Mental Health of Holocaust Survivors and Other Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel

Holocaust survivors could be especially vulnerable to the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic due to their early life traumas. Thus, the current study examines the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of Holocaust survivors in Israel, compared to adults who did not experience the Holocaust. We collected quantitative data from 305 adults aged 75+ (38% Holocaust survivors) in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that Holocaust survivors were worried to a greater extent from COVID-19 and reported greater depression which became worse during the pandemic. On the other hand, despite these differences, the two groups were similar in their will to live. In conclusion, Holocaust survivors seem to be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening the vulnerability hypothesis, while also showing resilience in their will to live. Policy makers and practitioners should pay special attention to this particularly vulnerable population during these difficult times.

Stressful Life Events, Differential Vulnerability, and Depressive Symptoms: Critique and New Evidence

Depressive symptoms are disproportionately high among women and less educated individuals. One mechanism proposed to explain this is the differential vulnerability hypothesis—that these groups experience particularly strong increases in symptoms in response to stressful life events. We identify limitations to prior work and present evidence from a new approach to life stress research using the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Preliminarily, we replicate prior findings of differential vulnerability in between-individual models. Harnessing repeated measures, however, we show that apparent findings of differential vulnerability by both sex and education are artifacts of confounding. Men and women experience similar average increases in depressive symptoms after stressful life events. One exception is tentative evidence for a stronger association among women for events occurring to others in the household. We term this the “female vulnerability to network events” hypothesis and discuss with reference to Kessler and McLeod’s related “cost of caring” hypothesis.

An Amyloid Agnostic Reformulation of the Alzheimer’s Disease:the Long Gene Vulnerability Hypothesis

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a genetically complex senile neurodegeneration with unknown etiology. The first gene discovered to be mutated in early-onset AD, the amyloid precursor protein (APP), has been widely assumed as a causal factor in the disease cascade due to its generation of Aβ species. APP has an evolutionarily conserved biological role and activates a signaling program with notable similarities to integrin—a cell adhesion receptor with a wide array of functions. Intriguingly, several AD genome-wide association study (GWAS) candidate genes, including the SHARPIN locus recently reported by us and others, influence signaling of the integrin pathway. Integrins are focal adhesion regulators and serve in nervous system development, synaptic plasticity, and Tau phosphorylation. These observations suggest that the function of APP probably goes beyond Aβ generation in AD. Aging—the strongest risk factor for AD—is associated with various clock-like events in cells. For instance, neurons are continuously impacted by stochastic ‘hits’ to their genomes in aging, in the forms of DNA damage, insertion-deletions, copy-number variations (CNVs) and other types of somatic mutations. DNA damage and somatic mutations can result in neoplastic changes and cancer in mitotically active cells. However, their consequences in post-mitotic cells such as aging neurons are less defined. The current hypothesis holds that the stochastic loss of DNA sequence data at random loci in aging affects longer genes by chance more frequently. As a result, the biological processes coordinated by long genes may be more vulnerable to such random aging effects. Curiously, as shown by us and others, long genes are strongly enriched for synapse- and cell adhesion-related ontologies, more than any other biological process or cellular compartment. In addition, among various cell types, neurons possess the highest levels of long gene expression and are therefore more vulnerable to such harmful effects. The long gene vulnerability hypothesis provides a simple link between aging and the genetic landscape of AD and warrants new strategies for disease modification.

Relationship Satisfaction Across the Transition to Parenthood: The Impact of Conflict Behavior

The transition to parenthood is often accompanied by declines in relationship satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from six waves of the German family panel pairfam ( N = 1,739), the authors tested whether these declines are driven by increases in and more intense forms of conflict (differential exposure hypothesis) and by a greater sensitivity to relationship conflicts after the transition to parenthood (differential vulnerability hypothesis). The analyses showed strong support for the differential exposure hypothesis among women and partial support among men. Across the transition to motherhood, women experience increases in conflict that account for decreases in relationship satisfaction. The findings showed no support for the differential vulnerability hypothesis, as neither men’s nor women’s relationship satisfaction becomes more sensitive to relationship conflicts across the transition to parenthood.

A test of perfectionistic vulnerability following competitive failure among college athletes

Perfectionism purportedly bestows vulnerability to distress via an interaction with achievement and interpersonal stress. We test this by assessing athletes’ perfectionism and subsequent self-conscious emotion following repeated competitive failure. Sixty college athletes undertook three 4-minute competitive sprint trials on a cycle ergometer and were instructed that they had performed the worst of all competitors on each occasion. Measures of perfectionism (self-oriented and socially prescribed) were taken at baseline and measures of pride, guilt, and shame were taken at baseline and three times following each successive failure. Across the successive failures, self-oriented perfectionism predicted within-person trajectories of decreasing pride and increasing guilt. Socially prescribed perfectionism predicted within-person trajectories of increasing shame and guilt. Furthermore, a combination of high self-oriented and high socially prescribed perfectionism predicted the steepest within-person increases in shame and guilt. Findings support an achievement specific vulnerability hypothesis whereby those higher in perfectionism experience pronounced distress following competitive failure.

An examination of father vulnerability and coercive family process after the birth of a sibling: A spillover cascade model

Fathers are a crucial source of support for children following the birth of an infant sibling. This study examined whether fathers were more vulnerable to the effects of interparental conflict than mothers, and whether there was a subsequent spillover cascade from interparental conflict to children's externalizing behavior problems. We followed 241 families after the birth of a second child. Mothers and fathers reported on interparental conflict and parental efficacy at 1 and 4 months postpartum and punitive discipline and firstborn children's externalizing behavior problems across a longitudinal investigation (prenatal and 4, 8, and 12 months postpartum). For both mothers and fathers, interparental conflict prenatally predicted decreased parental efficacy following the birth. Fathers’ lower parental efficacy was significantly associated with increased punitive discipline toward the older sibling at 4 months, whereas mothers’ lower parental efficacy was not. Coercive family processes were present between mothers’ and fathers’ punitive discipline and older siblings’ externalizing behavior problems. Results were inconsistent with the father vulnerability hypothesis in that both mothers and fathers were vulnerable to interparental conflict, which in turn spilled over to create coercive family processes that exacerbated children's externalizing behavior problems in the year following the birth of a second child.