The development of commitment: Attention for intention.

Adhering to a partially defined plan requires an intentional commitment that curbs distracting desires conflicting with the planned course of action, enabling humans to act coherently over time. Two studies (N = 50, 27 girls, ages 5-6, Han Chinese, in Hangzhou, China, 2022.02-2022.03) explored the development of commitment to partial plans in a sequential decision-making task and the underlying cognitive capacity focusing on its correlation to attentional control. Results suggest that only 6-year-olds committed to partial plans (d = .51), and children's commitment ratio was positively correlated with the use of proactive control (r = .40). These findings indicate that intentional commitment does not develop simultaneously with intention understanding, but rather matures gradually with the development of attentional control.

Maternal control and children's inhibitory control in China: The role of child exuberance and parenting contexts.

Parental control is widely considered to have a detrimental effect on children's psychological development. However, it is commonplace and generally accepted in China and is intended to regulate children's behavior. It is unclear whether Chinese parental control promotes or hinders children's inhibitory control (IC) development. This study investigated the influence of maternal control on Chinese children's development of IC using a longitudinal design (N = 163), with attention to the influence of children's temperamental exuberance and different parenting contexts. Children's exuberance (at 2 years of age) was assessed via laboratory observations. Maternal control (at 3 years of age) was coded during parent-child interaction in play-based and cleanup contexts. Children's IC (at 3 years of age) was assessed by day-night and snow-grass tasks. Results suggested that maternal control in the play-based context was negatively related to IC development. The association between maternal control in the cleanup context and IC varied in children with different levels of temperamental exuberance. Specifically, maternal control in the cleanup context impeded low-exuberant children's IC development but promoted it for highly exuberant children. These findings support the self-determination theory and the goodness-of-fit model and have implications for educational practice in China.

Factors influencing medication adherence among patients with severe mental disorders from the perspective of mental health professionals.

BACKGROUND: Medication adherence is a common issue influenced by various factors among patients with severe mental disorders worldwide. However, most literature to date has been primarily quantitative and has focused on medication adherence issue from the perspective of patients or their caregivers. Moreover, research focused on medication adherence issue in China is scarce. Present study aims to explore the influential factors of medication adherence among patients with severe mental disorders form the perspective of mental health professionals in Hunan Province, China. METHODS: A qualitative study was performed in Hunan Province, China with 31 mental health professionals recruited from October to November 2017. And semi-structured interviews or focus group interviews were conducted along with audio recordings of all interviews. Interview transcripts were then coded and analyzed in Nvivo software with standard qualitative approaches. RESULTS: Three major themes influencing medication adherence among patients with severe mental disorders were identified as: (1) attitudes towards mental disorder/treatment; (2) inadequate aftercare; (3) resource shortages. CONCLUSIONS: This qualitative study identified the factors influencing medication adherence among patients with severe mental disorders in China. As a locally driven research study, it provides practical advice on medication adherence promotion for mental health workers and suggests culturally tailored models that improve the management of patients with severe mental disorders in order to reduce economic burden on individual and societal level.

Gratitude and internalizing/externalizing symptoms among adolescents after the Wenchuan earthquake: Mediating roles of social support and resilience.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents are susceptible to exhibiting internalizing and externalizing symptoms following natural disasters. However, little is known regarding factors that may influence these symptoms from the perspective of positive psychology. The current study examined whether and how social support and resilience mediated the association between gratitude and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. METHOD: The participants were 765 Chinese adolescents exposed to the Wenchuan earthquake (41.8% male, mean age 17.46 years), who were enrolled in a three-wave longitudinal study with data spanning 1 year. All adolescents completed self-report questionnaires on gratitude at 18 months postearthquake (T18m ), social support and resilience at 24 months (T24m ), and internalizing and externalizing symptoms at 18 months (T18m ) and 30 months (T30m ). RESULTS: The results showed that social support (T24m ) and resilience (T24m ) serially mediate the relationship between gratitude (T18m ) and internalizing (ß = -.003, 95% confidence interval [CI]= -0.006, -0.001) or externalizing (T30m ) symptoms (ß = -.004, 95% CI= -0.004, -0.001). Social support (T24m ) acts as a mediator only between gratitude (T18m ) and internalizing symptoms (T30m ) (ß = -.021, 95% CI = -0.044, -0.004), while not being a significant predictor for externalizing symptoms (T30m ). CONCLUSION: By highlighting the mechanisms by which gratitude longitudinally attenuates adolescents' internalizing, externalizing, and total symptoms, our findings may provide clinical practitioners with important information regarding intervention design.

The roles of temperamental inhibition in affective and cognitive empathy in Chinese toddlers.

Empathy, crucial to harmonious interpersonal relationships and moral development, has both affective and cognitive components. Previous studies found that toddlers' temperamental inhibition may influence their empathy, but mainly focused on emotional response to others' distress. Little is known about whether inhibited children's poor empathy is due to high reactivity and social withdrawal when sharing others' affective states, such as distress (affective empathy), or to a difficulty in comprehending and inferring others' perspective (cognitive empathy). The current study investigated the role of behavioral inhibition (BI) in affective empathy (response to pain simulation) and cognitive empathy (performance in perspective-taking task) among 163 Chinese toddlers and tested in both only and non-only children. Correlation analyses showed that BI was only negatively associated with affective empathy. The relation between BI and cognitive empathy was moderated by self-regulation and inhibited children who were low in self-regulation presented low cognitive empathy. Additionally, only children presented advanced cognitive empathy but poorer affective empathy than non-only children. These findings imply different roles of BI in affective versus cognitive empathy in early childhood. Although highly inhibited children rarely show positive social expression toward others' distress, caution is needed in inferring that they lack a capacity for cognitive empathy.

Development of Social Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Relation to Theory of Mind.

Social working memory (WM) has distinct neural substrates from canonical cognitive WM (e.g., color). However, no study, to the best of our knowledge, has yet explored how social WM develops. The current study explored the development of social WM capacity and its relation to theory of mind (ToM). Experiment 1 had sixty-four 3- to 6-year-olds memorize 1-5 biological motion stimuli, the processing of which is considered a hallmark of social cognition. The social WM capacity steadily increased between 3- and 6-year-olds, with the increase between 4 and 5 years being sharp. Furthermore, social WM capacity positively predicted preschoolers' ToM scores, while nonsocial WM capacity did not; this positive correlation was particularly strong among 4-year-olds (Experiment 2, N = 144).

Childhood trauma associated with psychotic-like experiences among people living with HIV: The chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience.

BACKGROUND: Previous research established the associations between childhood trauma and psychosis, but the effects of childhood trauma on psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) among people living with HIV (PLWH) and the potential mediation mechanisms in these associations remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of childhood trauma on PLEs, as well as the chain mediation roles of stigma and resilience in this relationship. Furthermore, we explored whether the aforementioned associations differed when hallucinatory experiences (HEs) and delusional experiences (DEs) were separately modeled. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The sample included 333 outpatients participants (95.2 % males, Mage = 28.24 ± 7.12) living with HIV recruited from Hunan Province, China; and data were collected with a cross-sectional survey. METHOD: The hypothesized chain mediation models were examined using SPSS PROCESS macro 3.3 software. RESULTS: Various influencing mechanisms of childhood trauma on HEs and DEs were examined in this study. Our results showed that, (a) childhood trauma directly exerted negative effect on HEs, while the chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience were not statistically significant. Conversely, (b) childhood trauma exerted no direct influence on DEs but rather through the chain mediation effect of stigma and resilience. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of two different routes between that childhood trauma can have on HEs and DEs highlighted the importance of tailored prevention and intervention among PLWH with a history of childhood trauma.

Negative trait inference in behaviorally inhibited children influences their internalizing behaviors.

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early-appearing temperamental trait characterized by intense negative affect and withdrawal behaviors to novel and challenging situations. Inhibited children are more likely to display social withdrawal and experience an increased risk for internalizing problems. Trait inference, the way children interpret behaviors and infer the characteristics of others, may be one potential mechanism. The current study examined the individual differences of BI in trait inference using a cross-sectional design (Study 1, Age 4, N = 80, 38 boys, Chinese) and explored the role of trait inference (Age 4) in relation to early BI (Age 2) and later internalizing behaviors (Age 4) using a longitudinal design (Study 2, N = 163, 93 boys). Trait inference was measured by children's personality judgments after watching four pieces of behavioral information of animated actors in two conditions: a high positive information condition and a high negative information condition. We found that high BI children exhibited a more negative trait inference than low BI children did in two studies, except for the trait inference in the high negative information condition of Study 2. Besides, in Study 2, trait inference in the high positive information condition partially mediated the BI-internalizing behavior link, and such mediation effect was moderated by the level of trait inference. These findings highlight the contribution of social information processing in the social adjustment of children with extreme temperament and have implications for prevention and intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral inhibition and social maladjustment: The moderation role of social behaviors during cooperative and competitive peer interactions.

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperamental characterized in early childhood by intense wariness and negative affect toward novelty, and is linked to children's emotional symptoms and peer problems. How children behave or respond toward diverse social contexts can influence the relation between BI and social adjustment. This study investigated the effect of children's affiliative and antagonistic behavior in cooperative and competitive contexts on the relation between early BI and social adjustment using a longitudinal design. Children's BI (at age 2) was assessed via laboratory observations. Affiliative and antagonistic behaviors (at age 4) were coded during a dyadic truck game in the cooperative and competitive contexts. Children's emotional symptoms and peer problems (at age 4) were assessed using parental reports. These results suggest that high affiliative behavior in the cooperative context was linked to a reduced level of peer problems in inhibited children. Interestingly, highly antagonistic behavior in the competitive context was linked to a reduced level of emotional symptoms in inhibited children. These findings extend our understanding of the role social behavior plays in the social adjustment of behaviorally inhibited children by highlighting the contribution of socially appropriate behaviors in social contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Sleep disturbance and psychotic-like experiences among urban adolescents with and without parental migration.

Aim: Sleep disturbance was closely associated with an increased risk of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). This study aims to explore the association between sleep disturbance and PLEs among urban adolescents with and without parental migration. Methods: A total of 67, 532 urban Chinese adolescents were recruited in a large web-based survey during April 21st to May 12th, 2021. In our study, sleep disturbance, PLEs, family function, school climate, and a series of socio-demographic were assessed. And hierarchical logistic regression analyses were performed to examine influential factors associated with PLEs. Results: Urban left-behind children (LBC) had a higher prevalence of sleep disturbance and PLEs than non-LBC. After controlling for confounders, parental migration was associated to PLEs with weak significance (OR = 1.19). Meanwhile, sleep disturbance was found to be a robust risk factor for PLEs (OR = 3.84 and 4.09), with or without the effect of parental migration. In addition, better family function and school climate has significant association with decreased risk of PLEs. Conclusion: Adolescents with sleep disturbance are more likely to report PLEs. Adolescents' PLEs preventive strategies could focus on reducing sleep disturbance related symptoms as well as improving family function and school climate.

Trajectories of mental health status during the early phase pandemic in China: A longitudinal study on adolescents living in the community with confirmed cases.

Sufficient research reports that individuals living in the community with confirmed COVID-19 cases are more likely to exhibit poor mental health condition. However, little is known about the longitudinal trajectories of mental health status among these people who are exposed to increased risk of contracting COVID-19. Using a 3-wave longitudinal survey between February and June 2020, data has been collected from 2,352 adolescents living in the community with confirmed cases. Depressive/anxiety symptoms, soc-demographic, and other psychological factors of interest (e.g., social support) were measured. Using latent growth mixture modeling, we identified two subgroups (Resistance vs. Dysfunction) of adolescents based on their depressive and anxiety symptoms. More social support and positive coping are identified as protective factors for mental health, whereas higher level of negative coping predicts unfavorable outcomes. These findings suggested that adolescents living in the community with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are a group to which researchers should pay more attention when studying the impacts of quarantine on mental health. It is also crucial to emphasize the role of social support and positive coping in planning psychological interventions for adolescents.

Longitudinal trajectories of insomnia symptoms among college students during the COVID-19 lockdown in China.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the patterns and predictors of the trajectories of college students' insomnia symptoms across different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A total of 35,516 college students completed three online surveys during the COVID-19 outbreak period (3-10 February 2020), initial remission period (24 March-3 April 2020), and effective control period (1-15 June 2020), respectively. These surveys measured the participants' socio-demographic and pandemic related factors, insomnia symptoms, mental health status, and psychosocial factors. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine predictors for trajectory membership. RESULTS: The prevalence of insomnia symptoms increases during home quarantine. Five insomnia symptoms trajectories were observed: resistance (82.8% of the sample), recovery (5.0%), delayed-dysfunction (5.8%), chronic-dysfunction (1.8%), and relapsing/remitting (4.6%). Female gender, residence location in urban, has history of sleep problems, smoking, alcohol use, community or village has confirmed COVID-19 cases, current poor mental health, higher negative coping were related to higher risk of developing insomnia symptoms in at least one time point, whereas better family function increased the possibility of recovery relative to chronic dysfunction. Lower social support and positive coping could also cause insomnia chronicity. CONCLUSION: Adolescents have different trajectories of insomnia symptoms during pandemic lockdown. Although most adolescents did not experience insomnia or recovered over time, some adolescents, especially those with the risk factors noted above, exhibit delayed or chronic symptoms. These findings could inform mental health professionals regarding how to provide individualized and appropriate intervention for college students after their return to school.

A Positive Legacy of Trauma? The Role of Perceived Social Support on Mental Health Among Earthquake Survivors During the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Background: People with prior experience of severe trauma may be particularly vulnerable in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about mental health problems among prior trauma survivors during the pandemic outbreak. Methods: A total of 362 Wenchuan earthquake survivors were assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, as well as Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, as part of an online survey between February 3 and 10, 2020. Results: Our results showed that 6.6 and 4.7% of the participants experienced depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 outbreak, respectively. Perceived social support was negatively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Earthquake exposure has no direct effect on current depressive and anxiety symptoms, but it would moderate the direct relationship between perceived social support and psychological symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that trauma exposure may lead to salutogenic outcomes. The protective effect of perceived social support on psychological symptoms was greater in people with a higher level of trauma exposure than in a lower one.

Does sleep disturbance predicts posttraumatic stress disorder and depression among college students during COVID-19 lockdown? A longitudinal survey.

Aim: To examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between self-reported sleep disturbances, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in a large cohort of Chinese adolescents experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Participants were 67905 Chinese college students in the two-wave longitudinal web-based survey during early COVID-19 outbreak (Time1, T1: Feb 3rd to 10th, 2020) and initial remission period (Time2, T2: March 24th to April 3rd, 2020). The Youth Self Rating Insomnia Scale (YSIS), 6-Item Impact of Event Scale (IES-6), and 9-Item Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used to assess adolescents' sleep, PTSD, and depressive symptoms, respectively, at T1 and T2. Results: Self-reported PTSD and depression prevalence at T1 were 34.6% and 21.6% respectively. While depressive symptoms worsened as the lockdown time increased, while PTSD symptoms decreased. After adjusting for confounding factors, sleep disturbance and sleep deprivation at T1 were significantly associated with increased PTSD and depressive symptoms at T2. Furthermore, sleep disturbance and sleep deprivation also predicted the new onset and persistence of PTSD and depression. Conclusion: Sleep disturbance predicts the development and persistence of PTSD and depression. Early assessment and treatment of sleep disturbance may be an important strategy for prevention and intervention of PTSD and depression in adolescents after experiencing the special public health emergency.

Is returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic stressful? A study on immediate mental health status of Chinese college students.

BACKGROUND: As the COVID-19 pandemic has posed substantial impacts on individual's daily routine and psychological state. For the first time at great scale, Chinese college students had their educational activities moved online in spring 2020. Due to this unexpected isolation and unconventional learning method, their mental health following returning to school is worth investigating. METHODS: Between June 1 and June 15, 2020, a total of 8,921 returning college students' mental health status were assessed using instruments designed for psychiatric disorders, namely the 9-Item Patient Heath Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-Item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), 6-Item Impact of Event Scale (IES-6), Youth Self Rating Insomnia Scale (YSIS), and self-developed questionnaire. RESULTS: Our results showed that 8.7%, 4.2%, 10.5%, and 6.1% of the participants experienced depression, anxiety, acute stress, and insomnia, respectively, with a total of 19.8% reporting having at least one psychiatric symptom following their return to school. Sophomore and Senior year, and presence of previous psychiatric conditions contribute to the increased occurrence of psychiatric issues. The level of impact by COVID-19 on one's daily functioning is also positively associated with poor mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested no significant increase in the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms, following the first batch of students' return to school. These findings aim to complement the current understanding of the psychiatric impact of COVID-19 on students and assist school principals to plan their return-to-school approaches in a mental-health sensitive way.

Development of behavioural regulation in Do and Don't contexts among behaviourally inhibited Chinese children.

Behavioural inhibition influences the development of behavioural regulation in early childhood. Previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between inhibition and regulation in the Don't context (e.g., inhibitory control), while few have investigated this relationship in the Do context (e.g., task persistence). This longitudinal study examined the effect of temperamental inhibition on behavioural regulation during both the Do and Don't contexts in 112 Chinese preschoolers. At 3.5 years of age, children's behavioural inhibition was assessed by behavioural observation and parental report, and then at 4.5 years of age, their regulatory behaviours were measured in the following two challenging contexts: Do [locked box (LB)] and Don't [toy inhibition (TI)]. In each task, children were randomly assigned to either a high- or a low-incentive condition designed to vary the value of a given goal. Results suggested that higher inhibition was associated with poorer regulation (lower task persistence) in both conditions of the Do context (LB), whereas in the Don't context (TI) highly inhibited children showed better regulation (less violation behaviours) in the low-incentive condition than they did in the high-incentive condition. The results highlight the context characteristics and goal incentive as important factors for behavioural regulation development in inhibited children in China.