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Purpose This study explored the degree to which pregnant women in Korea made informed choices regarding noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and investigated factors influencing whether they made informed choices. Methods In total, 129 pregnant women in Korea participated in a web-based survey. Multidimensional measures of informed choice regarding NIPT and decisional conflict were used to measure participants’ levels of knowledge, attitudes, deliberation, uptake, and decisional conflict related to NIPT. Additional questions were asked about participants’ NIPT experiences and opinions. Results All 129 pregnant women were recruited from an online community. Excluding those who expressed neutral attitudes toward NIPT, according to the definition of informed choice used in this study, only 91 made an informed choice (n=63, 69.2%) or an uninformed choice (n=28, 30.8%). Of the latter, 75.0% had insufficient knowledge, 39.3% made a value-inconsistent decision, and 14.3% did not deliberate sufficiently. No difference in decisional conflict was found between the two groups. A significant difference was found between the two groups in the reasons why NIPT was introduced or recommended (p=.021). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that pregnant women who were knowledgeable (odds ratio [OR], 4.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.17–10.47) and deliberated (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.57–0.98) were significantly more likely to make an informed choice. Conclusion The results of this study help healthcare providers, including nurses in maternity units, understand pregnant women’s experiences of NIPT. Counseling strategies are needed to improve pregnant women’s knowledge of NIPT and create an environment that promotes deliberation regarding this decision.

Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying metacontrol and conflict regulation is crucial for insights into cognitive flexibility and persistence. This study employed electroencephalography (EEG), EEG-beamforming and directed connectivity analyses to explore how varying metacontrol states influence conflict regulation at a neurophysiological level. Metacontrol states were manipulated by altering the frequency of congruent and incongruent trials across experimental blocks in a modified flanker task, and both behavioral and electrophysiological measures were analyzed. Behavioral data confirmed the experimental manipulation's efficacy, showing an increase in persistence bias and a reduction in flexibility bias during increased conflict regulation. Electrophysiologically, theta band activity paralleled the behavioral data, suggesting that theta oscillations reflect the mismatch between expected metacontrol bias and actual task demands. Alpha and beta band dynamics differed across experimental blocks, though these changes did not directly mirror behavioral effects. Post-response alpha and beta activity were more pronounced in persistence-biased states, indicating a neural reset mechanism preparing for future cognitive demands. By using a novel artificial neural networks method, directed connectivity analyses revealed enhanced inter-regional communication during persistence states, suggesting stronger top-down control and sensorimotor integration. Overall, theta band activity was closely tied to metacontrol processes, while alpha and beta bands played a role in resetting the neural system for upcoming tasks. These findings provide a deeper understanding of the neural substrates involved in metacontrol and conflict monitoring, emphasizing the distinct roles of different frequency bands in these cognitive processes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no conflicts of interest, (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Conflicts arising from human-wildlife interactions (HWIs) pose a significant challenge in communities neighboring Nyerere National Park. To achieve long-term conservation success, it is critical to understand and resolve complex social conflicts. Currently, most attention is focused on addressing dispute-related conflicts, whereas underlying, and identity-based conflicts are understudied, resulting in inadequate information in literature regarding underlying and identity-based conflicts that drive social conflicts. Through the use of the Conservation Conflict Transformation Model (CCT), this study aimed to identify existing conflicts across three levels of conflict and assess current intervention strategies employed within the study area. Based on data collected from 324 respondents through questionnaire surveys, the study revealed that the dispute level of conflicts was lower than the underlying and identity-based levels of conflicts, emphasizing the limited scope of addressing conflicts solely at the dispute level within the context of conflicts arising from HWIs. To alleviate conflicts at the dispute level, respondents employed both lethal and non-lethal control techniques, with a preference for non-lethal methods. Additionally, socio-demographic factors including age, gender, household size, respondent's attitude towards wildlife, and residence significantly influenced the implementation of intervention strategies (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the findings revealed that respondents faced several challenges, including a lengthy incident reporting process for conflicts arising from HWIs, lack of consolation payment for damages, exclusionary practices, and lack of transparency in seeking assistance from local, wildlife, and government authorities. Overall, the study recommends adopting and implementing a holistic approach aligned with the CCT model to effectively address conflicts under HWIs. Future research should focus on thorough case studies and actual applications of the CCT model to manage conflicts under HWIs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Adapting our behavior to environmental demands relies on our capacity to perceive and manage potential conflicts within our surroundings. While evidence implicates the involvement of the lateral prefrontal cortex and theta oscillations in detecting conflict stimuli, their causal role in conflict expectation remains elusive. Consequently, the exact computations and neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive processes still need to be determined. We employed an integrative approach involving cognitive computational modeling, fMRI, TMS, and EEG to establish a causal link between oscillatory brain function, its neurocomputational role, and the resulting conflict processing and adaptation behavior. Our results reveal a computational process underlying conflict expectation, which correlates with BOLD-fMRI and theta activity in the superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Modulation of theta activity via rhythmic TMS applied over the SFG induces endogenous theta activity, which in turn enhances computations associated with conflict expectation. These findings provide evidence for the causal involvement of SFG theta activity in learning and allocating cognitive resources to address forthcoming conflict stimuli., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The study aims to explore whether work-life balance mediates the impact of work-family conflict and its dimensions on psychological well-being. Using a survey method, data were collected from a sample of 258 working women in Hebei province in China. The analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS and the PROCESS macro in order to test the mediation model. The findings show that work-family conflict has an indirect effect on psychological well-being through work-life balance. In the case of work-to-family conflict, a suppression effect is detected in which the mediator shows an underlying relationship between the work-to-family conflict and psychological well-being. On the other hand, family-to-work conflict is fully moderated by work-life balance. Based on these results, it can be concluded that enhancing the quality of work-life balance may help to reduce the negative impact of work-family conflict on psychological health. The findings of this study can be beneficial to organizations and policy makers to formulate policies that would enhance the mental health and work productivity of women professionals in China., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: This study investigated conflict adaptation in aphasia, specifically whether upregulating cognitive control improves sentence comprehension., Method: Four individuals with mild aphasia completed four eye tracking sessions with interleaved auditory Stroop and sentence-to-picture matching trials (critical and filler sentences). Auditory Stroop congruency (congruent/incongruent across a male/female voice saying "boy"/"girl") was crossed with sentence congruency (syntactically correct sentences that are semantically plausible/implausible), resulting in four experimental conditions (congruent auditory Stroop followed by incongruent sentence [CI], incongruent auditory Stroop followed by incongruent sentence [II], congruent auditory Stroop followed by congruent sentence [CC], and incongruent auditory Stroop followed by congruent sentence [IC]). Critical sentences were always preceded by auditory Stroop trials. At the end of each session, a five-item questionnaire was administered to assess overall well-being and fatigue. We conducted individual-level mixed-effects regressions on reaction times and growth curve analyses on the proportion of eye fixations to target pictures during incongruent sentences., Results: One participant showed conflict adaptation indicated by faster reaction times on active sentences and more rapid growth in fixations to target pictures on passive sentences in the II condition compared to the CI condition. Incongruent auditory Stroop also modulated active-sentence processing in an additional participant, as indicated by eye movements., Conclusions: This is the first study to observe conflict adaptation in sentence comprehension in people with aphasia. The extent of adaptation varied across individuals. Eye tracking revealed subtler effects than overt behavioral measures. The results extend the study of conflict adaptation beyond neurotypical adults and suggest that upregulating cognitive control may be a potential treatment avenue for some individuals with aphasia., Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27056149.

Purpose: The current study revisits our previous research, delving deeper into microaggressions (MAs) and interpersonal conflict (IC) in speech, language, and hearing sciences (SLHS) training programs. Participants came from both marginalized and nonmarginalized backgrounds., Method: A 39-item electronic survey based on our previous research was distributed online to 236 participants of current and former SLHS students through social media and e-mail listservs., Results: Students that identified as belonging to marginalized and nonmarginalized groups reported high levels of MAs and IC, respectively. Linear regression revealed that the more marginalized identities a participant reported, the more aggression they experienced. Analyses also suggest that specific cultural and linguistic identities more likely predicted experiencing specific types of MAs than others. MAs and IC were largely underreported., Conclusions: This study highlights the quantifiable prevalence of MAs and IC in SLHS training programs. It underscores the urgent need for targeted interventions to address systemic inequities. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of fostering an inclusive and equitable environment in SLHS, promoting cultural competence, and social justice in the professions., Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27105613.

This study assesses whether the frequency of violent video game play is associated with attentional desensitization or sensitization to images depicting violence or nonviolent interpersonal conflict. Two hundred and thirty-two participants reported their three most frequently played video games and the amount of time each game was played in a typical week. Next, they completed an assessment of emotion-induced blindness, which refers to a reduction in the correct identification of a neutral target image when it follows an emotionally charged distractor image. The primary findings showed that weekly violent video game play was negatively associated with target identification following nonviolent interpersonal conflict images, but not violent images. Findings are discussed in terms of the saliency of threatening images and attentional processing., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Surrogates of incapacitated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) face decisions related to life-sustaining treatments. Decisional conflict is understudied., Objectives: To compare experiences of ICU surrogates by reported level of decisional conflict related to treatment decisions after a patient's cardiac arrest preceding death., Methods: Convergent mixed methods were used. Bereaved surrogates recruited from a single northeastern US academic medical center completed surveys including the low-literacy Decisional Conflict Scale (moderate-to-high cut point >25) and individual interviews about 1 month after the patient's death. Interview data were analyzed by directed and conventional content analysis. Surrogates were stratified by median total survey score, and interview findings were compared by decisional conflict level., Results: Of 16 surrogates, 7 reported some decisional conflict (median survey score, 0; range, 0-25). About two-thirds decided to withdraw treatments. Three themes emerged from interviews: 2 reflecting decision-making experiences ("the ultimate act"; "the legacy of clinician communication") and 1 reflecting bereavement experiences ("I wish there was a handbook"). Surrogates reporting decisional conflict included those who first pursued but later withdrew treatments after a patient's in-hospital cardiac arrest. Surrogates with decisional conflict described suboptimal support, poor medical understanding, and lack of clarity about patients' treatment preferences., Conclusions: These findings provide insight into bereaved ICU surrogates' experiences. The low overall survey scores may reflect retrospective measurement. Surrogates who pursued treatment were underrepresented. Novel approaches to support bereaved surrogates are warranted., (©2024 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.)

Importance: Patients with pelvic organ prolapse are often tasked with deciding between treatments. Decisional conflict is a measure of factors that go into effective decision making., Objective: This study aimed to compare prolapse treatment-related decisional conflict reported by underrepresented patients (URPs) to non-URPs after new patient visits., Study Design: A multicenter cohort study of new patients counseled regarding management of prolapse from July 2021 to December 2022 was performed. Participants completed the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), a validated measure of modifiable factors in decision making. Higher scores indicate feeling less comfortable with decisions. Race and ethnicity were viewed as social constructs. A URP was defined as self-identification with a non-White race or Hispanic ethnicity. Alpha was set at 0.05, power 80%, to detect an effect size of 0.4 between mean DCS scores., Results: A total of 207 participants (103 URPs, 49.8%), with a mean age of 63.4 ± 11.9 years and mean body mass index of 29.7 ± 6.9 (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), completed the study. Much of the URP group self-identified as Hispanic (50/103, 48.5%) and/or Black (39/103, 37.9%), and 30 of 103 (29.1%) had an interpreter at their visit. A greater proportion of non-URPs had a prior hysterectomy (16.1% difference; P = 0.017) and prolapse surgery (18/204, 10.5% difference; P = 0.020). A greater proportion of URPs had hypertension (23.6% difference; P = <0.001). There were no differences in the other pelvic floor disorders, prolapse stage, or treatments selected (all P > 0.05). The mean DCS scores were not different between groups (URP, 12.9 ± 12.3 vs non-URP, 11.6 ± 14.9; P = 0.31). Household income, education, and insurance were not associated with DCS scores (all P > 0.05)., Conclusions: Decisional Conflict Scale scores were not significantly different between groups. Possible differences between subgroups warrant further investigation., (Copyright © 2024 American Urogynecologic Society. All rights reserved.)

Efficient responses in dynamic environments rely on a combination of readiness and flexibility, regulated by anticipatory and online response control mechanisms. The latter are required when a motor response needs to be reprogrammed or when flanker stimuli induce response conflict and they are crucially modulated by anticipatory signals such as response and conflict expectations. The mutual influence and interplay of these control processes remain to be elucidated. Our behavioral study employed a novel combined response cueing/conflict task designed to test for interactive effects of response reprogramming and conflict resolution and their modulation by expectations. To this end, valid and invalid response cues were combined with congruent and incongruent target flankers. Expectations were modulated by systematically manipulating the proportions of valid versus invalid cues and congruent versus incongruent flanker stimuli in different task blocks. Reaction time and accuracy were assessed in thirty-one healthy volunteers. The results revealed response reprogramming and conflict resolution interactions for both behavioral measures, modulated by response and conflict expectations. Accuracy decreased disproportionally when invalidly cued targets with incongruent flankers were least expected. These findings support coordinated and partially overlapping anticipatory and online response control mechanisms within motor-cognitive networks., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Medical decisions about pediatric gastroenterology pathologies often involve collaboration between the medical team and the family. On occasions, conflict may arise between the individuals involved in decision making (team-family conflict) causing delays in managing a child's health condition. Little is known on the strategies that can be implemented to address such conflicts. Using the systematic review model by McCullough et al., an electronic literature search was conducted using PUBMED databases and SCOPUS. Studies published between 2001 and 2022 were analyzed to identify high-risk families, the barriers and facilitators involved in the team-family conflict and the circumstances in which healthcare professionals can be ethically justified to override parents' medical decisions and to trigger the state intervention. The present review provides recommendations on the more suitable ways to manage team-family conflict and gives a practical approach using a case vignette., (© 2024 European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.)

Purpose: Women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse are facing the choice between several treatment options and a potentially difficult decision. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of decisional conflict, patient characteristics and other decision-related factors on treatment decision in women with pelvic organ prolapse., Methods: Data from the SHADE-POP trial were used. Women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse who visited their gynaecologist for (new) treatment options were included. In all participants, demographical characteristics and validated questionnaires concerning decisional conflict (DCS), shared decision making (SDM-Q-9), information provision (SCIP-B), anxiety and depression (HADS) and satisfaction with care (PSQ-18) were collected 2 weeks after the visit. Analyses were performed using univariate and multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses., Results: Ninety six women with pelvic organ prolapse facing a treatment decision were included. An increase in decisional conflict as experienced by patients was related to the choice of more conservative treatment, such as pelvic floor muscle training or pessary, instead of surgery (p = 0.02). Shared decision making, better information provision and satisfaction with care were related to lower levels of decisional conflict (p = 0.001)., Conclusion: Decisional conflict in women with pelvic organ prolapse favours conservative treatment instead of surgery. Gaining knowledge on the effect of decisional conflict, patient characteristics and other decision-related factors on treatment decision in pelvic organ prolapse will be a step towards a better-guided treatment decision and better patient-reported outcomes for this group of patients. NL 55737.028.15, 30-10-2016., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

We investigated psychopathy from the neurobiological perspective of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST). In contrast to previous semantically derived self-report scales, we operationalised RST systems neurally with evoked electroencephalography (EEG). Participants were from a community sample weighted towards externalising psychopathology. We compared the Carver & White Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioural Approach System (BAS) scales with EEG responses associated with RST's systems of goal conflict (aka 'behavioural inhibition'), repulsion/outcome conflict (aka 'fight/flight/freeze') and attraction (aka 'approach'). Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis yielded results generally consistent with past literature for associations between psychopathy and the self-report BIS/BAS scales. There were some differences from self-report associations with neural measures of RST. With EEG measures, (1) no meaningful associations were observed between any psychopathy scales and the attraction system; (2) affective-interpersonal traits of psychopathy were negatively associated with goal conflict; (3) disinhibition-behavioural traits of psychopathy were negatively associated with goal conflict but, unexpectedly, positively associated with outcome conflict. These results indicate frontal-temporal-limbic circuit dysfunction in psychopathy as specific domains were linked to neural deficits in goal conflict processing, but there was no evidence for deficits in attraction-related processes., (© 2024 The Authors Personality and Mental Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Intergenerational conflict appears frequently in American public discourse, often framed as clashes between Millennials and Baby Boomers. Building on intergroup threat theory in an exploratory survey, a preregistered correlational study, and a preregistered intervention ( N = 1,714), we find that (a) Millennials and Baby Boomers do express more animosity toward each other than toward other generations (Studies 1-3); (b) their animosity reflects asymmetric generational concerns: Baby Boomers primarily fear that Millennials threaten traditional American values (symbolic threat) while Millennials primarily fear that Baby Boomers's delayed transmission of power hampers their life prospects (realistic threat; Studies 2-3); (c) finally, an intervention challenging the entitativity of generational categories alleviates perceived threats and hostility for both generations (Study 3). These findings inform research on intergroup threat, provide a theoretically grounded framework to understand intergenerational relations, and put forward a strategy to increase harmony in aging societies., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Throughout the day, humans show natural fluctuations in arousal that impact cognitive function. To study the behavioural dynamics of cognitive control during high and low arousal states, healthy participants performed an auditory conflict task during high-intensity physical exercise (N = 39) or drowsiness (N = 33). In line with the pre-registered hypotheses, conflict and conflict adaptation effects were preserved during both altered arousal states. Overall task performance was markedly poorer during low arousal, but not for high arousal. Modelling behavioural dynamics with drift diffusion analysis revealed evidence accumulation and non-decision time decelerated, and decisional boundaries became wider during low arousal, whereas high arousal was unexpectedly associated with a decrease in the interference of task-irrelevant information processing. These findings show how arousal differentially modulates cognitive control at both sides of normal alertness, and further validate drowsiness and physical exercise as key experimental models to disentangle the interaction between physiological fluctuations on cognitive dynamics., (© 2024 The British Psychological Society.)

Psychodynamic constructs and psychopathology are closely inter-related, but more detailed insight is needed. We investigated these complex inter-relations using network analysis. A Gaussian graphical model in a sample of N = 2232 psychotherapeutic inpatients was estimated. Self-administered questionnaires to assess interpersonal relations (Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-32), psychodynamic conflicts (Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis-Conflict Questionnaire), personality functioning (Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis-Structure Questionnaire-Short Form, Inventory of Personality Organization-Short Form), and psychopathology (Brief Symptom Inventory) were utilized. We investigated the network structure, identified the most inter-related psychodynamic constructs and the psychodynamic constructs with the strongest inter-relations to psychopathology, and explored the clustering of all included constructs. Active and passive conflict processing modes were negatively inter-related in most conflicts. Passive conflict processing modes were more strongly related to psychopathology than active ones in all conflicts, apart from the care versus autarky conflict. Identity diffusion shared the strongest inter-relations within psychodynamic constructs. The psychodynamic constructs that were most strongly related to psychopathology were impairments in self-perception and the passive self-worth conflict. Psychopathology and psychodynamic constructs formed distinct clusters. Our results emphasize the relevance of personality functioning within psychodynamic constructs and in relation to psychopathology., (© 2024 The Authors Personality and Mental Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Across four studies ( N = 1544), we examined the relationship between individuals' gender role mindsets, or beliefs about the malleability versus fixedness of traditional gender roles, and work-family conflict. We found that undergraduate women (but not men) business students holding a fixed, compared to growth, gender role mindset anticipated more work-family conflict. Next, we manipulated gender role mindset and demonstrated a causal link between women's growth mindsets (relative to fixed mindsets and control conditions) and reduced work-family conflict. We showed mechanistically that growth gender role mindsets unburden women from prescriptive gender roles, reducing work-family conflict. Finally, during COVID-19, we demonstrated a similar pattern among working women in high-achieving dual-career couples. We found an indirect effect of women's gender role mindset on job and relationship satisfaction, mediated through work-family conflict. Our preregistered studies suggest that holding the belief that gender roles can change mitigates women's work-family conflict., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Female BRCA1/2 pathogenic variant (PV) carriers face substantial risks for breast and ovarian cancer. Evidence-based decision aids (DAs) can facilitate these women in their decision-making process on an individually suitable preventive strategy. However, there is a gap in previous literature exploring whether DA effectiveness varies according to women's age. This is an exploratory subanalysis with a descriptive approach from a randomised controlled study assessing the effectiveness of a German decision aid (DA) for women with BRCA1/2 PVs compared to no DA use. From the original sample, women aged 18-40 years and >40 years and the intervention and control groups (IG, CG) within each of the age groups were compared regarding decisional conflict (using the Decisional Conflict Scale DCS) and knowledge at baseline and after DA use three and six months post study inclusion. The subanalysis involved 236 women aged 18-40 and 181 women aged >40 years. At baseline, both age groups differed significantly in all socio-demographic variables, except BRCA1/2 PV distributions. The younger age group displayed higher scores in the DCS subscale informed (p = .002) and higher knowledge (p = .010). Among the 18-40-year-olds, DA use (versus no DA) led to improvements in the DCS subscale informed at three (p = .025) and six months (p = .000). In the >40-year-olds, DA use (versus no DA) led to improvements in the DCS subscales informed (p = .028), values clarity (p = .028) and support (p = .030) and increased knowledge at three months (p = .048). These results indicate that both age groups benefited from DA use, but the older ones did so to a greater extent. This suggests that it might be useful to tailor DAs more closely to age- or life stage-related needs to enable more personalised care and support for women with BRCA1/2 PVs., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Kautz-Freimuth et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

This study explores the dynamics of intersection between workplace conflicts, job commitment, and socio-instrumental enterprise social media (ESM) utilization for improving innovation. This study proposes job commitment as a pivotal mediator that influences employees' attitudinal responses to the array of conflicts encountered in the workplace. Additionally, it introduce socio-instrumental ESM use as a potent moderator, influencing employees' appraisals of workplace conflicts. To illuminate the intricate tapestry of these interactions, we present a moderated mediation model that delineates the complex nomological network governing the interplay among workplace conflicts, job commitment, and the cultivation of innovative behaviors. Based on empirical data encompassing 447 employees, our findings illuminate the distinctive moderating roles played by these socio-instrumental ESM usage. These patterns differentially moderate the connections between workplace conflicts and job commitment, as well as the indirect connections between workplace conflicts and the stimulation of employee innovation through job commitment. This research significantly advances our theoretical understanding of the multifaceted interplay among workplace conflicts, job commitment, socio-instrumental ESM utilization, and employee innovation. Moreover, it offers implications that can faciliate organizational strategies aimed at fostering innovation. By recognizing the pivotal roles of job commitment and socio-instrumental ESM, organizations can strategically harness these factors to cultivate a culture of innovation, positioning themselves for success in an increasingly competitive and dynamic business environment., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

When defending against hostile enemies, individual group members can benefit from others staying in the group and fighting. However, individuals themselves may be better off by leaving the group and avoiding the personal risks associated with fighting. While fleeing is indeed commonly observed, when and why defenders fight or flee remains poorly understood and is addressed here with three incentivized and preregistered experiments (total n = 602). In stylized attacker-defender contest games in which defenders could stay and fight or leave, we show that the less costly leaving is, the more likely individuals are to abandon their group. In addition, more risk-averse individuals are more likely to leave. Conversely, individuals more likely stay and fight when they have pro-social preferences and when fellow group members cannot leave. However, those who stay not always contribute fully to group defense, to some degree free-riding on the efforts of other group members. Nonetheless, staying increased intergroup conflict and its associated costs., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objectives: To explore the influencing factors and relationships associated with decisional conflict of dialysis modality in End-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients., Methods: This study was a survey-based cross-sectional investigation conducted on 150 ESKD patients in a third-class hospital in Wuhan. The general information questionnaire, decisional conflict scale, Montreal cognitive assessment, frail scale, perceived social support scale, and brief health literacy screen were used for investigation. SPSS 25.0 was used to compare the differences between the decisional and non-decisional conflict groups, and AMOS 23.0 was used to construct a structural equation model to explore the influencing factors., Results: The incidence of decisional conflict in 150 ESKD patients was 33.3% (50/150). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the independent risk factors for decisional conflict of dialysis modality in ESKD patients included monthly household income (OR = 0.184), cognitive function (OR = 7.0), social support (OR = 0.891), health literacy (OR = 0.608), the level of eGFR (OR = 1.488), and the level of cTnI (OR = 9.558). The constructed path analysis model had a good fit (x2/df = 1.499, GFI = 0.957, AGFI = 0.911, NFI = 0.906, CFI = 0.967, RMSEA = 0.055). The path analysis showed that health literacy (0.577) had the greatest impact on the decisional conflict, with a direct effect of 0.480 and an indirect effect of 0.097 through cognitive function and monthly household income. Next was social support, with an effect value of 0.434., Conclusions: In clinical practice, it is important to enhance the health literacy of patients and their families and to provide advanced education on dialysis plans. Additionally, in managing and planning chronic kidney disease progression and dialysis, it is recommended to regularly and systematically assess cognitive function, particularly before the patient's cognitive impairment worsens or the severity of the disease progresses. Advanced care planning can be established through collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients to ensure appropriate decision-making and management., Implications for the Profession and Patient Care: This paper finds that the factors that influence and relate to dialysis methods in end-stage renal disease patients help nurses exercise autonomy better, assist patients in reducing their decisional conflict, and improve clinical outcomes., Patient or Public Contribution: Patients received a relevant questionnaire survey, and caregivers assisted in conducting the study., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Intraspecies aggression has profound ecological and evolutionary consequences, as recipients can suffer injuries, decreases in fitness, and become outcasts from social groups. Although animals implement diverse strategies to avoid hostile confrontations, the extent to which social influences affect escape tactics is unclear. Here, we used computational and machine-learning approaches to analyze complex behavioral interactions as mixed-sex groups of mice, Mus musculus, freely interacted. Mice displayed a rich repertoire of behaviors marked by changes in behavioral state, aggressive encounters, and mixed-sex interactions. A distinctive behavioral sequence consistently occurred after aggressive encounters, where males in submissive states quickly approached and transiently interacted with females immediately before the aggressor engaged with the same female. The behavioral sequences were also associated with substantially fewer physical altercations. Furthermore, the male's behavioral state could be predicted by distinct features of the behavioral sequence, such as kinematics and the latency to and duration of male-female interactions. More broadly, our work revealed an ethologically relevant escape strategy influenced by the presence of females that may serve as a mechanism for de-escalating social conflict and preventing consequential reductions in fitness., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Clein et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Suicidal ideation, a significant public health issue, necessitates further investigation of its correlates and precursors. Extensive research highlights the association between Work Family Conflicts (WFC) and psychological distress, including depression. However, research examining the correlation between high WFC experiences and suicidal ideation is sparse. This study explores the association between WFC and suicidal ideation within an occupation non-specific community sample., Methods: Community-based, representative data from the Australian-based Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life project formed the basis of this study. Participants eligible for the study (N = 1312) were employed either full-time or part-time and took part in an online questionnaire. Importantly, the data include robust measures of WFC, active suicidal ideation, and depression., Results: After adjusting for psychosocial job characteristics, history of suicidal ideation, and other socio-demographic factors, high WFC was associated with increased odds of active suicidal ideation (Model 4: OR: 1.58, CI: 1.04-2.40). Further, supplementary analyses indicated that depression is an important component of this relationship. Analyses exploring an interaction effect by gender showed that while a significant association between high WFC and suicidality was observed among men after adjustment for all covariates, this association was not evident for women., Limitations: A small number of participants reported suicidal ideation, potentially affecting the statistical power to detect significant effects. WFC was measured at one time-point, prohibiting the exploration of its causal and/or chronic impact on suicidal ideation., Conclusion: We find evidence that high WFC is linked to increased active suicidal ideation - specifically for men., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Perception of color as a task-relevant stimulus can affect cognition and behavior in the flanker task; however, it remains unclear whether it has the same impact when it is a task-irrelevant stimulus dimension. To this end, we applied four-letter flanker tasks with or without colored (red/blue) to 23 healthy young adults, while recording the event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral performance. The flanker task included four kinds of color types: non-color letter (NC), all color letter (AC), flanker color letter (FC), and target color letter (TC), each flanker task included congruent and incongruent conditions. The behavioral data demonstrated the classic conflict effect across all color types of flanker tasks in both reaction times (RTs) and accuracy, the significant interaction and main effect of color type factors were only observed in accuracy. The ERP results showed significant interaction between conflict factor (congruent, incongruent) and color type (NC, AC, FC, and TC), and the color type factor enhanced the fronto-central P2 (180-200 ms), descended the fronto-centro-parietal N2b (260-320 ms), and increased the fronto-central P3b (360-520 ms). The fronto-central P2 and the fronto-central P3b were larger for TC than NC, AC, and FC in the congruent condition, while the fronto-central P3b was smaller for NC than AC, FC, and TC in the incongruent condition. Furthermore, the fronto-centro-parietal N2b was decreased successively in NC, AC, FC, and TC in both congruent and incongruent conditions. Overall, our findings suggested that the task-irrelevant stimuli dimension of color can capture some attentional resources and is affected by the location of color (target/flanker) and the type of task trial (congruent/incongruent) in the flanker task., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine fluctuations in stress, social support, and decisional conflict among surrogates during the admission and discharge phases of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with cancer. Additionally, this study seeks to identify the factors that influence changes in decisional conflict experienced by these surrogates., Methods: This study involved surrogates of ICU patients with cancer. Data were collected within three days of ICU admission and during the discharge phase., Results: The study included 115 surrogates of ICU patients with cancer. Following ICU discharge, the surrogates experienced a significant reduction in mean stress levels (t =  - 7.205; p < .001), improved family support (t = 3.748; p < .001), and decreased support from healthcare professionals (t =  - 3.286; p = .001). Younger surrogates, high-stress levels in surrogates, and low social support from healthcare professionals were associated with high decisional conflict. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that surrogates' age, changes in stress, and changes in healthcare professionals' support explained 5%, 8%, and 16% of the variation in changes in decisional conflict, respectively., Conclusions: To effectively reduce decisional conflict, particularly during the transition of patients with cancer from the ICU, a robust support system and comprehensive information on the treatment and prognosis of diseases in patients with cancer should be provided to younger surrogates. Healthcare professionals can facilitate family meetings and ensure comprehensive communication of the treatment plan. Practical guidance, social work assistance, timely clarification, and thorough information healthcare professionals provide can effectively mitigate decisional conflicts and enhance decision-making processes., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The struggle women face in balancing work and family roles is a significant factor contributing to the decline in their fertility intentions. Therefore, work-family conflict serves as a crucial determinant influencing women's fertility intentions. This study aims to explore the internal mechanism between work-family conflict and the fertility intentions of Chinese women, using data obtained from 334 questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using Mplus 8.0. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There is a negative correlation between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions. (2) Fertility attitudes play a mediating role in the relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions. (3) The relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions is moderated by income class. (4) The relationship between work-family conflict and women's fertility intentions is moderated by women's child-rearing burden. The findings of this study provide a foundation for governments at all levels to formulate population policies., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

As evidence mounts that the cardiac-sympathetic nervous system reacts to challenging cognitive settings, we ask if these responses are epiphenomenal companions or if there is evidence suggesting a more intertwined role of this system with cognitive function. Healthy male and female human participants performed an approach-avoidance paradigm, trading off monetary reward for painful electric shock, while we recorded simultaneous electroencephalographic and cardiac-sympathetic signals. Participants were reward sensitive but also experienced approach-avoidance "conflict" when the subjective appeal of the reward was near equivalent to the revulsion of the cost. Drift-diffusion model parameters suggested that participants managed conflict in part by integrating larger volumes of evidence into choices (wider decision boundaries). Late alpha-band (neural) dynamics were consistent with widening decision boundaries serving to combat reward sensitivity and spread attention more fairly to all dimensions of available information. Independently, wider boundaries were also associated with cardiac "contractility" (an index of sympathetically mediated positive inotropy). We also saw evidence of conflict-specific "collaboration" between the neural and cardiac-sympathetic signals. In states of high conflict, the alignment (i.e., product) of alpha dynamics and contractility were associated with a further widening of the boundary, independent of either signal's singular association. Cross-trial coherence analyses provided additional evidence that the autonomic systems controlling cardiac-sympathetics might influence the assessment of information streams during conflict by disrupting or overriding reward processing. We conclude that cardiac-sympathetic control might play a critical role, in collaboration with cognitive processes, during the approach-avoidance conflict in humans., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2024 the authors.)

Although some studies have found that conflict management styles impact employees' levels of depression, the expressions of employees' depressive symptoms under various conflict management styles and the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. In this study, a total of 1,312 employees were gathered through an online survey to examine their current depressive status. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the association between conflict management style and employee depression was further explored. The findings revealed that the prevalence of moderate to severe depression among the workers was 13.9%. Employees with different conflict management styles displayed distinct depression scores. The high coordination style group exhibited a significantly lower depression score compared to the high concession style group. Emotional exhaustion played a mediating role in the impact of both the coordination style and the concession style on employees' depression. It can be seen that the mental health needs of the workplace are imminent. The intervention measures to improve the mental health of employees in the working environment should take into account the cultivation of the coordination style of employee conflict management, reduce their emotional exhaustion, and stay away from depression through the acquisition of constructive and positive coping styles., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Lin, Zhang and Yang.)

Background: Work-family conflict among physicians has many adverse consequences, like reduced work engagement and impaired well-being. However, relatively little research has been conducted on the impact of work-family conflict on specific pathways of physician well-being. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between work-family conflict and employee well-being among physicians and to explore the mediating role of job satisfaction and work engagement in this relationship., Methods: Using data from a cross-sectional survey of 2,480 physicians in Jilin Province, China, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied in this study to examine the direct and indirect effects of work-family conflict on employee well-being and to assess the mediating roles of job satisfaction and work engagement therein., Results: The employee well-being score of physicians in Jilin Province was 5.16 ± 1.20. The univariate analysis results indicated significant disparities in employee well-being scores across different age groups, marital statuses, and professional titles. Work-family conflict was significantly negatively associated with employee well-being, while job satisfaction and work engagement were significantly positively associated with employee well-being. In addition, job satisfaction and work engagement were found to mediate the association between work-family conflict and employee well-being, and work engagement was considered to mediate the association between job satisfaction and employee well-being., Conclusions: Our study confirms that work-family conflict negatively affects physicians' employee well-being. Moreover, our investigation revealed that the association between work-family conflict and employee well-being is influenced by both job satisfaction and work engagement and that work engagement plays a mediating role in the link between job satisfaction and employee well-being. Therefore, we propose that hospital administrators should rationally allocate organizational resources and develop manageable schedules to enhance physicians' employee well-being., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Caring for patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high levels of moral distress among healthcare professionals. The main moral conflict has been posited to be between applying coercion to prevent serious complications such as premature death and accepting treatment refusals. However, empirical evidence on this topic is scarce., Methods: We identified all 19 documentations of ethics consultations (ECs) in the context of AN from one clinical ethics support service in Switzerland. These documentations were coded with a sequential deductive-inductive approach and the code system was interpreted in a case-based manner. Here, we present findings on patient characteristics and ethical concerns., Findings: The ECs typically concerned an intensely pretreated, extremely underweight AN patient endangering herself by refusing the proposed treatment. In addition to the justifiability of coercion, frequent ethical concerns were whether further coerced treatment aimed at weight gain would be ineffective or even harmful, evidencing uncertainty about beneficence and non-maleficence and a conflict between these principles. Discussed options included harm reduction (e.g. psychotherapy without weight gain requirements) and palliation (e.g. initiating end-of-life care), the appropriateness of which were ethical concerns in themselves. Overall, nine different types of conflicts between or uncertainties regarding ethical principles were identified with a median of eight per case., Conclusions: Ethical concerns in caring for persons with AN are diverse and complex. To deal with uncertainty about and conflict between respect for autonomy, beneficence and non-maleficence, healthcare professionals consider non-curative approaches. However, currently, uncertainty around general justifiability, eligibility criteria, and concrete protocols hinders their adoption., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In-between groups encompass individuals who simultaneously belong to social categories that are often seen as mutually exclusive in addition to maintaining their distinct group identity. The current paper sheds light on how members of in-between groups manage their relations within intergroup conflicts. Three studies were conducted among the Druze minority in Israel, a group that is ethnically Arab and shares the Arab identity with the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel and simultaneously identifies as Israeli. In Study 1 (N = 300), we found that identification as Druze was positively associated with the identification as Arab and Israeli. In Study 2, we examined Druze's endorsement of conflict narratives compared to Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian citizens (N = 271). While the latter participants endorsed their ingroup narrative more than the outgroup narrative, Druze participants endorsed both narratives equally. In Study 3, we tested Druze's solidarity with the Palestinian minority against the 2018 Nation-State Law. We found that overall, Druze participants (N = 568) endorsed more inclusive amendments that benefited the Druze and Palestinians than exclusive amendments that benefited the Druze only. In all studies, we tested the role of identification with the rival groups. We discuss these findings and suggest possible underlying mechanisms., (© 2024 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

The present study aims to investigate the influence of 24-hr sleep deprivation on implicit emotion regulation using the emotional conflict task. Twenty-five healthy young adults completed a repeated-measures study protocol involving a night of at-home normal sleep control and a night of in-laboratory sleep deprivation. Prior to the experimental session, all participants wore an actigraph watch and completed the sleep diary. Following each condition, participants performed an emotional conflict task with electroencephalographic recordings. Emotional faces (fearful or happy) overlaid with words ("fear" or "happy") were used as stimuli creating congruent or incongruent trials, and participants were instructed to indicate whether the facial expression was happy or fearful. We measured the accuracy and reaction time on the emotional conflict task, as well as the mean amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related potential at CPz. At the behavioural level, sleep-deprived participants showed reduced alertness with overall longer reaction times and higher error rates. In addition, participants in the sleep deprivation condition made more errors when the current trial followed congruent trials compared with when it followed incongruent trials. At the neural level, P300 amplitude evoked under the sleep-deprived condition was significantly more positive compared with the normal sleep condition, and this effect interacted with previous-trial and current-trial congruency conditions, suggesting that participants used more attentional resources to resolve emotional conflicts when sleep deprived. Our study provided pioneering data demonstrating that sleep deprivation may impair the regulation of emotional processing in the absence of explicit instruction among emerging adults., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society.)

During adolescence, youth increase in both independence and conflict with parents. Parents vary in how much they know about their adolescents' whereabouts and activities and how they acquire this information (i.e., the sources of what parents know). We probed how parental knowledge of adolescents' whereabouts and activities-and their information sources-relates to (a) domains of parent-adolescent conflict (fighting about, or having different beliefs about, daily life topics) and (b) parent and adolescent attachment-related behavior during a conflict discussion task. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, we tested links between parental knowledge and its sources and conflict processes. Eighty-seven adolescents ( M age = 15.18; 55% female) and parents completed surveys about parental knowledge and its sources (i.e., parental solicitation of adolescents' activities, adolescent disclosure to parents about their activities) and separate interviews on conflict domains. A subset of parent-adolescent dyads ( n = 65) interacted for 5 min about an adolescent-identified conflict topic. Different beliefs about daily life topics related to parental knowledge: parents' reports of greater different beliefs about daily life topics predicted less knowledge of adolescents' activities/whereabouts, solicitation, and disclosure, for both parent and adolescent reports of these domains. For adolescents, greater different beliefs related to less solicitation and disclosure. Only adolescent reports of parental knowledge, solicitation, and disclosure predicted attachment-related behaviors both dyad members displayed during the conflict discussion task. Findings reveal links between parental knowledge of adolescents' activities and conflict processes and demonstrate dyadic interdependence between parental knowledge of adolescents' activities and conflict processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A prime goal of psychological science is to understand how humans can flexibly adapt to rapidly changing contexts. The foundation of this cognitive flexibility rests on contextual adjustments of cognitive control, which can be tested using the list-wide proportion congruency effect (LWPC). Blocks with mostly incongruent (MI) trials show smaller conflict interference effects compared to blocks with mostly congruent (MC) trials. A critical debate is how proactive and reactive control processes drive contextual adjustments. In this preregistered study (N = 30), we address this conundrum, by using the theta rhythm as a key neural marker for cognitive control. In a confound-minimized Stroop paradigm with short alternating MC and MI blocks, we tested reaction times, error rates, and participants' individualized theta activity (2-7 Hz) in the scalp-recorded electroencephalogram. An LWPC effect was found for both, reaction times and error rates. Importantly, the results provided clear evidence for reactive control processes in the theta rhythm: Theta power was higher in rare incongruent compared with congruent trials in MC blocks, but there was no such modulation in MI blocks. However, regarding proactive control, there were no differences in sustained theta power between MC and MI blocks. A complementary analysis of the alpha activity (8-14 Hz) also revealed no evidence for sustained attentional resources in MI blocks. These findings suggest that contextual adjustments rely mainly on reactive control processes in the theta rhythm. Proactive control, in the present study, may be limited to a flexible attentional shift but does not seem to require sustained theta activity., (© 2024 The Author(s). Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research.)

Purpose: To explore and understand the conflict in decision-making of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with hematological neoplasms., Methods: A descriptive qualitative study of 16 patients with hematologic neoplasms in the hematology department was conducted between February 2022 and May 2022. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Face-to-face in-depth personal interviews were performed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. This descriptive qualitative study adhered to the COREQ checklist., Results: All patients indicated difficulties in making decisions regarding hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Five themes were identified: (1) weighing the pros and cons of HSCT, (2) financial burden versus desire for rebirth, (3) treatment urgency versus being unprepared, (4) saving oneself versus damaging loved ones, and (5) family companionship versus emotional isolation. These themes reflect the contradictions, entanglements, and realistic conflicts in decision-making regarding hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with hematological neoplasms., Conclusions: This study identified multiple conflicts of decision-making in patients with hematologic neoplasms regarding decisions on hematopoietic stem cell transplantations. Healthcare workers should provide patients with disease knowledge, doctor-patient and intra-family communication, and access to financial support in order to resolve their conflicts and ultimately help them make the decision that is most optimum for them., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: Various studies have shown that belonging to a professional group has an influence on ethical attitudes. The aim of this study was to assess and compare the attitudes and approaches of obstetrical specialists and prenatal diagnosticians in prenatal conflict situations., Methods: Explorative cross-sectional online survey among tertiary perinatal care centers and prenatal diagnosticians with DEGUM Level II/III in Germany. The questionnaire included questions on ethical attitudes in the perinatal context and a case presentation of a fetal hypoplastic left heart syndrome., Results: The response rate was 57.1% (310/543). 55.5% of the respondents practiced both obstetrics and prenatal diagnostics, 24.5% exclusively prenatal diagnostics, and 14.2% purely obstetrics. 27% agreed with the statement "An uncertain prognosis justifies pregnancy termination". For complex fetal malformations joint interdisciplinary counseling was advocated by 98.3%. Addressing the option of postnatal palliative treatment in a case of a hypoplastic left heart syndrome was accepted by 84.3% across all professional groups, while mentioning fetocide was more frequently cited as an option by prenatal diagnosticians than by obstetricians (57.7% vs. 34.1%)., Conclusion: Interdisciplinary prenatal parental counseling in complex fetal malformations is uniformly advocated by prenatal diagnosticians and obstetricians in Germany. However, different ethical attitudes appear among specialists groups with regard to the option of termination of pregnancy., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

In the present study, we examined cultural variation in couples' emotions during disagreement. We coded the emotions of 58 Belgian and 80 Japanese couples using the Specific Affect Coding System. We observed more anger and domineering, but less fear/tension and other-validation in Belgian than in Japanese couples. Moreover, in Japanese couples, culturally typical emotions were associated with higher conflict resolution and relationship satisfaction. The findings suggest meaningful cultural differences in couples' observed emotions during disagreement, as they can be understood from the prevailing relationship ideals in each culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: To assess the psychometric properties, i.e., reliability and construct validity of the 16-item Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS) and sub-scales in women with perinatal depressive symptoms in Norway and Portugal., Methods: We included 415 women in Portugal and 163 in Norway (≥18 years) who were pregnant or had given birth in the last 12 months and presenting with active depressive symptoms. Women replied to the original DCS items. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis, estimated internal consistency reliability, and examined factorial invariance across country, perinatal status, and treatment uptake., Results: The DCS factor model had good fit to the data, with all items loading significantly on their respective factor (.585 to .958). There was configural invariance of the DCS across countries, treatment, and perinatal status. The internal consistency of the total DCS (Cronbach's alpha) was .958, and for the subscales it ranged from .798 to .947., Conclusions: The DCS is a valid and reliable measure of the decisional conflict in women with perinatal depressive symptoms in Portugal and Norway., Practice Implications: Measuring the extent of decisional conflict regarding treatment and the effect of multiple interventions towards its reduction, is critical to facilitate the decision-making process of women with perinatal mental illness., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Integrated pest management (IPM) plays a crucial role in protecting agricultural environments and enhancing the quality of agricultural products. However, a major challenge in China is the conflicting understanding of IPM among farmers, leading to low adoption rates. This undermines farmers' ability to control pests and diseases while increasing risks to agricultural quality and safety. This study aimed to investigate the impact of cognitive conflicts on farmers' adoption of IPM in kiwifruit farms in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces. Additionally, the study explored the moderating role of internet use in the relationship between cognitive conflicts and farmer adoption of IPM. Data were collected from 686 kiwifruit farms through field surveys in 2018. The binary Probit model and moderating effect models were used to assess the influence of internet use and cognitive conflict on farmer adoption of IPM., Results: The study found that cognitive conflicts significantly hindered farmers' adoption of IPM. Higher levels of cognitive conflict were associated with lower likelihoods of adopting IPM. Internet use and frequency had positive effects on farmer adoption of IPM, promoting its implementation. Moreover, internet use and frequency helped alleviate the inhibitory effect of cognitive conflicts on farmer adoption IPM., Conclusion: This research enhances our understanding of cognitive conflicts among farmers when promoting IPM and provides viable strategies to improve the effectiveness of public sector promotion and stimulate farmers' willingness to adopt IPM. It emphasizes the importance of addressing cognitive conflicts and utilizing internet resources to enhance IPM adoption among kiwifruit growers in China. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Choice impulsivity can be measured by offering a sequence of various binary choices between smaller, immediately available rewards and larger, later available rewards. An individual's delay discount (DD) rate reflects the aggregate decision-making tendency. Given the broad spectrum of disorders associated with a high DD rate, this may be an important transdiagnostic factor. This study aimed to establish whether post-decisional neurophysiological processes reflecting the presence of error monitoring are involved in delay discounting. A large sample (N = 97) was investigated, including 46 females and 51 males. The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during the classic monetary choice questionnaire (MCQ-27). Error-related event-related potentials (ERPs) and event-related oscillations (EROs) following responses were analyzed. A modest relationship between error positivity (Pe) and DD rate was seen centro-parietal, with higher amplitude for low DD individuals after choosing immediate rewards. A robust association was found between DD rate and theta oscillation power increases. This was most prominent in low DD individuals after making an immediate reward choice. Theta power was positively associated with decision (reaction) time, suggesting an association between pre- and post-decisional conflict. No evidence was found for an error-related negativity (ERN) and delta oscillations. This study provides clear evidence for conflict monitoring as a post-decision process in delay discounting. Findings suggest that diminished theta band power bursts and lower Pe amplitude, observed after choosing an immediate reward, reflect the neurophysiological consequence and possibly the cause of steep delay discounting. High DD was characterized by prefrontal hypoactivation and appears to result from affective decision-making., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to investigate how the cognitive control system resolves conflicts when cognitive and emotional conflicts occur simultaneously, and how it performs. To achieve this, a factorial task-crossing design was employed, combining the spatial Simon task and the face-word emotional interference task, allowing cognitive and emotional conflicts to occur concurrently within a single trial. The results revealed that the Simon cognitive conflict was only associated with N2 and early SP, while it did not affect the amplitude of N450 and late SP. Conversely, the face-word emotional conflict affected the amplitude of N450 and late SP, but had no impact on N2 and early SP. These findings demonstrate the adaptive sequencing organization and domain specificity in cognitive-emotional dual conflict processing, which reflects the precise and flexible orchestration and strategic adjustments of the cognitive control system. The results contribute to a better understanding of the dynamic and temporal processes involved in the cognitive control of multiple conflicts., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Aim: Conflicts are ubiquitous in human societies and manifest in varied forms and scales within societies, communities and organisations. While many studies have investigated workplace conflicts, least attention has been paid to how midwives differently experience these conflicts and the impacts of these conflicts on their wellbeing. This study fills this gap by investigating the multifaceted impact of workplace conflicts on the wellbeing of midwives., Method: The study employed a purely qualitative approach within the analytical framework of the Stress Theory of organisational conflicts. Thirty-five participants were selected for the study through an expert purposive sampling technique. Interviews and Focus Group Discussions were used to collect primary data for the study. Collected data were analysed using an inductive thematic analytical technique., Results: The findings highlight the multifaceted impact of conflict on both the professional and personal well-being of midwives. Conflicts induce severe physical and psychological strains on midwives, generate fears, angst, and anxieties, and disrupt social harmony prompting exclusion and discrimination among midwives in the hospital., Conclusion: We argue that apart from task-demand generated stress, workplace conflicts prompt both physical and psychological stress on midwives which culminate into a myriad of physical, emotional, and mental health issues., Implication for Practice: Initiation of conflict resolution and mediation training programs for midwives so as to equip them with essential skills for effectively managing and resolving workplace conflicts. Setting up internal grievance mechanisms for midwives in their work places and training of midwives on social skills, and stress management skills., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cognitive control has been investigated in attentional conflict tasks for a long time. One representative phenomenon of adaptive cognitive control in these tasks is the congruency sequence effect (CSE), which means that a previous conflict will lead to reduced congruency effects at the current moment, reflecting increased control of attention toward the task at hand. One debating question is whether CSE can generalize between different conditions. Since a similar phenomenon (i.e., validity sequence effect, VSE) has been found in spatial cueing tasks, this study investigated whether the two sequential effects could generalize between each other. A cross-task sequence effect is found from previous flanker trials to current cueing trials when the task sets of the two tasks are either very similar or sufficiently dissimilar, and this C-VSE effect is influenced by the response mode of the experimental design. In addition, the VSE between trial n-2 and trial n is eliminated by the existence of an intermediate flanker trial, but the CSE between trial n-2 and trial n is still significant even with an intermediate cueing trial. Possible explanations of these findings are discussed. The findings suggest a close connection between orienting and executive control processes in attention networks and provide a new perspective and method for investigating the potential mechanisms of cognitive control., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Little empirical research exists on attributions that people make regarding work-family conflict that they experience. Our study used attribution theory to examine the aftermath of work-family conflict episodes. We used a diary method in which respondents reported their daily encounters with work-family conflict, attributions they made about its causes, feelings of guilt and shame they experienced, and their levels of daily family engagement and well-being after work. Based on Ilies et al. (2012) we hypothesized that internal attributions of work-family conflict would be associated with feelings of guilt and shame, and that these emotions would in turn be differentially associated with daily after-work outcomes. We also hypothesized that the degree to which individuals were satisfied with the resolution of their work-family conflict would moderate the relationship between internal attribution and guilt/shame. Results largely supported our hypotheses, with guilt demonstrating a positive link to family engagement while shame showed a negative association. We also found that shame, but not guilt, was negatively associated with daily well-being. One's level of satisfaction with the resolution of work-family conflict emerged as a key variable as well. Lastly, we discuss the theoretical and practical ramifications of our findings., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Self-control is essential for outcomes in several life domains but is often seen as effortful. We discuss recent research indicating the possibility of effortless self-control. First, we discuss how high levels of self-control are associated with quicker self-control conflict identification and resolution. Second, we describe two pathways that may lead to these associations: (1) How automatization of behaviors plays a role in self-control outcomes. That is, self-control is associated with better, effortless habits. (2) We discuss that self-control conflicts can be anticipated and resolved with strategies that avoid effortful inhibition. Taken together, we aim to demonstrate that there is more to successful self-control than 'simply' working hard to resist your impulses - there may be easier roads to take., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Context: Athletic trainers (ATs) face organizational-professional conflict (OPC), often surrounding return-to-sport decisions. To prioritize patient safety and establish a healthy work environment, OPC must be mitigated, yet few researchers have determined how ATs manage conflicts with stakeholders., Objective: To explore ATs' experiences with OPC in the secondary school setting., Design: Qualitative study., Setting: Telephone interviews., Patients or Other Participants: Sixteen ATs (9 females, 7 males; age = 43 ± 11 years; years certified = 17 ± 9; years in their current positions = 9 ± 6)., Data Collection and Analysis: We digitally recorded telephone interviews and had them professionally transcribed. Data saturation guided recruitment efforts and was met. To ensure rigor and trustworthiness of the data, we completed basic member checks along with multiple-analyst triangulation. We analyzed the qualitative data using an interpretive phenomenological approach., Results: Four themes emerged effective communication, professional relationships, stakeholder education, and professional experience. Participants used effective communication described as frequent, open, and direct, during interactions with stakeholders to manage OPC. Organizational-professional conflict was reduced when ATs built professional relationships with stakeholders centered on trust and respect. Participants used stakeholder education as a primary strategy for managing OPC by educating stakeholders about prognosis and return-to-sport timelines postinjury and providing rationale for decisions made. Additionally, years of experience served as a mitigating factor of conflict, in that as ATs gained experience and confidence, they perceived less OPC., Conclusions: Participants suggested various interpersonal relationship development strategies that can be implemented to manage OPC, especially when starting a new position or building rapport with stakeholders. Specifically, educating various stakeholders on reasons for clinical decisions via effective communication and developing strong professional relationships built on mutual respect assisted in avoiding OPC. Since professional experience appears to alleviate conflict, OPC management strategies should be taught during professional preparation and used early during transition to autonomous practice., (© by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Inc.)

Background: Conflict has deleterious effects on the adjustment of children, adolescence, and emerging adults. The literature is less robust on the adverse effects of conflict avoidance on adjustment as well as the beneficial effect of resolution in these age groups. The literature is markedly sparser on these relationships in adults. Method: We recruited N = 1471 US adults between 18 and 86 years old ( M = 33.94, SD = 11.67). They primarily identified as White with 51% holding at least a bachelor's degree. Participants responded to the Perceived Family Conflict Subscale, Avoidant Conflict Scale, the Family Conflict Resolution Scale, and the Langner Symptom Survey. Results: A MANOVA modeling the four variables demonstrated a significant difference based on sex for the measure of distress and need for treatment ( Mwomen = 5.31, Mmen = 3.93, p < .001). Separate analyses for men and women yielded the same pattern for each sex. Specifically, low conflict groups, as well as low conflict avoidance groups, scored significantly lower on a measure of distress than the high conflict and conflict avoidance group. For conflict resolution, the high groups scored significantly lower on distress than did the low resolution group. Discussion: The deleterious effect of conflict and conflict avoidance were found in both adult men and women, thereby extending results found in children, teens, and young adults. Similarly, the beneficial effect of conflict resolution manifest in adult men and women, which had been found in young adults. Interventions aimed at reducing conflict avoidance and increasing conflict resolution skills should theoretically reduce stress., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Previous studies examining conflict processing within the context of a color-word Stroop task have focused on both stimulus and response conflicts. However, it has been unclear whether conflict can emerge independently of stimulus conflict. In this study, a novel arrow-gaze mental-rotation Stroop task was introduced to explore the interplay between conflict processing and mental rotation. A modelling approach was utilized to provide a process-level account of the findings. The results of our Stroop task indicate that conflict can emerge from mental rotation in the absence of stimulus conflict. The strength of this imagery conflict effect decreases and even reverses as mental rotation angles increase. Additionally, it was observed that participants responded more quickly and with greater accuracy to small rather than large face orientations. A comparison of three conflict diffusion models-the diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC), the dual-stage two-phase model (DSTP), and the shrinking spotlight model (SSP)-yielded consistent support for the DSTP over the DMC and SSP in the majority of instances. The DSTP account of the experimental results revealed an increased nondecision time with increasing mental rotation, a reduction in interference from incompatible stimuli, and an improved drift rate in response selection phase, which suggests enhanced cognitive control. The findings from the model-based analysis provide evidence for a novel interaction between cognitive control and mental rotation., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)