Behavioral Sciences最新文献

Background: The quality and valence of psychedelic experiences are influenced by a range of psychological and contextual factors. This study examines baseline mood and the "relational triad"-comprising social connectedness, mindfulness, and spirituality-as potential predictors of the quality of naturalistic psychedelic experiences.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Predicting Responses to Psychedelics dataset, a longitudinal study tracking 654 individuals planning to take a psychedelic substance. Participants completed self-report measures at five time points, before and after ingestion. Baseline mood (depression, anxiety, and wellbeing) and relational triad factors were assessed at Timepoint 1, while acute psychedelic experience quality was measured at Timepoint 3 using validated scales (MEQ-30, CEQ, and ASC).

Results: Mystical and challenging experiences were weakly but positively correlated. Baseline depression and anxiety were predictive of more challenging experiences but not of mystical-type experiences, while baseline wellbeing predicted more mystical and less challenging experiences. Mindfulness and spirituality were positively associated with mystical experiences, while social connectedness and mindfulness were inversely associated with challenging experiences.

Conclusions: These findings extend previous research by demonstrating that baseline psychological and relational factors shape the nature of psychedelic experiences.

Background/objectives: Suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among elementary school students represent critical public health concerns that require develop-mentally appropriate, evidence-informed school-based interventions. This study con-ducted a retrospective comparative analysis of two school-based approaches-Sandplay Therapy with Suicidal Ideation and Self-Injury-Focused Engagement (SPT-SAFE) and a School-based Dialectical Behavior Therapy-informed Brief Intervention (DBT-BI)-for elementary school students presenting with suicidal ideation and NSSI. The objective was to describe pre-post-changes in key outcomes within each intervention and to explore whether outcome trajectories differed between the two approaches in a non-randomized, real-world school-based setting.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed archival clinical records from 109 elementary school students (SPT-SAFE: N = 59; DBT-BI: N = 50) who received services at a school-based suicide prevention center in South Korea between 2022 and 2024. Seven validated outcome measures assessed suicidal ideation, NSSI frequency, depression, anxiety, aggression, impulsiveness, and self-concept at pre- and post-intervention. Pre-post-changes and exploratory between-group differences were examined using 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVAs (Group × Time interaction), with baseline-adjusted ANCOVAs conducted as complementary analyses. Suicidal ideation was operationalized using the SIQ-JR total score, and NSSI was operationalized using the FASM summed frequency index.

Results: Both interventions were associated with significant reductions in suicidal ideation (F = 29.98, p < 0.001, partial η² = 0.219) and NSSI frequency (F = 15.95, p < 0.001, partial η² = 0.130), with large within-group effect sizes and no significant Group × Time interactions. Accordingly, between-group differences were limited and should be interpreted as exploratory rather than comparative-effectiveness evidence. Modest between-group differences favoring DBT-BI were observed for self-concept outcomes (F = 4.14, p = 0.044, partial η² = 0.037; d = -0.39).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that both interventions were associated with pre-post-improvements in suicidal ideation and NSSI frequency within a school-based clinical context.

Early life experiences and the process of exploration play a vital role in shaping brain development and lifelong learning. In March 2020, population-wide restrictions were imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It remains to be determined whether having been raised under the global stress and restrictions of COVID-19 has influenced children's development as they enter formal schooling. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which having more than 50% of one's first year of life and/or prenatal period in the COVID-19 era influences the developmental trajectory in preschool. The study compared 3- to 5-year-old children born before the pandemic (n = 63) with those who were five months or younger at its onset (n = 40). Variables assessed included executive function skills, vocabulary, and common developmental domains. Using the BRIEF-P as a standardized measure of executive function, the results demonstrate that the pandemic-born cohort exhibit greater impairments than those born before the pandemic. There was also a significant increase in reports of speech and language therapy enrollment; frequent ear infections; diagnoses of hearing, speech, or language impairments; and delays in reaching developmental milestones. The pandemic-born cohort additionally reported delays in fine motor skills compared to the pre-pandemic cohort. The present study underscores the urgent need for additional resources to better support children in this cohort as they begin formal schooling.

Sex differences in stress-induced alcohol-seeking are well documented. The overarching goal of this study is to examine how sex may moderate the relationship between depression and anxiety symptoms and stress-induced alcohol-seeking and to identify mechanisms of this relationship. We explore subjective alcohol responses and the resting-state functional connectivity of the amygdala and the hippocampus, regions implicated in anxiety and depression, as potential sex-dependent mediators. This secondary analysis draws from a recently published trial of 84 adults aged 21 to 55 (54.8% female, mean age = 32, SD = 10.68; 58.3% White, 88.1% non-Hispanic/Latino) who endorsed moderate-to-heavy alcohol use. All participants completed two counterbalanced intravenous alcohol administration sessions, and 54 completed optional neuroimaging. Generalized anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with greater stress-induced alcohol-seeking in women but not in men. Depression symptoms showed a similar pattern, though the results did not reach statistical significance. Across men and women, blunted state stimulation, but not state anxiety, in response to alcohol was associated with greater stress-induced alcohol-seeking. In men, anxiety symptoms were linked with heightened state stimulation effects, which appeared to buffer against stress-induced alcohol-seeking. State stimulation findings may suggest a possible mechanism for sex differences concerning anxiety pathways to alcohol-seeking. Subjective alcohol responses did not mediate the relationship between depression symptoms and stress-induced alcohol-seeking. Resting-state network connectivity findings identified several potential sex-dependent neural mechanisms that warrant further investigation. Although this study was not originally designed as a direct test of competing subjective response and low-level response to alcohol theoretical models, our findings are consistent with Schuckit's low level of response to alcohol theory. Our findings showed that blunted stimulation may contribute to stress-induced alcohol-seeking among men. Identifying mechanisms that underlie sex-specific relationships with stress-induced alcohol-seeking can inform the development of tailored intervention approaches, ultimately enhancing treatment efficacy for both men and women.

People are generally willing to help others maintain a basic life, but their willingness to help others pursue a luxury life-and the motivations underlying such decisions-remain unclear. Study 1 examined willingness to help and emotion expectancy in response to demand for necessary versus luxury items, taking helpers' agreeableness and the controllability of the causes of others' adversity into account. Study 2 further tested whether helpers' cost of helping or the utilitarian goals of what others wanted would explain willingness to help and emotion expectancy. A total of 308 university students, acting as potential helpers, were randomly assigned to different helping scenarios. Study 1 found that demand for luxury items reduced both willingness to help and expected happiness, regardless of personality or situational factors. Study 2 showed that among participants low in agreeableness, low utilitarian goals consistently reduced willingness to help, suggesting an other-centric motivation. Among participants high in agreeableness, low utilitarian goals reduced willingness to help only when helping costs were high, indicating a trade-off between other-centric and egocentric motivations. These findings reveal that although people tend to be unwilling to help others pursue a luxury life, the motivations guiding this reluctance depend on individuals' levels of agreeableness.

Eating disorders among adolescents have emerged as a significant global public health concern, with attachment anxiety identified as a critical risk factor for anorexia nervosa (AN) symptoms. Individuals with attachment anxiety often exhibit heightened sensitivity to others' perceptions and an intense fear of rejection, which may exacerbate their vulnerability to body image concerns. This study investigates the mediating role of appearance-based rejection sensitivity (ARS) and the moderating effect of sex in the relationship between attachment anxiety and AN symptoms among Chinese college students. A total of 826 participants aged 16-25 (M = 18.95, SD = 1.08, 60% females) completed online surveys using three validated scales: the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS) to assess attachment anxiety, the Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity Scale (ARSS) to measure sensitivity to rejection related to physical appearance, and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) to evaluate AN symptoms. The results reveal that there was no significant difference in attachment anxiety between males and females, while females experienced significantly higher levels of ARS and severity of AN symptoms than males. Attachment anxiety is positively correlated with AN symptoms, with ARS mediating this association. Sex further moderates the relationship between ARS and AN symptoms, with stronger effects observed in females. Current findings suggest that AN symptoms are closely associated with contemporaneous attachment anxiety, with passive sensitivity to potential rejection acting as a mediating factor. This underscores the importance of addressing attachment styles and communication patterns in interventions targeting adolescent AN symptoms, particularly in females.

This study develops an integrated computational model to illuminate the micro-dynamics through which transient emotional contagion evolves into stable social identity within organizations, with a specific focus on hybrid work environments. Drawing on organizational psychology and employing an agent-based modeling approach, we formalize a four-stage process-Emotional Cycle, Emotional Memory Accumulation, Cognitive Formation, and Enhancement Effect-that captures how fleeting affective experiences coalesce into enduring group identification. Our simulations reveal that cognitive heterogeneity moderates this pathway, leading to slower but more robust identity formation. Gender differences emerge as significant, with females demonstrating higher susceptibility to emotional contagion, while males' identification is more strongly influenced by issue relevance. Crucially, exploratory simulations contrasting high- and low-hybridity configurations demonstrate that dispersed, digitally mediated work attenuates the emotional feedback loop, slows consensus formation, and heightens the risk of sub-group silos, thereby fundamentally reshaping the identity formation pathway. This research provides a mechanistic explanation of the emotional foundations of organizational culture and offers managers an evidence-based, dynamic framework for strategically cultivating collective identity in an increasingly hybrid world.

With the development of the digital intelligence era, generative AI is being widely used in scientific research, and its impact on graduate students' research competence has attracted much attention from the academic community. Based on cognitive distribution theory and self-efficacy theory, this study classifies AI applications into three levels from basic to advanced-technical support AI use, text development AI use, and transformation AI use-explores their effects on graduate students' research competence, and examines the mediating effect of critical thinking and the moderating effect of research self-efficacy. The results of the empirical analysis show that all three types of AI use behaviors are significantly correlated with research competence, with the strongest correlation for text development type and the weakest for technical support type. In the relationship between the three types of AI use behaviors and research competence, critical thinking plays a significant positive mediating role, and research self-efficacy plays a significant moderating role. Universities and tutors should guide students to focus on higher-order AI use behaviors in the text development and transformation categories, promoting the use of critical thinking to avoid technology misuse and improving research self-efficacy to help students accumulate confidence and support their research.

This study examines the impact of social media use on public behavioral intentions regarding waste sorting in China, integrating the Cognition-Affect-Conation model with the Social Amplification of Risk Framework. The proposed framework explores how social media exposure and gratification influence waste sorting intentions through anticipated emotions and environmental risk perception. Regression analysis confirms that information gratification primarily activates positive emotions, while information exposure has a stronger effect on negative emotions. Both affective pathways significantly predict waste sorting intentions, with comparable predictive strengths. Mediation analysis further reveals that information gratification and information exposure indirectly influence behavioral intention through dual emotional pathways and environmental risk perception. Qualitative interviews highlight two structural deficiencies: fragmented knowledge dissemination, which weakens environmental norm internalization, and uneven community integration, which limits behavioral translation. These findings underscore the need for diversified communication strategies and community-based policy interventions to enhance public participation in waste sorting.

Compensatory Health Beliefs (CHBs) are cognitions that the negative effects of unhealthy behaviors can be offset by healthy ones. While their role in single behaviors is established, their mechanisms in regulating multiple health behaviors remain empirically unclear, particularly whether CHBs facilitate or inhibit actual cross-behavior compensation between physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE). This study tested a dual-path model proposing that CHBs are associated with immediate intention compensation via moral licensing and with long-term cross-behavior inhibition through reduced self-efficacy. A cross-sectional online survey of 366 university students assessed general CHBs, domain-specific social cognitive variables (self-efficacy, intention, planning), and self-reported PA (IPAQ-SF) and HE (calculated from reported food consumption as a dietary guideline adherence score). Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. We found that CHBs were positively associated with PA intention but negatively linked to HE intention, planning, and behavior. CHBs were also negatively related to HE self-efficacy, which was subsequently associated with lower PA planning, indicating a cross-behavior inhibition pathway. In conclusion, CHBs are linked to lower health behavior engagement through two pathways: short-term intention-based licensing across domains and self-efficacy erosion that inhibits integrated planning. This integrated model highlights the importance of addressing both CHBs and self-efficacy in health interventions.