Integrating perceived physical environments and the theory of planned behaviors when explaining adherence to 24-hour movement guidelines in Chinese adolescents.

PURPOSES: Most adolescents worldwide do not meet 24-h movement guidelines, which recommend specific level of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep for optimal health. Nevertheless, there remains a lack of understanding regarding how social cognitive and physical environmental factors influence adolescents' compliance with these guidelines. This prospective study aimed to examine the associations between perceived physical environments, constructs of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), habit strength, and adherence to 24-h movement guidelines in Chinese adolescents over a three-month period. METHODS: A total of 629 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 14.59 years, SD = 0.64) completed a set of questionnaires comprising perceived physical environmental characteristics, constructs of the TPB, habit strength, and 24-h movement behaviors at baseline and 3 months later. Data analysis was conducted using variance-based structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control had a direct effect on intention and intention had a direct effect on number of the guidelines being met. Habit strength was a significant predictor of adherence to the guidelines, although its moderating effect on the intention-behavior relationship was not significant. Perceived neighborhood facility accessibility, school facility availability, and home physical activity equipment had significant indirect effects on intention through attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. However, constructs of the TPB did not serve as mediators in the relationship between perceived physical environments and the number of guidelines being met. CONCLUSION: This study offers preliminary evidence supporting the integration of perceived physical environments and the TPB in predicting adolescents' adherence to 24-h movement guidelines. Future research should consider using experimental study designs with rigorous measures of 24-h movement behaviors to establish causal relationships.

The role of social cognitions in the social gradient in adolescent mental health: A longitudinal mediation model.

The social gradient in adolescent mental health is well established: adolescents' socioeconomic status is negatively associated with their mental health. However, despite changes in social cognition during adolescence, little is known about whether social cognitions mediate this gradient. Therefore, this study tested this proposed mediational path using three data waves, each 6 months apart, from a socioeconomically diverse sample of 1,429 adolescents (Mage = 17.9) in the Netherlands. Longitudinal modeling examined whether three social cognitions (self-esteem, sense of control, and optimism) mediated associations between perceived family wealth and four indicators of adolescent mental health problems (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems). There was evidence of a social gradient: adolescents with lower perceived family wealth reported more concurrent emotional symptoms and peer problems and an increase in peer problems 6 months later. Results also showed evidence of mediation through social cognitions, specifically sense of control: adolescents with lower perceived family wealth reported a decrease in sense of control (though not self-esteem nor optimism) 6 months later, and lower sense of control predicted increases in emotional symptoms and hyperactivity 6 months later. We found concurrent positive associations between perceived family wealth and all three social cognitions, and concurrent negative associations between social cognitions and mental health problems. The findings indicate that social cognitions, especially sense of control, may be an overlooked mediator of the social gradient in adolescent mental health.

Determining the Impact of an Educational Intervention on Family Medicine Residents' Social Cognitions and Behavior for Discussing Physical Activity.

Problem: Primary care providers are recognized as important advocates for physical activity (PA); yet, clinical PA discussions remain infrequent. Educational approaches promoting the uptake of strategies that are proven to increase patient PA levels are effective for improving primary care providers' social cognitions and behavior for discussing PA with patients. However, research on the effectiveness of such educational interventions among family medicine residents is limited. Intervention: Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), an interactive, educational intervention was developed to increase PA discussion between first year family medicine residents and their patients. This study aimed to determine the impact of the intervention on residents' social cognitions and behavior for discussing PA with all adult (18-64 years) patients. Context: The intervention condition was comprised of 15 first year residents (2017/2018) who: (1) received the full intervention, and (2) completed both the pre- and post-intervention TPB questionnaires assessing changes in PA discussion social cognitions, and (3) had their medical charts reviewed for PA discussion behavior. The nonintervention condition was comprised of 15 first-year residents (2016/2017) who were randomly selected to have their medical charts reviewed for PA discussion behavior. Impact: Although no significant differences in social cognitions were observed pre- vs. post-intervention, intervention condition residents' perceptions of feeling adequately trained to discuss PA increased post-intervention (p = 0.005). A difference in residents' PA discussion behavior was observed between conditions at post (p = 0.01), where PA was discussed at more patient visits among intervention condition residents. Lessons Learned: Findings suggest that the observed effect of resident PA discussion behavior being greater in the intervention condition at post may be attributed to the intervention condition residents having received the theory-based, educational workshops. This study highlights the importance of educating and training residents on strategies for PA discussion; however, future interventions should address both the reflective and automatic processing aspects of behavior and strive to influence organizational factors that impact resident behavior for discussing PA.Supplemental data for this article is available online at at 10.1080/10401334.2021.1891542.

He is a Stud, She is a Slut! A Meta-Analysis on the Continued Existence of Sexual Double Standards.

(Hetero)sexual double standards (SDS) entail that different sexual behaviors are appropriate for men and women. This meta-analysis (k = 99; N = 123,343) tested predictions of evolutionary and biosocial theories regarding the existence of SDS in social cognitions. Databases were searched for studies examining attitudes or stereotypes regarding the sexual behaviors of men versus women. Studies assessing differences in evaluations, or expectations, of men's and women's sexual behavior yielded evidence for traditional SDS (d = 0.25). For men, frequent sexual activity was more expected, and evaluated more positively, than for women. Studies using Likert-type-scale questionnaires did not yield evidence of SDS (combined M = -0.09). Effects were moderated by level of gender equality in the country in which the study was conducted, SDS-operationalization (attitudes vs. stereotypes), questionnaire type, and sexual behavior type. Results are consistent with a hybrid model incorporating both evolutionary and sociocultural factors contributing to SDS.

The effect of content and tone of maternal evaluative feedback on self-cognitions and affect in young children.

Feedback that young children receive from others can affect their emotions and emerging self-views. The current experiment tested the effect of negative content (criticism) and negative tone (hostile) of the feedback on children's affect, self-evaluations, and attributions. We also explored whether maternal history of depression and children's temperament moderated these relations. Participants were 152 mothers and children (48% girls) aged 4 and 5 years (M = 61.6 months, SD = 6.83). The task involved three scenarios enacted by dolls; a child doll made something (e.g., picture, house, numbers) that had a mistake (e.g., no windows on the house) and proudly showed it to the mother doll, who then gave feedback (standardized, audio recorded) to the child. Children were randomized to one of four maternal feedback conditions: negative or neutral content in either a negative or neutral tone. Negative content (criticism) produced significantly more negative affect and lower self-evaluations than neutral content. When the tone of the feedback was hostile, children of mothers who had been depressed during the children's lifetimes were significantly more likely to make internal attributions for mistakes than children of nondepressed mothers. In addition, among children with low temperamental negative affectivity, in the presence of negative tone, negative content significantly predicted more internal attributions for the errors. Findings are discussed in terms of understanding the role of evaluative feedback in children's emerging social cognitions and affect.

Self-efficacy reduces the impact of social isolation on medical student's rural career intent.

BACKGROUND: Social isolation in medical students is a subjective experience that may influence medical career decision making. Rural self-efficacy has been shown to influence rural career intentions following a rural clinical placement, however its impact on social isolation during a rural clinical placement has not been previously modeled. The objective of this study is to explore whether self-perception of social isolation is associated with rural career intent in rural medical students. Secondly, to determine whether self-efficacy influences the association between social isolation and rural career intent. METHODS: 2015 data, from a cross-sectional survey of the National Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators (FRAME) study. Among 619 medical students attending rural clinical schools (RCS), rural career intent was assessed. This included intended rural location for either postgraduate medical specialist or generalist training or completion of that training. Self-efficacy beliefs in rural medical practice were based on a validated scale consisting of six questions. Social isolation was measured asking students whether they felt socially isolated during their RCS placement. RESULTS: 31.3% of surveyed students self-reported feeling socially isolated during their rural placement. Social isolation was associated with reduced rural career intent after controlling for gender, rural background, RCS preference, RCS support and wellbeing. In step-wise logistic regression the association between social isolation and rural intent disappeared with the inclusion of rural self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: Social isolation during a rural clinical placement is commonly reported and is shown to reduce rural career intent. High levels of rural clinical self-efficacy reduce the effects of social isolation on future rural workforce intentions.

Faking handedness: Individual differences in ability to fake handedness, social cognitions of the handedness of others, and a forensic application using Bayes' theorem.

People usually describe their handedness honestly, but that need not necessarily be the case. A legal case is described of a murder said by the pathologist to be committed by a left-hander but the defendant claimed to be right-handed, and the first author assessed the defendant's handedness as an expert witness. We know of no previous work on faking handedness, and so we tested 30 right-handers and 25 left-handers on various handedness tasks, and then asked the participants to repeat the tasks while faking being of opposite handedness. Social cognitions of handedness were assessed from participants' knowledge of how other right- and left-handers would answer handedness questionnaires. Fake handedness was best differentiated using cursive lower-case sentence writing, upper-case written letters being less good at distinguishing, as also were simple motor tasks. Participants differed in social cognitions of handedness, and those with more accurate social cognitions were better able to fake. Personality measures did not predict faking ability. For forensic purposes a Bayesian analysis was carried out to evaluate the likelihood of right and left hand performance being true rather than faked, and the cursive lower-case writing provided strong posterior odds that, as claimed, the particular defendant was a true right-hander.

Social cognitions about food choice in children aged five to eight years: Feasibility and predictive validity of an age appropriate measurement.

There are currently no instruments available to measure social cognitions towards food choice in children. This study aimed to test the feasibility and predictive validity of a novel measurement tool to assess food-related social cognitions. Sixty-eight children, five to eight years old, were asked to sort cards with photographs of four fruit and four sweet/savoury snacks as a mean to measure attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC), and intention. Subsequently, food choice (dependent variable) was assessed using a laboratory food choice task in which children could gain access to sweet and savoury or fruit items, or a combination. All participants completed the tasks successfully, demonstrating feasibility of the procedure. The order in which the cards were sorted for each construct differed sufficiently and correlations between constructs were in line with previous studies. Measures of PBC, intention, attitude, and subjective norm from the mother, but not from teachers or friends, correlated significantly with subsequent food choice. It is possible to measure food-related social cognitions in children aged five to eight and these measures were predictive of observed behaviour. The new instrument can contribute to our understanding of psychological determinants of food choice in young children.

Disentangling contributions of bar attendance, drinking, and other factors to elevated acute alcohol problems on the U.S.-Mexico border.

BACKGROUND: Levels of drinking are unusually elevated among young adults on the U.S.-Mexico border, and this elevation can be largely explained by young border residents' unusually high frequency of bar attendance. However, this explanation complicates interpretation of high alcohol problem rates that have also been observed in this group. Because bar environments can lower the threshold for many types of problems, the extent to which elevated alcohol problems among young border residents can be attributed to drinking per se-versus this common drinking context-is not clear. METHODS: Data were collected from multistage cluster samples of adult Mexican Americans on and off the U.S.-Mexico border (current drinker N = 1,351). After developing structural models of acute alcohol problems, estimates were subjected to path decompositions to disentangle the common and distinct contributions of drinking and bar attendance to problem disparities on and off the border. Additionally, models were estimated under varying degrees of adjustment to gauge the sensitivity of the results to sociodemographic, social-cognitive, and environmental sources of confounding. RESULTS: Consistent with previous findings for both drinking and other problem measures, acute alcohol problems were particularly elevated among young adults on the border. This elevation was entirely explained by a single common pathway involving bar attendance frequency and drinking. Bar attendance did not predict acute alcohol problems independently of drinking, and its effect was not moderated by border proximity or age. The common indirect effect and its component effects (of border youth on bar attendance, of bar attendance on drinking, and of drinking on problems) were surprisingly robust to adjustment for confounding in all parts of the model (e.g., fully adjusted indirect effect: b = 0.11, SE = 0.04, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Bar attendance and associated increases in drinking play a key, unique role in the high levels of acute alcohol problems among the border's young adult population that cannot be entirely explained by sociodemographic or social-cognitive characteristics of young border residents, by contextual effects of bars on problems, or by broader neighborhood factors. Bar attendance in particular may represent an early modifiable risk factor that can be targeted to reduce alcohol problem disparities in the region.

Managing oral hygiene as a risk factor for periodontal disease: a systematic review of psychological approaches to behaviour change for improved plaque control in periodontal management.

BACKGROUND: Plaque control in patients with periodontal disease is critically dependent upon self-care through specific oral hygiene-related behaviours. OBJECTIVES: To determine the relationship between adherence to oral hygiene instructions in adult periodontal patients and psychological constructs. To determine the effect of interventions based on psychological constructs on oral health-related behaviour in adult periodontal patients. DATA SOURCES: The Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS: Studies were grouped according to the study design, and appraised using an appropriate methodology, either the Newcastle-Ottawa assessment for observational studies, or the Cochrane criteria for trials. RESULTS: Fifteen reports of studies were identified. LIMITATIONS: There was a low risk of bias identified for the observational studies. Older trials suffered from high risk of bias, but more recent trials had low risk of bias. However, the specification of the psychological intervention was generally poor. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS: The use of goal setting, self-monitoring and planning are effective interventions for improving oral hygiene-related behaviour in patients with periodontal disease. Understanding the benefits of behaviour change and the seriousness of periodontal disease are important predictors of the likelihood of behaviour change.

Cross-border policy effects on alcohol outcomes: drinking without thinking on the u.s.-Mexico border?

BACKGROUND: Rates of alcohol-related outcomes are sensitive to policy differences in politically distinct, adjacent territories. Factors that shape these cross-border effects, particularly when the policy differences are longstanding, remain poorly understood. We compared the ability of 2 classes of variables with theoretical relevance to the U.S.-Mexico border context-bar attendance and alcohol-related social-cognitive variables-to explain elevated drinking on the U.S. side of the border relative to other areas of the United States. METHODS: Data were collected from multistage cluster samples of adult Mexican Americans on and off the U.S.-Mexico border (current drinker N = 1,351). Structural equation models were used to test drinking context (frequency of bar attendance) and 6 different social-cognitive variables (including alcohol-related attitudes, norms, motives, and beliefs) as mediators of border effects on a composite drinking index. RESULTS: The border effect on drinking varied by age (with younger adults showing a stronger effect), consistent with previous findings and known risk factors in the region. Contrary to theoretical expectations, 6 different social-cognitive variables-despite relating strongly with drinking-were comparable in border and nonborder areas (within and across age) and played no role in elevated drinking on the border. Conversely, elevated drinking among border youth was mediated by bar attendance. This mediated moderation effect held after adjusting for potential sociodemographic and neighborhood-level confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Increased drinking among U.S.-Mexico border youth is explained by patterns of bar attendance, but not by more permissive alcohol-related social-cognitive variables in border areas: Border youth attend bars and drink more than their nonborder counterparts, despite having comparable alcohol-related beliefs, attitudes, norms, and motives for use. Alcohol's heightened availability and visibility on both sides of the border may create opportunities for border youth to drink that otherwise would not be considered.

College students' behavioral reactions upon witnessing relational peer aggression.

With a sample of 228 college students (82.5% females) from the Midwestern United States, individual factors that contribute to emerging adults' behavioral responses when witnessing relational aggression among their peers were explored. The experience of witnessing relational aggression was found to be systematically associated with college students' behavioral responses to relational aggression through two social cognitive processes: normative beliefs about relational aggression and susceptibility to peer influence. The experience of witnessing relational aggression was associated with defending behavior through normative beliefs about relational aggression and both assisting and reinforcing behavior through normative beliefs about relational aggression and susceptibility to peer influence. The experience of witnessing relational aggression was also associated with onlooking behavior through normative beliefs about relational aggression. The findings indicate that exposure to relational aggression as a witness may influence witness responses because of the way such exposure may shape specific social cognitions. The potential for using the study findings for promoting effective witness interventions among college students is discussed.

Reducing Loneliness: The Impact of Mindfulness, Social Cognitions, and Coping.

While many facets of loneliness have been explored, research examining the efficacy of loneliness interventions has been overlooked among young adults. The study of loneliness among young adults has become increasingly important considering the current state of isolation and stay-at-home orders issued to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Preliminary reports suggest an increase in loneliness as a result of the current health pandemic, especially among young adults, who have reported feeling lonelier than any other age group. Such findings warrant the study of ways to help reduce loneliness among young adults. The current study examined the efficacy of strategies that might be used to help young adults manage feelings of loneliness. Two hundred and seventy-eight young adults completed the study. Participants read one of four messages: mindfulness, social cognitions, coping behaviors, or a control. Participants in the mindfulness condition felt better equipped to manage future instances of loneliness and held better attitudes toward this intervention. The current research helps to advance understanding of effective ways of helping young adults cope with loneliness.

Choking under pressure: Does it get easier with age? How loneliness affects social monitoring across the life span.

Previous experimental work showed that young adults reporting loneliness performed less well on emotion recognition tasks (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy [DANVA-2]) if they were framed as indicators of social aptitude, but not when the same tasks were framed as indexing academic aptitude. Such findings suggested that undergraduates reporting loneliness possessed the social monitoring skills necessary to read the emotions underlying others' facial expressions, but that they choked under social pressure. It has also been found that undergraduates reporting loneliness have better recall for both positive and negative social information than their non-lonely counterparts. Whether those effects are evident across different age groups has not been examined. Using data from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Loneliness Experiment that included participants aged 16-99 years (N = 54,060), we (i) test for replication in a larger worldwide sample and (ii) extend those linear model analyses to other age groups. We found only effects for participants aged 25-34 years: In this age group, loneliness was associated with increased recall of negative individual information, and with choking under social pressure during the emotion recognition task; those effects were small. We did not find any such effects among participants in other age groups. Our findings suggest that different cognitive processes may be associated with loneliness in different age groups, highlighting the importance of life-course approaches in this area.

Relationship between adherence to diet and physical activity guidelines and self-efficacy among black women with high blood pressure.

Hypertension prevalence is highest among Black women in America. Understanding the relationship between adherence to diet and physical activity using socio-cognitive approaches (e.g. self-efficacy and social support) may be effective approaches in understanding hypertension management. This study found that dietary self-efficacy was associated with dietary adherence, and family social support was associated with both diet and physical activity self-efficacy. Social support mediated the relationship between dietary self-efficacy and dietary adherence. A paradoxical finding emerged where participants in the highest self-efficacy tertile also had higher measured systolic blood pressure. More research is necessary to explore culture-specific factors underlying hypertension treatment management among Black women.

The Implicit Component of Moral Disengagement: Applying the Relational Responding Task to Investigate Its Relationship With Cheating Behavior.

This article aims to conceptualize, for the first time, an implicit form of moral disengagement and investigate its role in relation to cheating behavior. In line with the implicit social-cognition models, we argue that the implicit moral disengagement would represent an unintentional, automatic, and less accessible form of the mechanisms bypassing the moral self-regulatory system. We anticipate that in situations implying on-the-spot decisions and where individuals might suffer no consequences for the misconduct, the implicit moral disengagement would predict the actual behavior while the explicit moral disengagement would predict self-reported conduct. The results of three empirical studies provide support for the theorization of an implicit moral disengagement and its assessment through a newly developed implicit measurement procedure using the relational responding task. Results of the structural equation models, including both implicit and explicit moral disengagement, demonstrated that only the implicit one was associated with the actual misconduct.

Superwoman's kryptonite: The superwoman schema and perceived barriers to weight management among U.S. Black women.

The role that the superwoman schema (SWS) plays in U.S. Black women's perceptions of barriers (biological, psychological, and sociological) to healthy weight management is unknown. This exploratory study examined whether 122 women classified as normal weight, overweight or obese differed in their perceptions of types of barriers and if the SWS predicted perceived barriers to weight management. Women classified as obese reported more barriers than those classified as normal weight. The SWS uniquely positively predicted perceived psychological and sociological barriers. Our findings suggest that the SWS may play a vital role in the self-management of weight in U.S. Black women.

Cultural Roots of Parenting: Mothers' Parental Social Cognitions and Practices From Western US and Shanghai/China.

Cultural values can be considered as important factors that impact parents' social cognitions and parenting practices. However, few studies compare specific cultural values of parents and the relationships between cultural values and parenting processes in eastern and western contexts. This study examined the ethnicity differences in mothers' cultural values, parental social cognitions (child-rearing ideologies and goals), and parenting practices between Mainland Chinese and European American contexts. Predictors of parenting goals and parenting practices were also investigated. Mothers of 4-6 years old children from the western United States (N = 78) and Shanghai/China (N = 96) participated in this study. The results suggested that mothers from Shanghai/China were both more collectivistic and individualistic than mothers from the western United States. Chinese mothers more strongly endorsed training and collectivistic parenting goals, while European American mothers more strongly endorsed individualistic parenting goals for their children. However, no significant difference was found in parenting practices for both groups of mothers. For both ethnic groups, in general, mothers' cultural values have small but significant impact on their parenting processes. The prediction of cultural values and parenting goals on parenting practices were also different for both ethnicity groups. Although Chinese mothers were higher on both individualism and collectivism, their collectivistic values were more important in predicting parental social cognitions.

Do Islanders Have a More Reactive Behavioral Immune System? Social Cognitions and Preferred Interpersonal Distances During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Insular populations have traditionally drawn a lot of attention from epidemiologists as they provide important insights regarding transmission of infectious diseases and propagation of epidemics. There are numerous historical instances where isolated populations showed high morbidity once a new virus entered the population. Building upon that and recent findings that the activation of the behavioral immune system (BIS) depends both upon one's vulnerability and environmental context, we predicted that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, place of residence (island vs. mainland) explains a significant proportion of variance in preferred interpersonal distances, animosity toward strangers, and willingness to punish those who do not adhere to COVID-19 preventive measures. With 48 populated islands, Croatia provides a fruitful testing ground for this prediction. We also opted to explore relations among BIS-related variables (pathogen disgust, germ aversion, and perceived infectability) and social cognitions in a more natural context than has previously been done. The study was conducted online, on Croatian residents, during April and May 2020. As expected, the BIS variables contributed significantly to preferred interpersonal distances, negative emotions toward strangers, and willingness to punish those who do not adhere to COVID-19 preventive measures. Furthermore, our results showed that geographical location explained a significant amount of variance in preferred social (but not personal and intimate) distances and negative emotions toward foreigners. As Croatian islands are extremely frequent travel destinations, these differences between mainlanders and islanders cannot be explained by the lack of exposure to foreigners. Additionally, we found that scores on preferred interpersonal distances, pathogen disgust, and germ aversion were significantly higher compared to those obtained in Croatian samples before the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, men scored higher in perceived infectability than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and women did not, which reflects the objectively higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 for men than for women. Taken together, our results support the notion that BIS is a highly adaptive and context-dependent response system, likely more reactive in more susceptible individuals.

Cognitive predictors of adolescent social anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Identifying psychological processes that maintain social anxiety holds promise for improving treatment outcomes for young people. Experimental and prospective studies in adults suggest negative social cognitions, safety behaviours, self-focused attention, and pre- and post-event processing are all implicated in the maintenance of social anxiety. Despite social anxiety typically starting in adolescence, prospective studies examining these cognitive processes in youth are lacking. The current study examined prospective associations between these five cognitive processes and social anxiety in a sample of 614 participants (53% girls; aged 11-14 years). METHODS: Psychological processes, social anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms were assessed using self-report questionnaires at two time points. RESULTS: Negative social cognitions, safety behaviours, self-focused attention, and post-event processing predicted prospective levels of social anxiety over and above the effect of baseline levels of social anxiety. When these process variables were entered together in a regression model, three of them were independently associated with prospective social anxiety. Neither pre- nor post-event processing independently predicted later social anxiety over and above the effects of other psychological process variables. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that these psychological processes are promising targets for treatment in adolescent social anxiety.