Psychological distress and well-being among students of health disciplines in Geneva, Switzerland: The importance of academic satisfaction in the context of academic year-end and COVID-19 stress on their learning experience.

INTRODUCTION: University students' psychological health is linked to their academic satisfaction. This study aimed to investigate students' psychological health and academic satisfaction in the context of COVID-19 and academic year-end stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Standardized self-filled scales for anxiety, depression, stress, psychological well-being, academic satisfaction (subjective assessment of students' quality of life in their educational setting), and an ad-hoc scale for stress on the learning experience due to COVID-19 were used in this cross-sectional study. Participants were first- to third-year students of eight different health-related tracks in Geneva, Switzerland. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression analyses were applied. RESULTS: In June 2020, out of 2835 invited students, 433 (15%) completed the survey. Academic satisfaction was a stronger mental health predictor than COVID-19 stress on the learning experience, which mainly predicted stress and anxiety. Lower academic satisfaction scores were significantly associated with stress (ß = -0.53, p < 0.001), depression (ß = -0.26, p < 0.001), anxiety (ß = -0.20, p < 0.001), while higher scores with psychological well-being (ß = 0.48, p < 0.001). Identifying as female was strongly associated with anxiety and stress but not with depression or psychological well-being. Lower age was associated with stress only. The nature of the academic training had a lesser impact on mental health and the academic year had no impact. CONCLUSIONS: Academic satisfaction plays a more substantial role than COVID-19 stress on the learning experience in predicting students' overall mental health status. Training institutions should address the underlying factors that can enhance students' academic satisfaction, especially during the COVID-19 period, in addition to ensuring that they have a continuous and adequate learning experience, as well as access to psychosocial services that help them cope with mental distress and enhance their psychological well-being.

First-time fathers' experience of childbirth: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study are to report first-time fathers' experiences of childbirth through three dimensions (professional support, worries and prenatal preparation) and to analyse the influence of sociodemographic, antenatal and obstetrical factors on the three dimensions. SETTING: Participants were recruited in France and Switzerland from two university hospitals that routinely manage high-risk pregnancies (level 3 - perinatal care level), with 4,000 to 5,000 annual births each. METHODS: This is a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study. The data initially were collected for the cross-cultural validation of the First-Time Father Questionnaire (FTFQ) into French. Descriptive statistics were used to report the participants' characteristics and their questionnaire responses. Multivariate linear regression analysis was carried out to stress the positive or negative factors linked with fathers' experiences of childbirth. FINDINGS: Among 350 first-time fathers, 160 completed the FTFQ (response rate of 45.7%). The average age of the participants was 33 years old. We observed 12 questionnaire items with more than 20% unfavourable responses, seven of which involved the measurement of the worry dimension. Antenatal education and the prenatal-preparation dimension were positive factors linked with fathers' experiences. In addition, 57% of participants reported using one means of antenatal education, and 45% accessed information from family or friends. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The results suggest that first-time fathers need more professional support to foster positive experiences of childbirth. Their experiences of childbirth are associated with considerable worry. Antenatal classes specifically for fathers could reduce this worry and support the fatherhood process. Research should be carried out on these topics.

Psychological Distress and Well-Being among Students of Health Disciplines: The Importance of Academic Satisfaction.

BACKGROUND: Research on the mental health of students in health disciplines mainly focuses on psychological distress and nursing and medical students. This study aimed to investigate the psychological well-being and distress and related factors among undergraduate students training in eight different health-related tracks in Geneva, Switzerland. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used established self-filled scales for anxiety, depression, stress, psychological well-being, and study satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression analyses were applied. RESULTS: In October 2019, out of 2835 invited students, 915 (32%) completed the survey. Lower academic satisfaction scores were strongly associated with depression (ß = -0.26, p < 0.001), anxiety (ß = -0.27, p < 0.001), and stress (ß = -0.70, p < 0.001), while higher scores were associated with psychological well-being (ß = 0.70, p < 0.001). Being female was strongly associated with anxiety and stress but not with depression or psychological well-being. Increased age was associated with enhanced psychological well-being. The nature of the academic training had a lesser impact on mental health and the academic year had none. CONCLUSION: Academic satisfaction strongly predicts depression, anxiety, stress, and psychological well-being. Training institutions should address the underlying factors that can improve students' satisfaction with their studies while ensuring that they have access to psychosocial services that help them cope with mental distress and enhance their psychological well-being.

Major depression impairs incentive processing: evidence from the heart and the face.

BACKGROUND: The present study tested the hypothesis of a differential pattern of reward and punishment responsiveness in depression measuring effort mobilization during anticipation and facial expressions during consumption. METHODS: Twenty patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 20 control participants worked on a memory task under neutral, reward, and punishment instructions. Effort mobilization was operationalized as cardiovascular reactivity, while facial expressions were measured by facial electromyographic reactivity. Self-report measures for each phase complemented this multi-method approach. RESULTS: During anticipation, MDD patients showed weaker cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity to reward and blunted self-reported wanting, but weaker PEP reactivity to punishment and unchanged self-reported avoidance motivation. During consumption, MDD patients showed reduced zygomaticus major muscle reactivity to reward and blunted self-reported liking, but unchanged corrugator supercilii muscle reactivity to punishment and unchanged self-reported disliking. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate reduced effort mobilization during reward and punishment anticipation in depression. Moreover, they show reduced facial expressions during reward consumption and unchanged facial expressions during punishment consumption in depression.

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity during social reward anticipation in subclinical depression.

The present study extends past research about reduced reward responsiveness in depression by assessing effort-related cardiovascular responses during anticipation of a social reward. Dysphoric (i.e., subclinically depressed) and nondysphoric participants worked on a cognitive task. Half the participants in each group expected the possibility to subscribe to a social exchange internet site. Effort mobilization during task performance was assessed by participants' cardiovascular reactivity. Confirming the predictions, nondysphoric participants in the social-reward condition had higher reactivity of pre-ejection period, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate, compared to the other three cells. In contrast, dysphoric participants' cardiovascular reactivity was generally low. These findings indicate that social-reward function is indeed impaired in subclinical depression. Implications for social punishment are discussed.

Wanting and liking in dysphoria: Cardiovascular and facial EMG responses during incentive processing.

Theories and research on depression point to reduced responsiveness during reward anticipation and in part also during punishment anticipation. They also suggest weaker affective responses to reward consumption and unchanged affective responses to punishment consumption. However, studies investigating incentive anticipation using effort mobilization and incentive consumption using facial expressions are scarce. The present studies tested reward and punishment responsiveness in a subclinically depressed sample, manipulating a monetary reward (Study 1) and a monetary punishment (Study 2). Effort mobilization was operationalized as cardiovascular reactivity, while facial expressions were measured by facial electromyographic reactivity. Compared to nondysphorics, dysphorics showed reduced pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity and blunted self-reported wanting during reward anticipation but reduced PEP reactivity and normal self-reported wanting during punishment anticipation. Compared to nondysphorics, dysphorics showed reduced zygomaticus major muscle reactivity and blunted self-reported liking during reward consumption but normal corrugator supercilii muscle reactivity and normal self-reported disliking during punishment consumption.

Blunted cardiovascular reactivity in dysphoria during reward and punishment anticipation.

Hyposensitivity to reward in depression and dysphoria has been found in behavioral and neuroimaging studies. For punishment responsiveness, some studies showed hyposensitivity to punishment while other studies demonstrated hypersensitivity. Only few studies have addressed the motivational question as to whether depressed individuals mobilize less effort in anticipation of a positive or a negative consequence. The present study aimed at investigating reward and punishment responsiveness in subclinical depression from an effort mobilization perspective. Working on a recognition memory task, one third of the participants could earn small amounts of money, one third could lose small amounts of money, and one third could neither earn nor lose money. Effort mobilization was operationalized as participants' cardiovascular reactivity during task performance. As expected, reactivity of cardiac pre-ejection period and heart rate was higher in both incentive conditions compared to the neutral condition for nondysphorics, while it was blunted across conditions for dysphorics. Moreover, the present study found that dysphorics show an altered behavioral response to punishment. These findings thus show that dysphorics present a reduced motivation to obtain a reward or to avoid a punishment in terms of reduced effort-related cardiac reactivity.

Not everyone's heart contracts to reward: Insensitivity to varying levels of reward in dysphoria.

Reward insensitivity in depression and dysphoria has been demonstrated by self-report, behavioral, and neuroscience data. These findings show less anticipated and experienced pleasure to rewarding stimuli, no behavioral adaptation in anticipation of rewards, and altered functioning in reward-related brain areas. The present study expands previous research by using cardiovascular reactivity to three levels of reward as an indicator of effort mobilization. Undergraduates with low versus high depression scores worked on a cognitive task in anticipation of no, versus a small, versus a significant amount of money for successful task performance. Results of pre-ejection period and heart rate reactivity confirmed the expected linear increase as a function of reward value in nondysphoric participants and the expected blunted response across all reward levels in dysphoric participants. The present findings thus show that dysphoric individuals have a motivational deficit in terms of reduced effort-related cardiac reactivity when anticipating a monetary reward.

Genetic evaluation of mastitis liability and recovery through longitudinal analysis of transition probabilities.

BACKGROUND: Many methods for the genetic analysis of mastitis use a cross-sectional approach, which omits information on, e.g., repeated mastitis cases during lactation, somatic cell count fluctuations, and recovery process. Acknowledging the dynamic behavior of mastitis during lactation and taking into account that there is more than one binary response variable to consider, can enhance the genetic evaluation of mastitis. METHODS: Genetic evaluation of mastitis was carried out by modeling the dynamic nature of somatic cell count (SCC) within the lactation. The SCC patterns were captured by modeling transition probabilities between assumed states of mastitis and non-mastitis. A widely dispersed SCC pattern generates high transition probabilities between states and vice versa. This method can model transitions to and from states of infection simultaneously, i.e. both the mastitis liability and the recovery process are considered. A multilevel discrete time survival model was applied to estimate breeding values on simulated data with different dataset sizes, mastitis frequencies, and genetic correlations. RESULTS: Correlations between estimated and simulated breeding values showed that the estimated accuracies for mastitis liability were similar to those from previously tested methods that used data of confirmed mastitis cases, while our results were based on SCC as an indicator of mastitis. In addition, unlike the other methods, our method also generates breeding values for the recovery process. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method provides an effective tool for the genetic evaluation of mastitis when considering the whole disease course and will contribute to improving the genetic evaluation of udder health.