scholarly journals None the wiser: Year-long longitudinal study on effects of adversity on wisdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 089020702110140
Author(s):  
Anna Dorfman ◽  
David A Moscovitch ◽  
William J Chopik ◽  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Posttraumatic Growth ◽  
Major Trauma ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Negative Change ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Over Time

Research on consequences of adversity appears inconclusive. Adversity can be detriment to mental health, promoting maladaptive patterns of thoughts. At the same time, posttraumatic growth studies suggest that overcoming major adversity facilitates growth in wisdom-related patterns of thoughts. We address this puzzle by examining how distinct types of adversity impact wisdom over time and how individual differences in self-distanced (rather than self-immersed) reflection on adversity relate to different wisdom trajectories. In a four-wave prospective year-long study, participants ( N = 499) recalled and reflected every three months on the most significant recent adverse event in their life. They reported how much they engaged in wise reasoning—intellectual humility, open-mindedness to diverse perspectives and change, search for compromises and resolution—as well as self-distancing during reflections. Independent raters identified seven distinct adversity types (e.g. social conflict, economic hardship, major trauma) in open-ended descriptions. Growth curve analyses revealed little evidence of positive change in wise-reasoning over the course of a year, and some evidence of negative change for health-related adversity. Although self-distancing was associated with stability in wisdom, self-immersing was associated with negative change in wisdom in reflections on social conflicts over time. We discuss implications these results have for adversity, change vs. resilience in character strengths, and self-distancing.

None the wiser: How adversity type and self-distancing impact change in wisdom following adversity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dorfman ◽  
David A Moscovitch ◽  
William J. Chopik ◽  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Posttraumatic Growth ◽  
Major Trauma ◽  
Character Strengths ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Working Through ◽  
Negative Change ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The One ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Over Time

Research on consequences of adversity suggests a puzzle. On the one hand, posttraumatic growth studies suggest that working through major adversity facilitates growth in wisdom. On the other hand, working through adversity can exacerbate negative emotions and thoughts. We address this puzzle by examining how distinct forms of adversity impact wisdom over time and how individual differences in self-distanced (rather than self-immersed) reflection on adversity relate to different wisdom trajectories. In a four-wave prospective year-long study, participants (N = 499) recalled, described, and reflected every three months on the most significant recent adverse event in their life. They reported how much they engaged in wise reasoning—intellectual humility, open-mindedness to diverse perspectives and change, search for compromises and resolution—as well as self-distancing during reflections. Independent raters identified seven distinct adversity types (e.g., social conflict, economic hardship, major trauma) in open-ended descriptions. We observed little evidence of positive change in wisdom over the course of a year, and some evidence of negative change for health-related adversity. Moreover, wisdom trajectories were negative for individuals with more self-immersed reflections but remained stable for individuals with more self-distanced reflections. We discuss implications for adversity, change versus resilience in character strengths, and self-distancing.

Trends in College Student-Athlete Mental Health in the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), 2011–2019

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Edwards ◽  
Andrew W. Froehle ◽  
Siobhan E. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Student Athletes ◽  
Athletic Trainers ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Treatment Seeking ◽  
Student Athlete ◽  
National College Health Assessment ◽  
Health Related ◽  
College Health Assessment ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACT Context: Recently the athletic training community has paid increased attention to college student-athlete mental health, treatment-seeking, and impacts on athletic and academic performance. Ongoing efforts to better-educate and equip athletic trainers to help student-athletes in this regard should result in improved mental health-related outcomes. Objective: Examine changes in student-athlete mental health over the past decade compared to non-athlete students. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: United States colleges and universities. Patients or Other Participants: Varsity athletes (n=54,479) and non-athlete students (n=448,301) who completed the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) between 2011 and 2019. Main Outcome Measures: Survey responses (self-report) to questions in five mental health-related domains: symptoms, diagnoses, treatment-seeking, institutional information distribution, and academic impacts. Results: Student-athletes consistently reported significantly lower symptom and diagnose rates than non-athletes, except for attempted suicide, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Diagnoses increased over time in both groups, but remained lower in athletes. Treatment-seeking and openness to future treatment increased over time in both groups, but remained lower in athletes. Student-athletes received more information on stress reduction, substance abuse, eating disorders, and handling distress/violence than non-athletes. Both groups received information more frequently over time. Athletes reported lower academic impacts, especially for depression and anxiety, but impacts grew over time in both groups. Impacts of injuries and extracurricular activities on academic performance were higher in athletes than in non-athletes. Conclusions: Athletes reported overall lower levels of symptoms, diagnoses, and academic impacts than non-athletes. While non-athlete rates climbed over the past decade, athletes' rates broadly remained flat or climbed less rapidly. Increasingly positive attitudes toward treatment are encouraging, but the deficit relative to non-athletes remains. Ongoing efforts of athletic trainers to educate athletes and guide them to mental health resources are needed in order to continue (or, better yet, accelerate) the observed positive trends in information dissemination and treatment-seeking.

scholarly journals Cross-Sectional Trend Analysis of the NCHA II Survey Data on Canadian Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Wellbeing from 2013 to 2019

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Linden ◽  
Randall Boyes ◽  
Heather Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Post Secondary Students

BACKGROUND: Canadian post-secondary students are considered to be at risk for chronic stress and languishing mental health, but there has been no longitudinal analysis of the available population-level data. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in the overall and sex-specific prevalence of self-reported stress, distress, mental illness, and help seeking behaviours among Canadian post-secondary students over the past several years. METHODS: Using the 2013, 2016, and 2019 iterations of the National College Health Assessment II Canadian Reference data, we conducted a trend analysis for each variable of interest, stratified by sex. The significance and magnitude of the changes were modelled using cumulative linked ordinal regression models and log binomial regression models.RESULTS: With few exceptions, we observed significant increases over time in the proportion of students reporting symptoms of psychological distress, mental illness diagnoses, and help seeking for mental health related challenges. Female students reported a higher level of stress than male students, with a statistically significant increase in the stress level reported by female students observed over time. In all cases, larger proportions of female students were observed compared to male students, with the proportion of female students who self-reported mental illness diagnoses nearly doubling that of males. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis indicated that the proportion of students self-reporting mental health related challenges, including stress, psychological distress, and diagnosed mental illnesses increased between the 2013, 2016 and 2019 iterations of the NCHA II conducted among Canadian post-secondary students.

scholarly journals Have associations between mental health and health related behaviours changed between 2005 and 2015? A population based cross-cohort study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne H. Gage ◽  
Praveetha Patalay
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Cohort Study ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Weight Perception ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Avon Longitudinal Study ◽  
Over Time

AbstractBackgroundPoor adolescent mental health is a growing concern over recent decades with evidence of increasing internalising mental health problems corresponding with decrease in anti-social, smoking and alcohol behaviours. However, understanding whether and how the associations between mental health and health-related behaviours such as substance use, anti-social behaviour and obesity have changed over time is less well-understood.ObjectivesWe investigate whether the associations between different health-related outcomes in adolescence are stable or changing over time in two recent cohorts of adolescents born ten years apart.MethodData from two UK birth cohort studies, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, born 1991-92, N=5627, 50.7% female) and Millennium Cohort Study (MCS, born 2000-1, N=11318, 50.6% female) at age 14 sweeps are used. The health outcomes of focus are depressive symptom score, substance use (alcohol, smoking, cannabis and other drugs), antisocial behaviours (assault, graffiti, vandalism, shoplifting and rowdy behaviour), weight (BMI), weight perception (perceive self as overweight) and sexual activity (had sexual intercourse).ResultsOur results suggest although directions of associations between mental-health and health-related behaviours (eg smoking) are similar over time, their strength across the distribution has changed. While smoking and alcohol use behaviours are decreasing in adolescents, those that endorse these behaviours in 2015 are more likely to have co-occurring mental-health and other problems than those born in 2005. Similarly, higher body mass index is more strongly associated with depressive symptoms in 2015.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that associations between these factors has changed over time, which has implications for public health and our understanding of the mechanisms underlying their observed associations in the population.

Tracking self-reported symptoms and medical conditions on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinglan Ding ◽  
Daisy Massey ◽  
Chenxi Huang ◽  
Connor Grady ◽  
Yuan Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Positive Predictive Value ◽  
Medical Condition ◽  
Medical Conditions ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Harnessing health-related data posted on social media in real-time has the potential to offer insights into how the pandemic impacts the mental health and general well-being of individuals and populations over time. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to obtain information on symptoms and medical conditions self-reported by non-Twitter social media users during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and to determine how discussion of these symptoms and medical conditions on social media changed over time. METHODS We used natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to identify symptom and medical condition topics being discussed on social media between June 14 and December 13, 2020. The sample social media posts were geotagged by NetBase, a third-party data provider. We calculated the positive predictive value and sensitivity to validate the classification of the posts. We also assessed the frequency of different health-related discussions on social media over time during the study period, and compared the changes in the frequency of each symptom/medical condition discussion to the fluctuation of U.S. daily new COVID-19 cases during the study period. Additionally, we compared the trends of the 5 most commonly mentioned symptoms and medical conditions from June 14 to August 31 (when the U.S. passed 6 million COVID-19 cases) to the trends observed from September 1 to December 13, 2020. RESULTS Within a total of 9,807,813 posts (nearly 70% were sourced from the U.S.), we identified discussion of 120 symptom topics and 1,542 medical condition topics. Our classification of the health-related posts had a positive predictive value of over 80% and an average classification rate of 92% sensitivity. The 5 most commonly mentioned symptoms on social media during the study period were: anxiety (in 201,303 posts or 12.2% of the total posts mentioning symptoms), generalized pain (189,673, 11.5%), weight loss (95,793, 5.8%), fatigue (91,252, 5.5%), and coughing (86,235, 5.2%). The 5 most discussed medical conditions were: COVID-19 (in 5,420,276 posts or 66.4% of the total posts mentioning medical conditions), unspecified infectious disease (469,356, 5.8%), influenza (270,166, 3.3%), unspecified disorders of the central nervous system (253,407, 3.1%), and depression (151,752, 1.9%). The changes in the frequency of 2 medical conditions, COVID-19 and unspecified infectious disease, were similar to the fluctuation of daily new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. CONCLUSIONS COVID-19 and symptoms of anxiety were the two most commonly discussed health-related topics on social media from June 14 to December 13, 2020. Real-time monitoring of social media posts on symptoms and medical conditions may help assess the population's mental health status and enhance public health surveillance for infectious disease.

Investigation of the self-reported health and health-related behaviours of Victorian mothers of school-aged children

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Bourke-Taylor ◽  
Aislinn Lalor ◽  
Louise Farnworth ◽  
Julie F. Pallant ◽  
Elizabeth Knightbridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
Maternal Weight ◽  
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale ◽  
School Aged Children ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Reported Health

Lifestyle may influence many health-related issues currently facing Australian women. The extent to which women with school-aged children attend to their own health is unknown and the associations between health behaviours and health status requires investigation. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of health behaviours (alcohol consumption, health-promoting activities) and their impact on self-reported health (weight, sleep quality, mental health) among mothers of school-aged children in Victoria. Mail-out survey design (n = 263) including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) and Health Promoting Activities Scale was used to explore issues. The results indicated that substantial numbers of mothers reported moderate to extreme DASS scores: depression (n = 45, 17%); anxiety (n = 41, 15.6%); stress (n = 57, 21.7%). The majority participated in physical activity less often than daily. High rates of daily alcohol use (20%) and poor sleep quality were reported. Nearly one-half (n = 114, 46%) of the sample were overweight or obese and also reported poorer mental health than other women in the sample (P < 0.001). Significant associations were detected between maternal weight, mental health and participation in health-promoting activities. The findings indicate that there is a need for increased health education and services for women with school-aged children. Direct services and population-based health promotion strategies may be required to address healthy lifestyle issues and educate mothers about the possible health legacy of poor health behaviours.

360 Efficacy of CBT-I and its Components on Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes in Older Adults

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A143-A144
Author(s):  
Kelly Showen ◽  
Kathleen O’Hora ◽  
Beatriz Hernandez ◽  
Laura Lazzeroni ◽  
Jamie Zeitzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Health Related Qol ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Introduction Insomnia affects 30–48% of older adults and impairs health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Numerous studies report Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT-I) as an effective non-pharmacological treatment for insomnia symptoms, with few examining the impact of CBT-I on mental and physical aspects of HRQoL. While limited research suggests that CBT-I leads to improvements in HRQoL, the impact of the cognitive versus behavioral components of CBT-I on HRQoL is unknown. Methods 128 older adults with insomnia (mean age=69, 66% female, 19% minority) were randomized to receive cognitive therapy (CT), behavior therapy (BT), or CBT-I. The Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36) was collected at baseline, post-treatment and six-month follow-up. Split-plot linear mixed models with age and sex as covariates to assess within and between subject changes were used to test intervention, time, and interaction effects on the mental health and physical well-being domains of HRQoL. Significance for all effects was defined as p &lt; 0.05. The effect size (d) was calculated by dividing the difference between means by the root-mean-squared error of the mixed effects model. Results The mental health-related QoL improved over time independent of treatment (Main effect of time: F(2, 202) = 6.51, p &lt; 0.002). The interaction failed to reach significance (Interaction: F(4, 202) = 1.19, p = .31). Simple effects revealed significant improvements among CBT-I participants at six months (p = .02, d = .53) and CT participants at post-treatment (p = .00, d = .79) and six months (p = .03, d = .66), but not among BT participants for either time point (p = .32, d = .24; p = .16, d = .35). Treatment did not improve physical health-related QoL over time (F(2, 202) = 1.01, p = .37) nor was there a significant interaction (F(4, 202) = .46, p = .76). Conclusion These findings suggest that CBT-I, particularly the CT component, may be effective in improving mental health-related QoL outcomes for older adults with insomnia. In contrast, neither CBT-I nor its component treatments were effective in improving physical health-related QoL. Support (if any) NIMHR01MH101468-01; Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the VAPAHCS

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19-like symptoms on occurrence of anxiety/depression during lockdown among the French general population

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0255158
Author(s):  
Murielle Mary-Krause ◽  
Joel José Herranz Bustamante ◽  
Mégane Héron ◽  
Astrid Juhl Andersen ◽  
Tarik El Aarbaoui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Mental Health Difficulties ◽  
Generalized Estimation Equation ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Anxiety Depression

Background The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic lead to high levels of morbidity and mortality around the globe. Consequences of this outbreak and possible associated infection are an increase in mental health disorders and an increased likelihood of internalizing problems, particularly depression. However, to date few studies have tested this hypothesis while taking into account individuals’ preexisting mental health difficulties. Methods We used longitudinal data collected among 729 persons in the context of the French TEMPO cohort between March and June 2020 (7 waves of data collection). COVID-19-like symptoms as well as anxiety/depression (assessed by the Adult Self Report), were reported at each wave of data collection. To study the relationship between COVID-19-like symptoms and anxiety/depression, we used generalized estimation equation (GEE) models controlled for socio-demographic and health-related characteristics, including anxiety/depression prior to 2020. Results Overall, 27.2% of study participants reported anxiety/depression during lockdown. 17.1% of participants reported COVID-19-like symptoms during the course of follow-up, 7.3% after the beginning of lockdown, with an average number of 2.7 symptoms, and 3.6% reported respiratory distress. In multivariate analyses, nearly all the considered indicators of COVID-19-like symptoms were associated with higher odds of symptoms of anxiety/depression (symptoms Yes/No: OR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.08–2.55; symptoms after the beginning of lockdown: OR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.03–3.52; number of symptoms: OR for each additional symptom = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.02–1.39. This relationship exists after taking into account prior symptoms of anxiety/depression, which are associated with a 5-fold increased likelihood of psychological distress. And this impact is stronger among men than women. Conclusions Our study shows higher risk of anxiety/depression among persons who experienced COVID-19-like symptoms, even after accounting for prior mental health difficulties. COVID-19 infection could have both a direct and indirect impact on the occurrence of psychological difficulties, and this association should be studied in greater detail.

scholarly journals Health-related quality of life, motivational regulation and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction in Education Outside the Classroom: an explorative longitudinal pilot study

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Ellinger ◽  
Filip Mess ◽  
Simon Blaschke ◽  
Christoph Mall
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Mental Health ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Motivational Regulation ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background Given a suboptimal state of mental health among children, an urgent need exists to seek approaches related to health promotion in this population’s settings, such as in schools. Increased health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and improved school motivation could be crucial for children’s mental health. Based on self-determination theory, paths can be identified that could lead to such improvements by strengthening the basic psychological needs (BPN). This study aimed to examine the impact on and the relationships among HRQoL, school motivation and BPN within the promising concept of education outside the classroom (EOtC). Methods In this exploratory study, we employed a between-subjects cohort study design with no blinding or randomisation. We surveyed fifth graders (mean = 10.1 years) attending EOtC (experimental group [EG], n = 25) and normal indoor lessons (control group, [CG], n = 41) at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of a semester. We used the translations of validated questionnaires and established linear mixed-effects models to evaluate whether the students in EOtC show higher scores of HRQoL and school motivation and, whether the satisfaction of BPN of autonomy (PAut), competence (PCom), social relatedness with classmates (PSRC) and teachers (PSRT) show associations with these outcomes. Results Regarding intrinsic and identified motivational regulation, results showed significant increases over time in the overall sample and significant higher scores in the EG than in the CG. For HRQoL, no group differences were found, but a significant decrease over time in the EG. Regarding possible associations between the outcomes and BPN, such could only be found between HRQoL and PSRC, but not for the other BPN and not for motivational regulation and BPN. Conclusions Without having been able to explain this on the basis of increased BPN values, our results show that EOtC can support improvements in specific regulation types of school motivation. This could contribute to an improvement in the mental health situation in children, as school represents a major stressor for them. Future steps in terms of researching HRQoL in this setting are discussed, as this pilot study does preliminary work for necessary examinations, e.g. in structural equation approaches.

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