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Mexico’s role in the US-Central American migration regime is threefold: not only is it a country of origin, and a transit country, but also increasingly becoming a receiving country for migrants who flee from violence, insecurity and poverty. The Mexican state responds with detention enforcement. Clinical research usually puts emphasise on the negative impact of detention enforcement on the detainees‘ mental health. Yet, it often disregards the spatial configurations of detention centres and their socio-political context. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing how such factors create harmful environments that affect both the detainees‘ mental health and their social life in Mexico’s migration detention centres. The study’s mixed method approach builds on semi-structured interviews with a sample of N = 56 migrants of diverse nationalities and varying socioeconomic status of whom 22 were still detained while 34 had been released. The interviews include the Torturing Environment Scale (TES), a novel instrument for the analysis of detention environments, as well as clinical psychological measures of emotional distress. Additional n = 10 in-depth interviews with human rights advocates to explore the interconnections between the detention environments, their impact on mental health, and Mexican migration politics. Facultative counter-mappings of the detention centres complement the interviews. Without exception, all interviews of detainees underline that the manipulation of detention conditions creates torturing environments that cause harm to basic physiological and psychological needs. A comparison between detained vs. released interviewees revealed lasting feelings of fear and shame. The study emphasises that immigration detention immobilises migrants in a necropolitical limbo, which destroys hope as much as human integrity. It indicates that detention is part of deterrence politics, which perpetuates harm and inequality through detention and deportation. Highlighting structural human rights violations, the findings stress the need to review current migration policies.
The purpose of this study was to investigate which social groups are perceived as a threat target and which are perceived as a threat source during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a German sample (N = 1454) we examined perceptions of social groups ranging from those that are psychologically close and smaller (family, friends, neighbors) to those that are more distal and larger (people living in Germany, humankind). We hypothesized that psychologically closer groups would be perceived as less affected by COVID-19 as well as less threatening than more psychologically distal groups. Based on social identity theorizing, we also hypothesized that stronger identification with humankind would change these patterns. Furthermore, we explored how these threat perceptions relate to adherence to COVID-19 health guidelines. In line with our hypotheses, latent random-slope modelling revealed that psychologically distal and larger groups were perceived as more affected by COVID-19 and as more threatening than psychologically closer and smaller groups. Including identification with humankind as a predictor into the threat target model resulted in a steeper increase in threat target perception patterns, whereas identification with humankind did not predict differences in threat source perceptions. Additionally, an increase in threat source perceptions across social groups was associated with more adherence to health guidelines, whereas an increase in threat target perceptions was not. We fully replicated these findings in a subgroup from the original sample (N = 989) four weeks later. We argue that societal recovery from this and other crises will be supported by an inclusive approach informed by a sense of our common identity as human beings.
Background: The assessment of therapeutic adherence and competence is essential to understand mechanisms that contribute to treatment outcome. Nevertheless, their assessment is often neglected in psychotherapy research.
Aims/Objective: To develop an adherence and a treatment-specific competence rating scale for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (DBT-PTSD), and to examine their psychometric properties. Global cognitive behavioural therapeutic competence and disorder-specific therapeutic competence were assessed using already existing scales to confirm their psychometric properties in our sample of patients with PTSD and emotion regulation difficulties.
Method: Two rating scales were developed using an inductive procedure. 155 videotaped therapy sessions from a multicenter randomised controlled trial were rated by trained raters using these scales, 40 randomly chosen videotapes involving eleven therapists and fourteen patients were doubly rated by two raters.
Results: Both the adherence scale (Patient-level ICC = .98; αs = .65; αp = .75) and the treatment-specific competence scale (Patient-level ICC = .98; αs = .78; αp = .82) for DBT-PTSD showed excellent interrater – and good reliability on the patient level. Content validity, including relevance and appropriateness of all items, was confirmed by experts in DBT-PTSD for the new treatment-specific competence scale.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that both scales are reliable instruments. They will be useful to examine possible effects of adherence and treatment-specific competence on DBT-PTSD treatment outcome.
Growing up in cities is associated with increased risk for developing mental health problems. Stress exposure and altered stress regulation have been proposed as mechanisms linking urbanicity and psychopathology, with most research conducted in adult populations. Here, we focus on early childhood, and investigate urbanicity, behavior problems and the regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, a central circuit of the stress system, in a sample of N = 399 preschoolers aged 45 months. Urbanicity was coded dichotomously distinguishing between residences with more or less than 100,000 inhabitants. Behavior problems were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) 1½ - 5. Cortisol stress reactivity was assessed using an age-appropriated game-like stress task, and cortisol in the first morning urine was measured to assess nocturnal HPA axis activity. Urbanicity was not associated with behavior problems, urinary cortisol or the cortisol stress response. Neither urinary cortisol nor salivary cortisol response after stress exposure were identified as mediators of the relationship between urbanicity and behavior problems. The findings suggest no strong association of urbanicity with behavior problems and HPA axis regulation in preschool age. To our knowledge, this is the youngest sample to date studying the relationship between urbanicity and behavior problems as well as HPA axis regulation. Future research should examine at which age associations can first be identified and which mechanisms contribute to these relationships.
Objectives: To investigate whether citizens’ adherence to health-protective non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted by identity leadership, wherein leaders are perceived to create a sense of shared national identity.
Design: Observational two-wave study. Hypotheses testing was conducted with structural equation modelling.
Setting: Data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, Germany, Israel and the USA in April/May 2020 and four weeks later.
Participants: Adults in China (n=548, 66.6% women), Germany (n=182, 78% women), Israel (n=198, 51.0% women) and the USA (n=108, 58.3% women).
Measures: Identity leadership (assessed by the four-item Identity Leadership Inventory Short-Form) at Time 1, perceived shared national identification (PSNI; assessed with four items) and adherence to health-protective NPIs (assessed with 10 items that describe different health-protective interventions; for example, wearing face masks) at Time 2.
Results: Identity leadership was positively associated with PSNI (95% CI0.11 to 0.30, p<0.001) in all countries. This, in turn, was related to more adherence to health-protective NPIs in all countries (95% CI 0.03 to 0.36, 0.001≤p≤0.017) except Israel (95% CI−0.03 to 0.27, p=0.119). In Germany, the more people saw Chancellor Merkel as engaging in identity leadership, the more they adhered to health-protective NPIs (95% CI 0.04 to 0.18, p=0.002). In the USA, in contrast, the more people perceived President Trump as engaging in identity leadership, the less they adhered to health-protective NPIs (95% CI−0.17 to −0.04, p=0.002).
Conclusions: National leaders can make a difference by promoting a sense of shared identity among their citizens because people are more inclined to follow health-protective NPIs to the extent that they feel part of a united ‘us’. However, the content of identity leadership (perceptions of what it means to be a nation’s citizen) is essential, because this can also encourage people to disregard such recommendations.
Systemic therapy considers the complex dynamics of relational factors and resources contributing to psychological symptoms. Negative maintaining factors have been well researched for people suffering from Alcohol-use Disorders (AUD). However, we know little about the complex dynamics of these negative factors and resources. We interviewed fifty-five participants suffering or fully remitted from Alcohol-use disorders in this cross-sectional study (M = 52 years; 33% female). The interviews focused on relational factors (e.g., social support and social negativity) referring to a Support Social Network and a Craving Social Network (CSN). The CSN included all significant others who were associated with craving situations. We compared the network characteristics of the group suffering from Alcohol-use Disorders (n = 38) to a fully remitted control group (n = 17). The abstinent group with full remission named on average fewer individuals in the CSNs. They had lower social negativity mean scores in the Support Social Network compared to the non-remitted group (d = 0.74). In the CSN, the mean scores of social support were significantly higher than the median for both groups (d = 2.50). These findings reveal the complex interplay of relational patterns contributing to the etiology, maintenance, and recovery from Alcohol-use disorders. A successful recovery can be linked to increased social resources and reduced relations associated with craving. However, craving-associated relations represent an important source of social support. Future research should investigate this ambivalence for the systemic perspective on the explanation and treatment of Alcohol-use disorders.
Cultural and biographical influences on the expression of emotions manifest themselves in so-called “display rules.” These rules determine the time, intensity, and situations in which an emotion is expressed. To date, only a small number of empirical studies deal with this transformation of how migrants, who are faced with a new culture, may change their emotional expression. The present, cross-sectional study focuses on changes in anger expression as part of a complex acculturation process among Iranian migrants. To this end, Iranian citizens in Iran (n = 61), German citizens (n = 61), and Iranian migrants in Germany (n = 60) were compared in terms of anger expression behavior and acculturation strategy (assimilation, separation, integration, marginalization) was assessed among the migrants, using the Frankfurt Acculturation Scale (FRACC). A questionnaire developed in a preliminary study was used to measure anger expression via subjective anger experience and anger expression within 16 hypothetical situations. Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) revealed that Iranians and Iranian migrants reported higher anger experience ratings than Germans and directed their anger more often inward (anger-in). Further findings suggest that transformation processes may have affected Iranian migrants in terms of suppressed anger (anger-in): Iranian migrants with a higher orientation toward German culture reported lower average anger-in scores. These results suggest that there was different emotional expression among Iranian migrants, depending on their acculturation. The results provide new insight into socio-cultural and individual adjustment processes.
Fitness and exercise may counteract the detrimental metabolic and mood adaptations during prolonged sitting. This study distinguishes the immediate effects of a single bout vs. work-load and intensity-matched repeated exercise breaks on subjective well-being, blood glucose, and insulin response (analyzed as area under the curve) during sedentary time; and assesses the influence of fitness and caloric intake on metabolic alterations during sedentariness. Eighteen women underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing and three 4 h sitting interventions: two exercise interventions (70% VO2max, 30 min, cycle ergometer: (1) cycling prior to sitting; (2) sitting interrupted by 5 × 6 min cycling), and one control condition (sitting). Participants consumed one meal with ad libitum quantity (caloric intake), but standardized macronutrient proportion. Exercise breaks (4057 ± 2079 μU/mL·min) reduced insulin values compared to a single bout of exercise (5346 ± 5000 μU/mL·min) and the control condition (6037 ± 3571 μU/mL·min) (p ≤ 0.05). ANCOVA revealed moderating effects of caloric intake (519 ± 211 kilocalories) (p ≤ 0.01), but no effects of cardiorespiratory fitness (41.3 ± 4.2 mL/kg/min). Breaks also led to lower depression, but higher arousal compared to a no exercise control (p ≤ 0.05). Both exercise trials led to decreased agitation (p ≤ 0.05). Exercise prior to sitting led to greater peace of mind during sedentary behavior (p ≤ 0.05). Just being fit or exercising prior to sedentary behavior are not feasible to cope with acute detrimental metabolic changes during sedentary behavior. Exercise breaks reduce the insulin response to a meal. Despite their vigorous intensity, breaks are perceived as positive stimulus. Detrimental metabolic changes during sedentary time could also be minimized by limiting caloric intake.
Mask induced airway resistance and carbon dioxide rebreathing is discussed to impact gas exchange and to induce discomfort and impairments in cognitive performance. N = 23 healthy humans (13 females, 10 males; 23.5 ± 2.1 years) participated in this randomized crossover trial (3 arms, 48-h washout periods). During interventions participants wore either a surgical face mask (SM), a filtering face piece (FFP2) or no mask (NM). Interventions included a 20-min siting period and 20 min steady state cycling on an ergometer at 77% of the maximal heart rate (HR). Hemodynamic data (HR, blood pressure), metabolic outcomes (pulse derived oxygen saturation, capillary carbon dioxide (pCO2), and oxygen partial pressure (pO2), lactate, pH, base excess), subjective response (ability to concentrate, arousal, perceived exertion) and cognitive performance (Stroop Test) were assessed. Compared to NM, both masks increased pCO2 (NM 31.9 ± 3.3 mmHg, SM = 35.2 ± 4.0 mmHg, FFP2 = 34.5 ± 3.8 mmHg, F = 12.670, p < 0.001) and decreased pH (NM = 7.42 ± 0.03, SM = 7.39 ± 0.03, FFP2 = 7.39 ± 0.04, F = 11.4, p < 0.001) during exercise. The FFP2 increased blood pressure during exercise (NM = 158 ± 15 mmHg, SM = 159 ± 16 mmHg, FFP2 = 162 ± 17 mmHg, F = 3.21, p = 0.050), the SM increased HR during sitting (NM = 70 ± 8 bpm, SM = 74 ± 8 bpm, FFP2 = 73 ± 8 bpm, F = 4.70, p = 0.014). No mask showed any comparative effect on other hemodynamic, metabolic, subjective, or cognitive outcomes. Mask wearing leads to slightly increased cardiovascular stress and elevated carbon dioxide levels during exercise but did not affect cognitive performance or wellbeing.
Despite its popularity in practice, the Grit-O Scale has shown inconsistent factorial structures and differing levels of internal consistency in samples outside the USA. The validity of the Grit-O Scale in different contexts is, therefore, questionable. As such, the purpose of this paper was to determine whether the Grit-O Scale could be used as a valid and reliable measure to compare grit across different nations. Specifically, the aim was to investigate the factorial validity, reliability, and concurrent validity of the Grit-O Scale and to investigate measurement invariance across three national cohorts (Europe, the USA, and Hong Kong). Data were gathered from 1888 respondents stemming from one USA- (n = 471), two Hong Kong- (n = 361) and four European (n = 1056) universities. A series of traditional CFA and less restrictive ESEM models were estimated and systematically compared to determine the best factorial form of the Grit-O Scale. The results showed that a bifactor ESEM model, with one general factor of overall grit and two specific factors (consistency of interest and perseverance of effort), fitted the data best, showed strong measurement invariance across the three samples, and showed itself to be a reliable measure. Furthermore, concurrent validity was established by showing that the three grit factors were directly and positively related to task performance. Meaningful latent comparisons between the three cultural cohorts could therefore be made. The results imply that cross-national comparisons of grit may only be problematic when traditional CFA approaches are favoured. In contrast, ESEM modelling approaches may compensate for cross-national differences in understanding grit and control for differences in the interpretation of the scale’s items. Therefore, the bifactor ESEM approach may be more appropriate for cross-cultural and cross-national comparison studies, as it allows for these differences to be meaningfully captured, modelled, and controlled for.
Lexical access speed and the development of phonological recoding during immediate serial recall
(2022)
A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought, but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here, we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child’s spontaneous use of labels during a visually presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory.
Als Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit dienen Ansätze, die eine narrative Perspektive für das Verständnis von Psychopathologie und die psychotherapeutische Praxis vorschlagen. Im Hinblick auf die Fragen, welche Vorteile die Analyse von Patient*innenerzählungen bieten kann, und durch welche Merkmale psychopathologische Narrative sich auszeichnen, wird ein Überblick über ausgewählte Fallberichte, empirische Untersuchungen und theoretische Überlegungen gegeben. Diese werden unter den drei Kategorien Kohärenz, „Agency“ und Perspektiven beschrieben. Die Arbeit mag einen Impuls geben, ein tieferes Verständnis für narrative Dysfunktionen zu entwickeln und ihre Ursprünge sowie ihre Bedeutung für psychische Störungen und deren Behandlung vermitteln.
The implications of telework are discussed controversially and research on its positive and negative effects has produced contradictory results. We explore voluntariness of employee telework as a boundary condition which may underpin these contradictory findings. Under normal circumstances, individuals who do more telework should perceive fewer disadvantages. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, employees could no longer voluntarily choose to telecommute, as many organizations were forced to introduce telework by governmental regulations. In two studies, we examine whether the voluntary nature of telework moderates the association between the amount of telework and perceptions of disadvantage. In Study 1, we collected data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 327). Results show that pre-pandemic participants (who were more likely to voluntarily choose this form of work) reported fewer disadvantages the more telework they did, but this was not the case for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. To validate these findings, we measured employees’ voluntariness of telework in Study 2 (N = 220). Results support the importance of voluntariness: Individuals who experience a high degree of voluntariness in choosing telework perceive fewer disadvantages the more they telework. However, the amount of telework was not related to reduced perceptions of disadvantages for those who experienced low voluntariness regarding the telecommuting arrangement. Our findings help to understand when telework is related to the perception of disadvantages and they can provide organizations with starting points for practical interventions to reduce the negative effects of telework.
The implications of telework are discussed controversially and research on its positive and negative effects has produced contradictory results. We explore voluntariness of employee telework as a boundary condition which may underpin these contradictory findings. Under normal circumstances, individuals who do more telework should perceive fewer disadvantages. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, employees could no longer voluntarily choose to telecommute, as many organizations were forced to introduce telework by governmental regulations. In two studies, we examine whether the voluntary nature of telework moderates the association between the amount of telework and perceptions of disadvantage. In Study 1, we collected data before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 327). Results show that pre-pandemic participants (who were more likely to voluntarily choose this form of work) reported fewer disadvantages the more telework they did, but this was not the case for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. To validate these findings, we measured employees’ voluntariness of telework in Study 2 (N = 220). Results support the importance of voluntariness: Individuals who experience a high degree of voluntariness in choosing telework perceive fewer disadvantages the more they telework. However, the amount of telework was not related to reduced perceptions of disadvantages for those who experienced low voluntariness regarding the telecommuting arrangement. Our findings help to understand when telework is related to the perception of disadvantages and they can provide organizations with starting points for practical interventions to reduce the negative effects of telework.
This cross-sectional study examined gender differences between male- and female-typed housework during the early COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Participants in Germany, India, Nigeria, and South Africa (N = 823) rated their housework share before and during the lockdown, then speculated about the division of housework performed by men and women in general, before and post-lockdown. Women spent more time on female-typed tasks and men (in Nigeria and South Africa) on male-typed tasks before and during the lockdown. Irrespective of participants’ gender, they speculated that men's and women's housework was more pronounced post-lockdown than before, but we only found gender differences in South Africa and India. Gender role ideology (GRI) moderated the gender‒housework relationship in Germany, but gender did not moderate the paid work hours and housework relationship in any country. Our findings suggest that gendered housework persisted in these countries and raises concerns that this pattern is likely to continue post-lockdown.
Based on the stressor-detachment model, previous research has assumed that work-related ICT use in the evening impairs psychological detachment. However, since most of the studies to date have assessed cross-sectional relationships, little is known about the actual direction of effects. In this 5-day diary study, we implemented a day-level longitudinal model to shed light on the causal relationships between work-related ICT use, detachment, and task progress (N = 340 employees, N = 1289 day-level cases). We also investigated the role of unfinished work tasks because we assumed, based on boundary theory, that they are a driving force leading to impaired detachment and work-related ICT use in the evening. Contrary to current research consensus but in line with our expectations, we found that low psychological detachment increased work-related ICT use and task progress. We found no evidence for reversed lagged effects. These results applied both to planned and unplanned ICT use. Furthermore, our results support the notion that unfinished work tasks precede ICT use and detachment. Thus, our findings suggest that work-related ICT use should not be treated as a stressor in its own right in the stressor-detachment model. Instead, it needs to be investigated as a behavioral outcome that employees engage in when they cannot detach from work.
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.
Innovation is considered essential for today's organizations to survive and thrive. Researchers have also stressed the importance of leadership as a driver of followers' innovative work behavior (FIB). Yet, despite a large amount of research, three areas remain understudied: (a) The relative importance of different forms of leadership for FIB; (b) the mechanisms through which leadership impacts FIB; and (c) the degree to which relationships between leadership and FIB are generalizable across cultures. To address these lacunae, we propose an integrated model connecting four types of positive leadership behaviors, two types of identification (as mediating variables), and FIB. We tested our model in a global data set comprising responses of N = 7,225 participants from 23 countries, grouped into nine cultural clusters. Our results indicate that perceived LMX quality was the strongest relative predictor of FIB. Furthermore, the relationships between both perceived LMX quality and identity leadership with FIB were mediated by social identification. The indirect effect of LMX on FIB via social identification was stable across clusters, whereas the indirect effects of the other forms of leadership on FIB via social identification were stronger in countries high versus low on collectivism. Power distance did not influence the relations.
Objectives: Interpersonal factors, such as impairments in social interaction or lack of social support, have an important share when it comes to the development, maintenance, and progression of various mental disorders.
Methods: Individuals suffering from prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and matched bereaved healthy controls (n = 54) underwent a thorough diagnostic procedure, further completed the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-D-32), and participated in a finitely iterated prisoner's dilemma (FIPD).
Results: Individuals suffering from PGD reported significantly more interpersonal problems. Both groups behaved differently in the FIPD with healthy controls being more carefully, adapting their behavior more flexible, whereas PGD patients displayed a lower responsiveness, which may indicate an inability to adapt to changes in relationships.
Conclusion: We conclude that interpersonal problems appear to be a relevant feature of PGD. Future studies need to clarify the causal relation behind this link, and should also include measures of attachment, social support, and disconnectedness.
Aims: This study aims to: (1) explore the links between past exposure to potentially traumatic events, fear of contracting COVID-19 and perceived stress; (2) investigate how the exposure to traumagenic experiences affects one's locus of control over their health; and (3) examine fear, stress reactions and differences in health locus of control across three different sociocultural contexts.
Methods: A total of 524 adult participants were recruited from Egypt, Germany, and Italy through online channels. Self-reporting instruments were used to assess previous exposure to potentially traumatic events, PTSD symptoms, fear of COVID-19, perceived stress, and health locus of control.
Results: Our findings highlight differences in reaction to COVID-19 in relation to past exposure to potentially traumatic events and country of residence, both of which may inform tailored community-based intervention practices.
Conclusion: The impact of COVID-19 might be particularly disruptive for people who survived potentially traumatic experiences. Nevertheless, the mass mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic varies across different sociocultural contexts.
Personal values are considered as guiding principles for humans’ attitudes and behavior, what makes them an essential component of mental health. Although these notions are widely recognized, investigations in clinical samples examining the link between values and mental health are lacking. We assessed n = 209 patients with affective disorders, neurotic disorders, reaction to severe stress, and adjustment disorders and personality disorders and compared them to a stratified random sample (n = 209) drawn from the European Social Survey. Personal values were assessed using the Portraits Value Questionnaire. Severity of psychopathology was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Clinical participants showed a higher preference for the values power, achievement and tradition/conformity and a lower preference for hedonism compared to controls. Patients exhibited more incompatible value patterns than controls. Across diagnostic groups, patients with neurotic disorders reported incompatible values most frequently. Value priorities and value conflicts may have the potential to contribute to a better understanding of current and future actions and experiences in patients with mental disorders.
Background: Multiple traumata such as child sexual and/or physical abuse often result in complex psychopathologies and a range of associated dysfunctional behaviors. Although evidence-based interventions exist, some therapists are concerned that trauma-focused psychotherapy with exposure-based elements may lead to the deterioration of associated dysfunctional behaviors in adolescents and young adults. Therefore, we examined the course of suicidal ideation, self-injury, aggressive behavior and substance use in a group of abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients during phase-based, trauma-focused PTSD treatment.
Methods: Daily assessments from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Developmentally adapted Cognitive Processing Therapy (D-CPT) were analyzed to test for differences in the stated dysfunctional behaviors between the four treatment phases. We conducted multilevel modeling and repeated measure ANOVAs.
Results: We did not find any significant differences between the treatment phases concerning the stated dysfunctional behaviors, either at the level of urge or at the level of actual actions. On the contrary, in some primary outcomes (self-injury, aggressive behavior), as well as secondary outcomes (distress caused by trauma, joy), we observed significant improvements.
Discussion: Overall, during D-CPT, adolescents and young adults showed no deterioration in dysfunctional behaviors, while even showing improvements in some, suggesting that trauma-focused treatment preceded by skills building was not deleterious to this population. Hence, the dissemination of effective interventions such as D-CPT should be fostered, whilst the concerns of the therapists regarding exposure-based components need to be addressed during appropriate training. Nevertheless, further studies with momentary assessment, extended measurement methods, a control group and larger sample sizes are needed to confirm our preliminary findings.
Trial registration: The trial was registered at the German Clinical Trial Registry (GCTR), DRKS00004787, 18 March 2013, https://www.drks.de/DRKS00004787.
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: Standardized neuropsychological testing serves to quantify cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, the exact mechanism underlying the translation of cognitive dysfunction into difficulties in everyday tasks has remained unclear. To answer this question, we tested if MS patients with intact vs. impaired information processing speed measured by the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) differ in their visual search behavior during ecologically valid tasks reflecting everyday activities.
Methods: Forty-three patients with relapsing-remitting MS enrolled in an eye-tracking experiment consisting of a visual search task with naturalistic images. Patients were grouped into “impaired” and “unimpaired” according to their SDMT performance. Reaction time, accuracy and eye-tracking parameters were measured.
Results: The groups did not differ regarding age, gender, and visual acuity. Patients with impaired SDMT (cut-off SDMT-z-score < −1.5) performance needed more time to find and fixate the target (q = 0.006). They spent less time fixating the target (q = 0.042). Impaired patients had slower reaction times and were less accurate (both q = 0.0495) even after controlling for patients' upper extremity function. Exploratory analysis revealed that unimpaired patients had higher accuracy than impaired patients particularly when the announced target was in unexpected location (p = 0.037). Correlational analysis suggested that SDMT performance is inversely linked to the time to first fixation of the target only if the announced target was in its expected location (r = −0.498, p = 0.003 vs. r = −0.212, p = 0.229).
Conclusion: Dysfunctional visual search behavior may be one of the mechanisms translating cognitive deficits into difficulties in everyday tasks in MS patients. Our results suggest that cognitively impaired patients search their visual environment less efficiently and this is particularly evident when top-down processes have to be employed.
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.
Based on stereotype threat and stereotype lift theory, this study explores implicit stereotype threat effects of gender stereotypes on the performance of primary school children in mathematics. Moreover, effects of implicit gender stereotypical cues (gender-specific task material) on motivational aspects were explored, which have revealed mixed results in stereotype threat research in the past. N = 151 German primary school children (47.7% female; mean age: M = 9.81, SD = 0.60) calculated either stereotypical or neutral mathematical text problems before motivational aspects were assessed. Contradicting our expectations, results neither revealed a stereotype threat effect on girls’ performance nor a lift effect on the boys. Instead, girls calculating stereotypical tasks outperformed girls in the control group, whereas boys’ performance did not significantly differ compared to the control group. Regarding motivational aspects, only traditional gender differences emerged as girls reported significantly more pressure and tension calculating the mathematical tasks. The discussion focuses on the way in which stereotypes can affect children’s cognitive performance and in turn, their mathematical performance.
The papers in this Special Issue Part I “Revisioning, Rethinking, Restructuring Gender at Work: Quo Vadis Gender Stereotypes?” focus on the current state of gender inequality, particularly stereotypes. We present studies showing that differences in gender stereotypes still exist, confirm disadvantages for women in male-dominated roles and sectors and when the employment sector is not specified, but also disadvantages for men in female-dominated roles and sectors. In contrast to this general trend, one paper in Part II of this Special Issue found a preference for women over men as job candidates in their study. Incongruence emerged as a striking common theme to explain these gender differences, whereby some studies focused on the perceived incongruence from the actor's perspective and how external factors contribute to these perceptions, whereas others looked at the perceived incongruence from the observer's perspective. We summarize the papers and briefly discuss the key points of Part I at the end of this editorial.
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.
Im Rahmen der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung der Hochschullehre finden auch verstärkt elektronische Prüfungsformate Eingang in den Alltag von Hochschulen. Insbesondere elektronische Abschlussklausuren (E-Klausuren) bieten hier die Möglichkeit, die Prüfungsbelastung Hochschulehrender durch die Automatisierung weiter Teile der Klausurkonstruktion, -administration und -auswertung zu reduzieren. Die Integration digitaler Technologien in die Prüfungspraxis deutscher Hochschulen ermöglicht dabei nicht nur eine ökonomische Klausurkonstruktion, realitätsnähere Klausuren (z. B. durch die Nutzung fachspezifischer Standardsoftware), und den Einsatz innovativer Testbausteine (z. B. Integration von Multimediadateien in Items), sondern auch die Nutzung aktueller psychometrischer Methoden. Insbesondere die Konstruktion von Hochschulklausuren als kriteriumsorientierte, adaptive Tests (z. B. Spoden & Frey, 2021), hat das Potential Hochschulklausuren individualisierter, messpräzisier und fairer zu machen, sowie die Validität der aus der Klausurbearbeitung abgeleiteten Testwertinterpretationen zu steigern. Um kriteriumsorientierte, adaptive Hochschulklausuren in der Breite nutzbar zu machen, müssen allerdings zuvor einige Herausforderungen gemeistert werden, denen sich diese Arbeit widmet. Die in den vier Einzelarbeiten dieser Dissertation betrachteten Herausforderungen lassen sich auf einer psychometrischen, einer personalen und einer technischen Ebene verorten.
Auf der psychometrischen Ebene ist eine zentrale Herausforderung die ökonomische Kalibrierung des Itempools. Üblicherweise wird bei der Konstruktion adaptiver Tests eine dreistellige Anzahl an Items konstruiert und mittels einer separaten Kalibrierungsstudie im Vorlauf der operationalen Testanwendung mit mehreren hundert Testpersonen kalibriert. Die massierte Konstruktion vieler Items und die Durchführung einer zusätzlichen empirischen Studie lässt sich im Rahmen von Hochschulklausuren nur schwer realisieren. Im ersten Einzelbeitrag wird daher eine neuartige kontinuierliche Kalibrierungsstrategie (KKS) vorgestellt und im Rahmen einer Monte-Carlo-Simulation hinsichtlich ihrer psychometrischen Eigenschaften geprüft. Zusammenfassend ermöglicht die KKS, adaptive Tests während wiederkehrender Testanwendungen bei konstanter Berichtsmetrik, Kontrolle von Itemparameter-Drift und fortlaufender Ergänzung des Itempools zu kalibrieren. Es zeigt sich, dass die KKS selbst für sehr kleine Stichproben eine geeignete Methode darstellt, den Itempool über mehrere Testanwendungen hinweg fortlaufend zu kalibrieren.
Um die Berichtsmetrik dabei über die verschiedenen Testanwendungen hinweg konstant zu halten, und somit Vergleichbarkeit der Ergebnisse verschiedener Testzeitpunkte (z. B. Semester) zu gewährleisten, nutzt die KKS Equating-Methoden (z. B. Kolen & Brennan, 2014) zum Herstellen einer statistischen Verbindung zwischen Klausurdurchläufen. Die Qualität dieser statistischen Verbindung hängt dabei von verschiedenen Parametern ab. Im zweiten Einzelbeitrag werden daher verschiedene Konfigurationen der in die KKS implementierten Equating-Prozedur hinsichtlich ihres Einflusses auf die Qualität der Parameterschätzungen im Rahmen einer Monte-Carlo-Simulation untersucht und auf Basis der Ergebnisse praktische Empfehlungen abgleitet. Hierfür werden unter anderem die Schwierigkeitsverteilung der genutzten Linkitems sowie die verwendete Skalentransformationsmethode variiert. Es zeigt sich, dass die KKS unter verschiedenen Konfigurationen in der Lage ist, die Skala über mehrere Testzyklen hinweg konstant zu halten. Normal- beziehungsweise gleichverteile Schwierigkeitsverteilungen der Linkitems sowie die Stocking-Lord-Skalentransformationsmethode (Stocking & Lord, 1983) erweisen sich hierbei am vorteilhaftesten.
Auf personaler Ebene stellt die Akzeptanz seitens der Hochschullehrenden einen kritischen Erfolgsfaktor für die Implementation neuer E-Learning Systeme in Lehrveranstaltungen dar. Angelehnt an Technologieakzeptanzmodellen (z. B. Technology Acceptance Model; Davis, 1989) wird im dritten Einzelbeitrag ein empirisch prüfbares Modell – das Technology-based Exams Acceptance Model (TEAM) – zur Vorhersage der Intention zur Nutzung von adaptiven und nicht-adaptiven E-Klausursystemen seitens Hochschullehrender vorgeschlagen und anhand der Daten von N = 993 deutschen Hochschullehrenden empirisch geprüft. Das postulierte Modell weist einen guten Modellfit auf. Die Ergebnisse weisen die wahrgenommene Nützlichkeit als Schlüsselprädiktor für die Nutzungsintention aus. Medienbezogene Variablen haben indirekte Effekte auf die wahrgenommene Nützlichkeit, mediiert über vorherige Nutzungserfahrungen mit Bildungstechnologien. Darüber hinaus spielt die subjektive Norm eine wichtige Rolle bei der Erklärung der Akzeptanz von E-Klausuren...
Über zwei Drittel aller Menschen erleben in ihrem Leben mindestens ein traumatisches Ereignis (Kessler et al., 2017). Gerade nach interpersonellen Traumatisierungen ist die Rate der Betroffenen, welche eine posttraumatische Belastungsstörung (PTBS) entwickeln, sehr hoch (z. B. ca. 50% nach sexuellem Missbrauch; Hauffa et al., 2011). In der Vergangenheit wurden Angst- und Ohnmachtsgefühle als zentrale der PTBS zu Grunde liegende Emotionen aufgefasst (Foa & Kozak, 1986). Neuere Forschungsbefunde legen jedoch nahe, dass traumabezogene Schuld- und Schamgefühle auch eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entstehung und Aufrechterhaltung der PTBS spielen (z. B. Badour et al., 2017). Dabei leiden besonders Betroffene von interpersonellen Gewalterfahrungen unter diesen Gefühlen (z. B. Badour et al., 2017).
Im Hinblick auf die psychotherapeutische Behandlung der PTBS haben sich traumafokussierte Verfahren als wirksam erwiesen (z. B. Lewis et al., 2020). Hohe Drop-out (z. B. Swift & Greenberg, 2014) und Nonresponse Raten (Fonzo et al., 2020) geben jedoch Hinweise darauf, dass nicht allen PTBS Patient*innen mit diesen Verfahren ausreichend geholfen werden kann, wobei insbesondere Patient*innen mit interpersonellen Traumatisierungen weniger gut davon zu profitieren scheinen (z. B. Karatzias et al., 2019). Zudem hat sich gezeigt, dass Schuldgefühle auch nach einer erfolgreichen PTBS Behandlung weiter persistieren (Larsen et al., 2019). Demnach besteht ein Bedarf an alternativen Therapieverfahren für Patient*innen mit interpersonellen Traumatisierungen und/oder Schuld- und Schamgefühlen.
Besonders vielversprechend sind hierbei achtsamkeitsbasierte Interventionen, die bereits in der PTBS Behandlung eine zunehmend bedeutsame Rolle spielen (Hopwood & Schutte, 2017). Eine wichtige Voraussetzung für die weitere Erforschung dieser Interventionen sind valide und reliable Verfahren zur Veränderungsmessung von Achtsamkeit (Isbel et al., 2020). So scheinen bisherige Studien jedoch hauptsächlich fragebogenbasierte Maße zur Erfassung von Veränderungen in Trait-Achtsamkeit eingesetzt zu haben, obwohl diese Interventionen eher auf die Steigerung von State-Achtsamkeit abzielen (Goodman et al., 2017). Darüber hinaus kristallisierten sich methodische Kritikpunkte in Bezug auf die Validität von Fragebögen zur Erfassung von Trait-Achtsamkeit heraus (van Dam et al., 2018). Demgegenüber erfassen Experience-Sampling Ansätze (z. B. Mindful-Breathing Exercise, MBE; Burg & Michalak, 2011) eher Aspekte der State-Achtsamkeit, sind jedoch in klinischen Untersuchungsstichproben bisher kaum untersucht worden. Darauf aufbauend fokussierte die erste Forschungsfrage der Dissertation die Untersuchung der MBE im klinischen Kontext. Ein Hauptbefund der Studie zeigte, dass die MBE bei PTBS Patient*innen hinsichtlich ihres Prädiktionswertes für die PTBS Symptome Übererregung und Intrusionen gegenüber fragebogenbasierter Trait-Achtsamkeit überlegen war. Mögliche Wirkmechanismen achtsamkeitsbasierter Interventionen könnten demnach durch den Einsatz der MBE besonders gut abgebildet werden.
Innerhalb der achtsamkeitsbasierten Interventionen kommt in der Behandlung der PTBS am häufigsten die Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 2013) als standardisierte Gruppenintervention zum Einsatz (Boyd et al., 2018). Jedoch scheint die MBSR insbesondere für PTBS Patient*innen mit interpersonellen Traumatisierungen nicht eins-zu-eins anwendbar zu sein (Müller-Engelmann et al., 2017). Buddhistische Metta-Meditationen (dt.: Liebende Güte; Salzberg, 2002) sind vor diesem Hintergrund eine vielversprechende Ergänzung zu achtsamkeitsbasierten Interventionen. Metta-Meditationen zielen darauf ab, sich selbst sowie allen anderen Lebewesen bedingungsloses Wohlwollen und Freundlichkeit entgegen zu bringen (Bodhi, 2010). Metta-Meditationen sind noch weniger gut in der klinischen Forschung etabliert. Erste Befunde deuten jedoch darauf hin, dass sie bei PTBS Patient*innen zu einer Reduktion der PTBS Symptomatik führen können (z. B. Kearney et al., 2021). Folglich wurde im Rahmen der zweiten Forschungsfrage eine neue Intervention entwickelt und evaluiert, welche sich an den Bedürfnissen von PTBS Patient*innen mit interpersonellen Traumatisierungen orientiert. Sie kombiniert kürzere, PTBS spezifische Achtsamkeitsübungen mit angepassten Übungen aus MBSR sowie Metta-Meditationen (= Trauma-MILOKI). Trauma-MILOKI zeigte sich in einer multiplen Baseline Studie wirksam zur Reduktion der PTBS Symptome sowie zur Steigerung des Wohlbefindens.
Ein Wirkmechanismus von Metta-Meditationen ist die Förderung positiver Emotionen sowie des Gefühls sozialer Verbundenheit (Salzberg, 2002), weswegen sie auch besonders gut geeignet scheinen, traumabezogene Schuld- und Schamgefühle zu reduzieren. Darüber hinaus haben sich unter den etablierten Therapieverfahren v. a. kognitive Ansätze zur Reduktion von Schuldgefühlen als wirksam erwiesen (Resick et al., 2008)...
Background: Hebb repetition learning is a form of long-term serial order learning that can occur when sequences of items in an immediate serial recall task are repeated. Repetition improves performance because of the gradual integration of serial order information from short-term memory into a more stable long-term memory trace.
Aims: The current study assessed whether adolescents with non-specific intellectual disabilities showed Hebb repetition effects, and if their magnitude was equivalent to those of children with typical development, matched for mental age.
Methods: Two immediate serial recall Hebb repetition learning tasks using verbal and visuospatial materials were presented to 47 adolescents with intellectual disabilities (11–15 years) and 47 individually mental age-matched children with typical development (4–10 years).
Results: Both groups showed Hebb repetition learning effects of similar magnitude, albeit with some reservations. Evidence for Hebb repetition learning was found for both verbal and visuospatial materials; for our measure of Hebb learning the effects were larger for verbal than visuospatial materials.
Conclusions: The findings suggested that adolescents with intellectual disabilities may show implicit long-term serial-order learning broadly commensurate with mental age level. The benefits of using repetition in educational contexts for adolescents with intellectual disabilities are considered.
Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on education worldwide. There is increased discussion of possible negative effects on students’ learning outcomes and the need for targeted support. We examined fourth graders’ reading achievement based on a school panel study, representative on the student level, with N = 111 elementary schools in Germany (total: N = 4,290 students, age: 9–10 years). The students were tested with the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study instruments in 2016 and 2021. The analysis focused on (1) total average differences in reading achievement between 2016 and 2021, (2) average differences controlling for student composition, and (3) changes in achievement gaps between student subgroups (i.e., immigration background, socio-cultural capital, and gender). The methodological approach met international standards for the analysis of large-scale assessments (i.e., multiple multi-level imputation, plausible values, and clustered mixed-effect regression). The results showed a substantial decline in mean reading achievement. The decline corresponds to one-third of a year of learning, even after controlling for changes in student composition. We found no statistically significant changes of achievement gaps between student subgroups, despite numerical tendencies toward a widening of achievement gaps between students with and without immigration background. It is likely that this sharp achievement decline was related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in terms of further research needs, practical implications for educating current student cohorts, and educational policy decisions regarding actions in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted people and institutions to turn to online virtual environments for a wide variety of social gatherings. In this perspectives article, we draw upon our previous work and interviews with Ghanaian Christian leaders to consider implications of this shift. Specifically, we propose that the shift from physical to virtual interactions mimics and amplifies the neoliberal individualist experience of abstraction from place associated with Eurocentric modernity. On the positive side, the shift from physical to virtual environments liberates people to selectively pursue the most fulfilling interactions, free from constraints of physical distance. On the negative side, the move from physical to virtual space necessitates a shift from material care and tangible engagement with the local community to the psychologization of care and pursuit of emotional intimacy in relations of one’s choosing—a dynamic that further marginalizes people who are already on the margins. The disruptions of the pandemic provide an opportunity to re-set social relations, to design ways of being that better promote sustainable collective well-being rather than fleeting personal fulfillment.
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.
Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of psychological interventions to foster resilience. However, little is known about whether the cultural context in which resilience interventions are implemented affects their efficacy on mental health. Studies performed in Western (k = 175) and Eastern countries (k = 46) regarding different aspects of interventions (setting, mode of delivery, target population, underlying theoretical approach, duration, control group design) and their efficacy on resilience, anxiety, depressive symptoms, quality of life, perceived stress, and social support were compared. Interventions in Eastern countries were longer in duration and tended to be more often conducted in group settings with a focus on family caregivers. We found evidence for larger effect sizes of resilience interventions in Eastern countries for improving resilience (standardized mean difference [SMD] = 0.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28 to 0.67; p < 0.0001; 43 studies; 6248 participants; I2 = 97.4%). Intercultural differences should receive more attention in resilience intervention research. Future studies could directly compare interventions in different cultural contexts to explain possible underlying causes for differences in their efficacy on mental health outcomes.
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.
Cross-sectional findings suggest that volumes of specific hippocampal subfields increase in middle childhood and early adolescence. In contrast, a small number of available longitudinal studies reported decreased volumes in most subfields over this age range. Further, it remains unknown whether structural changes in development are associated with corresponding gains in children’s memory. Here we report cross-sectional age differences in children’s hippocampal subfield volumes together with longitudinal developmental trajectories and their relationships with memory performance. In two waves, 109 participants aged 6–10 years (wave 1: MAge=7.25, wave 2: MAge=9.27) underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging to assess hippocampal subfield volumes (imaging data available at both waves for 65 participants) and completed tasks assessing hippocampus dependent memory processes. We found that cross-sectional age-associations and longitudinal developmental trends in hippocampal subfield volumes were discrepant, both by subfields and in direction. Further, volumetric changes were largely unrelated to changes in memory, with the exception that increase in subiculum volume was associated with gains in spatial memory. Longitudinal and cross-sectional patterns of brain-cognition couplings were also discrepant. We discuss potential sources of these discrepancies. This study underscores that children’s structural brain development and its relationship to cognition cannot be inferred from cross-sectional age comparisons.
Humans accumulate knowledge throughout their entire lives. In what ways does this accumulation of knowledge influence learning of new information? Are there age-related differences in the way prior knowledge is leveraged for remembering new information? We review studies that have investigated these questions, focusing on those that have used the memory congruency effect, which provides a quantitative measure of memory advantage because of prior knowledge. Regarding the first question, evidence suggests that the accumulation of knowledge is a key factor promoting the development of memory across childhood and counteracting some of the decline in older age. Regarding the second question, evidence suggests that, if available knowledge is controlled for, age-related differences in the memory congruency effect largely disappear. These results point to an age-invariance in the way prior knowledge is leveraged for learning new information. Research on neural mechanisms and implications for application are discussed.
Mit der zunehmenden Relevanz des Internets in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten geht auch die Gefahr einer dysfunktionalen, suchtartigen Nutzung von verschiedenen Internetanwendungen und insbesondere von digitalen Spielen einher. Jugendliche sind von Internetbezogenen Störungen (IbS) in besonderem Maße betroffen. Die vorliegende Dissertation leistet in vier Einzelstudien einen Beitrag zur Beantwortung offener Forschungsfragen auf dem Gebiet der IbS. Studie 1 setzt sich damit auseinander, ob und inwiefern die Aufnahme der „Gaming Disorder“ in die Neuauflage der internationalen Klassifikation der Krankheiten der WHO (ICD-11) gerechtfertigt ist und kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die neue Diagnose sowohl für die Forschung als auch für die klinische Praxis mehr Vor- als Nachteile bietet. Der Gefahr einer Überpathologisierung und Stigmatisierung kann durch eine gründliche Diagnosestellung durch geschulte Fachpersonen begegnet werden. Studie 2 untersucht schulbezogene Risikofaktoren von IbS. Dazu wurden N=418 Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene im Alter von 11 bis 21 Jahren, die vorab auf ein erhöhtes Risiko für IbS gescreent wurden, per Fragebogen nach ihrem Internetnutzungsverhalten, nach IbS-Symptomen, nach Schulnoten und Fehltagen, nach ihrem Lern- und Sozialverhalten sowie nach Prokrastinationstendenzen befragt. Die Daten entstammen dem ersten Messzeitpunkt der PROTECT-Studie (Professioneller Umgang mit technischen Medien). Aufgrund der hierarchischen Datenstruktur wurde zur Analyse ein Mehrebenenansatz gewählt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Online-Zeit, vermehrtes Gaming und Prokrastination auf der Individualebene sowie Sozialverhalten auf der Schulebene Symptome einer IbS vorhersagen. Studie 3 und Studie 4 befassen sich mit der Prävention von IbS. Studie 3 gibt einen Überblick über den internationalen Stand der Forschung im Bereich der Prävention und Frühintervention und stellt die derzeit verfügbaren deutschsprachigen Präventionsprogramme vor.
Während in den westlichen Ländern vor allem gruppenbasierte, verhaltensorientierte Programme zur Anwendung kommen, werden im ostasiatischen Raum auch verhältnispräventive Maßnahmen eingesetzt, wie etwa Spielzeitbeschränkungen für Minderjährige. In Deutschland sind derzeit 12 Präventionsprogramme für IbS verfügbar.
Für zwei dieser Programme wurde die Wirksamkeit in randomisiert-kontrollierten Studien nachgewiesen. Studie 4 ist eine dieser Untersuchungen. Sie stellt die Ergebnisse der Wirksamkeitsprüfung für das von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickelte PROTECT-Präventionsprogramm dar. Dazu wurden N=422 Schülerinnen und Schüler, die vorab auf ein erhöhtes Risiko für IbS gescreent wurden, nach Clustern (Schulen) randomisiert in eine Interventions- und eine Beobachtungsgruppe eingeteilt. Während in der Interventionsgruppe das kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutisch orientierte 4-wöchige PROTECT-Programm in Kleingruppen durchgeführt wurde, füllten die Teilnehmenden der Beobachtungsgruppe lediglich zu vier Messzeitpunkten (vor und nach der Intervention, nach 4 Monaten und nach 12 Monaten)
diagnostische Fragebögen zur Soziodemografie, zur Internetnutzung, zur IbS-Symptomatik, zu komorbiden psychischen Störungen, zur Emotionsregulation, zum Sozial- und Lernverhalten, zu Prokrastinationstendenzen sowie zum Selbstwertgefühl aus. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zeigen eine Reduktion der IbSSymptomatik in beiden Gruppen. Die Reduktion ist jedoch in der Interventionsgruppe signifikant stärker, was für die Wirksamkeit des PROTECT-Programms spricht. Die Ergebnisse von Studie 1-4 ergänzen bisherige Forschungsbefunde zu IbS im Bereich der Diagnostik, Entstehung und Prävention.