When the going gets tough
Douglas Johnson et al.
American Journal of Psychiatry, forthcoming
Objective: Military deployment can have profound effects on physical and mental health. Few studies have examined whether interventions prior to deployment can improve mechanisms underlying resilience. Mindfulness-based techniques have been shown to aid recovery from stress and may affect brain-behavior relationships prior to deployment. The authors examined the effect of mindfulness training on resilience mechanisms in active-duty Marines preparing for deployment.
Method: Eight Marine infantry platoons (N=281) were randomly selected. Four platoons were assigned to receive mindfulness training (N=147) and four were assigned to a training-as-usual control condition (N=134). Platoons were assessed at baseline, 8 weeks after baseline, and during and after a stressful combat training session approximately 9 weeks after baseline. The mindfulness training condition was delivered in the form of 8 weeks of Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT), a program comprising 20 hours of classroom instruction plus daily homework exercises. MMFT emphasizes interoceptive awareness, attentional control, and tolerance of present-moment experiences. The main outcome measures were heart rate, breathing rate, plasma neuropeptide Y concentration, score on the Response to Stressful Experiences Scale, and brain activation as measured by functional MRI.
Results: Marines who received MMFT showed greater reactivity (heart rate [d=0.43]) and enhanced recovery (heart rate [d=0.67], breathing rate [d=0.93]) after stressful training; lower plasma neuropeptide Y concentration after stressful training (d=0.38); and attenuated blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal in the right insula and anterior cingulate.
Conclusions: The results show that mechanisms related to stress recovery can be modified in healthy individuals prior to stress exposure, with important implications for evidence-based mental health research and treatment.
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Entering Adulthood in a Recession Tempers Later Narcissism
Emily Bianchi
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite widespread interest in narcissism, relatively little is known about the conditions that encourage or dampen it. Drawing on research showing that macroenvironmental conditions in emerging adulthood can leave a lasting imprint on attitudes and behaviors, I argue that people who enter adulthood during recessions are less likely to be narcissistic later in life than those who come of age in more prosperous times. Using large samples of American adults, Studies 1 and 2 showed that people who entered adulthood during worse economic times endorsed fewer narcissistic items as older adults. Study 3 extended these findings to a behavioral manifestation of narcissism: the relative pay of CEOs. CEOs who came of age in worse economic times paid themselves less relative to other top executives in their firms. These findings suggest that macroenvironmental experiences at a critical life stage can have lasting implications for how unique, special, and deserving people believe themselves to be.
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Untreated Depression Predicts Higher Suicide Rates in U.S. Honor Cultures
Marisa Crowder & Markus Kemmelmeier
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Osterman and Brown demonstrated that U.S. honor states had higher rates of suicide than non-honor states and related this phenomenon to the higher incidence of depression and a reduced readiness to seek antidepression treatment in honor states. The present study critiques their research and re-examines the origin of the association between honor culture and suicide using a more expansive multi-year data set and controlling for culturally relevant factors (i.e., climate, gun ownership, population density, collectivism, access to health care, economic deprivation). Replicating some of their findings, higher rates of depression were related to higher levels of suicide in honor states but not non-honor states. In addition, we found state levels of antidepressant drug prescriptions to be related to lower levels of suicide in honor states but not non-honor states. A mediation analysis further revealed that levels of antidepressant drug prescriptions, but not levels of depression, mediated the relationship between honor culture and suicide, consistent with higher suicide rates in honor states being the result of a lack of treatment. The discussion focuses on clinical and cultural implications for suicide prevention in honor states.
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Yael Israel-Cohen, Gabriela Kashy-Rosenbaum & Oren Kaplan
Journal of Traumatic Stress, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research has demonstrated that positive emotions help build psychological resources and facilitate adaptation to stress, yet few studies have considered the possible negative effects of positive emotions on stress. This study examined the relationship between high arousal, positive and negative affect, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among 503 Israeli adolescents following a period of escalated missile attacks on their city. Our findings revealed that not only negative affect, but also positive affect at very high levels exhibited 2 weeks following missile attacks were independently associated with PTSD symptoms 2½ months later (η2 = .09, η2 = .02, respectively). Although the literature recognizes the risk factor of negative affect on the development of PTSD, we suggest that also positive affect at high levels immediately after such experiences may be a case of emotion context insensitivity and thus a maladaptive response to trauma. Further research should examine the mechanisms associated with positive emotions and PTSD.
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The Home Foreclosure Crisis and Rising Suicide Rates, 2005 to 2010
Jason Houle & Michael Light
American Journal of Public Health, June 2014, Pages 1073-1079
Objectives: We examined the association between state-level foreclosure and suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 and considered variation in the effect of foreclosure on suicide by age.
Methods: We used hybrid random- and fixed-effects models to examine the relation between state foreclosure rates and total and age-specific suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 (n = 306 state-years).
Results: Net of other factors, an increase in the within-state total foreclosure rate was associated with a within-state increase in the crude suicide rates (b = 0.04; P < .1), and effects were stronger for the real estate–owned foreclosure rate (b = 0.16; P < .05). Analysis of age-specific suicide rates indicated that the effects were strongest among the middle-aged (46–64 years: total foreclosure rate, b = 0.21; P < .001; real estate–owned foreclosure rate, b = 0.83; P < .001). Rising home foreclosure rates explained 18% of the variance in the middle-aged suicide rate between 2005 and 2010.
Conclusions: The foreclosure crisis has likely contributed to increased suicides, independent of other economic factors associated with the recession. Rising foreclosure rates may be partially responsible for the recent uptick in suicide among middle-aged adults.
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Authenticity and self-esteem across temporal horizons
William Davis et al.
Journal of Positive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extending research on optimal self-esteem and authenticity, three studies tested the hypothesis that authenticity would be a stronger predictor of self-esteem levels when time was perceived as limited as opposed to open ended. Study 1 provided a cross-sectional examination of the relationship between authenticity, future time perspective, and self-esteem in an adult sample, and Studies 2 and 3 assessed this relationship using repeated measures methodologies across both the short term and long term in college student samples. Results supported the hypothesis that authenticity would be a stronger predictor of self-esteem levels when time was perceived as limited. Across studies, individuals who felt inauthentic reported lower levels of self-esteem when they perceived time as limited.
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L. Hudders & M. Pandelaere
Applied Research in Quality of Life, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research showing that luxury consumption can be beneficial for one’s well-being equate consumption with ownership. The current paper experimentally investigates whether the impact of luxury consumption on one’s satisfaction with life differs when this consumption implies ownership versus mere use of (democratized) luxury products. While we find that ownership of luxury products is associated with a higher satisfaction with life compared to ownership of non-luxury products, the mere use of luxuries decreases an individual’s satisfaction with life. This finding is obtained for both a durable (a pen) and a non-durable (a chocolate).
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Motivated Happiness: Self-Enhancement Inflates Self-Reported Subjective Well-Being
Sean Wojcik & Peter Ditto
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies support the contention that self-enhancement motivation distorts self-reports of subjective well-being (SWB). Both individual differences in self-enhancement (Studies 1 and 2) and experimental manipulations of self-enhancement motivation (Study 2) predicted an increased likelihood of reporting SWB at unrealistically favorable levels relative to others — a “happier-than-average effect.” Study 3a and 3b showed that both trait self-enhancement and experimentally manipulated differences in self-enhancement motivation also affected self-reports on established measures of SWB. Specifically, individuals prone to self-enhancement were more affected than low self-enhancers by the desirability of happiness when reporting SWB. The current studies suggest that reports of SWB are susceptible to the same self-enhancement biases that influence self-reports of other positively valued traits. Implications and recommendations for the measurement of SWB and the use of well-being data in policy decision-making are discussed.
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Economic indicators predict changes in college student optimism for life events
Heather Lench & Shane Bench
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This investigation explored the extent to which an economic recession predicted changes in college students' optimism about the length and quality of their futures. In a cross-sectional design, college students in the United States rated their likelihood of divorcing, being unhappy in their career, and living past age 60, at time points before, during, and in the aftermath of an economic recession (2007–2010). Economic indicators, particularly gas prices, predicted decreased optimism as the indicators worsened. After the recession, however, optimism rebounded. The findings reveal that people's expectations for their personal futures are generally sensitive to the state of the national economy.
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Birth Order and Suicide in Adulthood: Evidence From Swedish Population Data
Mikael Rostila, Jan Saarela & Ichiro Kawachi
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Each year, almost 1 million people die from suicide, which is among the leading causes of death in young people. We studied how birth order was associated with suicide and other main causes of death. A follow-up study based on the Swedish population register was conducted for sibling groups born from 1932 to 1980 who were observed during the period 1981–2002. Focus was on the within-family variation in suicide risk, meaning that we studied sibling groups that consisted of 2 or more children in which at least 1 died from suicide. These family–fixed effects analyses revealed that each increase in birth order was related to an 18% higher suicide risk (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14, 1.23, P = 0.000). The association was slightly lower among sibling groups born in 1932–1955 (hazard ratio = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.21, P = 0.000) than among those born in 1967–1980 (hazard ratio = 1.24, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.57, P = 0.080). Further analyses suggested that the association between birth order and suicide was only modestly influenced by sex, birth spacing, size of the sibling group, own socioeconomic position, own marital status, and socioeconomic rank within the sibling group. Causes of death other than suicide and other external causes were not associated with birth order.
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Rainer Kraehenmann et al.
Biological Psychiatry, forthcoming
Background: The amygdala is a key structure in serotonergic emotion-processing circuits. In healthy volunteers, acute administration of the serotonin 1A/2A/2C receptor agonist psilocybin reduces neural responses to negative stimuli and induces mood changes towards positive states. However, it is little-known whether psilocybin reduces amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli and whether any change in amygdala reactivity is related to mood change.
Methods: This study assessed the effects of acute administration of the hallucinogen psilocybin (0.16 mg/kg) vs. placebo on amygdala reactivity to negative stimuli in 25 healthy volunteers using blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Mood changes were assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and the state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. A double-blind, randomized, cross-over design was used with volunteers counterbalanced to receive psilocybin and placebo in two separate sessions at least 14 days apart.
Results: Amygdala reactivity to negative and neutral stimuli was lower after psilocybin administration than after placebo administration. The psilocybin-induced attenuation of right amygdala reactivity in response to negative stimuli was related to the psilocybin-induced increase in positive mood state.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that acute treatment with psilocybin decreased amygdala reactivity during emotion processing, and that this was associated with an increase of positive mood in healthy volunteers. These findings may be relevant to the normalization of amygdala hyperactivity and negative mood states in patients with major depression.
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Christa Taylor & Ronald Friedman
Media Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent findings regarding the influence of sad mood on music preference have been inconsistent, with some research suggesting that sadness promotes selective exposure to happy music and other work suggesting the very opposite. In three experiments, we investigated whether this discrepancy may have resulted from differences in the extent to which sadness was elicited by having participants think about personally relevant versus personally irrelevant negative events. To this end, we manipulated sad mood via a guided visualization technique in which participants were led to imagine experiencing a loss that was relevant either to their own or to an unfamiliar individual's concerns. Results revealed that irrespective of the self-relevance of the mood induction, individuals in sad, relative to happy, or neutral moods preferred to avoid expressively happy music. This aversion was partially mediated by beliefs that choosing happy music while sad would be inappropriate and thereby ineffectual in mood repair. Together, these findings contribute to resolving discrepancies in the literature and help advance understanding of the influence of mood on music choice.
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Elissa Hamlat et al.
Journal of Early Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study prospectively examined pubertal timing and peer victimization as interactive predictors of depressive symptoms in a racially diverse community sample of adolescents. We also expanded on past research by assessing body esteem as a mechanism by which pubertal timing and peer victimization confer risk for depression. In all, 218 adolescents (53.4% female, 49.3% African American, 50.7% Caucasian) completed both a baseline assessment and a follow-up assessment approximately 8 months later. Early maturing Caucasian girls and late maturing African American girls experienced the greatest increases in depressive symptoms at follow-up if they experienced higher levels of peer victimization between baseline and follow-up. Furthermore, body esteem significantly mediated the relationship between pubertal timing, peer victimization, and depressive symptoms for girls of both races. The interaction of pubertal timing and peer victimization did not predict depressive symptoms for boys of either race. These results support body esteem as a mechanism that contributes to increased depression among girls in adolescence — despite a differential impact of pubertal timing for Caucasian and African American girls.
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Multi-modal frontostriatal connectivity underlies individual differences in self-esteem
Robert Chavez & Todd Heatherton
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
A heightened sense of self-esteem is associated with a reduced risk for several types of affective and psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. However, little is known about how brain systems integrate self-referential processing and positive evaluation to give rise to these feelings. To address this, we combined diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test how frontostriatal connectivity reflects long-term trait and short-term state aspects of self-esteem. Using DTI, we found individual variability in white matter structural integrity between the medial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum was related to trait measures of self-esteem, reflecting long-term stability of self-esteem maintenance. Using fMRI, we found that functional connectivity of these regions during positive self-evaluation was related to current feelings of self-esteem, reflecting short-term state self-esteem. These results provide convergent anatomical and functional evidence that self-esteem is related to the connectivity of frontostriatal circuits and suggest that feelings of self-worth may emerge from neural systems integrating information about the self with positive affect and reward. This information could potentially inform the etiology of diminished self-esteem underlying multiple psychiatric conditions and inform future studies of evaluative self-referential processing.
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Jason Fletcher
Biodemography and Social Biology, Spring 2014, Pages 1-20
Abstract:
This article uses a gene-environment interaction framework to examine the differential responses to an objective external stressor based on genetic variation in the production of depressive symptoms. This article advances the literature by utilizing a quasi-experimental environmental exposure design, as well as a regression discontinuity design, to control for seasonal trends, which limit the potential for gene-environment correlation and allow stronger causal claims. Replications are attempted for two prominent genes (5-HTT and MAOA), and three additional genes are explored (DRD2, DRD4, and DAT1). This article provides evidence of a main effect of 9/11 on reports of feelings of sadness and fails to replicate a common finding of interaction using 5-HTT but does show support for interaction with MAOA in men. It also provides new evidence that variation in the DRD4 gene modifies an individual’s response to the exposure, with individuals with no 7-repeats found to have a muted response.
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Can irritability act as a marker of psychopathology?
Melissa Mulraney, Glenn Melvin & Bruce Tonge
Journal of Adolescence, June 2014, Pages 419–423
Abstract:
Irritability is ubiquitous in child and adolescent psychopathology. This study aimed to determine if the Affective Reactivity Index (ARI), a measure of irritability, could be used to screen for psychopathology in adolescents. The clinical sample comprised 31 adolescents with a DSM-IV diagnosis. The control sample was 31 gender and age matched adolescents recruited through schools. Both samples completed a test battery that included the Affective Reactivity Index. The clinical participants reported significantly higher levels of irritability than the control sample by both self- and parent-report. Using ROC analysis a cut off value of 4 on the self-report ARI was found to be optimal for indicating psychopathology; with a specificity of 77.4% and a sensitivity of 77.4%, the area under the curve was 0.86. This paper provides evidence to suggest that irritability may be used as a general predictor of psychopathology in adolescents.
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Jessica Hamilton et al.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, May 2014, Pages 824-833
Abstract:
Early pubertal timing has been found to confer risk for the occurrence of interpersonal stressful events during adolescence. However, pre-existing vulnerabilities may exacerbate the effects of early pubertal timing on the occurrence of stressors. Thus, the current study prospectively examined whether cognitive vulnerabilities amplified the effects of early pubertal timing on interpersonal stress generation. In a diverse sample of 310 adolescents (M age = 12.83 years, 55 % female; 53 % African American), early pubertal timing predicted higher levels of interpersonal dependent events among adolescents with more negative cognitive style and rumination, but not among adolescents with lower levels of these cognitive vulnerabilities. These findings suggest that cognitive vulnerabilities may heighten the risk of generating interpersonal stress for adolescents who undergo early pubertal maturation, which may subsequently place adolescents at greater risk for the development of psychopathology.
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Rosemay Remigio-Baker et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, forthcoming
Background: Prior studies have investigated the association of clinical depression and depressive symptoms with body weight (i.e. body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference), but few have examined the association between depressive symptoms and intra-abdominal fat. Of these a limited number assessed the relationship in a multi-racial/ethnic population.
Methods: Using data on 1,017 men and women (45-84 years) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Body Composition, Inflammation and Cardiovascular Disease Study, we examined the cross-sectional association between elevated depressive symptoms (EDS) and CT-measured visceral fat mass at L2-L5 with multivariable linear regression models. EDS were defined as a Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression score ≥ 16 and/or anti-depressant use. Covariates included socio-demographics, inflammatory markers, health behaviors, comorbidities, and body mass index (BMI). Race/ethnicity (Whites [referent group], Chinese, Blacks and Hispanics) and sex were also assessed as potential modifiers.
Results: The association between depressive symptoms and visceral fat differed significantly by sex (p = 0.007), but not by race/ethnicity. Among men, compared to participants without EDS, those with EDS had greater visceral adiposity adjusted for BMI and age (difference = 122.5 cm2, 95% CI = 34.3, 210.7, p = 0.007). Estimates were attenuated but remained significant after further adjustment by socio-demographics, inflammatory markers, health behaviors and co-morbidities (difference = 94.7 cm2, 95% CI = 10.5, 178.9, p = 0.028). Among women, EDS was not significantly related to visceral adiposity in the fully-adjusted model.
Conclusions: Sex, but not race/ethnicity, was found to modify the relationship between EDS and visceral fat mass. Among men, a significant positive association was found between depressive symptoms and visceral adiposity. No significant relationship was found among women.