Belgian Sample Research Articles

Examining the moderating role of depressive symptoms on the dynamic interplay between cognitive reappraisal and rumination: Evidence from experience sampling

The dynamic view of emotion regulation (ER) posits that ER is a temporally dynamic process unfolding over time. Cognitive reappraisal and rumination, two extensively investigated ER strategies, are implicated in depression. However, it remains unclear whether these two strategies exhibit reciprocal relations in real-world contexts, and whether such relations vary across baseline depressive symptoms. To address this, we conducted two experience sampling studies and applied residual dynamic structural equation modeling (RDSEM). Results of the RDSEM revealed significant bidirectional associations between cognitive reappraisal and rumination in the Chinese sample, whereas in the Belgian sample, only a unidirectional relationship was found where rumination predicts subsequent cognitive reappraisal. Additionally, both strategies demonstrated stable autoregressive effects. Interestingly, higher depressive symptoms predicted a lower autoregressive effect of cognitive reappraisal within the Chinese sample, while this was not the case in the Belgian sample. These findings highlight the importance of targeting factors such as dynamics in ER and its relationship with depression symptoms.

A Comparative Analysis of Emotional Regulation and Maladaptive Symptoms in Adolescents: Insights from Iran and Belgium

(1) Background: Emotional regulation is a critical determinant of adaptive functioning during adolescence, exerting a profound influence on psychological well-being. This study seeks to deepen our understanding of the intricate interplay between emotional regulation and maladaptive psychological symptoms, examining these dynamics through a cross-country comparison. (2) Methods: A total of 224 adolescents, aged 13 to 21 years, from both Iran and Belgium, participated in a cross-sectional comparative study. The study aimed to elucidate the relationship between emotional regulation and mental health functioning, assessing internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and self-injury. A demographic questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Inventory, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Self-Harm Inventory, were administered. Data analysis incorporated correlation assessments, multivariate analysis of variance, and structured equation modeling. (3) Results: The findings revealed a positive association between emotional dysregulation and psychological symptoms across the entire sample. Conversely, emotional suppression, more prevalent in Iran, showed no significant link with maladaptive symptoms but was associated with self-harm in the Belgian sample. Cultural disparities were evident, with internalizing problems more prevalent in Iran and externalizing issues more common in Belgium. (4) Conclusions: Emotional dysregulation emerged as a common factor compromising mental health. It emphasizes the necessity of considering cultural nuances when developing interventional and preventative programs and calls for further research in this field.

Acculturation of self‐construal: First evidence from immigrant minorities in Belgium and the UK

AbstractThere are systematic cultural differences in people's self‐construal – their typical ways of being and relating – that are in line with the meanings and practices of the sociocultural context in which they were socialised. Given increasing globalisation and ethnocultural diversity, immigrant minorities may experience some ‘misfits’ with common self‐construal patterns in host majority groups. Bridging perspectives from cultural psychology with acculturation psychology, we expect that minorities’ engagement in the host culture is positively associated with self‐construal fit. In the current research, we calculated to what extent the average patterns of self of Turkish Belgian (Study 1), Chinese British (Study 2) and representative samples of Turkish and Moroccan Belgian minorities (Study 3) ‘fit’ with those of the respective host‐cultural (majority Belgian or British) and heritage‐cultural (Turkish in Turkey or Chinese in China or Turkish and Moroccan minority) groups. Across studies, we replicated meaningful cultural group differences in self‐construal fit in line with minorities’ acculturation towards host‐cultural patterns of self. Furthermore, in partial support of the role of host culture engagement, social contact with the majority group predicted self‐construal fit within a specific relationship context of self‐construal. Thus, (high‐quality) contact with friends (Study 1) and teachers (Study 3) predicted the fit of minorities’ self‐construal in the respective relationship contexts. No consistent associations emerged between self‐construal fit and acculturation attitudes. Taken together, our findings highlight the malleability of selves in cultural and relational contexts and provide initial evidence for the acculturation of self in immigrant minorities.

Genetic diversity of Echinococcus multilocularis specimens isolated from Belgian patients with alveolar echinococcosis using EmsB microsatellites analysis

The genetic diversity of Echinococcus multilocularis (E. multilocularis) specimens isolated from patients with alveolar echinococcosis (AE), is a major field of investigation to correlate with sources of infection, clinical manifestations and prognosis of the disease. Molecular markers able to distinguish samples are commonly used worldwide, including the EmsB microsatellite. Here, we report the use of the EmsB microsatellite polymorphism data mining for the retrospective typing of Belgian specimens of E. multilocularis infecting humans. A total of 18 samples from 16 AE patients treated between 2006 and 2021 were analyzed through the EmsB polymorphism. Classification of specimens was performed through a dendrogram construction in order to compare the similarity among Belgian samples, some human referenced specimens on the EWET database (EmsB Website for the Echinococcus Typing) and previously published EmsB profiles from red foxes circulating in/near Belgium. According to a comparison with human European specimens previously genotyped in profiles, the 18 Belgian ones were classified into three EmsB profiles. Four specimens could not be assigned to an already known profile but some are near to EWET referenced samples. This study also highlights that some specimens share the same EmsB profile with profiles characterized in red foxes from north Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and French department near to the Belgian border. Furthermore, Belgian specimens present a genetic diversity and include one profile that don't share similarities with the ones referenced in the EWET database. However, at this geographical scale, there is no clear correlation between EmsB profiles and geographical location. Further studies including additional clinical samples and isolates from foxes and rodents of south Belgium are necessary to better understand the spatial and temporal circumstances of human infections but also a potential correlation between EmsB profiles and parasite virulence.

An exploration of suicidal ideation and attempts, and care use and unmet need among suicide-ideators in a Belgian population study

BackgroundSuicidal ideation, or thinking about death and suicide, is common across all layers of society. The aim of this paper is to add to the understanding of suicidal ideation in the general population, as well as help-seeking behaviors and perceived unmet mental health needs among those who report suicidal thoughts.MethodsThe research is part of a representative population-based survey study of mental wellbeing in Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium) carried out in 2021. A total of 1202 participants between 15 and 80 years old answered the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ), and an additional question about suicide plans. Participation was by invitation only and possible online or via a postal paper questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between both current suicidal ideation and self-reported lifetime suicide attempt with the sociodemographic factors age, gender, educational level, origin and financial distress. Moreover, formal care use for mental health was examined among those experiencing suicidal ideation, and logistic regression analyses were used to assess associated sociodemographic factors. Finally, perceived unmet mental health needs were assessed among suicide ideators.ResultsThe point-prevalence of suicidal ideation was 8.6% and was higher among younger age groups and individuals reporting financial distress. The lifetime-prevalence of suicide attempts is 6.5% and was higher in younger people and individuals with a primary educational level and with financial distress. About half (45.6%) of those with suicidal ideation consulted a professional for mental health problems in the past twelve months. Men and those with a primary educational level were less likely to seek help. Half of suicide ideators without care use perceived some need for mental health care, and a third of suicide ideators who used care perceived the obtained help as insufficient, resulting in a population prevalence of 3.6% suicide ideators with a fully or partially perceived unmet need.ConclusionsThe prevalence of suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and unmet needs among suicide-ideators is high in this Belgian sample. Mental health care need perception in suicide ideators needs further investigation.

Age and sex differences of the PID-5-100 maladaptive personality traits throughout adulthood.

In this cross-sectional study including a heterogeneous Belgian community sample of adults (N = 1,930), two central questions were addressed pertaining to age differences of self-reported Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) maladaptive personality traits: (a) What kind of mean-level changes occur in the PID-5 traits from age 21 to 65? and (b) What kind of variance-level changes occur in the PID-5 traits from age 21 to 65? In exploring these research questions, we also aimed to examine potential sex differences. With regard to latent mean-level age differences of the PID-5 traits, changes across adulthood were overall small to moderate and included a mix of decreasing, flat, and increasing age trends. Regarding the decreasing trends, quadratic regressions showed that the initial downward trend often either stagnated at a certain age, or subtly started increasing again from a certain age onwards. In more than half of the PID-5 traits (15/25), small but significant sex differences were found in the latent mean-level changes across adulthood. In these cases, men tended to score overall higher, except for the negative affectivity facets, on which women tended to score higher. Furthermore, variance stability was found for the majority of the PID-5 personality traits (17/25), indicating that the magnitude of individual differences in PID-5 traits is relatively stable across adulthood. Implications for individual assessment and evaluation of PID-5 scores are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Loyalty Voting Rights in Belgium: Nothing More than a Control-Enhancing Mechanism?

Abstract 27In 2019, Belgium joined the European trend and allowed listed companies to adopt loyalty voting rights, i.e. double voting rights for shareholders who have held their shares for more than two years. The stated goals were to combat short-termism by rewarding long-term shareholders and to encourage IPOs by allowing founders to retain control over the corporation with a smaller participation. Our paper analyzes these rationales from a conceptual perspective, describes the Belgian legal framework for loyalty voting rights, and presents novel empirical evidence on the use of loyalty voting rights in Belgium. We argue that the Belgian legal framework is designed to favour controlling shareholders and other insiders. In addition, our empirical data supports the view that loyalty voting rights mainly function as a control-enhancing mechanism, as loyalty voting rights are almost exclusively used by insiders. This is not necessarily a problem, in our view, as controlling shareholders may be able to help combat the short-termism problem where it would exist. However, loyalty voting rights also increase the incentives for insiders to extract private benefits of control by creating a wedge between cash flow rights and voting rights. We find that this wedge in our Belgian sample has been on average 11 percentage points. In addition, our evidence finds that the votes of insiders were often sufficient to adopt loyalty voting rights, and that non-insiders on average vote against loyalty voting rights. This highlights the risk of making it too easy to introduce loyalty voting rights in the midstream. The arguments for allowing loyalty voting rights are the strongest when they are introduced at the IPO stage, but so far, none of the Belgian corporations with loyalty voting rights have introduced them at the IPO. We conclude that loyalty voting rights are nothing more than a control enhancing mechanism. This raises the questions: why not allow other types of control enhancing mechanisms, such as dual class share structures? And why not treat the midstream introduction of loyalty voting rights with a similar level of protection as the midstream introduction of dual class share structures? We fail to see the policy reasons for this wide divergence.28

Burden of migraine in patients attending Belgian headache specialists: real-world evidence from the BECOME study.

Migraine is a primary headache disorder, which imposes a major burden on the sufferers. The BECOME study (Burden of migrainE in specialist headache Centers treating patients with prOphylactic treatMent failurE) attempted to characterize and assess the prevalence, burden and healthcare resource utilization of migraine patients presenting in specialized headache centers in Europe and Israel. In this paper, we will describe the patient characteristics of the Belgian headache centers. The BECOME study was a prospective, non-interventional, cross-sectional study consisting of two parts. In the first part of the study, data were collected from subjects with a diagnosis of migraine. Subsequently, patients with ≥ 4 monthly migraine days (MMD) and ≥ 1 prior preventive treatment failure (PPTF) filled out validated questionnaires to assess the burden of disease. In part 1 of the Belgian study population (N = 806), 45% of patients reported ≥ 8 MMD and 25% had failed ≥ 4 preventive treatments. In part 2 (N = 90), more than 90% of patients reported having severe impact of headache on daily life and having severe migraine-related disability. The impact was the highest for patients with ≥ 15 MMD, however, even within the patient population with < 8 MMD, the burden was significant. Almost 40% of the study population suffered from anxiety. These findings in the Belgian sample of the BECOME study demonstrate the substantial burden and unmet need for the management of difficult-to-treat migraine.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of non-suicidal self-injury; a comparison between Iran and Belgium

Introduction The outbreak of COVID-19 has heightened mental health challenges among adolescents worldwide, while also hindering the development of effective emotion regulation strategies. Nevertheless, there exists a pertinent requirement to further investigate the psychological ramifications of COVID-19 on adolescents, as well as to discern disparities in these impacts across various nations. In order to address this gap in research, this study compares the prevalence of NSSI (characterized by purposefully injuring one's own body tissues without suicidal intention or engaging in behaviors that are not socially approved or sanctioned.), emotion regulation strategies, and psychopathology (internalization and externalization) among Belgian and Iranian adolescents pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method Adolescents between the ages of 13-21 from Iran and Belgium participated in a two-wave longitudinal design. In Iran, the sample consisted of 117 adolescents in wave 1 (April 2019) and 142 adolescents in wave 2 (Nov 2020). The Belgian sample consisted of 376 participants in wave 1 and 356 adolescents in wave 2. NSSI was assessed using the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI). Emotion Regulation was examined via the Emotion Regulation Inventory (ERI). The S trengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Youth (SDQ) was used to assess psychological symptoms. Result Across the whole sample, lifetime NSSI prevalence was 35% in the first wave and 43.8% in the second wave. Longitudinal analysis across waves and counties did not show an increase in the prevalence of NSSI but did find that emotion dysregulation and internalizing symptoms are important risk factors for NSSI across countries. Emotional suppression and emotional dysregulation were the most prevalent emotion regulation strategies in Iran, whereas emotional integration was most prevalent in the Belgian sample. Conclusion Our study highlights cultural differences on the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health. But it also indicates the importance of certain universal risk factors, for example, emotional dysregulation. These findings can inform developers to tailor programs for (early) intervention culturally.

The c.126C>A(p.(Cys42Ter)) SLC7A10 nonsense variant is a candidate causative variant for paradoxical pseudomyotonia in English Cocker and Springer Spaniels.

Paradoxical pseudomyotonia has previously been described in the English Cocker Spaniel (ECS) and English Springer Spaniel (ESS) breeds, without the identification of potentially causative variants. This disease is characterised by episodes of exercise-induced generalised myotonic-like muscle stiffness, phenotypically similar to congenital pseudomyotonia in cattle, and paramyotonia congenita and Brody disease in people. Four additional affected ESS dogs with paradoxical pseudomyotonia are described in this report, together with the identification of the autosomal recessive c.126C>A(p.(Cys42Ter)) SLC7A10 nonsense variant as candidate disease-causing variant in both ECS and ESS. The variant has an estimated prevalence of 2.5% in both breeds in the British study samples, but was not identified in the Belgian study samples. Genetic testing-based breeding should be a useful tool to eliminate this disease in the future, although an effective treatment option is available for severely affected dogs.

Parenting typologies in Georgian and Belgian adolescents: Associations with self‐esteem

AbstractThe parenting context is of fundamental importance for the optimal development of adolescents. Making use of a person‐centered approach, we derived parenting typologies from the perspective of Georgian and Belgian adolescents based on four dimensions of perceived parenting (responsiveness, structure, psychological control, and autonomy support). Further, we examined how perceived parenting typologies were associated with adolescents' self‐esteem. The study sample included 511 Georgian and 830 Belgian adolescents (N = 1341; 48% female). A cluster‐analytic procedure on the full sample was conducted separately for mothers and fathers. The analysis yielded five parenting typologies: Supportive—Highly structuring (high responsiveness and structure), Highly structuring—Moderately controlling (high structure and psychological control, moderate—responsiveness), Supportive—Low structuring/controlling (high responsiveness and autonomy support, low structure and psychological control), Highly controlling (very high psychological control, low responsiveness and autonomy support) and Uninvolved (low on all dimensions). Results indicated that the Highly structuring—Moderately controlling paternal cluster was more prevalent in the Belgian sample. A country‐moderating effect was found with the paternal Uninvolved profile associated with low levels of self‐esteem in Belgian adolescents, but with moderate levels of self‐esteem in Georgian adolescents.

Seasonal variation of short-, medium- and long-chain chlorinated paraffin distribution in Belgian indoor dust

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are high production volume plasticizers and flame retardants, which have exhibited bioaccumulative and toxic properties. CPs may be released from treated consumer goods and bind with indoor dust, leading to human exposure via unintentional dust ingestion. In this study, the concentrations and homologue distribution of CPs were measured in 50 indoor dust samples collected in paired winter and summer sampling campaigns from 25 homes in Flanders, Belgium. Short-, medium- and long-chain CPs (SCCPs (C10-13), MCCPs (C14-17) and LCCPs (C18-20), respectively) were each detected in all Belgian indoor dust samples with overall median concentrations of 6.1 µg/g (range 0.61 to 120 µg/g), 45 µg/g (range 4.5 to 520 µg/g) and 4.5 µg/g (range 0.3 to 50 µg/g), respectively. Concentrations were significantly higher in the winter samples than summer for each of the three groups (p < 0.05). LCCPs homologues ranging from C21-32 were also detected in dust samples and accounted for approximately half of the LCCP relative abundance based on instrumental peak area, although a lack of appropriate analytical standards prevented quantification of these homologues. While clear sources of CP contamination in dust could not be identified, significant associations between concentrations of ∑SCCPs, ∑MCCPs and ∑LCCPs (C18-20) (p < 0.05) suggested the combined application within materials or products in homes. Based on typical exposure scenarios, estimated daily intake of ∑CPs (C10-20) for adults and toddlers were 14 and 270 ng/kg bw/day, respectively, though margin of exposure assessments for SCCPs and MCCPs indicated that adverse health effects were unlikely for all exposure scenarios. This study presents the first evidence of seasonal variation in the levels and distribution for each of the SCCP, MCCP and LCCP classes in indoor dust and highlights the urgent need for appropriate analytical standards for LCCP quantification.

Age-Inclusive Leadership and Intrinsic Motivation: The Role of the Leader-Member Age Differences

The aging population trend renders teams within workforces increasingly age diverse. Scholars and practitioners have long been interested in how age-diverse teams can be effectively managed to keep members of all ages motivated. Previous literature has suggested that age-inclusive management is effective and has emphasized that leaders play a crucial role in managing their diverse team. In this study, we examined the role of the leader more in depth by studying how the leader-member’s age difference moderates the relationship between age-inclusive leadership and team members’ intrinsic work motivation. Using a Belgian sample of 100 employee observations and 21 leader observations within 21 teams, we show that team members’ perceived level of age-inclusive leadership positively affects their intrinsic work motivation. This relationship is reinforced by the member-leader’s (absolute) age difference to the extent that age-inclusive leadership stimulates members’ intrinsic work motivation especially when the leader is substantially older or younger. This research offers valuable contributions to the literatures on age diversity (management) and the leader-member age difference. Our findings also point at valuable managerial implications we discuss in this work.

Understanding Motives, Usage Patterns and Effects of Instagram Use in Youths: A Qualitative Study

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the motives and patterns of Instagram use among a sample of Belgian and Peruvian youths. 19 participants aged 18–28 underwent in-depth interviews to assess what Instagram means to them, why and how they use it, and what consequences of their use they perceive. The most recurrent motivations for using Instagram were self-expression, curiosity, documenting, entertainment, and connection. Five distinctive usage patterns were identified: urge and craving, passive use, anxious posting, social approval, and social comparison. The perceived consequences include an increased connection to others, the rise of “ Instagram-worthy” content pursuit, issues with time management, a compulsive urge to enter, and constant comparison. Since Instagram relies mainly on visuals, poses questions about authenticity, identity, and self-presentation, and elicits strong emotional reactions from its users, it fosters social comparison, which may be harmful to youth’s views on themselves, their self-esteem, and their self-worth.

Clinically assessed and perceived unmet mental health needs, health care use and barriers to care for mental health problems in a Belgian general population sample

BackgroundMental health problems often remain undetected and untreated. Prior research suggests that this is mainly due to a lack of need-perception and attitudinal barriers. The aim of this study is to examine unmet mental health needs using both a clinically assessed and a self-perceived approach in a Belgian province.MethodsA cross-sectional survey study with a weighted representative sample of 1208 individuals aged 15 – 80 years old was carried out in 2021 in the province of Antwerp (Belgium). Mental health needs were defined as a positive symptom screening for depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) or alcohol abuse (AUDIT-C and CAGE), combined with experiencing significant dysfunction in daily life. Also 12-month health care use for mental health problems, self-perceived unmet mental health needs and reasons for not seeking (extra) help were assessed. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore the predictors of mental health problems, health care use, and objective and subjective unmet mental health needs.ResultsOne in five participants had a positive screening on one of the scales, of whom half experienced dysfunction, leading to a prevalence of 10.4% mental health needs. Among those, only half used health care for their mental health, resulting in a population prevalence of 5.5% clinically assessed unmet mental health needs. Fourteen percent of the total sample perceived an unmet mental health need. However, more women and younger people perceived unmet needs, while clinically assessed unmet needs were higher among men and older people. One in six of the total sample used health care for their mental health, most of whom did not have a clinically assessed mental health need. Motivational reasons were most often endorsed for not seeking any help, while a financial barrier was the most important reason for not seeking extra help.ConclusionsThe prevalence of unmet mental health needs is high. Assessed and perceived (unmet) mental health needs are both relevant and complementary, but are predicted by different factors. More research is needed on this discrepancy.

ATHERO: AN OBSERVATIONAL CROSS-SECTIONAL EVALUATION OF ATHEROSCLEROTIC RISK CONTROL IN THE BELGIAN POPULATION TREATED WITH AT LEAST ONE ANTIHYPERTENSIVE AND ONE LIPID-LOWERING DRUG

Objective: To evaluate real-life lipid and blood pressure (BP) control in a contemporary Belgian population sample treated with at least one lipid-lowering and one antihypertensive drug. Design and method: Data was collected through GP questionnaires on 2337 subjects (ATHERO STUDY). Results: A complete set of relevant clinical variables was available for 1706 subjects (61.5% men; mean age 67.9 ± 10.9 years; mean BMI 28.4 ± 4.9 kg/m2), in which CVD, CAD, DM and renal insufficiency were reported respectively in 34.0%; 22.2%, 37.5% and 6.6% of cases. Based on the 2016 EAS/ESC guidelines for the management of dyslipidemias, 68.8% of subjects were classified as very high risk (VHR) and 10.9% as high-risk (HR). Despite the majority (almost 70%) taking &gt; 1 antihypertensive drug, BP was uncontrolled in 44.0% (using the 140/90 mmHg threshold), without clear differences in control across risk strata. Treatment targets from the 2016 LDL-cholesterol guidelines were met in only 24.4% of VHR and 45.7% of HR subjects. For the new LDL-cholesterol targets 2019 ESC/EAS guidelines for the management of dyslipidemias (which came after the data collection) this would be 10.1% and 11.7%% respectively. GP’s estimated adequate BP control in 69.2% and LDL-cholesterol control in 63.4% of cases. Combined BP and LDL-cholesterol control was achieved in 16.1% of VHR and 26.9% of HR subjects. In the VHR group there was a clear gender disparity (11.7% of women compared to 18.6% of men) in achieving adequate combined control. More striking, combined control in those VHR subjects with a clinical condition (1040/1174 subjects) was 17.9% whilst in those with VHR due to risk factor combinations this was only 2.2%. Use of combination lipid-lowering and antihypertensive drug combinations was low (1.8%) whilst 66.5% of subjects were potential candidates. Conclusions: In GP practices, target achievement was very low for BP and even more so for LDL-cholesterol prevention targets amongst VHR patients, especially in those associated to risk factor combinations rather than more easily recognizable clinical conditions. There was a clear disparity between GPs’ estimates of risk factor control/target achievement and real-life figures in GP practices.

Looking for Ties with Secret Agendas During the Pandemic: Conspiracy Mentality is Associated with Reduced Trust in Political, Medical, and Scientific Institutions - but Not in Medical Personnel.

In a preregistered research, we examined the relationships between conspiracy mentality (i.e., the individual susceptibility to endorse conspiracy theories, Bruder et al., 2013) and trust in three actors of the COVID-19 crisis: 1) Political institutions, 2) scientific and medical institutions, and 3) the medical personnel. While the two former groups have played a direct or indirect role in decisions related to public health measures, the latter has not. We expected all these relationships to be negative and mediated by the belief that the pandemic is instrumentalized by authorities to pursue secret agendas. In a study conducted with Belgian (N = 1136) and French (N = 374) convenience samples, conspiracy mentality negatively predicted trust in political institutions, and trust in scientific and medical institutions. These relations were partly mediated by belief that the pandemic is instrumentalized by authorities. In addition, distrust in political, medical and scientific institutions were highly and positively correlated, suggesting that these groups may be viewed as part of a same supra-ordinate category – the “Elites”. By contrast, we found a small negative relationship between conspiracy mentality and trust in the medical personnel in the Belgian sample, but not in the French sample. Trust in the medical personnel was unrelated to the belief that the pandemic is instrumentalized, and only weakly related to distrust in political institutions. This suggests that individuals with a susceptibility to believe in conspiracy theories may not have a propensity to distrust all actors involved in the management of the pandemic, but only those directly or indirectly tied to decisions pertaining to public health measures.

Prejudice in Turkey and Belgium: The cross‐cultural comparison of correlations of right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation with sexism, homophobia, and racism

AbstractUsing data from Turkey and Belgium, this study investigated the relationships of right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation with ambivalent sexism, homophobia, and subtle racism. First, we predicted that men are more prejudiced than women. This hypothesis was confirmed in the Turkish but not in the Belgian sample. Second, Muslims were higher in authoritarianism and homophobia than people belonging to other (or no) religious groups. Third, Muslims also showed more hostile sexism toward both men and women. Fourth, negative associations of education with authoritarianism, sexism, and homophobia were expected and found. Fifth, in both countries, authoritarianism was positively related to homophobia and sexism, and social dominance orientation was positively associated with racism. Finally, groups comparing both samples, we found that Turks’ authoritarianism and prejudice was higher than Belgians’. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Chemical and Bioactive Characterization of Spanish and Belgian Apple Pomace for Its Potential Use as a Novel Dermocosmetic Formulation.

Currently, there is a general trend towards reutilizing industrial by-products that would otherwise be discarded or considered as waste, aiming to explore them as alternative sources of valuable compounds. The apple pomace remaining from cider and apple juice industries represents a high-potential source of bioactive compounds with putative application in food or pharmaceutical-related products. Accordingly, the work reported herein was conducted to characterize the phenolic compounds in apple pomace from Belgium and Spain, as well as to evaluate its chemical composition and particular types of bioactivity. As a proof of concept, a new hydrogel was prepared, incorporated with the bioactive compounds and pectin extracted from apple pomace, aiming to obtain the most organic formulation possible. Independently of the extracting agent, it became evident that using lyophilization as the drying step is a better choice than thermal processes as it yielded a richer phenolic profile (fifteen individual compounds), with 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid as the major compound (66 to 114 mg/100 g dw) in Belgian samples. In general, the hydroethanolic extracts showed the strongest antioxidant and antimicrobial (particularly against Propionibacterium acnes: MIC = 2.5 mg/mL) activities. This result, together with the lipid nature of human skin, led it to be chosen as the extract type to be incorporated in the hydrogel. In general, apple pomace stood out as a valuable source of bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols and pectin, with good potential to be incorporated in dermal formulations.

Adopting the Situation in School Questionnaire to Examine Physical Education Teachers' Motivating and Demotivating Styles Using a Circumplex Approach.

Grounded in SDT, several studies have highlighted the role of teachers’ motivating and demotivating styles for students’ motivation, learning, and physical activity in physical education (PE). However, most of these studies focused on a restricted number of motivating strategies (e.g., offering choice) or dimensions (e.g., autonomy support). Recently, researchers have developed the Situations-in-School (i.e., SIS-Education) questionnaire, which allows one to gain a more integrative and fine-grained insight into teachers’ engagement in autonomy-support, structure, control, and chaos through a circular structure (i.e., a circumplex). Although teaching in PE resembles teaching in academic courses in many ways, some of the items of the original situation-based questionnaire (e.g., regarding homework) are irrelevant to the PE context. In the present study, we therefore sought to develop a modified, PE-friendly version of this earlier validated SIS-questionnaire—the SIS-PE. Findings in a sample of Belgian (N = 136) and French (N = 259) PE teachers, examined together and as independent samples, showed that the variation in PE teachers’ motivating styles in this adapted version is also best captured by a circumplex structure, with four overarching styles and eight subareas differing in their level of need support and directiveness. The SIS-PE possesses excellent convergent and concurrent validity. With the adaptations being successful, great opportunities for future research on PE teachers (de-)motivating styles are created.