A pilot randomized trial of self-compassion writing for young adult women engaged in emotional eating in the context of appearance-related cyberbullying.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness of a 10-min self-compassion writing in alleviating body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and emotional eating in young adult women engaged in emotional eating in the context of appearance-related cyberbullying. METHOD: A total of 175 Chinese young adult women (Mage = 20.90, SD = 1.65) were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: self-compassion, distraction, or control group. At baseline, participants completed assessments of trait and state body dissatisfaction, trait self-objectification, trait self-compassion, emotional eating, and positive and negative affect. Then they needed to recall an appearance-related cyberbullying victimization experience, after which state body dissatisfaction, state self-objectification, and positive and negative affect were measured. After the intervention, participants completed measures of state body dissatisfaction, state self-objectification, positive and negative affect, state self-compassion, and a food-choosing task. At 1-month follow-up, participants completed measures of trait body dissatisfaction, trait self-objectification, trait self-compassion, and emotional eating. RESULTS: At post-intervention, state body dissatisfaction and negative affect were significantly lower, and positive affect was significantly higher in both the self-compassion and distraction groups compared to control. State self-objectification was significantly lower in the self-compassion group than in the other two groups. At 1-month follow-up, the self-compassion group showed significantly lower levels of body dissatisfaction than the control group. DISCUSSION: The findings provide initial evidence for the potential of self-compassion writing in reducing state self-objectification and state body dissatisfaction in the context of appearance-related cyberbullying. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Appearance-related cyberbullying, a common phenomenon in social networking sites, has been documented to associate with appearance-related concerns and disordered eating in young adult women. However, effective interventions that can reduce these negative associations are scarce. This study preliminarily found that a brief self-compassion writing could be a potential intervention for reducing state self-objectification and state body dissatisfaction in young adult women who had suffered appearance-related cyberbullying.

Electroencephalogram pattern association with drug-related cues in a long-duration virtual reality environment in patients with methamphetamine use disorder.

The cognitive processing of drug-related cues and the subsequent dysregulation of behaviour play a central role in the pathophysiology of substance use disorders. Prior studies are limited by small sample sizes and a lack of immersion in stimulus presentation. In the present study, we recruited patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD; N = 1099) from four compulsory isolated detoxification centres and healthy control participants (N = 305). With a 12-min-long virtual reality (VR) protocol stimulus, we discovered that patients showed a decrease in electroencephalogram (EEG) power across alpha to gamma bands in anterior scalp regions under methamphetamine-related VR stimuli (e.g. a glass pipe and medical tubing) compared with the control stimuli (e.g. balls and cubes). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the interaction effects of stimuli type and group were significant in five EEG bands. Using generalised linear models, we classified the stimuli type (i.e. drug-related vs. drug-unrelated cues) in MUD patients with an f1 score of 90% on an out-of-sample testing set. The decreases of EEG between drug-related cues and drug-unrelated cues in delta, theta and alpha frequency bands are more frequently seen in patients than in healthy controls, perhaps reflecting general arousal and attenuated impulsive control. Our results suggest that EEG responses elicited by long-duration methamphetamine-related VR cues showed a specific signature, which may have future clinical implications.

Effects of interpretation bias modification on hostile attribution bias and reactive cyber-aggression in Chinese adolescents: a randomized controlled trial.

Highly aggressive individuals tend to interpret others' motives and intentions as hostile in both offline and online social situations. The current study examined whether hostile interpretation bias can be modified to influence cyber-aggression in Chinese middle school students using an interpretation bias modification program. Gender differences and the heterogeneity of cyber-aggression were also investigated since previous studies suggest that they play important roles in determining the intervention effect. One hundred and twenty-one middle school students were randomized to receive either an eight-session interpretation bias modification task (CBM-I; n = 61) or an eight-session placebo control task (PCT; n = 60) over four weeks. Measures of hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression were administered at baseline, post-training, and at one week follow-up. Results showed that compared to PCT, participants in CBM-I showed a significant reduction in reactive cyber-aggression. However, contrary to our expectation, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the reduction of hostile attribution bias after training. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that the effect of CBM-I on hostile attribution bias and the mediating role of hostile attribution bias in the relationship between CBM-I condition and reactive cyber-aggression was only observed among females, but not among males. These findings provide initial evidence for the potential of CBM-I in reducing hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression. However, for male students, CBM-I might not be effective enough as expected. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04433-3.

Cyberbullying victimization and disordered eating behaviors: The mediating roles of self-compassion and self-objectification.

Previous studies have demonstrated the correlations between cyberbullying victimization and disordered eating behaviors in adolescents, however, limited attention has been paid to the long-term effects and underlying mechanisms, and studies focused on young adults are scarce. This study explored the association between cyberbullying victimization and disordered eating behaviors and the underlying mechanisms in a sample of young adults using a longitudinal design. A total of 955 Chinese young adults completed the Cyber Victim Subscale of the Cyber Victim and Bullying Scale, the Self-surveillance Subscale of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, the Self-compassion Scale-Short Form, and the Dutch Eating Behaviors Questionnaire three times with a 3-months interval. The results indicated that cyberbullying victimization was positively correlated with emotional eating and external eating after six months, but not with restrained eating. Moreover, self-compassion and self-objectification mediated the associations between cyberbullying victimization and the three kinds of disordered eating behaviors, however, in different ways. In the associations of cyberbullying victimization with restrained eating and external eating, the independent mediating effect of self-objectification and the serial mediating effect were significant, while in the association between cyberbullying victimization and emotional eating, only the independent mediating effect of self-compassion was significant. The findings indicated that the relations between cyberbullying with different kinds of disordered eating behaviors might have different mediation mechanisms, which sheds light on the prevention and intervention for disordered eating behaviors associated with cyberbullying in the future.

Peer relations and different functions of cyber-aggression: A longitudinal study in Chinese adolescents.

Although previous studies have focused on the associations between peer group relations and cyber-aggression, limited attention has been paid to the heterogeneity in the functions of cyber-aggression. This study explored the unique associations of peer relations with proactive and reactive cyber-aggression and the possible mechanisms underlying them in a sample of adolescents using a longitudinal study design. A total of 829 middle school students completed the Cyber-rage and Cyber-reward Aggression Subscales of the Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire, the Peer Relations Scale, the Social Information Processing-Attributional Bias Questionnaire, and the Self-efficacy for Aggression Scale twice at a 6-month interval. Multiple mediation analyses and bootstrapping were conducted using the Mplus 8 software. The results indicated that satisfying peer relations were negatively correlated with reactive cyber-aggression and positively associated with proactive cyber-aggression. Moreover, hostile intent attribution and self-efficacy for aggression mediated the associations between peer relations and both functions of cyber-aggression, however, in different ways. Unsatisfying peer relations were associated with higher levels of hostile intent attribution and lower levels of self-efficacy for aggression and predicted increases in reactive cyber-aggression. In contrast, satisfying peer relations were associated with lower levels of hostile intent attribution and higher levels of self-efficacy for aggression and predicted increases in proactive cyber-aggression. The findings indicated that different functions of cyber-aggression might be related to different mediation mechanisms, which sheds light on the prevention of cyber-aggression in the future.

The influences of virtual social feedback on social anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Social feedback in the virtual environment is a critical part of successful virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), and identifying the influences of virtual social feedback on social anxiety patients is necessary. AIMS: The present study aimed to explore the influences of ambiguous and negative virtual social feedback on social anxiety patients and a health control group (HCG). METHOD: Twenty-six social anxiety patients and 26 healthy participants were recruited. All participants were exposed to a virtual public speaking scenario. The participants were required to make two 3-minute speeches while the virtual audiences gave them either ambiguous feedback or negative feedback. The subjective units of discomfort (SUD) and heart rate were collected during the process. RESULTS: The results showed that SAD individuals reported higher levels of subjective anxiety than those in the HCG, and the between-group differences were larger in the mild ambiguous condition than in the intense negative condition. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that social anxiety patients have an interpretation bias towards ambiguous virtual social feedback. Therefore, it is important for VR-based interventions to take into account not only the valence of the feedback but also the ambiguity aspect.

SPECIFIC EFFECTS OF ANGER RUMINATION ON PARTICULAR EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS (.).

The effects of two types of rumination on different kinds of executive functions were investigated. Fifty-nine participants (M age = 22.8 yr., SD = 2.5) were assigned to one of three conditions and instructed either to: (1) ruminate in a self-distanced way, (2) ruminate in a self-immersed way, or (3) think about the layout of their campus following anger induction. Afterward, the participants were directed to finish tasks designed to assess three kinds of executive functions: shifting, inhibition, and updating. Results showed that self-immersed rumination impaired shifting ability the most, while participants engaged in self-distanced rumination showed the worst performance on the inhibition task. No significant difference was found in the updating task. These results suggest that rumination influenced particular executive functions in different ways.

Using machine-learning approach to distinguish patients with methamphetamine dependence from healthy subjects in a virtual reality environment.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether machine learning (ML) can be used to distinguish patients with methamphetamine dependence from healthy controls by using their surface electroencephalography (EEG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) in a drug-simulated virtual reality (VR) environment. METHODS: A total of 333 participants with methamphetamine (METH) dependence and 332 healthy control subjects were recruited between January 2018 and January 2019. EEG (five electrodes) and GSR signals were collected under four VR environments: one neutral scenario and three METH-simulated scenarios. Three ML classification techniques were evaluated: random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and logistic regression (LR). RESULTS: The MANOVA showed no interaction effects among the two subject groups and the 4 VR scenarios. Taking patient groups as the main effect, the METH user group had significantly lower GSR, lower EEG power in delta (p < .001), and alpha bands (p < .001) than healthy subjects. The EEG power of beta band (p < .001) and gamma band (p < .001) was significantly higher in METH group than the control group. Taking the VR scenarios (Neutral versus METH-VR) as the main effects, the GSR, EEG power in delta, theta, and alpha bands in neutral scenario were significantly higher than in the METH-VR scenario (p < .001). The LR algorithm showed the highest specificity and sensitivity in distinguishing methamphetamine-dependent patients from healthy controls. CONCLUSION: The study shows the potential of using machine learning to distinguish methamphetamine-dependent patients from healthy subjects by using EEG and GSR data. The LR algorithm shows the best performance comparing with SVM and RF algorithm.

Classifying major depression patients and healthy controls using EEG, eye tracking and galvanic skin response data.

OBJECTIVE: Major depression disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders worldwide. Diagnosing depression in the early stage is crucial to treatment process. However, due to depression's comorbid nature and the subjectivity in diagnosis, an early diagnosis could be challenging. Recently, machine learning approaches have been used to process Electroencephalography (EEG) and neuroimaging data to facilitate the diagnosis. In the present study, we used a multimodal machine learning approach involving EEG, eye tracking and galvanic skin response data as input to classify depression patients and healthy controls. METHODS: One hundred and forty-four MDD depression patients and 204 matched healthy controls were recruited. They were required to watch a series of affective and neutral stimuli while EEG, eye tracking information and galvanic skin response were recorded via a set of low-cost, portable devices. Three machine learning algorithms including Random Forests, Logistic Regression and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were trained to build dichotomous classification model. RESULTS: The results showed that the highest classification f1 score was obtained by Logistic Regression algorithms, with accuracy = 79.63%, precision = 76.67%, recall = 85.19% and f1 score = 80.70% LIMITATIONS: No hospitalized patients were available; only outpatients were included in the present study. The sample consisted mostly of young adult, and no elder patients were included. CONCLUSIONS: The machine learning approach can be a useful tool for classifying MDD patients and healthy controls and may help for diagnostic processes.

The Efficacy of Naikan Therapy on Male Offenders: Changes in Perceived Social Support and Externalized Blame.

Naikan is a contemplative self-observation practice that originated from Japanese Shin Buddhism and is utilized for rehabilitating prison inmates in many countries. Although some investigations have provided initial evidence for its efficiency in decreasing recidivism, there is still a need for further investigation of the effectiveness of Naikan on other outcomes through more controlled studies. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of Naikan therapy on male offenders' perceived social support and externalized blame. Ninety-two male offenders were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or to the waiting group. All participants were evaluated by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and the Externalization subscale of the Test of Self-Conscious Affect before and after Naikan therapy. The results suggested that participants who received Naikan therapy showed higher levels of perceived social support and lower levels of externalized blame after Naikan therapy than before.

Introduction of intervention programs on cyberbullying abroad / 中国学校卫生

Abstract@#With the growing popularity of electronic devices, cyberbullying has gradually become a common form of bullying. Compared with traditional bullying, cyberbullying is more likely to cause serious psychological problems of its victims, leading to school absences, depression, even selfinflicted injury and suicide. Unfortunately, psychological intervention and prevention for cyberbullying and cyber victimization is rather sparse in China. This paper summarizes some foreign cyberbullying intervention projects, aiming at providing reference localized and specific interventions.