Psychometric Validation of the German Translation of the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Bronchiectasis (QOL-B)—Data from the German Bronchiectasis Registry PROGNOSIS

Patients with bronchiectasis feature considerable symptom burden and reduced health-related quality of life (QOL). We provide the psychometric validation of the German translation of the disease-specific Quality of Life Questionnaire-Bronchiectasis (QOL-B), version 3.1, using baseline data of adults consecutively enrolled into the prospective German bronchiectasis registry PROGNOSIS. Overall, 904 patients with evaluable QOL-B scores were included. We observed no relevant floor or ceiling effects. Internal consistency was good to excellent (Cronbach’s α ≥0.73 for each scale). QOL-B scales discriminated between patients based on prior pulmonary exacerbations and hospitalizations, breathlessness, bronchiectasis severity index, lung function, sputum volume, Pseudomonas aeruginosa status and the need for regular pharmacotherapy, except for Social Functioning, Vitality and Emotional Functioning scales. We observed moderate to strong convergence between several measures of disease severity and QOL-B scales, except for Social and Emotional Functioning. Two-week test-retest reliability was good, with intraclass correlation coefficients ≥0.84 for each scale. Minimal clinical important difference ranged between 8.5 for the Respiratory Symptoms and 14.1 points for the Social Functioning scale. Overall, the German translation of the QOL-B, version 3.1, has good validity and test-retest reliability among a nationally representative adult bronchiectasis cohort. However, responsiveness of QOL-B scales require further investigation during registry follow-up.

Too Anxious to Talk: Social Anxiety, Academic Communication, and Students’ Experiences in Higher Education

Social anxiety is related to a host of negative student outcomes in the educational context, including physical symptoms of anxiety, reduced cognitive functioning, and poor academic performance. Despite the prevalence of social anxiety, little is known about mechanisms that may underlie associations between social anxiety and outcomes in the context of higher education. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate a conceptual model linking social anxiety, communication with peers and instructors, students’ experiences (i.e., engagement, connectedness, and satisfaction), and indices of socio-emotional functioning at university. Participants were N = 1,073 undergraduate students ( Mage = 20.3 years, SD = 3.49) who completed a series of self-report measures. Among the results, social anxiety was negatively related to communication with instructors, socio-emotional functioning, and student experiences, and academic communication accounted for significant variance in the links between social anxiety and student experiences. In addition, there was at least some evidence that student experiences partially mediated the association between social anxiety and socio-emotional functioning. Gender effects suggest that social anxiety is related to less communication with instructors, lower engagement and satisfaction, and poorer socio-emotional functioning among females compared with males. Results are situated within current literature examining social anxiety in education. The discussion provides concrete suggestions for educational practitioners to increase support for students who experience social anxiety.

Technical-Vocational Students’ Emotional Functioning within the Bidimensional Mental Health Model

There has been an increasing interest in understanding emotionality within the bidimensional mental health model (BMHM). Considered as a comprehensive framework, BMHM underscores psychological well-being and distress as related but distinct constructs contributing to an individual's overall emotionality. Following its global empirical appeal, this study was an attempt to apply the BMHM to examine the emotional functioning of 213 adolescents from a technical-vocational institution in the Philippines. Employing a cross-sectional research design, data were collected through multiple self-report measures and subsequently analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Salient findings indicated that the majority of the participants were assessed with a healthy emotionality, while a small but comparable proportion reported unhealthy, diminished, and mixed emotionality. Variations in emotional functioning by gender and educational levels were significant. Additionally, participants’ quality of life and academic functioning were influenced by their emotional functioning. Implications for addressing the emotional needs of students and future research were discussed.

Oxytocin Receptor Gene Methylation as a Molecular Marker for Severity of Depressive Symptoms in Affective Disorder Patients

Background: Oxytocin (OXT) is a neuropeptide and hormone involved in emotional functioning and also seems to play a role in moderating the stress response. Both preclinical and clinical studies point to an increased methylation status of the Oxytocin receptor (OXTR) promoter region with concomitant deficits in social, cognitive and emotional functioning. We hypothesize that methylation levels (%) of the oxytocin receptor promoter region correlate with the severity of depression symptoms within this present sample of affective disorder patients. Methodology: Eight hundred forty six Caucasian affective disorder patients were recruited at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the Medical University Vienna, the Karl Landsteiner University for Health and Science and Zentrum für seelische Gesundheit, BBRZ-Med Leopoldau. The assessment included an assemblage of psychiatric interviews (e.g. SCAN, HAMD, CTQ) and concomitantly DNA samples of peripheral blood cells were collected for Multiplexed and Sensitive DNA Methylation Testing. Results: Our data suggests a positive but not significant association between OXTR promoter Exons 1-3 methylation levels and severity of depression symptoms in affective disorder patients. Conclusions: Our findings contribute to elucidate the role of OXTR in affective disorders, but further longitudinal studies in particular are necessary to broaden the current state of knowledge.

The level of quality of life of schoolchildren with disorders of the autic spectrum in comparison with typically developed peers

In connection with the increasing the number of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who enrolls in educational institutions of Ukraine, the issue of individualization of physical education (PE) of children with ASD in the school process becomes important. There is little data on the quality of life of schoolchildren with autism spectrum disorders. It does not allow to draw individual trajectories of physical education of such children, to help them to improve their adaptability. Most of studies have been performed on males. Objective: to analyze the level of cognitive, physical, emotional, social functioning and functioning in school of girls of primary school age with autism spectrum disorders and compare them with typically developed peers. It was found that there were no differences between the rates of girls with ASD and girls with typical development in walking and running, feeling of pain and low energy levels, the frequency of school absences due to doctor visits and the frequency of forgetting things. However, the level of development of cognitive, social and emotional functioning of girls with ASD is significantly lower than the indicators with typical development by all criteria. To overcome the problems with cognitive, social and emotional functioning of girls with ASD, it is recommended to select appropriate means of PE. In oder to improve the cognitive processes (attention, memory) of girls with ASD, we recommend to increase the amount of means that promote the development of coordination in PE classes; to improve physical functioning - exercises for developing muscle strength and endurance. The game activity with normal girls will help to improve the social well-being of girls with ASD. We should use oriental martial arts and oriental gymnastics to improve the psycho-emotional state of girls with ASD.

Emotion in non-suicidal self-injury: A contradiction between global self-reports and real-time responses

<p><b>People who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) report doing so largely to manage overwhelming emotions. Prominent theories of NSSI argue that an amplified emotional response system creates the context in which a person chooses to regulate their emotions by engaging in NSSI. In line with these theories, people who engage in NSSI consistently report greater global emotion reactivity and emotion dysregulation than do controls. These global self-reports of emotional functioning also predict the onset and cessation of NSSI, demonstrating their considerable utility in understanding the behaviour. However, global self-reports provide an overall evaluation of one’s average affective experience and so are ill-suited to isolating precise alterations in emotional responding.</b></p> <p>I first establish how best to assess NSSI (Study 1a and 1b). I then leverage experimental affective science and individual differences methodologies to test whether NSSI is characterised by a more reactive and intense emotional response to challenge, and/or whether factors that help to create, modify, and later recall the emotional response are altered in those who engage in NSSI compared with controls. Study 2 compared how young adults with a past-year history of NSSI and controls subjectively and physiologically reacted to, and recovered from, acute stress. Study 3 compared how young adults with a past-year history of NSSI and controls subjectively reacted to both explicit and more ambiguous social exclusion.</p> <p>Consistent with a wealth of research, across both Studies 2 and 3 people with a past-year history of NSSI reported considerably greater global emotion reactivity and emotion dysregulation than did controls. However, counter to predictions, both the NSSI and Control groups showed similar patterns of real-time emotional responding to both acute stress (Study 2) and social exclusion (Study 3), providing no evidence that NSSI is characterised by an amplified response to emotional challenge. In addition, we found no evidence that emotional recovery, emotion regulation strategy use, memory of emotional experience, or appraisal—all factors that shape the emotional response—operate differently in those who engage in NSSI. Focusing on how people make global self-reports, exploratory reanalysis of Study 2 and 3 suggests that people with no history of NSSI draw from their real-time experiences of acute (but not mild) emotional challenge when making judgements about their global emotion dysregulation. In contrast, people who engage in NSSI appear to rely on different channels of information when reporting their global emotion dysregulation.</p> <p>Overall, this thesis demonstrates that, despite reporting considerably poorer global emotional functioning, people who engage in NSSI show largely typical responses to real-time emotional challenges. Given that global self-reports of emotional functioning appear to be critical for understanding NSSI onset and cessation, the discrepancy between global self-reports and measures of real-time responding highlights the complexity of the relationship between emotion and NSSI. To advance our understanding of emotional responding in NSSI, research should: a) establish the conditions (if any) under which people who engage in NSSI show amplified emotional responding, and b) isolate the psychological processes that underlie the experience of poorer global emotional functioning reported by people who engage in NSSI.</p>

Emotion in non-suicidal self-injury: A contradiction between global self-reports and real-time responses

<p><b>People who engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) report doing so largely to manage overwhelming emotions. Prominent theories of NSSI argue that an amplified emotional response system creates the context in which a person chooses to regulate their emotions by engaging in NSSI. In line with these theories, people who engage in NSSI consistently report greater global emotion reactivity and emotion dysregulation than do controls. These global self-reports of emotional functioning also predict the onset and cessation of NSSI, demonstrating their considerable utility in understanding the behaviour. However, global self-reports provide an overall evaluation of one’s average affective experience and so are ill-suited to isolating precise alterations in emotional responding.</b></p> <p>I first establish how best to assess NSSI (Study 1a and 1b). I then leverage experimental affective science and individual differences methodologies to test whether NSSI is characterised by a more reactive and intense emotional response to challenge, and/or whether factors that help to create, modify, and later recall the emotional response are altered in those who engage in NSSI compared with controls. Study 2 compared how young adults with a past-year history of NSSI and controls subjectively and physiologically reacted to, and recovered from, acute stress. Study 3 compared how young adults with a past-year history of NSSI and controls subjectively reacted to both explicit and more ambiguous social exclusion.</p> <p>Consistent with a wealth of research, across both Studies 2 and 3 people with a past-year history of NSSI reported considerably greater global emotion reactivity and emotion dysregulation than did controls. However, counter to predictions, both the NSSI and Control groups showed similar patterns of real-time emotional responding to both acute stress (Study 2) and social exclusion (Study 3), providing no evidence that NSSI is characterised by an amplified response to emotional challenge. In addition, we found no evidence that emotional recovery, emotion regulation strategy use, memory of emotional experience, or appraisal—all factors that shape the emotional response—operate differently in those who engage in NSSI. Focusing on how people make global self-reports, exploratory reanalysis of Study 2 and 3 suggests that people with no history of NSSI draw from their real-time experiences of acute (but not mild) emotional challenge when making judgements about their global emotion dysregulation. In contrast, people who engage in NSSI appear to rely on different channels of information when reporting their global emotion dysregulation.</p> <p>Overall, this thesis demonstrates that, despite reporting considerably poorer global emotional functioning, people who engage in NSSI show largely typical responses to real-time emotional challenges. Given that global self-reports of emotional functioning appear to be critical for understanding NSSI onset and cessation, the discrepancy between global self-reports and measures of real-time responding highlights the complexity of the relationship between emotion and NSSI. To advance our understanding of emotional responding in NSSI, research should: a) establish the conditions (if any) under which people who engage in NSSI show amplified emotional responding, and b) isolate the psychological processes that underlie the experience of poorer global emotional functioning reported by people who engage in NSSI.</p>