A Bayesian approach for exploring person × environment interaction within the environmental sensitivity meta-framework.

BACKGROUND: For investigating the individual-environment interplay and individual differences in response to environmental exposures as captured by models of environmental sensitivity including Diathesis-stress, Differential Susceptibility, and Vantage Sensitivity, over the last few years, a series of statistical guidelines have been proposed. However, available solutions suffer of computational problems especially relevant when sample size is not sufficiently large, a common condition in observational and clinical studies. METHOD: In the current contribution, we propose a Bayesian solution for estimating interaction parameters via Monte Carlo Markov Chains (MCMC), adapting Widaman et al. (Psychological Methods, 17, 2012, 615) Nonlinear Least Squares (NLS) approach. RESULTS: Findings from an applied exemplification and a simulation study showed that with relatively big samples both MCMC and NLS estimates converged on the same results. Conversely, MCMC clearly outperformed NLS, resolving estimation problems and providing more accurate estimates, particularly with small samples and greater residual variance. CONCLUSIONS: As the body of research exploring the interplay between individual and environmental variables grows, enabling predictions regarding the form of interaction and the extent of effects, the Bayesian approach could emerge as a feasible and readily applicable solution to numerous computational challenges inherent in existing frequentist methods. This approach holds promise for enhancing the trustworthiness of research outcomes, thereby impacting clinical and applied understanding.

Adolescent Cultural Identity Development in Context: The Dynamic Interplay of the Identity Project With Classroom Cultural Diversity Climate in Italy and Germany.

While both the classroom cultural diversity climate and curriculum-based interventions can promote cultural identity development, they have not been studied together. Drawing on theories of ethnic-racial identity development, the current study aimed to understand the dynamic interplay of a curriculum-based intervention (the Identity Project) with the classroom cultural diversity climate (heritage culture and intercultural learning, critical consciousness socialization and equal treatment) on cultural identity exploration and resolution. Our sample included 906 mid-adolescents in Italy (32.36% immigrant descent, Mage (SD) = 15.12 (0.68) years, 51.73% female), and 504 early adolescents in Germany (53.86% immigrant descent, Mage (SD) = 12.82 (0.89) years, 42.37% female). Bayesian multivariate linear models show that the Identity Project and a stronger critical consciousness climate in the classroom before the intervention promoted cultural identity exploration at post-test in both countries. However, effects of the intervention and facets of the diversity climate on subsequent resolution were only observed in Italy. There was some evidence that the intervention could alter the classroom cultural diversity climate in Germany, while the intervention could compensate for a less positive diversity climate in the slightly older sample in Italy. Thus, it seems promising to systematically build in opportunities to engage with students' diverse heritage cultures and identities when developing new curricula, as well as to train teachers to implement such curricula.

Menstrual cycle-driven vs noncyclical daily changes in sexual desire.

BACKGROUND: Past research on the association between sexual desire and the menstrual cycle has provided inconclusive results and has not considered the potential influence of psychological and physical changes that are frequently associated with the menstrual cycle. AIM: To test the strength of association between the menstrual cycle (and associated symptoms) and changes in sexual desire. METHODS: Prospective daily reports across 2 full menstrual cycles (2 months) from a sample of female university students (n = 213), were analysed. Analyses tested for average effects of the menstrual cycle on sexual desire, individual differences in these effects, and cyclical and noncyclical associations between sexual desire and the 9 menstrual cycle-related changes. Note that data presented in the current article come from a larger study from which other reports have been published. OUTCOMES: Target variables were (1) daily change in sexual desire and (2) daily reports of 5 psychological changes and 4 physical changes that are commonly associated with the menstrual cycle. RESULTS: Results showed that when considering average effects across participants, the menstrual cycle was associated with a small midcycle increase in sexual desire. However, multilevel analyses showed large individual differences in how the menstrual cycle influences sexual desire. Specifically, some participants showed a midcycle increase, others a perimenstrual increase, and others no change across the menstrual cycle. Moreover, results demonstrated that psychological changes were more important for predicting sexual desire as compared with physical changes. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: These results suggest that daily measurement of sexual desire across multiple menstrual cycles may be an important tool in the assessment of sexual desire among some females. STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS: Strengths of this study are the daily assessment of sexual desire and all symptoms for 2 menstrual cycles and multilevel analyses that allow the study of individual differences. Limitations include limited measurement of sexual desire based on only 2 questions and the lack of measures of relationship status and sexual orientation. CONCLUSION: Emphasis is placed on the need to apply more rigorous research methods and to abandon simplistic average-effects models that are based on outdated theories and stereotypes.

Efficacy of a cultural adaptation of the Identity Project intervention among adolescents attending multiethnic classrooms in Italy: A randomized controlled trial.

This registered report evaluated the efficacy of an Italian adaptation of the Identity Project, a school-based intervention promoting adolescents' cultural identity. Migration background and environmental sensitivity were explored as moderators. After adapting and piloting the intervention, a randomized controlled trial was conducted between October 2021 and January 2022 on 747 ethnically diverse adolescents (Mage = 15 years, 53% girls, 31% with migration background) attending 45 classrooms randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition. Bayesian analyses confirmed the efficacy of the Italian IP in enhancing exploration processes (Cohen's d = .18), whereas no cascading effect on resolution emerged. Youth with higher (vs. lower) levels of environmental sensitivity benefited more in terms of exploration. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

Assessing of the Italian version of the Memory Strategy Test (TMS) in people with Parkinson disease: a preliminary descriptive psychometric study.

BACKGROUND: Previous literature has shown that executive functions (EF) are related to performance in memory (M) tasks. The Test of Memory strategies (TMS) is a psychometric test that examines EF and M simultaneously and it was recently validated on an Italian healthy cohort. The first aim of the study was to apply TMS, for the first time, on a sample of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), who are characterized by mild cognitive impairment. The second aim is to investigate whether TMS scores can discriminate PD patients from healthy controls. METHOD: Ninety-eight subjects were enrolled, including 68 patients with PD, and 30 Italian healthy controls (HC), who also underwent a memory evaluation through well-known tests. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated that TMS of PD patients had a bi-dimensional structure as previously found in healthy cohort. In detail, The TMS-1 and TMS-2 lists require greater involvement of the EF factor, while TMS-3, TMS-4 and TMS-5 the M factor. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and precision-recall (PR) curves showed that the M subscale can distinguish between HC and PD, while EF had poor discrimination power. CONCLUSION: The hypothesized prediction model of TMS test seems to have adequate ability to discriminate PD from HC especially for the M function.

s-CRIq: the online short version of the Cognitive Reserve Index Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: The wide use of the term Cognitive Reserve (CR) is in need of a clear and shared definition of its concept and of the development of new tools, quick and easy to use and updated for the people of today. This study describes the online short CRIq (s-CRIq), the new shorter version of the CRIq, following an item analysis revision, and compares the data distribution of different samples. METHODS: The s-CRIq was administered online to 435 people while another 440 filled out the s-CRIq in self-administration. A further 588 participants had been administered the original paper-and-pencil long CRIq and 344 the online long CRIq. RESULTS: The major difference in the databases of s-CRIq versus the long versions is an increased score in education and in leisure activity. However, the density distributions of the total score of CRI in the 4 databases share 64% of their areas, and at least two of them share 84%. CONCLUSION: The s-CRIq proved to be a simple and easy-to-administer tool. Similarly, to the original version, the s-CRIq is freely available on the web, and it is our hope that it will be of fruitful use for researchers and clinicians alike.

Investigating sensitivity through the lens of parents: validation of the parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Child scale.

Children differ in their environmental sensitivity (ES), which can be measured observationally or by self-report questionnaire. A parent-report scale represents an important tool for investigating ES in younger children but has to be psychometrically robust and valid. In the current multistudy, we validated the parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC-PR) scale in Italian children, evaluating its factorial structure (Study 1, N = 1,857, 6.2 years, age range: 2.6-14 years) through a multigroup Confirmatory Factory Analysis in preschoolers (n = 1,066, 4.2 years) and school-age children (n = 791, 8.8 years). We then investigated the HSC-PR relationship with established temperament traits (Study 2, N = 327, 4.3 years), before exploring whether the scale moderates the effects of parenting stress on children's emotion regulation (Study 3, N = 112, 6.5 years). We found support for a bi-factor structure in both groups, though in preschoolers minor adaptations were suggested for one item. Importantly, the HSC-PR did not fully overlap with common temperament traits and moderated the effects of parenting stress on children emotion regulation. To conclude, the HSC-PR performs well and appears to capture ES in children.

The role of environmental sensitivity in the development of rumination and depressive symptoms in childhood: a longitudinal study.

Some children are more affected than others by their upbringing due to their increased sensitivity to the environment. More sensitive children are at heightened risk for the development of internalizing problems, particularly when experiencing unsupportive parenting. However, little is known about how the interplay between children's sensitivity and parenting leads to higher levels of depressive symptoms. In the current study, we investigated the interaction between early parenting and children's sensitivity on levels of depressive symptomatology in middle childhood, exploring the role of rumination as a possible mediator in a community sample. Participants included 196 USA resident families, from a middle class and mostly European-American background, and their healthy children, followed up from age 3 until 9 and 12 years. Environmental sensitivity was assessed observationally when children were 3 years old. Parenting style was based on parent-report at the age of 3 years. When children were nine, they completed questionnaires on rumination and depressive symptoms (repeated at 12 years). Analyses were run applying a Bayesian approach. Children's sensitivity interacted with permissive parenting in predicting rumination at age 9. Rumination, in turn, was associated with depressive symptoms at age 9 and, to a lesser extent, at age 12. No relevant interactions emerged for authoritative and authoritarian parenting. Sensitive children may be at heightened risk for internalizing problems when exposed to a permissive parenting style. Permissive parenting was associated with increased ruminative coping strategies in sensitive children which, in turn, predicted higher levels of depression. Hence, rumination emerged as an important cognitive risk factor for the development of depressive symptoms in sensitive children.

The Short Forms of the Hewitt and Flett's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale: Which Factor Structure Better Fits Italian Data?

One of the most used instruments to assess perfectionism is Hewitt and Flett's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HFMPS). This article reports result of two studies aimed at evaluating and comparing two short HFMPS versions provided by literature in Italian samples. In Study 1, two previously proposed short forms-Cox and colleagues' and Hewitt and colleagues'-were compared in terms of factor structure and concurrent validity in a community sample of 324 participants. In Study 2, validity and reliability of the two short scales in 102 university students and 58 patients with a primary diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder were examined. Results revealed mixed findings concerning which of the two short form should be preferred.

Goth Music and Depressive Symptoms among Adolescents: A Longitudinal Study.

Identification with Goth youth culture has been related to elevated levels of depression, self-harm and suicide ideation. However, this identification may be difficult to assess as Goth is stigmatized and adolescents may hesitate to self-identify. Conversely, adolescents readily respond to questions on their music preferences. This study addresses the potential link between liking Goth music and depressive symptoms in a four-year study among 10 to 15-year-olds (N = 940, M age = 12.4 at T1, 49% female). In this study, it was found that Goth music is only liked by a small minority of adolescents (4 to 11%). Both girls and boys who liked Goth music reported increased levels of depressive symptoms as they grew older. The findings of this study suggest that a preference for Goth music emerges as an early, sensitive marker of dormant or developing depressive symptoms in adolescents. The mechanisms through which music preferences can translate into or sustain depressive symptoms are discussed.

Dyslexia treatment studies: A systematic review and suggestions on testing treatment efficacy with small effects and small samples.

Poor response to treatment is a defining characteristic of reading disorder. In the present systematic review and meta-analysis, we found that the overall average effect size for treatment efficacy was modest, with a mean standardized difference of 0.38. Small true effects, combined with the difficulty to recruit large samples, seriously challenge researchers planning to test treatment efficacy in dyslexia and potentially in other learning disorders. Nonetheless, most published studies claim effectiveness, generally based on liberal use of multiple testing. This inflates the risk that most statistically significant results are associated with overestimated effect sizes. To enhance power, we propose the strategic use of repeated measurements with mixed-effects modelling. This novel approach would enable us to estimate both individual parameters and population-level effects more reliably. We suggest assessing a reading outcome not once, but three times, at pre-treatment and three times at post-treatment. Such design would require only modest additional efforts compared to current practices. Based on this, we performed ad hoc a priori design analyses via simulation studies. Results showed that using the novel design may allow one to reach adequate power even with low sample sizes of 30-40 participants (i.e., 15-20 participants per group) for a typical effect size of d = 0.38. Nonetheless, more conservative assumptions are warranted for various reasons, including a high risk of publication bias in the extant literature. Our considerations can be extended to intervention studies of other types of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Past Life Experiences and Neurological Recovery: The Role of Cognitive Reserve in the Rehabilitation of Severe Post-Anoxic Encephalopathy and Traumatic Brain Injury.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with an equivalent clinical background may show unexpected interindividual differences in their outcome. The cognitive reserve (CR) model has been proposed to account for such discrepancies, but its role after acquired severe injuries is still being debated. We hypothesize that inappropriate investigative methods might have been used when dealing with severe patients, which have very likely reduced the possibility of observing meaningful influences in recovery from severe traumas. METHODS: To overcome this issue, the potential neuroprotective role of CR was investigated, considering a wider spectrum of clinical symptoms ranging from low-level brain stem functions necessary for life to more complex motor and cognitive skills. In the present study, data from 50 severe patients, 20 suffering from post-anoxic encephalopathy (PAE) and 30 with traumatic brain injury (TBI), were collected and retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: We found that CR, diagnosis, time of hospitalization, and their interaction had an effect on the clinical indexes. When the predictive power of CR was investigated by means of two machine learning classifier algorithms, CR, together with age, emerged as the strongest factor in discriminating between patients who reached or did not reach successful recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the present study highlights a possible role of CR in shaping the recovery of severe patients suffering from either PAE or TBI. The practical implications underlying the need to routinely considered CR in the clinical practice are discussed.

Perinatal psychological well-being in women with zero postnatal anxiety-depressive symptoms scores: a retrospective descriptive study.

Background: A total absence of psychological symptoms during pregnancy or postpartum period is not common. Although there are some considerations on zero scores detected by EPDS, no thorough analysis is currently present in the literature of the eventuality and meaning of a total absence of postpartum symptoms following the compilation of two or more self-report symptom questionnaires.Methods: In a sample of 960 Italian women, three groups of 31 subjects are defined retrospectively by scores on the EPDS-GHQ12: women with 'zero', 'lower', and 'higher' postnatal symptomatology. The psychological well-being of these groups was compared as detected in pregnancy and after childbirth by PWB questionnaire.Results: Higher and excessive scores in Environmental mastery dimension connote the profile of women with a total absence of postpartum anxiety-depression symptoms. Positive relations with other dimension were less characterising, but it should be noted as a distinctive trait in the 'zero' symptoms postnatal symptomatology group. In the same 'zero' group, the scores of the six PWB questionnaire dimensions - except Personal growth - are all higher than the scores obtained by women in the general population.Conclusion: The atypical self-reported perinatal mood condition present in the 'zero' symptoms group have currently unknown clinical significance.

A Maximum Entropy Procedure to Solve Likelihood Equations.

In this article, we provide initial findings regarding the problem of solving likelihood equations by means of a maximum entropy (ME) approach. Unlike standard procedures that require equating the score function of the maximum likelihood problem at zero, we propose an alternative strategy where the score is instead used as an external informative constraint to the maximization of the convex Shannon's entropy function. The problem involves the reparameterization of the score parameters as expected values of discrete probability distributions where probabilities need to be estimated. This leads to a simpler situation where parameters are searched in smaller (hyper) simplex space. We assessed our proposal by means of empirical case studies and a simulation study, the latter involving the most critical case of logistic regression under data separation. The results suggested that the maximum entropy reformulation of the score problem solves the likelihood equation problem. Similarly, when maximum likelihood estimation is difficult, as is the case of logistic regression under separation, the maximum entropy proposal achieved results (numerically) comparable to those obtained by the Firth's bias-corrected approach. Overall, these first findings reveal that a maximum entropy solution can be considered as an alternative technique to solve the likelihood equation.

Adolescent Gambling-Oriented Attitudes Mediate the Relationship Between Perceived Parental Knowledge and Adolescent Gambling: Implications for Prevention.

Although substantial research has provided support for the association between parental practices and adolescent gambling, less is known about the role of adolescent attitudes in this relationship. The primary purpose of this study was to test an integrative model linking perceived parental knowledge (children's perceptions of their parents' knowledge of their whereabouts and companions) with adolescent gambling while evaluating the mediating effects of adolescents' own gambling approval, risk perception of gambling, and descriptive norms on gambling shared with friends. The data were drawn from the ESPAD® Italia 2012 (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) study, which is based on a nationally representative sample of Italian adolescent students aged 15-19. The analysis was carried out on a subsample of 19,573 subjects (average age 17.11, 54 % girls). Self-completed questionnaires were administered in the classroom setting. The results revealed that adolescents who perceived higher levels of parental knowledge were more likely to disapprove of gambling and show higher awareness of its harmfulness, which were in turn negatively related to gambling frequency. They were also less likely to perceive their friends as gamblers, which was also negatively related to gambling frequency. These findings suggest that gambling prevention efforts should consider perceived parental knowledge and gambling-oriented attitudes (self-approval, risk perception, and descriptive norms) as factors that may buffer adolescent gambling behavior in various situations.

The impact of menstrual cycle-related physical symptoms on daily activities and psychological wellness among adolescent girls.

Associations between perimenstrual physical and psychological symptoms have not been adequately studied among adolescent girls. The purpose of the present study was to test a mediation hypothesis postulating that perimenstrual disengagement from daily activities would mediate the association between physical symptoms and psychological symptoms. A non-clinical sample of N = 208 Italian adolescent girls (age M = 16.68 years) completed a 95-item online retrospective questionnaire regarding perimenstrual symptoms, and how these symptoms affect their daily activities. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the mediation hypothesis. Results showed that physical and psychological symptoms were strongly associated. More importantly, results supported the hypothesis that perimenstrual disengagement from daily activities mediates the association between physical symptoms and psychological symptoms, but only for depressed mood and cognitive symptoms. This study provides support for a novel theoretical framework linking diverse aspects of menstrual cycle change. Longitudinal research is needed to replicate these findings.

First learned words are not forgotten: Age-of-acquisition effects in the tip-of-the-tongue experience.

A large body of evidence indicates that the age at which a word is acquired predicts the time required to retrieve that word during speech production. Here we explored whether age of acquisition also predicts the experience of being unable to produce a known word at a particular moment. Italian speakers named a sequence of pictures in Experiment 1 or retrieved a word as a response to a definition in Experiment 2. In both experiments, the participants were instructed to indicate when they were in a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state. Generalized mixed-effects models performed on the TOT and correct responses revealed that word frequency and age of acquisition predicted the TOT states. Specifically, low-frequency words elicited more TOTs than did high-frequency words, replicating previous findings. In addition, late-acquired words elicited more TOTs than did early-acquired words. Further analyses revealed that the age of acquisition was a better predictor of TOTs than was word frequency. The effects of age of acquisition were similar with subjective and objective measures of age of acquisition, and persisted when several psycholinguistic variables were taken into consideration as predictors in the generalized mixed-effects models. We explained these results in terms of weaker semantic-to-phonological connections in the speech production system for late-acquired words.

Transcranial direct current stimulation and cognitive training in the rehabilitation of Alzheimer disease: A case study.

In the present study we tested the cognitive effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a case of probable Alzheimer disease (AD). The patient (male, 60 years, mild AD) underwent two cycles of treatments, separated by 2 months. In the first cycle, active stimulation (10 sessions, 2 mA for 20 min; anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) was followed by computerised tasks (CTs) specifically chosen to engage the most impaired cognitive processes in the patient (tDCS+CT condition). In the second cycle, which was structured as the first, CTs were administered after placebo stimulation (sham+CT condition). Effects on cognitive performance were evaluated not only by the CTs, but also by neuropsychological tests assessing global cognitive functioning. Statistical analyses revealed that whereas the tDCS+CT condition had few effects on the CTs, it induced a stability of the patient's global cognitive functioning lasting approximately 3 months, which was not achieved when the patient underwent sham+CT condition. Therefore, the synergetic use of tDCS and CTs appeared to slow down the cognitive decline of our patient. This preliminary result, although in need of further confirmation, suggests the potentiality of tDCS as an adjuvant tool for cognitive rehabilitation in AD.

The contribution of general cognitive abilities and approximate number system to early mathematics.

BACKGROUND: Math learning is a complex process that entails a wide range of cognitive abilities to be fulfilled. There is sufficient evidence that both general and specific cognitive skills assume a fundamental role, despite the absence of shared consensus about the relative extent of their involvement. Moreover, regarding general abilities, there is no agreement about the recruitment of the different memory components or of intelligence. In relation to specific factors, great debate subsists regarding the role of the approximate number system (ANS). AIMS: Starting from these considerations, we wanted to conduct a wide assessment of memory components and ANS, by controlling for the effects associated with intelligence and also exploring possible relationships between all precursors. SAMPLE AND METHOD: To achieve this purpose, a sample of 157 children was tested at both beginning and end of their Grade 1. Both general (memory and intelligence) and specific (ANS) precursors were evaluated by a wide battery of tests and put in relation to concurrent and subsequent math skills. Memory was explored in passive and active aspects involving both verbal and visuo-spatial components. RESULTS: Path analysis results demonstrated that memory, and especially the more active processes, and intelligence were the strongest precursors in both assessment times. ANS had a milder role which lost significance by the end of the school year. Memory and ANS seemed to influence early mathematics almost independently. CONCLUSION: Both general and specific precursors seemed to have a crucial role in early math competences, despite the lower involvement of ANS.