Mindfulness-Based Interventions and Parent-Child Relationship in Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Mindfulness has been noticed in the domain of psychology and neuroscience for the last two decades. With the plethora of studies based on interventional benefits of mindfulness-based techniques in various populations, the present review assesses if parent-child relationship studies effectively use mindfulness-based interventions on parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The children are in the age group of below 5 years. The aspects of ASD, mindfulness techniques, and parent-child relationship importance are explored, albeit briefly. One study could be reviewed and was assessed for its treatment fidelity. The conclusion was based on the need to conduct more mindfulness-based intervention studies for the parent population of children in the younger ages and with ASD. This review recommends such replication of studies on the parents of the Indian subcontinent as well.

Does covid-19 "infect" love? How italian emerging adults lived their romantic relationships during the time of lockdown

In Italy the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown have deeply changed the way Italian people used to live. Many emerging adults had to self-distance from their romantic partners and modify the way of communicating and relating to each other. Thus managing a romantic relationship could be very challenging.The study quantitatively and qualitatively investigates the association between Lockdown related negative emotions, perception of the romantic relationship quality, changes in the relationship's characteristics and conflict within the couple. The sample consists of 171 emerging adults involved in a romantic relationship, who spent the time of lockdown apart from the romantic partner.Results showed that the perception of the relationship quality was not greatly associated with Lockdown related negative emotions, but was associated with changes and higher conflict within the relationship. Qualitative data support and enrich these results. Changes and conflicts within the relationship were due to: difficulties to communicate, lack of intimacy, awareness about relationship importance or presence of emotionaldetachment between partners.

BEREAVEMENT IN A FAMILY CONTEXT

Bereavement is an impactful, often difficult experience for individuals throughout the life course. Moreover, bereavement experiences inherently involve wider family networks: The death of a spouse is often also the death of a parent, grandparent, or sibling, as well. The present symposium investigates a variety of different family loss experiences that individuals are exposed to in adulthood and older age, and situates such bereavement in a larger family context. Stahl explores how daily routines and sleep patterns can be altered by spousal bereavement, and assesses an intervention designed to improve widowed older adults’ behaviors and, in turn, reduce their depressive symptomology. Kim and colleagues analyze the death of a parent in adulthood, examining the extent to which pre-loss relationship quality and relationship importance may predict post-loss symptoms of grief. Stokes and colleagues extend this intergenerational perspective, examining the death of a grandparent in adulthood, and whether adult grandchildren’s relationships with their middle-generation parents – bereaved adult children themselves – impact their experiences of grief after loss. Focus is also paid to the influence of gender across all three generations. Lastly, Donnelly explores the cumulative consequences of experiencing multiple family deaths throughout the life course for adults’ health trajectories. Together, these papers expand the scope of bereavement research to incorporate spousal, multigenerational, and cumulative loss experiences and their repercussions for midlife and older adults. As discussant, Carr will assess the contributions of these papers to theory and the literature, and highlight potential directions for future research concerning aging, families, and bereavement.

MIDDLE-AGED ADULTS’ BEREAVEMENT RESPONSE TO PARENT DEATH: THE ROLE OF PRE-LOSS RELATIONSHIP QUALITY

The bereavement literature in adulthood has largely focused on spousal loss. Yet the death of a parent is an influential – and expected – loss experience in middle and later life. This study analyzed prospective data from two waves of the Family Exchanges Study (2008 and 2013) to explore adults’ (N = 192; Mage = 56.76) experience of a recent parent death in the past 5 years, including grief responses and positive memories of the deceased parent. We examined how pre-loss relationships with the deceased parent (e.g., positive and negative relationship quality, relationship importance) are associated with different bereavement responses among the bereaved children. Findings showed that the levels of grief were higher for children who placed more importance on the parent prior to that parent’s death. Positive relationship quality was associated with positive memories after a parent’s death. However, negative relationship quality was not associated with any bereavement responses.

Assessing Young Adults’ Beliefs Regarding the Importance of Romantic Relationships

In the current study, we provided initial evidence for the factor structure and validity of the Brief Measure of Relationship Importance, a new measure of young adults’ beliefs about the values and costs of being in romantic relationships. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, this measure consisted of two subscales: relationship desire (two items; viewing relationships as important and satisfying parts of one’s life) and relationship dismissal (four items; viewing relationships as less desirable or valuable for one’s life). Relationship desire and dismissal scores were associated with participants’ happiness with their romantic experiences, relationship satisfaction, having experienced relationship cycling, marriage intentions, and general interest in being in a romantic relationship. Therefore, we concluded that the Brief Measure of Relationship Importance provides a reliable and valid assessment of young adults’ romantic relationship attitudes. We discuss how our measure can be used in future research on young adults’ romantic relationship development.

The relevance of the SESII-W/M in establishing a relationship between sexual difficulties and sexual excitation/inhibition

Aims The main purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between sexual difficulties and factors of sexual arousal, excitement, and sexual inhibition among men and women. Method A total of 1,878 participants, of whom 983 were men (52%) and 895 were women (48%), with a mean age of 35.9 years (SD = 11.9; range = 18-79), were recruited online. The study’s instruments included a socio-demographic questionnaire, a questionnaire about sexual difficulties, and the Sexual Excitation/Sexual Inhibition Inventory for Women and Men (SESII-W/M). Results Women with and without sexual difficulties differed significantly on all subscales of the SESII-W/M. Men with sexual difficulties scored significantly higher in the dimensions of Inhibitory Cognitions and the Dyadic Elements of the Sexual Interaction than men without difficulties. Inhibitory Cognitions was the strongest predictor of sexual difficulties for both men and women. Relationship Importance was also a strong predictor of sexual difficulties in women. Conclusions Sexual inhibition serves as a predictor of sexual difficulties. The SESII-W/M seems to work better in determining the factors of sexual inhibition as predictors of sexual difficulties among women, than in identifying causes of sexual difficulties among men.

Stability of empathy scores between first- and fourth-year medical students: A longitudinal study at a Japanese medical school

Background: In medical practice, a relationship of trust between doctors and patients is essential. An important part of building and maintaining this relationship is empathy. Prior studies have suggested that empathy in medical students declined around the fourth year. The purpose of this study is to verify the decrease of empathy and gain further insights into empathy factors. Methods: This longitudinal study of undergraduate medical students was conducted through a self-administered, 20-item survey, using a 5-point Likert scale. First (n=105) and fourth (n=62) year students at Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine in Japan were assessed for empathy using the Japanese version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE). Total empathy scores were calculated, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to reveal the underlying factors of the Japanese version of JSPE. Finally, logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the presence of any relationships between attributes such as gender-related differences, age, school year, and experience as a patient. Results: In total, 234 participants were contacted, of whom 167 responded (71.3%). No decrease of mean empathy scores was shown between first-year (66.4) and fourth-year students (68.4). Factor analysis identified four factors: “building good patient-doctor relationship,” “importance of empathetic care,” “understanding patients’ view,” and “compassionate care.” A weak correlation (r = - 0.271) was observed between “understanding patients’ view” and “importance of empathetic care.” The odds ratio of females in “understanding patients’ view” and “compassionate care” was significantly higher (p<0.05) than in males. For “compassionate care,” statistically significant differences were noted for gender (p < 0.05) and age (p< 0.05) and the effect of gender being larger than age. Conclusions: This longitudinal cohort study in one medical school in Japan showed that empathy scores of first- and fourth-year students did not decrease, and the contribution of “compassionate care” was lowest of the four factors. The results imply the necessity to provide a program that enables preclinical medical students to understand the significance of emotional empathy and express it before they appear for computer-based testing (CBT) and objective structured clinical examination (OBCE) in their fourth year.

Lignans from the Twigs of Litsea cubeba and Their Bioactivities

Litsea cubeba, an important medicinal plant, is widely used as a traditional Chinese medicine and spice. Using cytotoxicity-guided fractionation, nine new lignans 1–9 and ten known analogues 10–19 were obtained from the EtOH extract of the twigs of L. cubeba. Their structures were assigned by extensive 1D- and 2D-NMR experiments, and the absolute configurations were resolved by specific rotation and a combination of experimental and theoretically calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. In the cytotoxicity assay, 7′,9-epoxylignans with feruloyl or cinnamoyl groups (compounds 7–9, 13 and 14) were selectively cytotoxic against NCI-H1650 cell line, while the dibenzylbutyrolactone lignans 17–19 exerted cytotoxicities against HCT-116 and A2780 cell lines. The results highlighted the structure-activity relationship importance of a feruloyl or a cinnamoyl moiety at C-9′ or/and C-7 ketone in 7′,9-epoxylignans. Furthermore, compound 11 was moderate active toward protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) with an IC50 value of 13.5 μM, and compounds 4–6, 11 and 12 displayed inhibitory activity against LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages, with IC50 values of 46.8, 50.1, 58.6, 47.5, and 66.5 μM, respectively.

Lignans from the Twigs of Litsea cubeba and Their Bioactivities

Litsea cubeba, an important medicinal plant, is widely used as traditional Chinese medicine and spice. Using cytotoxicity-guided fractionation, nine new lignans (1-9) and eleven known analogues (10-19) were obtained from the EtOH extract of the twigs of L. cubeba. Their structures were assigned by extensive 1D and 2D NMR experiments, and the absolute configurations were resolved by specific rotation and a combination of experimental and theoretically calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra. In the cytotoxicity assay, 7',9-epoxylignans with feruloyl or cinnamoyl group (7-9, 13 and 14) were selectively cytotoxic against NCI-H1650 cell line, while the dibenzylbutyrolactone lignans (17-19) exerted cytotoxicities against HCT-116 and A2780 cell lines. The results highlighted the structure-activity relationship importance of a feruloyl or a cinnamoyl moiety at C-9&prime; or/and C-7 ketone in 7',9-epoxylignans. Furthermore, compound 11 was moderate active toward protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) with an IC50 value of 13.5 &mu;M, and compounds 4-6, 11 and 12 displayed inhibitions against LPS-induced NO production in RAW264.7 macrophages, with IC50 values of 46.8, 50.1, 58.6, 47.5, and 66.5 &mu;M, respectively.