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There is increasing evidence that inadequate family environments (family material environment and family psychosocial environment) are not only social problems but also factors contributing to adverse neurocognitive outcomes. In the present study, the authors investigated the relationship among family environments, children's naturalistic affective state, self-reported stress, and executive functions in a sample of 157 Chinese families. These findings revealed that in inadequate family material environments, reduced children's cognitive flexibility is associated with increased naturalistic negative affectivity and self-reported stress. In addition, naturalistic negative affectivity mediated the association between family expressiveness and children's cognitive flexibility. The authors used a structural equation model to examine the mediation model hypothesis, and the results confirmed the mediating roles of naturalistic negative affectivity and self-reported stress between family environments and the cognitive flexibility of Chinese children. These findings indicate the importance of reducing stress and negative emotional state for improving cognitive functions in children of low socioeconomic status.

Background Abdominal fat deposition is a key component of obesity, which is associated with an increased risk for a number of mental disorders. The current study aims to explore the relationship between body image, anxiety, food-specific inhibitory control, and emotional eating in young women with abdominal obesity. Method A total of 224 participants were recruited: 168 were non-abdominal obesity and 56 were abdominal obesity. Participants completed the following questionnaires and behavioral tests: the Body Mass Index (BMI) -based Silhouette-Matching Test (SMT), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Food Stop Signal Task (SST), the Emotional Eating Scale (EES). Results Abdominal obesity women had significantly higher levels of trait anxiety, cognitive difference, expectational difference in body image but lower self-reported emotional eating level compared to the control group. Anxiety mediated the relationship between cognitive difference of body image and depression eating in young females with abdominal obesity. In addition, only among abdominal obesity individuals, expectational difference of body image were significantly and positively correlated with food-specific inhibitory control and trait/state anxiety. Conclusion The findings suggest it is of critical importance to promote a healthy body image recognition and expectation and improve mood regulation for young females with abdominal obesity high in trait anxiety.

This study aimed to investigate the common predictive factors between social media addiction (SMA) and eating disorder symptoms (EDS), in a group of Chinese female college students. A total of 216 students completed the behavioral assessments of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention, as well as the questionnaires on anxiety, social media dependence, and eating disorders. The results indicate that SMA is significantly correlated with EDS. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model in which state anxiety, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention predicted social gain and EDS. Additionally, the results confirmed the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention between state anxiety and SMA/EDS in the participants. The findings revealed that in the sample group, state anxiety was related to SMA and EDS through cognitive flexibility and sustained attention. These proposals reflect the significance of improving cognitive flexibility/sustained attention and reducing state anxiety to prevent EDS and SMA in female college students.

Background Social media dependence (SMD) and eating disorders (ED) risk are often thought to be inextricably linked. Because social media dependence often precedes an ED, predicts poor outcome, and persists even after recovery from an ED, it is important to examine whether certain factors have the ability to potentially attenuate or intensify SMD’s effect on eating disorders. Methods In the current study, we examined one possible moderating factor: impulsiveness. 767 undergraduates (mean age = 18.78 years, SD = 1.20) in Shaanxi province of China, completed anonymous questionnaires regarding social media dependence, eating disorders, impulsiveness. Results Revealed that non-planned impulsiveness (NPI) moderated the relation between SMD and ED risk. Individuals who were low in SMD and who reported low levels of NPI reported much lower levels of ED risk than those with low SMD and high NPI. However, Individuals who were high in SMD and who reported low levels of NPI reported much higher levels of ED risk than those with high SMD and high NPI. Contrary to our hypotheses, Motor impulsiveness and cognitive impulsiveness did not emerge as moderators of the relation between SMD and ED risk. Conclusions Results provide growing support that factors that interact with SMD can lessen or aggravate SMD’s effect on ED risk. These findings can be beneficial to our understanding of how and when social media dependence impacts undergraduates’ eating disorders risk.