Parent ADHD Is Associated With Greater Parenting Distress in the First Year Postpartum

Objective: Little is known about the experience of parenting infants when a mother or father has ADHD. This study examined cross-sectional predictors of parenting distress experienced by parents with and without ADHD who also have infants. Methods: Participants were 73 mother-father pairs ( N = 146) of infants 6 to 10 months old. Half of the families included a parent with ADHD. Psychosocial predictors were tested using multilevel modeling. Results: Parent or partner ADHD, lower parent sleep quality, fewer social supports, and less infant surgency and effortful control were associated with greater parental distress. Infant negative affect and sleep were not associated. Conclusions: Parents with ADHD and their partners experience greater parenting distress in the first year of their child’s life than parents without ADHD. Addressing parent ADHD symptoms and co-occurring difficulties, including sleep disturbances, are potential targets for early interventions to maximize both parent and infant mental health outcomes.

Therapist Attachment and the Working Alliance: The Moderating Effect of Emotional Regulation

Objective: To explore whether the therapist’s emotional regulation strategies moderate the relationship between therapist attachment and the working alliance from the therapist’s perspective.Method: A non-experimental, descriptive correlational design was used. Sixty-three psychotherapists (6 men, 57 women) participated in this study, ranging in age from 27 to 69 years, with a mean age of 39.3 years. The therapists completed the Attachment evaluation questionnaire for adults, the Spanish Adaptation of the Working Alliance Inventory, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Associations between attachment and emotional regulation traits and working alliance were examined using multilevel modeling, controlling for therapist demographics, and clinical experience.Results: Moderation analyses revealed significant interaction effects between therapist attachment and emotional regulation strategies.Conclusion: Attachment styles would not significantly affect the therapist’s ability to establish an adequate therapeutic alliance bond. The results show that the attachment style of the therapists interacted with their emotional regulation abilities.

Interaction Structures in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Adolescents

Despite advances in psychotherapy research showing an evidence-base for psychodynamic psychotherapy (PDT) in adolescents, developmentally specific treatment characteristics are under-researched. We aimed to identify interaction structures (IS: reciprocal patterns of in-session interactions involving therapist interventions, patient behaviors, and the therapeutic relationship) and assess associations between IS and outcome. The study cohort comprised 43 adolescents (Mage = 13.02 years) with nonclinical, internalizing, and comorbid internalizing–externalizing problems in PDT. A total of 123 sessions from different treatment phases were rated based on the Adolescent Psychotherapy Q-Set (APQ). Outcome was assessed with the Brief Problem Monitor-Youth (BPM-Y) administered repeatedly over the treatment course. Principal component analysis of APQ items resulted in five IS, named “Negative Therapeutic Alliance”, “Demanding Patient, Accommodating Therapist”, “Emotionally Distant Resistant Patient”, “Inexpressive Patient, Inviting Therapist”, and “Exploratory Psychodynamic Technique” (EPT). Multilevel modeling analyses with Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimations indicated a two-way interaction effect between EPT and problem levels at baseline such that patients with lower problems at baseline showed good outcome in the context of EPT, whereas an inverse relationship was found for patients with higher problems. Findings provide empirical evidence for characteristic components of PDT for adolescents and preliminary answers about who benefits from psychodynamic techniques.

Interactions of Feelings of Competence and Motivation of Pre-Service Science Teachers in Their Laboratory Course: A Dynamic Multilevel Modeling Approach

Dynamic structural equation modeling was applied to examine feelings of competence and in the moment motivation among pre-service science teachers (N = 101) enrolled in a course on practical biology during their second semester. The student teachers completed a short questionnaire 18 times, and the interaction between their feelings of competence and momentary motivation over time was examined in relation to control-value theory. The autoregressive values of both variables were significant, and a pattern was observed of low competence at the beginning of the course session, combined with low motivation in the moment. Feelings of competence increased by the end of each course session but returned to a low level at the beginning of the next session. Momentary motivation followed this back-and-forth shifting somewhat but showed more carryover effects. The student teachers’ motivation depended on their feelings of competence from the previous moment in the biology course session, but feelings of competence did not depend on their motivation.

A Weighted Residual Bootstrap Method for Multilevel Modeling with Sampling Weights

Multilevel modeling is often used to analyze survey data collected with a multistage sampling design. When the selection is informative, sampling weights need to be incorporated in the estimation. We propose a weighted residual bootstrap method as an alternative to the multilevel pseudo-maximum likelihood (MPML) estimators. In a Monte Carlo simulation using two-level linear mixed effects models, the bootstrap method showed advantages over MPML for the estimates and the statistical inferences of the intercept, the slope of the level-2 predictor, and the variance components at level-2. The impact of sample size, selection mechanism, intraclass correlation (ICC), and distributional assumptions on the performance of the methods were examined. The performance of MPML was suboptimal when sample size and ICC were small and when the normality assumption was violated. The bootstrap estimates performed generally well across all the simulation conditions, but had notably suboptimal performance in estimating the covariance component in a random slopes model when sample size and ICCs were large. As an illustration, the bootstrap method is applied to the American data of the OECD’s Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) survey on math achievement using the R package bootmlm.

Loneliness, Social Contact, and Health Among Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging situation for many older adults at elevated risk for mortality. Social distancing and lockdown to prevent contagion may result in social isolation and feelings of loneliness, which can have adverse effects on health. We examined how depressive symptoms were associated with between-person differences and within-person variations in loneliness, social contacts, and daily physical problems during 8 weeks. We sampled 247 older adults (Mage = 71.1, SD = 7.3, range = 51 - 95), who participated at micro-longitudinal online surveys (baseline and 7 weekly follow-ups) from April 28 to June 23. Multilevel modeling analysis controlling age, gender, marital status, and education showed that depressive symptoms were significantly decreased during 8 weeks. Further, depressive symptoms were positively coupled with both loneliness and physical problems for both the within-and between-person levels. Increase in social contact was related to decreases in depressive symptoms only at the between-person level.

Positive and Negative Affect Mediate the Relationship Between Memory Lapses and Life Satisfaction

Aging is associated with declines and challenges, yet better subjective well-being. Life satisfaction is one aspect of well-being that may be sensitive to daily challenges. Daily memory lapses (e.g., forgetting words or meetings) are common and relevant for many adults. How individuals emotionally respond to challenges like memory lapses is a factor that could determine whether these experiences affect well-being. In a coordinated analysis of two datasets (N=561; ages 25-93 years) using multilevel modeling, we examined whether affective changes related to memory lapses mediated the relationship between memory lapses and life satisfaction. Results were similar across datasets: memory lapses were associated with reduced positive affect and increased negative affect. These associated affective changes also mediated the relationship between lapses and life satisfaction. We discuss the potential implications of our findings for linking proximal events and distal outcomes, and potentially intervening and identifying common challenges to mitigate broad reductions in well-being.

The Role of Optimal Dyadic Mental Health in Couples Living With Lung Cancer: Interdependence, Congruence, or Balance?

Optimizing dyadic health is a central goal of dyadic frameworks. Yet, research has focused on interdependent individual health or the transactional nature of health within dyads. Emerging research has explored dyadic health through the lens of congruence and balance. This longitudinal study examined dyadic mental health in 76 couples (M = 67.88 ± 11.54) during the first year of lung cancer. As expected, multilevel modeling found mental and physical health of couples were significantly associated at baseline (p < .05). Congruence in mental health was significantly associated with changes in physical health over time for survivors (p < .05) but not partners, whereas balanced mental health had differential effects on the physical health of survivors and partners (p < .01). Discussion will focus on the implications of congruent versus balanced dyadic health for the couple, evaluation of interventions, and propose ways to define optimal dyadic health.