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Governments have restricted public life during the COVID-19 pandemic, inter alia closing sports facilities and gyms. As regular exercise is essential for health, this study examined the effect of pandemic-related confinements on physical activity (PA) levels. A multinational survey was performed in 14 countries. Times spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) as well as in vigorous physical activity only (VPA) were assessed using the Nordic Physical Activity Questionnaire (short form). Data were obtained for leisure and occupational PA pre- and during restrictions. Compliance with PA guidelines was calculated based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In total, n = 13,503 respondents (39 ± 15 years, 59% females) were surveyed. Compared to pre-restrictions, overall self-reported PA declined by 41% (MVPA) and 42.2% (VPA). Reductions were higher for occupational vs. leisure time, young and old vs. middle-aged persons, previously more active vs. less active individuals, but similar between men and women. Compared to pre-pandemic, compliance with WHO guidelines decreased from 80.9% (95% CI: 80.3–81.7) to 62.5% (95% CI: 61.6–63.3). Results suggest PA levels have substantially decreased globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key stakeholders should consider strategies to mitigate loss in PA in order to preserve health during the pandemic.
High-intensity functional training (HIFT) has become a popular method in the sports and fitness sector. In contrast to unimodal approaches such as strength or endurance training, it has been hypothesized to induce concurrent adaptations in multiple markers of motor function. However, to date, the effectiveness of HIFT in this regard has not been studied. The present systematic review quantified the chronic effects of HIFT on motor function in healthy individuals. A multilevel meta-analysis with a robust random effects meta-regession model was used to pool the standardized mean differences (SMD) between (a) HIFT and (b) no-exercise (NEX) as well as conventional endurance, resistance and balance training for outcomes of muscle strength, endurance capacity and balance. The influence of possible effect modifiers such as program duration, session duration, age or sex was examined in a moderator analysis. Seventeen papers with moderate to high methodological quality (PEDro scale) were identified. Compared to NEX, HIFT had small to moderate positive effects on endurance capacity (SMD: 0.42, 95% CI 0.07–0.78, p = 0.03) and strength (0.60, 95% CI 0.02–1.18, p = 0.04) but no effect on balance (SMD: − 0.10, 95% CI − 1.13 to 0.92, p = 0.42). Regarding endurance, HIFT showed similar effectiveness as moderate-intensity endurance training (SMD: − 0.11, 95% CI − 1.17 to 0.95, p = 0.75) and high-intensity interval endurance training (SMD: − 0.15, 95% CI − 1.4 to 1.1, p = 0.66). No comparisons of HIFT vs. classical resistance or balance training were found. Moderator analyses revealed no influence of most effect modifiers. However, regarding endurance, females seemed to respond more strongly to HIFT in the comparison to NEX (p < .05). HIFT appears to represent an appropriate method to induce chronic improvements in motor function. While being superior to NEX and non-inferior to endurance training, current evidence does not allow a comparison against resistance and balance training. The impact of possible effect moderators should be further elucidated in future research.
Most countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have repeatedly restricted public life to control the contagion. However, the health impact of confinement measures is hitherto unclear. We performed a multinational survey investigating changes in mental and physical well-being (MWB/PWB) during the first wave of the pandemic. A total of 14,975 individuals from 14 countries provided valid responses. Compared to pre-restrictions, MWB, as measured by the WHO-5 questionnaire, decreased considerably during restrictions (68.1 ± 16.9 to 51.9 ± 21.0 points). Whereas 14.2% of the participants met the cutoff for depression screening pre-restrictions, this share tripled to 45.2% during restrictions. Factors associated with clinically relevant decreases in MWB were female sex (odds ratio/OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.11–1.29), high physical activity levels pre-restrictions (OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.16–1.42), decreased vigorous physical activity during restrictions (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.05–1.23), and working (partially) outside the home vs. working remotely (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.16–1.44/OR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.23–1.47). Reductions, although smaller, were also seen for PWB. Scores in the SF-36 bodily pain subscale decreased from 85.8 ± 18.7% pre-restrictions to 81.3 ± 21.9% during restrictions. Clinically relevant decrements of PWB were associated with female sex (OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.50–1.75), high levels of public life restrictions (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.18–1.36), and young age (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03–1.19). Study findings suggest lockdowns instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic may have had substantial adverse public health effects. The development of interventions mitigating losses in MWB and PWB is, thus, paramount when preparing for forthcoming waves of COVID-19 or future public life restrictions.
Failed jump landings represent a key mechanism of musculoskeletal trauma. It has been speculated that cognitive dual-task loading during the flight phase may moderate the injury risk. This study aimed to explore whether increased visual distraction can compromise landing biomechanics. Twenty-one healthy, physically active participants (15 females, 25.8 ± 0.4 years) completed a series of 30 counter-movement jumps (CMJ) onto a capacitive pressure platform. In addition to safely landing on one leg, they were required to memorize either one, two or three jersey numbers shown during the flight phase (randomly selected and equally balanced over all jumps). Outcomes included the number of recall errors as well as landing errors and three variables of landing kinetics (time to stabilization/TTS, peak ground reaction force/pGRF, length of the centre of pressure trace/COPT). Differences between the conditions were calculated using the Friedman test and the post hoc Bonferroni-Holm corrected Wilcoxon test. Regardless of the condition, landing errors remained unchanged (p = .46). In contrast, increased visual distraction resulted in a higher number of recall errors (chi² = 13.3, p = .001). Higher cognitive loading, furthermore, appeared to negatively impact mediolateral COPT (p < .05). Time to stabilization (p = .84) and pGRF (p = .78) were unaffected. A simple visual distraction in a controlled experimental setting is sufficient to adversely affect landing stability and task-related short-term memory during CMJ. The ability to precisely perceive the environment during movement under time constraints may, hence, represent a new injury risk factor and should be investigated in a prospective trial.
Strenuous and unaccustomed exercise frequently lead to what has been coined “delayed onset muscle soreness” (DOMS). As implied by this term, it has been proposed that the associated pain and stiffness stem from micro-lesions, inflammation, or metabolite accumulation within the skeletal muscle. However, recent research points towards a strong involvement of the connective tissue. First, according to anatomical studies, the deep fascia displays an intimate structural relationship with the underlying skeletal muscle and may therefore be damaged during excessive loading. Second, histological and experimental studies suggest a rich supply of algogenic nociceptors whose stimulation evokes stronger pain responses than muscle irritation. Taken together, the findings support the hypothesis that DOMS originates in the muscle-associated connective tissue rather than in the muscle itself. Sports and fitness professionals designing exercise programs should hence consider fascia-oriented methods and techniques (e.g., foam rolling, collagen supplementation) when aiming to treat or prevent DOMS.
Aerobic and resistance exercise acutely increase cognitive performance (CP). High-intensity functional training (HIFT) combines the characteristics of both regimes but its effect on CP is unclear. Thirty-five healthy individuals (26.7 ± 3.6 years, 18 females) were randomly allocated to three groups. The first (HIFT) performed a functional whole-body workout at maximal effort and in circuit format, while a second walked at 60% of the heart rate reserve (WALK). The third group remained physically inactive reading a book (CON). Before and after the 15-min intervention period, CP was assessed with the Stroop Test, Trail Making Test and Digit Span Test. Repeated-measures ANOVAs and post-hoc 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used to detect time/group differences. A significant group*time interaction was found for the backwards condition of the Digit Span Test (p = 0.04) and according to the 95% CI, HIFT was superior to WALK and CON. Analysis of the sum score of the Digit Span Test and the incongruent condition of the Stroop Test, furthermore, revealed main effects for time (p < 0.05) with HIFT being the only intervention improving CP. No differences were found for the Trail Making Test (p > 0.05). In conclusion, HIFT represents an appropriate method to acutely improve working memory, potentially being superior to moderate aerobic-type exercise.
Human observers can quickly and accurately categorize scenes. This remarkable ability is related to the usage of information at different spatial frequencies (SFs) following a coarse-to-fine pattern: Low SFs, conveying coarse layout information, are thought to be used earlier than high SFs, representing more fine-grained information. Alternatives to this pattern have rarely been considered. Here, we probed all possible SF usage strategies randomly with high resolution in both the SF and time dimensions at two categorization levels. We show that correct basic-level categorizations of indoor scenes are linked to the sampling of relatively high SFs, whereas correct outdoor scene categorizations are predicted by an early use of high SFs and a later use of low SFs (fine-to-coarse pattern of SF usage). Superordinate-level categorizations (indoor vs. outdoor scenes) rely on lower SFs early on, followed by a shift to higher SFs and a subsequent shift back to lower SFs in late stages. In summary, our results show no consistent pattern of SF usage across tasks and only partially replicate the diagnostic SFs found in previous studies. We therefore propose that SF sampling strategies of observers differ with varying stimulus and task characteristics, thus favouring the notion of flexible SF usage.
Kompetenzen bezeichnen „erlernbare kontextspezifische Leistungsdispositionen, die sich funktional auf Situationen und Anforderungen in bestimmten Domänen beziehen“ (Klieme & Hartig, 2007, S. 17). Für den Bereich der Lehrerbildung wurden durch die Kultusministerkonferenz (2004) Standards für die Lehrerbildung: Bildungswissenschaften formuliert, die als Explikation professioneller pädagogischer Kompetenzen gelten können. Durch die Formulierung dieser Standards sieht sich die Lehrerbildung mit der Aufgabe konfrontiert, Studierende des Lehramts so auszubilden, dass die resultierenden Kompetenzen den genannten Standards genügen. Dies impliziert eine standard- und somit kompetenzorientierte Evaluation der Lehrerbildung. Bislang wird eine Evaluation der Lehrerbildung jedoch meist durch Selbsteinschätzungsverfahren umgesetzt – eine Methodik, die im Bereich der Kompetenzdiagnostik kritisch diskutiert wird (z. B. Nerdinger et al, 2008).
Der Situational Judgement Test als kompetenzdiagnostisches Instrumentarium weist die Vorteile situationsorientierter Verfahren auf und kann zusätzlich aufgrund der schriftlichen Darbietung problemlos auf große Stichproben angewandt werden. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde ein solcher Test entwickelt, um die professionelle pädagogische Kompetenz Lehramtsstudierender kontextnah und ökonomisch erfassen zu können. Die Studie hatte zum Ziel, den entwickelten standardorientierten Situational Judgement Test anhand verschiedener Außenkriterien konvergent und diskriminant zu validieren. Hierbei wurden konvergente Validitätsnachweise lediglich teilweise signifikant, wobei diskriminante Validitätsnachweise anhand des Studienfachs (Lehramtsstudium vs. Studium technisch-naturwissenschaftlicher Fächer) deutliche Signifikanzen und Effektstärken zeigten.
Um den aktuellen Bildungsstand einer Gesellschaft abbilden zu können müssen Resultate von Bildungsprozessen, wie erworbenes Wissen oder ausgebildete Fähigkeiten, modelliert und gemessen werden (Leutner, Klieme, Fleischer & Kuper, 2013). Im Rahmen sogenannter Large-Scale-Assessments (LSAs) werden Kompetenzen in bestimmten Bereichen definiert und erfasst, die generell für die gesellschaftliche Teilhabe benötigen werden (bspw. Fraillon, Schulz & Ainley, 2013). Durch die fortschreitende Digitalisierung aller Lebens- und Arbeitsbereiche ist der kompetente Umgang mit Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (ICT) eine wichtige Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Teilhabe an unserer modernen Wissensgesellschaft. Die detaillierte Beschreibung solcher, auch als ICT-Skills bezeichneter Kompetenzen, und die Entwicklung von theoriebasierten Instrumenten zu deren Erfassung ist von großer Bedeutung, um mögliche sozial bedingte Disparitäten aufzudecken.
Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Annahmen, Ergebnisse und Daten aus dem Projekt CavE-ICT, in dem verhaltensnahe simulationsbasierte Items zur Erfassung von ICT-Skills entwickelt wurden, aufgegriffen und weitergenutzt mit dem Ziel eine besonders effiziente und ökonomisch Messung von ICT-Skills im LSA-Kontext und darüber hinaus zu ermöglichen. Ein vielversprechender Ansatz durch den Testzeiten verkürzt und/oder die Messpräzision erhöht werden kann ist das computerisierte adaptive Testen (CAT; bspw. Frey, 2012). Beim adaptiven Testen orientiert sich die Auswahl der Items am Antwortverhalten der untersuchten Person, so dass durch die Berücksichtigung der individuellen Fähigkeit einer Person Items mit möglichst viel diagnostischer Information administriert werden können. Damit auch bei der Vorgabe unterschiedlicher Items in unterschiedlicher Reihenfolge Testleistungen von Personen miteinander verglichen werden können, stellen Modelle der Item-Response-Theorie (IRT; bspw. Hambleton & Swaminathan, 2010) die Basis der Anwendung von CAT dar.
Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde untersucht, wie ICT-Skills auf Basis der Item-Response-Theorie und unter Einsatz computerisierter Messinstrumente erfasst werden können. Dabei setzten die empirischen Studien dieser Arbeit unterschiedliche Testformen um und an unterschiedlichen Punkten im Prozess der Testentwicklung an. Studie I setzt noch vor der Entwicklung von Items zur Messung von ICT-Skills an und zielt darauf ab Hinweise zum Umfang des zu erstellenden ICT-Itempools und zur Testlänge eines adaptiven Messinstruments bereitzustellen. Studie II baut direkt auf Studie I auf und nutzt die im Rahmen des Projekts CavE-ICT entwickelten und kalibrierten Items beziehungsweise ihre ermittelten Itemeigenschaften zur weiteren Erprobung verschiedener CAT-Algorithmen. Es werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, wie multidimensionales adaptives Testen zur Messung von ICT-Skills gewinnbringend eingesetzt werden kann, und zudem eine differenzierte Messung auf Ebene der verschiedenen kognitiven Prozesse von ICT-Skills erlaubt. Dabei werden explizit Möglichkeiten exploriert Items die unterschiedliche kognitive Prozesse von ICT-Skills abbilden sequentiell geordnet und trotzdem adaptiv vorzulegen. Die durch Studie II erarbeiteten Erkenntnisse können insbesondere für die Erfassung von multidimensionalen Konstrukten oder facettierten Merkmalen in LSAs genutzt werden. Durch den Vergleich der Ergebnisse von Studie I und II ergeben sich zudem Implikationen für ein angemessenes Design von Simulationsstudien die insbesondere noch vor der eigentlichen Test- beziehungsweise Itementwicklung ansetzen. In Studie III werden lineare Kurztests zur Messung von ICT-Skills zusammengestellt. Durch die gezielte Auswahl geeigneter ICT-Items soll bei möglichst geringer Testzeit zugleich eine hohe Messgenauigkeit und Zuverlässigkeit realisiert werden. Die in Studie III manuell und automatisiert computerbasiert zusammengestellten Tests werden hinsichtlich des Einsatzes sowohl auf Populationsebene, im Sinne einschlägiger LSAs, als auch darüber hinaus für gruppen- und individualdiagnostische Zwecke evaluiert und Empfehlungen für den Kurztesteinsatz abgeleitet.
We extended the job demand–control model by including a social comparison perspective and hypothesised that an employee's work-related well-being is to some degree relative to the perceived work environment of coworkers rather than absolute (in terms of isolated effects of individual work characteristics). Hence, we account for the social context when examining the effects of individual job characteristics. Using a lagged study design with two measurement times eight weeks apart, we examined the effects of the (in)congruence between one´s own job demands and job control with the perceived job demands and job control of coworkers on job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficiency. Findings from polynomial regression analyses and response surface methodology revealed that perceiving coworkers as having either higher or lower demands than oneself is associated with lower job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion. This provides partial support for our hypotheses. We found first-time evidence that social comparison processes regarding job demands can influence employees´ well-being.
Abstract: The Children's Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2) is often applied to assess pragmatic language impairment which is highly prevalent in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and several mental health conditions. We replicated previous findings on the limited applicability of the CCC-2 in clinical samples and the inconsistent findings concerning the factor structure. The aim of the present study was, thus, to develop a concise, simplified, and revised version of the CCC-2 in a large German-speaking sample. Four groups of children and adolescents aged 4 to 17 years were included: ASD (n = 195), intellectual disability (ID, n = 83), diverse mental health conditions (MHC, n = 144) and a typically developing control group (TD, n = 417). We reduced the original number of items from 70 to 39, based on item analysis, exploratory factor analysis and the exclusion of communication-unrelated items. The revised version, CCC-R (α = 0.96), consists of two empirically derived factors: a pragmatic-language (α = 0.96) and a grammatical-semantic-language factor (α = 0.93). All clinical groups (ASD, ID, and MHC) had significantly increased CCC-R total scores, with the highest scores being in the neurodevelopmental disorder groups (ASD and ID). In addition, we found group-specific patterns of elevated pragmatic-language scores in the ASD group and grammatical-semantic scores in the ID group. The CCC-R was comparable to the CCC-2 in distinguishing ASD from the other groups. The CCC-R is proposed as a simplified and easily applied, clinical questionnaire for caregivers, assessing pragmatic language impairments across neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health conditions. Lay Summary: The CCC-2 is a questionnaire designed to identify children who have problems in the social use of language, however, it is limited in its clinical application and exhibits inconsistent factors. We have created a shorter and simpler version of the CCC-2 that we have called the CCC-R which overcomes the previous limitations of the CCC-2. It consists of two subscales: pragmatic language and grammatical-semantic language. The CCC-R can be used as a short and clinically relevant caregiver questionnaire which assesses pragmatic language impairments in children and adolescents. Autism Res 2021, 14: 759–772. © 2021 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
The present diary study was conducted for the purpose of bridging and integrating empirical research on the antecedents and consequences of work-related ruminative processes in the evening. Based on the control theory, unfinished tasks and fatigue in the afternoon were considered as antecedents of affective rumination, while vitality was investigated as the outcome observed in the next morning to test for cyclical processes. During a 5-day diary study (including 3 weekdays and the weekend), 74 beginning teachers completed three diary entries per day. A total of 795 diary entries were obtained. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the study supported that both fatigue and unfinished tasks explained unique shares of variance of affective rumination in the evening at the between- and within-person levels. Furthermore, affective rumination mediated the relationship between unfinished tasks and vitality as well as fatigue and vitality. However, this only held true at the between- and not the within-person level, as neither affective rumination nor fatigue and unfinished tasks predicted the following morning’s vitality at this level. The results offer insights into the antecedents of affective rumination and add to extant research on the negative consequences of affective rumination considering vitality as an outcome.
Objective: The problematic use of computer games was included in the DSM-5 and in the ICD-11. Initial research revealed associa- tions between problematic gaming (PG) and quality of life (QoL). However, clarification is needed concerning which dimensions of the multidi- mensional construct QoL are particularly relevant for PG. Method: To answer this question empirically, we asked 503 parents (mean age: 47.63 years) to rate their 503 children (average age: 14.60 years) regarding QoL and PG, using validated questionnaires on parental assessments of adolescent PG and health-related QoL to collect the data. Correlation analyses were calculated to determine bivariate relations, and a multiple linear regression was used to conduct a multivariable analysis. Results: In the bivariate analyses, a higher severity of PG was associated with a lower health-related QoL in all five surveyed dimensions. In the multivariable model (corrected R2 = 0.35), we observed statistically significant associations between higher severity of PG and male sex and lower age of the adolescent as well as lower QoL in the dimensions of physical well-being and school environment. Conclusions: According to the findings of the present study, physical well-being and school environment should be especially focused on in preventive approaches against the development of PG in youth.
Working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (Gf) are highly correlated, but what accounts for this relationship remains elusive. Process-overlap theory (POT) proposes that the positive manifold is mainly caused by the overlap of domain-general executive processes which are involved in a battery of mental tests. Thus, executive processes are proposed to explain the relationship between WMC and Gf. The current study aims to (1) achieve a relatively purified representation of the core executive processes including shifting and inhibition by a novel approach combining experimental manipulations and fixed-links modeling, and (2) to explore whether these executive processes account for the overlap between WMC and Gf. To these ends, we reanalyzed data of 215 university students who completed measures of WMC, Gf, and executive processes. Results showed that the model with a common factor, as well as shifting and inhibition factors, provided the best fit to the data of the executive function (EF) task. These components explained around 88% of the variance shared by WMC and Gf. However, it was the common EF factor, rather than inhibition and shifting, that played a major part in explaining the common variance. These results do not support POT as underlying the relationship between WMC and Gf.
Background: The promotion of healthy aging is one of the major challenges for healthcare systems in current times. The present study investigates the effects of a standardized physical activity intervention for older adults on cognitive capacity, self-reported health, fear of falls, balance, leg strength and gait under consideration of movement biography, sleep duration, and current activity behavior. Methods: This single-blinded, randomized controlled trial included 49 community-dwelling older adults (36 women; 82.9 ± 4.5 years of age (Mean [M] ± SD); intervention group = 25; control group = 24). Movement biography, sleep duration, cognitive capacity, self-reported health status, and fear of falls were assessed by means of questionnaires. Leg strength, gait, and current activity levels were captured using a pressure plate, accelerometers, and conducting the functional-reach and chair-rising-test. The multicomponent intervention took place twice a week for 45 min and lasted 16 weeks. Sub-cohorts of different sleep duration were formed to distinguish between intervention effects and benefits of healthy sleep durations. Change scores were evaluated in univariate analyses of covariances (ANCOVAs) between groups and sub-cohorts of different sleep duration in both groups. Changes in cognitive capacity, self-reported health, fear of falls, balance, leg strength, and gait were investigated using the respective baseline values, movement biography, and current activity levels as covariates. Analysis was by intention-to-treat (ITT). Results: We found sub-cohort differences in cognitive capacity change scores [F(3,48) = 5.498, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.287]. Effects on fear of falls [F(1,48) = 12.961, p = 0.001, ηp2 = 0.240] and balance change scores F(1,48) = 4.521, p = 0.040, ηp2 = (0.099) were modified by the level of current activity. Effects on gait cadence were modified by the movement biography [F(1,48) = 4.545; p = 0.039, ηp2 = 0.100]. Conclusions: Unlike for functional outcomes, our multicomponent intervention in combination with adequate sleep duration appears to provide combinable beneficial effects for cognitive capacity in older adults. Trainability of gait, fear of falls, and flexibility seems to be affected by movement biography and current physical activity levels. Trial registration: This study was registered at the DRKS (German Clinical Trials Register) on November 11, 2020 with the corresponding trial number: DRKS00020472.
Feasibility of present-centered therapy for prolonged grief disorder: results of a pilot study
(2021)
Present-centered therapy (PCT) was originally developed as a strong comparator for the non-specific effects of psychotherapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. PCT qualifies as a not strictly supportive treatment as it is structured and homework is assigned between sessions. It does not focus on cognitive restructuring or exposure. A growing body of literature supports its beneficial effects. For example, it demonstrated only slightly inferior effect sizes and lower dropout rates compared to that of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in several trials with patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The current study is the first to evaluate the feasibility and the treatment effects of PCT in adults with prolonged grief disorder (PGD). Meta-analyses on psychotherapy for PGD have yielded moderate effect sizes. N = 20 individuals suffering from PGD were treated with PCT by novice therapists as part of a preparation phase for an upcoming RCT in an outpatient setting. Treatment consisted of 20–24 sessions á 50 min. All outcomes were assessed before treatment, at post-treatment, and at the 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome, PGD symptom severity, was assessed using the Interview for Prolonged Grief-13. Secondary outcomes were self-reported PGD severity, depression, general psychological distress, and somatic symptom severity. Furthermore, therapists evaluated their experiences with their first PCT patient and the treatment manual. In intent-to-treat analyses of all patients we found a significant decrease in interview-based PGD symptom severity at post-treatment (d = 1.26). Decreases were maintained up to the 3-month follow-up assessment (d = 1.25). There were also significant decreases in self-reported PGD symptoms, depression, and general psychological distress. No changes were observed for somatic symptoms. The completion rate was 85%. Therapists deemed PCT to be a learnable treatment program that can be adapted to the patient's individual needs. The preliminary results of PCT as a treatment for PGD demonstrate large effects and indicate good feasibility in outpatient settings. The treatment effects were larger than those reported in meta-analyses. Thus, PCT is a promising treatment for PGD. Possible future research directions are discussed.
Background: Teachers often face high job demands that might elicit strong stress responses. This can increase risks of adverse strain outcomes such as mental and physical health impairment. Psychological detachment has been suggested as a recovery experience that counteracts the stressor-strain relationship. However, psychological detachment is often difficult when job demands are high. The aims of this study were, first, to gain information on the prevalence of difficulties detaching from work among German teachers, second, to identify potential person-related/individual (i.e., age, sex), occupational (e.g., tenure, leadership position), and work-related (e.g., overload, cognitive, emotional, and physical demands) risk factors and, third, to examine relationships with mental and physical health impairment and sickness absence.
Methods: A secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from a national and representative survey of German employees was conducted (BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018). For the analyses data from two groups of teachers (primary/secondary school teachers: n = 901, other teachers: n = 641) were used and compared with prevalence estimates of employees from other occupations (n = 16,266).
Results: Primary/secondary school teachers (41.5%) and other teachers (30.3%) reported more difficulties detaching from work than employees from other occupations (21.3%). Emotional demands and deadline/performance pressure were the most severe risk factors in both groups of teachers. In the group of primary/secondary school teachers multitasking demands were further risk factors for difficulties to detach from work whereas support from colleagues reduced risks. In both groups of teachers detachment difficulties can be linked to an increase in psychosomatic and musculoskeletal complaints and, additionally, to a higher risk of sickness absence among primary/secondary school teachers.
Conclusions: Difficulties detaching from work are highly prevalent among German teachers. In order to protect them from related risks of health impairment, interventions are needed which aim at optimizing job demands and contextual resources (i.e., work-directed approaches) or at improving coping strategies (i.e., person-directed approaches).
Background: This article reports reliability, validity, and norms for the German version of the multi-informant questionnaire Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits (ICU). Method: The ICU was filled in by nonreferred children aged 13 to 18 years old (n = 645), parents of children aged 6 to 18 years old (n = 1,005), and their teachers (n = 955). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor solution giving the best fit. Still none of the models showed an adequate model-fit applying the chi-square exact fit test. The internal consistency of the parent’s, teacher’s, and self-report version were α = .830, α = .877 and α = .769, respectively. Interrater reliability was moderate. Convergent validity with the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory, the externalizing scores of the Youth Self-Report/Child Behavior Checklist, and with the German oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder Rating Scale “FBB-SSV” were good. German norms were calculated. Conclusions: The ICU is a reliable and valid dimensional measure to describe callous–unemotional traits.
Our mind has the function of representing the physical and social world we are in, so that we can efficiently interact with it. This results in a constant and dynamic interaction between mind and world that produces a balance when representations are at the same time accurate with respect to what the world is communicating to our organism, but also compatible with how our mind works.
A paradigmatic case of this interaction is offered by perception, which is the mental function that represents contingent aspects of the world built from what is captured by our senses. Indeed, the dominant philosophical view in cognitive science is that our perceptual states are representations of the world and not direct access to that world. These representational perceptual states therefor include the aspects of the world they represent and that initiate the perception by stimulating our sensory organs.
Perceptual representations are built using information from the sensory system, i.e., bottom-up information, but are also integrated with information previously acquired, i.e., top-down information, so that perception interacts with memory through language and other mental functions. Such organization is believed to reflect a general mechanism of our mind/brain, which is to acquire and use information to make efficient predictions about the future, continuously updating older information with present information.
This predictive processing works because the world is not random, but shows a regular structure from which reliable expectations can be built. One way that our minds make these predictions is by adapting to the structure of the world in an implicit, automatic and unconscious way, a process that has been called Implicit Statistical Learning (ISL). ISL is a learning process that does not require awareness and happens in an incidental and spontaneous way, with mere exposure to statistical regularities of the world. It is what happens when we learn a language during early childhood, and that allows us to be implicitly sensitive to the phonological structure of speech, or to associate speech patterns with objects and events to learn word meaning.
A specific case of ISL is the learning of spatial configuration in the visual world, which we apply to abstract arrays of items, but most importantly, also to more ecological settings such as the visual scenes we are immersed in during our everyday life. The knowledge we acquire about the structure of visual scenes has been called “Scene Grammar”, because it informs about presence and position of objects in a similar way to what linguistic grammar tells us about the presence and position of words. So, we implicitly acquire the semantics of scenes, learning which objects are consistent with a certain scene, as well as the syntax of scenes, learning where objects are positioned in a consistent way within a certain scene.
More recent developments have proposed that scene grammar knowledge might be organized based on a hierarchical system: objects are arranged in the scene, which offers the more general context, but within a scene we can identify different spatial and functional clusters of objects, called “phrases”, that offer a second level of context; within every phrase, then, objects have different status, with usually one object (“anchor object”) offering strong prediction of where and which are the other objects within the phrase (“local objects”). However, these further aspects of the organization of objects In scenes remain poorly understood.
Another problem relates to the way we measure the structure of scenes to compare the organization of the visual world with the organization in the mind. Typically, to decide if an object appears or not in a certain scene, and whether or not it appears in a certain position within a scene, researchers based their decision on intuition and common-sense, maybe validating those decisions with independent raters. But it has been shown that often these decisions can be limited and more complex information about objects’ arrangement in scenes can be lost.
A potential solution to this problem might be using large set of real-world images, that have annotations and segmentations of objects, to measures statistics about how objects are arranged in the environment. This idea exploits the nowadays larger availability of this kind of datasets due to increasing developments of computer vision algorithms, and also parallels with the established usage of large text corpora in language research.
The goals of the current investigation were to extract object statistics from this image datasets and test if they reliably predict behavioural responses during object processing, as well as to use these statistics to investigate more complex aspects of scene grammar, such as its hierarchical organization, to see if this organization is reflected in the organization of objects in our mind.
Understanding the brain's proactive nature and its ability to anticipate the future has been a longstanding pursuit in philosophy and scientific research. The predictive processing framework explains how the brain generates predictions based on environmental regularities and adapts to both predicted and unpredicted events. Prediction errors (PE) occur when sensory evidence deviates from predictions, triggering cognitive and neural processes that enhance learning and subsequent memory. However, the effects of PE on episodic memory have not been clearly explained. This dissertation aims to address three key questions to advance our understanding of PE and episodic memory. First, how does the degree of PE influence episodic memory, and how do expected and unexpected events interact in this process? Second, what insights can be gained from studying the electrophysiological activity associated with prediction violations, and what role does PE play in subsequent memory benefits? Lastly, how do memory processes change across the lifespan, and how does this impact the brain's ability to remember events? By answering these questions, this dissertation contributes to advancing our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the relationship PE and episodic memory.
Die vorliegende Dissertation befasst sich mit Flow-Zuständen beim Lesen fiktiver Texte. Das 1975 von Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi vorgestellte Konzept des Flow bezieht sich auf das völlige Aufgehen in einer optimal herausfordernden Tätigkeit, das mit Absorption, Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit und intrinsische Freude einhergeht. Bislang wurde Flow zumeist im Kontext motorischer und leistungsorientierter Aktivitäten empirisch untersucht und in erster Linie theoretisch mit Lesefreude in Verbindung gebracht. Ziel der drei Studien, die diese Dissertation umfasst, war es daher einerseits, Flow beim Lesen erstmals anhand größerer Leser-Stichproben und mithilfe von psychometrischen Gütekriterien genügenden Messinstrumenten nachzuweisen. Andererseits sollte Flow im Rahmen eines Modells für positives Leseerleben mit anderen in der Leseforschung diskutierten Konzepten in Verbindung gebracht und im Hinblick auf potenzielle psychophysiologische Korrelate untersucht werden.
In der ersten Studie wurde eine in der allgemeinen Flow-Forschung verbreitete Kurz-Skala an den Lesekontext adaptiert und anhand einer 229 Leser umfassenden Stichprobe psychometrisch getestet. Hierzu wurden die Teilnehmer im Rahmen einer Online-Studie gebeten, nach 20-minütigem Lesen in einem selbstgewählten Roman Fragebögen zu ihrem Leseerleben auszufüllen. Zufriedenstellende Reliabilitätskoeffizienten, positive Korrelationen mit konvergenten Maßen, die faktoranalytische Unterscheidbarkeit zu diskriminanten Maßen und die erwartete Assoziation mit einem Flow-Kriterium bestätigten die Güte der Flow-Skala. Eine Explorative Faktorenanalyse ergab jedoch, dass fast alle Items auf dem Faktor Absorption luden. Zudem ließ die zweifakorielle Skalenstruktur keine abschließende Aussage zur Legitimierung eines globalen Flow-Scores zu. Daher wurde in der zweiten Studie auf Basis der ersten Skala und der aus der Theorie bekannten Flow-Komponenten ein umfassenderer lesespezifischer Flow-Fragebogen entwickelt. Dessen Reliabilität und Validität konnte anhand einer Online-Studie mit 373 Teilnehmern, in deren Rahmen ein Kapitel aus Homers Odyssee gelesen wurde, bestätigt werden. Neben Hinweisen zur konvergenten und diskriminanten Konstrukt- und zur Kriteriumsvalidität stützten die Ergebnisse einer Konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse eine theoretisch angemessene Skalenstruktur, mit den einzelnen Komponenten, mit Absorption, Verarbeitungsflüssigkeit und intrinsischer Freude als Subdimensionen und mit Flow als übergeordnetem Faktor. Mittels eines Strukturgleichungsmodells konnte zudem demonstriert werden, dass der auf Basis dieses Fragebogens gemessene Flow eine zentrale Rolle beim Leseerleben einnehmen kann. So wurde Flow als Mediator für andere, ebenfalls erhobene Erlebnisformen beim Lesen wie etwa Identifikation oder Spannung bestätigt. Von diesen Konzepten klärte Flow den größten Anteil an Varianz in Lesefreude und Textverständnis auf, die als Outcomes von positivem Leseerleben modelliert wurden. Da Flow gegenüber anderen Konzepten der Leseforschung den Vorteil hat, die Ableitung experimenteller Paradigmen und psychophysiologischer Hypothesen zu ermöglichen, wurden in der dritten Studie über die Manipulation des stilistischen Herausforderungsgrades eines weiteren Odyssee-Kapitels unterschiedliche Lese-Bedingungen hergestellt und kardiovaskuläre Daten gemessen. Es zeigten sich zwar keine signifikanten Gruppenunterschiede im Flow-Erleben, jedoch Interaktionen zwischen der Lesebedingung und kardiovaskulären Indikatoren bei der Vorhersage von Flow. So scheinen parasympathische Dominanz und ein entsprechender innerer Entspannungszustand, indiziert durch eine geringe Herzrate und hohe Herzratenvariabilität, Flow beim Lesen zu begünstigen, wenn der Text stilistisch anspruchsvoll ist. Es fanden sich hingegen keine Hinweise dafür, dass Flow-Erleben die Herzaktivität von Lesern verändert oder sich durch sie objektiv erfassen lässt.
Insgesamt sprechen die Ergebnisse dieses Forschungsprojektes somit für das Auf-treten von Flow beim Lesen sowie für dessen zentrale Rolle bei positiven Leseerlebnissen. Außerdem zeigen sie das Potenzial des Flow-Konzeptes für die Leseforschung auf, insbesondere hinsichtlich psychophysiologischer Experimentalstudien.
Misconceptions about scientific concepts often prevail even if learners are confronted with conflicting evidence. This study tested the facilitative role of surprise in children’s revision of misconceptions regarding water displacement in a sample of German children (N = 94, aged 6–9 years, 46% female). Surprise was measured via the pupil dilation response. It was induced by letting children generate predictions before presenting them with outcomes that conflicted with their misconception. Compared to a control condition, generating predictions boosted children’s surprise and led to a greater revision of misconceptions (d = 0.56). Surprise further predicted successful belief revision during the learning phase. These results suggest that surprise increases the salience of a cognitive conflict, thereby facilitating the revision of misconceptions.
Individualization can be defined as the adaptation of instructional parameters to relevant characteristics of a specific learner. This definition raises several questions, however: Which characteristics are actually relevant? Which parameters of instruction need to be adjusted, and in which way, to positively interact with those characteristics? In a classroom context, additional questions arise: how can information about the relevant learner characteristics be delivered to the teacher? How can individualized instruction be delivered to each learner in a context that has originally been designed for whole-class instruction? By focusing on the measurement and modelling of learner characteristics and instructional adaptations, this dissertation aims to provide an insight into each of these issues.
This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part is concerned with the theoretical (Paper 1) and statistical (Paper 2) modeling of learner characteristics in the context of individualized instruction. The second part is concerned with the measurement (Paper 3) and implementation (Paper 4) of individualized instruction in the classroom context.
Paper 1 summarizes existing research on individualization from different research traditions. From this summary I derive the need for a dynamic conceptualization of learner characteristics (acknowledging that learners change during and in interaction with the learning process) and synthesize a dynamic framework that details the opportunities for individualization on three different timescales. Paper 2 reports results from an exploratory study that investigated the potential benefits of utilizing person-centered analysis for the assessment of multivariate learner prerequisites and their interaction with instruction. We found that latent profiles over several reading related abilities could explain differential effectiveness of self-reported teaching foci in German third grade reading lessons. These findings indicate not just a need for stronger individualization of teaching but also an advantage of multivariate conceptualizations of learner characteristics. Additionally, they show the utility of person-centered approaches for the investigation of such multivariate learner characteristics and their interaction with instruction.
In the second part, I investigate possible approaches to the implementation and measurement of individualization in a classroom context. Paper 3 investigates whether teacher-, student- and observer perspectives converge when rating the amount of individualization present in regular classroom instruction. We found considerable agreement between the perspectives, indicating a common understanding of the construct at the classroom level as well as providing some evidence for the validity of the used measurement instruments. Paper 4 replicates findings concerning the effectiveness of formative assessment procedures for fostering reading education, supplemented by a moderator analysis showing that only children with low performance at the beginning of the school-year profited from its implementation. This indicates that the information provided by formative assessment procedures helps teachers to identify struggling readers but does not seem to be utilized for adapting instruction to specific deficits of average or high performing children.
In sum, this dissertation contributes to research on individualized instruction by demonstrating necessary conditions for its effectiveness. It posits the need for a dynamic conceptualization of learner characteristics, demonstrates the advantage of multivariate learner profiles, and points out ways towards the successful implementation of individualized instruction in the classroom.
Childhood and adolescent sexual abuse (CSA) is a traumatic experience associated with a variety of short- and long-term negative consequences. Theoretical models assume that an abuse related and learned distorted image of sexuality might lead CSA survivors to feel obligated to provide sex or engage in unwanted sexual practices in order to gain affection or prevent abandonment. Dialectical behavioral therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (DBT-PTSD) is tailored to people with PTSD and comorbid emotion regulation deficits. This case study presents the results of an outpatient DBT-PTSD treatment of an adult patient with posttraumatic stress disorder following sexual and physical abuse. DBT-PTSD was used to treat the patient’s complex psychopathological problems and to decrease her risky sexual behavior, which manifested itself in highly dangerous sexual practices with her partner. The treatment took place over a period of 18 months, with a total of 72 sessions. At the end of the treatment, the patient no longer met criteria for PTSD as indicated by large reductions in the assessments used. Furthermore, she managed to distance herself from risky sexual practices and to remain in a satisfying relationship.
Background: Many refugees have experienced multiple traumatic events in their country of origin and/or during flight. Trauma-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or complex PTSD (CPTSD) are prevalent in this population, which highlights the need for accessible and effective treatment. Imagery Rescripting (ImRs), an imagery-based treat- ment that does not use formal exposure and that has received growing interest as an innovative treatment for PTSD, appears to be a promising approach.
Objective: This randomized-controlled trial aims to investigate the efficacy of ImRs for refugees compared to Usual Care and Treatment Advice (UC+TA) on (C)PTSD remission and reduction in other related symptoms.
Method: Subjects are 90 refugees to Germany with a diagnosis of PTSD according to DSM-5. They will be randomly allocated to receive either UC+TA (n = 45) or 10 sessions of ImRs (n = 45). Assessments will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention, three-month follow- up, and 12-month follow-up. Primary outcome is the (C)PTSD remission rate. Secondary outcomes are severity of PTSD and CPTSD symptoms, psychiatric symptoms, dissociative symptoms, quality of sleep, and treatment satisfaction. Economic analyses will investigate health-related quality of life and costs. Additional measures will assess migration and stress- related factors, predictors of dropout, therapeutic alliance and session-by-session changes in trauma-related symptoms.
Results and Conclusions: Emerging evidence suggests the suitability of ImRs in the treat- ment of refugees with PTSD. After positive evaluation, this short and culturally adaptable treatment can contribute to close the treatment gap for refugees in high-income countries such as Germany.
Trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register under trial number DRKS00019876, regis- tered prospectively on 28 April 2020.
Background: Intrusive mental imagery (MI) plays a crucial role in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. Evidence on the characteristics of MI in adolescents suffering from PTSD is sparse. The aim of this study was to thoroughly assess MI in an adolescent sample suffering from PTSD after the experience of childhood sexual abuse and/or childhood physical abuse (CA).
Methods: Thirty-two adolescents with a primary diagnosis of PTSD after CA and 32 adolescents without any mental disorder and without a history of CA, matched for age and gender, completed questionnaires assessing the characteristics of negative and positive MI, as well as images of injury and death that lead to positive emotions (ID-images).
Results: The PTSD group reported significantly more frequent, more vivid, more distressing and more strongly autobiographically linked negative MI compared to the control group. Although positive MI was highly present in both groups (PTSD: 65.6%; controls: 71.9%), no significant differences emerged between the two groups regarding the distinct characteristics of positive MI. The frequency of the ID-images did not significantly differ between the two groups (PTSD: 21.9%; controls: 9.4%), although the ID-images were more vivid in the PTSD group.
Discussion: Negative MI appears to be crucial in adolescent PTSD, whilst positive MI are unexpectedly common in both the PTSD and the control group. The role of positive MI as well as that of ID-images remain unclear. Specific interventions for changing negative MI that are tailored to the developmental challenges in adolescents with PTSD should be developed.
Trial registration: Some of the PTSD patients in this study were also part of a randomized controlled trial on Developmentally adapted Cognitive Processing Therapy (D-CPT). This trial was registered at the German Clinical Trial Registry (GCTR), DRKS00004787, 18 March 2013.
Background: Dialectical behaviour therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (DBT-PTSD), which is tailored to treat adults with PTSD and co-occurring emotion regulation difficulties, has already demonstrated its efficacy, acceptance and safety in an inpatient treatment setting. It combines elements of DBT with trauma-focused cognitive behavioural interventions.
Objective: To investigate the feasibility, acceptance and safety of DBT-PTSD in an outpatient treatment setting by therapists who were novice to the treatment, we treated 21 female patients suffering from PTSD following childhood sexual abuse (CSA) plus difficulties in emotion regulation in an uncontrolled clinical trial.
Method: The Clinician Administered PTSD Symptom Scale (CAPS), the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), the Borderline Section of the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) and the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23) were used as primary outcomes. For secondary outcomes, depression and dissociation were assessed. Assessments were administered at pretreatment, post-treatment and six-week follow-up.
Results: Improvement was significant for PTSD as well as for borderline personality symptomatology, with large pretreatment to follow-up effect sizes for completers based on the CAPS (Cohens d = 1.30), DTS (d = 1.50), IPDE (d = 1.60) and BSL-23 (d = 1.20).
Conclusion: The outcome suggests that outpatient DBT-PTSD can safely be used to reduce PTSD symptoms and comorbid psychopathology in adults who have experienced CSA.
Social pain is an emotional reaction to social exclusion which has been widely investigated in experimental settings. We developed the Social Pain Questionnaire (SPQ) and examined its factor structure, reliability, and construct validity. We constructed a 46-item pool that covered a broad range of situations related to social pain. Using three different subsamples (Online convenience sample: n = 623, Representative sample: n = 2531, Clinical sample of outpatients seeking psychotherapy: n = 270) we reduced the item pool to 10 items for the final SPQ scale, paying particular attention to content validity and factorial structure. Convergent, divergent and discriminant validity were assessed using standardized measures of related constructs and group differences. For the final 10-item version, a good factorial structure and reliability were found. Convergent validity was supported by correlations with related instruments of interpersonal sensitivity, attachment styles, depression and social anxiety. The representative and clinical sample differed significantly in social pain. The SPQ is an economic self-report measure with solid psychometric properties. Our data support the factorial, construct and convergent validity. The SPQ can be used to clarify the role of social pain in mental disorders and to incorporate interventions targeted towards social pain in psychotherapeutic settings.
The COVID-19 pandemic has called worldwide for strong governmental measures to contain its spread, associated with considerable psychological distress. This study aimed at screening a convenience sample in Germany during lockdown for perceived vulnerability to disease, knowledge about COVID-19, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and behavioral responses. In an online survey, 1358 participants completed the perceived vulnerability to disease scale (PVD), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), and questionnaires on knowledge about COVID-19 and self-perceived change in behaviors in response to COVID-19. Lower and upper quartiles of the PVD were used to classify individuals into low and high PVD. A confirmatory factor analysis supported three factors representing risk, preventive and adaptive behavior as behavioral responses to COVID-19 lockdown. A structural equation model showed that the score of the knowledge scale significantly predicted the self-reported increase in adaptive and preventive behavior. The score in the PVD-subscale Perceived Infectability predicted a self-reported increase in preventive behavior, whereas the Germ Aversion score predicted a self-reported increase in preventive and a decrease in risk behavior. The score in PHQ-4 predicted a higher score in the perceived infectability and germ aversion subscales, and a self-reported decrease in adaptive behavior. Low-, medium- and high-PVD groups reported distinct patterns of behavior, knowledge, and mental health symptoms. This study shows that perceived vulnerability to disease is closely linked to preventive behaviors and may enhance adaptation to COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives: Current treatments for chronic depression have focused on reducing interpersonal problems and negative affect, but paid little attention to promoting prosocial motivation and positive affect. Following this treatment focus, the objective of the present study was to examine whether the combination of metta (Loving Kindness) group meditation and subsequent tailored individual therapy focusing on kindness towards oneself and others (metta-based therapy, MBT) shows greater improvements in depressive symptoms than a wait list control group in patients with chronic depression. Methods: Forty-eight patients with DSM-5 persistent depressive disorder were randomly assigned to MBT or a wait list control condition. Outcome was assessed after group meditation, after subsequent individual therapy, and at 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure was an independent blind rating of depressive symptoms at post-test. Secondary outcome included changes in self-reported depression, behavioral activation, rumination, social functioning, mindfulness, compassion, and clinician-rated emotion regulation. Results: Mixed-design analyses showed significant differences between MBT and WLC in changes from pre- to post-test in clinician-rated and self-rated depression, behavioral activation, rumination, social functioning, mindfulness, and emotion regulation. Most of the changes occurred during group meditation and were associated with large effect sizes. Improvements were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Conclusions: The results provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of MBT in treating chronic depression. Trial Registration: ISRCTN, ISRCTN97264476.
Background: Personal treatment goals (PTG) are important means to tailor psychotherapy to the needs of the patient, leading to increased engagement and greater improvement in relevant outcomes. According to lifespan developmental research, motivational goals in old age differ from goals of younger people, with management of losses rather than growth becoming more prevalent. However, this study is the first to systematically investigate age-specific differences in PTGs. Method: We used routine data from patients with major depression assessed at the beginning of outpatient cognitive behavioural therapy. Initial high-priority PTGs were assessed using the Bern Inventory of Treatment Goals (BIT-C). Older patients (≥60 years, n = 52) were matched to younger patients (<60 years, n = 52) with regard to severity of depression, number of comorbidities, gender and level of education. Results: Using a mixed method approach, high-priority PTGs of both age groups were focused most strongly on reducing depressive symptoms and, subsequently, anxiety. At the same time, older patients focused more strongly on PTGs related to well-being and functioning, while younger patients' emphasis was on personal growth. Furthermore, better coping with the ageing process and physical losses emerged as important PTGs for some older patients. Conclusion: Initial PTG themes are specific to diagnosis, but also seem to differ in regard to age. Thus, it is important to develop age-sensitive measures that allow appropriate and efficient tailoring of psychotherapy to meet older patients' needs and preferences.
Purpose: Physical activity is associated with altered levels of circulating microRNAs (ci-miRNAs). Changes in miRNA expression have great potential to modulate biological pathways of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and metabolism. This study was designed to determine whether the profile of ci-miRNAs is altered after different approaches of endurance exercise. Methods: Eighteen healthy volunteers (aged 24 ± 3 years) participated this three-arm, randomized-balanced crossover study. Each arm was a single bout of treadmill-based acute endurance exercise at (1) 100% of the individual anaerobic threshold (IANS), (2) at 80% of the IANS and (3) at 80% of the IANS with blood flow restriction (BFR). Load-associated outcomes (fatigue, feeling, heart rate, and exhaustion) as well as acute effects (circulating miRNA patterns and lactate) were determined. Results: All training interventions increased the lactate concentration (LC) and heart rate (HR) (p < 0.001). The high-intensity intervention (HI) resulted in a higher LC than both lower intensity protocols (p < 0.001). The low-intensity blood flow restriction (LI-BFR) protocol led to a higher HR and higher LC than the low-intensity (LI) protocol without BFR (p = 0.037 and p = 0.003). The level of miR-142-5p and miR-197-3p were up-regulated in both interventions without BFR (p < 0.05). After LI exercise, the expression of miR-342-3p was up-regulated (p = 0.038). In LI-BFR, the level of miR-342-3p and miR-424-5p was confirmed to be up-regulated (p < 0.05). Three miRNAs and LC show a significant negative correlation (miR-99a-5p, p = 0.011, r = − 0.343/miR-199a-3p, p = 0.045, r = − 0.274/miR-125b-5p, p = 0.026, r = − 0.302). Two partial correlations (intervention partialized) showed a systematic impact of the type of exercise (LI-BFR vs. HI) (miR-99a-59: r = − 0.280/miR-199a-3p: r = − 0.293). Conclusion: MiRNA expression patterns differ according to type of activity. We concluded that not only the intensity of the exercise (LC) is decisive for the release of circulating miRNAs—as essential is the type of training and the oxygen supply.
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to clarify whether blood-flow restriction during resting intervals [resting blood-flow restriction (rBFR)] is comparable to a continuous BFR (cBFR) training regarding its effects on maximum strength, hypertrophy, fatigue resistance, and perceived discomfort.
Materials and Methods: Nineteen recreationally trained participants performed four sets (30-15-15-15 repetitions) with 20% 1RM on a 45° leg press twice a week for 6 weeks (cBFR, n = 10; rBFR, n = 9). Maximum strength, fatigue resistance, muscle thickness, and girth were assessed at three timepoints (pre, mid, and post). Subjective pain and perceived exertion were determined immediately after training at two timepoints (mid and post).
Results: Maximum strength (p < 0.001), fatigue resistance (p < 0.001), muscle thickness (p < 0.001), and girth (p = 0.008) increased in both groups over time with no differences between groups (p > 0.05). During the intervention, the rBFR group exposed significantly lower perceived pain and exertion values compared to cBFR (p < 0.05).
Discussion: Resting blood-flow restriction training led to similar gains in strength, fatigue resistance, and muscle hypertrophy as cBFR training while provoking less discomfort and perceived exertion in participants. In summary, rBFR training could provide a meaningful alternative to cBFR as this study showed similar functional and structural changes as well as less discomfort.
We investigated whether dichotomous data showed the same latent structure as the interval-level data from which they originated. Given constancy of dimensionality and factor loadings reflecting the latent structure of data, the focus was on the variance of the latent variable of a confirmatory factor model. This variance was shown to summarize the information provided by the factor loadings. The results of a simulation study did not reveal exact correspondence of the variances of the latent variables derived from interval-level and dichotomous data but shrinkage. Since shrinkage occurred systematically, methods for recovering the original variance were fleshed out and evaluated.
This review provides an overview of the current state of research concerning the role of mental imagery (MI) in mental disorders and evaluates treatment methods for changing MI in childhood. A systematic literature search using PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, and PsycINFO from 1872 to September 2020 was conducted. Fourteen studies were identified investigating MI, and fourteen studies were included referring to interventions for changing MI. Data from the included studies was entered into a data extraction sheet. The methodological quality was then evaluated. MI in childhood is vivid, frequent, and has a significant influence on cognitions and behavior in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and depression. The imagery’s perspective might mediate the effect of MI on the intensity of anxiety. Imagery rescripting, emotive imagery, imagery rehearsal therapy, and rational-emotive therapy with imagery were found to have significant effects on symptoms of anxiety disorders and nightmares. In childhood, MI seems to contribute to the maintenance of SAD, PTSD, and depression. If adapted to the developmental stages of children, interventions targeting MI are effective in the treatment of mental disorders.
Um Unterricht durch digitale Medien lernwirksam gestalten zu können, sollten Lehrkräfte über die notwendigen Kompetenzen für einen didaktisch angemessenen und reflektieren Einsatz von Technologien verfügen. Neben der Verbesserung der technischen Infrastruktur an Schulen ist es daher notwendig, Lehrkräfte bei ihrer Professionalisierung zu unterstützen. Lehrkräfte an deutschen Schulen zeigen allerdings eine eher zurückhaltende Teilnahme an Fortbildungsangeboten zu digitalen Themen, was auf eine fehlende Passung zu den realen Bedarfen hinweisen kann. Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich daher Präferenzen von Lehrkräften zu Inhalten und Gestaltungsmerkmalen von Fortbildungen zu digitalen Medien und berichtet dazu Ergebnisse einer Befragung von Gymnasiallehrkräften (N = 238). Um möglichst zielgruppenspezifische Ergebnisse zu erhalten, wurden über eine latente Profilanalyse mit Personenmerkmalen (technologisches und technologisch-pädagogisches Wissen, Selbstwirksamkeit, Mediennutzung) drei Profile identifiziert und im Hinblick auf ihre Präferenzen verglichen. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf eine Vielfalt an thematischen Wünschen sowie auf die Notwendigkeit einer bedarfsgerechten Gestaltung von Fortbildungen hin. Abschließend werden zusammenfassende Empfehlungen zur Gestaltung von Lehrkräftefortbildungen zu digitalen Medien formuliert.
Children often perform worse than adults on tasks that require focused attention. While this is commonly regarded as a sign of incomplete cognitive development, a broader attentional focus could also endow children with the ability to find novel solutions to a given task. To test this idea, we investigated children’s ability to discover and use novel aspects of the environment that allowed them to improve their decision-making strategy. Participants were given a simple choice task in which the possibility of strategy improvement was neither mentioned by instructions nor encouraged by explicit error feedback. Among 47 children (8—10 years of age) who were instructed to perform the choice task across two experiments, 27.5% showed a full strategy change. This closely matched the proportion of adults who had the same insight (28.2% of n = 39). The amount of erroneous choices, working memory capacity and inhibitory control, in contrast, indicated substantial disadvantages of children in task execution and cognitive control. A task difficulty manipulation did not affect the results. The stark contrast between age-differences in different aspects of cognitive performance might offer a unique opportunity for educators in fostering learning in children.
Background: Excessive unilateral joint loads may lead to overuse disorders. Bilateral training in archery is only performed as a supportive coordination training and as a variation of typical exercise. However, a series of studies demonstrated a crossover transfer of training-induced motor skills to the contralateral side, especially in case of mainly unilateral skills. We compared the cervical spine and shoulder kinematics of unilateral and bilateral training archers.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 25 (5 females, 48 ± 14 years) bilaterally training and 50 age-, sex- and level-matched (1:2; 47.3 ± 13.9 years) unilaterally training competitive archers were included. Cervical range of motion (RoM, all planes) and glenohumeral rotation were assessed with an ultrasound-based 3D motion analysis system. Upward rotation of the scapula during abduction and elevation of the arm were measured by means of a digital inclinometer and active shoulder mobility by means of an electronic caliper. All outcomes were compared between groups (unilaterally vs. bilaterally) and sides (pull-hand- vs. bow-hand-side).
Results: Unilateral and bilateral archers showed no between group and no side-to-side-differences in either of the movement direction of the cervical spine. The unilateral archers had higher pull-arm-side total glenohumeral rotation than the bilateral archers (mean, 95% CI), (148°, 144–152° vs. 140°, 135°-145°). In particular, internal rotation (61°, 58–65° vs. 56°, 51–61°) and more upward rotation of the scapula at 45 degrees (12°, 11–14° vs. 8°, 6–10°), 90 degrees (34°, 31–36° vs. 28°, 24–32°), 135 degrees (56°, 53–59° vs. 49°, 46–53°), and maximal (68°, 65–70° vs. 62°, 59–65°) arm abduction differed. The bow- and pull-arm of the unilateral, but not of the bilateral archers, differed in the active mobility of the shoulder (22 cm, 20–24 cm vs. 18 cm, 16–20 cm).
Conclusions: Unilaterally training archers display no unphysiologic movement behaviour of the cervical spine, but show distinct shoulder asymmetris in the bow- and pull-arm-side when compared to bilateral archers in glenohumeral rotation, scapula rotation during arm abduction, and active mobility of the shoulder. These asymmetries in may exceed physiological performance-enhancing degrees. Bilateral training may seems appropriate in archery to prevent asymmetries.
Point forecasts can be interpreted as functionals (i.e., point summaries) of predictive distributions. We extend methodology for the identification of the functional based on time series of point forecasts and associated realizations. Focusing on state-dependent quantiles and expectiles, we provide a generalized method of moments estimator for the functional, along with tests of optimality under general joint hypotheses of functional relationships and information bases. Our tests are more flexible, and in simulations better calibrated and more powerful than existing solutions. In empirical examples, economic growth forecasts and model output for precipitation are indicative of overstatement in anticipation of extreme events.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of acupuncture and medical training therapy alone and in combination with those of usual care on the pain sensation of patients with frequent episodic and chronic tension-type headache.
Design: This was a prospective single-centre randomised controlled trial with four balanced treatment arms. The allocation was carried out by pre-generated randomisation lists in the ratio 1:1:1:1 with different permutation block sizes.
Setting: The study was undertaken in the outpatient clinic of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Hannover Medical School.
Participants and interventions: Ninety-six adult patients with tension-type headache were included and randomised into usual care (n = 24), acupuncture (n = 24), medical training (n = 24), and combination of acupuncture and medical training (n = 24). One patient was excluded from analysis because of withdrawing her/his consent, leaving 95 patients for intention to treat analysis. Each therapy arm consisted of 6 weeks of treatment with 12 interventions. Follow-up was at 3 and 6 months.
Main outcome measures: Pain intensity (average, maximum and minimum), frequency of headache, responder rate (50% frequency reduction), duration of headache and use of headache medication.
Clinical results: The combination of acupuncture and medical training therapy significantly reduced mean pain intensity compared to usual care (mean = −38%, standard deviation = 25%, p = 0.012). Comparable reductions were observed for maximal pain intensity (−25%, standard deviation = 20%, 0.014) and for minimal pain intensity (−35%, standard deviation = 31%, 0.03). In contrast, neither acupuncture nor medical training therapy differed significantly from usual care. No between-group differences were found in headache frequency, mean duration of headache episodes, and pain medication intake. At 3 months, the majority of all patients showed a reduction of at least 50% in headache frequency. At 6 months, significantly higher responder rates were found in all intervention groups compared to usual care.
Conclusions: In contrast to monotherapy, only the combination of acupuncture and medical training therapy was significantly superior in reduction of pain intensity compared to usual care.
Fragestellung: Es existiert eine Vielzahl von Begriffen für Verhaltenssüchte, die Mängel in Operationalisierung, Bezug zum Verhalten, Kompatibilität mit internationalen Klassifikationen sowie nicht stigmatisierender Nutzung aufweisen. Daher werden einheitliche Begriffe für Verhaltenssüchte benötigt. Methode: Im Rahmen einer Leitlinie zur Diagnostik und Behandlung Internetbezogener Störungen wurden Lösungen in Form eines Expertenkonsens entwickelt. Ergebnisse: Als Grundlage wurde die Einteilung von Verhaltenssüchten in der 11. Revision der International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) genutzt. Es wurden die Begriffe Computerspielstörung (CSS) und Glücksspielstörung (GSS) für die beiden in ICD-11 enthaltenen Verhaltenssüchte gewählt sowie drei weitere spezifizierte Verhaltenssüchte vorgeschlagen: Soziale-Netzwerke-Nutzungsstörung (SNS), Shoppingstörung (ShS) und Pornografie-Nutzungsstörung (PNS). Für CSS, GSS und ShS wird weiterhin zwischen vorwiegend online oder vorwiegend offline unterschieden. Als Oberbegriff wird Störungen aufgrund von Verhaltenssüchten vorgeschlagen. Für Störungen aufgrund von Verhaltenssüchten, die sich vorwiegend auf online ausgeübte Verhaltensweisen beziehen, kann alternativ der Oberbegriff Internetnutzungsstörungen verwendet werden. Schlussfolgerung: Die vorgeschlagenen Termini weisen Verbesserungen im Vergleich zu uneindeutigen oder aus anderen Gründen ungünstigen Begriffen dar. Gleichzeitig konnte eine Kompatibilität mit der ICD-11 ermöglicht werden.
Background: Diet and physical activity (PA) have a major impact on physical and mental health. However, there is a lack of effective strategies for sustaining these health-protective behaviors. A shift to a microtemporal, within-person approach is needed to capture dynamic processes underlying eating behavior and PA, as they change rapidly across minutes or hours and differ among individuals. However, a tool that captures these microtemporal, within-person processes in daily life is currently not present.
Objective: The APPetite-mobile-app is developed for the ecological momentary assessment of microtemporal, within-person processes of complex dietary intake, objectively recorded PA, and related factors. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and usability of the APPetite-mobile-app and the validity of the incorporated APPetite-food record.
Methods: The APPetite-mobile-app captures dietary intake event-contingently through a food record, captures PA continuously through accelerometers, and captures related factors (eg, stress) signal-contingently through 8 prompts per day. Empirical data on feasibility (n=157), usability (n=84), and validity (n=44) were collected within the Eat2beNICE-APPetite-study. Feasibility and usability were examined in healthy participants and psychiatric patients. The relative validity of the APPetite-food record was assessed with a subgroup of healthy participants by using a counterbalanced crossover design. The reference method was a 24-hour recall. In addition, the energy intake was compared with the total energy expenditure estimated from accelerometry.
Results: Good feasibility, with compliance rates above 80% for prompts and the accelerometer, as well as reasonable average response and recording durations (prompt: 2.04 min; food record per day: 17.66 min) and latencies (prompts: 3.16 min; food record: 58.35 min) were found. Usability was rated as moderate, with a score of 61.9 of 100 on the System Usability Scale. The evaluation of validity identified large differences in energy and macronutrient intake between the two methods at the group and individual levels. The APPetite-food record captured higher dietary intakes, indicating a lower level of underreporting, compared with the 24-hour recall. Energy intake was assessed fairly accurately by the APPetite-food record at the group level on 2 of 3 days when compared with total energy expenditure. The comparison with mean total energy expenditure (2417.8 kcal, SD 410) showed that the 24-hour recall (1909.2 kcal, SD 478.8) underestimated habitual energy intake to a larger degree than the APPetite-food record (2146.4 kcal, SD 574.5).
Conclusions: The APPetite-mobile-app is a promising tool for capturing microtemporal, within-person processes of diet, PA, and related factors in real time or near real time and is, to the best of our knowledge, the first of its kind. First evidence supports the good feasibility and moderate usability of the APPetite-mobile-app and the validity of the APPetite-food record. Future findings in this context will build the foundation for the development of personalized lifestyle modification interventions, such as just-in-time adaptive interventions.
Stress influences health not only directly, but also indirectly through changes in health-related behaviours, such as diet. Research has shown that stress influences individuals’ eating behaviour in different ways: Some increase, some decrease food intake, while others show no change. Identifying individuals at risk for stress-induced eating is essential for the development of tailored strategies for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity. The individual-difference model of stress-induced eating suggests that individual differences in the dietary response to stress are determined by differences in learning history, attitudes, or biology. Even though many studies have tried to identify person-characteristics that explain individual differences in the dietary response to stress, evidence remains inconclusive. Considering that eating is a repeated-occurrence health behaviour which is performed multiple times a day, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) seems particularly promising to study the complex relationship between stress and food intake when and where it naturally occurs. Despite its potential, the number of studies applying EMA to assess the stress and eating relationship is limited. Furthermore, previous EMA studies show two limitations: (1) Actual food intake is not assessed and (2) inappropriate data analysis approaches are applied to semicontinuous outcomes. Therefore, the first aim of the present dissertation was to address the lack of an EMA tool that allows the assessment of stress and actual food intake by developing and evaluating the APPetite-mobile-app. Feasibility and usability of the APPetite-mobile-app as well as validity of the incorporated food record were empirically examined (Paper 1). Given the lack of an appropriate data analysis procedure, the second aim of the present dissertation was the introduction of a sophisticated statistical approach for semicontinuous data (Paper 2): Multilevel two-part modelling allows studying the influence of stress on the occurrence (i.e., whether individuals eat) as well as the amount of food intake (i.e., how much individuals eat) while accounting for the potential dependency between the two. Lastly, the novel EMA tool and the advanced data analysis procedure were integrated in order to gain novel insights into individual differences in the dietary response to stress and thereby identify individuals at risk for stress-induced eating in daily life (Paper 3). Results of Paper 1 showed good feasibility and acceptable usability of the APPetite-mobile-app as well as validity of the incorporated food record. Findings of Paper 2 highlight that multilevel two-part models offer novel and distinct insights in terms of the occurrence and the amount of food intake and are therefore not only methodologically but also conceptually promising. Paper 3 provides first evidence that the dietary response to stress might not be as stable as yet assumed. Time-varying factors might moderate the relationship between stress and actual food intake. Therefore, an expansion of the individual-difference model is proposed which accounts for time-varying factors. Further EMA studies are needed to verify the expanded model and identify time-varying factors which influence the dietary response to stress. Beyond that, improvements in the dietary assessment are required in order to allow prolonged EMA periods as well as larger samples. The present dissertation contributes to the research on the stress and eating relationship as it overcomes limitations of previous EMA studies and yields novel insights into the relationship between stress and actual food intake in daily life. Not only identifying individuals at risk for stress-induced eating, but also the identification of situations with an increased risk for stress-induced eating appears to be important for the development of targeted strategies for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.
Many sports employ caloric restriction (CR) to reduce athletes’ body mass. During these phases, resistance training (RT) volume is often reduced to accommodate recovery demands. Since RT volume is a well-known anabolic stimulus, this review investigates whether a higher training volume helps to spare lean mass during CR. A total of 15 studies met inclusion criteria. The extracted data allowed calculation of total tonnage lifted (repetitions × sets × intensity load) or weekly sets per muscle group for only 4 of the 15 studies, with RT volume being highly dependent on the examined muscle group as well as weekly training frequency per muscle group. Studies involving high RT volume programs (≥ 10 weekly sets per muscle group) revealed low-to-no (mostly female) lean mass loss. Additionally, studies increasing RT volume during CR over time appeared to demonstrate no-to-low lean mass loss when compared to studies reducing RT volume. Since data regarding RT variables applied were incomplete in most of the included studies, evidence is insufficient to conclude that a higher RT volume is better suited to spare lean mass during CR, although data seem to favor higher volumes in female athletes during CR. Moreover, the data appear to suggest that increasing RT volume during CR over time might be more effective in ameliorating CR-induced atrophy in both male and female resistance-trained athletes when compared to studies reducing RT volume. The effects of CR on lean mass sparing seem to be mediated by training experience, pre-diet volume, and energy deficit, with, on average, women tending to spare more lean mass than men. Potential explanatory mechanisms for enhanced lean mass sparing include a preserved endocrine milieu as well as heightened anabolic signaling.
Background: It is often advised to ensure a high-protein intake during energy-restricted diets. However, it is unclear whether a high-protein intake is able to maintain muscle mass and contractility in the absence of resistance training.
Materials and Methods: After 1 week of body mass maintenance (45 kcal/kg), 28 male college students not performing resistance training were randomized to either the energy-restricted (ER, 30 kcal/kg, n = 14) or the eucaloric control group (CG, 45 kcal/kg, n = 14) for 6 weeks. Both groups had their protein intake matched at 2.8 g/kg fat-free-mass and continued their habitual training throughout the study. Body composition was assessed weekly using multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis. Contractile properties of the m. rectus femoris were examined with Tensiomyography and MyotonPRO at weeks 1, 3, and 5 along with sleep (PSQI) and mood (POMS).
Results: The ER group revealed greater reductions in body mass (Δ −3.22 kg vs. Δ 1.90 kg, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.360), lean body mass (Δ −1.49 kg vs. Δ 0.68 kg, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.152), body cell mass (Δ −0.85 kg vs. Δ 0.59 kg, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.181), intracellular water (Δ −0.58 l vs. Δ 0.55 l, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.445) and body fat percentage (Δ −1.74% vs. Δ 1.22%, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 433) compared to the CG. Contractile properties, sleep onset, sleep duration as well as depression, fatigue and hostility did not change (p > 0.05). The PSQI score (Δ −1.43 vs. Δ −0.64, p = 0.006, partial η2 = 0.176) and vigor (Δ −2.79 vs. Δ −4.71, p = 0.040, partial η2 = 0.116) decreased significantly in the ER group and the CG, respectively.
Discussion: The present data show that a high-protein intake alone was not able to prevent lean mass loss associated with a 6-week moderate energy restriction in college students. Notably, it is unknown whether protein intake at 2.8 g/kg fat-free-mass prevented larger decreases in lean body mass. Muscle contractility was not negatively altered by this form of energy restriction. Sleep quality improved in both groups. Whether these advantages are due to the high-protein intake cannot be clarified and warrants further study. Although vigor was negatively affected in both groups, other mood parameters did not change.
Korrektur zu: Roth C, Rettenmaier L and Behringer M (2021) High-Protein Energy-Restriction: Effects on Body Composition, Contractile Properties, Mood, and Sleep in Active Young College Students. Front. Sports Act. Living 3:683327. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.683327
Development and preliminary validation of the Emotions while Learning an Instrument Scale (ELIS)
(2021)
Learning to play a musical instrument is associated with different, partially conflicting emotions. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of the Emotions while Learning an Instrument Scale (ELIS). In a longitudinal study with 545 German elementary school children factorial structure and psychometric properties were evaluated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed a two-factor solution measuring Positive musical Emotions while Learning an Instrument (PELI) and Negative Emotions while Learning an Instrument (NELI). Both subscales yielded scores with adequate internal reliability (Cronbach’s α = .74, .86) and relatively stable retest reliabilities over 18 months (r = .11 -.56). Preliminary evidence of congruent and divergent validity of the subscales is provided. Implications for future research of musical emotional experiences in children are discussed.
Positive psychological coaching (PPC) has emerged as a popular “paradigm” for practitioners interested in the professional development of people. A recent review consolidated the literature on PPC and produced a 5-phase positive psychological coaching model aimed at facilitating professional growth. However, little is known about practically operationalizing each phase of the coaching process (i.e., how to facilitate each phase and which underlying tools and techniques could be employed to do so). As such, the purpose of this systematic review was to address this limitation by (a) determining which coaching tools and techniques are proposed within the coaching literature and (b) classifying the identified tools and techniques into the respective phases of PPC model. The investigation used a two-step approach by conducting a systematic literature review (to identify various PPC tools/techniques) followed by an iterative heuristic classification process (to assign these PPC tools/techniques to a known PPC model). The systematic literature review resulted in 24 peer-reviewed publications on positive psychological coaching, providing 117 different coaching tools that could be condensed into 18 overarching coaching techniques. The iterative classification process showed that most techniques and tools are useful in at least two phases. Interestingly, experts still vary in opinion on the timing and application of these specific techniques and tools within the positive psychological coaching process. This study provides researchers and practitioners with practical guidelines to facilitate a positive psychological coaching process.
Understanding effects of emotional valence and stress on children’s memory is important for educational and legal contexts. This study disentangled the effects of emotional content of to-be-remembered information (i.e., items differing in emotional valence and arousal), stress exposure, and associated cortisol secretion on children’s memory. We also examined whether girls’ memory is more affected by stress induction. A total of 143 6- and 7-year-old children were randomly allocated to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (n = 103) or a control condition (n = 40). At 25 min after stressor onset, children incidentally encoded 75 objects varying in emotional valence (crossed with arousal) together with neutral scene backgrounds. We found that response bias corrected memory was worse for low-arousing negative items than for neutral and positive items, with the latter two categories not being different from each other. Whereas boys’ memory was largely unaffected by stress, girls in the stress condition showed worse memory for negative items, especially the low-arousing ones, than girls in the control condition. Girls, compared with boys, reported higher subjective stress increases following stress exposure and had higher cortisol stress responses. Whereas a higher cortisol stress response was associated with better emotional memory in girls in the stress condition, boys’ memory was not associated with their cortisol secretion. Taken together, our study suggests that 6- and 7-year-old children, more so girls, show memory suppression for negative information. Girls’ memory for negative information, compared with that of boys, is also more strongly modulated by stress experience and the associated cortisol response.
The present study aimed to investigate the affect-cognition interplay in young and older adults by studying prospective memory (PM), the realisation of delayed intentions. While most previous studies on the topic were conducted in the laboratory, we examined the influence of naturally occurring affect on PM tasks carried out in participants' everyday lives. For seven consecutive days, participants were asked to rate their affective state nine times per day and send text messages either at specific times (time-based PM) or when a particular event occurred (event-based PM). Results showed that within-participants changes in valence from more positive to more negative affect were associated with decreased PM performance. This was similarly true for young and older adults. The design used allowed linkage of within-participants fluctuations of affect and cognitive functions, constituting a methodological advancement. Results suggest that positive affect has the potential to improve cognitive functioning in everyday life.