Body Image Disturbance in Female Adolescents Using Online Learning Platforms: A Concept Analysis

Aim To analyze the concept of body image disturbance in female adolescents using online learning platforms as a phenomenon of interest to nurse practitioners and other health care practitioners. Background With the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online learning platforms as a primary mode of learning has increased exponentially among adolescents. While research is still lacking in this field, the literature on traditional social media suggests that these online learning platforms may negatively influence body image and emotional outcomes. Particularly vulnerable to these outcomes are female adolescents, whose construction of own body image is highly influenced by their self-perceived evaluation from their peers. While the concept of body image disturbance is well defined in adolescent eating disorders, it has not been characterized in the context of online learning platforms. Defining the concept of body image disturbance in this context is crucial for recognizing its occurrence and providing early intervention. Methods The Walker and Avant method of concept analysis was used to analyze the concept. Findings The defining attributes of body image disturbance among female adolescents using online learning platforms are: (1) Viewing a digitally distorted image of oneself and feeling displeasure with the perceived appearance; (2) Self-surveillance of one’s appearance; and (3) Upward comparison of one’s appearance with others and experiencing feelings of inadequacy. Conclusion As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the traditional school experience, nurse practitioners can use the presented scenarios, along with examples of questionnaires noted in this study, to recognize and delineate the occurrence of body image disturbance in female adolescents using online learning platforms. A standardized definition of the concept will enable nurse practitioners to recognize its occurrence and to provide interventions in a timely manner.

Cultivating Youth Affinity for College Within the Context of Campus-Based Summer Camps

College and university-based (CUB) summer camps are a prominent pre-collegiate experience targeting middle and high school adolescents, which research suggests may enhance college aspirations and preparedness, develop academic knowledge and skills, and influence future career choices. This study examines factors that predict the relation between affinity for college, program engagement and support, college major selection, and social–emotional outcomes stemming from youth involvement in a CUB camp based on data collected from 641 middle and high school-aged youth who completed an online questionnaire on the last day of the CUB camp. The findings validated a 4-factor model comprised of college brand awareness, college relational expectations, college academic interest–science, and college academic interest–technology. Further, the structural equation model (SEM) results suggested a relation between affinity for college, program engagement and support, and social–emotional outcomes. In addition, a CUB camp student’s lack of a college major had a significant negative direct effect on some dimensions of affinity for college including college brand awareness, college relational expectations, and college academic interest–science. CUB camp providers can use the results of this study to better articulate how their programs might impact adolescent decision making related to college, as well as inform how CUB camp providers may intentionally create affinity spaces that maximize student awareness of college brands as well as their future expectations for the college experience.

Exploring the impact of ineligibility on individuals expressing interest in a trial aimed at improving daily functioning regarding perceptions of self, research and likelihood of future participation

Background Eligibility guidelines in research trials are necessary to minimise confounds and reduce bias in the interpretation of potential treatment effects. There is limited extant research investigating how being deemed ineligible for such trials might impact patients’ perceptions of themselves and of research. Better understanding of the impact of patient ineligibility could enhance design and implementation of future research studies. Methods Eight semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted to explore the impact of ineligibility on self-perceptions; perceptions regarding the nature of research; and the likelihood of expressing interest in future research. Data were collected and analysed thematically through inductive, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results Five themes emerged regarding the experience of being deemed ineligible: (1) Being deemed ineligible is emotion and reaction evoking; (2) ‘Doing your bit’: Helping others and increasing the value of research; (3) Communication of ineligibility; (4) Appreciation for those who express interest; and (5) Subsequent perceptions and attitudes towards research. Conclusions The results suggest that being deemed ineligible can elicit negative emotional outcomes but is not likely to change perceptions of or attitudes towards research, possibly due to a desire to help similar others. Ineligibility can impact future participation in some cases, thus reducing the recruitment pool for subsequent research studies. Recommendations are provided to help minimise this risk. Advising of ineligibility in a personal way is recommended: with enhanced clarity regarding the reasoning behind the decision; providing opportunities to ask questions; and ensuring that appreciation for the patient’s time and interest are communicated.

Emotional status and fear in patients scheduled for elective surgery during COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide cross-sectional survey (COVID-SURGERY)

Background Fragmented data exist on the emotional and psychological distress generated by hospital admission during the pandemic in specific populations of patients, and no data exists on patients scheduled for surgery. The aim of this multicentre nationwide prospective cross-sectional survey was to evaluate the impact of pandemic on emotional status and fear of SARS-CoV-2 contagion in a cohort of elective surgical patients in Italy, scheduled for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Twenty-nine Italian centres were involved in the study, for a total of 2376 patients surveyed (mean age of 58 years ± 16.61; 49.6% males). The survey consisted of 28 total closed questions, including four study outcome questions. More than half of patients had at least one chronic disease (54%), among which cardiovascular diseases were the commonest (58%). The most frequent type of surgery was abdominal (20%), under general anaesthesia (64%). Almost half of the patients (46%) declared to be frightened of going to the hospital for routine checkups; 55% to be afraid of getting SARS-CoV-2 infection during hospitalization and 62% were feared of being hospitalised without seeing family members. Having an oncological disease and other patient-related, centre-related or perioperative factors were independently associated with an increased risk of fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection during hospitalization and of being hospitalised without seeing family members. A previous infection due to SARS-COV-2 was associated with a reduced risk of worse emotional outcomes and fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection during hospitalization. Patients who showed the most emotionally vulnerable profile (e.g. use of sleep-inducing drugs, higher fear of surgery or anaesthesia) were at higher risk of worse emotional status towards the hospitalization during COVID-19 pandemic. Being operated in hospitals with lower surgical volume and with COVID-19 wards was associated with worse emotional status and fear of contagion. Conclusions Additional fear and worse emotional status may be frequent in patients scheduled for elective surgery during COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of the participants to the survey were worried about not being able to receive family visits. Psychological support may be considered for patients at higher risk of psychological distress to improve perioperative wellbeing during the pandemic.

Motivated Emotion Regulation: Impacts on Effort, Affect, and Strategy Selection

Affective science literature has begun to acknowledge emotion regulation as a motivated process, and recognize that motivations to regulate our emotions might have important implications for emotional outcomes. Despite this acknowledgement, as well as evidence that emotion regulation depends on fundamental cognitive control processes that can be modulated by motivation, there is little research that experimentally manipulates motivation in the context of emotion regulation. To address this, we investigated emotion regulation task performance under baseline, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation conditions. Across two experiments, 149 participants completed an emotion regulation task under both baseline and motivation (extrinsic or intrinsic) conditions. During this task, participants were shown either negative or neutral images and asked to either regulate their emotions or attend and respond naturally. Self-report measures of negative affect, difficulty/effort, and regulation strategy choice were obtained after each trial. Under both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, participants reported decreased negative affect and task difficulty relative to baseline. The presence of a motivator also significantly increased the reported use of regulation strategies such as reappraisal, identified as a high-effort cognitive strategy. Taken together, these results suggest that experimental manipulations of motivation may enhance emotion regulation performance (in terms of decreased negative affect) and effort (in terms of increased use of regulation strategies), consistent with previously observed effects of motivation on performance and effort in classic cognitive control tasks. These results further demonstrate that motivation has important implications for emotion regulation outcomes and call for further research into differential effects of distinct motivators.

Attitudes Toward the Past, Present, and Future: Associations With Self-Reported Academic Outcomes in Academically Talented Adolescents

The Adolescent and Adult Time Inventory–Time Attitude Scales (AATI-TA) were used to examine the association between time attitudes and self-reported academic and social–emotional outcomes in 967 academically talented adolescents ( M age = 14.27, SD = 1.42) attending a summer educational program. The AATI-TA consists of six subscales assessing positive and negative attitudes toward the past, present, and future. Bivariate associations between AATI-TA subscales scores and outcomes were small. Cluster analyses of AATI-TA scores yielded several profiles, labeled Pessimists, Negatives, Ambivalents, and Positives. Students with Positive and Ambivalent profiles reported greater course enjoyment, higher perceived academic rank, and higher expected summer GPA than their peers with the Negative profile, even though the groups did not differ on how challenging they perceived the courses to be, time spent on homework, and studying. In keeping with previous research using the AATI-TA, Positives reported the most favorable outcomes, Negatives the least, and Ambivalent and Pessimistic adolescents fell between these two groups. Future research on time attitudes should include measures of actual academic performance.

Breast may not always be best: moderation of effects of postnatal depression by breastfeeding and infant sex

Background There is good evidence that female infants are particularly vulnerable to poor emotional outcomes following in utero glucocorticoid exposure. It is currently unclear whether such effects might persist into the postnatal period for breastfed infants, as maternal cortisol is expressed in breastmilk and is influenced by maternal psychological distress. We pre-registered hypotheses that maternal postnatal depression would be associated with infant negative emotionality, and that this effect would be moderated by breastfeeding status and infant sex. Methods We analysed data from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), a prospective epidemiological study starting in pregnancy. Nine weeks after birth mothers self-reported depressive symptoms and breastfeeding status, and reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits subscale of the infant behaviour questionnaire (IBQ-R) when their infant was aged 9 weeks and 14 months. Maximum likelihood estimations made use of data from 857 mother-infant pairs. Results At 9 weeks of age, maternal postnatal depressive symptoms were positively associated with infant distress to limits; however, this effect was not moderated by infant sex or breastfeeding. At age 14 months, the association between postnatal depression symptoms and distress to limits was greatest in the breastfed females, whereas the association was smaller, but still significant, in the non-breastfed females. For males, the association was non-significant in both the breastfed and non-breastfed groups. A test of sex difference between breastfed males and females was significant. Conclusions We provide evidence that effects of maternal postnatal depression on child emotional outcomes are moderated by breastfeeding status and differ by infant sex. Female vulnerability to elevated maternal breastmilk glucocorticoids may, at least in part, explain these effects.