No abstract

(1) Background: The COVID-19 outbreak has created pressure in people’s daily lives, further threatening public health. Thus, it is important to assess people’s perception of stress during COVID-19 for both research and practical purposes. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure perceived stress; however, previous validation studies focused on specific populations, possibly limiting the generalization of results. (2) Methods: This study tested the psychometric properties of three versions of the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS-14, CPSS-10, and CPSS-4) in the Chinese general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. A commercial online survey was employed to construct a nationally representative sample of 1133 adults in Mainland China (548 males and 585 females) during a one-week period. (3) Results: The two-factor (positivity and negativity) solution for the three versions of the CPSS showed a good fit with the data. The CPSS-14 and CPSS-10 had very good reliability and the CPSS-4 showed acceptable reliability. Scores on all three versions of the CPSS were significantly correlated in the expected direction with health-related variables (e.g., depression, anxiety, and perceived COVID-19 risk), supporting the concurrent validity of the CPSS. (4) Conclusions: All three versions of the CPSS appear to be appropriate for use in research with samples of adults in the Chinese general population under the COVID-19 crisis. The CPSS-10 and CPSS-14 both have strong psychometric properties, but the CPSS-10 would have more utility because it is shorter than the CPSS-14. However, the CPSS-4 is an acceptable alternative when administration time is limited.

No abstract

A large number of studies have examined the association between depressive symptoms and sleep quality, however, the psychological mechanism underlying the association remains nebulous. Using moderated mediation analysis, the present study aimed to examine to what extent the association was mediated by rumination and whether the mediation effect was moderated by self-compassion. Self-reported measures on depressive symptoms, rumination, self-compassion, and sleep quality were collected from 564 college students. The results showed that (a) rumination mediated the association between depressive symptoms and sleep quality, and (b) self-compassion moderated the mediation effect. Specifically, the mediating effect of rumination was stronger for students with low self-compassion than those with high self-compassion. These findings suggest that selfcompassion may be a useful intervention target for health care practitioners to evaluate and improve sleep quality for individuals suffering from depressive symptoms.

No abstract

BackgroundIncreasing attention has been paid to the role of caregivers’ burden in affecting quality of life (QoL) of schizophrenic patients. However, less is known about potential mediation mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study aimed to explore the sequential mediating effect of expressed emotion and perceived expressed emotion on the relationship between care burden and QoL among people with schizophrenia.Methods135 Chinese families (one patient and one caregiver) participated in this study. Caregivers reported their care burden and expressed emotion, patients reported their perceived expressed emotion and QoL.ResultsThe results of the correlation analysis showed that care burden was negatively related to patients’ QoL, including physical, psychological, and social relationships domains, with patients’ sex, age, educational level, employment status, and medication-taking as covariates. The sequential mediating effects of criticism and perceived criticism between care burden and QoL were not significant. However, the sequential mediating effects of emotional over-involvement and perceived emotional over-involvement (EOI) between care burden and QoL (including physical and psychological domain) were significant.ConclusionThe results indicated that reducing the burden and expressed emotion of caregivers could be helpful to improve schizophrenia patients’ QoL.

Using network analysis, this study investigated how family communication patterns (Conversation and Conformity) were related to and predictive of adolescent overall depression severity and specific symptoms. A community sample of adolescents (10-17 years, n = 1327) completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Family Communication Pattern Instrument. Depressive symptoms were also re-assessed 6 months later. Results showed that Conversation orientation protected against, whereas Conformity orientation increased the risk of adolescent depression. Family communication particularly influenced the child's feeling of being unloved, and feeling unloved was the only symptom prospectively predicted by two communication orientations at baseline. These findings revealed the path linking family factors to adolescent depression and may have implications for future family-based interventions.

The Publisher and Editor retract this article in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publica tion Ethics (COPE). After a thorough investigation we have strong reason to believe that the peer review process was compromised.