Psychology in Russia-State of the Art最新文献

Background: Executive functions are actively developing in children of preschool age. Executive functions' development is also influenced by the way children are using digital devices. Joint media engagement is one of the parameters of digital device usage that has been poorly studied so far, although this is of great importance from the point of view of cultural-historical psychology.

Objective: Our research aimed to explore the association between young children's development of executive functions over a year, and their joint media engagement with parents and siblings in preschool children.

Design: Four hundred ninety (490) typically developing children (52% of them were boys) participated in the study. It was a longitudinal study: during the first stage, the children were 5-6 years old; the second stage followed one year later. The NEPSY-II subtests (Inhibition, Statue, Memory for Designs, Sentences Repetition) and the Dimensional Change Card Sort were used to assess executive functions. A questionnaire for mothers was used to get information about the children's joint media engagement and screen time.

Results: Children who watched video content and played video games together with their siblings developed more inhibitory control over the year than those children who did it alone. Co-viewing of video content with parents was associated with a decrease in cognitive flexibility over the year, as opposed to watching it alone.

Conclusion: The obtained data allows us to conclude that joint media engagement is important for executive functions development, and that there are optimal formats of joint media engagement. Based on the limitations of this study, recommendations for future research were suggested.

Background: Personal exposure is a crucial aspect of digital socialization. It pertains to the amount of time spent on social networks, the number of active accounts, interactions on different platforms, the content published on social networks, the purpose for which the content is shared, the degree of personal exposure, and the changes in social life caused by the exposure. Gender plays an important role in predicting online behavior, but previous studies have yielded contradictory results.

Objective: To characterize personal exposure to social media in young Cubans (networks used, hours of exposure, published content, how much of one's private life is exposed, alterations due to its use). To define the differences in personal exposure based on the gender variable.

Design: A survey specifically created for this research was used. The sample was composed of 3345 young Cuban residents between 18 and 35 years old.

Results: The young people spent a considerable amount of time per day on WhatsApp, Instagram*, and Facebook/Messenger*. Users shared content related to humor, music/art, and their personal lives. These interactions served as a source of entertainment, a means of communication and socialization, and a platform for expressing opinions on various topics. Personal content was shared frequently. The young people reported experiencing disturbances such as family demands, decreased attention span, difficulty sleeping, and decreased social interactions. There were gender differences in the level of personal exposure, with females reporting higher levels of exposure.

Conclusion: There are high levels of personal exposure among Cuban youth. Different qualities are manifested according to gender. Females reflect the highest levels of personal exposure.

Background: The phenomenon of sexting consists of sending and sharing sexual images, videos, or messages using smartphones and social networks. Sexting is spreading dangerously among adolescents who share private and explicit sexual content, ignoring the negative and risky consequences associated with this behavior. According to recent literature, sexting behavior is strongly related to the participants' level of self-esteem and social media's influence on them.

Objective: Our study was a descriptive community-based study focused on the central-south Italian context, which aimed to investigate sexually risky behavior and the main motivations for sexting, and to compare differences in self-esteem and social media's influence among three groups of Italian girls: non-sexters, occasional sexters, and frequent sexters.

Design: Our research involved 569 Italian girls (14-19 years old) who completed the following questionnaires: the Health and Sexual Behavior Questionnaire; the Sexting Behavior Scale; the Multidimensional Self-Concept Scale; and the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire-3.

Results: Our results showed that most participants sexted with their partner, and had a responsible attitude toward sexuality and kept sexual risk low. Moreover, frequent sexters had higher scores on social media's influence relative to the internalization of the body image and model for beauty and athleticism, as well as lower levels of global, academic, and competence self-esteem.

Conclusion: Our results could promote interventions in the school context in order to: a) improve awareness among youth about social media use, sexting, and safe sexuality; b) reduce the risk associated with sexting and the influence of social networks; and c) stimulate reflections by teachers and parents on adolescents' sense of identity and self-esteem.

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) refer to a semantic field of negative childhood events that, in conjunction with insufficient personal, family, or contextual coping resources, have the potential of becoming traumatic.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their association with sociodemographic variables and physical and mental illnesses in a Mexican sample.

Design: A cross-sectional design was used. The sample included 917 Mexican adults who responded to the Adverse Childhood Experiences International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ). Most of the participants were female (79.3%) with an average age of 37 years, a monthly income between 500 and 2,500 USD (59.2%), had completed university education (45.6%) and were married or in a common-law marriage (53.1%). Data was collected through Google Forms, and the link to the form was shared through electronic social networks.

Results: A total of 48.3% of the participants presented seven to nine types of ACEs. Among their responses, the most prevalent categories were emotional neglect (95.1%), family violence (83.3%), and emotional abuse (78.6%). A significant association was found between the number of ACEs and the mental illness diagnosis (x²(20) = 15.16; p<001). Women were found to report more experiences of sexual abuse (z = -6.62, p<. 001), whereas men reported more experiences of community violence (z= -4.27, p < .001) and collective violence (z = -3.94, p<.001).

Conclusions: The prevalence of ACEs in the Mexican population is high. However, men and women reported differences in certain types of ACEs. It was found that people with a diagnosis and family history of mental illnesses presented a higher number of ACE categories.

Background: Today's common typologies and categories of children's toys are mainly decided by the manufacturers and retailers of children's products. Such categorizations are not based on a theoretical understanding of child development and therefore cannot provide information about the opportunities that toys provide for the young.

Objective: This study proposed three criteria for categorizing toys based on the cultural-historical approach: their degree of realism; their degree of anthropomorphism; and their degree of detail. These criteria were chosen as a result of an analysis of theoretical works carried out in the framework of cultural-historical approach.

Design: The proposed criteria were tested through an experiment measuring children's toy preferences. The participants were 129 children of ages 3-4 years. Experimental data confirmed that most children do prefer realistic and detailed toys rather than those with fewer of these properties. The contribution of socio-demographic factors and the children's individual developmental indicators to their toy preference was also analyzed.

Results: The study revealed that among various socio-demographic factors, only the child's gender and the number of siblings in the family acted as significant predictors for the toy preferences. None of child's developmental characteristics (nonverbal intelligence, executive functions, and emotional understanding) were found to be significant predictors of preference for particular toys.

Conclusions: The assumption that toys can be assessed in terms of their realism and degree of detail found empirical support. The results of this study may be useful in designing further research and in the practical issue of toy selection for children age 3-4 years.

Background: COVID-19 has adversely affected economies and individuals globally. To this day, countries are facing the economic effects of the pandemic directly, and individuals' mental health is in danger as they are still indirectly dealing with the pandemic. It is imperative to understand how pandemic-related anxiety affected individuals' mental health so that all stakeholders can take essential remedial steps.

Objective: The current research aimed to investigate the relationship between Perceived Infectability, Coronavirus Anxiety, and Psychological Well-being. It also sought to explore the role of coronavirus anxiety in mediating between perceived infectability and psychological well-being.

Design: A cross-sectional correlational study design and non-probability convenience sampling technique were used to collect the data. The data were collected from 321 Pakistani adults, who filled out Google forms on the Perceived Infectability subscale of the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Scale; the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale; and the Psychological Well-being Scale.

Results: Correlation analysis indicated that both perceived infectability and coronavirus anxiety were negatively related to psychological well-being. However, a significant positive relationship was observed between perceived infectability and coronavirus anxiety. Our findings further proved the mediating role of coronavirus anxiety between perceived infectability and the psychological well-being of adults.

Conclusion: Understanding perceived infectability and its association with COVID-19 anxiety and psychological well-being is pertinent in this post-pandemic period in both developing and developed nations. The post-pandemic world is still being jolted with the aftereffects of the pandemic. An in-depth understanding of how individuals Coped with the pandemic, might help in designing better intervention and community health programs after the pandemic, and it could also help in preparing for the crises attending future pandemics (if any).

Background: The Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) is one of the most frequently used instruments to measure medically unexplained symptoms in the general population, as well as in groups of patients with mental and physical health problems.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the PHQ-15 in assessing a Russian community sample.

Design: A total of 1153 Russian adults age 18 or older participated in this cross-sectional study. They completed the Russian versions of the PHQ-15 and Symptom Check List-90-Revised, SCL-90-R (SCL-90-R). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine the factor structure of the Russian PHQ-15, and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses were used to test measurement invariance across sex and age. Cronbach's alpha coefficients and Pearsons Correlation Coefficients were used to evaluate the internal reliability and convergent validity of the Russian PHQ-15.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution highlighting pain-fatigue, gastrointestinal, and cardiopulmonary symptoms. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a bifactor structure for the Russian PHQ-15 merging general and specific somatic symptoms. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis showed partial invariance across sex and age. The Russian PHQ-15 demonstrated acceptable Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.72 to 0.75 for specific factors and a good Cronbach's alpha for the total score (a = 0.85), proving the questionnaire's internal reliability. Finally, positive correlations between the PHQ-15 and SCL-90-R dimensions, and positive intercorrelations between PHQ-15 specific factors, suggested convergent validity.

Conclusion: The Russian PHQ-15 is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing medically unexplained symptoms in the general population. This instrument can be used in diagnostic and counseling settings.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a multifaceted stressor. Its impact suggests long-term psychological effects. Self-determination promotes flexibility of goals and actions and helps to overcome the difficulties caused by stress.

Objective: To analyze coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic presented in Russian scientific studies (RQ1), and their relationship with self-determination (RQ2).

Design: Relevant studies (2020-2022) were selected from the Russian citation index (RSCI) database. Strict selection criteria were used. Twenty-four articles were selected for the final review. For dynamic analysis, four stages of the pandemic were identified.

Results: Prevailing coping strategies have changed over time. At the beginning of the pandemic, respondents used familiar coping mechanisms. Six months later, active coping strategies were more often used, but deprivation and avoidance strategies increased. A year later, there was an increase in denial and avoidance strategies. Using non-constructive coping strategies may indicate that, due to the long course of the pandemic, meeting basic psychological needs became increasingly frustrated, leading to helplessness, alienation, and lack of control. Later dynamics reflect the growth of effective coping strategies and confirm that when basic needs are blocked for a long time, people seek alternative ways to satisfy them.

Conclusion: The dynamics of coping strategies during the pandemic reflected their close relationship with basic psychological needs, as described in the theory of self-determination. The results confirmed the importance of self-determination as a dispositional variable in predicting coping mechanisms.

Background: The assertion of sex differences in verbal abilities is a highly controversial subject. Some studies have demonstrated a female advantage; other studies have found higher rates in males. The results depended on the type of verbal ability that was studied, the cultural context, and the ages of the subjects. There are two types of theories that have been developed to explain the existence of sex differences in cognitive abilities. Social theories explain the differences as caused by social determinants. Biological theories consider biological factors such as prenatal development conditions and hormone levels, among others, as the cause of sex differences.

Objective: To investigate sex differences in verbal abilities in children of different ages.

Design: Two different editions of Wechsler tests were used. For children age 2.5 to 5 years, the Wechsler Preschool Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV) was used. For children age 6 and older, we administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V). The total sample included 313 children.

Results: The study found significant sex differences in performance on the Verbal Comprehension Scale in children of different ages. At the age of 2 to 4 years, the girls performed better than the boys. In the group of boys, there was a significant increase in verbal abilities at the age of 8-9 years. By the age of 10-11 years, boys began outperforming girls on the Verbal Comprehension Index. Scores on the Verbal Comprehension and Visual Spatial subtests for the boy sample showed stronger correlations than in the girl sample in all age groups.

Conclusion: Sex differences in verbal abilities varied depending on the age of the children. The boys showed a stronger integration of their verbal abilities into the structure of their intelligence than the girls.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is not only a world health crisis, but also an ordeal for people's mental health and psychological well-being. The period of the COVID-19 lockdown has changed everyday life and increased anxiety, fears, and stress from habitual activities such as meetings, shopping, and the use of public transport. As the worry and nervousness increase, they threaten the cognitive (Life-satisfaction) and emotional (Happiness) components of well-being. Emotional regulation strategies are a mechanism to cope with the threat.

Objective: This study assessed the impact of anxiety, perceived stress from COVID-19, and emotional regulation strategies on well-being during the first weeks of the lockdown in Russia.

Design: Questionnaire-based surveys were conducted online from March 31 to April 30, 2020. A total of 589 participants (18 to 73 years of age) were recruited. The Subjective Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Zung's Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Perceived Source of Stress from COVID-19 scales were used.

Results: Among the various sources of stress, only that from restrictions on everyday life impacted well-being. High anxiety, but not perceived stress, decreased the feelings of Happiness and Life-satisfaction. Additionally, emotional regulation strategies played different roles in their impact on well-being: Cognitive reappraisal lowered negative emotions, but emotional suppression increased dissatisfaction with life.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that people's effective and relevant regulation of their emotions during public health emergencies and ability to avoid losses caused by crisis events, have become urgent needs, requiring the development of psychological interventions to support well-being.