Stress, mental health, and protective factors in nursing students: An observational study.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students suffer high levels of stress, especially in the first year. OBJECTIVES: to compare academic stress at the beginning and end of nursing studies; to analyse the relationships between academic stress, mental health, and protective factors; and to examine whether resilience mitigates the effect of academic stress on psychological well-being. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Sample was 370 first- and fourth-year nursing students from Spain (University of Castilla-La Mancha, University of Cantabria, and University of Sevilla). VARIABLES AND DATA COLLECTION: We assessed academic and clinical stress, coping skills, anxiety, depression, psychological well-being, and resilience were measured. DATA ANALYSIS: We performed a descriptive analysis of the study sample, as well as correlation and hierarchical regression models. Additionally, mediation models were estimated. RESULTS: First-year students presented higher academic stress than fourth-year students. Clinical stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional coping predicted academic stress, while academic stress, depression, and coping skills predicted psychological well-being. Mediation models showed a significant path between academic stress, resilience, depression, and psychological well-being. CONCLUSION: Academic stress has a detrimental effect on the mental health. Coping strategies and resilience may be protective factors that should be encouraged in interventions designed to improve psychological well-being.

Mediators between physical activity and academic achievement: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Research has suggested the beneficial effects of physical activity (PA) on academic achievement (AA). However, the mechanisms underlying this influence remain unclear. Some proposed mechanisms include physiological, cognitive, psychological, and behavioral paths. This study aimed to analyze mediators between PA and AA in children and adolescents. METHODS: Systematic search in Medline, SPORTDiscuss, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science for observational and experimental studies, published up to March 2021. RESULTS: Twenty-eight studies (75237 participants, aged 4-16) were included. The designs of these studies were: 21 studies cross-sectional, 5 longitudinal, and 2 experimental. Eight out of nine studies analyzing fitness as a mediator reported positive results, and one reported null finding. Adiposity was a significant mediator in one study, in two only in girls, and two reported null results. Cognition as a mediator was supported by four studies, whereas two reported null results. Regarding mental well-being, 10 out of 14 studies reported positive effects, and one out of five behavioral studies found positive results. Although studies were too sparse to draw conclusions, overall, the results indicated that self-esteem, self-image, self-efficacy, stress, and health behaviors might be potential mediators in the relationship between PA and AA. All studies were rated as medium-high quality. CONCLUSION: Overall, the available evidence seems to suggest that cardiorespiratory fitness, cognition, mental well-being, and exercise-related behaviors play some role as mediators of the relationship between PA and AA. However, the cross-sectional nature of most of the reviewed studies prevents us from making any statement in terms of causal paths. Thus, well-designed follow-up and randomized controlled studies aimed not only to tests the effect of PA in AA, but also to examine the influence of mediators are required.

Fitness and executive function as mediators between physical activity and academic achievement.

Physical activity is related with academic achievement in children. This cross-sectional study aimed to assess whether cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and executive function act as mediators of the association between moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and academic achievement. This study included 186 schoolchildren (9-11 years) from Cuenca, Spain. Sociodemographic variables, anthropometric variables, academic achievement, executive function (inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory), CRF (20-m shuttle run) and physical activity (by accelerometry) were measured. Serial mediation models were estimated using the Hayes´ PROCESS macro. The significant paths in the model mediating this relationship between MVPA and academic achievement were as follows: MVPA → CRF → academic achievement (IE = 0.068, 95% CI: [0.018; 0.127]; IE = 0.079, 95% CI: [0.029; 0.144]; and IE = 0.090, 95% CI: [0.032; 0.165], controlling for inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory, respectively), MVPA → CRF → inhibition → academic achievement (0.018, 95% CI: [0.001; 0.047]) and MVPA → cognitive flexibility → academic achievement (0.087, 95% CI: [0.012; 0.169]). The relationship between MVPA and academic achievement may not be direct but mediated by CRF, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition via CRF. Physical activity interventions to improve AA should be focused on improvements in CRF and executive function.

Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire: Factor structure and psychometric properties / Cuestionario de Evitación Cognitiva: estructura factorial y propiedades psicométricas

Cognitive avoidance refers to strategies and efforts toward prevention of aversive experiences and events that provoke anxiety. The present study analyzed the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ; Sexton & Dugas, 2008), an instrument that assesses five worry-related cognitive avoidance strategies. The Spanish translation was administered to a non-clinical sample of 614 participants (18-82 years). The total scale and subscales showed good to excellent internal consistency. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a five-factor model showed a good fit between the theoretical structure and the empirical data. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was obtained through analysis of the correlations of the questionnaire with measures of worry, thought suppression, rumination and coping styles. The results yielded satisfactory preliminary data on the Spanish adaptation of the CAQ, which could provide for further advances in clinical practice and research on cognitive processes and anxiety disorders

La evitación cognitiva se refiere a las estrategias y esfuerzos dirigidos a prevenir experiencias negativas y eventos aversivos que provocan ansiedad. El presente estudio analizó la estructura factorial y las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española del Cuestionario de Evitación Cognitiva (CAQ; Sexton & Dugas, 2008), un instrumento que evalúa cinco estrategias de evitación cognitiva relacionadas con la preocupación. La traducción al español se administró a una muestra no clínica de 614 participantes (18-82 años). La escala total y las subescalas mostraron una consistencia interna de buena a excelente. Utilizando el análisis factorial confirmatorio, se halló un modelo de segundo orden (i.e., cinco factores de primer orden y un factor de segundo orden) que mostró el mejor ajuste entre la estructura teórica y los datos empíricos. Se obtuvo evidencia de validez convergente y discriminante a través del análisis de las correlaciones del cuestionario con medidas de preocupación, supresión del pensamiento, rumiación y estilos de afrontamiento. Los resultados arrojaron datos preliminares satisfactorios sobre la adaptación española del CAQ que podría proporcionar mayores avances en la práctica clínica y la investigación sobre procesos cognitivos y trastornos de ansiedad

Executive functions mediate the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and academic achievement in Spanish schoolchildren aged 8 to 11 years.

OBJECTIVES: Previous research has studied the influence of physical fitness on academic achievement through executive functions. However, the nature of this relationship remains unclear. This study aimed to analyze how cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and executive functions are associated with academic achievement and to examine whether the relationship between CRF and academic achievement is mediated by executive functions in schoolchildren. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study including 570 schoolchildren, aged 8 to 11 years, from Cuenca, Spain. Data were collected from September to October 2017. Sociodemographic variables, family socioeconomic status, pubertal status, academic achievement, CRF (20-meter shuttle run test) and executive functions (inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory, NIH Toolbox battery in Spanish, v 1.8; iPad Pro, Apple, Inc.) were measured. RESULTS: Overall, ANCOVA models controlling for age, gender and mother educational level showed higher scores in language and mathematics in children in higher categories of CRF, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory than in children in lower categories. The effect sizes were moderate (p < 0.05, partial eta squared: from 0.05 to 0.12). Moreover, the mediation analysis showed that inhibition partially mediated the relationship between CRF and language (c' = 0.058; IC = [0.005; 0.028]) and mathematics (c' = 0.064; IC = [0.005; 0.030]) grades. Similarly, cognitive flexibility mediated CRF's relationship with language (c' = 0.059; IC = [0.003; 0.028]) and with mathematics (c' = 0.066; IC = [0.003; 0.029]); however, a significant relationship remained. For working memory, mediation analysis showed no significant results (c' = 0.92; IC = [-0.002;0.025] P > 0.05 in language; c' = 0.103; IC = [-0.002;0.029] P > 0.05 in mathematics). Mediation ranged from 13.38% to 36%. CONCLUSIONS: Children in higher categories of both CRF and executive function showed higher grades in mathematics and language. The findings indicated that a significant proportion of the positive influence of CRF on academic achievement was mediated by improvements in inhibition and cognitive flexibility. Thus, this study supports the hypothesis that improvements in CRF may contribute to increasing academic achievement not only through a direct mechanism but also through improvements in executive functions.

Relation between physical fitness and executive function variables in a preschool sample.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the association between key components of physical fitness with inhibition and cognitive flexibility in preschoolers. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 362 Spanish preschoolers. The key components of physical fitness and executive functioning were measured. RESULTS: The partial correlation controlling for body mass index and family socioeconomic status showed that inhibition was positively related to cardiorespiratory fitness. No association was found between muscular strength (i.e., standing long jump and dynamometry) and speed/agility with inhibition or between physical fitness components and cognitive flexibility. The inhibition mean scores were significantly higher in preschoolers with higher cardiorespiratory than in their peers who were in lower categories, after adjustments were made for confounders. Additionally, the results showed that cardiorespiratory fitness was a significant predictor of inhibition, but for cognitive flexibility, age was the only significant predictor. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with inhibition in preschoolers. Likewise, our results also suggest that cognitive flexibility is an executive function that is more dependent on changes associated with age at this development stage. These findings are important for supporting initiatives that aimed at stimulating healthy brain development, and promote the improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness at early ages.

El reconocimiento de emociones en caras como indicador de depresión subclínica en jóvenes y ancianos: Un estudio preliminar / Emotion recognition in faces as an indicator of subclinical depression in young and elderly people: A preliminary study

El reconocimiento de emociones en las caras desempeña un papel muy importante en la comunicación humana y en la interacción social. Este trabajo pretende estudiar si es posible detectar a través del reconocimiento de emociones en caras los síntomas de depresión, y si esa posibilidad es idéntica en jóvenes y en ancianos. Para ello se evaluó a dos grupos de participantes, uno con síntomas subclínicos de depresión y otro control, utilizando la tarea de reconocimiento de emociones en caras del MSCEIT. El principal hallazgo de este trabajo es que el reconocimiento de una emoción positiva en una cara neutra está relacionado con el nivel de sintomatología depresiva, sobre todo en el grupo de personas mayores de 60 años. Estos resultados van en la línea del “efecto de congruencia del afecto” pues los participantes del grupo de síntomas bajos de depresión valoran más positivamente una cara neutra, al menos en lo que al entusiasmo se refiere. En resumen, este estudio pre-liminar aporta datos de cómo el reconocimiento de emociones en caras puede ser un indicador de la depresión subclínica, sobre todo en personas mayores

Facial emotion recognition plays an important role in human communication and social interaction. This study aims to analyze the possibility of detecting depressive symptoms through facial recognition of emotions and if this possibility is similar in young and elderly people. Two groups of participants were assessed: one with subclinical symptoms of depression, and the control group. The MSCEIT facial emotion recognition task was ad-ministered to both groups. The main result is that there is an association between the recognition of a positive emotion in a neutral face and the level of depressive symptomatology, especially for people over 60 years old. This result is consistent with the mood congruent effect: participants with few depressive symptoms evaluate a neutral face in a more positive way, at least in terms of enthusiasm. In summary, this preliminary study provides data on how facial emotion recognition could be an indicator of subclinical depression, especially in the elderly

Life review therapy using autobiographical retrieval practice for older adults with clinical depression / Terapia de revisión de vida mediante la recuperación de recuerdos autobiográficos en adultos mayores con depresión clínica

The aim of this experiment was to examine the efficacy of life review based on autobiographical retrieval practice for treating depression in older adults. Thirty-seven clinically depressed older adults aged 64-83, who were also receiving pharmacological treatment, were randomly assigned to life review therapy or to a placebo condition with supportive therapy. Results indicated decreased depression for both conditions, with no significant differences between the two therapies. There was some indication of greater gain in production of specific memories among those in life review therapy. Patients who produced higher numbers of specific memories decreased their depression scores at a faster rate (AU)

El objetivo de este experimento era examinar la eficacia de la revisión de vida basada en la práctica del recuerdo autobiográfico para el tratamiento de la depresión en adultos mayores. Treinta y siete adultos mayores con depresión clínica de edad comprendida entre 64-83, quienes también estaban recibiendo tratamiento farmacológico, fueron aleatoriamente asignados a terapia de revisión de vida o a una condición placebo de terapia de apoyo. Los resultados indican una disminución de la depresión en ambas condiciones, sin diferencias significativas entre las dos terapias. Aparecen indicadores de un mayor aumento en la producción de recuerdos específicos de aquellos que realizaron la terapia de revisión de vida. Los pacientes que muestran un mayor número de recuerdos específicos disminuyen más las puntuaciones en depresión (AU)

Life review therapy using autobiographical retrieval practice for older adults with clinical depression.

The aim of this experiment was to examine the efficacy of life review based on autobiographical retrieval practice for treating depression in older adults. Thirty-seven clinically depressed older adults aged 64-83, who were also receiving pharmacological treatment, were randomly assigned to life review therapy or to a placebo condition with supportive therapy. Results indicated decreased depression for both conditions, with no significant differences between the two therapies. There was some indication of greater gain in production of specific memories among those in life review therapy. Patients who produced higher numbers of specific memories decreased their depression scores at a faster rate.