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Abstract Background Left-behind children(LBC) in rural China are at increased risk for mental health problems, including depression. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of depression and identify key associate factors among Chinese rural LBC. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from 36,612 LBC aged 6 to 18 years old across 596 data collection sites in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China. Participants completed questionnaires assessing individual factors, family parenting situation, living events, and health-related data. Depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). T-tests, chi-square, and logistic regression were performed to identify factors associated with depression. Results The overall prevalence of depression among LBC was 6.75%. Logistic regression analysis revealed that family parenting situations, such as being from blended families (OR = 1.45) or being cared for by other family members (OR = 1.64), and dissatisfaction with the parenting situation (OR = 1.57) were significantly associated with higher odds of depression. Living events, including being misunderstood (OR = 1.82) and having disputes (OR = 1.48), and health-related factors, such as chronic diseases and regular medication use (OR = 2.38), also increased the risk of depression. Conclusions This study highlights the high prevalence of depression among Chinese rural LBC and identifies key associate factors, including family parenting situation, negative living events and health-related factors. Targeted interventions and policies addressing these factors are needed to promote the mental health of this vulnerable population.

Abstract Background Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviors among adolescents with mood disorders represent a significant global public health concern. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and identify key predictors of NSSI behaviors in Chinese adolescents diagnosed with depressive or bipolar disorders, addressing a critical gap in the literature. Method Data from 2343 participants in the Chinese Adolescent Depression Cohort (CADC) were analyzed. The study employed a comprehensive approach, utilizing medical records, clinical assessments, and validated psychometric instruments. Statistical analyses included chi-square tests, logistic regression, and ROC curve analyses, culminating in the development of a predictive nomogram. Results The prevalence of NSSI behaviors was strikingly high at 73.32%. Significant predictors included female gender (AOR = 2.14, 95% CI [1.70, 2.68]), presence of hallucinations (AOR = 1.52, 95% CI [1.18, 1.97]), borderline personality features (AOR = 1.03, 95% CI [1.01, 1.08]), and childhood trauma (AOR = 1.02, 95% CI [1.01, 1.03]). The study’s key contribution is a predictive nomogram with an AUC of 0.74, demonstrating good efficacy in predicting NSSI behaviors. Conclusion This research reveals an alarmingly high prevalence of NSSI behaviors in Chinese adolescents with mood disorders and identifies critical predictors spanning demographic, clinical, and psychometric domains. The developed nomogram offers a novel approach for risk assessment, highlighting the importance of comprehensive evaluations in adolescent mental healthcare. These findings have significant implications for developing targeted interventions and improving risk assessment strategies in clinical practice.

Abstract Background Suicidal ideation (SI) is increasingly prevalent among adolescents, often arising from depression and linked with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Previous studies have noted significant sex differences in the manifestation and predictors of SI, depression, and NSSI. Aim This study aims to analyze and compare the relationships between SI, depression, and NSSI among male and female adolescents, examining whether these associations differ based on sex. Methods A total of 368 adolescents (M = 15.43, SD = 1.22, about 56.2% female participants), both from clinical and school settings, were assessed for SI, depression, NSSI, and other related variables. Network analysis was utilized to explore the interconnections among these variables, focusing on identifying sex-specific patterns. Logistic regression was used to confirm the findings from the network analysis. Results The network analysis revealed significant sex differences in the relationships between SI, depression, and NSSI. In the female network, the edge weights between SI and NSSI (0.93) and between SI and depression (0.31) were much higher compared to the male network (0.29 and 0, respectively). Centrality indices (strength, betweenness, closeness, and expected influence) for SI, NSSI, and depression were also higher in the female network. Logistic regression confirmed these findings, with depression being a potential predictor of SI only in females (OR = 1.349, p = 0.001) and NSSI having a stronger influence on SI in females (OR = 13.673, p

Background Adolescence is a pivotal stage vulnerable to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Although self-acceptance and social comparison are known to affect adolescent mental health, their interactive and moderating roles are not fully understood. Aims To explore the role of self-acceptance, social comparison and attributional style in predicting these mental health outcomes among adolescents in clinical settings. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 242 adolescents. Participants completed measures assessing self-acceptance, social comparison, attributional style and mental health outcomes (depression and anxiety). Mediation models and multi-group analysis were used to examine the relationships among these variables. Results Our findings demonstrated a significant relationship between self-acceptance, social comparison, depression and anxiety (rs = 0.32–0.88). Specifically, lower self-acceptance and higher social comparison were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. Additionally, individuals with external attributional tendencies reported higher depression (Cohen's d = 0.61) and anxiety (d = 0.58) compared with those with internal tendencies. Mediation modelling showed that social comparison is a mediator between self-acceptance and depression (effect size −0.04, 95% CI −0.08 to −0.01) and anxiety (effect size −0.06, 95% CI −0.10 to −0.02). Crucially, multi-group analysis showed that the impact of social comparison on mental health outcomes varied significantly based on attributional style. Conclusions These findings underscore the importance of considering self-acceptance, social comparison and attributional style in understanding and addressing mental health challenges during adolescence. This could inform the development of targeted interventions to promote mental health and well-being among adolescents. However, further research is needed to confirm these findings in diverse populations and to explore the underlying mechanisms in greater detail.

Difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) and emotion reactivity (ER) are important causes and consequences of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, and previous research suggests that there are many interactions between them. Understanding the structure of their relationship, and which components may play a key role, will help provide insight into emotion disorders in adolescents and provide guidance for clinical interventions. In this study, we collected data from 483 adolescents and used network analysis methods to explore the relationship between DER and ER, specifically looking for core nodes. The results showed that “limited access to emotion regulation strategies” was the most central node in the network. Furthermore, by adding nodes for depression and anxiety to this network, we found that anxiety had the strongest relationship with ER, while depression had a stronger relationship with DER. Thus, our findings suggest that for anxiety disorders, the strong association with ER highlights a potentially promising area for intervention development, whereas for depression, the association with DER points to the possibility of clarifying emotions and exploring coping strategies, acknowledging the complex interplay between depressive and anxious symptoms.

Abstract Background Difficulties in emotion regulation (DER) are widely considered to underlie anxiety and depression. Given the prevalence of anxiety and depression in adolescents and the fact that adolescence is a key period for the development of emotion regulation ability, it is important to examine how DER is related to anxiety and depression in adolescents in clinical settings. Methods In the present study, we assessed 209 adolescents in clinical settings using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and examined the associations between six components of DER and 14 symptoms of anxiety and depression. We used network analysis, constructed circular and multidimensional scaling (MDS) networks, and calculated network centrality, bridge centrality, and stability of centrality indices. Results The results showed that: (1) The global centrality index shows that the Strategy component (i.e., lack of access to strategies) is the center in the whole network, ranking highest in strength, closeness, betweenness, and expected influence. (2) The MDS network showed a closeness of anxiety and depression symptoms, while Awareness component (i.e., lack of emotional awareness) stayed away from other DER components, but Awareness is close to some depression symptoms. (3) The bridge nodes of three groups, Strategy from DERS, Worry and Relax from anxiety symptoms, and Cheerful and Slow from depression symptoms, had the strongest relationships with the other groups. Conclusion Lack of access to strategies remains in the center not only in DER but also in the DER-anxiety-depression network, while lack of awareness is close to depression but not to anxiety. Worrying thoughts and inability to relax are the bridging symptoms for anxiety, while lack of cheerful emotions and slowing down are the bridging symptoms for depression. These findings suggest that making emotion regulation strategies more accessible to patients and reducing these bridging symptoms may yield the greatest rewards for anxiety and depression therapy.

Social problem-solving (SPS) involves the cognitive-behavioral processes through which an individual identifies and copes with everyday problems; it is considered to contribute to anxiety and depression. The Social Problem-Solving Inventory Revised is a popular tool measuring SPS problem orientations and problem-solving styles. Only a negative problem orientation (NPO) is considered strongly related to anxiety and depression. In the present study, we investigated the detailed connections among the five components of SPS and 14 anxiety-depression symptoms and specified the role of NPO and other components in the anxiety-depression network. We employed network analysis, constructed circular and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) networks, and calculated the network centrality, bridge centrality, and stability of centrality indices. The results were as follows: (1) the MDS network showed a clustering of anxiety and depression symptoms, with NPO and avoidance style components from SPS being close to the anxiety-depression network (demonstrated by large bridge betweenness and bridge closeness); (2) the NPO and positive problem orientation from SPS were most influential on the whole network, though with an opposite effect; (3) strength was the most stable index [correlation stability (CS) coefficient = 0.516] among the centrality indices with case-dropping bootstraps. We also discussed this network from various perspectives and commented on the clinical implications and limitations of this study.

Deception is a complex and cognitively draining dyadic process that simultaneously involves cognitive and emotional processes, both of which demand/capture attentional resources. However, few studies have investigated the allocation of attentional resources between cognitive and emotional processes during deception. The current study presented facial expressions of different valences to 36 participants. While an electroencephalogram was recording, they were asked to make either truthful or deceptive gender judgments according to preceding cues. The results showed that deceptive responses induced smaller P300 amplitudes than did truthful responses. Task-irrelevant negative emotional information (TiN) elicited larger P300 amplitudes than did task-irrelevant positive emotional information (TiP). Furthermore, the results showed that TiN elicited larger LPP amplitudes than did TiP in deceptive responses, but not in truthful ones. The results suggested that attentional resources were directed away to deception-related cognitive processes and TiN, but not TiP, was consistently able to compete for and obtain attentional resources during deception. The results indicated that TiN could disrupt with deception and may facilitate deception detection.

Previous studies have found that promoting multiple identities can improve children’s creative performance (divergent thinking). The present study employed a priming paradigm to design two experiments and investigate whether promoting a sense of multiple identities in middle school students could enhance their divergent thinking, a key component of creativity. In Experiment 1, 77 junior high school students were divided into multiple identities and physical trait condition groups. They were instructed to think about a child with multiple identities or physical traits. The results showed that there were no differences in divergent thinking (DT) scores between the two groups. In Experiment 2, we modified the priming method by asking participants to think about and write a description of the various identities or physical traits and employed a subjective top-scoring method to make up for shortcomings in the traditional scoring method when applied to originality. The results still showed no significant difference in scores between the identity and physical trait groups. Thus, the results of this study contradict those of previous research, which found that the identity group demonstrated significantly higher scores on a creativity test than did those in the physical trait group. Several potential factors affect this outcome, but it seems that priming to enhance divergent thinking is not particularly effective. Thus, the social priming effect should be pursued with caution regarding both replicability and generalizability.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) appears to be making important advances in the prediction and diagnosis of mental disorders. Researchers have used visual, acoustic, verbal, and physiological features to train models to predict or aid in the diagnosis, with some success. However, such systems are rarely applied in clinical practice, mainly because of the many challenges that currently exist. First, mental disorders such as depression are highly subjective, with complex symptoms, individual differences, and strong socio-cultural ties, meaning that their diagnosis requires comprehensive consideration. Second, there are many problems with the current samples, such as artificiality, poor ecological validity, small sample size, and mandatory category simplification. In addition, annotations may be too subjective to meet the requirements of professional clinicians. Moreover, multimodal information does not solve the current challenges, and within-group variations are greater than between-group characteristics, also posing significant challenges for recognition. In conclusion, current AI is still far from effectively recognizing mental disorders and cannot replace clinicians’ diagnoses in the near future. The real challenge for AI-based mental disorder diagnosis is not a technical one, nor is it wholly about data, but rather our overall understanding of mental disorders in general.

Smiles are the most commonly and frequently used facial expressions by human beings. Some scholars claimed that the low accuracy in recognizing genuine smiles is explained by the perceptual-attentional hypothesis, meaning that observers either did not pay attention to responsible cues or were unable to recognize these cues (usually the Duchenne marker or AU6 displaying as contraction of muscles in eye regions). We investigated whether training (instructing participants to pay attention either to the Duchenne mark or to mouth movement) might help improve the recognition of genuine smiles, including accuracy and confidence. Results indicated that attention to mouth movement improves these people’s ability to distinguish between genuine and posed smiles, with nullification of the alternative explanations such as sample distribution and intensity of lip pulling (AU12). The generalization of the conclusion requires further investigations. This study further argues that the perceptual-attentional hypothesis can explain smile genuineness recognition.

Cheating on exams is a very common phenomenon that causes great harm. Various measures, such as chastisement and direct punishment, have been employed to reduce cheating. Previous studies have found that increasing punishment and activating “self-concept maintenance” can reduce this behavior. This study employed a priming paradigm to investigate whether priming legal consequences and the concept of honesty would reduce cheating in examination situations. In experiment 1, a total of 402 freshmen from 17 classes were included in this study. The 185 students in experimental condition were primed for legal consequences. The cheating behaviors and employed analysts were defined to count the number of cheaters. The results show that the number of students cheating in the primed group did not decrease compared to those in the controlled condition. In experiment 2, a total of 386 freshmen from 16 classes participated in this experiment. The 171 students in experimental condition were primed for the concept of honesty. The results also show that the number of students cheating in the primed group did not decrease. This study shows that priming legal consequence and the concept of honesty were not significant in certain situations, such as during examinations. It is suggested that some psychological manipulations in decreasing dishonesty behaviors should be further tested in ecological situations.