Pre-pandemic psychological and behavioral predictors of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in nine countries

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents (N = 1,330; Mages = 15 and 16; 50% female), mothers, and fathers from nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, United States) reported on adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems, adolescents completed a lab-based task to assess tendency for risk-taking, and adolescents reported on their well-being. During the pandemic, participants (Mage = 20) reported on changes in their internalizing, externalizing, and substance use compared to before the pandemic. Across countries, adolescents’ internalizing problems pre-pandemic predicted increased internalizing during the pandemic, and poorer well-being pre-pandemic predicted increased externalizing and substance use during the pandemic. Other relations varied across countries, and some were moderated by confidence in the government’s handling of the pandemic, gender, and parents’ education.

Sociocultural behavioral traits in modelling the prediction of COVID-19 infection rates

PurposeOver the past decades, many health authorities and public policy experts have traditionally relied on indicators that are dependent on a nation's economy, its health-care infrastructure advancements, and superiority in biomedical sciences and technology to predict potential infection rates should a health pandemic occur. One such commonly relied-upon indicator was that of the Global Health Security (GHS) Index. However, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shown how such variables prove to be inaccurate in predicting the infection rates during a global health pandemic. Hence, this paper proposes the utilization of socio-cultural behavioral traits to predict a country's COVID-19 infection rates.Design/methodology/approachThis is achieved by proposing a model involving the classification and regression tree (CART) algorithm and a Poisson regression against the six selected cultural behavioral predictors consisting of individualism, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence.FindingsThe results show that all the selected cultural behavioral predictors are significant in impacting COVID-19 infection rates. Furthermore, the model outperforms the conventional GHS Index model based on a means squared error comparison.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors hope that this study would continue promoting the use of cultures and behaviors in modeling the spread of health diseases.Practical implicationsThe authors hope that their works could prove beneficial to public office holders, as well as health experts working in health facilities, in better predicting potential outcomes during a health pandemic, thus allowing them to plan and allocate resources efficiently.Originality/valueThe results are a testament to the fact that sociocultural behavioral traits are more reliant predictors in modeling cross-national infection rates of global health pandemics, like that of COVID-19, as compared to economic-centric indicators.

Extended Theoretical Framework of Parental Internet Mediation: Use of Multiple Theoretical Stances for Understanding Socio-Ecological Predictors

Digital media is a common phenomenon in contemporary societies. Recognizing the popularity of digital and online devices among the younger generation, the subject of parental internet mediation is of utmost significance for avoiding the adverse effects of digital media on the physical, cognitive, and social wellbeing of youngsters. Taking insights from an informed review of multi-grounded theories, we propose an extended framework of socio-ecological predictors concerning parental internet mediation. This contribution offers an innovative methodological and analytical perspective to consider both psychological and behavioral predictors for promoting resilience. This review acknowledged resilience as a strength-based measure to ensure online safety among young individuals. This review suggests that an integrated socio-ecological approach is critical to formulating the basis for a theoretical framework to fully comprehend the socio-ecological predictors of parental internet mediation.

New guidance to seekers of autism biomarkers: an update from studies of identical twins

Background The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are common neuropsychiatric conditions of childhood for which the vast proportion of population risk is attributable to inheritance, and for which there exist few if any replicated biomarkers. Main body This commentary summarizes a set of recent studies involving identical (monozygotic, MZ) twins which, taken together, have significant implications for the search for biomarkers of inherited susceptibility to autism. A first is that variation-in-severity of the condition (above the threshold for clinical diagnosis) appears more strongly influenced by stochastic/non-shared environmental influences than by heredity. Second is that there exist disparate early behavioral predictors of the familial recurrence of autism, which are themselves strongly genetically influenced but largely independent from one another. The nature of these postnatal predictors is that they are trait-like, continuously distributed in the general population, and largely independent from variation in general cognition, thereby reflecting a developmental substructure for familial autism. A corollary of these findings is that autism may arise as a developmental consequence of an allostatic load of earlier-occurring liabilities, indexed by early behavioral endophenotypes, in varying permutations and combinations. The clinical threshold can be viewed as a “tipping point” at which stochastic influences and/or other non-shared environmental influences assert much stronger influence on variation-in-severity (a) than do the genetic factors which contributed to the condition in the first place, and (b) than is observed in typical development. Conclusion Biomarkers identified on the basis of association with clinical symptom severity in ASD may reflect effects rather than causes of autism. The search for biomarkers of pathogenesis may benefit from a greater focus on traits that predict autism recurrence, among both clinical and general populations. In case–control studies, salient developmental liabilities should be systematically measured in both cases and controls, to avoid the erosion in statistical power (i.e., to detect differences) that can occur if control subjects carry sub-clinical aggregations of the same unmeasured traits that exert causal influences on the development of autism.

Social, Psychological, and Behavioral Predictors of Salivary Bacteria, Yeast in Caries-Free Children

Introduction: Early childhood caries (ECC) is a complex, multifactorial oral disease that is a major public health concern because it is prevalent, profoundly alters a child’s quality of life, is difficult to treat effectively, and has a distressing tendency to recur following treatment. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine social, psychological, and behavioral predictors of salivary bacteria and yeast in young children at risk for ECC. Methods: A sample of 189 initially caries-free preschool children was assessed for child stress physiology from salivary cortisol, child and family stress exposure, diet, oral health behaviors, and sociodemographic risks. Multiple logistic regression analysis was implemented to examine the associations between these risk factors and cariogenic microorganisms: mutans streptococci (MS), lactobacilli (LB), and Candida species. Results: Higher baseline salivary cortisol (odds ratio [OR] = 6.26; 95% confidence level [CL], 1.69–23.16) and a blunted response to an acute laboratory stressor (OR = .56; 95% CL, .37–.83) were associated with an increased likelihood of elevated salivary MS (≥105 colony-forming units/mL) in caries-free children. Sociodemographic risk for cariogenic microorganisms was also found. Specifically, lower education attainment of the parent/primary caregiver was associated with children being more likely to carry salivary Candida species and elevated salivary MS; in addition, children from households with an unemployed parent/primary caregiver were more likely (OR = 3.13; 95% CL, 1.2–8.05) to carry salivary Candida species and more likely (OR = 3.03; 95% CL, 1.25–7.33) to carry elevated levels of MS and/or salivary Candida and/or LB. Conclusions: The impact of sociodemographic risk and stress physiology on cariogenic disease processes are evident prior to ECC onset. The findings provide novel data on the early onset of cariogenic processes in children and the importance of considering sociodemographic, psychosocial, and behavioral factors when judging ECC risk. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The findings provide valuable and novel findings that, pre-ECC onset, the caries disease process is explicable from a detailed assessment of behavioral, sociodemographic, and psychosocial stress variables.