Psychosocial Intervention最新文献

Sexual abuse of adolescents by adults on the Internet is a severe risk with negative consequences for the victims. However, there is an important gap in the development of preventive interventions to address this problem. This study evaluated the efficacy of a brief (less than one hour) educational intervention on online grooming (less than one hour) in reducing adolescents' sexual interaction behaviors with adults when they are sexually solicited. A sample of 856 Spanish adolescents (48% girls, ages 11-17 years) was randomized into two intervention conditions (educational intervention about online grooming and a resilience control intervention). Adolescents completed measures of online sexual solicitation by adults and sexualized interactions with adults at pretest and at three- and six-month follow-ups. Measures of their knowledge about online grooming were taken at pretest, postintervention, and at three- and six-month follow-ups. The results of multilevel analyses indicated that the intervention reduced sexualized interactions when adolescents were sexually solicited by adults (β = -.16, SD = .07, t = -2.44, p = .015). Moreover, the intervention increased adolescents' knowledge about online grooming over time (β = 1.95, SD = .19, t = 10.52, p < .001). These findings suggest that a brief educational intervention about online grooming may be a promising, low-cost intervention to reduce the risks of sexual abuse on the Internet.

Domestic abuse victim risk assessment is crucial for providing victims with the correct level of support. However, it has been shown that the approach currently taken by most UK police forces, the Domestic Abuse, Stalking, and Honour Based Violence (DASH) risk assessment, is not identifying the most vulnerable victims. Instead, we tested several machine learning algorithms and propose a predictive model, using logistic regression with elastic net as the best performing, that incorporates information readily available in police databases, and census-area-level statistics. We used data from a large UK police force including 350,000 domestic abuse incidents. Our models made significant improvement upon the predictive capacity of DASH, both for intimate partner violence (IPV; AUC = .748) and other forms of domestic abuse (non-IPV; AUC = .763). The most influential variables in the model were of the categories criminal history and domestic abuse history, particularly time since the last incident. We show that the DASH questions contributed almost nothing to the predictive performance. We also provide an overview of model fairness performance for ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups of the data sample. Although there were disparities between ethnic and demographic subgroups, everyone benefited from the increased accuracy of model-based predictions when compared with officer risk predictions.

With the rapid growth of the older population globally, it is anticipated that age-related cognitive decline in the prodromal phase and more severe pathological decline will increase. Moreover, currently, no effective treatment options for the disease exist. Thus, early and timely prevention actions are promising and prior strategies to preserve cognitive functions by preventing symptomatology from increasing the age-related deterioration of the functions in healthy older adults. This study aims to develop the virtual reality-based cognitive intervention for enhancing executive functions (EFs) and examine the EFs after training with the virtual reality-based cognitive intervention in community-dwelling older adults. Following inclusion/exclusion criteria, 60 community-dwelling older adults aged 60-69 years were involved in the study and randomly divided into passive control and experimental groups. Eight 60 min virtual reality-based cognitive intervention sessions were held twice a week and lasted for 1 month. The EFs (i.e., inhibition, updating, and shifting) of the participants were assessed by using standardized computerized tasks, i.e., Go/NoGo, forward and backward digit span, and Berg's card sorting tasks. Additionally, a repeated-measure ANCOVA and effect sizes were applied to investigate the effects of the developed intervention. The virtual reality-based intervention significantly improved the EFs of older adults in the experimental group. Specifically, the magnitudes of enhancement were observed for inhibitory as indexed by the response time, F(1) = 6.95, p < .05, η_p² = .11, updating as represented by the memory span, F(1) = 12.09, p < .01, η_p² = .18, and the response time, F(1) = 4.46, p = .04, η_p² = .07, and shifting abilities as indexed by the percentage of correct responses, F(1) = 5.30, p = .03, η_p² = .09, respectively. The results indicated that the simultaneous combined cognitive-motor control as embedded in the virtual-based intervention is safe and effective in enhancing EFs in older adults without cognitive impairment. Nevertheless, further studies are required to investigate the benefits of these enhancements to motor functions and emotional aspects relating to daily living and the well-being of older populations in communities.

There is a high prevalence of insomnia in older adults, which has negative consequences for their well-being and quality of life. The recommendation for first-line treatments is to administer non-pharmacological interventions. The objective of this research was to verify the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in older adults with subclinical and moderate insomnia, studying its impact on sleep quality. One hundred and six older adults participated and were assigned to the subclinical insomnia (n = 50) or moderate insomnia (n = 56) groups; subsequently, they were randomly assigned to the control and intervention groups. Subjects were evaluated at two times with the Insomnia Severity Index and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Significant results were obtained on both scales, with a reduction in insomnia symptoms in the subclinical and moderate intervention groups. The administration of a treatment that combines mindfulness and cognitive therapy is effective for treating insomnia in older adults.

Most empirical research on the relationship between peer victimization, aggression, and mental health has been conducted with correlational designs. Much of this research has also focused primarily on linking peer victimization with either the potential aggressive behaviors of victims or a deterioration in their mental health. This study analyzes the relationship between peer victimization, peer aggression, and depressive symptoms in adolescents over time. The participants are 194 adolescents (49.2% boys, 50.8% girls) aged between 10 and 13 years (M = 10.88, SD = 0.84). The results of the growth modeling analysis indicate that the trajectories are interconnected: as victimization decreases, adolescent aggression and depressive symptoms also decrease. In addition, it is observed that victimization decreased in the same way in boys and girls, while aggression and depressive symptoms showed a smaller reduction in girls. Finally, the results and their potential practical implications are discussed.

Practicing hot yoga may bring significant psychological benefits, but it is largely unstudied. We examined the effects of hot yoga on multifaceted well-being indicators with 290 healthy yoga-naïve volunteers partaking in a six-week randomized controlled trial. Participants completed questionnaires pre- and post-intervention, and reported their emotional experiences four times per day throughout an experience-sampling study. Results revealed that the hot yoga group (n = 137) improved their well-being from pre- to post-treatment, comparing to the wait-list control group (n = 153). These improvements included life satisfaction, general health, mindfulness, peace of mind, and eudaimonic well-being (ΔR² ranging from .01 to .08)-but not flourishing, which describes major aspects of social-psychological functioning. Multilevel analyses demonstrated that momentary positive emotional experiences increased significantly throughout the trial in the yoga group only (conditional R² = .68), particularly when attending a yoga class (conditional R² = .50). Interestingly, this increase in momentary positive emotion explained the improvement in post-intervention mindfulness, peace of mind, and general health by 21%, 31%, and 11%, respectively. Finally, the benefits of hot yoga were more notable in individuals with lower levels of baseline eudaimonic well-being (conditional R² = .45), flourishing (conditional R² = .61), and mental well-being (conditional R² = .65), even after ruling out any possible ceiling effects. To sum up, this study demonstrated multiple psychological benefits of hot yoga and its potential to be an effective positive psychology intervention. Future research-especially considering an active control group-is warranted.

Recent systematic reviews found limited rigorous research conducted to date of the effectiveness of parent training programs in reducing behavioral problems for autistic children in low- and middle-income countries. This study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of a short-term intensive parent training program for autistic children aged three to six in the context of routine service provision in China. A quasi-experiment was conducted involving the local implementing organization and using a waitlist control. Data were collected at baseline and immediate post-intervention. The primary outcome was child behavioral problems measured using the Child Behavior Checklist Externalizing scale. Between-group comparisons used a difference-in-differences design with propensity score weighting to reduce sources of bias. A process evaluation was undertaken in parallel to assess participant involvement, program acceptability, and delivery. The protocol was prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04257331). The final sample size was 111 (treatment: 63; comparison: 48). Results suggest that the program was associated with improvements in child externalizing behaviors (b = -2.71, 95% CI [-5.23, -0.18]), parental mental health symptoms (b = -5.96, 95% CI [-11.74, -0.17]), over-reactive parenting (b = -0.63, 95% CI [-0.98, -0.27]), and parental knowledge (b = 2.08, 95% CI [2.07, 2.17]). Exploratory analysis of factors related to implementation indicated that baseline parental mental health was related to participant engagement, and that satisfaction and engagement levels were potentially linked to positive treatment effects. Findings suggest that short-term intensive parent training programs that are provided by trained non-specialists, could potentially be used as an alternative to traditional prohibitively costly services that are delivered intensively for consecutive years in low-resource contexts. Follow-ups are needed to investigate its long-term benefits.

Many young children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at risk of developmental delays. Early child development (ECD) interventions have been shown to improve outcomes, but few interventions have targeted culturally normative violence such as corporal punishment (CP). We partnered with an existing community-based ECD organization in the LMIC of Grenada to implement a parallel controlled-trial single-blind responsive caregiving intervention that educates parents about the developing brain and teaches alternatives to corporal punishment while building parental self-regulation skills and strengthening social-emotional connections between parent and child. Parents and primary caregivers with children under age two were eligible. Allocation to the intervention and waitlist control arms was unblinded and determined by recruitment into the program. Neurodevelopment was assessed by blinded testers when each child turned age two. Primary comparison consisted of neurodevelopmental scores between the intervention and waitlist control groups (Clinicaltrials.gov registration # NCT04697134). Secondary comparison consisted of changes in maternal mental health, home environment, and attitudes towards CP. Children in the intervention group (n = 153) had significantly higher scores than children in the control group (n = 151) on measures of cognition (p = .022), fine motor (p < .0001), gross motor (p = .015), and language development (p = .013). No difference in secondary outcomes, including CP, was detected.

Bystanders of cyberbullying play an important role in the resolution of such situations and therefore, it is beneficial to promote self-regulation strategies that enable them to engage in prosocial behavior in these contexts. We propose that serious game-based psychosocial interventions with profile-based social agents can encourage prosocial bystander behavior in cyberbullying. A pilot quasi-experimental study with repeated and pre/post measurements was performed. We randomly assigned 194 7th and 8th graders to three conditions, namely experimental condition (n = 103, M_age = 13.91, SD = 1.02, 53.3% male); alternative condition (n = 37, M_age = 14, SD = 0.86, 54.1% female) and control condition (n = 54, M_age = 13.92, SD = 0.85, 50.9% female). An analysis of covariance showed that players revealed higher levels of prosocial assertive behavior when compared to other participants. Through multilevel modelling of longitudinal log-file data, we found that those who did not experience the game tended to interpret the cyberbullying situations more as non-serious, avoid assuming responsibility for intervening, and engage in aggressive behavior toward the victim. Players tended to support more and were less aggressive with victims from their in-group than those from the out-group. Insights for the development of games to promote prosocial behavior in bystanders of cyberbullying are presented.

Public perceptions of the severity of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) incidents are an important factor that has been linked to key issues regarding this type of violence, such as acceptability or tolerance, personal sense of responsibility, attitudes toward intervention, and the public's, professionals', and victims' responses to IPVAW. The aim of the present study was to provide further validity evidence for the perceived severity of IPVAW scale (PS-IPVAW), by assessing its measurement invariance between gender and age groups, and between men from the general population and male IPVAW offenders. Item response theory was also used to assess the discrimination of the items and their position on the measured latent trait continuum (i.e., perceived severity of IPVAW). To this end, the psychometric properties of the scale were examined in four different samples from the general population (N = 2,627) and in one clinical sample of male IPVAW offenders (N = 200). Our findings showed that the PS-IPVAW scale has excellent internal consistency (α = .89-.90) and a clear one-factor latent structure (CFI = .91-.96, RMSEA = .055-.086), and that partial strict invariance holds across different gender and age groups. We also found that IPVAW offenders' perceptions of the severity of IPVAW may follow a different pattern to that of men from the general population. The PS-IPVAW scale is able to yield accurate assessments of the perceived severity of this type of violence among the general population and IPVAW offenders.