Limited literature exists on men's experiences with intimate partner violence (IPV) during the COVID-19 lockdown, especially in resource-constrained settings like Nigeria. We investigated the prevalence, risk factors, and lifetime experiences of IPV among men in Nigeria, during COVID-19 restrictions. Using a mixed methods design, we interviewed 420 married men with a structured questionnaire and conducted 20 in-depth interviews. Logistic regression and a framework approach were used for data analysis. Approximately 86.4% of respondents (n=363) experienced IPV at some point in their lifetime. The prevalence of IPV during the COVID-19 restrictions was 76.2% (n=320). Over a lifetime, verbal (67.4%), physical (78.1%), and sexual coercion (81.0%) were the most common forms of IPV. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the corresponding proportions were 48.6%, 69.5%, and 57.4%, respectively. Male- and female-perpetrated IPV over a lifetime (88.3% vs 87.6%) and during COVID-19 restrictions (88.3% vs 81.4%) were similar (p>0.05). Older age, non-Muslim religion, longer marital duration, partner's profession, and no formal education were associated with higher IPV risk. Home confinement, financial stress, childbirth, disrespect towards spouse's parents, emotional detachment, disputes about child discipline, and suspected infidelity contributed to IPV. Men's active involvement in family life, improved communication, and increased transparency emerged as protective factors. Our findings highlight the high rates of IPV during the pandemic, with men as both perpetrators and victims. Future epidemic preparedness plans should prioritize IPV prevention strategies that enhance partner communication, promote male involvement in family life, address the gender education gap, and provide support services.

Trauma exposure and alcohol use often co-occur. Unveiling predictors of drinking behavior, including among those with varying levels of trauma exposure, can inform behavioral health prevention and treatment efforts in at-risk populations. The current study examined associations between depressive symptoms, avoidant coping, gender, and alcohol use among emerging adults with and without trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were 238 emerging adults between the ages of 21 and 30 years ( = 24.75; = 2.61) in one of three groups: trauma-exposed with PTSD ( = 70); trauma-exposed with no PTSD ( = 83); or a no trauma (control) group ( = 85). Demographics, parental alcohol problems, depressive symptoms, and avoidant coping were examined as predictors of drinks per drinking day. Chi-square, t-test, bivariate, and group path analysis were conducted. Among participants, men consumed greater amounts of alcohol than women across all three groups. Group assignment based on trauma history and PTSD significantly moderated the association between avoidant coping and alcohol use such that avoidant coping had a significant effect on alcohol use among participants in the trauma-exposed and PTSD groups. There was also a significant group × gender × avoidant coping interaction such that, among participants in the control group, men had attenuated alcohol use at low levels of avoidant coping and increased at high levels of avoidant coping. No effects of race were observed. Results highlight the importance of avoidant coping as a risk factor for problematic drinking, unveiling a specific intervention target for reducing co-occurring PTSD and problematic alcohol use.

Social support is a treatment target for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is not systematically assessed in clinical care. This review evaluated the quality of patient-reported social support instruments used in PTSD research to identify candidates for measurement-based care (MBC) with this population.

With research on mindfulness increasing exponentially, it is important to clarify factors that may influence the success of this approach. We examined the construct of mindfulness meditation practice quality using longitudinal data drawn from a randomized controlled trial testing low-dose mindfulness practices with novice mindfulness practitioners from the general population ( = 48). Results suggest that increases in mindfulness practice quality over time are associated with improvements in psychological outcomes (anxiety, stress, and mindfulness), but not vice versa. Findings join previous research supporting the notion that mindfulness practice quality is an important element of mindfulness training in higher-dose programs as well as low-dose and self-help mindfulness programs and practices. Therefore, this research contributes to finding further support of the importance of mindfulness practice quality as a cause of improvement in psychological distress. This needs to be explored further in future research.

Feelings of happiness have been associated with better performance in creative and flexible thinking and processing. Less is known about whether happier individuals have better performance on basic cognitive functions and slower rate of cognitive decline. In a large sample from the UK Biobank (=17,885; Age 40-70 years), we examine the association between baseline happiness and cognitive function (speed of processing, visuospatial memory, reasoning) over four assessment waves spanning up to 10 years of follow-up. Greater happiness was associated with better speed and visuospatial memory performance across assessments independent of vascular or depression risk factors. Happiness was associated with worse reasoning. No association was found between happiness and the rate of change over time on any of the cognitive tasks. The cognitive benefits of happiness may extend to cognitive functions such as speed and memory but not more complex processes such as reasoning, and happiness may not be predictive of the rate of cognitive decline over time. More evidence on the association between psychological well-being and different cognitive functions is needed to shed light on potential interventional efforts.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the association between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and Intimate Partner Aggression (IPA) is necessary for decreasing risk for IPA among lower-SES individuals. As limited control over one's external environment impacts individuals' ability to internally control their emotional states, the present study examined impulsivity and anger as serial mediators in the association from SES to IPA perpetration. Structural equation modeling analyses ( = 430 men, age = 24.66, 66.8% White) showed direct effects from lower SES to higher physical and sexual IPA. Additionally, there was a marginally significant indirect effect from SES to psychological IPA via higher impulsivity and anger. These findings may inform the development of interventions, showing that self-regulatory skills training may help lower psychological aggression. To address physical and sexual IPA, efforts that directly target the detriments of lower SES - via financial, housing, or educational support programs - may be indicated.

We assessed the cross-cultural role of Time Perspective (TP) tendencies [Past Positive (PP), Past Negative (PN), Present Hedonistic (PH), Present Fatalistic (PF), and Future (F)], the Deviation from a Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP) profile, the Deviation from a Negative Time Perspective (DNTP) profile, and mindfulness on life satisfaction (LS). The sample consisted of psychology undergraduate students (N= 867, M= 20.19, = 3.417) in four countries: USA, Spain, Poland and Japan. We used a 17-item short version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) in all countries. For ensuring measurement invariance, we conducted pairwise CFAs for the ZTPI-17, MAAS and SWLS. Regression analyses showed that PN predicted decreased LS in Poland and Japan. PP predicted increased LS in Spain. F predicted increased LS in Poland. DNTP predicted decreased LS in Poland. Mindfulness predicted decreased LS in Japan and increased LS in USA, Spain and Poland. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that the DBTP partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and LS in Spain and USA. The DNTP partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and LS in Spain, Poland and Japan (opposite direction). The findings suggest that the association of TP, mindfulness and LS differs across the investigated countries as a function of culture.

Military deployment and reintegration challenges permeate the lives and relationships of Veterans, their spouses, and their families. Among these challenges, 23% of post-9/11 Veterans have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Psychiatric service dogs have been found to help clinically alleviate PTSD symptoms when used as a complementary intervention. However, minimal research exists that explores the role of the service dog as a mechanism for cultivating resilience within the military family system. Researchers utilized a qualitative, constant comparative approach to analyze self-reported experiences of 101 individuals, including Veterans ( = 67) and their spouses ( = 34). Analyzed through the framework of the Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (Afifi et al., 2016), findings suggest complex communication processes that facilitate relational and family adaptation. These processes encompassed (a) the role of the service dog in building emotional reserves, (b) relational load introduced when caring for the service dog, and (c) the service dog's facilitation of relational maintenance behaviors among family members that contributed to communal orientation. Based on the results of this qualitative analysis, researchers suggest educational interventions where service dog trainers and mental health practitioners can incorporate relational maintenance strategies and family-focused approaches to integrating service dogs as military family members.

The present study aims to expand the existing research by uncovering the overlooked role of situational factors in shaping employee perceived shared leadership. To further advance this field of research, our study introduces a novel situational phenomenon called perceived institutional empowerment. Based on social information processing theory and adaptive leadership theory, we assume that perceived institutional empowerment may have a positive impact on perceived shared leadership via a chain mediating mechanism of perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological safety. Using a sample of 302 participants from a large Chinese service company, the hypotheses were successfully validated. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in our study.

Urban residents are disproportionately affected by violence exposure and mental health consequences as compared to non-urban residents. The present study examined the prevalence of violence exposure and associated mental health consequences among urban and non-urban youth. Urban participants were drawn from Detroit, Michigan, a city that has led the nation for most of the last decade as one of the most violent big cities in the U.S. Participants included 32 Detroit youth and 32 youth recruited from the surrounding non-urban areas, matched on age (M=10.4±2.8 years) and sex (49% male). Youth completed validated measures of violence exposure, anxiety, and depression symptoms. Urban youth reported more violence exposures than their non-urban counterparts, including hearing gunshots (69% vs. 19%, respectively), witnessing a shooting (24% vs. 6%), and witnessing an arrest (58% vs. 27%). Overall, greater violence exposure was associated with more anxiety symptoms, particularly among urban youth. Although violence exposure was not associated with depressive symptoms overall, urban youth reported significantly higher depressive symptoms than non-urban youth. Exposure to specific violence types, particularly hearing gunshots, was associated with higher anxiety and depressive symptoms among urban but not non-urban youth. Being beat up predicted depressive symptoms among non-urban but not urban youth. Household income and community distress did not predict mental health outcomes. Taken together, urban youth have more exposure to violence, particularly firearm violence, and associated mental health problems than their non-urban counterparts. Targeted community-wide initiatives to prevent violence and identify exposed youth are needed to improve mental health in at-risk communities.

The previous studies have reported that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have detrimental effects on victims' attachment styles, emotion regulation strategies and depression. How the insecure attachment styles and emotion dysregulation strategies play a role in the relationship between ACEs and depression among Chinese university students remains unclear. The research was made known to students studying at universities in China. Five hundred and eighty-nine college students completed questionnaires measuring ACEs, insecure attachment styles, emotion dysregulation strategies and depression. Sequential chain mediation model was built by Mplus. The model showed that insecure attachment styles and emotion dysregulation strategies mediated the relationship between ACEs and depression respectively. Moreover, the sequential chain mediation showed an indirect path (ACEs - insecure attachment styles - emotion dysregulation strategies - depression). Following childhood adversities, students can experience elevated depression which is influenced by attachment styles and emotion regulation strategies.

The present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships among problematic smartphone use (PSU), depressive symptoms (DS), and suicidal ideation (SI) in Chinese university students. Using a cross-lagged design, the Mobile Phone Addiction Inventory Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and the Self-Rating Idea of Suicide Scale as research instruments, 194 university students completed a questionnaire four consecutive times. June of Year 1, December of Year 2, June of Year 2, and December of Year 3 of their college study. We refer to these as the Time 1 (T1), Time 2 (T2), Time 3 (T3), and Time 4 (T4) assessments, respectively. The levels of PSU and DS fluctuated significantly over time. DS at T1 was significantly predicted to influence SI at T2 ( = 0.17,  < .05); DS at T3 was significantly predicted by PSU and by SI at T2 (respectively,  = 0.30,  < .05;  = 0.21,  < .05); DS at T2 significantly predicted PSU at T3 ( = 0.14,  < .05); and DS at T3 significantly predicted SI at T4 ( = 0.14,  < .05) in the cross-lagged pathway. DS at T3 fully mediated the relationship between PSU at T2 and SI at T4 (indirect effect:  = 0.133, 95% CI = [0.063, 0.213]). The results suggest that there is a reciprocal relationship between PSU and DS and, furthermore, that DS plays an important mediating role between PSU and SI. Our results suggest the importance of early identification and treatment of SI. Timely reduction of PSU and improvement of DS among university students may help prevent SI.

Research has shown that anthropomorphic products can compensate for the lack of belongingness and control. These findings suggest that anthropomorphic products may also protect against mortality salience, which has been shown in numerous research studies to be closely related to both belongingness and control motives. In two high-powered experiments, the present research aimed to investigate the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products and test the moderating role of three relevant factors, namely, belongingness, self-esteem, and attachment style. In the first study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes vs. no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes vs. no) between-subjects factorial design experiment. In the second study, we conducted a 2 (mortality salience: yes, no) x 2 (anthropomorphism: yes, no) mixed design experiment, in which we manipulated mortality salience between subjects and anthropomorphism within subjects. We found no evidence for the effect of mortality salience on preference for anthropomorphic products, nor for the moderating roles of belongingness, attachment style, or self-esteem. However, we found that anthropomorphism had a large, positive main effect on attitudes toward the product only when a non-anthropomorphic comparison was available. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Highly aggressive individuals tend to interpret others' motives and intentions as hostile in both offline and online social situations. The current study examined whether hostile interpretation bias can be modified to influence cyber-aggression in Chinese middle school students using an interpretation bias modification program. Gender differences and the heterogeneity of cyber-aggression were also investigated since previous studies suggest that they play important roles in determining the intervention effect. One hundred and twenty-one middle school students were randomized to receive either an eight-session interpretation bias modification task (CBM-I;  = 61) or an eight-session placebo control task (PCT;  = 60) over four weeks. Measures of hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression were administered at baseline, post-training, and at one week follow-up. Results showed that compared to PCT, participants in CBM-I showed a significant reduction in reactive cyber-aggression. However, contrary to our expectation, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the reduction of hostile attribution bias after training. The moderated mediation analysis revealed that the effect of CBM-I on hostile attribution bias and the mediating role of hostile attribution bias in the relationship between CBM-I condition and reactive cyber-aggression was only observed among females, but not among males. These findings provide initial evidence for the potential of CBM-I in reducing hostile attribution bias and cyber-aggression. However, for male students, CBM-I might not be effective enough as expected.

Victimization is a well-established driver of sexual minority youth's (SMY) mental health and substance use risk. The current study examined and extended this research by exploring how victimization, cybervictimization, and non-parental supportive adults contribute to SMY's vulnerability to poor mental health and substance use. Using data from the first representative sample of Texas youth that measures sexual identity, we analyzed sex-stratified models of the association between sexual identity, mental health, and substance use, and the confounding effects of victimization, cybervictimization, and non-parental adult support. Victimization was more common among SMY and accounted for a greater proportion of sexual identity disparities on mental health and substance use, especially for males. Sexual minority females were more likely to report cybervictimization than heterosexual youth, and cybervictimization was associated with mental health risk. SMY reported fewer available non-parental supportive adults, which was associated with more sadness, suicidality, and polysubstance use. Our study adds to extant evidence that victimization drives SMY's increased susceptibility to mental health and substance use risk. Schools should implement inclusive policies that prohibit bullying based on sexual minority identity and offer professional development opportunities for supporting SMY.

Recent theoretical advances have grounded gelotophobia (Greek:  = laughter,  = fear) in a dynamic framework of causes, moderating factors, and consequences of the fear of being laughed at. This understanding corresponds to that of and translates gelotophobia into a distinguishable pattern of lacking resources (i.e., misinterpretation of joy and laughter) that can result in negative consequences (e.g., reduced well-being and performance) if individuals have no access to further resources (e.g., social support) or are exposed to severe stressors (e.g., workplace bullying). Based on the panel data provided by the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research LIVES ( 2469 across six measurement intervals), this study takes the first step toward empirically testing this model's assumptions: First, we computed exemplary zero-order correlations and showed that gelotophobia was negatively connected with social support (resource) and life and job satisfaction (consequences) and positively connected with perceived stress, work stress, and workplace bullying (stressors). Second, we used longitudinal cluster analyses (KmL; k-means-longitudinal) and showed that the panel data can be clustered into three stable patterns of life and job satisfaction and that gelotophobia is primarily related to the two clusters marked by lower levels of satisfaction. Third, we computed partial correlations and showed that social support, perceived stress, and work stress (but not workplace bullying) can weaken or completely resolve gelotophobia's relationships with such diverging trajectories of life and job satisfaction. We concluded that seeing gelotophobia through the lens of vulnerability is useful and that such research warrants further attention using more dedicated, theoretically grounded projects.

This interdisciplinary study examined the structure of humor creation in the specific context of efforts to positively reappraise stressful situations for effective coping. In a sample of  = 101 participants, a performance test was used to assess the quantity (fluency, number of generated ideas that qualified as humor) and quality (rated funniness) of humor creation in cognitive reappraisal. Linguistic mechanisms were identified and quantified using cognitive-linguistic methods of corpus analysis, and their employment was correlated with humor production performance on the level of the individual. Almost all individuals were able to come up with reappraisal ideas that qualified as humorous. Depressive symptoms, a negative mood state, and high perceptions of threat did not compromise the participants' capability to create humor. Individuals who were more serious-minded as a trait produced ideas that were rated as less funny, but their basic ability to create humor was unaffected. Metonymy (a contiguity-based principle of meaning extension) emerged as by far the most prominent semantic mechanism in the creation of humorous re-interpretations. Furthermore, its use was related to good humor creation performance in terms of quantity and quality, which is in line with its assumed importance in the extension of meaning in general and the creation of humor in particular. Further effective linguistic mechanisms and conceptual phenomena were identified. The empirical data may be valuable for the development of interventions involving the creation of humorous ideas for cognitive reappraisal.

In positive psychology, defining the wellbeing construct has been a challenge. We used the psychometric network approach to study the structure of wellbeing. The sample consisted of Dutch adults registered with the Netherlands Twin Register. The variables were measured through standardized surveys. The network was estimated using the Mixed Graphical Models method and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regularization to limit the number of spurious edges. We estimated a network in a trimming sample (=1343, 63% females, = 53.18, = 9.45) and in an estimation sample (=726, 75% females, = 45.27, = 11.12) to examine its performance and accuracy. Our final network consists of a positive cluster including satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, and flourishing items, and a negative cluster including depressive symptoms, loneliness, and neuroticism items. We identified the four most central nodes: one satisfaction with life item, one neuroticism item, and two depression items. This suggests that to get a general sense of the wellbeing construct, these items would serve as most informative.  The network approach clearly demonstrates the different, yet connected positive and negative clusters of wellbeing and therefore re-affirms the complex interconnectivity of wellbeing phenotypes. In addition, the network results reject the view of strictly delineated wellbeing domains. Having identified the most central nodes in the network, these can be used in futures studies with limited resources, as they are likely to be the most representative of the wellbeing spectrum.

This cross-cultural study compared judgments of moral wrongness for physical and emotional harm with varying combinations of in-group vs. out-group agents and victims across six countries: the United States of America (N = 937), the United Kingdom (N = 995), Romania (N = 782), Brazil (N = 856), South Korea (N = 1776), and China (N = 1008). Consistent with our hypothesis we found evidence of an insider agent effect, where moral violations committed by outsider agents are generally considered more morally wrong than the same violations done by insider agents. We also found support for an insider victim effect where moral violations that were committed against an insider victim generally were seen as more morally wrong than when the same violations were committed against an outsider, and this effect held across all countries. These findings provide evidence that the insider versus outsider status of agents and victims does affect moral judgments. However, the interactions of these identities with collectivism, psychological closeness, and type of harm (emotional or physical) are more complex than what is suggested by previous literature.

The impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on early child development is well-established, but the mediating role of parental mental health is poorly understood. Data were obtained from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC;  = 13,855), including measures of early SES (age 8 months), key aspects of development during mid-late childhood (ages 7-8 years), and maternal mental health during early childhood (ages 0-3 years). In the first year of life, better maternal mental health was shown to weaken the negative association between SES and child mental health. Better maternal mental health was additionally shown to weaken the association between SES and child cognitive ability. These findings highlight the variability and complexity of the mediating role of parental mental health on child development. They further emphasise the importance of proximal factors in the first year of life, such as parental mental health, in mediating key developmental outcomes.

This paper presents the RST-AQ, a 22-item scale to measure the affective states related to the three motivational systems postulated by Reinforcement Sensitivity theory (RST-AQ): the Behavioral approach system (BAS), Behavioral inhibition system (BIS), and the Fight-Flight-Freeze system (FFFS). The three subscales are internally consistent. Results show an overall support for construct validity of our RST-AQ measure. The correlations of the RST-AQ subscales with other measures demonstrate a good convergent and divergent validity with regard to the subscales of BAS and BIS. The RTS-AQ Scale provides researcher with the first instrument to measures the affective states of the RST theory.