Economic Pressure and Loneliness in Migrant Children in China: The Mediating Roles of Parent-Child Communication and Parental Warmth.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the mediating roles of parent-child communication and parental warmth in the relationship between economic pressure and loneliness in a sample of migrant children in China. A total of 437 participants were selected from two public schools for migrant children in Zhejiang Province, China. All participants were asked to complete four measures, including the Perceived Economic Strain Scale, the Parent-Child Communication Questionnaire, the Parental Warmth Scale, and the Children's Loneliness Scale. The results showed that economic pressure was positively and directly related to loneliness. Furthermore, parent-child communication and parental warmth partially mediated the relationship between economic pressure and loneliness in migrant children. Thus, parent-child communication and parental warmth play important roles in reducing the negative effect of economic pressure on loneliness in migrant children.

Parent-child communication and self-esteem mediate the relationship between interparental conflict and children's depressive symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has paid little attention to the series mediating effect of parent-child communication and self-esteem in the relationship between interparental conflict and child outcomes, although several other mechanisms have been found to involve in this relationship. Thus, the purpose of the present study is to test these two factors' serial mediation of the relationship between interparental conflict and children's depressive symptoms in a sample of migrant children in China. METHODS: Four hundred thirty-seven participants from two public schools for migrant children in Zhejiang Province, China, were administered four measures including the Children's Perceptions of Interparental Conflict Scale, the Parent-child Communication Questionnaire, the Global Self-esteem Scale, and the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children. RESULTS: Results showed that interparental conflict was positively related to depressive symptoms in migrant children, which was partially and serially mediated by parent-child communication and self-esteem in that order. CONCLUSIONS: Parent-child communication and self-esteem play potential roles in the relationship between interparental conflict and depressive symptoms of migrant children in China. This finding has important implications for psychological service providers working with this group of children or children in similar situations.

Stereotype activation is unintentional: Behavioural and event-related potenials evidence.

In this study, a priming Stroop paradigm was used to determine whether stereotype activation is unintentional. Priming conditions (priming/no-priming) and the relationship between priming and target (consistent/inconsistent/no-relation) were the independent variables; accuracy, reaction time and N400 amplitude were used as dependent variables. The reaction time revealed that stereotype activation is, to some extent, unintentional. Furthermore, the event-related potenial (ERP) results showed that N400 amplitude was larger for inconsistent conditions than for consistent conditions. This result supported the notion that stereotype activation is an unintentional and automatic process.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL IDENTITY AND SELF-ESTEEM AMONG CHINESE UYGHUR COLLEGE STUDENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ACCULTURATION ATTITUDES.

Most acculturation research throughout the world has been conducted in immigrant settings. In order to examine the generalizability of the previous conclusions in immigrant settings, the present study tried to explore the relationship between cultural identity and self-esteem and the mediating role of acculturation attitudes in China. Using the cross-sectional design, a total number of 342 Uyghur college students were asked to complete a survey comprising the Multi-Group Ethnic/National Identity Measure-Revised Scale, the Acculturation Attitudes Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Using hierarchical multiple regression, the results indicated that cultural identity was positively correlated with self-esteem. A significant mediation of acculturation was observed between cultural identity and self-esteem. These findings demonstrated the significance of cultural identity and acculturation attitudes in the adaptation of Chinese Uyghur college students, in which integration is an optimal acculturation attitude.

The GABRB1 gene is associated with thalamus volume and modulates the association between thalamus volume and intelligence.

The GABRB1 gene encodes the beta 1 subunit of the gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor (GABA A receptor), which is responsible for mediating inhibitory neurotransmission in the thalamus. Potential relationships between the GABRB1 gene, thalamus volume, and intelligence have been suggested by previous clinical studies, but have not been directly examined among nonclinical samples. The current study collected structural MRI, genetic, and behavioral data from 316 healthy Chinese adults (including 187 females and 129 males), and examined associations between GABRB1 variants, thalamus volume, and intelligence (measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised). After controlling for intracranial volume, sex, and age, GABRB1 genetic polymorphism at the SNP rs7435958 had the strongest association with thalamus volume (p = 0.002 and 0.00008 for left and right thalamus volumes, respectively), with GG homozygotes having smaller bilateral thalamus volumes than the other genotypes. Furthermore, there were positive correlations between bilateral thalamus volumes and intelligence, especially for GABRB1 rs7435958 GG female homozygotes (r's = 0.31 and 0.29, p < 0.01, for the correlations of intelligence with left and right thalamus volumes, respectively). This study provides the first evidence for the involvement of the GABRB1 gene in the thalamus structure and their interactive effects on intelligence. Future studies of the thalamus-intelligence associations should consider genetic factors as potential moderators.

The SEMA5A gene is associated with hippocampal volume, and their interaction is associated with performance on Raven's Progressive Matrices.

The Allen Brain Atlas shows that the semaphorin 5A (SEMA5A) gene, which encodes an important protein for neurogenesis and neuronal apoptosis, is predominantly expressed in the human hippocampus. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies have further shown that the hippocampus plays an important role in the performance on Raven's Progressive Matrices (RPM), a measure of reasoning ability and general fluid intelligence. Thus far, however, no study has examined the relationships between the SEMA5A gene polymorphism, hippocampal volume, and RPM performance. The current study collected both structural MRI, genetic, and behavioral data in 329 healthy Chinese adults, and examined associations between SEMA5A variants, hippocampal volume, and performance on RAPM (the advanced form of RPM). After controlling for intracranial volume (ICV), sex, and age, SEMA5A genetic polymorphism at the SNP rs42352 had the strongest association with hippocampal volume (p=0.00000552 and 0.000103 for right and left hippocampal volumes, respectively), with TT homozygotes having higher hippocampal volume than the other genotypes. Furthermore, there was a high correlation between right hippocampal volume and RAPM performance (r=0.42, p=0.0000509) for SEMA5A rs42352 TT homozygotes. This study provides the first evidence for the involvement of the SEMA5A gene in hippocampal structure and their interaction on RAPM performance. Future studies of the hippocampus-RPM associations should consider genetic factors as potential moderators.

Lax decision criteria lead to negativity bias: evidence from the emotional stroop task.

Negativity bias means that negative information is usually given more emphasis than comparable positive information. Under signal detection theory, recent research found that people more frequently and incorrectly identify negative task-related words as having been presented originally than positive words, even when they were not presented. That is, people have lax decision criteria for negative words. However, the response biases for task-unrelated negative words and for emotionally important words are still unclear. This study investigated response bias for these two kinds of words. Study 1 examined the response bias for task-unrelated negative words using an emotional Stroop task. Proportions of correct recognition to negative and positive words were assessed by non-parametric signal detection analysis. Participants have lower (i.e., more lax) decision criteria for task-unrelated negative words than for positive words. Study 2 supported and expanded this result by investigating participants' response bias for highly emotional words. Participants have lower decision criteria for highly emotional words than for less emotional words. Finally, possible evolutionary sources of the response bias were discussed.

True but not false memories are associated with the HTR2A gene.

Previous research reported that serotonin receptor 2A gene (HTR2A) polymorphisms were associated with memory. However, it is unknown whether these genetic variants were associated with both true and false memories. The current study of 336 Han Chinese subjects tested 30 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the HTR2A gene for potential associations with true and false memories. False memories were assessed using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, in which people falsely remember semantically related (but unpresented) words. We found that 11 SNPs within the HTR2A gene were associated with true memory (p=0.000076-0.043). The associations between true memory and seven adjacent SNPs (i.e., rs1923888, rs1745837, rs9567739, rs3742279, rs655888, rs655854, and rs2296972) were still significant after multiple testing corrections. Haplotype-based association analysis revealed that, true memory was positively associated with haplotype A-C-C-G-C-T-A for these seven adjacent SNPs (p=0.000075), which was still significant after multiple testing correction. Only one SNP rs655854 was associated with false memory (p=0.023), and it was not significant after multiple testing correction. This study replicates, in an Asian population, that genetic variation in HTR2A is associated with episodic memory, and also suggests that this association is restricted to true memory.

The relationship between DRM and misinformation false memories.

This research investigated the relationship between false memories induced by two different paradigms (misinformation and Deese-Roediger-McDermott [DRM]). The misinformation effect refers to the phenomenon that a person's recollection of a witnessed event can be altered after exposure to misleading information about the event. DRM false memory represents the intrusion of words that are semantically related but not actually presented in the study session. Subjects (N = 432) completed both misinformation and DRM false memory tests. Results showed a small but significant correlation (r = .12, p = .02) between the misinformation and DRM false memories. Furthermore, using signal detection theory, we found that the discrimination ability index (d') was related to both the misinformation and DRM false memories (r = -.12 and -.13, p = .01), while the response bias was related only to DRM false memory (r = -.46, p < .001). These results suggest that misinformation and DRM false memories generally involve different mechanisms and that their shared mechanism may involve the global discrimination ability.

Prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms among child survivors 1 year following the Wenchuan earthquake in China.

The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence rates of probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression and to explore potential risk factors among child and adolescent survivors 1 year following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. 3052 participants were administered the Child PTSD Symptom Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children, and the earthquake experience scale. Results indicated that the prevalence rates of probable PTSD and depression were 8.6 and 42.5%, respectively. Demographic variables (i.e., age and gender) and most aspects of earthquake experiences (i.e., direct exposure, close ones' exposure, fear for the safety of close ones, prior exposure to trauma, living location, and house damage, with the exception of type of housing) made unique contributions to PTSD and depressive symptoms. In addition, the moderating effect of gender on the relationships between age and PTSD and depressive symptoms was significant. In conclusion, depression was a more common psychological response than was PTSD among child survivors 1 year following the Wenchuan earthquake. Age and gender were risk factors for both PTSD and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, older female survivors exhibit more severe PTSD and depressive symptoms. Additionally, several aspects of earthquake experiences (i.e., direct exposure, close ones' exposure, fear for the safety of close ones, prior exposure to trauma, living location, and house damage) was also important for the development and maintenance of PTSD and depressive symptoms.

The longitudinal associations between PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout in adolescence and early adulthood in the postdisaster context.

The current study examined the longitudinal associations among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout in a sample of survivors aged 12 to 20 years following the Wenchuan earthquake. The present study had a longitudinal design. A total of 788 participants (Mage = 15.03 years, SD = 1.64; 54.8 % female) completed measures of PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout at 12, 18, and 24 months after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China. The results showed that the only cross-lagged effects from PTSD to depressive symptoms, from academic burnout to depressive symptoms or from PTSD symptoms to academic burnout at the first interval and the second interval were significant. Furthermore, the longitudinal associations among PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and academic burnout remained consistent between the different age groups but varied across genders. That is, in male adolescents, only the cross-lagged effects from PTSD symptoms to depressive symptoms and from PTSD symptoms to academic burnout at the first and second intervals were significant. In female adolescents, only the cross-lagged effects from academic burnout to depressive symptoms and from academic burnout to PTSD symptoms at the first and second intervals were significant. Finally, these findings highlight that academic burnout is a useful target for psychological service providers to alleviate PTSD and depressive symptoms in adolescents in a post-disaster context. In addition, PTSD symptoms may also negatively affect adolescents' performance at school.

Genetic variations in the dopamine system and facial expression recognition in healthy chinese college students.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the relation between genetic variations in the dopamine system and facial expression recognition. METHODS: A sample of Chinese college students (n = 478) was given a facial expression recognition task. Subjects were genotyped for 98 loci [96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2 variable number tandem repeats] in 16 genes involved in the dopamine neurotransmitter system, including its 4 subsystems: synthesis (TH, DDC, and DBH), degradation/transport (COMT,MAOA,MAOB, and SLC6A3), receptors (DRD1,DRD2,DRD3,DRD4, and DRD5), and modulation (NTS,NTSR1,NTSR2, and NLN). To quantify the total contributions of the dopamine system to emotion recognition, we used a series of multiple regression models. Permutation analyses were performed to assess the posterior probabilities of obtaining such results. RESULTS: Among the 78 loci that were included in the final analyses (after excluding 12 SNPs that were in high linkage disequilibrium and 8 that were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium), 1 (for fear), 3 (for sadness), 5 (for anger), 13 (for surprise), and 15 (for disgust) loci exhibited main effects on the recognition of facial expressions. Genetic variations in the dopamine system accounted for 3% for fear, 6% for sadness, 7% for anger, 10% for surprise, and 18% for disgust, with the latter surviving a stringent permutation test. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic variations in the dopamine system (especially the dopamine synthesis and modulation subsystems) made significant contributions to individual differences in the recognition of disgust faces.

Individual differences in false memory from misinformation: cognitive factors.

This research investigated the cognitive correlates of false memories that are induced by the misinformation paradigm. A large sample of Chinese college students (N=436) participated in a misinformation procedure and also took a battery of cognitive tests. Results revealed sizable and systematic individual differences in false memory arising from exposure to misinformation. False memories were significantly and negatively correlated with measures of intelligence (measured with Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), perception (Motor-Free Visual Perception Test, Change Blindness, and Tone Discrimination), memory (Wechsler Memory Scales and 2-back Working Memory tasks), and face judgement (Face Recognition and Facial Expression Recognition). These findings suggest that people with relatively low intelligence and poor perceptual abilities might be more susceptible to the misinformation effect.

False belief reasoning in the brain: an ERP study.

Understanding others mind and interpersonal interaction are the cognitive basis of successful social interactions. People's mental states and behaviors rely on their holding beliefs for self and others. To investigate the neural substrates of false belief reasoning, the 32 channels event-related potentials (ERP) of 14 normal adults were measured while they understood false-belief and true belief used deceptive appearance task. After onset of the false-belief or true-belief questions, N100, P200 and late negative component (LNC) were elicited at centro-frontal sites. Compared with true belief, false belief reasoning elicited significant declined LNC in the time window from 400 to 800 ms. The source analysis of difference wave (False minus True) showed a dipole located in the middle cingulated cortex. These findings show that false belief reasoning probably included inhibitive process.

The Choline Acetyltransferase (CHAT) Gene is Associated with Parahippocampal and Hippocampal Structure and Short-term Memory Span.

The CHAT gene encodes choline acetyltransferase, which is an enzyme responsible for the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain. This study collected structural MRI, genetic, and behavioral data from 324 healthy Chinese adults, and examined the associations between CHAT genetic variants, parahippocampal and hippocampal structure, and short-term memory span. After controlling for intracranial volume, sex, and age, CHAT SNP rs12246528 had the strongest association with parahippocampal structure, with the A allele being linked to smaller volume, surface area, and thickness. SNP rs1917814 had the strongest association with hippocampal volume, with the T allele being linked to larger hippocampal volume. After controlling for sex and age, CHAT rs3729496 had the strongest association with memory span, with the T allele being associated with a greater memory span. Finally, the left parahippocampal gyrus surface area was positively associated with memory span. This study provides the first evidence for the involvement of the CHAT gene in parahippocampal and hippocampal structures and memory span in healthy Chinese adults.

Intellectual factors in false memories of patients with schizophrenia.

The current study explored the intellectual factors in false memories of 139 patients with schizophrenia, using a recognition task and an IQ test. The full-scale IQ score of the participants ranged from 57 to 144 (M = 100, SD = 14). The full IQ score had a negative correlation with false recognition in patients with schizophrenia, and positive correlations with high-confidence true recognition and discrimination rates. Further analyses with the subtests' scores revealed that false recognition was negatively correlated with scores of performance IQ (and one of its subtests: picture arrangement), whereas true recognition was positively correlated with scores of verbal IQ (and two of its subtests: information and digit span). High-IQ patients had less false recognition (overall or high-confidence false recognition), more high-confidence true recognition, and higher discrimination abilities than those with low IQ. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive mechanism in false memory of patients with schizophrenia, and are of practical relevance to the evaluation of memory reliability in patients with different intellectual levels.

How do the hierarchical levels of premises affect category-based induction: diverging effects from the P300 and N400.

Although a number of studies have explored the time course of category-based induction, little is known about how the hierarchical levels (superordinate, basic, subordinate) of premises affect category-based induction. The EEG data were recorded when nineteen healthy human participants were performing a simplified category-based induction task. The ERP results showed that: in the subordinate conclusion condition, the basic premise elicited a larger N400, versus the superordinate promise; in the basic conclusion condition, the superordinate promise elicited a larger P300 relative to both the basic premise and subordinate premise; in the superordinate conclusion condition, however, no difference was found between different promise. Furthermore, the process that reasoning from a higher level to a lower level evoked a larger P300, compared to it did in the reverse direction. The divergent evidence suggested that category-based induction at superordinate, basic, and subordinate levels might be affected by various factors, such as abstract level, direction, and distance between premise and conclusion, which yielded new insights into the neural underpinnings of category-based induction with different inductive strengths.

Longitudinal Relationships between Social Support and Posttraumatic Growth among Adolescent Survivors of the Wenchuan Earthquake.

This study aimed to explore the longitudinal relationships between social support and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among adolescent survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake. Follow-up assessments were conducted with 452 participants at 12, 18, and 24 months after the earthquake. The results showed that the level of social support at 12 and 18 months following the earthquake predicted subsequent PTG, but not vice versa. In addition, multi-group analyses of gender showed no gender differences between social support and PTG in the cross-lagged model. Thus, psychological interventions and care for survivors should focus on improving adolescent perceptions of social support when responding to stressful experiences.

How dispositional social risk-seeking promotes trusting strangers: Evidence based on brain potentials and neural oscillations.

Trust is a risky social decision because betrayal may occur. It's not clear how individual differences in social risk-seeking propensity modulate brain processes of trusting strangers. We examined event-related potentials and time-frequency power to investigate this question while 40 participants played the one-shot trust game. Twenty high social risk-seekers (HSR) and 20 low social risk-seekers (LSR) made trusting or distrusting decisions regarding unknown trustees while their electroencephalogram activity was recorded. At the decision-making stage, HSR participants exhibited a larger N2 and increased ß power following distrusting decisions than trusting decisions, suggesting greater cognitive control exerted to distrust. By contrast, no such N2 and ß differences were found for LSR participants. At the outcome evaluation stage, LSR participants exhibited a more negative-going difference wave between loss feedback-related negativity (FRN) and gain FRN (dFRN) and increased θ power (following losses compared to gains) than did HSR participants, indicating enhanced risk sensitivity of LSR people. Our findings provide insights into the mechanism by which social risk-taking facilitates trusting strangers. The results also shed light on the temporal course of brain activity involved in trust decision-making and outcome evaluation, as well as how individual differences modulate brain dynamics of trusting strangers. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ingroup/outgroup membership modulates fairness consideration: neural signatures from ERPs and EEG oscillations.

Previous studies have shown that ingroup/outgroup membership influences individual's fairness considerations. However, it is not clear yet how group membership influences brain activity when a recipient evaluates the fairness of asset distribution. In this study, subjects participated as recipients in an Ultimatum Game with alleged members of both an experimentally induced ingroup and outgroup. They either received extremely unequal, moderately unequal, or equal offers from proposers while electroencephalogram was recorded. Behavioral results showed that the acceptance rates for unequal offers were higher when interacting with ingroup partners than with outgroup partners. Analyses of event related potentials revealed that proposers' group membership modulated offer evaluation at earlier processing stages. Feedback-related negativity was more negative for extremely and moderately unequal offers compared to equal offers in the ingroup interaction whereas it did not show differential responses to different offers in the outgroup interaction. Analyses of event related oscillations revealed that the theta power (4-6 Hz) was larger for moderately unequal offers than equal offers in the ingroup interaction whereas it did not show differential responses to different offers in the outgroup interaction. Thus, early mechanisms of fairness evaluation are strongly modulated by the ingroup/outgroup membership of the interaction partner.