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This study examined socioeconomic disparities in changes in adolescent mental health between fall 2019 (pre-COVID-19), spring 2020 (initial coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phase), and fall 2020 (prevailing COVID-19 phase). Using data from 1429 adolescents (Mage = 17.9) from tertiary vocational schools in the Netherlands with n = 386 participating in all three waves, linear and latent basis growth curve models were assessed and multigroup analyses conducted. Results showed a small but significant decrease in life satisfaction and small but significant increases in emotional problems, peer relationship problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity-inattention problems. For emotional problems and peer relationship problems, increases between pre-COVID-19 and the initial COVID-19 phase were more pronounced than increases between the initial and prevailing COVID-19 phase. In contrast, linear decreases were found for life satisfaction and linear increases for conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention problems over the course of the study. Mental health patterns were largely comparable for adolescents from families with varying socioeconomic status. ispartof: STRESS AND HEALTH vol:39 issue:1 pages:169-181 ispartof: location:England status: published

Purpose A social gradient in adolescent mental health exists: adolescents with higher socioeconomic status (SES) have fewer mental health problems than their peers with lower SES. Little is known about whether adolescents’ societal beliefs play a role in this social gradient. Belief in a just world (BJW) may be a mediator or moderator of the social gradient in adolescent mental health. Methods Using data from 848 adolescents (Mage = 17) in the Netherlands, path analyses examined whether two indicators of BJW (general and personal) mediated or moderated the associations between two indicators of SES (family affluence and perceived family wealth), and four indicators of adolescent mental health problems (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems). Results Adolescents with lower family affluence and lower perceived family wealth reported more emotional symptoms, and the association between perceived family wealth and emotional symptoms was mediated by lower personal and general BJW. Furthermore, higher personal BJW amplified the negative association between SES and peer problems. Conclusion This study suggests BJW may both mediate and amplify the social gradient in adolescent mental health. Adolescents’ beliefs about society may be important to include in research aimed at understanding this social gradient.

Many adolescents worldwide (indirectly) grow up with a chronic disease, which may impact their functioning and wellbeing. The objective of this study is to assess whether adolescents with a (family member with a) chronic disease differ from their healthy counterparts in terms of psychosocial functioning. Data from the Dutch 2013 HBSC-survey were used, including 7168 adolescents (Meanage = 13.7, SD = 1.57, 50.5% female). Participants indicated whether they or one of their family members had a long-term (> 3 months) disease or disability (mental/physical) and were categorized into four groups based on disease presence (none, other, self, both). Psychosocial functioning was assessed in terms of life satisfaction, self-rated health, psychosomatic health, mental health problems, support, substance use, physical exercise, screen time, and school liking. Chronically diseased adolescents (n = 162) reported lower life satisfaction, self-rated and psychosomatic health, more mental health problems, lower peer support, more substance use, and less physical exercise compared to healthy peers. Chronically diseased adolescents who also had a family member with a chronic disease (n = 74) showed comparable outcomes on these life domains, although they did not differ from their healthy peers regarding peer support, substance use, and physical activity. Healthy adolescents with a chronically diseased family member (n = 737) reported significantly lower life satisfaction, self-rated and psychosomatic health, more mental health problems, and less family support compared to healthy peers who grew up in healthy families; however, they reported more positive outcomes than adolescents who had a chronic disease themselves.Conclusion: Having a (family member with a) chronic disease is associated with impaired psychosocial functioning on various life domains. Our findings aid in understanding the psychosocial associates of chronic disease and imply that caregivers should be observant of psychosocial problems among vulnerable adolescents to provide appropriate guidance. What is Known:• Adolescents who grow up with a (family member with a) chronic disease encounter numerous challenges that may be related to poorer developmental outcomes on the long term. What is New:• This study adds a comprehensive overview of the psychosocial functioning of adolescents with a (family member with a) chronic disease, as compared to healthy counterparts that grow up in a healthy family.

Although previous research established a positive association between perceived social support and adolescent life satisfaction, little is known about the relative importance of different sources of support for adolescent life satisfaction and cross-country variations in this respect. Using large-scale representative samples from the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, this study examined to what extent the association between social support and life satisfaction in early adolescence varied across different social sources and countries. Also, it examined whether cross-country variations are explained by national-level generalized trust, a sociocultural factor that shapes adolescent socialization. National-level data were linked to data from 183,918 early adolescents (Mage = 13.56, SD = 1.63, 52% girls) from 42 European and North American countries/regions obtained from HBSC. Multilevel regression analyses yielded a positive association between support from different sources and life satisfaction. The strongest associations were found for support from families, followed by teachers and classmates, and weakest for support from friends. Associations varied across different countries/regions. National-level trust amplified the association between perceived classmate support and adolescent life satisfaction. The revealed cross-country differences open avenues for future cross-cultural research on explanations for cross-cultural differences in the association between social support from different sources and life satisfaction in early adolescence.

The social gradient in adolescent mental health is well established: adolescents’ socioeconomic status is negatively associated with their mental health. However, despite changes in social cognition during adolescence, little is known about whether social cognitions mediate this gradient. Therefore, this study tested this proposed mediational path using three data waves, each 6 months apart, from a socioeconomically diverse sample of 1,429 adolescents (Mage = 17.9) in the Netherlands. Longitudinal modeling examined whether three social cognitions (self-esteem, sense of control, and optimism) mediated associations between perceived family wealth and four indicators of adolescent mental health problems (emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems). There was evidence of a social gradient: adolescents with lower perceived family wealth reported more concurrent emotional symptoms and peer problems and an increase in peer problems 6 months later. Results also showed evidence of mediation through social cognitions, specifically sense of control: adolescents with lower perceived family wealth reported a decrease in sense of control (though not self-esteem nor optimism) 6 months later, and lower sense of control predicted increases in emotional symptoms and hyperactivity 6 months later. We found concurrent positive associations between perceived family wealth and all three social cognitions, and concurrent negative associations between social cognitions and mental health problems. The findings indicate that social cognitions, especially sense of control, may be an overlooked mediator of the social gradient in adolescent mental health.

There is little evidence on the association between child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) policies and adolescent mental health. This study examined this association using data on indicators of adolescent mental health—aggressive behavior, life satisfaction, and psychosomatic symptoms—in 172,829 eleven- to fifteen-year-olds from 30 European countries in the 2013-2014 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study. Individual records were linked to national-level policies for CAMH, controlling for national-level adult violence, adult well-being, and income inequality. Multilevel analyses revealed lower adolescent aggressive behavior in countries with more CAMH policies, even after controlling for other national-level indicators. Adolescent life satisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms were not associated with CAMH policies. Results may inform policy recommendations regarding investments in adolescent mental health.

This study examined socioeconomic disparities in changes in late adolescents’ mental health between fall 2019, spring 2020, and fall 2020. Using data from 1,429 adolescents (Mage = 17.9) from tertiary vocational schools in the Netherlands, linear and latent basis growth curve models were assessed and multigroup analyses conducted. Results showed a small but significant decrease in life satisfaction and small but significant increases in emotional problems, peer relationship problems, conduct problems, and hyperactivity-inattention problems. For emotional problems and peer relationship problems, changes between fall 2019 and spring 2020 were more pronounced than changes between spring 2020 and fall 2020. For the other outcomes, decreases were linear. Mental health trajectories were largely comparable for adolescents from families with varying socioeconomic status.

Using four waves of longitudinal data collected in 2015–2019 from 1419 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 12.5, 45.9% female, 21.9% immigrant), this study identified trajectories of problematic social media use (SMU) in parallel with trajectories of SMU frequency. Latent class growth analysis identified two subgroups with relatively high levels of problematic SMU over time: One showed high (24.7%) and one showed average SMU frequency (15.8%). Also, two subgroups with persistently low levels of problematic SMU were identified: One reported low (22.4%) and one reported high SMU frequency (37.1%). Although both subgroups with high levels of problematic SMU reported low subjective well-being, the group with high SMU frequency showed low self-control, whereas the group with average SMU frequency reported poor social competencies.

Large-scale validation research on instruments measuring problematic social media use (SMU) is scarce. Using a nationally representative sample of 6,626 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 16, the present study examined the psychometric properties of the nine-item Social Media Disorder-scale. The structural validity was solid, because one underlying factor was identified, with adequate factor loadings. The internal consistency was good, but the test information was most reliable at moderate to high scores on the scale’s continuum. The factor structure was measurement invariant across different subpopulations. Three subgroups were identified, distinguished by low, medium, and high probabilities of endorsing the criteria. Higher levels of problematic SMU were associated with higher probabilities of mental, school, and sleep problems, confirming adequate criterion validity. Girls, lower educated adolescents, 15-year-olds, and non-Western adolescents were most likely to report problematic SMU. Given its good psychometric properties, the scale is suitable for research on problematic SMU among adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Given the role of childhood aggressive behavior (AGG) in everyday child development, precise and accurate measurement is critical in clinical practice and research. This study aims to quantify agreement among widely used measures of childhood AGG regarding item content, clinical concordance, correlation, and underlying genetic construct.METHODS: We analyzed data from 1254 Dutch twin pairs (age 8-10 years, 51.1% boys) from a general population sample for whom both parents completed the A-TAC, CBCL, and SDQ at the same occasion.RESULTS: There was substantial variation in item content among AGG measures, ranging from .00 (i.e., mutually exclusive) to .50 (moderate agreement). Clinical concordance (i.e., do the same children score above a clinical threshold among AGG measures) was very weak to moderate with estimates ranging between .01 and .43 for mother-reports and between .12 and .42 for father-reports. Correlations among scales were weak to strong, ranging from .32 to .70 for mother-reports and from .32 to .64 for father-reports. We found weak to very strong genetic correlations among the measures, with estimates between .65 and .84 for mother-reports and between .30 and .87 for father-reports.CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that degree of agreement between measures of AGG depends on the type (i.e., item content, clinical concordance, correlation, genetic correlation) of agreement considered. Because agreement was higher for correlations compared to clinical concordance (i.e., above or below a clinical cutoff), we propose the use of continuous scores to assess AGG, especially for combining data with different measures. Although item content can be different and agreement among observed measures may not be high, the genetic correlations indicate that the underlying genetic liability for childhood AGG is consistent across measures.

Background: Although accumulating studies indicate that alcohol-specific self-control can be useful in predicting adolescent alcohol use, little is known about its specificity. This longitudinal study aimed to advance our understanding of domain-specific self-control by examining whether alcohol-specific self-control mediates the effect of general self-control on adolescent alcohol use or has generalizing effects by also mediating the effect of general self-control on other behavior requiring self-control (adolescent digital media use and smoking).Methods: Data from 906 adolescents aged 11-14 years who were enrolled in the Dutch study Prevention of Alcohol Use in Students were used. Data were collected using online questionnaires at four annual measurements. Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that higher alcohol-specific self-control fully mediated the effect of higher general self-control on alcohol use. Alcohol-specific self-control did not mediate the effect of higher general self-control on digital media use, but did partially mediate the effect of higher general self-control on smoking. Conclusions: These results suggest that alcohol-specific self-control is domain-specific, but not necessarily substance-specific. The domain-specificity of alcohol-specific self-control provides evidence for its theoretical relevance for the explanation of adolescent alcohol use. It also suggests leverage points for intervention programs focusing on improving alcohol-specific self-control to reduce adolescent alcohol use. Trial registration. The trial protocol (NTR649) was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee.

Decisions regarding out-of-home placement of children are complicated and of high impact for children and parents. Previous studies show low agreement between professionals on these decisions, and research regarding the influence of characteristics of decision-makers on the content of the decisions taken remains inconclusive. This study explored the relation between general and psychological characteristics of 144 professionals (child welfare professionals, children’s court judges, and master students) using vignettes and questionnaires. Professionals’ mind-set regarding the ability of parents to achieve change (parent-specific mind-set) and their attitude toward the harmfulness of out-of-home placements were related to their decision-making. General decision-maker factors (the professional’s background and work experience), the mind-set toward the ability of people in general to change (dispositional mind-set), and professionals’ attitude toward the effectiveness of out-of-home placements were not related to their decisions. This field of practice needs to reflect on the role of implicit beliefs in making placement decisions about children.

Objective Family conflict is associated with low self-control in adolescence. Thus far research about the direction of this association is inconclusive. In this study, we sort out whether this association reflects a causal effect or whether it is explained by a common underlying cause, including genetic factors. Method In twin data, we fitted a series of causal models, and compared models for the association of family conflict and self-control including reciprocal causation, unidirectional causation from family conflict to low self-control, unidirectional causation from low self-control to family conflict, and common genetic susceptibility. We included data from a large sample of twins aged 14 years (N = 9,173), all enrolled in the Netherlands Twin Register. Results The results suggested a unidirectional pathway model in which family conflict leads to low self-control in adolescence, with genetic factors also playing a role in explaining the association. Conclusion Adolescents experiencing family conflict are at risk for showing hampered self-control capacities, with family conflict being a robust predictor of low self-control through common genetic factors but also through direct causal influences.

Mother–child dialogues about children’s emotional experiences are associated with children’s adaptive coping with stressful situations and mental health. Despite these findings, dialogues have not been examined yet in the context of child sexual abuse. This gap is surprising given that mother–child dialogues may particularly promote children’s recovery from traumatic events. The current exploratory study examined the quality of mother–child emotion dialogues, as well as the quality of child and maternal contributions to dialogues, among dyads with sexually abused children ( n = 30; 60% female; M age = 8.03), as compared with dyads with nonabused children ( n = 30; 60% female; M age = 8.20). Quality of dialogues was assessed using the Autobiographical Emotional Events Dialogue. Mothers reported on their own childhood maltreatment history and psychopathological symptoms. Results showed that dyads with abused children were more likely to engage in overwhelming/excessive dialogues and dialogues lacking content, as compared with dyads with nonabused children. After controlling for differences in background characteristics, mothers of abused children showed lower sensitive guidance. Although mothers of abused children had more experiences of childhood maltreatment and higher levels of psychopathology, they did not add to explain group differences in maternal sensitive guidance. Our findings suggest that the ability to discuss emotional experiences may be impaired among mother–child dyads with sexually abused children. This may be an important target in the treatment of sexually abused children and their families.

Cell phones are useful tools with both practical and social benefits. However, using them in the context of face-to-face conversations may be problematic. We consider this behavior a form of ostracism and test its effects on the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. In Study 1 participants who recalled a time in which a friend was checking a cell phone during a serious conversation reported feeling more ostracized (ignored and excluded), greater pain, and threat to basic needs than participants recalling a conversation without a cell phone interruption or a control event. Study 2 replicated and extended this effect: Cell phone-induced ostracism's effects were partially mediated by decreased feelings of relational evaluation, and threatened basic needs both in serious and casual conversation contexts. Findings from both studies also indicated that cell phone-induced ostracism hurts women more so than men.

This research investigated the associations between both within-person variations and between-person differences in self-control and wellbeing. We examined these associations across two diverse samples using longitudinal survey data from 69 American undergraduate students who completed biweekly assessments across 39 weeks in Study 1, and 199 Dutch newlywed couples who completed five yearly assessments in Study 2. Our results showed that both between-person differences and within-person variations in self-control were related to wellbeing. Our research also showed that between-person differences have a stronger association than within-person variations with wellbeing.

The influence of positive relationship processes, specifically perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust, on perceived adaptation to parenthood was investigated. It was hypothesized that both higher initial levels prior to pregnancy as well as increases over time in perceived responsiveness, felt gratitude, and felt trust predicted better adaptation to parenthood. Data from a five-wave longitudinal study of 109 newlyweds who became parents during the course of the study were used. Results showed that baseline positive relationship processes before pregnancy positively predicted adaptation to parenthood up to 4 years later. Changes over time were even stronger predictors of adaptation. Positive relationship processes may buffer against stressors during challenging life transitions, improving one's own adaptation as well the adaptation of one's partner.

Self-control plays a significant role in child and adolescent development. The school environment is suggested as an important factor associated with individual differences in self-control. Among the many facets of school environment, school discipline is thought of as a critical factor that distinguishes students with good self-control from those with poor self-control. However, the existing findings are mixed. To take stock of the literature, this meta-analysis summarizes the overall association between three components of school discipline (i.e., structure, support, and teacher-student relationship) and self-control in students from preschool to high school. Based on 65 studies reporting 247 effect sizes (N = 55,940), the results show that school discipline is positively related to self-control (r = .189, p < .001, 95% CI = [.148, .229]). No significant publication bias was found. Moderator analyses showed that effect sizes are similar in magnitude across students’ sex, age, and ethnicity, school level, discipline level, culture (individualism and power distance), informant of school discipline and self-control, research design, and time lag. The effect size was stronger for the teacher-student relationship component and for studies using the same informant to assess the two constructs. These findings point to the importance of school discipline, particularly a good teacher-student relationship, associated with individual differences in self-control in students from preschool to middle school.

How efficiently one can take the perspective of another might be influenced by individualism (I) and collectivism (C), characterized by whether the self is construed as independent or interdependent. Collectivism can be associated with more accurate and faster inference of others’ mental states because of heightened attention to others’ perspective (the attentional hypothesis). However, construing the self as a separate entity from others, as in individualistic self-construal, could lead to better distinction between one’s and another’s mental states because egocentric bias (the tendency to conflate what oneself sees with what another sees) is better mitigated (the representational hypothesis). We measured IC on an individual level (Individual IC), primed participants (N = 142) with either I or C (Situational IC) and assessed their perspective-taking performance with the Director task. Participants primed with collectivism were significantly faster than the control group but not faster than those primed with individualism. On the individual level, being predominantly collectivistic did not lead to faster perspective taking, but was associated with slower non-perspective-taking performance. These findings provide more support for the attentional hypothesis than the representational hypothesis and improve our understanding of how the representation of the self can contribution to the representation of others’ mind.

Collectivistic orientation, which entails interdependent self-construal and concern for interpersonal harmony and social adjustment, has been suggested to be associated with detecting emotional expressions that signal social threat than individualistic orientation, which entails independent self-construal. The present research tested if this detection is a result of enhanced perceptual sensitivity or of response bias. We used country as proxy of individualism and collectivism (Country IC), measured IC of individuals with a questionnaire (Individual IC) and manipulated IC with culture priming (Situational IC). Dutch participants in the Netherlands (n = 143) and Chinese participants in China (n = 151) performed a social threat detection task where they had to categorize ambiguous facial expressions as “angry” or “not angry”. As the stimuli varied in degrees of scowling and frequency of presentation, we were able to measure the participants' perceptual sensitivity and response bias following the principles of the Signal Detection Theory. On the Country IC level, the results indicated that individualism-representative Dutch participants had higher perceptual sensitivity than collectivism-representative Chinese participants; whereas, Chinese participants were more biased towards categorizing a scowling face as “angry” than the Dutch (i.e. stronger liberal bias). In both groups, collectivism on the Individual IC was associated with a bias towards recognizing a scowling face as “not angry” (i.e. stronger conservative bias). Culture priming (Situational IC) affected neither perceptual sensitivity nor response bias. Our data suggested that cultural differences were in the form of behavioral tendency and IC entails multiple constructs linked to different outcomes in social threat detection.

Background: Ill decisions and reckless behaviors due to low self-control are concurrently and longitudinally costly, and revealing possible factors contributing to individual differences in self-control is necessary. It is hypothesized that genetically sensitivity interacts with life stressors in the prediction of the development of low self-control (gene environment interaction), yet attempts to test this hypothesis mostly concern candidate gene studies yielding inconclusive results. The goal of this research was to bring findings from large scale gene identification studies into the developmental psychology framework, taking the polygenic nature of complex traits into account. Methods: Using data of a large population-based twin sample, we tested whether polygenic risk scores for self-control problems – based on the most recent ADHD GWAS – predict self-control problems in adults, and whether this polygenic risk scores interact with the presence of environmental stressors. Results: While polygenic scores and life stressors significantly predicted low self-control, we did not find a significant interaction effect. Conclusions: Empirically, finding statistical evidence for this hypothesis remains a challenge, and more research is needed to investigate how to better detect G x E.

Objective: Family connectedness is key for the development of self-control in early and middle childhood. But is family connectedness still important during the transitional phase of adolescence, when adolescents demand more independence from their parents and rely more on their peers? The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between family connectedness and self-control, and whether it still holds in adolescence using a genetically sensitive design. Method: Data were used from a large sample of twins aged 14 (N=11,260) and aged 16 (N=8,175), all enrolled in the Netherlands Twin Register. We applied bivariate twin models and monozygotic twin difference models to investigate the association between family connectedness and self-control and to unravel to what extent genetic and environmental factors explain this association. Results: The results showed that more family connectedness is significantly related to better self-control in adolescence, albeit with a small effect size. Twin analyses revealed that this association was mainly explained by common genetic factors and that the effects of environmental factors were small.Conclusions: The current findings confirm the role of family connectedness in adolescent self-control. Importantly however, the results demonstrate that phenomena we see within families seem the product of parent and children sharing the same genes rather than being exclusively attributable to environmental processes.

Self-control is the ability to control one's impulses when faced with challenges or temptations, and is robustly associated with physiological and psychological well-being. Twin studies show that self-control is heritable, but estimates range between 0% and 90%, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions. The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to provide a quantitative overview of the heritability of self-control. A systematic search resulted in 31 included studies, 17 reporting on individual samples, based on a sample size of >30,000 twins, published between 1997 and 2018. Our results revealed an overall monozygotic twin correlation of 0.58, and an overall dizygotic twin correlation of 0.28, resulting in a heritability estimate of 60%. The heritability of self-control did not vary across gender or age. The heritability did differ across informants, with stronger heritability estimates based on parent report versus self-report or observations. This finding provides evidence that when aiming to understand individual differences in self-control, one should take genetic factors into account. Recommendations for future research are discussed.

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of rare inherited bullous skin disorders that differ in nature and severity. Currently, there is no cure for the disease. One of the complex problems of EB is the repetitive and painful care of skin wounds. The purpose of this study was to explore how adult patients and parents experienced the impact of wound care during childhood and which coping strategies they considered as helping. A qualitative study was performed, comprising semi-structured in-depth interviews with 7 adult patients and 6 parents. The impact, physically, psychologically and on daily life, was apparent for patients and parents. Helpful coping strategies were transferring care, regulating emotions, and dyadic strategies, such as supporting each other by distraction, encouragement, using rituals and collaboration. The most important finding of this study is the need for a more thorough investigation into the effectiveness of dyadic coping strategies.

We examined the association between normative beliefs about aggression toward police (NBAGG→P) and participation in social protests during 2019–2020 and use of aggression among 1,025 Hong Kong university students. We also investigated the role of ecological risks (i.e., distrust in institutions, exposure to community violence, poor family monitoring, poor university discipline and affiliation with delinquent peers) and future orientation in NBAGG→P. The results showed that NBAGG→P was related to more participation in social protests and use of aggression. Ecological risks (except for poor family monitoring) and a positive future orientation were related to more and less NBAGG→P, respectively. Moreover, the “distrust in institutions and NBAGG→P” link was stronger for students with more, rather than less, positive future orientation.

Nonoffending mothers of sexually abused children often exhibit high levels of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms. Emerging evidence suggests that trait-like individual differences in sensitivity to disgust play a role in the development of PTS symptoms. One such individual difference, disgust sensitivity, has not been examined as far as we are aware among victims of secondary traumatic stress. The current study examined associations between disgust sensitivity and PTS symptoms among mothers of sexually abused children (N = 72). Mothers completed the Impact of Event Scale-Revised and the Three Domain Disgust Scale (Tybur, Lieberman, & Griskevicius, 2009). More than one third of mothers scored above a suggested cutoff (mean score = 1.5) for high levels of PTS symptoms. Hierarchical linear regression analysis results indicated that sexual disgust sensitivity (β = .39, p = .002) was associated with PTS symptoms (R(2) = .18). An interaction analysis showed that sexual disgust sensitivity was associated with maternal PTS symptoms only when the perpetrator was not biologically related to the child (β = -.32, p = .047; R(2) = .28). Our findings suggested that sexual disgust sensitivity may be a risk factor for developing PTS symptoms among mothers of sexually abused children.