Evaluating the impact of human rights education on the adjustment of Greek primary school students.

Human rights education has an encouraging effect on children's school routine. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a 12-session transformative human rights education intervention in improving children's school adjustment. Participants were 340 Greek primary school students assigned to intervention group (n = 187) and control group (n = 153). All members completed a written questionnaire 1 week before the implementation of the intervention, measuring their knowledge of human rights, school engagement, perceptions of the school environment, interpersonal relationships, empathy and perceptions, attitudes and feelings towards school. The completion process of the same questionnaire was repeated 1 week after the termination of the intervention and 4 months later. The results showed that the intervention was particularly beneficial as the intervention group members demonstrated a significant increase in their knowledge of human rights, school engagement, perceptions of the school environment, empathy and school liking, while experiencing a significant decrease in school avoidance and loneliness. Members of the control group did not report any significant improvement over time. The study's implications for future research on school-based human rights interventions are discussed.

Psychosocial effects of intergenerational learning on primary school children and older Adults: A systematic review.

In recent years there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of intergenerational learning and interaction. People of different ages engage in meaningful and mutually beneficial activities, aimed at developing knowledge, skills, and values. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the psychosocial effects of intergenerational learning in school-age children and older adults. A systematic review of both quantitative and qualitative data was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, and ERIC electronic databases were searched up to 26 July 2022 using the following Population (P) -Exposure (E) - Outcome (O) elements: school-age children and older adults (P), intergenerational learning (E), and psychosocial effects (O). Reference lists of included datasets and relevant review articles were also extensively searched. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to assess the quality of eligible studies. A narrative synthesis was used as a framework for data analysis. Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria. Regarding the psychosocial outcomes of participation in intergenerational activities for children and older adults, the majority of studies highlighted improvements in attitudes, well-being, happiness, and other social and psychological aspects, although methodological flaws are discussed.

"Staying Home - Feeling Positive": Effectiveness of an on-line positive psychology group intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The current study investigated the effectiveness of a group on-line positive psychology intervention (OPPI) designed to mitigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent measures to control it. Study participants (N = 82, M age = 33.07, SD = 9.55) were all Greek adults divided into an intervention (n = 44) and a control group (n = 38). The intervention group attended a voluntary, online, two-week, six-session (each 50 min), group intervention. The intervention aimed at enhancing participants' personal strengths and resilience in order to cope more effectively with the psychological impact of social distancing (e.g., feelings of anxiety, sadness, fear, and/or loneliness). All participants completed an online questionnaire one week before the intervention's implementation, which included scales measuring their: demographic characteristics, empathy, resilience, affectivity, feelings of loneliness, depression and anxiety levels, and feelings of fear regarding the outbreak. Participants in both the intervention and control group completed the same measures the week following the intervention's termination to examine its effects, and two weeks later to examine its long-term effectiveness. The intervention was found to be effective in alleviating the impact of the pandemic and in strengthening participants' resilience. More specifically, the results showed significant decreases for the intervention group in all measures of psychosocial distress (anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear) and significant increases in empathy, resilience, and experience of positive emotions. The study's implications for the development and implementation of online psychological interventions during a crisis are discussed.

Therapeutic Factors and Member Satisfaction in an Online Group Intervention During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate members' perceptions of the therapeutic factors during a group intervention that was designed to mitigate the adverse psychological effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the imposition of restrictive measures, their satisfaction with the online format of the intervention, and how these are associated with the intervention's outcomes. The participants (N = 44, M age = 31.93, SD = 8.09) were Greek adults who attended a 2-week, voluntary, online group intervention. To assess the effectiveness of the intervention, 1 week before and 1 week after implementation, participants completed several questionnaires measuring their demographic characteristics, empathy, resilience, affectivity, feelings of loneliness, depression and anxiety levels, and feelings of fear regarding the outbreak. One week after the intervention, they also completed two questionnaires evaluating the therapeutic factors and their satisfaction and impressions regarding telemental health counseling. Analyses showed that the most frequently cited therapeutic factor was guidance, followed by acceptance, self-disclosure, universality, and instillation of hope. Therapeutic factors of catharsis, self-disclosure, guidance, self-understanding, vicarious learning, and therapeutic alliance correlated with elements of empathy, resilience, loneliness, positive emotions, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and fear of the coronavirus. Satisfaction with the online format of the intervention was associated to universality, elements of empathy, and symptoms of depression. More specifically, member satisfaction was negatively correlated with improvement in personal distress and depression, an unexpected finding that may be attributed to the brief duration of the present intervention. The practical value of the results for the development and implementation of online psychological interventions during a crisis is discussed.

Is positive thinking in anticipation of a performance situation better than distraction? An experimental study in preadolescents.

The current study compares the effects of experimentally induced positive anticipatory thinking and distraction in preadolescents aged 12-13. Eighty-seven participants were instructed to either engage in positive anticipatory thoughts or perform a distraction task while preparing to perform a sporting activity in front of their peers. Results revealed that trait social anxiety was associated with more negative estimates of sport performance and catastrophic thoughts relating to the impending sport activity. Additionally, compared to children who distracted, children in the positive anticipation condition showed significantly increased anxiety levels, more catastrophic thoughts and more negative predictions of sport performance and appearance, although these effects did not appear to interact with trait social anxiety. Finally, no significant manipulation effect on participants' observable behavior was found. The findings further highlight the utility of distracting from an impending, anxiety-provoking situation to keep anxious feelings to a low level.

A Multi-Session Attribution Modification Program for Children with Aggressive Behaviour: Changes in Attributions, Emotional Reaction Estimates, and Self-Reported Aggression.

BACKGROUND: Research suggests that aggressive children are prone to over-attribute hostile intentions to peers. AIMS: The current study investigated whether this attributional style can be altered using a Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) procedure. METHOD: A sample of 10-12-year-olds selected for displaying aggressive behaviours was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than hostile attributions in response to ambiguous social scenarios. RESULTS: Compared to a test-retest control group (n = 18), children receiving CBM-I (n = 16) were less likely to endorse hostile attributions and more likely to endorse benign attributions in response to a new set of ambiguous social situations. Furthermore, aggressive behaviour scores reduced more in the trained group than in the untrained controls. Children who received attribution training also reported less perceived anger and showed a trend to report more self-control than those in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Implications of these findings are discussed.

The differential effects of written and spoken presentation for the modification of interpretation and judgmental bias in children.

BACKGROUND: Interpretation training programs, in which individuals are trained to interpret ambiguous scenarios in either a negative or benign way, have proven effective in altering anxiety-related cognitive biases in both children and adults. AIMS: The current study investigated whether the effects of the interpretation training procedure in children are differentiated according to the mode of presentation of the training. METHOD: Ninety-four primary school children (aged 10-12 years) scoring above the mean on a social anxiety scale were randomly allocated to four groups, in which they were trained using written or spoken presentation of training materials in either the negative or benign direction. RESULTS: For the negative training, children who heard the training material spoken aloud (spoken presentation) made more negative interpretations of ambiguous social events, compared to children who read the training material (written presentation). However, for the benign training, there was less clear evidence for a differentiation of the effects between the two modes of presentation, although children in the spoken presentation group performed better in a stressful task and showed a trend to rate their mood as more positive after the task than children in the written presentation group. CONCLUSIONS: These results not only forward our understanding of the mechanism of the genesis of cognitive bias in children, but also highlight the need for further investigation of how to optimize the effectiveness of interpretation training in children.

Experimentally modifying interpretations for positive and negative social scenarios in children: a preliminary investigation.

BACKGROUND: Past research suggests that socially anxious individuals display a tendency to interpret ambiguous and clearly valenced information in a threatening way. Interpretation training programs, in which individuals are trained to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of ambiguous social scenarios, have proven effective for reducing anxiety-related cognitive biases. However, it is not clear whether the same paradigms are effective in modifying interpretation biases for clearly valenced social information. METHOD: In this experiment, a group of unselected children (aged 10-13 years) was trained to endorse the more positive of two possible interpretations of mildly negative and positive social events. RESULTS: Data revealed that this group (n = 77) showed a decrease in catastrophic interpretations and an increase in neutral interpretations of mildly negative events compared to children in a no-training control group (n = 76). Furthermore, participants in the training condition showed an increase in positive interpretations and a trend for a decrease in discounting interpretations of positive events. However, training did not affect emotional ratings of mildly negative and positive events or trait social anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Notwithstanding certain limitations of this pilot study, we believe that the results are promising with regard to modifying interpretative biases for clearly valenced vignettes, and that further study regarding the effects of training on mood is warranted.

Comparing imagery and verbal instructions for the experimental modification of interpretation and judgmental bias in children.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Using an interpretation training paradigm, previous research has demonstrated that it is possible to modify interpretation biases in socially anxious children and that trained interpretation bias affects important aspects of social anxiety (Vassilopoulos, Banerjee, & Prantzalou, 2009). The current experiment was designed to replicate and extend the results reported by Vassilopoulos et al. (2009). METHODS: In a benign interpretation training paradigm, descriptions of ambiguous hypothetical events were presented in a form requiring participants to endorse the more benign of two interpretations. Ninety-four primary school children aged between 10 and 12 years were asked to either imagine these hypothetical events or to read the same descriptions while thinking about their verbal meaning. RESULTS: Participants in the verbal instructions condition showed greater decreases in negative interpretations and negative emotional consequences of ambiguous events from pre-training to post-training than did those in the imagery instructions condition. Additionally, children in the verbal instructions condition reported a significant decrease in trait social anxiety as well as in their self-reported tendency to discount positive information compared with children in the imagery instructions condition. LIMITATIONS: The results should be considered in the light of the exclusive use of self-report measures and the small effect sizes observed in some analyses. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that interpretation training in children can be effective with verbal instructions and highlight the need for further investigation of how to optimize the effectiveness of interpretation training in children.

Social interaction anxiety and the discounting of positive interpersonal events.

BACKGROUND: Recent research has indicated that individuals with social interaction anxiety make biased interpretations of positive social interactions, with greater general apprehension in response to such events and more negative predictions about the future. There has also been some preliminary evidence for a second facet of interpretation bias, namely a failure to accept others' positive reactions at face value, but this has so far not been adequately studied. METHOD: The present study developed a new measure of this "discounting" dimension and utilized a nonclinical sample of undergraduate students to provide an initial analysis of the scale. RESULTS: Results provide early support for the psychometric properties of our scale, and indicate that discounting mediates the relationship between social interaction anxiety and low positive affect, over and above the previously studied aspect of positive event interpretation bias. CONCLUSIONS: The implications for treatment interventions and further research are discussed.

Experimental modification of interpretation bias in socially anxious children: Changes in interpretation, anticipated interpersonal anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms.

We report on an experimental manipulation of interpretation bias in socially anxious youths. A non-clinical sample of 10-11-year-olds selected for high social anxiety was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. This group was subsequently less likely to endorse negative interpretations of new ambiguous social situations than children in a test-retest condition. Children who received interpretation training also showed reduced trait social anxiety and reported significantly less anxiety about an anticipated interpersonal encounter, compared with the control group.

Adaptive and maladaptive self-focus: a pilot extension study with individuals high and low in fear of negative evaluation.

Previous research in depressed participants has supported the differentiation of self-focus into distinct modes of self-attention with distinct functional effects. In particular, Rimes and Watkins (2005) investigated the effects of self-focused rumination on overgeneral thinking and found that analytical, evaluative self-focus increased global negative self-judgments, whereas self-focus low in analytical thinking decreased such judgments in depressed participants. Given that self-focused attention and rumination have been implicated in the maintenance of social anxiety, the present study investigated the effects of these two distinct forms of self-focused attention on global negative self-judgments in an analogue sample for social anxiety (high and low fear of negative evaluation, FNE). Individuals high and low in FNE (n=41 per group) were randomly allocated to analytic (abstract, evaluative) or experiential (concrete, process-focused) self-focused manipulations. As predicted, in high FNE individuals, the experiential self-focus condition decreased ratings of the self as worthless and incompetent pre- to post-manipulation, whereas the analytical self-focus condition maintained such negative self-judgments. Analytical and experiential self-focus did not differ in their effects on mood. The results suggest that an experiential mode of self-focused rumination may be adaptive in social anxiety.

Interpretations for safety behaviours in high and low socially anxious individuals.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that socially anxious individuals often engage in a wide range of safety behaviours in social situations that are intended to reduce the risk of social failure and humiliation. METHOD: This study explored the interpretations that people make for behaviours considered to be safety seeking. High and low socially anxious individuals completed one version of a questionnaire that assessed how the safety behaviours that they may exhibit are interpreted by others, and then completed a second version of the same questionnaire that assessed how they typically interpret safety behaviours in other people. Participants rated the extent to which each of eight interpretations was viewed as a likely interpretation of the behaviour. RESULTS: Individuals high in social anxiety were more likely than low socially anxious participants to think that being arrogant, suffering from a psychological problem, or experiencing a normal level of anxiety, nervousness or fear are likely explanations for safety behaviours, regardless of who exhibits them. Additionally, high socially anxious participants were more likely than those low in social anxiety to think that others interpreted these behaviours as being indicative of intense anxiety or other negative emotional condition. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that socially anxious people are, at least, aware of the negative effects of certain behaviours characterized as safety seeking.

Interpretations and judgments regarding positive and negative social scenarios in childhood social anxiety.

The present study extended our understanding of cognitive biases in childhood social anxiety. A non-clinical sample of 11-13-year olds completed social anxiety and depression scales and were presented with scenarios depicting positive and mildly negative social events. Social anxiety was associated with tendencies to interpret positive social events in a discounting fashion, to catastrophize in response to mildly negative social events, and to anticipate more negative emotional reactions to the negative events. Implications for understanding and treating social anxiety are discussed.

Social anxiety and ruminative self-focus.

Studies of rumination have supported the differentiation of self-focus into distinct modes of self-attention with distinct functional effects. Given that self-focused attention and rumination have been implicated in the maintenance of social anxiety, the present study investigated the effects of these two distinct forms of self-focused attention on mood and cognition in social anxiety. High and low socially anxious individuals (n=29 in each group) either thought analytically about, or focused on their momentary experience of, identical symptom-focused induction items from [Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1993). Effects of rumination and distraction on naturally occurring depressed mood. Cognition and Emotion, 7, 561-570] rumination task. As predicted, in high socially anxious individuals, the experiential (low analysis) self-focus condition decreased ratings of anxious mood pre- to post-manipulation and was associated with more positive thoughts on a thought-listing exercise, whereas the analytical (high analysis) self-focus condition resulted in no significant effects on mood and cognition. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.