual process modeling suggest that while inefficiency is generally associated with more rumination and negative affect, additional amplifying mechanisms between these variables exist specifically in recovered participants with a history of AN. DISCUSSION: Inefficiency as a core aspect of AN appears to trigger dysfunctional cognitive-affective processes which may contribute to vulnerability for AN.

Predictores de sintomatología postraumática aguda y crecimiento post-estrés tras un accidente laboral reciente / Predictors of Acute Posttraumatic Symptoms and Post- Stress Growth After a Recent Work Accident

Resumen El propósito de este estudio fue evaluar un modelo predictivo de sintomatología postraumática aguda (SPT) y de crecimiento post-estrés (CPE) en trabajadores que sufrieron un accidente laboral reciente. Se encuestaron 246 trabajadores (23.2% mujeres) entre los 18 y los 73 años. Se encontró que los principales predictores de la SPT son: severidad subjetiva del evento, afrontamiento religioso negativo, reinterpretación positiva y rumiación de tipos intrusiva, negativa y deliberada. A su vez, los principales predictores de CPE fueron: rumiación deliberada y afrontamiento religioso positivo. Se realizó un análisis de sendero para evaluar un modelo en el cual la rumiación intrusiva y la deliberada cumplen una función mediadora, obteniendo adecuados índices de ajuste. Se plantea la necesidad de contar con un método de evaluación temprana de las respuestas psicológicas tras un accidente.

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate a predictive model of acute posttraumatic symptomatology (PTS) and post-stress growth (PSG) in workers who suffered a recent work accident. To this end, 246 workers (23.2% women) were surveyed, aged between 18 and 73 years. The main predictors of PTS were subjective severity of event, negative religious coping, positive reinterpretation, and intrusive, brooding and deliberate rumination. At the same time, the main predictors of PSG were deliberate rumination and positive religious coping. A path analysis was performed to evaluate a model in which intrusive and deliberate rumination fulfill a mediating function, obtaining adequate goodness-of-fix indices. The need to have a method of early evaluation of psychological responses after an accident is proposed.

Does repetitive negative thinking affect attention? Differential effects of worry and rumination on attention to emotional stimuli.

Worry and rumination, two cardinal responses to emotional events, are key for maintaining negative emotion and have been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and depressive disorders. Though worry and rumination are highly correlated with one another and people who engage in one often engage in both, they may differentially affect emotion. Specifically, previous work suggests that worry helps people avoid (intense) emotion, while rumination provokes it. Examining the ways in which these two forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT) influence cognitive processing of emotional material may help us better understand the emotional sequelae of worry and rumination. This study examines visual attention to emotional information, since attending to certain types of information opens the door for further processing of it. The current study induced worry and rumination and then used eye tracking to compare how each form of RNT influenced the allocation of attention to emotional scenes. Participants induced to worry, compared with those induced to ruminate, spent less time viewing positive (vs. neutral) scenes and were the only group to preferentially maintain their attention on negative images when they were paired with positive images. These findings suggest that worry, compared with rumination, leads to the relative avoidance of positive information. Implications of these findings for research on mood and anxiety disorders are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's Rumination to Sadness and Anger: Implications for the Development of Depression and Aggression.

The current study examined the transdiagnostic nature of rumination in the development of childhood depression and aggression by examining the relation between two forms of rumination, sadness and anger, in a single study and assessing their unique and shared behavioral correlates. A community sample of 254 children (ages 7-14, 50.4% female, 66.5% Caucasian) completed self-report measures of rumination and depressive symptoms, and peer nominations of aggressive behaviors. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to assess unique and shared behavioral correlates. Anger rumination uniquely predicted aggression (ß = .40, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (ß = .62, p < .001), controlling for sadness rumination. Sadness rumination, controlling for anger rumination, did not predict depressive symptoms (ß = -.10, p = .10) and negatively predicted aggressive symptoms (ß = -.21, p = .003). In addition, a significant interaction between sadness rumination and anger rumination on aggressive behaviors was observed (ß = -.24, p < .001), such that children who reported high anger and low sadness rumination tendencies were perceived as more aggressive by their peers than other children, including those with high levels of anger and sadness rumination. These results offer support for anger rumination as a transdiagnostic factor for children's depressive symptoms and aggression. Sadness rumination did not uniquely predict depressive symptoms, although it did moderate the association between anger rumination and aggression. These findings underscore the importance of assessing both anger and sadness rumination for increasing our understanding of children's risk for depression and aggression.