Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder differs from anorexia nervosa in delay discounting

BACKGROUND

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and anorexia nervosa (AN) are the two primary restrictive eating disorders; however, they are driven by differing motives for inadequate dietary intake. Despite overlap in restrictive eating behaviors and subsequent malnutrition, it remains unknown if ARFID and AN also share commonalities in their cognitive profiles, with cognitive alterations being a key identifier of AN. Discounting the present value of future outcomes with increasing delay to their expected receipt represents a core cognitive process guiding human decision-making. A hallmark cognitive characteristic of individuals with AN (vs. healthy controls [HC]) is reduced discounting of future outcomes, resulting in reduced impulsivity and higher likelihood of favoring delayed gratification. Whether individuals with ARFID display a similar reduction in delay discounting as those with AN (vs. an opposing bias towards increased delay discounting or no bias) is important in informing transdiagnostic versus disorder-specific cognitive characteristics and optimizing future intervention strategies.

METHOD

To address this research question, 104 participants (ARFID: n = 57, AN: n = 28, HC: n = 19) completed a computerized Delay Discounting Task. Groups were compared by their delay discounting parameter (ln)k.

RESULTS

Individuals with ARFID displayed a larger delay discounting parameter than those with AN, indicating steeper delay discounting (M ± SD = -6.10 ± 2.00 vs. -7.26 ± 1.73, p = 0.026 [age-adjusted], Hedges' g = 0.59), with no difference from HC (p = 0.514, Hedges' g = -0.35).

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide a first indication of distinct cognitive profiles among the two primary restrictive eating disorders. The present results, together with future research spanning additional cognitive domains and including larger and more diverse samples of individuals with ARFID (vs. AN), will contribute to identifying maintenance mechanisms that are unique to each disorder as well as contribute to the optimization and tailoring of treatment strategies across the spectrum of restrictive eating disorders.

Links between parent-child conversations about emotions and changes in children's emotion knowledge across early childhood

This study examined different sources of emotion socialization. Children (N = 256, 115 girls, 129 boys, 12 child gender not reported) and parents (62% White, 9% Black, 19% Hispanic, 3% Asian American, and 7% "Other") were recruited from Denver, Colorado. In waves 1 (Mage  = 2.45 years, SD = 0.26) and 2 (Mage  = 3.51 years, SD = 0.26), parents and children discussed wordless images of children experiencing an emotion (e.g., sad after dropping ice cream). Children's emotion knowledge was assessed at waves 2 and 3 (Mage  = 4.48 years, SD = 0.26). Structural equation modeling found concurrent and prospective relations between parents' questions, parents' emotion talk, children's emotion talk, and children's emotion knowledge, highlighting the multidimensional nature of early emotion socialization.

"Oh no! What happened?" an investigation of parent-child conversations about self-conscious emotions

Parents play an important role in socializing children's emotion understanding. Previous research shows that parents emphasize different aspects of emotion contexts depending on the discrete emotion. However, there is limited research on how parents and children discuss self-conscious emotions, such as embarrassment, guilt, and shame, and what socialization practices parents employ to elicit children's talk about these emotions. In this study, children (N = 166, 78 females, 88 males) ages 2-3 years (M = 2.46, SD = 0.26) and their parents (65.5% White, 10.2% Black, 17.5% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian American, and 5.4% other) from a large city in the Western United States discussed a wordless storybook depicting different female and male characters experiencing self-conscious emotions (embarrassment, guilt, shame, awe, and pride). Parents' and children's emotion talk and parents' questions were coded from their conversations about each emotion scenario and subsequently analyzed by discrete emotion, child gender, and the depicted character's gender. Parents and children differentially focused on different aspects of each self-conscious emotion as a function of discrete emotion and picture gender, and elements of children's talk about self-conscious emotions were related to children's expressive language and age. Additionally, parents' emotion talk and questions about emotions were directly related to children's emotion talk, even after controlling for children's age, expressive language, and parental education. Taken together, these findings suggest that parent-child emotion conversations may be one context that facilitates the development of children's understanding of self-conscious emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

"I'll Walk with You": LGBTQ+ Individuals and Religious Belonging

Research on LGBTQ+ individuals, belonging, and religiosity has been mixed. Some studies have illustrated the ways religion can harm LGBTQ+ individuals while others suggest religion has positive impacts. In the current study, we sought to understand this complexity by examining the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals who have been or currently are affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (i.e. Mormon, LDS). A thematic analysis of 100 interviews with LGBTQ+ individuals currently or previously affiliated with the Church revealed various ways they feel belonging or the lack thereof in Latter-day Saint congregations and communities. These include sharing physical space, being invited to and included at events, receiving gifts or acts of service, seeing others' safety signals, hearing accepting and character-affirming language, and having others listen to them and give them voice. With the intent of fostering belonging, we discuss implications of this research for church communities and propose the belonging in practice: LGBTQ+ and religion model.

The family stress model and parents' differential treatment of siblings: A multilevel meta-analysis

The family stress model (FSM) suggests that stress, particularly economic stress, hinders effective parenting. Expanding on the FSM, the present study examined not only the economic stress but also the general stress and several contexts that may promote stress-namely, physical health, mental health, socioeconomic status, employment status, and marital status. The present study also expanded the FSM to examine parenting of sibling groups. Ineffective parenting of sibling groups was conceptualized as greater parental differential treatment (PDT). A number of moderating variables were also considered. Multilevel meta-analysis models were used to test hypotheses. Across models, data came from 6,003 effect sizes, nested within 59 sources, nested within 16 unique samples (all coming from 8 published studies and 11 raw data sets). Results showed main effects for only parents' general stress and parents' mental health. More stress and poorer mental health were linked with greater amounts of PDT. Additionally, poorer physical health was linked to greater PDT but only when PDT involved positive parent-child interactions. As a whole, findings suggested that actual feelings of stress and psychological distress may show stronger links with PDT than contexts that merely have the potential to cause stress. Caution is warranted, however, as effect sizes were generally small and some models were based on predominantly Caucasian samples. Future research on the FSM and PDT should focus on actual experiences of stress and further consider the moderating role of domains of parenting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Microleakage of castings cemented with glass-ionomer cements

When metal copings were luted to prepared, extracted teeth with KetacCem, ChemBond, TempBond, and zinc-oxide-eugenol (ZOE), only thermocycled ZOE exhibited severe leakage. It appears unlikely that postcementation microleakage is the cause of tooth sensitivity associated with the use of glass-ionomer cements.

Immunofluorescent evidence for the similarity of amelogenins in calf, mouse and pig teeth

Antiserum was prepared to fetal bovine enamel matrix and was used to localize the amelogenins in developing bovine molars by immunofluorescent microscopy. Amelogenins could be identified to preameloblasts, secretory ameloblasts, stratum intermedium cells, and the newly deposited enamel matrix. Mature enamel matrix did not fluoresce except in a thin line along the DEJ and adjacent to the ameloblasts. Immature enamel matrix of murine and porcine teeth fluoresced when treated with antiserum to bovine enamel matrix. No other portions of tooth buds or other tissues reacted with the specific antiserum.