Socio-emotional Factors Research Articles

Civic Engagement in Retirement and the Socioemotional Experience of Pandemic Time

COVID-19 has highlighted increasing reliance on information and communication technology (ICT) and challenges in access and use. ICT access also provides resources that benefit users’ mental health. Our study describes changes in the use of ICT before and during the COVID-19 pandemic among cancer patients with and without dementia. We identified 196 (1.6 million weighted population) older adults with a self-reported cancer history who participated in both 2019 and 2020 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). In 2019, cancer patients with dementia (9.9%) were less likely (adjusted OR 0.29; 95%CI, 0.11-0.78) to use information technology (IT) for health matters (contacting medical providers, handling health insurance matters, obtaining information about health conditions, and ordering prescription refills) compared to those without dementia. In contrast, dementia status was not associated with communication technology (CT) use (email or texts) or IT use for personal tasks (grocery shopping or online banking). IT use for personal tasks was inversely associated with anxiety symptoms (adjusted OR 0.22; 95%CI:0.06-0.83) and CT use was inversely associated with depressive symptoms (adjusted OR 0.25 (95%CI:0.07-0.97). In 2020, regardless of dementia status, all cancer patients increased their virtual (email/phone/video) contact with family, friends (3.4%-7.0%), and medical providers (17.2%-36.2%) while decreasing in-person contact (10.0%-15.7% and 21.8%-24.2%, respectively) during the pandemic. This study suggests that there are potential unmet daily needs for patients with comorbid cancer and dementia that may be met with improved ICT access. Such challenges are of increasing concern as COVID-19 has resulted in increased ICT reliance for older adults.

Civic Engagement in Retirement and the Socioemotional Experience of Pandemic Time

This research integrates literature from the sociology of the life course, sociology of emotions and the sociology of time to examine how Socioeconomic Status (SES) influenced retiree civic engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. I find that SES framed both the social experience of time and the prevalent emotions experienced by retirees while physically distancing during the early days of the pandemic. These individual-level experiences translated to markedly different blueprints for civic engagement. High-SES retirees were more likely to ‘go global’, organizing to advocate for their interests. Conversely, low-SES retirees were more likely to ‘turn in’, minimizing their civic engagement. My findings reveal how existing sociopolitical inequalities may become further entrenched in public health crises. Policies aimed at combating inequalities in later life also need to consider socioemotional and sociotemporal factors.

Life satisfaction and adolescent music making: A comparison of youth choirs and bands in Spain

Adolescents who are members of youth music groups learn music and develop other skills such as group work and conflict resolution. These skills and feelings may represent socioemotional factors underlying increased life satisfaction, leadership capacity, and academic motivation, together with the acquisition of emotional skills. The aim of the research was to determine the degree of life satisfaction reported by a sample of 660 Spanish adolescents who were members of a youth band or choir. It also aimed to examine correlations between life satisfaction, leadership capacity, academic motivation, and emotional development. Potential differences between these variables attributable to participants’ age, gender, type of youth music group, and musical instrument played were explored using a cross-sectional survey comprising four standardized questionnaires. The results show that the participants were highly satisfied with their lives. There were strong positive correlations between the variables studied but also some significant differences between the two groups (choirs and bands), and between players of different instrument families. These results are in line with those other studies, confirming the positive influence of group music making on adolescents’ social and emotional growth.

The relationship between cognitive failures and empathy

Cognitive empathy (or theory of mind) is the capacity to understand others' thoughts and feelings, while affective empathy is the tendency to be affected by others' feelings. There is evidence that successful attentional control is related to increased cognitive empathy but reduced affective empathy. Here, we investigated whether empathy relates to real-world cognitive failures, which are associated with attentional control. We examined the relationship between individual differences in the propensity to experience everyday cognitive failures using the widely-validated Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), and cognitive versus affective empathy (using the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy) in a sample of 394 participants. We found qualitatively different relationships between general cognitive failures and the two components of empathy, such that individuals prone to cognitive failures experienced reduced tendency to understand others' perspective, but experienced greater feeling of others' emotions. When we considered the sub-factors of Cognitive Failures (Forgetfulness, Distractibility and False-Triggering), they were equivalently related to Affective Empathy. However, for Cognitive Empathy, Distractibility-related cognitive failures were uniquely negatively associated, while Forgetfulness-related cognitive failures were positively associated. Implications for the interplay between cognitive and socio-emotional factors, and the conceptualization of cognitive failures are discussed.

Do Motivated Teachers Enhance Students’ Learning?

Background: Educational literature emphasizes teachers’ intrinsic motivation as a critical aspect of student performance. However, the variety of interpretations, operational definitions, measures, and conceptual frameworks used to investigate this construct makes determining the extent of the impact of teachers’ intrinsic motivation on student outcomes difficult. As a result, the purpose of this scoping review, which is framed in the Self-determination Theory, is to collect, synthesize, and map existing quantitative evidence about the effects of teachers’ intrinsic motivation on students’ learning and other educational outcomes.
 Methods/Design: Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, the review will first focus on empirical sources and quantitative studies that address the concept of intrinsic motivation as the result of the fulfillment the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness; second, an inventory of operational definitions, instruments, measures, and analysis techniques used to explore the relationship between teacher motivation and student learning outcomes will be developed; and, third, the quality of the evidence reported will be assessed.
 Discussion: Findings of this review will contribute to a better understanding of the impact of socioemotional factors on students’ learning and achievement, and will provide educational practitioners, researchers, and policymakers with useful information to make informed decisions.

Maternal Executive Functioning, Emotional Availability and Psychological Distress During Toddlerhood: A FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

Executive functioning (EF) is one of the building blocks in parental caregiving behavior, and contextual variables have been reported to moderate the link between EF and caregiving behavior. Although psychological distress due to various factors is prevalent during early parenthood and is negatively associated with adult EF, it is not known whether psychological distress influences the maternal EF/caregiving link. This study explored the association between maternal EF and caregiving behavior (more specifically, Emotional Availability/EA), and whether single and cumulative maternal psychological distress domains moderated the EF/EA association in a general population sample of 137 Finnish birth cohort mothers with 2.5-year-old children. EF was measured with a composite of five computerized Cogstate tasks, EA with the Emotional Availability Scales, and three psychological distress domains with self-report questionnaires (depression: EPDS, anxiety: SCL-90, insomnia: AIS). Better EF was significantly associated with more positive, sensitive caregiving, but this association was no longer significant when controlling for education level. Neither individual nor cumulative distress domains moderated the EF/EA association significantly, although the observed moderation effects were in the expected direction. These findings suggest that EF should be recognized alongside socioemotional factors as variables that are associated with parental caregiving behavior during toddlerhood. Furthermore, if the non-significant moderation results are replicated, they indicate that mothers in community samples are not at great risk for psychological distress that would compromise their capacity to utilize their EF while caring for their child. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings, as well as to examine these associations among fathers and in samples that have higher levels of chronic stressors. Studies with more diverse samples in terms of distress levels and EF performance would provide further insight into early childhood parenting and its risk factors.

The influence of social and emotional context on the gaze leading orienting effect

ABSTRACT We spontaneously orient our attention towards people whose gaze we have led (the “gaze leading” effect). Here, we investigated whether this orienting effect is sensitive to the social and emotional content of the stimuli within the interactions. Experiment 1 replicated the gaze leading effect but found no reliable influence of facial dominance or object valence. Experiment 2, where only object valence was manipulated, replicated Experiment 1. Thus, the gaze leading effect appears reliable but insensitive to the properties of the shared referent object. Experiment 3 varied only facial dominance; a marginally significant interaction indicated that attention was deployed towards high-dominant faces more than low-dominant gaze followers. Experiment 4 varied the social information relating to the social status that participants hold regarding the faces with which they interacted, but statistical support for an influence of biographical information on gaze leading was weak. Overall, the gaze leading effect appears generally reliable, and may vary when information about the individuals following our gaze is manipulated, though it is not yet fully clear which socio-evaluative features are most relevant. Future investigations may therefore require more powerful or sensitive designs to better evaluate the role of socioemotional factors and processes on this social orienting effect.

Cognitive and socio-emotional correlates of psychological well-being and mental health in Guatemalan adults

BackgroundLittle is known about associations of psychological and mental well-being with cognitive and socioemotional factors in low and middle-income countries, particularly among vulnerable populations born in adverse environments that may restrict developmental potential. This study aimed to examine the cognitive and socioemotional correlates of psychological well-being and mental health in a cohort of Guatemalan adults born in contexts of poverty and malnutrition.MethodsFrom Dec 2017 to Apr 2019, data were collected from 704 women and 564 men ages 40–57 years living in four rural villages in eastern Guatemala and Guatemala City. We measured latent domains of psychological well-being, spirituality and religion, emotional support, and executive function using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Under a Structural Equation Modeling framework, we examined intercorrelations among latent domains and observed measures of intelligence and mental health.ResultsCFA supported the construct validity of factor structures in this population. Correlations of psychological well-being with spirituality and religion were moderate in women (r = 0.68, p < 0.001) and men (r = 0.70, p < 0.001). Executive function was weakly correlated with psychological well-being in men (r = 0.23, p < 0.001) and showed no association in women. Correlations of psychological well-being with emotional support and IQ were weak in women (r = 0.34, and r = 0.15, respectively; p < 0.001 for both) and men (r = 0.35, and r = 0.25, respectively; p < 0.001 for both). Mental health and IQ were weakly correlated in men (r = 0.09, p < 0.05) and showed no association in women. Mental health showed weak correlations with emotional support (r = 0.18, p < 0.001 in women; r = 0.09, p < 0.05 in men), psychological well-being (r = 0.32 and r = 0.35, in women and men respectively; p < 0.001 for both) and showed no association with executive function in both sexes.ConclusionsOf all examined factors, spirituality and religion made the greatest contribution to psychological well-being. These findings support the notion that in populations experiencing difficult circumstances, religion can perhaps make a greater contribution to well-being and aid coping. More research is needed to examine mediators of this association.

Health, Neighborhoods, and School Readiness from the Parent Perspective: A Qualitative Study of Contextual and Socio-Emotional Factors.

The objective of this qualitative study was to address existing gaps in the literature by gathering parent perspectives on both health and school readiness in regard to neighborhood context, specifically parents’ perceived level of neighborhood safety and support, on physical health and the behavioral and cognitive domains of school readiness. Focus groups were conducted with a total of 28 parents or caregivers whose children attended Early Head Start/Head Start Centers or who received Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) services in New Orleans, Louisiana during fall 2015. Parents discussed concepts of school readiness, neighborhood, the intersection between the two, and parental stress; however, few expressed a clear connection between their concerns about safety, their own stress, and their child’s readiness for school. Disparities in both health and school readiness exist between both racial and socioeconomic groups in the United States, and this study offers a unique and enhanced understanding of the impact of non-academic factors on the well-being and development of young children.

Internalizing problems are associated with oral health-related quality of life in early childhood: Outcomes from an Asian multi-ethnic prospective birth cohort.

Oral health status ideally warrants for a holistic biopsychosocial approach to health and wellness. Little is known about the impact of behavioral problems on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in children due to the paucity of studies in early childhood, particularly in Asian multi-ethnic populations. This study evaluated the relationship between early child’s socioemotional factors and OHRQoL, as well as its association with orofacial pain (OFP) and early childhood caries (ECC) in the Asian GUSTO birth cohort. Mother-child dyads were postnatally assessed at 3 time points. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess the child’s socioemotional and behavioral problems at age 4–4.5 years together with other validated questionnaires to evaluate maternal anxiety and depression. ECC detection was performed at age 5, and OHRQoL (primary) and OFP (secondary) outcomes were assessed at age 6 from a total of 555 mother-child dyads. After a univariate regression analysis was performed to identify potential predictors and confounders, a multivariate regression model was run with predisposing factors (CBCL internalization and externalization problems, OFP, ECC) and adjusted for confounders (maternal psychosocial states, maternal education) to determine associations with OHRQoL. Results showed an association between CBCL internalization scores and poorer OHRQoL (RR = 1.03, p = 0.033, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.05), although the limited risk ratio may not have a practical applicability in psychosocially healthy children, alike the majority of those evaluated in this cohort. The average OHRQoL overall score among children with OFP was 2.39 times more than those without OFP (OR = 2.39, p < 0.001, 95% CI 2.00 to 2.86). Thus, in early childhood, OFP, and to lesser extent internalizing behaviors, may negatively impact OHRQoL. This study therefore highlights the complex relationship between OHRQoL and its predisposing socioemotional and somatic pain factors, and demands further investigations in clinically relevant populations.

Affective states in digital game-based learning: Thematic evolution and social network analysis.

Research has indicated strong relationships between learners' affect and their learning. Emotions relate closely to students' well-being, learning quality, productivity, and interaction. Digital game-based learning (DGBL) has been widely recognized to be effective in enhancing learning experiences and increasing student motivation. The field of emotions in DGBL has become an active research field with accumulated literature available, which calls for a comprehensive understanding of the up-to-date literature concerning emotions in virtual DGBL among students at all educational levels. Based on 393 research articles collected from the Web of Science, this study, for the first time, explores the current advances and topics in this field. Specifically, thematic evolution analysis is conducted to explore the evolution of topics that are categorized into four different groups (i.e., games, emotions, applications, and analytical technologies) in the corpus. Social network analysis explores the co-occurrences between topics to identify their relationships. Interesting results are obtained. For example, with the integration of diverse applications (e.g., mobiles) and analytical technologies (e.g., learning analytics and affective computing), increasing types of affective states, socio-emotional factors, and digital games are investigated. Additionally, implications for future research include 1) children's anxiety/attitude and engagement in collaborative gameplay, 2) individual personalities and characteristics for personalized support, 3) emotion dynamics, 4) multimodal data use, 5) game customization, 6) balance between learners' skill levels and game challenge as well as rewards and learning anxiety.

The effects of topic familiarity on emotionality and linguistic complexity in EAP writing

Focusing on the relationship between linguistic, cognitive, socioemotional factors in writing English for academic purposes (EAP), this study investigated whether topic familiarity as an important cognitive factor of task complexity influences different levels of emotionality and linguistic complexity in EAP writing and whether there are relationships between emotionality and linguistic complexity. To do so, 64 international graduate learners enrolled in EAP writing courses participated in the present study. Each wrote on familiar and unfamiliar topics determined via a questionnaire at the onset of the study. Their writings were then measured for textual emotionality and linguistic complexity using automatic assessment tools. Results showed that EAP writings differed systematically in terms of both emotionality and linguistic complexity due to the influence of topic familiarity. Unfamiliar topics led to writing performance with a significantly higher level of emotional negativity and significantly lower linguistic complexity levels as compared to familiar topics. A follow-up correlation analysis also revealed significant relationships between emotionality and linguistic complexity measures, indicating complex interactions between linguistic and socioemotional factors. Implications of these findings are discussed relative to deploying writing topics with varied levels of cognitive complexity for encouraging classroom engagement and improving L2 learners’ writing performance by effective task sequencing.

Trauma-related differences in socio-emotional functioning predict housing and employment outcomes in homeless veterans

RationaleMental health and substance use disorders are strong risk factors for homelessness. Understanding the role of transdiagnostic factors could help inform efforts to reduce homelessness among veterans with a range of disorders. Homeless veterans have high rates of trauma exposure, which can result in the depletion of social and emotional resources that may contribute to housing and employment stability. In this study, we evaluated the role of problems with emotional lability and interpersonal closeness as transdiagnostic socio-emotional factors that might interfere with efforts to achieve housing and employment stability. MethodsThe sample consisted of 346 homeless veterans with co-occurring disorders that were admitted to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) residential treatment program between 2004 and 2009. Assessments were conducted at treatment entry (baseline) and two follow-up timepoints (6- and 12-months). Variables used in the current analyses included history of interpersonal trauma exposure, emotional lability and interpersonal closeness at baseline and 6-months, and homelessness and employment problems during follow-up. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and counterfactually-defined mediation effects. ResultsVeterans exposed to more trauma types experienced more baseline impairment and less improvement during treatment in emotional lability and interpersonal closeness. Problems with interpersonal closeness mediated 73% of the relationship between exposure to multiple traumas and homelessness, and 32%–61% of the relationship between trauma exposure and employment problems. Emotional lability mediated 36% of the relationship between exposure to multiple traumas and employment problems. Decomposition of indirect pathways revealed that indirect effects were primarily transmitted through changes during treatment, and not baseline levels. ConclusionFindings support a cumulative effect of trauma on persistence of socio-emotional deficits across treatment, which increased risk of homelessness and employment problems during follow-up. Greater attention and more targeted efforts should be directed at helping trauma-exposed veterans build socio-emotional resources during treatment.

Academic Help-Seeking Attitudes, and Their Relationship with Emotional Variables

Academic help seeking is a self-regulatory strategy that is closely related to students’ school functioning and successful school outcomes. The aim of the present study is to gain greater insight into the associations between help-seeking behavior and attitudes (i.e., emotional costs, perception of benefits, threats and avoidance of academic help seeking), and socio-emotional factors (i.e., functional social support, satisfaction with life, happiness, academic and social self-concept, emotional loneliness and social network). Two hundred and thirty-two students from three public secondary schools (53.9% girls; mean age = 16.61, SD = 2.85) participated in this study by completing the assessment form during school hours. As expected, the results showed significant associations between attitudes toward academic help seeking and socioemotional factors except for (1) perceived emotional cost of academic help seeking and happiness, academic self-concept and social network, (2) threat of academic help seeking and satisfaction with life and social network and (3) avoidance of academic help seeking and social network, in which cases the correlations were not significant. Finally, (1) emotional loneliness was found to be a significant predictor of the perceived emotional cost of academic help seeking, (2) functional social support, academic self-concept, social self-concept and subjective evaluation of the social network were found to be significant predictors of the perceived benefits of academic help seeking, (3) emotional loneliness and academic self-concept were found to be significant predictors of both threat of academic help seeking and avoidance of academic help seeking. The results of this study suggest that psycho-emotional variables play an important role in academic help-seeking strategies and can affect students’ final behavior in help seeking.

Pilot study of socio-emotional factors and adaptive behavior in young females with fragile X syndrome

ABSTRACT Girls with Fragile-X-Syndrome (FXS) present high levels of social anxiety, social avoidance, extreme shyness, tendency to social isolation, poor eye contact, learning difficulties, and depression. The aims of the present study, which is based on a group of young females with FXS are: 1) to analyze the possible associations between emotion recognition, theory of mind, and social anxiety, and adaptive behavior, and emotional state; 2) to study the relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and adaptive behavior; and 3) to assess whether social anxiety is more prevalent in girls with FXS. The study has 40 female participants aged between 7 and 16 years (26 positive full mutation FXS and 14 as a control group). A neuropsychological assessment was conducted using the following tests: WISC-V, NEPSY-II, SENA, ADHD Rating Scale, BAS, and ABAS-II. In comparison with the control group, the group with FXS presented a greater association between IQ and self-direction ability, and between emotion recognition and leadership. The FXS group presented higher levels of social anxiety and shyness. In the group of girls with FXS, IQ may have prognostic value for both self-direction ability and social adaptation level.

Socio-Emotional Skills in Adolescence. Influence of Personal and Extracurricular Variables.

Social-emotional skills have been an important object of study in recent years due to their relationship with academic, personal and professional success. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between these skills and different influential variables. The participants had a mean age of 14.18 years. The instruments used were the Social Emotional Competence Questionnaire (SECQ) and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PACQ-A). Generally, the results indicated gender differences and no influence of age. Those who engaged in after-school activities scored higher on social awareness. In addition, artistic and musical extracurricular activities were associated with social-emotional skills, whereas sports activities were not. It was also found that the physical activity index was not related to socioemotional factors, except in self-awareness and in a negative way. It is necessary to analyse the quality of the extracurricular programmes offered and the training of the professionals in charge of their development. It also seems important to take into account the gender perspective in competence work, increasing self-management in girls and relationship management in boys.

Understanding Older Adults' Memory Distortion in the Light of Stereotype Threat.

Numerous studies have documented the detrimental impact of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on older adults' cognitive performance and especially on veridical memory. However, far fewer studies have investigated the impact of ABST on older adults' memory distortion. Here, we review the subset of research examining memory distortion and provide evidence for the role of stereotype threat as a powerful socio-emotional factor that impacts age-related susceptibility to memory distortion. In this review we define memory distortion as errors in memory that are associated with gist-based errors or source misattributions. Whereas, some of the reviewed experiments support the conclusion that ABST should be considered in the context of age-related differences in memory distortion, others reported little or no impact of stereotype threat. These discrepancies suggest that the role of ABST, and socio-emotional processes generally, in age-related changes in memory distortion are less clear. In this review, we argue that ABST does play an important role in age-related changes in memory distortion. We present evidence suggesting that discrepancies in the reviewed literature may be reconciled when evaluated in the context of the leading theories about stereotype threat: the Executive Resource Depletion hypothesis and the Regulatory Focus theory. We also discuss how differences in methodology and participant characteristics can account for a priori contradictory results in the literature. Finally, we propose some recommendations for researchers and practitioners when assessing memory in older adults.

Teacher Self-Concept and its Association with Willingness to Include Children with Special Needs in Regular Classes: Teacher Empathy as a Mediator

More appealing is the inclusive education practice that recognizes diversity among children than practices that lead to inequality in education. However, there have been implementation challenges including the rejection of children with special needs (CWSNs) in regular classes by teachers. Given this, the study attempted to build an empirical model to explain associations between teacher self-belief system and socio-emotional factors and their willingness to include CWSNs in their classes. The sample size consisted of 316 teachers. Using path analysis, findings showed, among others, that the conceptual model fit the data satisfactorily, and that teacher self-concept had direct effects on teachers’ willingness to include CWSNs in their regular classes. Teacher cognitive self-concept was a better predictor and its impact was significantly mediated by teacher empathy. It was concluded that willingness for inclusion could be influenced by teacher belief system and socio-emotional characteristics.&#x0D; &#x0D; Received: 27 October 2020 / Accepted: 17 December 2020 / Published: 5 March 2021

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Timely Bachelor’s Degree Attainment

It is well established that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are linked to health and emotional outcomes. However, less is known about the relationship between ACEs and educational attainment—a potentially important feature of educational stratification in America. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative study following 7–12th grade students in the 1994–95 school year, I investigate the link between ACEs and these students’ timely post-secondary attainment. I also explore the role of health and socio-emotional factors as mediators. Results confirm that there is a graded relationship between ACEs and timely bachelor’s degree attainment—an additional ACE decreases the odds of timely bachelor’s degree attainment by about 17%, even after accounting for other related factors. In addition, the findings suggest that general health partially mediates this link.

Improving social and emotional learning for schoolgirls: An impact study of curriculum-based socio-emotional education in rural Uganda

Uganda continues to face challenges in closing the gender gap in education for adolescent girls. Socio-emotional factors such as self-esteem and perceptions of social support are critical in determining educational outcomes for girls. This study investigates the impacts of a socio-emotional learning curriculum implemented in 10 schools located in Isingiro district of southwestern Uganda. Compared to schools included in a control group, we find improvements in a majority of the socio-emotional indicators targeted by the curriculum including self-efficacy, responsible decision-making, and perceptions of women’s equality to men. We also find improvements in mental health indicators for girls who participated in the curriculum.