The Effect of Social Support on Depression among Economically Disadvantaged College Students: The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience and the Moderating Role of Geography.

The study examined the influence of social support on depression, including the mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of geography. Questionnaires were completed by 424 economically disadvantaged college students in two provinces, X, a coastal province, and Y, an inland province. The results indicated that (1) the social support of economically disadvantaged college students was positively correlated to psychological resilience (ß = 0.62, t = 11.22, p < 0.001); (2) the psychological resilience of economically disadvantaged college students was negatively correlated with depression (ß = -0.24, t = -10.3, p < 0.001); (3) the social support of economically disadvantaged college students was negatively correlated with depression (ß = -0.08, t = -2.85, p < 0.001); (4) the psychological resilience of economically disadvantaged college students played a partial mediating role between social support and depression; and (5) geography played a moderating role in the effect of social support on depression.

Social Support and Family Functioning during Adolescence: A Two-Wave Cross-Lagged Study.

The influence of social and family factors on adolescent mental health has been widely valued. Considering adolescents' family systems in a broader social context facilitates a better understanding of their mental health, which also has special significance in the post-epidemic era. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between social support and family functioning during adolescence. Students from two middle schools in Fujian province, China, were recruited as participants. Seven hundred and fifty-four participants completed the questionnaire twice in six-month intervals. We constructed a cross-lagged model by using IBM SPSS AMOS 26.0 to test the relationship between these two variables. Social support and family functioning predicted each other in the girls, but not for the boys' sample. The results of this study suggested that the interaction between family and social factors and the possible gender differences should be considered when dealing with adolescents' mental health problems.

The remediating effect of Attention Bias Modification on aggression in young offenders with antisocial tendency: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: An attention bias toward hostile stimuli is associated with an increased risk of aggressive behavior. Thus, reducing hostile attention bias may help to reduce aggression in young offenders. We evaluated the remediating effects of Attention Bias Modification (ABM) on hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior in Chinese male young offenders with antisocial tendencies. METHODS: Institutionalized male young offenders (ages 16-18) were recruited and randomly assigned to ABM (n = 28), placebo (n = 28), or waiting list (n = 28). The ABM group received four weeks of training using visual search of emotional faces; the placebo group underwent similar training using visual search of neutral objects. Before and after treatment, aggressive behavior, attention bias toward positive stimuli and hostile stimuli were assessed. RESULTS: Linear mixed models and hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the intervention effect of ABM was moderated by participants' initial attention bias. Young offenders with a high level of initial hostile attention bias, or with a low level of initial positive attention bias, benefitted most from ABM. LIMITATIONS: The small sample size impedes investigation of the mechanism of the intervention's effects. Further research can determine whether the current results can be extrapolated to the population of female young offenders. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that ABM is helpful for young offenders who show the greatest bias toward hostile stimuli and away from positive stimuli. These findings highlight the importance of matching the intervention and the participant. TRIAL REGISTRATION: osf.io/vj5rk.

Ostracism, Psychological Capital, Perceived Social Support and Depression among Economically Disadvantaged Youths: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Mental health promotion of economically disadvantaged youths is a popular issue in current China. Economically disadvantaged youths are at greater risk of depression. Ostracism may be an important predictor of depression for them. However, no consensus has been reached on the underlying mechanism between ostracism and depression. A total of 1207 economically disadvantaged youths were recruited from six universities in China. These youths were asked to complete questionnaires measuring depression, ostracism, psychological capital, and perceived social support. A moderated mediation model was examined by using IBM SPSS STATISTICS 27macro program PROCESS version 3.5, in which psychological capital was a mediating variable, and perceived social support was a moderating variable. Lack of causal inferences and self-report bias due to the cross-sectional and self-report survey need to be considered when interpreting results. The results revealed that ostracism was positively associated with depression among economically disadvantaged youths. Psychological capital partially mediated the association. Perceived social support moderated the indirect association between ostracism and depression via psychological capital among economically disadvantaged females. Training and intentional practice of psychological capital could be the core to develop the depression interventions targeting economically disadvantaged youths with experience of ostracism. Gender and perceived social support need to be considered in developing the interventions.

Childhood Trauma and Psychological Distress: A Serial Mediation Model among Chinese Adolescents.

The consequence of childhood trauma may last for a long time. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of childhood trauma on general distress among Chinese adolescents and explore the potential mediating roles of social support and family functioning in the childhood trauma-general distress linkage. A total of 2139 valid questionnaires were collected from two high schools in southeast China. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaires measuring childhood trauma, social support, family functioning, and general distress. Pathway analysis was conducted by using SPSS AMOS 24.0 and PROCESS Macro for SPSS 3.5. Results showed that childhood trauma was positively associated with general distress among Chinese adolescents. Social support and family functioning independently and serially mediated the linkage of childhood trauma and general distress. These findings confirmed and complemented the ecological system theory of human development and the multisystem developmental framework for resilience. Furthermore, these findings indicated that the mental and emotional problems of adolescents who had childhood trauma were not merely issues of adolescents themselves, but concerns of the whole system and environment.

Cognitive Neural Mechanism of Social Anxiety Disorder: A Meta-Analysis Based on fMRI Studies.

OBJECTIVE: The present meta-analysis aimed to explore the cognitive and neural mechanism of social anxiety disorder (SAD) from a whole-brain view, and compare the differences in brain activations under different task paradigms. METHODS: We searched Web of Science Core Collection and other databases with the keywords related to social anxiety, social phobia, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for comparing persons with SAD to healthy controls and used the activation likelihood estimation method. Thirty-seven papers met the inclusion criteria, including 15 with emotional faces as stimuli, 8 presenting specific situations as stimuli, and 14 using other types of tasks as stimuli. Among these papers, 654 participants were in the SAD group and 594 participants were in the control group with 335 activation increase points and 115 activation decrease points. RESULTS: Whole-brain analysis showed that compared with healthy controls, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left anterior cingulate gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = -6, y = 22, z = 38; p 0.001). Sub-group analysis based on task indicated that when performing tasks with emotional faces as stimuli, persons with SAD showed significantly lower activation of the left cerebellar slope and fusiform gyrus (MNI coordinate: x = -26, y = -68, z = -12; p 0.001), and significantly higher activation of the right supramarginal gyrus and angular gyrus, than healthy controls (MNI coordinate: x = 58, y = -52, z = 30; p 0.001). CONCLUSION: Individuals with social anxiety disorder show abnormal activation in the cingulate gyrus, which is responsible for the process of attention control, and task type can influence the activation pattern.

Modification of hostile interpretation bias and self-reported aggression in juvenile delinquents: A randomized controlled trial / Modificación del sesgo de interpretación hostil y agresión autoinformada en delincuentes juveniles: un ensayo controlado aleatorio

Background/Objective: The social information processing model holds that aggressive behavior is closely related to the hostile interpretation of ambiguous social cues, suggesting the possibility that an intervention that reduces hostile interpretations could reduce aggression. This study in Mainland China evaluated the remediating effects of cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) on the hostile interpretation bias and self-reported aggressive behaviors of male juvenile delinquents, taking into account initial hostile interpretation bias as a possible moderator of the intervention effect. Method: Fifty-six male juvenile delinquents aged 16-18 were recruited and randomly assigned to the CBM-I group (n = 28) or the Waiting-List group (n = 28). Interpretation bias and self-reported aggressive behavior were assessed at pre-test and post-test. Results: The positive interpretations of participants in the CBM-I group were significantly increased compared with participants in the Waiting-List group. The intervention effect of CBM-I on self-reported physical aggression was significant only for juvenile delinquents with high pre-test hostile interpretation bias. Conclusions: CBM-I can significantly improve the positive interpretation bias of juvenile delinquents, and reduce the self-reported physical aggression for some male juvenile delinquents. The results have implications for providing low-cost and high-efficiency intervention for juvenile delinquents’ self-reported aggression behavior. (AU)

Antecedentes/Objetivo: El modelo de procesamiento de información social sostiene que el comportamiento agresivo está relacionado con la interpretación hostil de señales sociales ambiguas, lo que sugiere que una intervención que reduzca las interpretaciones hostiles podría reducir la agresión. Se evaluaron los efectos de la modificación del sesgo cognitivo para la interpretación (CBM-I, por sus siglas en inglés) sobre el sesgo de interpretación hostil y conductas agresivas autoinformadas de delincuentes juveniles, teniendo en cuenta el sesgo de interpretación hostil inicial como posible moderador del efecto de la intervención. Método: Cincuenta y seis delincuentes juveniles varones (16-18 años) se asignaron al azar al grupo CBM-I (n = 28) o al grupo lista de espera (n = 28). El sesgo de interpretación y el comportamiento agresivo autoinformado se evaluaron en pretest y postest. Resultados: Las interpretaciones positivas de los participantes en el grupo CBM-I aumentaron significativamente en comparación con el grupo Lista de espera. El efecto de la intervención de CBM-I sobre la agresión autoinformada fue significativo solo para delincuentes con un alto sesgo de interpretación hostil en el pretest. Conclusiones: CBM-I puede mejorar significativamente el sesgo de interpretación positiva de delincuentes juveniles y reducir la agresión física autoinformada en algunos delincuentes juveniles masculinos.

Attentional variability and avoidance of hostile stimuli decrease aggression in Chinese male juvenile delinquents.

BACKGROUND: As a prominent issue worldwide, juveniles' aggressive and violent crimes have attracted much interest in recent years. Based on the social information processing model, the present study aimed to evaluate the Chinese male juvenile delinquents' attention bias towards hostile stimuli from both static and dynamic perspectives. Additionally, the predictive effect of attention bias on aggressive behavior and the moderating effect of group (juvenile delinquents and the controls with no criminal history) were also investigated. METHODS: The hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior of 76 juvenile delinquents (Mage = 17.5 years, SD = 0.59 years) and 67 controls (Mage = 18.3 years, SD = 0.73 years) were measured with the emotional dot-probe task, emotional Stroop task, and the Chinese version of the Buss & Perry aggression questionnaire, respectively. RESULTS: The results showed that compared with controls, juvenile delinquents showed more attention biases towards hostile faces and words, and demonstrated higher levels of physical aggression and anger. Furthermore, the type of participants moderated the relationship between hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior. For juvenile delinquents, attention bias away from hostile stimuli and attention variability negatively predicted anger, while for controls, attention variability positively predicted self-directed aggression. CONCLUSION: Attentional variability and avoidance of hostile stimuli are expected to reduce the aggressive level of Chinese male juvenile delinquents. The relationship between attention bias and aggression should be further considered and applied in the clinical practice.

Effects of cognitive bias modification for interpretation on hostile interpretation bias and self-reported aggression in juvenile delinquents.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: The social information processing model holds that aggressive behavior is closely related to the hostile interpretation of ambiguous social cues, suggesting the possibility that an intervention that reduces hostile interpretations could reduce aggression. This study in Mainland China evaluated the remediating effects of cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) on the hostile interpretation bias and self-reported aggressive behaviors of male juvenile delinquents, taking into account initial hostile interpretation bias as a possible moderator of the intervention effect. METHOD: Fifty-six male juvenile delinquents aged 16-18 were recruited and randomly assigned to the CBM-I group (n = 28) or the Waiting-List group (n = 28). Interpretation bias and self-reported aggressive behavior were assessed at pre-test and post-test. RESULTS: The positive interpretations of participants in the CBM-I group were significantly increased compared with participants in the Waiting-List group. The intervention effect of CBM-I on self-reported physical aggression was significant only for juvenile delinquents with high pre-test hostile interpretation bias. CONCLUSIONS: CBM-I can significantly improve the positive interpretation bias of juvenile delinquents, and reduce the self-reported physical aggression for some male juvenile delinquents. The results have implications for providing low-cost and high-efficiency intervention for juvenile delinquents' self-reported aggression behavior.

ANTECEDENTES/OBJETIVO: El modelo de procesamiento de información social sostiene que el comportamiento agresivo está relacionado con la interpretación hostil de señales sociales ambiguas, lo que sugiere que una intervención que reduzca las interpretaciones hostiles podría reducir la agresión. Se evaluaron los efectos de la modificación del sesgo cognitivo para la interpretación (CBM-I, por sus siglas en inglés) sobre el sesgo de interpretación hostil y conductas agresivas autoinformadas de delincuentes juveniles, teniendo en cuenta el sesgo de interpretación hostil inicial como posible moderador del efecto de la intervención. MÉTODO: Cincuenta y seis delincuentes juveniles varones (16-18 años) se asignaron al azar al grupo CBM-I (n = 28) o al grupo lista de espera (n = 28). El sesgo de interpretación y el comportamiento agresivo autoinformado se evaluaron en pretest y postest. RESULTADOS: Las interpretaciones positivas de los participantes en el grupo CBM-I aumentaron significativamente en comparación con el grupo Lista de espera. El efecto de la intervención de CBM-I sobre la agresión autoinformada fue significativo solo para delincuentes con un alto sesgo de interpretación hostil en el pretest. CONCLUSIONES: CBM-I puede mejorar significativamente el sesgo de interpretación positiva de delincuentes juveniles y reducir la agresión física autoinformada en algunos delincuentes juveniles masculinos.

Which kind of feedback has a greater impact on individuals with social anxiety: facial or textual? An ERP study.

The present study is the first to compare the examined electrophysiological activity of facial and textual feedback of students with social anxiety after they finished a visual search task. Compared to textual feedback, facial feedback is much more effective. Specifically speaking, positive facial feedback caused stronger feedback-related negativity (FRN), and negative facial feedback caused late positive potential (LPP) of stronger amplitude. These changes in the FRN component (associated with feedback) and LPP (related to controlled attention engagement) provide clues about the interplay between anxiety and attention allocation in processing facial feedback. The results have implications for identifying the feedback format that will be most helpful for individuals with social anxiety.