Reciprocal relationship between interpersonal communication and depressive symptoms and the mediating role of resilience across two years: Three-wave cross-lagged panel model

Exploring the developmental changes in and the relationship between resilience and anxiety and depression in older gastric cancer survivors: A latent growth mixture model and random intercept cross-lagged panel model analysis

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to investigate the independent and joint trajectories of resilience, anxiety, and depression symptoms and research the interaction between older gastric cancer survivors' resilience and anxiety-depression during the period of 1 year after surgery.

METHODS

The participants were 381 older gastric cancer survivors, with a mean age of 69 years. Resilience, anxiety, and depression symptoms were assessed immediately after surgery, and at 3, 6, and 12 months post-surgery, respectively. A longitudinal design was employed to capture the dynamic changes in resilience, anxiety, and depression levels among older gastric cancer survivors post-surgery. Latent growth mixture model and random intercept cross-lagged panel model were used to analyse the trajectories of resilience and anxiety-depression and the interaction between them.

RESULTS

Two latent trajectories were identified for the resilience, four latent trajectories were identified for the anxiety, and five latent trajectories were identified for the depression, respectively, with three joint trajectories identified: gradual-increasing resilience, gradual-decreasing anxiety, and depression group (10.0%); gradual-decreasing resilience, gradual-increasing anxiety, and depression group (21.2%); and rapid-growth resilience, rapid-decline anxiety, and depression group (68.8%). Resilience among older gastric cancer survivors exhibits significant bidirectional and negative predictive effects on anxiety and depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Individual differences in resilience, anxiety, and depression trajectories exist among older gastric cancer survivors, with heterogeneous joint progression patterns, and the relationship between resilience and anxiety-depression appears bidirectional. More sophisticated intervention programmes tailored to the unique characteristics of the relevant trajectories are necessary to enhance resilience and mitigate the risk of anxiety and depression.

Social Support and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents: The Differential Influences of Family, Friends, and Teachers

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is common among adolescents and is associated with a range of detrimental consequences. Family, teachers, and friends are essential sources of social support for adolescents. Increased social support from these sources may reduce NSSI behaviors among adolescents. However, it is uncertain if each source of social support retains its significance when their influences are evaluated simultaneously, and how each source influences the others to impact NSSI behaviors. To address this gap, this research investigated the direct and indirect effects of each source of social support on adolescent NSSI using cross-lagged panel model (CLPM), as well as whether these relationships varied by sex. A total of 3098 Chinese adolescents with a range of 10 to 15 years old (Mage = 13.27, SD = 0.73, 42.4% girls) completed assessments on three waves across approximately two years. The results indicated that teacher support compared to family and friend support showed the strongest association with NSSI behaviors and mediated the relationship between family support and NSSI. These findings highlight teacher support as a hub in the role of social support on NSSI and emphasize the importance of the connections between teacher and family support.

Coping efforts made: Psychological burden of people living with tuberculosis due to social stigma in society. A qualitative phenomenology study

The psychological burden is greatly felt by people living with tuberculosis because the characteristics of the disease are very visible and very contagious, and the obligation to take the right dose of medication with long treatment. This is what makes tuberculosis a very stigmatic disease. The aim of this research is to explore the psychological burden felt by people living with tuberculosis due to social stigma by society and how coping efforts are made. This research uses a qualitative phenomenological design through in-depth face-to-face interviews which take place in a semi-structured manner with the hope of obtaining complete data. The purposive sampling method was used in this research with Participatory Interpretative Phenomenology analysis involving 25 participants consisting of 16 men and 9 women. This research produced several themes, including 1) "The Perception of stigma limiting space and time", 2) "The Opportunities for interpersonal interaction become narrow", 3) "The mental stress as a challenging emotion", and 4) " Expanding coping efforts". The psychological burden is felt by people living with tuberculosis because society's treatment is felt to be very discriminatory due to the social stigma that has developed in society so they lose the opportunity to interact with society. For that reason, they tried to explore some of the personal and environmental resources used to modify adaptive coping in resolving perceived psychological burdens. Given the possibility of ongoing stigma and discrimination during tuberculosis treatment programs, it is important to consider the psychological burden in this context, both on the general population and on groups affected by stigma.

Examining bidirectional relations between sleep problems and non-suicidal self-injury/suicidal behavior in adolescents: emotion regulation difficulties and externalizing problems as mediators

Based on previous empirical evidences and theoretical framework, sleep problems and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)/suicidal behavior may bidirectionally related to one another. However, this still needs to be examined through longitudinal research. Moreover, the mediating mechanisms accounting for their potential bidirectional relations have yet to be fully investigated. This study thus aimed to evaluate whether sleep problems and NSSI/suicidal behavior promoted each other directly or indirectly through the mediating roles of emotion regulation difficulties (ERD) and externalizing problems. A total of 1648 Chinese adolescents (48.12% boys; Mage = 13.69; SD = 0.82; Age range = 11-16 years old at T1) completed self-report measures on 3-time points across 1 year. Cross-lagged panel models were used to examine the focal longitudinal associations. Results revealed a predictive effect of sleep problems on NSSI and a positive bidirectional relation between sleep problems and suicidal behavior. Moreover, sleep problems exerted an indirect effect on NSSI through ERD, and vice versa. Additionally, both ERD and externalizing problems served as mediators in the pathway from suicidal behavior to sleep problems. This study disentangled the differential mediating roles of ERD and externalizing problems in the longitudinal associations between sleep problems and NSSI/suicidal behavior, which may help provide a more holistic theoretical framework through which to precisely identify key targets for early prevention and intervention of sleep problems and NSSI/suicidal behavior in adolescents.

Psychological Capital and Its Factors as Mediators Between Interpersonal Sensitivity and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Undergraduates

Purpose

Current interpersonal sensitivity among college students is easily linked to mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. This study aims to examine the mediating role of psychological capital and its dimensions in the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and depressive symptoms among undergraduates.

Methods

The cross-sectional survey was conducted by using cluster stratified random sampling method across six Chinese universities between November and December 2022. The questionnaire consists of the Interpersonal Sensitivity sub-scale, the Patient Health Questionnaire, the Psychological Capital Questionnaire and the Socio-Demographic Feature Questionnaire.

Results

A total of 2580 respondents participated in the survey, with the majority being females (69.73%) and an average age of 19.22±1.28 years. Descriptive and correlation analyses were performed using SPSS v24.0, while direct and indirect effects were analyzed using PROCESS v3.4 macro. The findings revealed that interpersonal sensitivity had a significant direct effect on depression symptoms among undergraduates (β =0.416, 95% Boot CI [0.380, 0.453], p < 0.001) Additionally, psychological capital and its components were found to be negatively correlated with depression (p < 0.001). Further analysis demonstrated that hope, optimism, and resilience significantly mediated the association between interpersonal sensitivity and depressive symptoms (indirect effect: hope = 0.056, optimism = 0.074, resilience = 0.099; p < 0.001 for all).

Conclusion

These results suggest that psychological capital, including its dimensions of hope, optimism, and resilience plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of interpersonal sensitivity on depressive symptoms among undergraduates.