The role of perceived social support from family, friends and significant others in the association between childhood maltreatment on sleep quality in adolescents: Evidence from a weekly diary study.

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is a common problem that can have lasting effects on the physical and mental health of adolescents who have experienced it, including sleep quality. OBJECTIVE: This study will investigate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and sleep quality in adolescents using a weekly diary method. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: In this study, students from a middle school in central China were recruited as research subjects, and a total of 11 classes with 470 students were investigated. METHODS: In order to fill in the gaps of previous studies, a weekly diary method was used to collect data. Subjects were required to complete three scales once a week for seven consecutive weeks, including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale (PSQI). RESULTS: Findings suggest that childhood maltreatment has a negative impact on adolescent's sleep quality at the weekly level (γ01c = -0.07, t = -5.71, p < .001) . The negative effect of childhood maltreatment on sleep quality was significantly reduced with the addition of perceived social support (γ01c' = -0.03, t = -2.83, p < .01). Notably, support from friends (γ01a*γ02b = -0.01) and significant others (γ01a*γ02b = -0.02) also played an important mediating role in child maltreatment and adolescent sleep quality, but family support remained the most important support in adolescents (γ01a*γ02b = -0.04). CONCLUSIONS: The present study has confirmed the negative correlation between childhood maltreatment and sleep quality in adolescents. Furthermore, it has clarified the mechanism of perceived social support and the separate mediating roles of perceived family support, perceived friend support, and perceived significant other support.

How does benign/malicious envy impact young women's subjective well-being in daily life? An investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal pathway.

Although previous cross-sectional studies have investigated the between-person correlation between dispositional envy and subjective well-being, few longitudinal studies have explored the within-person relationships between state benign/malicious envy and subjective well-being, as well as the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms involved. This study adopted a diary approach for 14 consecutive days from a sample of 167 young women to investigate the within-person associations among benign/malicious envy, self-esteem, perceived social support, and subjective well-being. The results revealed that benign and malicious envy had opposite effects on subjective well-being within individuals. Besides, the results indicated that self-esteem and perceived social support mediated the relationships between benign envy and two dimensions of subjective well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction) within individuals. Furthermore, self-esteem played a within-person mediating role in the relationships between malicious envy and three dimensions of subjective well-being, whereas perceived social support only served as a within-person mediator between malicious envy and positive affect. These findings shed light on the distinction between benign envy and malicious envy and help in comprehending the intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms through which the two types of envy impact subjective well-being in daily life.

The circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction: evidence based on the diary method.

The link between civilization and technology has long been a hotspot of research around the world. Mobile phone addiction has become a common social phenomenon with advances in society and technology, wreaking havoc on people's emotional health, physical fitness, and personal connections. Considering the positive effects of mindfulness, this study used the diary method to explore the relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction based on the mindfulness reperceiving model. We conducted a 14-day diary study among 198 Chinese youth participants. The results showed that there was a circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction: mindfulness of the previous day could significantly negatively predict mobile phone addiction of the following day, and vice versa. These results, based on the mindfulness reperceiving model, effectively extend theories and profoundly reveal the circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction. Besides, it also provides new thought for the mechanism of the interrelationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction, as an important theoretical support for the intervention of mobile phone addiction from the perspective of mindfulness.

Parental education level and adolescent depression: A multi-country meta-analysis.

Adolescent depression, as a common problem, has always been the focus of attention and research. However, no consistent conclusion has been drawn on its relationship with parental education level. Therefore, this study used meta-analysis and dose-response analysis techniques to explore the overall relationship between the two, and further explore the moderating factors affecting the relationship between the two through subgroup analysis and meta-regression analysis. After a literature search and screening, a total of 22 literatures were included, including 634,821 adolescents aged 9-25, distributed in 10 countries. The results showed that: (1) Overall parental education level was negatively correlated with adolescent depressive symptoms (RR = 0.88. p < 0.001), and there was a dose-response relationship between the two. (2) Geographical location (p = 0.002 < 0.05) and national economic development (p = 0.03 < 0.05) significantly moderated and affected the association between parental education level and adolescent depression, thus presenting a global inconsistency. The results of this study provide a more accurate conclusion on the relationship between parental education and adolescent depression to some extent, highlight the importance and necessity of considering family, economic and cultural factors when studying and solving adolescent depression problems, and guide us to pay more attention to the cross-regional and cross-cultural differences in adolescent depression problems.

Bidirectional relations between gratitude and depression/anxiety: based on three follow-up data.

In the study, 512 high school students from China were followed three times over a two-year period using a follow-up study design. Based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, a cross-lagged model was developed to investigate the bidirectional relationship between gratitude and depression/anxiety. The results showed that gratitude was significantly negatively correlated with depression and anxiety. However, gratitude did not significantly negatively predict depression and anxiety in the cross-lag analysis, while depression and anxiety did significantly negatively predict gratitude. Based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study breaks the direct promoting effect of gratitude on promoting mental health in traditional cognition, and reveals the one-way predicting relationship between depression and anxiety, two typical adverse psychological emotions, on gratitude, which has important theoretical and practical significance for understanding the development of social emotions in adolescents from the perspective of mental health.

Development and Validation of the Father-Love Absence Scale for Adolescents.

Although father love is vital for the positive growth of the child, there is currently no reliable tool to assess the psychological absence of fathers. Therefore, the current study aims to develop an instrument to measure adolescents' experiences of father-love absence from a psychological absence perspective. According to the fundamental psychological diathesis assumption, the father-love absence scale (FLAS) was developed based on expert panel discussions. A total of 2592 junior high school student participants were surveyed, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to determine the items for the formal scale. The results showed that the 18-item FLAS consisted of four factors, which were emotional absence (EA), cognitive absence (CA), behavioral absence (BA), and volitional absence (VA). In conclusion, the FLAS demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity, and this scale is a valuable tool for assessing father-love absence.

Bidirectional relations between altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy among adolescents: A longitudinal study and weekly diary study.

Altruism is a prosocial tendency that has developed through long-term evolutionary selection. The present study adopts social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories to examine how benign/malicious envy can affect altruism and how altruism can affect the two types of envy in turn, respectively. In Study 1, 513 adolescents participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey to explore the relationships between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional benign/malicious envy. The cross-lagged analysis showed a long-term and stable negative bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional malicious envy and a short-term positive bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruism and dispositional benign envy. In Study 2, 109 adolescents kept a weekly diary for seven consecutive weeks to record state levels of altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy in their daily lives. The hierarchical linear model demonstrated that weekly altruistic tendency and weekly benign envy could positively predict each other, and weekly altruistic tendency presented a negative bidirectional relationship with weekly malicious envy. These findings offer an effective way to study the relationship between human behavior and emotions from perspectives of social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories. Meanwhile, it also has practical significance for the harmonious development of society.

Precise programming of multigene expression stoichiometry in mammalian cells by a modular and programmable transcriptional system.

Context-dependency of mammalian transcriptional elements has hindered the quantitative investigation of multigene expression stoichiometry and its biological functions. Here, we describe a host- and local DNA context-independent transcription system to gradually fine-tune single and multiple gene expression with predictable stoichiometries. The mammalian transcription system is composed of a library of modular and programmable promoters from bacteriophage and its cognate RNA polymerase (RNAP) fused to a capping enzyme. The relative expression of single genes is quantitatively determined by the relative binding affinity of the RNAP to the promoters, while multigene expression stoichiometry is predicted by a simple biochemical model with resource competition. We use these programmable and modular promoters to predictably tune the expression of three components of an influenza A virus-like particle (VLP). Optimized stoichiometry leads to a 2-fold yield of intact VLP complexes. The host-independent orthogonal transcription system provides a platform for dose-dependent control of multiple protein expression which may be applied for advanced vaccine engineering, cell-fate programming and other therapeutic applications.

Improving cooperativity of transcription activators by oligomerization domains in mammalian cells.

Cooperative activation is critical for the applications of synthetic biology in mammalian cells. In this study, we have developed cooperative transcription factor by fusing oligomerization domain in mammalian cells. Firstly, we demonstrated that two oligomerized domains (CI434 and CI) successfully improved transcription factor cooperativity in bacterial cells but failed to increase cooperativity in mammalian cells, possibly because the additional mammalian activation domain disrupted their oligomerization capability. Therefore, we chose a different type of oligomerized domain (CarHC), whose ability to oligomerize is not dependent on its C-terminal domains, to fuse with a transcription factor (RpaR) and activation domain (VTR3), forming a potential cooperative transcription activator RpaR-CarH-VTR3 for mammalian regulatory systems. Compared with RpaR-VTR3, the cooperativity of RpaR-CarH-VTR3 was significantly improved with higher Hill coefficient and a narrower input range in the inducible switch system in mammalian cells. Moreover, a mathematical model based on statistical mechanics model was developed and the simulation results supported the hypothesis that the tetramer of the CarH domain in mammalian cells was the reason for the cooperative capacity of RpaR-CarH-VTR3.

Bidirectional relations between guilt/shame and moral sensitivity: a two-wave cross-lagged analysis.

Emotions, particularly social moral emotions, are believed to play a critically important role in moral development. Although it is of great theoretical and practical significance to improve individual morality, especially moral sensitivity, from the perspective of moral emotion, little attention has been paid to investigating the causal mechanisms between moral emotions and moral sensitivity. Therefore, through a longitudinal study, the current study explored the causal relationship between moral sensitivity and the typical moral emotions (guilt and shame) from empathy theory and cognitive appraisal theory of emotions. A total of 668 adolescents completed the two-wave survey over two years. We explored the causal association between moral emotions and moral sensitivity using the structural equation model. The cross-lagged analysis showed a reciprocal relationship between guilt and moral sensitivity, whereas shame did not have a unidirectional or bidirectional predictive relationship with moral sensitivity. This is the first research that reveals the significance of guilt as a moral emotion to enhance moral sensitivity. The finding offered a new practical and theoretical viewpoint for promoting individual moral development from the perspective of social moral emotional cultivation.

Corrigendum to "Improving cooperativity of transcription activators by oligomerization domains in mammalian cells" [Synth Syst Biotechnol 8 (1) (2023) 114-120].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2022.12.003.].

Perceived Parental Monitoring of Smartphones and Problematic Smartphone Use in Adolescents: Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy and Self-Control.

Adolescents are vulnerable for problematic smartphone use (PSU), which is associated with adverse psychological and physical health outcomes. Prior studies have debated whether the association between parental monitoring of smartphones and PSU is positive, negative, or nonsignificant. The present study investigated the relationship between parental monitoring of smartphones and PSU and the potential mediation mechanism involving self-efficacy and self-control. Eight hundred ninety-nine middle- and high-school students from a metropolitan city in China completed a questionnaire containing measurements of demographic information, perceived parental monitoring of smartphones, self-control, self-efficacy, and PSU. The results showed that (a) perceived parental monitoring of smartphones was negatively related to adolescent PSU; (b) self-control partially mediated the link between perceived parental monitoring of smartphones and adolescent PSU; and (c) self-efficacy and self-control sequentially mediated the link between parental monitoring of smartphones and PSU. The current study highlights the mediating mechanisms linking perceived parental monitoring of smartphones and adolescent PSU, and this may contribute to the development of family-based prevention and intervention strategies for adolescent PSU.

How does mindfulness relate to benign/malicious envy? The mediating role of resilience, internal locus of control and self-esteem.

The present study aimed to explore the roles of resilience, internal locus of control, and self-esteem in the link between mindfulness and benign/malicious envy (BE/ME). Nine hundred ninety-one participants (299 males, 692 females; mean age = 19.05 ± 1.54) completed a survey that assessed mindfulness, internal locus of control, resilience, self-esteem, and BE/ME. The results suggest that resilience, internal locus of control, and self-esteem independently mediate the relationship between mindfulness and BE/ME. Additionally, "internal locus of control → resilience" and "self-esteem → resilience" play chain mediating roles in the relationship between mindfulness and BE/ME. Namely, mindfulness is positively associated with resilience via improving internal control and self-esteem, thereby inhibiting malicious envy and promoting benign envy. The present study advances our knowledge of the mindfulness reperceiving theory, and thus provides a new explanation for the inhibition of negative emotions from the perspective of resilience, internal locus of control, and self-esteem.

How Daily Mindfulness Predicts Life Satisfaction: From the Perspective of Mindfulness Coping Model.

Previous studies have explored the effect of mindfulness on life satisfaction, but the mechanism has not been explored in terms of daily mindfulness. Therefore, based on the mindfulness coping model, this study uses a daily diary method to examine whether individuals' daily mindfulness could predict life satisfaction and whether this relationship was mediated by rumination. In this study, 178 adults who had not received mindfulness training completed the same diary for continuous 14 days, in which their mindfulness and rumination at state level were measured. Besides, mindfulness, rumination, and life satisfaction at dispositional level were measured before and after the daily reporting process. Hierarchical linear models showed that daily mindfulness is a significant predictor of daily rumination. In addition, both the latent growth curve model and structural equation model showed that the change of daily mindfulness can influence life satisfaction through the change of rumination, and this relationship was also confirmed at the dispositional level. These findings are not only valuable for understanding how mindfulness is linked to rumination and life satisfaction according to the mindfulness coping model, but also contribute to the development of psychological intervention programs aimed at improving individual life satisfaction.

Does Childhood Maltreatment Predict Moral Disgust? The Underlying Mediating Mechanisms.

Although moral disgust is one of the most important moral emotions, there is limited evidence about the antecedents of it in China. This paper aimed to discuss the linkage between childhood maltreatment and moral disgust, and investigated the specific mechanism between these two variables from the perspective of emotional development and moral development, respectively, based on the Tripartite Model. By combining random sampling and cluster sampling, this study recruited 968 participants from college. Then, childhood maltreatment, moral disgust, emotional intelligence, and empathy were measured separately by using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Moral Disgust Scale (MD), Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C (IRI). Additionally, the results of the mediation model analysis show that childhood maltreatment is negatively predictable of moral disgust. In addition, the mechanism by which childhood maltreatment influences moral disgust could be explained by the effect of emotional intelligence on empathy. To sum up, this study explored and explained the specific mechanism between childhood maltreatment and moral disgust, replenishing previous achievements and providing support for the design of intervention on moral disgust by improving emotional intelligence and empathy.

Mitigating Host Burden of Genetic Circuits by Engineering Autonegatively Regulated Parts and Improving Functional Prediction.

Mitigating unintended interferences between circuits and host cells is key to realize applications of synthetic regulatory systems both for bacteria and mammalian cells. Here, we demonstrated that growth burden and circuit dysregulation occurred in a concentration-dependent manner for specific transcription factors (CymR*/CymR) in E.coli, and direct negative feedback modules were able to control the concentration of CymR*/CymR, mitigate growth burden, and restore circuit functions. A quantitative design scheme was developed for circuits embedded with autorepression modules. Four key parameters were theoretically identified to determine the performance of autoregulated switches and were experimentally modified by fine-tuning promoter architectures and cooperativity. Using this strategy, we synthesized a number of switches and demonstrated its improvement of product titers and host growth controlling the complex deoxyviolacein biosynthesis pathway. Furthermore, we restored functions of a dysregulated multilayer NOR gate by integrating autorepression modules. Our work provides a blueprint for engineering host-adaptable synthetic systems.

The relationship between mindfulness and envy: The mediating role of emotional intelligence.

Envy is a mixed negative emotion that is characterized by feelings of hostility, inferiority, resentment, and depression. It has been found that mindfulness is negatively associated with envy. This paper aimed to explore the interaction between mindfulness and envy by referring to the mindful emotion regulation model, and it also examines the mediation of emotional intelligence. Six hundred and seventy-six participants (182 men and 494 women) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Dispositional Envy Scale, and the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results suggest that mindfulness is significantly and negatively correlated with envy. Meanwhile, a multiple mediation analysis indicated that regulation of emotion and use of emotion partially mediate the impact of mindfulness on envy. The current study not only provides a theoretical basis for possible mechanisms underlying the inhibition of envy, but also provides valuable guidance for developing mindfulness-based intervention programs aiming at reducing the negative effects of envy.

What links to psychological needs satisfaction and excessive WeChat use? The mediating role of anxiety, depression and WeChat use intensity.

BACKGROUND: Excessive online social network sites (SNSs) use, such as Facebook or WeChat overuse, has become a severe problem and have caused negative consequences. It is especially important to examine what causes excessive WeChat use in the Chinese population. This study explored the critical role of affective states and WeChat use intensity in the relationship between psychological needs satisfaction and excessive WeChat use based on the self-determination theory and the emotional motivation theory. METHODS: 952 Chinese college students aged 18 to 25 completed an online survey that measured psychological needs satisfaction, depression, anxiety, WeChat use intensity, and excessive WeChat use. RESULTS: Path analysis demonstrated that anxiety, depression, and WeChat use intensity mediated the effect of psychological needs satisfaction on excessive WeChat use. More importantly, the chain mediation model indicated that psychological needs satisfaction could influence excessive WeChat use through the "anxiety-WeChat use intensity" path, but not the "depression-WeChat use intensity" path. CONCLUSION: The current study could not only contribute to theoretical development, but also guide mental health practice by showing that improving psychological needs satisfaction may restrain excessive WeChat use through regulating affective states and Wechat use intensity.

How child maltreatment impacts internalized/externalized aggression among Chinese adolescents from perspectives of social comparison and the general aggression model.

BACKGROUND: Child maltreatment is believed to have a tight correlation with adolescent problem behaviors, and one of them is aggression. According to different attack targets, aggression can be divided into internalized aggression (attack oneself) and externalized aggression (attack others), both of which are negatively influenced by child maltreatment. However, little is known about the potential mechanisms of the effect from child maltreatment to internalized/externalized aggression. OBJECTIVE: Based on the perspectives of social comparison and the general aggression model, the present study examined the mediating effects of benign envy, malicious envy and self-control between child maltreatment and internalized/externalized aggression. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 1951 adolescents (49 % girls, Mage = 12.93 years, SD = 2.54) from mainland China were recruited. METHODS: Based on the retrospective self-reporting of five questionnaires, structural equation modeling and bootstrap estimation procedure were adopted to identify the mediating effects of benign envy, malicious envy and self-control. RESULTS: The structural model fitted well [χ2 (178, 1951) = 1601.176, p < .001; RMSEA = 0.064; SRMR = 0.076; CFI = 0.913]. Benign envy (95 % CI [0.013, 0.002], [-0.040, -0.079]), malicious envy (95 % CI [0.044, 0.024], [0.363, 0.241]) and self-control (95 % CI [0.025, 0.005], [0.264, 0.166]) played a significant mediating role between child maltreatment and internalized/externalized aggression. CONCLUSION: Benign envy, malicious envy and self-control played an important mediating role between child maltreatment and internalized/externalized aggression, which may provide a theoretical basis for future interventions to reduce adolescent problem behaviors, paying more attention to the improvement of emotion regulation and self-control.

Gratitude affects moral disgust: From the perspective of social norm theory.

The present research verified the relationship between gratitude and moral disgust and explored its internal mechanism based on the social norm theory for the first time. In this study, 979 participants were recruited and required to complete the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ), the Moral Disgust Questionnaire (MD), the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Data were then analyzed via structural equation model. The results demonstrated that gratitude indirectly affects moral disgust through the chain path of social support → resilience rather than being directly mediated by social support and resilience. From the perspective of social norm theory, the current research reveals the internal mechanism between gratitude and moral disgust, which is of great significance to expand our understanding of theory and apply it to practice.