Socio-emotional Challenges Research Articles

Simulation Enhances Soft Skills Among Inter-Professionals Participating in an International Service-Learning Experience to a Resource-Limited Country.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Introduction:Soft skills are the hallmark of a master healthcare provider. One of the most effective ways to teach soft skills to healthcare providers is through service-learning. Evidence suggests that adding simulation as part of a service-learning team's pre-departure training (PDT) will better prepare them to resolve ethical and cultural dilemmas often encountered in resource-limited countries, plus facilitate soft skills. We hypothesized that simulation could improve soft skills of physical and occupational therapy students and clinicians providing rehabilitation services on a one-week service-learning experience in Guatemala. Methods:A convenience sample of 21 physical and occupational therapy students and clinicians who participated in four 1-hour PDTs were included in this qualitative study using grounded-theory methods. Training consisted of didactic, reflective and simulation components designed to introduce self-awareness, team-building, cultural knowledge, and to support trip preparations. Four debriefings were recorded using open-ended questions with a thematic approach around the concepts of preparedness and cultural adaptability, which represented the dependent variables. The independent variable was a 20-minute simulation emphasizing cultural and socio-emotional challenges of the host community. Results:Six themes emerged: confidence, empathy, communication, mentorship, self-knowledge, and cultural competency. The themes described were core elements of empowering the participants towards advocacy and process improvement. As a result of the simulation experience, participants in this study were better able to respond to distressing situations encountered on site, and they expressed the service-learning experience, supported by the PDT simulation, stirred significant maturation. Discussion and Conclusion:Simulation is useful for developing self-regulatory skills, especially in response to culturally novel, emotionally-charged situations. Simulation for enriching international service-learning experiences is recommended as best practice to prepare healthcare providers in facing ethical and cultural demands of resource-limited countries.

Medication adherence in pediatric renal transplant patients: The role of family functioning and parent health locus of control.

Children and adolescents with renal disease experience daily social, emotional, and medical challenges. Renal transplantation can help to improve quality of life but requires a lifelong regimen of immunosuppressant medication to maintain health. Adherence to a daily complex regimen can be difficult, particularly for adolescents who are beginning to develop autonomy from caregivers and are faced with a unique set of socio-emotional challenges. This study examines two factors that have shown to influence adherence in other pediatric populations, namely family functioning and parent health locus of control, from mothers' perspectives, in predicting medication non-adherence for adolescents (ages 12-19years) 1year post-transplant. Non-adherence was defined as the percentage of missed doses and late doses of the weekly immunosuppressant doses prescribed. Regression results demonstrated that mothers' perceptions of poorer overall family functioning predicted missed medication doses (ΔR2 =0.383, F(7, 21)=2.570, P=0.044) with significant contributions in the domains of problem-solving (β=-0.795, t(21)=-2.927, P=0.008) and affective involvement (β=0.872, t(21)=3.370, P=0.003). Moreover, mothers who perceived that their adolescent had control over his/her health also predicted more missed medication doses (ΔR2 =0.133, F(1, 27)=5.155, P=0.031). Important implications for these findings include implementation of family-based interventions that promote developmentally appropriate skills for adolescents and cultivate emotional involvement within the family.

Closing the Gender Gap in Fragile X Syndrome: Review on Females with FXS and Preliminary Research Findings.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic condition known to increase the risk of cognitive impairment and socio-emotional challenges in affected males and females. To date, the vast majority of research on FXS has predominantly targeted males, who usually exhibit greater cognitive impairment compared to females. Due to their typically milder phenotype, females may have more potential to attain a higher level of independence and quality of life than their male counterparts. However, the constellation of cognitive, behavioral, and, particularly, socio-emotional challenges present in many females with FXS often preclude them from achieving their full potential. It is, therefore, critical that more research specifically focuses on females with FXS to elucidate the role of genetic, environmental, and socio-emotional factors on outcome in this often-overlooked population.

Anxiety and Attentional Bias in Children with Specific Learning Disorders.

Children with specific learning disorders (SLDs) face a unique set of socio-emotional challenges as a result of their academic difficulties. Although a higher prevalence of anxiety in children with SLD is often reported, there is currently no research on cognitive mechanisms underlying this anxiety. One way to elucidate these mechanisms is to investigate attentional bias to threatening stimuli using a dot-probe paradigm. Our study compared children ages 9-16 with SLD (n = 48) to typically-developing (TD) controls (n = 33) on their attentional biases to stimuli related to general threats, reading, and stereotypes of SLD. We found a significant threat bias away from reading-related stimuli in the SLD, but not TD group. This attentional bias was not observed with the general threat and stereotype stimuli. Further, children with SLD reported greater anxiety compared to TD children. These results suggest that children with SLD experience greater anxiety, which may partially stem from reading specifically. The finding of avoidance rather than vigilance to reading stimuli indicates the use of more top-down attentional control. This work has important implications for therapeutic approaches to anxiety in children with SLD and highlights the need for attention to socio-emotional difficulties in this population. Future research is needed to further investigate the cognitive aspects of socio-emotional difficulties in children with SLD, as well as how this may impact academic outcomes.

Regulation of collaboration in project-based learning mediated by CSCL scripting reflection

Many studies attempt to effectively support student regulation of collaboration using CSCL tools to enrich learning outcomes. However, few studies are aimed at facilitating development of students' internal scripts for regulation of collaboration. This study focuses on developing and evaluating a computer-mediated learning environment for project-based learning to facilitate student internal scripts for regulation by designing external scripts for effective reflection. Forty-eight first-year university students participated in this study as part of their curriculum. Our analyses of their internal scripts before and after PBL participation revealed that significantly more students who encountered an unfamiliar situation during collaboration constructed new regulation scripts. Moreover, in case studies, we found that students augmented their scripts for socially shared regulation when recognizing socio-cognitive challenges, whereas they augmented co-regulation and self-regulation scripts when recognizing socio-emotional challenges.

Undergraduate students' evaluation and reflections on a gerodontology programme.

Many societies have observed a steady increase of many older adults living longer due to advancements in health and standard of living. The dental team requires specialised training in gerodontology to better prepare for the future needs of the elderly patients. It is the aim of this study to report the undergraduate students' activities and perspectives on their work experience in a geriatric residence. An anonymous online questionnaire on the theoretical and practical aspects of training was sent to students in dentistry and dental hygiene (DH) undergraduate courses. Students were also invited to discuss their experiences. Data of clinical treatment performed by the students were collected. The number of clinical hours of student exposure to patients was measured. Completion of the questionnaire was high (90%). Both DH and dentistry students have in excess of 100hours/y of clinical practice. Overall students rate their experience as a positive one that enriches patients' well-being. However they identify barriers to oral health and experience challenges related to their clinical work and level of competence (Kruskal-Wallis Test P<.05). study participants were strongly motivated towards the management of frail older adults and cognisant of the barriers and constraints of achieving a reasonable level of oral health. Gerodontology programmes should be adaptable in order to create the appropriate environment and address socio-emotional challenges experienced by students.

Behavioral Inhibition in Boys with Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies Compared to a Clinical Sample

Sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCA) in boys involve physiological, cognitive, and socioemotional challenges. Internalizing problems in boys with SCA are underexamined. We examined behavioral inhibition (BI) in boys with SCA, compared to a clinical sample. BI is a temperamental style characterized by shyness, withdrawal, and cautiousness, and represents increased risk for internalizing problems. Parents (76% mothers) completed the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ; Bishop et al. 2003), which comprises total BI and BI in six specific domains. Parents of 25 boys with SCA participated (boys’ M age = 11.7 years, SD = 4.5, range 2–18 years), including boys with karyotypes 47,XXY, 47,XYY, 48,XXYY, and 48,XXXY. We compared their BI to 100 boys referred to mental health clinics and treated for anxiety (M age = 11.7 years, SD = 2.3, range 7–17 years), and to norms from 307 Australian boys aged >5 years. Total BI in boys with SCA was at the same level as clinic-referred boys (effect size difference d = 0.02), and higher than norms (d = 0.81). Boys with SCA were significantly more inhibited in physical situations than clinic-referred boys (p = .007; d = 0.71). Differences were small to negligible for BI domains involving peer, unfamiliar adults, and performance situations (all d ≤ 0.34). In conclusion, boys with SCA seem to be as behaviorally inhibited as boys treated for anxiety problems in mental health clinics. Inhibition in physical domains may be a particular challenge for boys with SCA.

Paternal Incarceration and the Housing Security of Urban Mothers.

High rates of imprisonment among American fathers have motivated an ongoing examination of incarceration's role in family life. A growing literature suggests that incarceration creates material and socioemotional challenges not only for prisoners and former prisoners but also for their families and communities. The authors examined the relationship between fathers' incarceration and one such challenge: the housing insecurity of the mothers of their children. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,125) and a series of longitudinal regression models, they found that mothers' housing security was compromised following their partners' incarceration, an association likely driven in part, but not entirely, by financial challenges following his time in prison or jail. Given the importance of stable housing for the continuity of adult employment, children's schooling, and other inputs to healthy child development, the findings suggest a grave threat to the well-being of children with incarcerated fathers.

Socio-emotional conflict in collaborative learning—A process-oriented case study in a higher education context

This case study explores cognitive, motivational and socio-emotional challenges experienced in collaborative learning, how conflict emerges and what students’ emotional reactions and interpretations are. Collaborative work of 22 higher education students was followed during a three-month course. All face-to-face group sessions were videotaped (33h), and cued retrospective recall interviews (with video stimulus) were conducted. The results indicate the differences between the groups with respect to the amount and the types of challenges. One case group was chosen (one that experienced more and particularly socio-emotional challenges) for the in-depth interaction analysis. Their overruling, status-centric, undermining and normative interaction created a socio-emotional conflict. Students were unable to maintain a well-balanced atmosphere, which led them to adopt avoidance-focused emotion regulation behaviour and to lower their on-task engagement.

Neonatal brainstem dysfunction after preterm birth predicts behavioral inhibition

Behavioral inhibition (BI), the tendency to withdraw or exhibit negative affect when experiencing stressful situations, is a major risk factor for the development of social anxiety. However, neonatal biologic origins of this progression are still unknown. Click here to enter text.This study aimed to extend frameworks of behavioral inhibition by exploring empirically the central role of neonatal brainstem electrophysiologic functions in the development of social disengagement and BI. Sixty-six preterm neonates (means ±SD: gestation age = 33.1 ± 1.22 weeks, birth weight = 1775 + 346.7 g; 51% female) participated in a prospective longitudinal study. The infants were tested within the first 2 weeks of postnatal life using an auditory brainstem-evoked response test. Based on the typicality of the major ABR wave latencies, waves I, III and V, neonates were divided into two groups (compromised, CBSF- with at least one component ≥1.5 SDs from the mean for the respective gestation age; normal, NBSF, with all components within 1.5 SD around the mean), and were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal follow-up study. This report extends previous work from 4 m by testing responses to socioemotional challenges during the Separation-Reunion paradigm at 12 m. Results show that infants with neonatal CBSF were more susceptible to be classified as BI at 12 m (age corrected for prematurity) than infants with NBSF (66% vs. 40%, respectively). The most striking symptom in the CBSF group was a disability to initiate self-regulatory activities in response to a socioemotional challenge, resulting in frequent passivity/dependency (p < .001). Statistical regression analysis revealed that face-to-face gaze engagement at 4 m moderates the risk related to neonatal CBSF for the emergence of BI at 12 m, but did not overturn the emergence of BI. Results support the hypothesis that neonatal brainstem dysfunction canalizes behavioral inhibition. These findings highlight, for the first time, the role of the early developing brainstem in later development of BI and in abilities to initiate self-regulatory behavior.

Are empathic abilities learnable? Implications for social neuroscientific research from psychometric assessments

Empathy is defined as an individually varying but stable personality trait. To our knowledge this notion seems questionable considering recent studies proving neuronal plasticity not only in childhood and adolescence but over the whole lifespan. We propose a model in which an individual’s basic empathic abilities—arising from genetic factors, brain maturation, and early attachment experiences —are continually modulated by the intensity, continuity, and frequency of interpersonal socio-emotional stimulation and challenges. We assume neural processes and their underlying neural structures being modified by social and socio-emotional stimulation. Continuous social interactions should produce noticeable effects on the empathic abilities of an individual independent of age or brain maturation level. In particular, empathic abilities should be learnable and expandable beyond specific developmental windows. To elucidate this hypothesis we surveyed empathy measures of students of various professions with the help of a new instrument, the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) categorizing them into three different groups depending on their subsequent occupational fields: medical students, students of academic social professions, and a control group. Results indicate that continuous socio-emotional stimulation could increase empathic abilities potentially leading to learning effects.

Regulation of emotions in socially challenging learning situations: an instrument to measure the adaptive and social nature of the regulation process

Self-regulated learning (SRL) research has conventionally relied on measures, which treat SRL as an aptitude. To study self-regulation and motivation in learning contexts as an ongoing adaptive process, situation-specific methods are needed in addition to static measures. This article presents an ‘Adaptive Instrument for Regulation of Emotions’ aimed at accessing students’ experiences of individual and socially shared regulation of emotions in a socially challenging learning situation. The instrument, grounded in self-regulated and socially regulated learning theory, comprises four interrelated components: the socio-emotional challenges experienced in a collaborative learning situation; individual and group-level attempts to regulate the immediate emotions evoked by the challenges; the personal goals; and goal attainment pursued in that situation. The theoretical foundation of the instrument and its components are outlined and some reliability issues illustrated. The limitations but also educational potential of the instrument to understand regulation of emotions in socially challenging learning situations are discussed.

Salivary Cortisol, Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Performance in Anxious and Non-Anxious Children of Elementary and Middle School Age

Research Findings: Individual and contextual variables were examined in relation to children's ability to cope with socioemotional and academic challenges in a sample of typically developing (n = 51) and anxious (n = 72) children of elementary and middle school age. Anxious children had greater social difficulties than controls and showed different directions of cortisol response to a public speaking task, but there were no group differences in academic performance. Across the sample, greater salivary cortisol reactivity to the speech task was associated with both increased social difficulties and higher academic achievement. For a subset of younger (M = 6.9 years) but not older (M = 12.3 years) children, social functioning was also highly sensitive to contextual variables (e.g., family income level). Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that social functioning in elementary school is as sensitive to contextual variables as it is to physiological ones. Interventions promoting stress recovery, social interaction, and social competence may be beneficial during the elementary school years.

How might stress contribute to increased risk for schizophrenia in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome?

The most common human microdeletion occurs at chromosome 22q11.2. The associated syndrome (22q11.2DS) has a complex and variable phenotype with a high risk of schizophrenia. While the role of stress in the etiopathology of schizophrenia has been under investigation for over 30 years (Walker et al. 2008), the stress–diathesis model has yet to be investigated in children with 22q11.2DS. Children with 22q11.2DS face serious medical, behavioral, and socioemotional challenges from infancy into adulthood. Chronic stress elevates glucocorticoids, decreases immunocompetence, negatively impacts brain development and function, and is associated with psychiatric illness in adulthood. Drawing knowledge from the extant and well-developed anxiety and stress literature will provide invaluable insight into the complex etiopathology of schizophrenia in people with 22q11.2DS while suggesting possible early interventions. Childhood anxiety is treatable and stress coping skills can be developed thereby improving quality of life in the short-term and potentially mitigating the risk of developing psychosis.

Emotion control in collaborative learning situations: Do students regulate emotions evoked by social challenges/

During recent decades, self-regulated learning (SRL) has become a major research field. SRL successfully integrates the cognitive and motivational components of learning. Self-regulation is usually seen as an individual process, with the social aspects of regulation conceptualized as one aspect of the context. However, recent research has begun to investigate whether self-regulation processes are complemented by socially shared regulation processes. The presented study investigated what kind of socio-emotional challenges students experience during collaborative learning and whether the students regulate the emotions evoked during these situations. The interplay of the emotion regulation processes between the individual and the group was also studied. The sample for this study was 63 teacher education students who studied in groups of three to five during three collaborative learning tasks. Students' interpretations of experienced social challenges and their attempts to regulate emotions evoked by these challenges were collected following each task using the Adaptive Instrument for the Regulation of Emotions. The results indicated that students experienced a variety of social challenges. Students also reported the use of shared regulation in addition to self-regulation. Finally, the results suggested that intrinsic group dynamics are derived from both individual and social elements of collaborative situations. The findings of the study support the assumption that students can regulate emotions collaboratively as well as individually. The study contributes to our understanding of the social aspects of emotional regulation in collaborative learning contexts.

Socio-emotional challenges in international education

This article, arising from a study located in a Japanese education setting, analyses the socio-emotional challenges experienced by host (Japanese) and international (Australian) students as they interact in the same international education environment over a period of time. Students' multiple interpretations of critical incidents created by the researchers on the basis of recurrent challenges highlight that intercultural relational development is an interactive, dynamic process that requires sensitivity and reciprocal understanding. The Japanese location of the study contributes to redressing the dominance of studies conducted in English-speaking host environments.

Dynamic Aspects of Fairy Tales: Social and emotional competence through fairy tales

This paper explores how fairy tales address various socio-emotional challenges with which children are confronted during the course of their socialisation. A structural theory of fairy tales is presented and then applied to the analyses of three literary versions of the Cinderella cycle; those of Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault and the Grimm Brothers. The analysis shows that while Basile addresses the child's problematical development from a receiver of care to a giver, Perrault is concerned with the psychological foundation of haughtiness versus generosity, and Grimm with the child's grief over the loss of the mother. The results are discussed from a pedagogical perspective. It is argued that the combination of simplicity of form and complexity of content makes the fairy tale a powerful tool for perception of and reflection on emotions. The former renders openness to the text and a feeling of control to the child, thus allowing the child to relate to his or her own experiences. The latter offers substantial contributions to reflection on emotions. This is shown on different levels of meaning, the artistic, the mythical and the ludic, each having specific cognitive and emotional functions.