Striving to Avoid Inferiority and Procrastination among University Students: The Mediating Roles of Stress and Self-Control.

The current study intended to examine whether the relationship between university students' striving to avoid inferiority (SAI) and procrastination was serially mediated by stress and self-control. The sample consisted of 154 Hong Kong university students. Their levels of striving to avoid inferiority, stress, self-control, and procrastination were measured by the Striving to Avoid Inferiority Scale (SAIS), the stress subscale of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ), and the General Procrastination Scale (GPS), respectively. The results of structural equation modeling revealed that SAI positively predicted stress, stress negatively predicted self-control, and self-control negatively predicted procrastination. SAI did not directly predict procrastination. The results of bootstrapping analyses supported the hypotheses that the effect of stress on procrastination was mediated by self-control, the effect of SAI on self-control was mediated by stress, and more importantly, the effect of SAI on procrastination was serially mediated by stress and self-control. Further research is suggested to investigate the thoughts and feelings pertinent to procrastination and the actual duration of procrastination among university students.

Intimate Partner Violence Victimization, Social Support, and Resilience: Effects on the Anxiety Levels of Young Mothers.

Young mothers face considerable challenges that can affect their mental health, with anxiety being one of the most common mental health problems observed in this population. Furthermore, pregnancy is one of the risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). There is thus an urgent need to explore the IPV risk faced by young mothers and its association with their mental health, anxiety in particular. The study aimed to investigate the correlation between IPV victimization and anxiety in young mothers, as well as the protective effects of social support and resilience. A total of 79 young Chinese mothers aged 16 to 25 were recruited from a special service project for young parents in Hong Kong. Just more than half (50.6%) were found to have experienced psychological aggression by their current partner, with 26.6% and 13.9%, respectively, having experienced physical assault and sexual abuse. Roughly a quarter (25.3%) perceived themselves to suffer from moderate or severe generalized anxiety disorder. Logistic regression further showed the young mothers who had experienced physical assault and/or sexual abuse by their current partners to be at least six times likelier to have moderate or severe anxiety disorder (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 4.51, p < .05) than those who had experienced no such violence. Young mothers with less perceived social support (aOR = 0.77, p < .01), a lower secondary level of education or below (aOR = 12.99, p < .05), and in receipt of social security assistance (aOR = 5.69, p < .05) were also likelier to have moderate or severe anxiety disorder. The results indicate the importance of social support during the critical period of young motherhood. Health care professionals need to remain alert to the impacts of IPV victimization and the risk of anxiety in young mothers with a low level of education and/or receiving financial support.

Abuse potential and toxicity of the synthetic cathinones (i.e., "Bath salts").

The synthetic cathinones are derived from the naturally occurring drug cathinone found in the khat plant (Catha edulis) and have chemical structures and neurochemical consequences similar to other psychostimulants. This class of new psychoactive substances (NPS) also has potential for use and abuse coupled with a range of possible adverse effects including neurotoxicity and lethality. This review provides a general background of the synthetic cathinones in terms of the motivation for and patterns and demographics of their use as well as the behavioral and physiological effects that led to their spread as abused substances and consequent regulatory control. This background is followed by a review focusing on their rewarding and aversive effects as assessed in various pre-clinical animal models and the contribution of these effects to their self-administration (implicating their use and abuse potential). The review closes with an overview of the consequences of synthetic cathinone use and abuse in terms of their potential to produce neurotoxicity and lethality. These characterizations are discussed in the context of other classical psychostimulants.

Stereoselective effects of the second-generation synthetic cathinone α-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (α-PVP): assessments of conditioned taste avoidance in rats.

RATIONALE: Work with α-pyrrolidinopentiophenone (α-PVP), a second-generation synthetic cathinone, has been generally limited to the racemate. Given that with other synthetic cathinones, there are behavioral and neurochemical differences between their enantiomers, differences may also be seen with α-PVP. OBJECTIVES: The present study assessed the relative contribution of each enantiomer to the aversive effects of racemic-α-PVP by comparing their ability to induce a conditioned taste avoidance. METHODS: Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed every other day for four exposures to a novel saccharin solution followed immediately by an injection of 0 (saline vehicle) or 1.5, 3, or 6 mg/kg of S-, R-, or racemic-α-PVP (IP). On alternating days, all subjects were given access to water to assess any unconditioned effects of α-PVP on general fluid consumption. RESULTS: Rats injected with the racemate and S-isomer of α-PVP displayed avoidance of the drug-associated saccharin solution, although this avoidance was dose-dependent only for the subjects injected with the racemate. There was no evidence of taste avoidance in animals injected with the R-enantiomer at any dose tested. Animals injected with 3 mg/kg racemic-α-PVP did not differ in avoidance from those treated with 1.5 mg/kg of the S-enantiomer, but subjects treated with 6 mg/kg racemic-α-PVP displayed a significantly stronger avoidance than those treated with 3 mg/kg S-α-PVP. CONCLUSIONS: The present work suggests that the aversive effects of racemic α-PVP are mediated primarily by its S-isomer. The fact that at the highest dose tested (6 mg/kg), the racemate induces an avoidance greater than the simple additive effects of the S- and R-isomers (at 3 mg/kg) suggests that while the R-isomer may not induce taste avoidance at this dose, it may interact synergistically with the S-isomer in mediating the effects of the racemic mixture. These results were discussed in terms of similar effects with other behavioral and physiological endpoints reported with a number of psychostimulants and suggest that the enantiomers of α-PVP are an important variable in characterizing its behavioral effects.

New perspectives on vascular wall signaling: role of perivascular adipocytes and fibroblasts.

This communication represents personal perspectives of recent development in the newly evolved areas in vascular signaling mechanisms at the anatomical level of vascular walls from outside in, that is, from perivascular adventitial side to effectuate the control of vascular reactivity. Since half a century ago, the focus of interest in vascular biology has been confined primarily to the study of the excitation-contraction coupling of vascular smooth muscle (VSM) as well as neuroeffector mechanisms. During the past 3 decades, considerable advancement in the understanding of vascular signaling has been made via the discovery of endothelium-derived relaxation factors (EDRF), endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factors (EDHF) and endothelium-derived contracting factors (EDCF). The discovery of nitric oxide (NO) as a major cellular messenger has also helped open up another huge area of research in oxidative stress and vascular diseases. In the past decade, concepts on vascular wall signaling have been extended from vascular endothelial cells and then translated to the other seemingly inert cellular components, such as perivascular adipocytes and adventitial fibroblasts. Growing body of evidences show that these cellularities contribute to both functional as well as structural integrity in vasculature with significant pathophysiological implications.