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Background: Comorbidity between non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and depression and anxiety was common. In the framework of network theory, the examination of directionality and gender differences in longitudinal relationships at the symptom level made a significant contribution to the understanding of comorbidity. Therefore, this study employed cross-lagged panel network analysis to investigate the longitudinal interrelations between NSSI and depression and anxiety in Chinese adolescents, with a focus on gender differences. Method: The study was conducted with a sample of 884 senior high school students (F/M: 481/403; mean age: 15.19 ± 0.48 years) from Jinchang City, Gansu Province, China. All respondents completed the Adolescent Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Assessment Questionnaire and the two subscales (depression and anxiety) of the Brief Symptom Inventory at two intervals. The data were estimated in R 4.2.0 to construct the cross-lagged panel network (CLPN). Results: The CLPN results uncovered the gender differences. For boys, self-hitting and feeling scared emerged as central symptoms. Cutting predicted subsequent feelings of sadness (β = − 0.57), tension (β = − 0.52) and indifference (β = − 0.49), potentially serving as a bridge connecting NSSI to depression and anxiety. For girls, biting themselves and feeling scared were central symptoms. Carving and skin rubbing predicted subsequent feelings of indifference (β = − 0.31, −0.21), bridging NSSI to depression and anxiety. In addition, feeling scared emerged as the key bridge symptom connecting depression and anxiety. Conclusion: The findings showed the gender-specific developmental characteristics of the directional relations between NSSI and depression and anxiety at the symptom level. They provided new insights into the comorbidity of NSSI and depression and anxiety, carrying important implications for the screening and intervention of adolescent NSSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the mediation role of smartphone addiction on the relationship between parent-child relationships and the intensity of use of social network sites (SNSs), as well as the moderation effect of anxiety, this research conducted self-report questionnaires of the Social networking site (SNS) Usage Questionnaire, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale and Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment with 719 adolescents. The results showed that (1) the parent-child relationship negatively predicts SNS usage and (2) smartphone addiction plays a mediating role in the link between the parent-child relationship and SNS usage. (3) The relationship between the parent-child relationship and SNS usage is moderated by anxiety (on the first mediation path), and low levels of anxiety can mitigate the negative impact of the parent-child relationship on smartphone addiction, thus also mitigating the negative effects of the parent-child relationship on SNS usage. Our conclusion highlighted the vital role of the parent-child relationship and anxiety on the influence of smartphone addiction and the intensity of use of SNSs among adolescents. Our research also provides clinical implications: (1) teachers in high school can adopt family group counseling or emotion regulation workshop to help adolescents to prevent addiction to smartphones and social network sites; (2) we can reduce addictive behaviors by designing a series of intervention sessions to improve parent-child relationships and reduce anxiety for adolescents who have been addicted to smartphone and social network sites.

Family environment affects children's reading comprehension ability. In poverty-stricken parts of rural China, some parents have been migrant workers for many years. It is common for left-behind children to have one or both parents permanently missing. This study explores the impact of parental absence on children's reading comprehension. We measured the reading comprehension of 903 children (467 left-behind and 436 parented), using the Chinese Primary School Students' Reading Comprehension Ability Scale. After controlling for the parents' levels of education, reading input, and interest variables, we found that children with absent parents had significantly lower reading comprehension scores than parented children; they struggled to understand chapter layout, the author's intentions, writing technique, evaluation, and appreciation. While children with absent fathers received the same scores as parented children, those with absent mothers received significantly lower scores. Clearly, absent mothers have a greater impact on children's reading comprehension than absent fathers.

Emerging evidence suggests that visuospatial attention plays an important role in reading among Chinese children with dyslexia. Additionally, numerous studies have shown that Chinese children with dyslexia have deficits in their visuospatial attention orienting; however, the visual attention engagement deficits in Chinese children with dyslexia remain unclear. Therefore, we used a visual attention masking (AM) paradigm to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution of visual attention engagement in Chinese children with dyslexia. AM refers to impaired identification of the first (S1) of two rapidly sequentially presented mask objects. In the present study, S1 was always centrally displayed, whereas the spatial position of S2 (left, middle, or right) and the S1-S2 interval were manipulated. The results revealed a specific temporal deficit of visual attentional masking in Chinese children with dyslexia. The mean accuracy rate for developmental dyslexia (DD) in the middle spatial position was significantly lower than that in the left spatial position at a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 140 ms, compared with chronological age (CA). Moreover, we further observed spatial deficits of visual attentional masking in the three different spatial positions. Specifically, in the middle spatial position, the AM effect of DD was significantly larger for the 140-ms SOA than for the 250-ms and 600-ms SOA compared with CA. Our results suggest that Chinese children with dyslexia are significantly impaired in visual attentional engagement and that spatiotemporal visual attentional engagement may play a special role in Chinese reading.