Reparative prosocial behaviors alleviate children's guilt

Recognising depression in non-human primates: a narrative review of reported signs of depression

Major depressive disorder (depression) is a highly heterogenous human mental disorder that may have equivalents in non-human animals. Research into non-human depression teaches us about human depression and can contribute to enhance welfare of non-human animals. Here, we narratively review how signs of depression in non-human primates (NHPs) can be observed based on symptoms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Furthermore, we propose diagnostic criteria of NHP depression and we review reports on signs of depression in NHPs. We diagnose an NHP with depression when it shows a core sign (depressed mood or anhedonia) alongside at least three other DSM-5-derived signs of depression. Results show that four out of six observable signs of depression are present in NHPs, occasionally lasting for months. However, only a group of six NHPs in one study met our proposed criteria for a diagnosis of depression. We call for more research into the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms in individual NHPs to establish the prevalence of depression in NHPs.

How shared versus unshared parental contribution to child risk influences guilt responses

The extent to which parents experience guilt related to their child's health may depend on their perceptions of their contribution to these outcomes. The impact of the child's "other" biological parent's (OBP) contribution to child health on guilt responses is understudied. Some models posit a diffusion-of-responsibility process, while others favor a heightened-risk-heightened-guilt model. The present study examines how perceived OBP contribution to child risk affects guilt among a sample of parents with self-reported overweight. Parents who perceived their child's OBP to also have overweight experienced more guilt for passing down genetic and family environment-based obesity risk to their child, which suggests that perceptions of shared risk contribution promote guilt-related outcomes. Additionally, risk information endorsing a gene-environment interaction liability framing was the most responsive to OBP weight status. These results support a heightened-risk-heightened-guilt process. Future work should consider guilt when developing child health interventions to avoid undesirable emotional outcomes among parents.

Community Violence Exposure and Bullying in Mexican Adolescents. The Mediating Role of Moral Emotions

Community characteristics can explain differences in bullying rates between schools. Underpinned by the social-ecological model, this study examined the relationships among community violence exposure (CVE), moral emotions (guilt and sympathy), and bullying in adolescents. We also explored the moderating role of gender in these relationships. The sample included 915 adolescents (48.6% female and 51.4% male) aged 11-16 (M age = 13.76, SD = 0.82). Students responded to the self-report measures. We used a latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to examine the relationships between variables. The SEM indicated that CVE was negatively associated with moral emotions (guilt and sympathy) and positively associated with bullying. In addition, CVE had a negative indirect association with bullying through their negative relationship with moral emotions. The structural model is equivalent for both genders, suggesting gender does not moderate these relationships. These findings indicate that CVE are associated with differences in school bullying rates.

Interpersonal Guilt and Problematic Online Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation

OBJECTIVE

The positive association between problematic Internet use (PIU) and emotion dysregulation (ED) is well documented. Research has also found that interpersonal guilt is positively associated with ED. Nevertheless, the influence of interpersonal guilt on PIU has been scarcely examined. In the current study, we investigated the relationships among the three constructs, and tested if emotion dysregulation mediates the association between interpersonal guilt and different types of PIU, namely problematic online gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic online pornography use.

METHOD

A sample of 434 adult participants (210 males, 48.4%) aged between 18 and 69 years old completed self-reported measures on interpersonal guilt, ED, and PIU. A structural equation modeling (SEM) framework was used to test the mediation models.

RESULTS

SEM analyses showed that ED mediates the relationship between interpersonal guilt as antecedent, and problematic online gaming, problematic social media use, and problematic online pornography use as outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that emotion dysregulation deriving from experiences of interpersonal guilt can amplify the risk of using gaming, social media, and online pornography in a problematic way. Implications for prevention and treatment of PIU are discussed.

Is feeling bad good enough? Ethical guilt and callous-unemotional traits in childhood

Lacking the capacity for guilt is a defining characteristic of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Although guilt is a multifaceted construct, past CU research has rarely considered the reasons underlying children's negative emotional responses to wrongdoing. The present study investigated how different forms of guilt were associated with CU traits during early and middle childhood in a Canadian community sample. We interviewed 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 300; 50% female) to assess their emotion attributions and reasoning in response to hypothetical acts of aggression. Interview responses were used to calculate variables representing undifferentiated, ethical, and non-ethical guilt ratings. Caregivers rated children's CU tendencies at baseline and again 3 years later. Higher ethical guilt was associated with lower CU scores concurrently and 3 years later. Higher non-ethical guilt was associated with higher CU scores at baseline (for older children) and 3 years later (for all children). Undifferentiated guilt was not associated with CU after controlling for demographic variables.

Prosocial Behavior and Aggression in the Daily School Lives of Early Adolescents

Research has not adequately addressed a possible mutual co-regulatory influence of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in adolescents' daily lives. This study explored bidirectional within-person associations between prosocial and aggressive behaviors in the daily school lives of early adolescents. The sample included 242 sixth-graders [M_age = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. Adolescents reported on daily prosocial behavior and reactive and proactive aggression for ten consecutive days. Teachers and adolescents reported on adolescents' overall prosocial behaviors. Across-day prosocial behaviors increased after days when adolescents exhibited more reactive aggression but not among self-reported low-prosocial adolescents. Increased prosocial behaviors did not mitigate aggression the next day. The findings suggest prosocial behaviors are a plausible compensatory strategy after daily aggressive reactions.

Conscience and theory of mind in children aged 4 to 7 years

Associations between three dimensions of early conscience-moral reasoning, the capacity to experience guilt, and the moral self-and theory of mind (ToM) were examined in children aged 4-7 years (N = 80). Participants were administered a task assessing their understanding of the intentions and actions of a transgressor in situations entailing intentional and accidental wrongdoing, a moral self scale, and a battery of first-order and second-order false belief tasks. Children's capacity to experience guilt was measured via parent report. Expressive vocabulary was also measured. Repeated-measures analysis of covariance with ToM, age, and their interaction as covariates revealed that children who had higher ToM scores attributed more positive intentions to the accidental transgressor than to the intentional transgressor and judged the intentional transgressor's action as more wrongful than children who scored lower on these tasks. Ηierarchical regression analyses also indicated that a more advanced ToM performance predicted higher levels of guilt and the moral self after accounting for age and expressive vocabulary.

Cortical thinning in preschoolers with maladaptive guilt

Maladaptive guilt is a central symptom of preschool-onset depression associated with severe psychopathology in adolescence and adulthood. Although studies have found that maladaptive guilt is associated with structural alterations in the anterior insula (AI) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in middle childhood and adolescence, no study has examined structural neural correlates of maladaptive guilt in preschool, when this symptom first emerges. This study examined a pooled sample of 3-to 6-year-old children (N = 76; 40.8% female) from two studies, both which used the same type of magnetic resonance imaging scanner and conducted diagnostic interviews for depression that included clinician ratings of whether children met criteria for maladaptive guilt. Preschoolers with maladaptive guilt displayed significantly thinner dmPFC than children without this symptom. Neither children's depressive severity nor their vegetative or other emotional symptoms of depression were associated with dmPFC thickness, suggesting that dmPFC thinning is specific to maladaptive guilt. Neither AI gray matter volume or thickness nor dmPFC gray matter volume differed between children with and without maladaptive guilt. This study is the first to identify a structural biomarker for a specific depressive symptom in preschool. Findings may inform neurobiological models of the development of depression and aid in detection of this symptom.

Toddlers imitate prosocial demonstrations in bystander but not transgressor contexts

Although prosocial abilities are associated with a wide range of healthy outcomes, few studies have experimentally examined socialization practices that may cause increased prosocial responding. The purpose of this study was to investigate conditions under which 2- and 3-year-old children can acquire prosocial behaviors through imitation. In Study 1 (N = 53), toddlers in the experimental condition watched a video of an adult comfort a woman in distress by performing a novel prosocial action without depicting how the woman was hurt. Parents then pretended they hurt their own finger and feigned distress. Children in the experimental condition were more likely to imitate the novel action relative to two control groups: (a) children who did not watch the video but witnessed a distressed parent, and (b) children who watched the video but witnessed parents engage in a neutral interaction. Thus, in a bystander context where children witnessed parent distress, toddlers imitated a general demonstration of how to respond prosocially to distress and applied this information to a specific distress scenario. In Study 2 (N = 54), the procedures were identical to those in the first study except that children were led to believe that they had transgressed to cause parent distress. In a transgressor context, children in the experimental condition were not more likely to imitate the prosocial behavior relative to children in either control group. These studies demonstrate that whether or not children have caused a victim's distress greatly affects their ability to apply a socially learned prosocial behavior, possibly due to self-conscious emotions such as guilt and shame.

Prevalence and correlates of maladaptive guilt in middle childhood

BACKGROUND

Maladaptive guilt can develop by age three and is associated with severe affective psychopathology in adolescents and adults. Yet, little is known about its prevalence prior to adolescence, or which children are at greatest risk of developing this symptom. This study examined the prevalence and correlates of maladaptive guilt in middle childhood.

METHODS

This study examined a large community sample of 9-to 10-year-old children (N = 4485) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Maladaptive guilt was assessed through the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for DSM-5. Parental rejection, family conflict, and parental depression were assessed via questionnaires.

RESULTS

In depressed children, a 1-month prevalence of maladaptive guilt of 18.4% and a lifetime prevalence of 30.8% was found. Lifetime rates ranged from 1.8 to 4.1% in children with other psychiatric disorders. Cross-sectionally, maladaptive guilt was associated with lower family income-to-needs, greater family conflict, a history of maternal depression, and greater parental rejection. These findings held when controlling for children's depressive severity, indicating that these associations are specific to maladaptive guilt.

LIMITATIONS

Maladaptive guilt was assessed through one item, though many studies of maladaptive guilt measure the symptom in this manner.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that it may be beneficial for clinicians to assess for maladaptive guilt beyond the context of assessment for depression, particularly with children of low socioeconomic status and children of depressed mothers, whom this study suggests are at higher risk. Negative family climates and parenting might also be important targets of preventative interventions.

A Systematic Review of Instruments to Assess Guilt in Children and Adolescents

Background: Guilt feelings have received considerable attention in past psychological theory and research. Several studies have been conducted that represent a range of views and propose various implications of guilt in children and adolescents. Variations in theoretical definitions of guilt, emphasizing a lack of measurement convergence, make it difficult to derive a comprehensive definition of the construct in childhood and adolescence. Research shows substantial variability in instruments used to measure guilt in children and adolescents. Purpose: The aim is to discuss existing contributions, illustrating the empirical validity of the available instruments used to measure guilt and identifying the nature of their theoretical backgrounds among children and adolescents. Methods: A systematic search was conducted using the following databases: PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed (all years up to February 19, 2020). Search terms were compiled into three concepts for all databases: "measure," "guilt," and "childhood/adolescence." In addition, a search was conducted to detect the gray literature. Results: After removing the duplicates, a total of 1,408 records were screened, resulting in the identification of 166 full-text articles to be further scrutinized. Upon closer examination, there was consensus that 148 of those studies met the study inclusion criteria or were not retrieved. Twenty-five studies were included in the quality assessment. The data were organized on three main categories: (1) interpersonal or prosocial guilt; (2) intrapunitive guilt or that referring to an excessive sense of responsibility; (3) not specifying a theoretical construct. A great heterogeneity in psychometric evaluations and substantial variability in guilt construct emerged. The construct most represented and supported by valid instruments was interpersonal or prosocial guilt. Analysis of the gray literature showed that some instruments were not immediately available to the clinical and scientific communities. Conclusions: The studies analyzed and selected for qualitative review employed various instruments to measure guilt. Results confirmed what is widely documented in the literature about substantial variability in instruments used to measure guilt. We argue the need to develop measures that assess currently overlooked dimensions of guilt and to provide further additional information about the psychometric proprieties of the available developed instruments.