Psychology Research and Behavior Management最新文献

Background: Depression represents a major public health challenge worldwide, especially in middle-aged and older adult populations. Although intergenerational support plays an established role in promoting psychological well-being, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain inadequately understood. A crucial and frequently neglected element in this dynamic is functional deprivation-defined as the decline in the capacity to perform basic and instrumental activities of daily living (ADL/IADL). This loss substantially undermines autonomy and increases vulnerability to depression. The present study introduces the first-introduced construct of Intergenerational Psychological Capital (IPC) as a protective factor that may mitigate the detrimental mental health effects of functional deprivation.

Objective: This study examines the protective influence of Intergenerational Psychological Capital (IPC) on depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. We test a moderated mediation model in which functional autonomy deprivation serves as a mediator, and disability operates as a moderator affecting the pathway between IPC functional autonomy deprivation and depression.

Methods: We analyzed five waves of CHARLS data (2011-2020) comprising 33,369 valid observations using Stata 17.0. A moderated mediation analysis was conducted through hierarchical regression modeling, testing the relationships among intergenerational psychological capital, functional autonomy deprivation, disability, and depression with adjusted standard errors and sociodemographic controls.

Results: IPC was significantly associated with reduced depressive symptoms (β=-0.088, p<0.001. Functional autonomy deprivation partially mediated this relationship (IPC →mediator: β =-0.019, p< 0.001; mediator →depression: β = 0.809, p< 0.001). Furthermore, disability significantly moderated this mediated pathway: the buffering effect of IPC on functional autonomy deprivation was more pronounced among adults with disabilities, though its overall protective effect on depression was partially attenuated in this group.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that IPC alleviates depression both directly and indirectly through reducing functional autonomy deprivation. However, the presence of disability constrains the full benefits of IPC, highlighting the need for inclusive mental health interventions that address both functional capacity and intergenerational psychological resources.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the structure, developmental characteristics and influencing factors of psychological positive energy (PPE) in medical students as well as its relationship with mental health. Psychological positive energy refers to a positive mindset comprising optimism, emotional resilience and proactive behaviours, which contribute to overall well-being.

Methods: A mixed-methods design was adopted. Semi-structured interviews (n=650, stratified by year/gender/speciality) were analysed via grounded theory to construct a PPE framework (theoretical saturation reached). A cross-sectional survey (n=650, 562 valid) used a self-developed PPE scale (Cronbach's α=0.89, good fit) and three validated scales. Data were analysed via SPSS 26.0 with Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression.

Results: Qualitative analysis identified a four-dimensional PPE framework: positive cognitive orientation (tendency to interpret life events optimistically), emotional feelings (experience of stable positive emotions such as hope), behavioural patterns (proactive engagement in problem-solving) and self-development (intrinsic motivation for professional/personal growth). This framework was confirmed after reaching data saturation The quantitative results showed the following: (1) Medical students' PPE levels were high (M = 5.5-6.0/7-point scale), with significant demographic patterns (higher in men than in women; increasing with academic seniority). (2) Perceived social support, family care and trait self-control were key predictors of PPE, collectively explaining 72.1% of its variance (with social support as the strongest predictor). (3) Psychological positive energy was positively associated with adaptive psychological outcomes (meaning in life, cognitive reappraisal) and negatively associated with mental health risks (anxiety, depression, aggression) (all p < 0.001), indicating the protective role of PPE.

Conclusion: This study clarifies the four-dimensional structure of PPE in medical students and confirms its critical protective role in mental health (eg reducing anxiety/depression). Key influencing factors - perceived social support (strongest predictor), family care and trait self-control - provide actionable targets for universities to design targeted interventions.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the efficacy of metacognitive training (MCT) as an adjunctive treatment strategy for schizophrenia, particularly its impact on negative symptoms and potential mechanisms.

Patients and methods: This study included a total of 73 inpatients with schizophrenia. 36 patients were in the MCT group and 37 patients were in the control group. Both groups of patients were receiving a single second-generation antipsychotic drug treatment. The MCT group underwent a 4-week MCT program consisting of 8 modules, while the control group received non-cognitive psychological support for the same duration and frequency. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) five-factor model and negative symptom two-factor model were used to assess psychiatric symptoms, and the Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale (SSMS) and the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) were used as functional evaluation indicators.

Results: After treatment, compared to the control group, the MCT group had significantly lower scores in the PANSS total score (p<0.001), negative factor (p=0.002), and hostility factor (p=0.046). Further, the PSP score (p<0.001) and SSMS score (p=0.042) were significantly improved. In the two-factor analysis of negative symptoms, the MCT group showed significant improvements in both diminished expression (DE) symptoms (p<0.001) and social amotivation (SA) symptoms (p=0.010) after treatment. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that changes in the reduction rates of P2 (Conceptual disorganization), N7 (stereotyped thinking), and SA scores had a significant impact on the reduction in DE scores; changes in the reduction rates of P6 (Suspiciousness/persecution) and DE scores had a significant impact on the reduction rate of SA scores (p<0.05).

Conclusion: MCT can improve the clinical symptoms and functions of patients with schizophrenia, especially in the DE factor characterized by conceptual disorganization and stereotyped thinking, and the SA factor prominent in suspiciousness/persecution symptom. This provides insights for the precise treatment of negative symptoms.

Purpose: Depressive symptoms is highly prevalent among individuals in drug abstinence and substantially hinders rehabilitation. Grounded in the biopsychosocial model, this study examined the associations among endogenous oxytocin, perceived social support, drug abstinence self-efficacy, and depressive symptoms among drug abstainers.

Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 339 participants recruited from a compulsory drug abstinence center in China in November 2023. Salivary oxytocin levels were assessed using enzyme immunoassay. Participants completed validated self-report measures of depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), perceived social support (PSSS), and drug abstinence self-efficacy (SELD). Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and the PROCESS macro with 5000 bootstrap samples to test the proposed mediation and moderated mediation models.

Results: Higher endogenous oxytocin was associated with lower depressive symptoms and greater perceived social support. Perceived social support partially mediated the oxytocin-depressive symptoms association. Drug abstinence self-efficacy moderated both the direct and indirect paths, with stronger associations observed among individuals with higher self-efficacy.

Conclusion: Endogenous oxytocin may be a protective correlate of depressive symptoms in drug abstainers, partly through its association with perceived support. These associations are amplified by greater drug abstinence self-efficacy. The findings bridge biological, social, and cognitive perspectives, proposing practical intervention approaches to mitigate depressive symptoms and enhance abstinence outcomes for drug abstainers.

Introduction: The rapid growth of social media use among students has raised concerns about its impact on mental health. While excessive engagement can increase anxiety and stress, emerging virtual technologies show potential as tools for psychological support.

Methods: A mixed-methods experimental study was conducted in a university in Kazakhstan, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. A student survey assessed patterns of social media use and their association with anxiety, stress, and self-esteem. A content analysis of Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter posts identified prevalent mental health themes, formats, and engagement patterns. An experimental intervention tested the effects of virtual reality (VR) meditations and autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) content on reducing anxiety and stress.

Results: Higher intensity of social media use correlated with increased anxiety and stress, and lower self-esteem. Both VR and ASMR interventions significantly reduced anxiety, with VR showing the strongest effect. Content analysis revealed that social media can both amplify anxiety triggers and serve as a source of emotional support.

Discussion: Findings align with existing literature linking social media to poorer emotional well-being, while highlighting the potential of immersive digital interventions for stress reduction. The integrated MDI-STUDENT model was developed, combining relaxation techniques, digital hygiene practices, and reflective activities to build resilience.

Conclusion: Excessive social media use is associated with adverse mental health outcomes in students, but structured virtual interventions, especially VR, can mitigate these effects. The study supports integrating digital stress management strategies into university mental health programs.

Background: Procrastination can be defined as voluntarily delaying or postponing a task that is often regarded as important or necessary to do. It often has short-term benefits but high future burdens. The Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS) is a 9-item self-reporting scale that focuses on the implemental aspect of procrastination and are clearly worded and easy to understand, making it easier for participants to express their opinion. A few efforts have been made to adapt procrastination scales for Arabic-speaking populations and provide procrastination scales to Arabic-speaking populations and countries. The objectives of our study were to evaluate the validity of the Arabic version of IPS, assess its internal reliability and explore concurrent validity of the IPS based on patterns of correlations between procrastination and time perspectives.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March 2023 and involved 684 young adults, mostly female participants from various regions of Lebanon. The Exploratory-to-Confirmatory (EFA-CFA) strategy was used to confirm the IPS validity.

Results: The CFA results revealed that the fit indices of the one-factor model were not good: CFI= 0.923, TLI = 0.898 RMSEA = 0.124 [90% CI 0.111, 0.136] and SRMR = 0.114. Therefore, we randomly split the sample into two groups; an EFA was first conducted on the first subsample (n = 343). Items 2, 6 and 9 were removed since their loading factor was below 0.4. A CFA was then performed on the second subsample (n = 341). The hypothesized one-factor model was specified with six items loading on the latent construct (CFI = 0.990, TLI = 0.984, SRMR = 0.061, RMSEA = 0.087 [90% CI 0.071, 0.104]). The internal reliability of the scale was excellent (α = 0.89 and ω = 0.89). Model fit for configural, metric, scalar and strict invariance was shown. Higher time perspective dimensions' scores, namely past negative, past positive, present fatalistic and present hedonistic, were significantly associated with higher irrational procrastination.

Conclusion: The validated Arabic IPS provides a reliable tool for screening procrastination, with potential applications in clinical assessment, interventions, and cross-cultural research on its psychological, social, and cultural determinants.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with suicidal ideation and to develop a prediction model for early suicide ideation risk using machine learning algorithms based on the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD-24).

Methods: A total of 374 patients with depression were included from the outpatient department of the Psychology Department at the Second People's Hospital of Changzhou City. Depression severity was assessed using the HAMD-24, while the Beck Suicide Ideation (BSI) Questionnaire (Chinese Version) was employed to categorize patients into those with and without suicidal ideation. Suicide ideation risk in patients with depression was predicted using four machine learning models: support vector machine, naive Bayes classification, random forest, and extreme random trees classification (ERTC). This superiority is attributed to ERTC's extreme randomization which mitigates overfitting in high-dimensional symptom data. The models were evaluated based on accuracy, precision, recall, F1 scores, Kappa coefficients, Matthew's correlation coefficients, and area under the curve values. The optimal model was then selected, and the factors most strongly associated with suicidal ideation using the HAMD-24 were identified and analyzed.

Results: The ERTC model outperformed SVM, NBC and RF (accuracy 77.75%, AUC 0.80), and despair, guilt, inferiority complex, work and interests loss, depression emotions were the strongest predictors of suicidal ideation. Demographically, patients with suicidal ideation were significantly younger and less likely to be using antidepressants. This is likely attributable to its ensemble structure and inherent randomization during node splitting, which enhances robustness against overfitting and improves generalization when handling the complex, potentially non-linear relationships between HAMD-24 items and suicidal ideation.

Conclusion: We identified the optimal model and then analyzed the factors most strongly associated with HAMD-24 suicidal ideation. The ERTC model, demonstrating superior performance, enables early interventions, and reduces suicide rates. Moreover, this model provides a theoretical reference for the development of new scales focused on depression and suicide.

Background: Although there is extensive evidence linking cyberbullying perpetration to adolescents' suicidal ideation, studies have not yet explored the longitudinal relationship between cyberbullying perpetration and adolescents' suicidal ideation, nor have they elucidated the mechanisms underlying this relationship. To address these gaps, this study employed a three-wave longitudinal design to examine the relationship between cyberbullying perpetration and suicidal ideation among Chinese vocational school adolescents, and the mediating effect of depression and the moderating effect of need to belong (NTB) in this relationship.

Methods: Using a cluster sampling method, 802 adolescents (M_age = 17.5, SD=4.3, 51.6% female) from two vocational schools completed the questionnaires measuring cyberbullying perpetration, suicidal ideation, depression, and NTB across three waves at six-month intervals. T1 depression was treated as a control variable in the statistical model. This study used SPSS 27.0 and PROCESS macro to test the research hypotheses.

Results: The results demonstrated that (1) T1 cyberbullying perpetration positively predicted T3 suicidal ideation; (2) T2 depression fully mediated the relationship between T1 cyberbullying perpetration and T3 suicidal ideation; (3) T2 NTB moderated the indirect relationship between T2 depression and T3 suicidal ideation. Specifically, the relationship between T2 depression and T3 suicidal ideation was stronger for vocational school adolescents with high NTB than for those with low NTB.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that cyberbullying perpetration impacts adolescents' suicidal ideation via depression, and that adolescents with high NTB are more vulnerable to suicidal ideation when experiencing depression. This research highlights the importance of adopting a depression-focused intervention, thus preventing cyberbullying perpetration from escalating to suicidal ideation among vocational school adolescents, particularly those with high NTB.

Background: The Voices Acceptance and Action Scale (VAAS) is a tool used to measure acceptance and autonomous action in people with schizophrenia who are undergoing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Aim: Translate and investigate the psychometric properties of the Egyptian (Arabic) version of the Voices Acceptance and Action Scale.

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional research design following STROBE guidelines.

Methods: A convenience sample of 300 clients with schizophrenia completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Arabic VAAS, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II. The scale was translated using a forward-backward translation method. Content validity was assessed by 10 experts. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) were conducted to assess construct validity. Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest reliability was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results: The Arabic version of the VAAS demonstrated good content validity (S-CVI = 0.94). EFA supported a five-factor structure, and CFA confirmed acceptable model fit (CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.087). The tool showed strong internal consistency (α = 0.993) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.85-0.95). No floor or ceiling effects were observed.

Conclusion: The Egyptian Arabic version of the VAAS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing acceptance and autonomous action toward auditory hallucinations among Arabic-speaking individuals with schizophrenia.

Impact: The Voices Acceptance and Action Scale is a tool used to measure acceptance and autonomous action in people with schizophrenia who are undergoing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Objective: The study aimed to conduct a psychometric validation of the Chinese version of the Metacognitions Questionnaire-30 (MCQ-30) and to explore the association between metacognitive factors and post-traumatic growth (PTG).

Methods: 313 young and middle-aged patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were recruited between October 2023 and June 2024 from a tertiary hospital in Zhengzhou, China. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test established factor structures of the MCQ-30. The reliability tests, criterion-related validity analyses, and regression models were conducted.

Results: CFA results supported the five-factor structure of the MCQ-30, with satisfactory model fit and good reliability. Criterion-related validity was also supported by significant positive correlations between the five factors and depression/anxiety symptoms. All five metacognition factors were also significantly correlated with PTG.

Conclusion: The findings support the use of the Chinese version of the MCQ-30 as a potentially reliable and valid instrument for assessing metacognitive beliefs in young and middle-aged AMI patients. Given the sampling method and cross-sectional design, results should be interpreted cautiously. Further research with larger sample sizes, and longitudinal design is needed to validate the above results.