ABSTRACT Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience disproportionately high rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, and discrimination, yet remain underrepresented in psychedelic research. This prospective, naturalistic study explored the impact of an ayahuasca retreat experience on mental health, quality of life, and spiritual well-being among SGM participants. Participants attended a seven-day ayahuasca retreat and completed assessments across six time points from 2–4 weeks pre-ceremony to 2–3 months post-ceremony. Findings revealed significant reductions in depression and anxiety scores, alongside increases in spiritual well-being and quality of life, particularly within the first month following the retreat. Participants consistently described the experience as highly meaningful and spiritually significant, with many identifying the ceremony as among the most meaningful of their lives. Benefits were further supported by reports of positive behavioral changes, including improved interpersonal relationships and reduced substance use. Adverse effects were minimal and transient. Importantly, this study addresses the historical gap in the literature and highlights the need to reconceptualize psychedelic spaces as inclusive and reparative for queer communities. Given the historical misuse of psychedelics in conversion therapy, these findings mark a critical step in reclaiming psychedelics for SGM healing, empowerment, and identity affirmation.

The Takini/Survivor project examined factors promoting healing and resilience among women survivors of domestic violence in primarily South Dakota, with particular attention to American Indian/Native American (Native hereinafter) and rural experiences through the resilience portfolio model. Using a phenomenological design, this study explored the narratives of 31 Native women using semistructured qualitative interviews. When appropriate, the study also delineated between narratives of Native rural (10) and nonrural women (21). Participants described "poly-strengths" sequences in which environmental strengths (such as housing and transportation) enabled them to draw on their other strengths across resilience portfolio model domains. Rural participants emphasized how geographic isolation, limited mobility, and safety concerns in small communities constrained access to additional resources such as interpersonal supportive relationships. Survivors contextualized abuse within intergenerational trauma, drew on cultural identity and spirituality as distinct meaning-making pathways, and cited children/grandchildren and helping others as central purposes. Healing occurs through reinforcing poly-strengths rather than isolated protective factors. Our findings contribute to resilience portfolio model by building on the importance of environmental strengths and how cultural identities create distinct resilience pathways. Implications include culturally responsive and supportive services, innovative service delivery in rural areas, and reforms to transportation policies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

While Spain is often regarded as a progressive state in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, individuals living in the country continue to experience discrimination due to their minoritized identities. This study aimed to describe how exposure to cisheterosexism and minority stress influences the mental health of LGBTQ+ people residing in Spain. A total of 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with LGBTQ+ individuals aged 21–48 years residing in Spain. Data were coded using a hybrid inductive/deductive approach. This was followed by a preliminary content analysis, and subsequently, a thematic analysis was carried out. The coding and content analysis identified key topics, including mental health challenges due to cisheterosexism, vicarious trauma, violence expectation, gender expression, rejection by family of origin, discrimination, and harassment. Thematic analysis uncovered how cisheterosexism, ingrained in legal frameworks and social norms, contributes to systemic discrimination and harassment. Findings revealed psychological distress, encompassing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder among LGBTQ+ individuals. Cisheterosexism in the Spanish context permeates formal and non-formal institutions, influencing interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships. The conclusions highlight the need to advocate for tailored social policies and implement culturally sensitive clinical practices to address the specific mental health needs of this population.

The agricultural sector occupies a central role in Ghana’s economic development, with agripreneurs contributing to job creation, tax-base diversification, and foreign exchange earnings. However, these agripreneurs face social, economic, environmental, and technical challenges that impact their venture performance. This study employed a hybrid thematic analysis to investigate factors influencing agripreneurship venture performance in the Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan areas. Findings revealed that social factors, such as human and social capital, were critical determinants of success. Key elements included technical expertise, strong interpersonal relationships, excellent customer relationships, and leadership skills. Conversely, economic constraints, including insufficient capital and business-model fragility, were the primary drivers of agripreneurship venture failures. Based on these findings, to promote long-term sustainability and profitability, we recommend establishing integrated agripreneurship support centers that provide financing and on-demand trainings; establish dedicated agricultural financing programs with flexible, cycle-aligned terms, and encourage agripreneurs to leverage Ghana Incentive-based Risk-sharing System for Agricultural Lending. Also, creating structured mentorship programs that pair experienced agripreneurs and novice agripreneurs can help strengthen the social and human capital needed for business growth. Future research should investigate financial institutions’ cautious approach extending credit to agripreneurs in the study areas, and also examine how employee attitudes and behaviors influence venture performance.

The rapid growth of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in Chile has highlighted the need for workers to develop “soft skills” beyond their technical knowledge. These soft skills, including teamwork, empathy, adaptability, and leadership, are essential for professional success and societal well-being. However, the Chilean education system has been identified as insufficient in incorporating soft skills into formal education, leaving many ICT sector applicants lacking these crucial abilities. BS&G Taller de Innovación has implemented role-playing game workshops to address this issue and enhance the soft skills of participants. This exploratory study involved 80 hours of role-playing games with 10 teams, primarily from the Information and Communication Technologies sector. The results indicate statistically significant changes in task, production, and adaptability, as well as in two items related to entrepreneurial leadership self-efficacy. Empathy did not show significant changes, but some trends were observed. The role-playing game workshops provided participants with a unique opportunity to develop social and emotional skills in a cooperative and engaging environment, strengthening interpersonal relationships and communication within teams. While the logistics and execution of the workshops were successful, there were several considerations for improving the methodology in the future, such as adjusting the time commitment, providing clearer instructions for newcomers, incorporating audiovisual material, and enhancing interactivity. Overall, the study demonstrates the potential of role-playing games as a viable, attractive, and unconventional method for developing soft skills in the ICT sector and beyond. Editorial note: This article is a translation of a peer-reviewed version originally published in 2023 in La Revista de Estudios sobre Juegos de Rol y STEAM (English: Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM). Special thanks to the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Cristo León, for doublechecking the translation.

Role-playing studies encompass diverse and dynamic experiences, from tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) and wargames, to live-action role play (larp). These activities offer rich opportunities for examining interpersonal interactions, emotional engagement, and creative problem-solving. Employing psychophysiological measures—such as eye-tracking, galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate, and facial and vocal emotion analysis—provides a means to quantify these phenomena. The considerations for incorporating psychophysiological methods into role-playing studies are outlined here, including an overview of the methods, their relevance to role-playing studies, and considerations for their implementation. Additionally, this paper details the importance, utility, and potential insights these measures bring, as well as challenges and limitations.

In China, the number of left-behind children (LBC) was more than 61 million, accounting for 21.88% of the child population. Due to a lack of parental care and insufficient family support, these children were more susceptible to stressful life events, such as interpersonal relationship (e.g., conflicts with classmates or friends) and study pressure (e.g., failures in the exam). Empathy, as an important protective factor, played a significant role in promoting the socialization and coping with stressful life events of LBC. Prior studies confirmed the relationship between stressful life events and empathy but not the underlying mechanisms for LBC and whether there were gender differences in the relationship. With a sample of 702 LBC (M age = 12.61, SD = 1.60; 55.27% girls, 44.73% boys), we studied the relationship between stressful life events, self-esteem, and empathy. The results showed that stressful life events were directly and positively associated with empathy, that is, LBC who experienced more stressful events exhibited higher empathy. Furthermore, self-esteem mediated the relationship between stressful life events and empathy, with higher scores on stressful life events indirectly lowered empathy scores by negatively impacting self-esteem. Moreover, gender moderated the relationship between stressful life events and self-esteem, with higher stressful life events associated with lower self-esteem in girls than in boys. The present study revealed the role of self-esteem and gender in the relationship between stressful life events and empathy, which has important theoretical and practical significance for the prevention and intervention of social adaptation ability in LBC.

The heart's electromagnetic field (HEMF) represents the strongest magnetic signal in the human body and has been increasingly associated with processes related to the Heart-Brain Axis (HBA). The present review summarizes its biophysical basis along with current and emerging biosensing technologies. It examines hypotheses regarding interpersonal interactions and interactions with external fields, including geomagnetic activity, and reviews evidence linking the HEMF to autonomic activity and emotional states. It provides an overview of magnetic field-based therapeutics, introduced here as our own term "BioMagnetoTherapies" (BMT), underscoring their common objective of externally inducing, stabilizing or restoring coherence across the HBA. Collectively, it positions cardiac electromagnetic signals as both a measurable marker, key to HBA dynamics and related disorders, as well as a promising target for emerging biosensor- and BioMagneto-Therapeutics.

Background: Vascular access is a core component of hemodialysis and may influence both clinical outcomes and patient-reported quality of life. This study examined the association between vascular access type and quality of life among patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis in multiple nephrology centers. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, cross-sectional observational study of 152 adults with end-stage kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis in public and private dialysis units in the Attica region, Greece (January-May 2022). Data were collected using a demographic/clinical questionnaire, the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), the Dialysis Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (SDIALOR), and the Missoula VITAS Quality of Life Index (MVQOLI). Multivariable linear regression models were fitted for SF-36 and MVQOLI domain scores. Results: Most participants reported being very (40.8%) or quite (53.3%) satisfied with their current vascular access, and 69.5% considered an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) the most appropriate option. SF-36 scores were generally lower than those reported for the general population, except for the mental health domain. Compared with AVF, permanent catheter use was associated with lower SF-36 physical functioning scores, and graft use was associated with lower vitality scores. Lower vascular access satisfaction was consistently associated with lower HRQoL: compared with being "very" satisfied, being "quite" satisfied was associated with lower general health, vitality, social functioning, mental health, and lower PCS/MCS scores, while being "a little/not at all" satisfied was associated with lower general health and worse bodily pain scores. On MVQOLI, living alone and lower access satisfaction were associated with lower interpersonal relationships, transcendence/spirituality, and overall quality-of-life scores, while obesity was associated with lower function scores. Conclusions: Vascular access type, particularly AVF versus catheter, is associated with meaningful differences in quality of life among hemodialysis patients. Patient satisfaction with access and sociodemographic characteristics should be considered in patient-centered access planning and follow-up.

Religious practices can shape lifestyles, influence health choices, and help individuals cope with illness and suffering. Understanding which aspects of religiosity support health-promoting attitudes is particularly important. This study explores how belonging to a religious community affects health and well-being among religious sisters. An anonymous survey was conducted among 463 women from international, apostolic Catholic congregations in Poland and 33 other countries. The questionnaire included questions on lifestyle, physical health (including diet, physical activity, sleep, chronic conditions, and medication use), and perceptions of how community life influences health and encourages health-conscious behaviors. Overall, 57% of participants reported following a healthy lifestyle, most commonly sisters aged 65 and older (73%). Non-Polish sisters and those living outside Poland were more likely to report healthy habits. Among sisters who saw their community as beneficial for health, 69% led a healthy lifestyle. Retreats, a sense of belonging, communal prayers, and vacations were consistently rated as having the most positive impact on well-being, particularly among older sisters and missionaries. Life in a religious community appears to support health both directly, through structured daily routines and shared responsibilities, and indirectly, by providing social support and fostering a sense of purpose. Spiritual practices, rest, and close interpersonal relationships emerge as the most influential factors for well-being, while formal obligations such as wearing religious attire or attending formation meetings were rated as less impactful. These findings highlight the important role of communal life in promoting both physical and spiritual health among religious sisters.

Economic inequality impacts development across the lifespan, influencing access to resources, suitable housing, and quality schooling. However, we lack an understanding of how differences in income shape interpersonal interactions, such as social class discrimination. Adolescence is a key developmental period to examine this construct, given identity formation and cognitive advances. We conducted semi-structured interviews with adolescents ( n = 33; 18 cisgender girls and 15 cisgender boys) and adults ( n = 8; five teachers and three parents; seven cisgender women and one trans-male). Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, incorporating both structured and reflexive coding. Findings indicated three themes. First, Social Class Discrimination Occurs in a Variety of Ways captured experiences ranging from overt acts to subtle biases. Targets included the adolescent (direct) and via other individuals (indirect). Sources of discrimination were teachers, adolescents, adults in the community, and social media. Second, What Makes Social Class Discrimination Unique highlighted its novel qualities, such as appearance, materials, housing conditions, parental occupation, and wealth. Third, The Intersectionality of Social Class Discrimination indicated its overlap with race/ ethnicity, skin color, and gender. Addressing this topic is crucial for supporting adolescent well-being. Efforts to combat such discrimination should consider its multidimensionality, uniqueness, and intersectionality.

In daily social interactions, joint decision making is not just about the outcomes we reach but also about how partners experience reaching those decisions together. Across three studies, we examine how perceived co-creation - the subjective sense of building understanding together, rather than simply agreeing - shapes interpersonal relationships. Compared to low co-creation and pre-existing agreement, high co-creation consistently enhanced trust, rapport, and willingness to collaborate, whether participants envisioned, remembered, or directly engaged in a joint decision. In Study 3, high co-creation dyads were nearly twice as likely to leave the laboratory together, suggesting effects that extend beyond self-report to observable behavior. Mediation analyses revealed that generalized shared reality - the sense that partners see the world similarly across domains - partially explained these relational benefits. These findings highlight the relational importance of how agreement is formed: the process of building shared understanding together may be as valuable as the agreement itself.

ABSTRACT This article examines the theological validity of the claim that people and nature form a community (communio). Drawing on Catholic moral theology, it argues that communio is a concept applicable exclusively to interpersonal relationships (communio personarum), as it requires rationality, freedom, and mutual responsibility—qualities absent in nature. The paper demonstrates that misapplying concepts across disciplines leads to theological inaccuracies. Instead, it proposes that a genuine communio personarum fosters ecological responsibility and social harmony, providing a robust foundation for ethical environmental engagement.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations shifted to remote work. Additionally, there was an increase in experiences of racism toward Asian Americans and a continuation of racism toward other marginalized groups. This research explores the relationship between remote work, discrimination, and intra-minority solidarity. In Study 1, Asian Americans who worked remotely during the pandemic reported fewer racial discrimination experiences than those who worked in person. Study 2 demonstrated that both Asian and Black Americans who worked hybrid reported less interpersonal conflict and stress but more positive affect and control when they worked remotely than when in the office. Studies 3-5 examined how Asian Americans make meaning out of these pandemic circumstances. In these studies, learning about Asian Americans’ discrimination experiences during the pandemic promoted attitudes and policy preferences for reducing discrimination for all marginalized groups. We discuss the psychological implications of remote work and other equity-enhancing policies for intra-minority solidarity.

Bullying in school environments is a crucial issue that causes physical and emotional harm to victims and perpetuates cycles of aggression, with peer pressure identified as one of the main predictors. This study aims to address gaps in the literature regarding the specific role of peer pressure in shaping bullying behavior in Indonesian schools through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach, analyzing 21 research articles published between 2021 and 2026 from Google Scholar. The findings indicate that adolescents with high peer pressure are 3.48 times more likely to engage in bullying, and high peer conformity contributes to 44.4% of bullying cases. However, peer influence is dual-sided—positive interactions based on empathy and mutual respect can reduce bullying behavior. The impacts of bullying include depression, anxiety, and declining academic performance in victims, as well as legal issues and difficulties in interpersonal relationships in perpetrators. The study concludes that collaboration among various stakeholders is essential to manage peer group norms and dynamics as part of culturally contextual bullying prevention efforts in Indonesia.

BackgroundNurses in China's public hospitals face high-pressure environments and emotional labor, leading to professional fatigue, identity conflicts, and reduced work efficacy. These challenges impact job satisfaction and engagement. Despite these issues, job crafting mechanisms, which could help nurses reshape their work roles to improve job satisfaction and efficacy, and managerial interventions remain underexplored. This study investigates the key factors that influence how nurses proactively adjust their tasks, relationships, and work environments, aiming to enhance engagement, performance, and workforce retention.AimThis study explores key factors influencing nurses' job crafting in China through a multi-level qualitative approach.MethodsFrom 2023 to 2024, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 registered nurses at a tertiary public hospital in China. Data collection included literature review and research group discussions, while data analysis was conducted using grounded theory.Ethical considerationsThe study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Gansu Provincial Hospital (No. 2025-267). Informed consent was obtained from all participants, and confidentiality was strictly maintained throughout the research process.FindingsThree themes emerged: adaptability (including knowledge-action gaps, task preferences, and learned helplessness), organizational support (leadership styles, incentives, and resource access), and interpersonal relationships (team effectiveness and contextual dependence). These themes reflect multilevel factors influencing nurses' job crafting behaviors within clinical and organizational contexts.ConclusionNurses' job crafting is shaped by individual adaptability, value-driven decision-making, and organizational support, with leadership playing a mediating role. Aligning with Maslow's hierarchy, job crafting requires a localized framework integrating management innovation and Chinese strategic wisdom to enhance adaptability and job satisfaction.

What does it mean to “embody” paradox? In this paper, we adopt a "literal" interpretation of this question, examining how physical bodies experience, enact, and respond to knotted paradoxical tensions within the context of interpersonal and structural power relationships. We draw on a qualitative study of self-employed, community midwives (N=47) whom we interviewed jointly with their family members (N=51). Our findings paint a rich picture of how midwives experience knotted tensions through embodied polarities of presence-absence and energy-fatigue. We also elucidate how paradox knotting and power relations combine to transform midwives’ experiences of embodied tensions into a restrictive “triple bind,” where physical depletion adds a “third dimension” of material constraint to the interpersonal and structural constraints that characterize double binds. We detail three response patterns midwives use in attempting to navigate the triple bind, highlighting both the importance and limits of interpersonal support and gendered role negotiations. Our work advances understanding of paradox as a non-rational, embodied phenomenon, the navigation of which may require radical systemic change.

Suicide bereavement is a uniquely challenging form of loss, yet little is known about how it is expressed in language and how it reflects the meaning-making process. Here, we leveraged naturalistic online language to capture grief expressions beyond traditional help-seeking populations, applying a validated computational text-analysis method (LIWC-22) to 713 posts from the r/SuicideBereavement subreddit and comparing them to 1149 bereavement posts in the r/GriefSupport subreddit. Compared to other bereaved individuals, suicide-loss survivors used more cognitive processing words, reflecting deeper engagement in meaning-making, and displayed distinct attentional focus, frequently revisiting the past and the deceased's life to make sense of the loss. They also expressed greater anger and interpersonal conflict, and used language emphasizing collective and relational aspects of grief. These findings illuminate transdiagnostic processes relevant to bereavement, advancing understanding of suicide loss and suggests new avenues for monitoring and supporting survivors' adjustment in online and community-based postvention contexts.

Emerging adulthood is a crucial period in the development of romantic relationships, characterized by exploration in building more intimate and meaningful connections. However, not all individuals engage in romantic relationships adaptively, as evidenced by the increasing prevalence of toxic relationships. This indicates that romantic involvement does not always reflect the ability to establish healthy relationship. Romantic competence becomes essential as it encompasses the skills to understand, manage, and maintain romantic relationships in an adaptive way. Family functioning serves as a key factor in the development of romantic competence, as it is the first environment where individuals learn interaction patterns and interpersonal relations. This study aims to examine the relationship between family functioning and romantic competence among emerging adults. This study uses a correlational quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. The participants consisted of 198 emerging adults aged 18–25 years, selected through purposive sampling techniques. Data were collected using the Family Assessment Device (FAD) to measure family functioning and the Inventory of Romantic Relationship Competence (IRRC) to measure romantic competence. Data analysis was conducted using Spearman's correlation test with IBM SPSS 27. The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between family functioning and romantic competence (r = 0.417, p < 0.001). This finding interprets that higher levels of family functioning are associated with a greater ability to engage in adaptive romantic relationships. Overall, the findings suggest that the quality of family relationships serves as a “blueprint” for the interaction patterns individuals develop in their romantic relationships during early adulthood.

Video game addiction has increasingly been recognized as a behavioral disorder with significant consequences for social functioning and overall quality of life. This literature review synthesizes theoretical perspectives from John Bowlby’s attachment theory and Hinsch and Pfingsten’s social competence model to examine the psychosocial factors contributing to the development of video game addiction and subsequent alterations in social behavior. Attachment theory posits that insecure attachment styles—avoidant, anxious/ambivalent, and disorganized—predispose individuals to difficulties in forming and maintaining close interpersonal relationships. The social competence model emphasizes the interpersonal skills required for effective social interaction; deficits in these skills may lead individuals to seek alternative forms of social engagement, such as online gaming environments, which offer lower social demands and greater controllability. This paper explores how the interplay between attachment insecurity and low social competence can serve as a vulnerability pathway toward excessive gaming. Prolonged engagement in video games may further exacerbate social withdrawal, reduce offline communication skills, and negatively affect life satisfaction. By integrating these frameworks, the review provides a comprehensive perspective on the psychosocial mechanisms underlying video game addiction and outlines implications for prevention and intervention, such as early attachment-based interventions and social skills training. While attachment theory and social competence have been individually applied to interpersonal difficulties, their combined use in explaining behavioral addictions remains limited. This review addresses this gap by proposing a unified framework highlighting how interaction between attachment insecurity and social competence deficits shapes vulnerability to excessive gaming.