Pathway linking attachment styles to post-traumatic growth among recovered COVID-19 patients: testing the mediating role of coping styles.

Background: Research on post-disaster mental health shows that people have unique resources to undergo positive changes like posttraumatic growth (PTG) after facing adversities.Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment styles and PTG in COVID-19 survivors, with a focus on exploring the mediating role of coping strategies. Through examining these dynamics, the study seeks to contribute to deeper understanding of the psychological processes underlying growth in individuals recovering from the pandemic.Method: A total of 210 participants were enrolled from the hospitals in Tabriz, Iran, in January 2021, and completed self-report questionnaires. PTG, attachment styles, and coping strategies were assessed using Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI), Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the mediation models.Results: The direct effects of secure (ß = 0.22, p < .001), and ambivalent-anxious attachment (ß = -0.22, p < .001) on PTG were significant. Also, task-oriented coping significantly predicted PTG (ß = .60, p < .001). The direct path from secure (ß = 0.16, p < .05) and ambivalent-anxious attachment (ß = -0.38, p < .001) to task-oriented coping was significant, as was direct impact of secure (ß = -0.18, p < .01) and ambivalent-anxious attachment (ß = 0.37, p < .001) to emotion-oriented coping. The association between secure attachment and PTG is significantly mediated by task-oriented coping (ß = 0.1, (95% CI: 0.01-0.18)). Also, task-oriented coping was a significant negative mediator between ambivalent-anxious attachment and PTG (ß = -0.24, (95% CI: -0.33 - -0.15)).Conclusions: Results support the mediating role of coping strategies in the relationship between attachment styles and PTG. It emphasizes the importance of interventions for improving coping resources in individuals with life-threatening illnesses, focusing on improving problem-focused coping and reducing maladaptive strategies.

Individuals with secure attachment styles demonstrate significant positive posttraumatic growth following COVID-19 recovery.Problem focused coping plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between secure attachment style and posttraumatic growth in people who recovered from COVID-19.The findings suggest the importance of developing interventions to enhance coping resources for traumatized populations to facilitate posttraumatic growth.

Feedback-related negativity in perfectionists: An index of performance outcome evaluation.

It has been suggested that maladaptive perfectionists are more prone to concern over their performance outcomes than adaptive perfectionists. Performance outcome evaluation is reflected in the amplitude of feedback-related negativity (FRN) in brain electroencephalography (EEG). Hence, the amplitude of the FRN after receiving unfavorable feedback indicating a negative performance outcome may reflect personality characteristics. In other words, EEG could be a better marker of personality characteristics than self-report measures. However, the FRN component has not yet been investigated between different types of perfectionists. In the present study, group differences in the FRN were examined between two groups of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists and a group of non-perfectionists during a monetary gambling task. We observed a larger FRN amplitude for adaptive perfectionists than for maladaptive perfectionists. This finding is consistent with previous reports that reward prediction error is reflected in the amplitude of the FRN. This difference in FRN could be interpreted as the pessimistic outcome expectation biases in maladaptive perfectionists.

Somatization Mediates the Structural Relationship of Alexithymia with Anxiety and Depression.

Objective: The study of factors affecting anxiety and depression as the most common emotional disorders has always been at the forefront of psychological research. Among different factors, alexithymia and somatization have considerable importance due to their emotional nature with makes them more integrated with anxiety and depression. Several studies have demonstrated a link between these four concepts, but as far as we know, the quality of the relationship has not been addressed yet. The present paper aims to investigate the mediating role of somatization in the structural relationship of alexithymia with anxiety and depression. Method : A total of 334 college students were recruited through cluster sampling and were asked to complete the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Beck Depression Inventory - Second Edition (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Somatization Subscale from the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using correlational as well as structural equation modeling. Results: Based on the correlation analysis, there was significant relationship between alexithymia, somatization, anxiety, and depression. According to the results of regression weights, there is a moderate relationship between alexithymia and somatization (regression weight = 0.44). The relationship between somatization and depression is at moderate level (regression weight = 0.42) and the relationship of somatization with anxiety is at strong level (regression weight = 0.85). the goodness of fit indices for the hypothetical model showed significant coefficients at P < 0.05 (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.059). Conclusion: Findings indicated the important and influential role of somatization in explaining the relationship of alexithymia with anxiety and depression. Therefore, it seems that emotional components such as difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions as well as regulating mood states are important in the psychopathology of emotional disorders.

Facial Emotion Recognition Predicts Alexithymia Using Machine Learning.

OBJECTIVE: Alexithymia, as a fundamental notion in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, is characterized by deficits in emotional processing and, consequently, difficulties in emotion recognition. Traditional tools for assessing alexithymia, which include interviews and self-report measures, have led to inconsistent results due to some limitations as insufficient insight. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to propose a new screening tool that utilizes machine learning models based on the scores of facial emotion recognition task. METHOD: In a cross-sectional study, 55 students of the University of Tabriz were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and their scores in the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Then, they completed the somatization subscale of Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the facial emotion recognition (FER) task. Afterwards, support vector machine (SVM) and feedforward neural network (FNN) classifiers were implemented using K-fold cross validation to predict alexithymia, and the model performance was assessed with the area under the curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and F1-measure. RESULTS: The models yielded an accuracy range of 72.7-81.8% after feature selection and optimization. Our results suggested that ML models were able to accurately distinguish alexithymia and determine the most informative items for predicting alexithymia. CONCLUSION: Our results show that machine learning models using FER task, SCL-90-R, BDI-II, and BAI could successfully diagnose alexithymia and also represent the most influential factors of predicting it and can be used as a clinical instrument to help clinicians in diagnosis process and earlier detection of the disorder.

Cultural Aspects of Social Anxiety Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis of Anxiety Experiences and Interpretation.

Objective: Anxiety is a complex phenomenon on which culture has a prominent influence. The present study aimed to investigate the cultural aspects of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in an Iranian population. Method : A qualitative content analysis research was done to answer the study question. A total of 16 individuals with social anxiety disorder (six men and 10 women) were selected using purposeful sampling method (M = 24.43, SD = 4.56). The study was conducted in Tehran, Urmia, and Sanandaj- Iran. Participants were from different ethnic backgrounds (LOR, FARS, TURK, and KURD). Data were analyzed by thematic analysis using an inductive method. Results: Analysis of participants' records yielded five distinct categories with some subcategories, which are as follow: (1) anxiety experiences; (2) core beliefs; (3) reasons of being anxious; (4) effects of SAD on life aspects; and (5) coping strategies. Conclusion: It seems that symptoms of social anxiety and its underlying beliefs, causes and effects and coping strategies are almost experienced and interpreted in a way that could be the same as DSM-5 clinical presentation of social anxiety, with the exception that somatic symptoms are experienced by almost all participants.

Going global: do consumer preferences, attitudes, and barriers to using e-mental health services differ across countries?

BACKGROUND: e-Mental health services have the capacity to overcome barriers to care and reduce the unmet need for psychological services, particularly in developing countries. However, it is unknown how acceptable e-mental health interventions may be to these populations. AIMS: The purpose of the current study was to examine consumer attitudes and perceived barriers to e-mental health usage across four countries: Australia, Iran, the Philippines and South Africa. METHODS: An online survey was completed by 524 adults living in these countries, assessing previous contact with e-mental health services, willingness to use e-mental health services, and perceived barriers and needs for accessing e-mental health services. RESULTS: Although previous contact with e-mental health services was low, the majority of respondents in each sample reported a willingness to try e-mental health services if offered. Barriers toward e-mental health usage were higher among the developing countries than Australia. The most commonly endorsed barriers concerned needing information and assurances regarding the programmes. CONCLUSIONS: Across countries, participants indicated a willingness to use e-mental health programmes if offered. With appropriate research and careful implementation, e-mental health has the potential to be a valuable part of mental healthcare in developing countries.

Protocols for protection of human participants: a comparison of five countries.

Research ethics protocols relating to human participants were compared across five countries, namely, Australia, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. These countries were considered to be geographically and culturally diverse, as well as representing both developed and developing countries. The extent to which the research participant is protected across cultures and countries was investigated, with particular focus on the use of informed consent procedures. It was argued that current ethical guidelines and practices fail to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable participants within these cultures. Informed consent mechanisms also often fail to consider cultural differences in self-concept, understanding of research methods, and power differences between researchers and participants. Discussion of these ethical challenges and recommendations for research ethics development within these cultures and countries are discussed.