Eveningness has been found to negatively affect adolescents' sleep and daytime functioning. Furthermore, eveningness is associated with greater impulsivity than morningness. Externalizing behavior could be chronotype-related, implying that the alteration of the circadian rhythm itself is connected to aspects of emotion and emotion regulation. The present study investigated chronotype-related differences in emotional and behavioral problems, especially aggression and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. We conducted a comprehensive search via web of knowledge (MEDLINE, web of science), EBSCO, Ovid, PubMed, Google Scholar and PsycINDEX using the keywords: chronotype, chronobiology, morningness, eveningness, owls and larks as well as diurnal preference to fully capture every aspect of chronotype. For aggression we used the search terms: aggression, anger, hostility, violence, anti-social behavior, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, delinquency, social adjustment and externalizing behavior. N = 13 studies were included concerning chronotype, childhood, adolescence and antisocial behavior. Results showed that children and adolescents being E-types were more affected by daytime impairments. Additionally, behavioral and emotional problems as aggression or antisocial behavior were more pronounced in E- than in M-types. Our findings support an association of eveningness and the impact of aggression on children and adolescents. Longitudinal investigations should be conducted in order to insure causality of the effects in question. In addition, the elevated vulnerability toward aggression in evening types demonstrates the need for prevention and intervention programs that educate youths in proper sleep hygiene and evoke an awareness of the consequences of a habitually diminished sleep quality.
Introduction. It is claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic has a negative impact on mental health. However, to date, prospective studies are lacking. Moreover, it is important to identify which factors modulate the stress response to the pandemic. Previously, sense of coherence (SOC) has emerged as a particularly important resistance factor. Objective. This prospective study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on mental health and to investigate the ability of pre-outbreak SOC levels to predict changes in psychopathological symptoms.Methods. The study assessed psychopathological symptoms and SOC before and after the COVID-19 outbreak as well as post-outbreak COVID-19-related traumatic distress in a German-speaking sample (N=1,591). Bivariate latent change score (BLCS) modelling was used to analyse pre-to-post outbreak changes in psychopathological symptoms and the ability of SOC to predict symptom changes.Results. Overall, there was no change in psychopathological symptoms. However, on individual-respondent level 10% experienced a clinically significant increase in psychopathological symptoms, and 15% met cut-off criteria for COVID-19-related traumatic distress. Using BLCS modelling, we identified a high-stress group experiencing an increase in psychopathological symptoms and a decrease in SOC and a low-stress group showing the reversed pattern. Changes in SOC and psychopathological symptoms were predicted by pre-outbreak SOC and psychopathological symptom levels. Conclusions. Although mental health was stable in most respondents, a relevant proportion of the sample experienced increased psychopathological symptoms due to COVID-19. Since higher SOC was predictive of smaller changes in symptom levels, SOC training might be a promising approach to enhance resistance to stressors.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a multidimensional long-term stressor. Consequently, research demonstrated a negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health in parts of the general population. However, not all people are affected equally making the identification of resilience factors modulating the pandemic’s impact on mental health an important research agenda. One of these factors is sense of coherence (SOC), the key component of the salutogenesis framework. Objective: The current study aimed at investigating the long-term relationship between SOC and psychopathology, and the impact of COVID-19-related rumination as its moderator. Methods: The prospective observational study assessed psychopathology and SOC before the COVID-19 outbreak in Germany (February 2020) and at six critical time points during the pandemic (n = 1,479). Bivariate latent change score models and latent growth mixture modeling were used to analyze changes in psychopathology and SOC along with their interaction and to differentiate trajectories of COVID-19-related rumination. Results: A model allowing for unidirectional coupling from SOC to psychopathology demonstrated best fit. In the total sample, psychopathological symptoms increased significantly over time. Previous SOC predicted later changes in psychopathology, whereby a stronger SOC was associated with a decrease in symptoms over time, while a weaker SOC with an increase in symptoms. The same pattern of results was evident in the high-rumination (17.2%) but not in the low-rumination group (82.8%). Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that SOC is an important predictor and modulator of psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for those respondents that ruminate about the pandemic.
Distressing intrusive memories of a traumatic event are the hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. Thus, it is crucial to identify early interventions that prevent the occurrence of intrusive memories. Both, sleep and sleep deprivation have been discussed as interventions, yet previous studies yielded contradicting effects. Our systematic review aims at evaluating existing evidence by means of traditional and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analyses to overcome power issues of sleep research. Until May 16th 2022, six databases were searched for experimental analog studies examining the effect of post-trauma sleep versus wakefulness on intrusive memories. Nine studies were included in our traditional meta-analysis (8 in the IPD meta-analysis). Our analysis provided evidence for a small effect favoring sleep over wakefulness, M(log-ROM) = 0.25, p < .001, suggesting that sleep is associated with a lower number of intrusions but unrelated to the likelihood of the occurrence of intrusions. We found no evidence for an effect of sleep on intrusion distress. Heterogeneity was low and certainty of evidence for our primary analysis was moderate. Our findings suggest that post-trauma sleep has the potential to be protective by reducing intrusion frequency. More research is needed to determine the impact following real-world trauma and the potential clinical significance.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a significant stressor potentially putting the well-being of the general population at risk. However, a significant proportion of the population exhibits resilience, raising questions regarding psychological constructs that could contribute to resilient coping. Studies indicate that flexibility, defined as the ability to adapt to changing contextual demands by employing a variety of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies, may significantly contribute to coping with long-term stressors such as COVID-19. Cognitive and coping flexibility domains and longitudinal trajectories of anxiety and depression were assessed at three time points across a 13-months period in 571 Israelis. Analyses revealed four different trajectories for anxiety: resilient (66%), chronic (22%), emerging (7%) and improving (6%), and two trajectories for depression: resilient (87%) and chronic (13%). Individuals in the chronic trajectory group (for both anxiety and depression) exhibited lower levels of cognitive flexibility and coping flexibility as compared to individuals in the resilient trajectory group. Across time, anxiety and depression were linked to clinically significant PTSD-like symptoms. Cognitive and coping flexibility were linked to the probability of experiencing chronic mental health problems, making them a potential target for prevention and treatment.
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