The stress-vulnerability model has been repeatedly highlighted in relation to the risk, onset and course of psychosis, and has been independently studied in clinical high-risk (CHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) populations. Notable in this literature, however, is that there are few studies directly comparing markers of stress response across progressive stages of illness. Here we examined the psychobiological response to the Trier Social Stress Test in 28 CHR (mean age 19.1) and 61 FEP (age 23.0) patients, in order to understand the stage(s) or trajectories in which differences in subjective stress or physiological response occur. The overall clinical sample had greater perceived stress and blunted cortisol (FEP + CHR, n = 89, age 21.7) compared with healthy controls (n = 45, age 22.9). Additional analyses demonstrated elevated heart rate and systolic blood pressure in FEP compared with CHR, but there were no further differences in physiological parameters (cortisol, heart rate, or blood pressure) between stage- or trajectory-based groups. Together, this suggests that individual stress response markers may differentially emerge at particular stages en route to psychosis – and demonstrates how stage-based analyses can shed light on the emergence and evolution of neurobiological changes in mental illness.

The present work sought to confirm the factor structure and examine longitudinal strengths-based and mental health correlates of the dysregulation profile (DP) in children of at-risk fragile families of diverse ethnoracial backgrounds. The data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2125 families). Mothers (Mage = 25.3) were mostly unmarried (74.6%), and children (51.4% boys) were identified as Black (47.0%), Hispanic (21.4%), White (16.7%), or multiracial or other backgrounds. Childhood DP was constructed using mother reports of the Child Behavior Checklist at age 9. Mothers’ in-home parent–child interactions and depressive symptoms were assessed at child age 5. At age 15, children responded about their own mental health, social skills, and other strengths-focused outcomes. A bifactor DP structure fit well to the data, with the DP factor representing difficulties in self-regulation. Using SEM, we found that mothers who were more depressed and used less warm parenting at child age 5 had children who presented with higher DP at age 9. DP was in turn associated with less social skills, perseverance, optimism, and more anxiety, depression, and impulsivity at adolescence. Childhood DP appears to be relevant and applicable for at-risk, diverse families, and may also impede on children’s future positive functioning.

Parochialism, by which we mean in-group preferences and out-group prejudice, has the potential to influence public policy. In-group preferences and out-group prejudice can lead individuals to evaluate a policy based on how that policy affects the groups they belong to rather than on the basis of their ideological priors or the impact of that policy on society at large. Unchecked, parochialism likely leads to problematic policies and perverse social outcomes. While the evidence suggests that this bias can be mitigated if issues are framed in ways that encourage reflection as opposed to unreflective immediate responses, policy makers face incentives to leverage parochialism rather than combat it. The solution may instead require limiting policy makers and our ability to make decisions for others and promoting an institutional environment that encourages our interacting with diverse others rather than insularity. Stated another way, limited government and open society may be the path beyond our parochialism.

Under the influence of γ-quanta (60Co, P = 9.276 rad/s, T = 300 K), the amount, formation rate, and radiation-chemical yield of molecular hydrogen obtained from the radiolysis process that changes the mass of water (m = 0.0001 ÷ 0.8 g) have been defined in the created nano-SiO2/H2O system with m = 0.2 g mass and d = 20 nm particle size. It was determined that the radiation-chemical yield of molecular hydrogen obtained from the water radiolysis process in the nano-SiO2/H2O system created by the adsorption of water on the nanoparticle surface had a low value. In systems created with the addition of water, the radiation-chemical yield of molecular hydrogen obtained from its radiolysis increased in direct proportion to the water mass. This proves that due to ionizing rays, the yield of electrons emitted from the nanoparticle surface into the water and solvated there increases. Therefore, the radiation-chemical yield of molecular hydrogen is higher than that of the adsorbed system.

The current study evaluated risk factors in adolescence on problem drinking and emotional distress in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, and meeting criteria for diagnosed disorders in adulthood. The study included 501 parents and their adolescent who participated from middle adolescence to adulthood. Risk factors in middle adolescence (age 18) included parent alcohol use, adolescent alcohol use, and parent and adolescent emotional distress. In late adolescence (age 18), binge drinking and emotional distress were assessed, and in emerging adulthood (age 25), alcohol problems and emotional distress were examined. Meeting criteria for substance use, behavioral, affective, or anxiety disorders were examined between the ages of 26 and 31. Results showed parent alcohol use predicted substance use disorder through late adolescent binge drinking and emerging adulthood alcohol problems. Behavioral disorders were indirectly predicted by adolescent and emerging adult emotional distress. Affective disorders were indirectly predicted by parent emotional distress through adolescent emotional distress. Finally, anxiety disorders were predicted by parent alcohol use via adolescent drinking; parent emotional distress via adolescent emotional distress, and through adolescent alcohol use and emotional distress. Results provided support for the intergenerational transmission of problem drinking and emotional distress on meeting criteria for diagnosed psychiatric disorders in adulthood.

Cultural competency is a core clinical skill. Yet, psychological therapists may be inadequately trained to deal with the needs of service users from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. This can lead to dissatisfaction with mental health services, disengagement from therapy, and poorer treatment outcomes when compared to the White British population. The aim of this study was to explore whether practitioners working for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services are culturally competent to deal with the needs of diverse communities. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a range of practitioners, from early career psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWPs) to senior cognitive behavioural therapists (n=16). Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was used to analyse the data, guided by a six-phase process to produce a robust pattern-based analysis. Overall, three themes were generated: (1) encountering cultural dissonance within therapy; (2) challenges in making cultural adaptations to therapy; and (3) identifying cultural competency needs. Out of sixteen participants, only nine therapists received one-day formal training throughout their therapeutic career, whilst seven reported receiving no cultural competence training at all. Overall, it appears that there is an urgent need and desire for therapists to be offered cultural competency training so that they can better serve BAME communities. Clinical implications and future recommendations are made.

Little effort has been made to integrate developmental cascades with maternal/paternal parenting in a single investigation. The present study seeks to test cascading effects among academic and internalizing/externalizing symptoms and their associations with maternal/paternal parenting across three time points from 8 to 10 years. Data for this investigation came from a nationally representative prospective cohort study of children born in April through July of 2008 in South Korea who were followed up annually. The sample included 1,598 families (48.5% girls). Parents rated their parenting and teachers rated children’s internalizing/externalizing problems and academic performance. Structural equation modeling showed that externalizing problems were negatively related to academic performance. Academic performance was negatively related to internalizing problems and positively related to maternal/paternal authoritative parenting, which in turn led to children’s higher academic performance. Bidirectional relations were found between academic performance and externalizing problems and between paternal authoritative parenting and children’s internalizing problems. Findings suggested cascading effects and their associations with parenting were not attributable to child gender, intelligence, or socioeconomic differences. These findings lend support to adjustment erosion and academic incompetence models and underscore the need for greater attention to the role that fathering may play in children’s development and mothering.

Body image concerns related to weight or other dimensions of appearance are now prevalent on a global scale. This paper reviews the theoretical frameworks that account for the global similarities and regional differences in rates and presentation of body image concerns, as well as reviewing the extant data. Given the harmful consequences of body image concerns in terms of mental and physical health, their global burden is high. Interventions to mitigate these concerns at the individual and systemic level are warranted.

Recalling future intentions (i.e., prospective memory, PM) plays an essential role in everyday life, but sometimes, if the person is involved in a demanding ongoing task, PM is unsuccessful. This is especially relevant for bilinguals who, in many situations, have to recall intentions while performing a task in their second language (L2). Our aim was to explore whether PM is modulated by the linguistic context in which PM takes place. In this study, bilinguals performed a PM task in their first (L1) or second language (L2). We also manipulated the demands of the ongoing task (early/late updating) and the PM cue (focal/non-focal). In general, results showed an overall impairment in the recall of future intentions when the task was performed in L2. This impairment was especially evident in the more demanding conditions, suggesting that increments in attentional demands due to L2 processing hinder the processes required for prospective remembering.

English is imposed as the language of instruction in multiple linguistically diverse societies where there is more than one official language. This might have negative educational consequences for people whose first language (L1) is not English. To investigate this, 47 South Africans with advanced English proficiency but different L1s (L1-English vs. L1-Zulu) were evaluated in their listening comprehension ability. Specifically, participants listened to narrative texts in English which prompted an initial inference followed by a sentence containing an expected inference or an unexpected but plausible concept, assessing comprehension monitoring. A final question containing congruent or incongruent information in relation to the text information followed, assessing the revision process. L1-English participants were more efficient at monitoring and revising their listening comprehension. Furthermore, individual differences in inhibitory control were associated with differences in revision. Results show that participants’ L1 appears to supersede their advanced English proficiency on highly complex listening comprehension.

In this article, the confidence that has been placed in hard and, in particular, soft paternalistic measures in the field of behavioural public policy is questioned. The four purported limitations of human reasoning – i.e. limited imagination, willpower, objectivity and technical ability – are considered, but ultimately it is concluded that these are insufficient justifications for paternalistic intervention, for two principal-related reasons. First, it is impossible for a policy maker to discern what people desire for their own lives, and second, so long as they are not harming others, people ought to be free to pursue their own desires. The vision for the future of behavioural public policy proposed here is thus consistent with classical liberal, and in particular, Millian thought: i.e. aim to educate people on the pros and cons of their actions and inactions so that they are better equipped to live the lives they wish to lead but do not interfere directly in guiding them towards any particular end.

The present study investigated lexical production and innovation of 202 participants across six groups: child and adult heritage speakers of Russian, dominant in Hebrew or American English, and monolingual Russian-speaking children and adults. Understanding quantitative performance across these six groups was intended to provide a comprehensive perspective on heritage language (HL) development, while comparing the participants’ qualitative non-target response patterns would elucidate the organization of the HL lexicon. We assessed the production of Russian nouns and verbs using a naming task. We then considered the effects of input at the societal and lexical levels (focusing on word frequency and age of acquisition). Our findings are discussed in terms of accounts of HL developmental trajectories: monolingual-like trajectory, frozen lexical development, attrition, and new language variety in a contact situation. The results presented no evidence for attrition, while elements of the other three trajectories were found in our quantitative and qualitative analyses.

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

This paper proposes a framework for comprehensive, collaborative, and community-based care (C4) for accessible mental health services in low-resource settings. Because mental health conditions have many causes, this framework includes social, public health, wellness and clinical services. It accommodates integration of stand-alone mental health programs with health and non-health community-based services. It addresses gaps in previous models including lack of community-based psychotherapeutic and social services, difficulty in addressing comorbidity of mental and physical conditions, and how workers interact with respect to referral and coordination of care. The framework is based on task-shifting of services to non-specialized workers. While the framework draws on the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Program and other global mental health models, there are important differences. The C4 Framework delineates types of workers based on their skills. Separate workers focus on: basic psychoeducation and information sharing; community-level, evidence-based psychotherapeutic counseling; and primary medical care and more advanced, specialized mental health services for more severe or complex cases. This paper is intended for individuals, organizations and governments interested in implementing mental health services. The primary aim is to provide a framework for the provision of widely accessible mental health care and services.

Internalizing and externalizing problems that emerge during adolescence differentially increase boys’ and girls’ risk for developing psychiatric disorders. It is not clear, however, whether there are sex differences in the intrinsic functional architecture of the brain that underlie changes in the severity of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescents. Using resting-state fMRI data and self-reports of behavioral problems obtained from 128 adolescents (73 females; 9–14 years old) at two timepoints, we conducted multivoxel pattern analysis to identify resting-state functional connectivity markers at baseline that predict changes in the severity of internalizing and externalizing problems in boys and girls 2 years later. We found sex-differentiated involvement of the default mode network in changes in internalizing and externalizing problems. Whereas changes in internalizing problems were associated with the dorsal medial subsystem in boys and with the medial temporal subsystem in girls, changes in externalizing problems were predicted by hyperconnectivity between core nodes of the DMN and frontoparietal network in boys and hypoconnectivity between the DMN and affective networks in girls. Our results suggest that different neural mechanisms predict changes in internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescent boys and girls and offer insights concerning mechanisms that underlie sex differences in the expression of psychopathology in adolescence.

This study investigates the phonetic outcome of mixed-language speech in Bengali and Indian English, towards understanding cross-language interaction in highly proficient bilinguals. We compare spectral properties of L2 vowels [æ] (common to L1, L2) and [ʌ] (absent in L1) in code-switched (mixed) vs. nonswitched productions. Results reveal asymmetrical shifts in both vowels during mixed productions, towards related L1 categories. We interpret this as a temporary increase in cross-language phonetic interaction during mixed-language use, leading to a shift towards L1 norms, evidencing transfer effects on L2 vowels. We elicit mixed productions through two tasks: cued picture-naming and code-switching, to assess if experimental paradigm independently influences the behavior under study. Results reveal parallel patterns, but small magnitude differences, across paradigms. We discuss these findings in light of recent proposals about asymmetries in short-term phonetic interaction, postulated discursive factors in code-switching, and the issue of comparability between paradigms in transfer studies.

Studies investigating the role of dual language use in modulating executive functions have reported mixed results, with some studies reporting benefits in older adults. These studies typically focus on bilingual settings, while the role of dual language use in diglossic settings is rarely investigated. In diglossia, the two language varieties are separated by context, making it an ideal test case for the effects on cognition of Single Language Contexts, as defined by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013). We compare the performances of three groups of older adults, Arab diglossics (n = 28), bilinguals (n = 29), and monolinguals (n = 41), on the Flanker and Stroop tasks, measuring inhibition abilities, and the Color-shape task, measuring switching abilities. We report a diglossic benefit in inhibition as measured by the Flanker task only, and no benefits for the bilingual group. These findings are discussed with reference to conversational contexts in dual language use.

Behavioural economists often claim that their policy recommendations are justified by cost–benefit analysis (CBA), but without adequate explanation of the methodology they have in mind. I sketch the outlines of a CBA methodology that is compatible with the findings of behavioural economics and is in accord with my account in Sugden (2018) of a well-functioning market as a network of opportunities for mutually beneficial transactions. The key idea is that the CBA of a project is concerned only with effects that are not transmitted through voluntary interactions. I illustrate this proposal by considering the appraisal of fuel economy mandates.