Institutional trust is a distinct construct related to vaccine hesitancy and refusal.

BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy is driven by a heterogeneous and changing set of psychological, social and historical phenomena, requiring multidisciplinary approaches to its study and intervention. Past research has brought to light instances of both interpersonal and institutional trust playing an important role in vaccine uptake. However, no comprehensive study to date has specifically assessed the relative importance of these two categories of trust as they relate to vaccine behaviors and attitudes. METHODS: In this paper, we examine the relationship between interpersonal and institutional trust and four measures related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and one measure related to general vaccine hesitancy. We hypothesize that, across measures, individuals with vaccine hesitant attitudes and behaviors have lower trust-especially in institutions-than those who are not hesitant. We test this hypothesis in a sample of 1541 Canadians. RESULTS: A deficit in both interpersonal and institutional trust was associated with higher levels of vaccine hesitant attitudes and behaviors. However, institutional trust was significantly lower than interpersonal trust in those with high hesitancy scores, suggesting that the two types of trust can be thought of as distinct constructs in the context of vaccine hesitancy. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings, we suggest that diminished institutional trust plays a crucial role in vaccine hesitancy. We propose that this may contribute to a tendency to instead place trust in interpersonally propagated belief systems, which may be more strongly misaligned with mainstream evidence and thus support vaccine hesitancy attitudes. We offer strategies rooted in these observations for creating public health messages designed to enhance vaccine uptake.

Navigating the uncertainty: A novel taxonomy of vaccine hesitancy in the context of COVID-19.

Vaccine hesitancy remains a significant and evolving public health challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique decision context with significant uncertainty caused by the novelty of the disease being targeted, unfamiliarity with the vaccines being offered, misinformation, and strong handed government measures. In an effort to extend our understanding of vaccine hesitancy to the high uncertainty decision environment presented by COVID-19, we present a novel taxonomy of the determinants of vaccine hesitancy, based on an inductive analysis of qualitative data gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report on focus group data from a purposive sample of 18 Canadians with varying sociodemographic characteristics and COVID-19 vaccination attitudes. An inductive thematic analysis of this data reveals eight core themes related to vaccine hesitancy: values, trust, social environment, personal anecdotes, environmental fluctuation, prior knowledge, perceived risk & systems of care. We explore these core themes as well as 25 sub-themes, contrasting them with previous models of vaccine hesitancy and suggesting potential strategies for public health professionals.

Face masks negatively skew theory of mind judgements.

Face masks obscure a significant portion of the face, reducing the amount of information available to gauge the mental states of others-that is, to exercise the Theory of Mind (ToM) capacity. In three experiments, we assessed the effect of face masks on ToM judgements, measuring recognition accuracy, perceived valence, and perceived arousal in various sets of facial expressions comprising 45 different mental states. Significant effects of face masks were found in all three variables. Judgements of all expressions are less accurate when masked, but, while judgements of negative expressions do not show consistent changes in valence or arousal, positive expressions are perceived to be less positive and less intense. In addition, we identified face muscles associated with changes in perceived valence and arousal, shedding light on the mechanisms through which masks impact ToM judgements, which might be relevant for mitigation strategies. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of the recent pandemic.

The discrimination of self from other as a component of empathy.

Despite the centrality of empathy in human social life, there is no widely agreed definition or characterization of the concept of empathy. A common thread in many of the proposed definitions, however, is that empathy presupposes the discrimination of self and other on the grounds that, to empathize with another individual, the mental state of the target individual must first be distinguished from the empathizer's own mental state. The purpose of this study is to investigate this proposal empirically. We employed a paradigm in which participants rated the emotional valence and degree of arousal of 93 facial expressions of mental states. We asked participants to infer the mental state represented by each facial expression (the Other condition) as well as to describe the effect of the expression on their own mental state (the Self condition). An absolute difference score between the Other and the Self conditions was used as an index of a capacity for self-other discrimination. Empathy was measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Results show that individuals high in trait empathy discriminate between self and other to a significantly greater degree when judging mental states than individuals low in trait empathy. This suggests that the capacity for self-other discrimination may be a component of the capacity for empathy and that future investigations of the concept of empathy ought to retain it. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"The more things change "? Stability of delusional themes across 12 years of presentations to an early intervention service for psychosis.

PURPOSE: While the prevalence of delusional themes appears to be consistent across geographic contexts, little is known about the relative prevalence of such themes within a given setting over periods of time. We therefore investigated delusional themes across 12 years of presentation to a catchment-based early intervention service for first episode psychosis (FEP). METHODS: Systematically collected data from 500 patients at an early intervention service for FEP were analyzed. Four cohorts of 3 years each, from 2006 to 2017, were used to compare the frequency of delusion themes across cohorts. We also integrated into the analysis baseline sociodemographic factors such as gender, age, and highest level of education and clinical factors such as anxiety, depression, suicidality, hallucinations, and primary diagnosis (affective or non-affective psychosis). RESULTS: Sex and education level were stable across cohorts, while patient age varied (p = 0.047). Clinical anxiety, depression, and suicidality at entry were also stable. Across cohorts, the proportion of patients with affective versus non-affective diagnosis differed (p = 0.050), with no differences in global rating of delusion severity or theme prevalence except for delusions of guilt or sin (p = 0.001). This single theme difference was not correlated with age or diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests relatively stable prevalence of delusion themes across cohorts of individuals experiencing FEP. This demonstrates the potential utility of studying thematic content both for understanding delusions in clinical populations and in research. Future explorations of the relationships between delusion themes and across individual patient episodes should be conducted.

From scary places to therapeutic landscapes: Voices from the community of people living with schizophrenia.

This article discusses how people living with schizophrenia experience, understand, and respond to their urban environment. Our study relies on experiential photo-voice data gathered with a sample of six people diagnosed with schizophrenia and living in non-institutional settings in Montréal, Canada, to identify how individuals in this community perceive the urban landscape. We adopt a therapeutic landscapes' framework that explores the urban fabric at three levels: physical, social, and symbolic. Research participants identified both health-denying and health-enhancing places within ordinary urban landscapes. Landscapes identified as health-denying are characterized by environmental stressors and loss of control, with construction sites an example highlighted by participants. Healing and restorative landscapes, as identified by participants, were physically attractive or quiet, socially safe and welcoming, and symbolically affirmative of one's identity, all factors worthy of further study. The findings are also policy-relevant: they suggest that people living with schizophrenia and their clinicians can develop strategies to make health-enhancing uses of urban landscapes; and that urban policies and practices can foster urban environments conducive to enhanced health and well-being, both for the community of people living with schizophrenia and the wider population of urban dwellers.

In the Blink of an Eye: Reading Mental States From Briefly Presented Eye Regions.

Faces provide not only cues to an individual's identity, age, gender, and ethnicity but also insight into their mental states. The aim was to investigate the temporal aspects of processing of facial expressions of complex mental states for very short presentation times ranging from 12.5 to 100 ms in a four-alternative forced choice paradigm based on Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. Results show that participants are able to recognise very subtle differences between facial expressions; performance is better than chance, even for the shortest presentation time. Importantly, we show for the first time that observers can recognise these expressions based on information contained in the eye region only. These results support the hypothesis that the eye region plays a particularly important role in social interactions and that the expressions in the eyes are a rich source of information about other peoples' mental states. When asked to what extent the observers guessed during the task, they significantly underestimated their ability to make correct decisions, yet perform better than chance, even for very brief presentation times. These results are particularly relevant in the light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the associated wearing of face coverings.

Distinct influence of parental occupation on cortical thickness and surface area in children and adolescents: Relation to self-esteem.

Studies of socioeconomic disparities have largely focused on correlating brain measures with either composite measure of socioeconomic status (SES), or its components-family income or parental education, giving little attention to the component of parental occupation. Emerging evidence suggests that parental occupation may be an important and neglected indicator of childhood and adolescent SES compared to absolute measures of material resources or academic attainment because, while related, it may more precisely capture position in social hierarchy and related health outcomes. On the other hand, although cortical thickness and surface area are brain measures with distinct genetic and developmental origins, large-scale neuroimaging studies investigating regional differences in interaction of the composite measure of SES or its components with cortical thickness and surface area are missing. We set out to fill this gap, focusing specifically on the role of parental occupation on cortical thickness and surface area by analyzing magnetic resonance imaging scans from 704 healthy individuals (age = 3-21 years). We observed spatially distributed patterns of (parental occupation × age2 ) interaction with cortical thickness (localized at the left caudal middle frontal, the left inferior parietal and the right superior parietal) and surface area (localized at the left orbitofrontal cortex), indicating independent sources of variability. Further, with decreased cortical thickness, children from families with lower parental occupation exhibited lower self-esteem. Our findings demonstrate distinct influence of parental occupation on cortical thickness and surface area in children and adolescents, potentially reflecting different neurobiological mechanisms by which parental occupation may impact brain development.

Disordered sleep is related to delusional ideation and depression during the perinatal period.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates the associations between sleep disturbances, delusional ideation (DI), and depressive symptomatology across the perinatal period. METHODS: A community sample of 316 mothers completed the Sleep Symptom Checklist, Peters Delusional Inventory, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at three time points: second trimester of pregnancy (12-14 weeks gestation), third trimester (32-34 weeks gestation), and two months postpartum. RESULTS: Longitudinal path analysis revealed a bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and DI across pregnancy. Sleep disturbances in early pregnancy directly predicted symptoms of depression in late pregnancy and had an indirect effect on postpartum depression through DI in late pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that disturbed sleep during pregnancy plays a role in increased levels of DI and depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum.

The interaction between oxytocin receptor gene methylation and maternal behavior on children's early theory of mind abilities.

Theory of mind, the ability to represent the mental states of others, is an important social cognitive process, which contributes to the development of social competence. Recent research suggests that interactions between gene and environmental factors, such as oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) polymorphisms and maternal parenting behavior, may underlie individual differences in children's theory of mind. However, the potential influence of DNA methylation of OXTR remains unclear. The current study investigated the roles of OXTR methylation, maternal behavior, and their statistical interaction on toddlers' early emerging theory of mind abilities. Participants included a community sample of 189 dyads of mothers and their 2- to 3-year-old children, whose salivary DNA was analyzed. Results indicated that more maternal structuring behavior was associated with better performance, on a battery of three theory of mind tasks, while higher OXTR methylation within exon 3 was associated with poorer performance. A significant interaction also emerged, such that OXTR methylation was related to theory of mind among children whose mothers displayed less structuring, when controlling for children's age, sex, ethnicity, number of child-aged siblings, verbal ability, and maternal education. Maternal structuring behavior may buffer the potential negative impact of hypermethylation on OXTR gene expression and function.

Oxytocin Modulates the Cognitive Appraisal of the Own and Others Close Intimate Relationships.

Close and intimate relationships are important promoters of health. Oxytocin and its association with social cognition have been investigated in a large number of studies, especially highlighting the neuropeptide's involvement in attachment behavior and intimate relationships. However, mixed findings on exogenous oxytocin application have led to the focus on moderators and mediators, suggesting that the effects are depended on specific factors - namely context and salience. The objective of the current study was to assess the effect of intranasal oxytocin on social appraisal of own and others' close intimate relationship characteristics. Different characteristics of relationships, including trust or closeness, between romantic couples (unknown and own) were assessed using the Couple Appraisal Task. In a randomized controlled double-blind cross-over within subject design, N = 71 healthy men and women were investigated after receiving first intranasal oxytocin and 2 weeks later placebo, or vice versa. We found an oxytocin-induced increase in the positive appraisal of one's own overall relationship characteristics but not in the evaluation of the relationship of others. The present study - one of the first of its kind administrating oxytocin in a repeated measures cross-over design - adds further evidence to the mediating role of oxytocin in social cognition, specifically with regard to romantic relationship characteristics.

Maternal oxytocin predicts relationship survival during the perinatal transition period: Preliminary evidence.

It is well-known that the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a critical role regulating the formation of adult-adult pairbonds in non-human animals, and recent work suggests oxytocin may similarly play an important role in romantic bonding in humans. Specifically, endogenous oxytocin is predictive of a host of relationship-enhancing behaviors, relationship quality, and even relationship survival amongst newly dating couples. This work suggests that oxytocin can buffer romantic relationships, possibly during especially difficult transition periods. One challenge that many couples face is the birth of a child: a joyous event, but one that is recognized as a major life stressor nonetheless. We aimed to investigate whether maternal oxytocin buffers the parent-partner relationship during the perinatal transition period. To test this, we analyzed data from a longitudinal study of child-bearing women (N = 269) in which endogenous oxytocin was measured in blood plasma during the 1st and 3rd trimesters and at 7-9 weeks postpartum; relationship status was assessed at the outset and 2.5 years postpartum. As predicted, lower maternal oxytocin was associated with greater risk for relationship dissolution by the time the child was a toddler (p < .05). These findings directly replicate research showing that endogenous oxytocin predicts relationship survival in dating couples, but in a novel interpersonal context. That said, only a very small number (N = 7) of couples separated; this, of course, is unsurprising given that the perinatal transition period is not a time when couples typically choose to terminate their relationship. Nonetheless, these findings must be considered preliminary until replicated in future research.

The healthy migrant effect and predictors of perinatal depression.

PROBLEM: Although prenatal depression is a risk factor for postpartum depression, current screening tools for prenatal depression fail to predict postpartum depression in some marginalized populations. BACKGROUND: The assessment of other risk factors along with prenatal depression may be needed to improve prediction of postpartum depression and these risk factors may be specific to immigrants. AIMS: We investigated the predictive utility of several measures in relation to postpartum depressive symptoms in: recent immigrants, less recent immigrants and Canadian-born women. METHODS: Measures pertaining to psychosocial risk factors, generalized anxiety, perinatal somatic and depressive symptoms were administered. Data were collected at 4 time-points: 12-14 weeks and 24-28 weeks gestation as well as 1-week and 8-weeks postpartum. Perinatal factors were entered into 3 different regression models to predict postpartum depressive symptoms at the last time-point. FINDINGS: Canadian-born women reported significantly more psychosocial risk factors compared to immigrant women. The best predictors of postpartum depressive symptoms at 8-weeks among Canadian-born women included psychosocial risk, prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as early postpartum depressive symptoms. Prenatal somatic symptoms predicted postpartum depressive symptoms among recent immigrants. Depressive symptoms at 1-week postpartum and the lack of an emotionally supportive partner were significant predictors of postpartum depressive symptoms for both Canadian-born and immigrant women. DISCUSSION: There appears to be both overlapping and distinct predictors of postpartum depressive symptoms for immigrant and Canadian-born women. CONCLUSION: The findings from this research will help guide routine screening options and patient-centered approaches to management of perinatal depression for diverse populations.

Theory of mind as a link between oxytocin and maternal behavior.

BACKGROUND: Oxytocin is a neuropeptide associated with maternal behavior. However the mechanisms underlying this link remain unclear. In a previous study we observed an indirect effect of increased plasma oxytocin during late pregnancy on early postpartum maternal interactive behavior via theory of mind, as assessed by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). The current study aimed to extend these findings by testing whether this indirect effect would hold longitudinally for maternal behavior at 2-3 years postpartum, as well as for an additional observational measure of maternal mind-mindedness. METHOD: The original sample of 316 pregnant women (Mage = 31.92 years) was assessed at 12-14 weeks gestation (T1), 32-34 weeks gestation (T2), and 7-9 weeks postpartum (T3). Follow-up measures were taken at 2-3 years postpartum (T4). RESULTS: Mothers' RMET performance (T3) was associated with more structuring and less intrusive maternal behavior at 2-3 years (T4), while their tendency to use mind-related comments (T3) was associated with greater sensitivity (T4). Bootstrap estimates also revealed a significant indirect effect of plasma oxytocin levels during late pregnancy (T2) on maternal structuring and non-intrusive behavior at 2-3 years postpartum (T4) through RMET performance (T3). CONCLUSIONS: Results: of the current study confirm and extend the previous findings, demonstrating that theory of mind may represent a social cognitive mechanism linking endogenous oxytocin and maternal behavior. Important changes in the oxytocinergic system during late pregnancy may help prepare for motherhood by promoting the awareness of social cues, which in turn promote maternal behavior from the early postpartum to the early childhood years.

Perinatal depression and DNA methylation of oxytocin-related genes: a study of mothers and their children.

The present study investigated the association of perinatal depression (PD) with differential methylation of 3 genomic regions among mother and child dyads: exon 3 within the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and 2 intergenic regions (IGR) between the oxytocin (OXT) and vasopressin (AVP) genes. Maternal PD was assessed at 5 time-points during pregnancy and postpartum. Four groups were established based on Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) cut-off scores: no PD, prenatal or postpartum depressive symptoms only and persistent PD (depressive symptoms both prenatally and postpartum). Salivary DNA was collected from mothers and children at the final time-point, 2.9years postpartum. Mothers with persistent PD had significantly higher overall OXTR methylation than the other groups and this pattern extended to 16/22 individual CpG sites. For the IGR, only the region closer to the AVP gene (AVP IGR) showed significant differential methylation, with the persistent PD group displaying the lowest levels of methylation overall, but not for individual CpG sites. These results suggest that transient episodes of depression may not be associated with OXTR hypermethylation. Validation studies need to confirm the downstream biological effects of AVP IGR hypomethylation as it relates to persistent PD. Differential methylation of the OXTR and IGR regions was not observed among children exposed to maternal PD. The consequences of OXTR hypermethylation and AVP IGR hypomethylation found in mothers with persistent PDS may not only impact the OXT system, but may also compromise maternal behavior, potentially resulting in negative outcomes for the developing child.

Birth setting, labour experience, and postpartum psychological distress.

OBJECTIVE: although psychosocial risk factors have been identified for postpartum depression (PPD) and perinatal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the role of labour- and birth-related factors remains unclear. The present investigation explored the impact of birth setting, subjective childbirth experience, and their interplay, on PPD and postpartum PTSD. METHOD: in this prospective longitudinal cohort study, three groups of women who had vaginal births at a tertiary care hospital, a birthing center, and those transferred from the birthing centre to the tertiary care hospital were compared. Participants were followed twice during pregnancy (12-14 and 32-34 weeks gestation) and twice after childbirth (1-3 and 7-9 weeks postpartum). RESULTS: symptoms of PPD and PTSD did not significantly differ between birth groups; however, measures of subjective childbirth experience and obstetric factors did. Moderation analyses indicated a significant interaction between pain and birth group, such that higher ratings of pain among women who were transferred was associated with greater symptoms of postpartum PTSD. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: women who are transferred appear to have a unique experience that may put them at greater risk for postpartum psychological distress. It may be beneficial for care providers to help prepare women for pain management and potential unexpected complications, particularly if it is their first childbirth.