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Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness
Jean Twenge, Brian Spitzburg & Keith Campbell
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, forthcoming
Abstract:
In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13-18) and entering college students, 1976-2017 (N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dating, going to movies, and riding in cars for fun. College-bound high school seniors in 2016 (vs. the late 1980s) spent an hour less a day engaging in in-person social interaction, despite declines in paid work and little change in homework or extracurricular activity time. The results suggest that time displacement occurs at the cohort level, with in-person social interaction declining as digital media use increased, but not at the individual level, where in-person social interaction and social media use are positively correlated. Adolescents' feelings of loneliness increased sharply after 2011. Adolescents low in in-person social interaction and high in social media use reported the most loneliness.
Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005-2017
Jean Twenge et al.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Drawing from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH; N = 611,880), a nationally representative survey of U.S. adolescents and adults, we assess age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorders and suicide-related outcomes since the mid-2000s. Rates of major depressive episode in the last year increased 52% 2005-2017 (from 8.7% to 13.2%) among adolescents aged 12 to 17 and 63% 2009-2017 (from 8.1% to 13.2%) among young adults 18-25. Serious psychological distress in the last month and suicide-related outcomes (suicidal ideation, plans, attempts, and deaths by suicide) in the last year also increased among young adults 18-25 from 2008-2017 (with a 71% increase in serious psychological distress), with less consistent and weaker increases among adults ages 26 and over. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses separating the effects of age, period, and birth cohort suggest the trends among adults are primarily due to cohort, with a steady rise in mood disorder and suicide-related outcomes between cohorts born from the early 1980s (Millennials) to the late 1990s (iGen). Cultural trends contributing to an increase in mood disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors since the mid-2000s, including the rise of electronic communication and digital media and declines in sleep duration, may have had a larger impact on younger people, creating a cohort effect.
Pain offset reduces rumination in response to evoked anger and sadness
Cindy Harmon-Jones et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four studies examined whether pain offset reduces rumination in response to anger or sadness. Past research has demonstrated that, following the offset of pain, individuals show a distinct state of relief involving both reduction in negative affect and an increase in positive affect. This response may help to explain why people sometimes seek out pain and discomfort (e.g., vigorous exercise, self-harm) to regulate negative emotion and suggests that following pain people should recover better from negative emotional states. To test this, we examined ruminative responses to anger and sadness. These negative, approach-related emotions often produce rumination; a response that is generally considered maladaptive. In Study 1, pain was manipulated through a cold pressor task, and participants were induced to experience anger through autobiographical recall. In Study 2, pain was also manipulated via a cold pressor task, and anger and sadness were induced through social exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm. In Study 3, pain was manipulated by squeezing exercise handgrips, and sadness was induced with imagery from a sad video. Study 4 replicated the methods of Study 3 and added measures of relief and distraction to examine whether these moderated the effect. A minimeta-analysis showed that, across all studies, individuals engaged in less rumination in the pain conditions as measured by a thought-listing task and a self-reported rumination questionnaire. These results suggest that the regulation of anger and sadness are improved following pain offset.
Expecting the worst: Investigating the effects of trigger warnings on reactions to ambiguously themed photos
Victoria Bridgland et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
Trigger warnings are messages alerting people to content containing themes that could cause distressing emotional reactions. Advocates claim that warnings allow people to prepare themselves and subsequently reduce negative reactions toward content, while critics insist warnings may increase negative interpretations. Here, we investigated (a) the emotional impact of viewing a warning message, (b) if a warning message would increase or decrease participants' negative evaluations of a set of ambiguous photos, and (c) how participants evaluated overall study participation. We meta-analyzed the results of 5 experiments (N = 1,600) conducted online, and found that trigger warnings did not cause participants to interpret the photos in a more negative manner than participants who were unwarned. However, warned participants experienced a negative anticipatory period prior to photo viewing that did little to mitigate subsequent negative reactions.
Turning frowns (and smiles) upside down: A multilevel examination of surface acting positive and negative emotions on well-being
Anna Lennard, Brent Scott & Russell Johnson
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The consensus in the emotional labor literature is that surface acting is "bad" for employees. However, the evidence on which this consensus is based has been derived from contexts emphasizing the display of positive emotions, such as customer service. Despite the acknowledgment that many contexts also require the display of negative emotions, scholarly work has proceeded under the assumption that surface acting is harmful regardless of the valence of the emotion being displayed. In this study, we take a hedonic approach to well-being and challenge the consensus that surface acting is bad for employees by examining its effects on changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, through changes in positive and negative affect, for both positive and negative emotional displays. Using a within-person approach, we focus on managers, whose occupation calls for displays of both positive and negative emotions. Our 3-week, experience-sampling study of 79 managers revealed that faking positive emotions decreases positive affect, which harms well-being more than authentically displaying such emotions. In contrast and counter to what the extant literature would suggest, faking negative emotions decreases negative affect and increases positive affect, which benefits well-being more than authentically displaying such emotions. We further integrate construal level theory with hedonic approaches of emotion to identify trait construal level as an important boundary condition to explain for whom surface acting is harmful versus beneficial.
Genetic predictor of current suicidal ideation in US service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan
Lei Zhang et al.
Journal of Psychiatric Research, June 2019, Pages 65-71
Objective: Suicide is one of the ten leading causes of death in United States and the suicide rate in the military population has increased since the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, few biomarkers for current suicidal ideation (CSI) have been identified. The current study examined the association of four candidate genes with CSI in active duty US Army Special Operations Command and National Guard units (n= 3,889) who served in Iraq and Afghanistan between November 2009 and July 2014.
Results: The associations between CSI and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), FK506 binding protein (FKBP5), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), or S100A10 (p11) were examined. We found CSI was associated with BDNF (OR=1.5, 95% CI=1.5-1.8, P=0.0002), but not FKBP5, COMT and p11. Female soldiers reported CSI more often than males (χ2= 7.403, p=0.0065), although gender did not affect CSI severity. In addition, associations were found between CSI and depression, PTSD, and BDNF, but not traumatic events. The BDNF Val66Met contributed to the severity of CSI even after adjusting to PTSD, depression and LEC.
The Goddess Who Spins the Thread of Life: Klotho, Psychiatric Stress, and Accelerated Aging
Erika Wolf et al.
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, forthcoming
Background: Longevity gene klotho (KL) is associated with age-related phenotypes but has not been evaluated against a direct human biomarker of cellular aging. We examined KL and psychiatric stress, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is thought to potentiate accelerated aging, in association with biomarkers of cellular aging.
Methods: 309 white, non-Hispanic genotyped veterans with measures of epigenetic age (DNA methylation age), telomere length (n = 252), inflammation (C-reactive protein), psychiatric symptoms, metabolic function, and white matter neural integrity (diffusion tensor imaging; n = 185). Genotyping and DNA methylation were obtained on epi/genome-wide beadchips.
Results: In gene by environment analyses, two KL variants (rs9315202 and rs9563121) interacted with PTSD severity (peak corrected p = .044) and sleep disturbance (peak corrected p = .034) to predict advanced epigenetic age. KL variant, rs398655, interacted with self-reported pain in association with slowed epigenetic age (corrected p = .048). A well-studied protective variant, rs9527025, was associated with slowed epigenetic age (p = .046). The peak PTSD interaction term (with rs9315202) also predicted C-reactive protein (p = .049), and white matter microstructural integrity in two tracts (corrected ps = .005 - .035). This SNP evidenced a main effect with an index of metabolic syndrome severity (p = .015). Effects were generally accentuated in older subjects.
Conclusions: Rs9315202 predicted multiple biomarkers of cellular aging such that psychiatric stress was more strongly associated with cellular aging in those with the minor allele. KL genotype may contribute to a synchronized pathological aging response to stress and could be a therapeutic target to alter the pace of cellular aging.