Articles

Friendship networks and psychological well-being from late adolescence to young adulthood: a gender-specific structural equation modeling approach

The importance of supportive social relationships for psychological well-being has been previously recognized, but the direction of associations between both dimensions and how they evolve when adolescents ent...

Authors: Alexander Miething, Ylva B. Almquist, Viveca Östberg, Mikael Rostila, Christofer Edling and Jens Rydgren

Efficacy of the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline in Twin Families (VIPP-Twins): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Intervention programs with the aim of enhancing parenting quality have been found to be differentially effective in decreasing negative child outcomes such as externalizing behavioral problems, resulting in mo...

Authors: Saskia Euser, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, Bianca G. van den Bulk, Mariëlle Linting, Rani C. Damsteegt, Claudia I. Vrijhof, Ilse C. van Wijk, Eveline A. Crone and Marinus H. van IJzendoorn

Worry is associated with robust reductions in heart rate variability: a transdiagnostic study of anxiety psychopathology

Individuals with anxiety disorders display reduced resting-state heart rate variability (HRV), although findings have been contradictory and the role of specific symptoms has been less clear. It is possible th...

Authors: John A. Chalmers, James A. J. Heathers, Maree J. Abbott, Andrew H. Kemp and Daniel S. Quintana

Effect of household size on mental problems in children: results from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study

Most people in industrialized societies grow up in core (parents only) families with few if any siblings. Based on an evolutionary perspective, it may be argued that this environment reflects a mismatch, in th...

Authors: Bjørn Grinde and Kristian Tambs

Psychology, replication & beyond

Modern psychology is apparently in crisis and the prevailing view is that this partly reflects an inability to replicate past findings. If a crisis does exists, then it is some kind of ‘chronic’ crisis, as psy...

Authors: Keith R. Laws

The mental-attention Tai Chi effect with older adults

Tai Chi practice has some fitness, wellness, and general cognitive effects in older adults. However, benefits of Tai Chi on specific mental-attentional executive processes have not been investigated previously. W...

Authors: Theresa H. M. Kim, Juan Pascual-Leone, Janice Johnson and Hala Tamim

Replication initiatives will not salvage the trustworthiness of psychology

Replication initiatives in psychology continue to gather considerable attention from far outside the field, as well as controversy from within. Some accomplishments of these initiatives are noted, but this art...

Authors: James C. Coyne

The testing effect for mediator final test cues and related final test cues in online and laboratory experiments

The testing effect is the finding that information that is retrieved during learning is more often correctly retrieved on a final test than information that is restudied. According to the semantic mediator hyp...

Authors: Leonora C. Coppens, Peter P. J. L. Verkoeijen, Samantha Bouwmeester and Remy M. J. P. Rikers

On the reproducibility of meta-analyses: six practical recommendations

Meta-analyses play an important role in cumulative science by combining information across multiple studies and attempting to provide effect size estimates corrected for publication bias. Research on the repro...

Authors: Daniël Lakens, Joe Hilgard and Janneke Staaks

Triangulating meta-analyses: the example of the serotonin transporter gene, stressful life events and major depression

Meta-analysis is intended as a tool for the objective synthesis of evidence across a literature, in order to obtain the best evidence as to whether or not an association or effect is robust. However, as the us...

Authors: Amy E. Taylor and Marcus R. Munafò

Short-term effects of the “Together at School” intervention program on children’s socio-emotional skills: a cluster randomized controlled trial

Together at School is a universal intervention program designed to promote socio-emotional skills among primary-school children. It is based on a whole school approach, and implemented in school classes by tea...

Authors: Olli Kiviruusu, Katja Björklund, Hanna-Leena Koskinen, Antti Liski, Jallu Lindblom, Heini Kuoppamäki, Paula Alasuvanto, Tiina Ojala, Hanna Samposalo, Nina Harmes, Elina Hemminki, Raija-Leena Punamäki, Reijo Sund and Päivi Santalahti

Parent-child proximity and personality: basic human values and moving distance

An important event in many young people’s lives is moving out of the parental home. This event is often operationalized as the distance between parents and their children, i.e., parent-child proximity.

Authors: Stefan Stieger and David Lewetz

The effectiveness of email-based exercises in promoting psychological wellbeing and healthy lifestyle: a two-year follow-up study

Web-based interventions provide a possibility to enhance well-being in large groups of people. Only a few studies have studied the effectiveness of the interventions and there is no information on the sustaina...

Authors: Minna Torniainen-Holm, Maiju Pankakoski, Tuomas Lehto, Osmo Saarelma, Pekka Mustonen, Kaisla Joutsenniemi and Jaana Suvisaari

Tobacco consumption and positive mental health: an epidemiological study from a positive psychology perspective

Positive mental health (PMH) is much more than the absence of mental illnesses. For example, PMH explains that to be happy or resilient can drive us to live a full life, giving us a perception of well-being an...

Authors: Juan Carlos Bazo-Alvarez, Frank Peralta-Alvarez, Antonio Bernabé-Ortiz, Germán F. Alvarado and J. Jaime Miranda

Social and occupational factors associated with psychological distress and disorder among disaster responders: a systematic review

When disasters occur, there are many different occupational groups involved in rescue, recovery and support efforts. This study aimed to conduct a systematic literature review to identify social and occupation...

Authors: Samantha K. Brooks, Rebecca Dunn, Richard Amlôt, Neil Greenberg and G. James Rubin

Mental health of college students and their non-college-attending peers: results from a large French cross-sectional survey

The great majority of mental disorders begin during adolescence or early adulthood, although they are often detected and treated later in life. To compare mental health status of college students and their non...

Authors: Viviane Kovess-Masfety, Emmanuelle Leray, Laure Denis, Mathilde Husky, Isabelle Pitrou and Florence Bodeau-Livinec

Sex stereotypes influence adults’ perception of babies’ cries

Despite widespread evidence that gender stereotypes influence human parental behavior, their potential effects on adults’ perception of babies’ cries have been overlooked. In particular, whether adult listener...

Authors: David Reby, Florence Levréro, Erik Gustafsson and Nicolas Mathevon

A protocol for a randomised active-controlled trial to evaluate the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample

While most modern research focuses on the clinical benefits of mindfulness, an emerging body of work suggests that mindfulness can facilitate self-regulation of everyday thinking in typically developing indivi...

Authors: Chris Noone and Michael J. Hogan

Participation in rural community groups and links with psychological well-being and resilience: a cross-sectional community-based study

Fostering the development of community groups can be an important part of boosting community participation and improving health and well-being outcomes in rural communities. In this article, we examine whether...

Authors: Anthony Lyons, Gillian Fletcher, Jane Farmer, Amanda Kenny, Lisa Bourke, Kylie Carra and Emily Bariola

General self-efficacy and posttraumatic stress after a natural disaster: a longitudinal study

Self-efficacy may be an important factor in individuals’ recovery from posttraumatic stress reactions after a natural disaster. However, few longitudinal studies have investigated whether self-efficacy predict...

Authors: Egil Nygaard, Ajmal Hussain, Johan Siqveland and Trond Heir

Interaction between COMT rs5993883 and second generation antipsychotics is linked to decreases in verbal cognition and cognitive control in bipolar disorder

Second generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are increasingly utilized in Bipolar Disorder (BD) but are potentially associated with cognitive side effects. Also linked to cognitive deficits associated with SGA-trea...

Authors: Stephanie A. Flowers, Kelly A. Ryan, Zongshan Lai, Melvin G. McInnis and Vicki L. Ellingrod

Single-session dialectical behavior therapy skills training versus relaxation training for non-treatment-engaged suicidal adults: a randomized controlled trial

Individuals who are not engaged in treatment are commonly overlooked in the design of intervention trials targeting suicidal populations as a result of recruitment methodology that requires individuals to be r...

Authors: Erin F. Ward-Ciesielski, Connor B. Jones, Madeline D. Wielgus, Chelsey R. Wilks and Marsha M. Linehan

Validation of the Flourishing Scale in a sample of people with suboptimal levels of mental well-being

There is growing interest in measuring the eudaimonic perspective of mental well-being (social and psychological well-being) alongside existing measures of the hedonic perspective of mental well-being (subject...

Authors: Marijke Schotanus-Dijkstra, Peter M. ten Klooster, Constance H. C. Drossaert, Marcel E. Pieterse, Linda Bolier, Jan A. Walburg and Ernst T. Bohlmeijer

Exploring the relationship of decentering to health related concepts and cognitive and metacognitive processes in a student sample

Decentering, a central change strategy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, is a process of stepping outside of one’s own mental events leading to an objective and non-judging stance towards the self. The s...

Authors: Ramona Kessel, Judith Gecht, Thomas Forkmann, Barbara Drueke, Siegfried Gauggel and Verena Mainz

Study protocol - efficacy of an attachment-based working alliance in the multimodal pain treatment

The concept of attachment is relevant for the onset and development of chronic pain. Insecure attachment styles negatively affect therapeutic outcome. Insecurely attached patients seem to be less able to susta...

Authors: Ann-Christin Pfeifer, Dorothee Amelung, Carina Gerigk, Corinna Schroeter, Johannes Ehrenthal, Eva Neubauer and Marcus Schiltenwolf

BMC Psychology reviewer acknowledgement 2015

The editors of BMC Psychology would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 3 (2015).

Authors: Anna Clark

Psychometric properties of the Positive Mental Health Scale (PMH-scale)

In recent years, it has been increasingly recognized that the absence of mental disorder is not the same as the presence of positive mental health (PMH). With the PMH-scale we propose a short, unidimensional s...

Authors: Justina Lukat, Jürgen Margraf, Rainer Lutz, William M. van der Veld and Eni S. Becker

Psychometric properties of the newly translated creole multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS) and perceived adequacy of resource scale (PARS) and the relationship between perceived social support and resources in Haitian mothers in the US

Low income postpartum mothers with little to no social support have increased maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, especially those with limited English proficiency and limited accesses to resources. H...

Authors: Jean Hannan, Marise Alce and Adrian Astros

How a concerned family member, friend or member of the public can help someone with gambling problems: a Delphi consensus study

Gambling is an enjoyable recreational pursuit for many people. However, for some it can lead to significant harms. The Delphi expert consensus method was used to develop guidelines for how a concerned family m...

Authors: Kathy S. Bond, Anthony F. Jorm, Helen E. Miller, Simone N. Rodda, Nicola J. Reavley, Claire M. Kelly and Betty A. Kitchener

Neural responses to a modified Stroop paradigm in patients with complex chronic musculoskeletal pain compared to matched controls: an experimental functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMSKP) is attentionally demanding, complex and multi-factorial; neuroimaging research in the population seen in pain clinics is sparse. A better understanding of the neural activi...

Authors: Ann M. Taylor, Ashley D. Harris, Alice Varnava, Rhiannon Phillips, Owen Hughes, Antony R. Wilkes, Judith E. Hall and Richard G. Wise

Self-regulation of healthy nutrition: automatic and controlled processes

Self-regulatory behaviour refers to both controlled and automatic processes. When people are distracted, automatic over controlled processes prevail. This was analysed with regard to nutritional behaviour (foo...

Authors: Heike Eschenbeck, Uwe Heim-Dreger, Amina Steinhilber and Carl-Walter Kohlmann

Assessing the daily stability of the cortisol awakening response in a controlled environment

Levels of cortisol, the end product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, display a sharp increase immediately upon awakening, known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR). The daily stability of...

Authors: Greg J. Elder, Jason G. Ellis, Nicola L. Barclay and Mark A. Wetherell

Erratum to: Lifestyle choices and mental health: a representative population survey

Authors: Julia Velten, Kristen L Lavallee, Saskia Scholten, Andrea Hans Meyer, Xiao-Chi Zhang, Silvia Schneider and Jürgen Margraf

Adult attachment style and cortisol responses in women in late pregnancy

Recent research has documented the association between attachment and cortisol rhythms. During pregnancy, when attachment patterns are likely to be activated, elevated levels of cortisol are associated with ne...

Authors: José Manuel Costa-Martins, Mariana Moura-Ramos, Maria João Cascais, Carlos Fernandes da Silva, Henriqueta Costa-Martins, Marco Pereira, Rui Coelho and Jorge Tavares

Design of a controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of Supportive Parenting (‘Stevig Ouderschap’): an intervention to empower parents at increased risk of parenting problems by providing early home visits

In the Netherlands, 15 % of all families with children under the age of 13 years deal with significant parenting problems. Severe parenting problems may lead to adverse physical, cognitive, and psychosocial ou...

Authors: E. M. B. Horrevorts, A. van Grieken, S. M. L. Broeren, R. Bannink, M. B. R. Bouwmeester-Landweer, E. Hafkamp-de Groen and Hein Raat

The effects of sexual violence on psychosocial outcomes in formerly abducted girls in Northern Uganda: the WAYS study

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of sexual violence on the odds of different psychosocial outcomes (depression, psychotic symptoms, somatic complaints, conduct problems, daily function...

Authors: Kennedy Amone-P’Olak, Emilio Ovuga and Peter Brian Jones

The moderating role of personality traits in the relationship between work and salivary cortisol: a cross-sectional study of 401 employees in 34 Canadian companies

The objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of personality traits in explaining the relationship between workplace stressors and variations in salivary cortisol concentrations.

Authors: Annick Parent-Lamarche and Alain Marchand

Randomized controlled expressive writing pilot in individuals with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and their caregivers are at risk for emotional distress and hypercortisolism. Expressive writing is an effective complementary intervention to ameliorate the psycholog...

Authors: Therese Verkerke Cash and Sarah K. Lageman

Examining the effects of adjuvant chemotherapy on cognition and the impact of any cognitive impairment on quality of life in colorectal cancer patients: study protocol

Research suggests that chemotherapy can cause deficits in both patients’ objectively measured and self-reported cognitive abilities which can in turn affect their quality of life (QoL). The majority of researc...

Authors: Marie-Rose Dwek, Lorna Rixon, Alice Simon, Catherine Hurt and Stanton Newman

Erratum to: self-reported psychopathy in the Middle East: a cross-national comparison across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United States

Authors: Robert D. Latzman, Ahmed M. Megreya, Lisa K. Hecht, Joshua D. Miller, D. Anne Winiarski and Scott O. Lilienfeld

Cognitive behaviour therapy for non-cardiac pain in the chest (COPIC): a multicentre randomized controlled trial with economic evaluation

Most patients with chest pain have nothing wrong with their cardiac function. Psychological forms of treatment for this condition are more likely to be successful than others.

Authors: Peter Tyrer, Helen Tyrer, Sylvia Cooper, Barbara Barrett, Stephanie Kings, Valentina Lazarevic, Kate Bransby-Adams, Katherine Whittamore, Gemma Walker, Antoinette McNulty, Emma Donaldson, Luke Midgley, Shani McCoy, Rachel Evered, Min Yang, Boliang Guo…

The Tree Theme Method^® (TTM), an occupational therapy intervention for treating depression and anxiety: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Depression and anxiety disorders are increasing among the general population in the Western world. Individuals may need several kinds of treatment in order to maintain health, such as cognitive behavioural the...

Authors: A. Birgitta Gunnarsson, Petra Wagman, Carita Håkansson and Katarina Hedin

The SENSE Study (Sleep and Education: learning New Skills Early): a community cognitive-behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based sleep intervention to prevent depression and improve cardiac health in adolescence

Sleep problems are a major risk factor for the emergence of depression in adolescence. The aim of this study was to test whether an intervention for improving sleep habits could prevent the emergence of depres...

Authors: Joanna M. Waloszek, Orli Schwartz, Julian G. Simmons, Matthew Blake, Laura Blake, Greg Murray, Monika Raniti, Ronald E. Dahl, Neil O’Brien-Simpson, Paul Dudgeon, John Trinder and Nicholas B. Allen

Doctor, builder, soldier, lawyer, teacher, dancer, shopkeeper, vet: exploratory study of which eleven-year olds would like to become a doctor

Very little is known about the extent to which eleven-year olds might consider a career in medicine. This exploratory study therefore asked children and their parents about medicine as a possible career, looki...

Authors: I. C. McManus, Terry Ng-Knight, Lucy Riglin, Norah Frederickson, Katherine Shelton and Frances Rice

Self-reported psychopathy in the Middle East: a cross-national comparison across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United States

The construct of psychopathy is sparsely researched in the non-Western world, particularly in the Middle East. As such, the extent to which the psychopathy construct can be generalized to other cultures, inclu...

Authors: Robert D. Latzman, Ahmed M. Megreya, Lisa K. Hecht, Joshua D. Miller, D. Anne Winiarski and Scott O. Lilienfeld

Measuring participation for persons with mental illness: A systematic review assessing relevance of existing scales for low and middle income countries

Participation is increasingly becoming an important outcome for assessment in many fields, including development, disability and policy implementation. However, selecting specific instruments to measure partic...

Authors: Ganesh M. Babulal, Parul Bakhshi, Sunyata Kopriva, Sarah A. Ali, Susan A. Goette and Jean-Francois Trani

Bullied at school, bullied at work: a prospective study

The consequences of childhood bullying victimisation are serious. Much previous research on risk factors for being bullied has used a cross-sectional design, impeding the possibility to draw conclusions on cau...

Authors: Lars Peter Andersen, Merete Labriola, Johan Hviid Andersen, Thomas Lund and Claus D. Hansen

Factors impacting the quality of peer relationships of youth with Tourette’s syndrome

Tourette’s syndrome (TS) is a poorly understood neurodevelopmental disorder consistently associated with impaired peer relationships. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between TS and the abil...

Authors: Deirdre O’Hare, Valsamma Eapen, Edward Helmes, Kerry McBain, John Reece and Rachel Grove

Psychometric properties of self-sufficiency assessment tools in adolescents in vocational education

Self-sufficiency is the realisation of an acceptable level of functioning either by the person him/herself or through the adequate organisation of help from informal or formal care providers. Assessment of sel...

Authors: Rienke Bannink, Suzanne Broeren, Jurriën Heydelberg, Els van’t Klooster and Hein Raat

An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist

The movement of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into routine clinical usage is not spontaneous, but requires focused efforts. The field of implementation science has developed to facilitate the spread of EBPs,...

Authors: Mark S. Bauer, Laura Damschroder, Hildi Hagedorn, Jeffrey Smith and Amy M. Kilbourne