Socioemotional Functioning Research Articles

Emotion Recognition in Preterm and Full-Term School-Age Children.

Children born preterm (<37 weeks’ gestation) show a specific vulnerability for socio-emotional difficulties, which may lead to an increased likelihood of developing behavioral and psychiatric problems in adolescence and adulthood. The accurate decoding of emotional signals from faces represents a fundamental prerequisite for early social interactions, allowing children to derive information about others’ feelings and intentions. The present study aims to explore possible differences between preterm and full-term children in the ability to detect emotional expressions, as well as possible relationships between this ability and socio-emotional skills and problem behaviors during everyday activities. We assessed 55 school-age children (n = 34 preterm and n = 21 full-term) with a cognitive battery that ensured comparable cognitive abilities between the two groups. Moreover, children were asked to identify emotional expressions from pictures of peers’ faces (Emotion Recognition Task). Finally, children’s emotional, social and behavioral outcomes were assessed with parent-reported questionnaires. The results revealed that preterm children were less accurate than full-term children in detecting positive emotional expressions and they showed poorer social and behavioral outcomes. Notably, correlational analyses showed a relationship between the ability to recognize emotional expressions and socio-emotional functioning. The present study highlights that early difficulties in decoding emotional signals from faces may be critically linked to emotional and behavioral regulation problems, with important implications for the development of social skills and effective interpersonal interactions.

Maternal attachment insecurity, maltreatment history, and depressive symptoms are associated with broad DNA methylation signatures in infants.

The early environment, including maternal characteristics, provides many cues to young organisms that shape their long-term physical and mental health. Identifying the earliest molecular events that precede observable developmental outcomes could help identify children in need of support prior to the onset of physical and mental health difficulties. In this study, we examined whether mothers' attachment insecurity, maltreatment history, and depressive symptoms were associated with alterations in DNA methylation patterns in their infants, and whether these correlates in the infant epigenome were associated with socioemotional and behavioral functioning in toddlerhood. We recruited 156 women oversampled for histories of depression, who completed psychiatric interviews and depression screening during pregnancy, then provided follow-up behavioral data on their children at 18 months. Buccal cell DNA was obtained from 32 of their infants for a large-scale analysis of methylation patterns across 5 × 106 individual CpG dinucleotides, using clustering-based significance criteria to control for multiple comparisons. We found that tens of thousands of individual infant CpGs were alternatively methylated in association with maternal attachment insecurity, maltreatment in childhood, and antenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms, including genes implicated in developmental patterning, cell-cell communication, hormonal regulation, immune function/inflammatory response, and neurotransmission. Density of DNA methylation at selected genes from the result set was also significantly associated with toddler socioemotional and behavioral problems. This is the first report to identify novel regions of the human infant genome at which DNA methylation patterns are associated longitudinally both with maternal characteristics and with offspring socioemotional and behavioral problems in toddlerhood.

Understanding de novo onset of anxiety during COVID-19: Pre-pandemic socio-emotional functioning in vulnerable children.

BackgroundThere is a need to understand and mitigate the psychological impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic for children known to be vulnerable. Data from prior to the pandemic are required to provide robust assessments of the socio‐emotional impacts of COVID‐19 and identify those who are more vulnerable.MethodThis study capitalises on an ongoing UK study of primary school children (4–8 years) identified prior to the pandemic as “at risk” for mental health problems by teachers. We collected mental health and social‐emotional functioning data prior to the pandemic (Time 1) and re‐assessed this cohort (N = 143) via researcher‐led videocalls during lockdown (Time 2, summer 2020) and post‐lockdown, 12 months later (Time 3; summer 2021).ResultsMental health problems, particularly clinically significant anxiety, increased from 34% to 43% during lockdown and to 48% post‐lockdown. Parental mental health difficulties (anxiety and depression) were prevalent during lockdown (40%) but had decreased 1 year later (20%). Children who developed clinically significant anxiety during the pandemic had impaired socio‐emotional functioning at Time 1 (i.e., impaired emotion recognition, low self‐esteem and social problems) and a high proportion (44%) had no contact with any peers during lockdown, which may have contributed to their anxiety, especially their school anxiety.ConclusionThe pandemic appears to have exacerbated anxiety in already vulnerable children. A profile of socio‐emotional problems identified a group of children who developed significant anxieties during the pandemic. These socio‐emotional processes can be targeted for intervention to mitigate the negative mental health consequences of the pandemic and contribute to resilience in children.

Neurocognitive aging data release with behavioral, structural and multi-echo functional MRI measures

Central to understanding human behavior is a comprehensive mapping of brain-behavior relations within the context of lifespan development. Reproducible discoveries depend upon well-powered samples of reliable data. We provide to the scientific community two, 10-minute, multi-echo functional MRI (ME-fMRI) runs, and structural MRI (T1-MPRAGE), from 181 healthy younger (ages 18–34 y) and 120 older adults (ages 60–89 y). T2-FLAIR MRIs and behavioral assessments are available in a majority subset of over 250 participants. Behavioral assessments include fluid and crystallized cognition, self-reported measures of personality, and socioemotional functioning. Initial quality control and validation of these data is provided. This dataset will be of value to scientists interested in BOLD signal specifically isolated from ME-fMRI, individual differences in brain-behavioral associations, and cross-sectional aging effects in healthy adults. Demographic and behavioral data are available within the Open Science Framework project “Goal-Directed Cognition in Older and Younger Adults” (http://osf.io/yhzxe/), which will be augmented over time; neuroimaging data are available on OpenNeuro (https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds003592).

The beneficial role of family enmeshment among South Korean immigrants in the United States.

Enmeshment is considered inimical to healthy family dynamics among European Americans. However, recent studies have failed to show negative associations between family enmeshment and individual outcomes among Asian Heritage families. Using structural equation modelling and multiple group analysis, this study examined whether enmeshed relationships are dysfunctional in Korean immigrant families in the United States and whether degree of acculturation moderated the associations between enmeshment and children's socioemotional functioning and academic performance. The sample consisted of 98 South Korean immigrant families with children between 9 and 14 years of age residing in the Greater New York City Area. Results showed that enmeshed family relationships tended to be beneficial to child socioemotional functioning and the association became more evident with lower than higher degree of acculturation. Findings are discussed in terms of the meaning of enmeshment when working with Korean immigrant families in the United States.

Peer-Based Intervention for Socioemotional Concerns Among Children with ADHD.

This study examined the potential benefits of peer-based dyadic interventions for improving the socioemotional functioning of children with ADHD. Participants included children ages 8-12 diagnosed with ADHD-combined type (n = 34) pooled from a larger randomized study comparing peer-based dyadic interventions. Self-concept and depressive symptoms were evaluated at pre- and post-treatment using single group design. Results showed significantly positive child responses to intervention for self-concept. Further, improvements in self-concept were not moderated by the type of dyadic intervention received or by treatment related changes in externalizing behaviors. The severity of reported depressive symptoms, however, did not significantly change. This suggests therapeutic interaction with peers, as demonstrated in peer-based dyadic intervention models, can improve self-concept in children with ADHD even when socioemotional concerns are not a primary target of treatment and independent of behavioral outcomes achieved. These preliminary findings support promoting prosocial peer behavior as a critical domain for ADHD intervention for children.

Indirect effects, via parental factors, of income harshness and unpredictability on kindergarteners' socioemotional functioning.

Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n = 10,700), we evaluate indirect effects - via parent negative psychology and harsh-inconsistent parenting - of income harshness, unpredictability, and their interaction on kindergarteners' socioemotional development. Income harshness is operationalized as the typical level of family income-to-needs across four repeated measurements from 9 months to kindergarten and unpredictability as random variation across the same repeated measurements. Results indicate that the effects of greater income harshness and the harshness-X-unpredictability interaction (reflecting more predictable income harshness) on more "problematic" child behavior operated via both parent negative psychology (i.e., greater psychological stress) and harsh-inconsistent parenting. Results underscore the utility of simultaneously investigating effects of income harshness and unpredictability, as well as their interaction and mechanisms of influence.

An Examination of the Associations Among Teacher Secondary Traumatic Stress, Teacher–Student Relationship Quality, and Student Socio-Emotional Functioning

An Examination of the Associations Among Teacher Secondary Traumatic Stress, Teacher–Student Relationship Quality, and Student Socio-Emotional Functioning

Towards a mechanistic understanding of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) using an RCT neuroimaging approach: Effects on regulating own stress in social and non-social situations

Although much research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce psychological stress, it is less clear if effects generalize to everyday social situations, which range among the largest stress triggers. Furthermore, mechanisms of MBIs have not been fully established. Emotion regulation (ER) has been suggested as one key mechanism, yet the role of cognitive reappraisal and acceptance strategies is still under debate. To address these questions, a neuroimaging-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) was performed (n=68), comparing mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) with a reading/listening intervention (READ), using a novel dyadic paradigm for self and other emotion regulation under stress as primary outcome on behavior and brain levels and established empathy measures (clinicatrials.gov NCT03035669). Compared to READ, MBSR led to self-reported stress reduction through both cognitive reappraisal and acceptance only when regulating self and not when regulating others’ distress. In addition, MBSR led to increased brain activation over time for regulating own (parietal cortex) and others’ (precuneus, TPJ) emotions through cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, albeit this effect was also seen for the reading intervention for regulating own stress via reappraisal. Brain changes did not scale with subjective stress reduction and amount of meditation practice. More distant generalization effects of MBSR on socio-emotional functioning (cognitive empathy and compassion) could also not be shown. This study identified both cognitive reappraisal and acceptance as two ER mechanisms of MBSR, but indicates that effects do not extend to social settings.

Daily Associations Between Adolescent Sleep and Socioemotional Experiences During an Ongoing Stressor

PurposeOngoing stress can result in sleep disturbances and daytime socioemotional difficulties. Data on how sleep and daytime socioemotional functioning may be bidirectionally related to one another in the midst of an ongoing stressor are limited, particularly during adolescence, a developmental period when risk for the onset of mental health difficulties and sleep disturbances is high. MethodsParticipants (N = 459, ages of 13–18 years) were recruited from across the United States and completed an intake survey and one week of daily reports beginning 2 weeks after COVID-19 was declared a national emergency. Participants reported on their daily post-traumatic stress symptoms, positive and negative affect, loneliness, sleep onset difficulties, nightmares, sleep quality, and time in bed. ResultsLagged hierarchical linear models adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, medication use, medical conditions, and ongoing stressors were estimated to examine bidirectional associations between night-time sleep and next-day mental health. Poorer sleep quality and more nightmares at night predicted higher next-day negative affect, and greater daytime negative affect predicted lower sleep quality and a greater likelihood of having nightmares the following night. Poor sleep quality predicted greater next-day post-traumatic stress, which, in turn, predicted poorer sleep quality the following night and more difficulties falling asleep. Poor sleep quality and a longer time in bed also predicted greater next-day loneliness. DiscussionOverall, these findings provide insight into how sleep disturbances and socioemotional difficulties unfold during a major life stressor in an adolescent sample.

Healthy Learning Mind (HLM): Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial on A Mindfulness Intervention, Moderators and Association with Perceived Socioeconomic Status, and Comparison to Other National Data

BackgroundThis paper presents the baseline characteristics and their moderators in the Healthy Learning Mind (HLM)– school-based cluster-randomized controlled trial.ObjectivesThe paper evaluates the state of various measures of well-being, their moderators and how these results compare to national and global norms/population studies.MethodsData were collected from all participants prior to the intervention and further analyzed by gender, grade and perceived socioeconomic status, including standardized measures for resilience, depressive symptoms and socioemotional functioning; health-related quality of life, dispositional mindfulness, satisfaction with life, compassion/self-kindness, self-rated health and morning tiredness.ResultsParticipating 2793 students (1425 girls, 1368 boys), ages 12 to 15 years, filled in the questionnaires. The outcomes were in line with previous research, demonstrating gender differentiation and lower wellbeing among older children and adolescents.ConclusionsAll outcomes were associated with perceived socioeconomic status, suggesting that perceived low socioeconomic status should be addressed as a serious risk factor and included as a moderator in similar trials.

Disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy as predictors of brain morphology and peer rejection in late childhood.

Studies show robust links between disorganized attachment in infancy and socioemotional maladjustment in childhood. Little is known, however, about the links between disorganized attachment and brain development, and whether attachment-related differences in brain morphology translate into meaningful variations in child socioemotional functioning. This study examined the links between infants' disorganized attachment behaviors toward their mothers, whole-brain regional grey matter volume and thickness, and peer rejection in late childhood. Thirty-three children and their mothers took part in this study. The Strange Situation Procedure was used to assess mother-infant attachment when infants were 18 months old. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed when they were 10 years old to assess cortical thickness and grey matter volumes. Children and teachers reported on peer rejection 1 year later, as an indicator of socioemotional maladjustment. Results indicated that disorganized attachment was not associated with grey matter volumes. However, children who exhibited more disorganized attachment behaviors in infancy had significantly thicker cortices in bilateral middle and superior frontal gyri, and extending to theinferior frontal gyrus, as well as the orbitofrontal and insular cortices in the right hemisphere in late childhood. Moreover, children with thicker cortices in these regions experienced greater peer rejection, as rated by themselves and their teachers. Although preliminary, these results are the first to indicate that disorganized attachment may play a role in cortical thickness development and that changes in cortical thickness are associated with differences in child socioemotional functioning.

Biased and inflexible interpretations of ambiguous social situations: Associations with eating disorder symptoms and socioemotional functioning.

Research indicates that difficulties across multiple socioemotional functioning domains (e.g., social emotion expression/regulation, response to social elicitors of emotion) and negatively biased interpretations of ambiguous social situations may affect eating disorder symptoms. The impact of inflexible interpretations of social situations on eating disorder symptoms is less clear. The present study therefore examined relations between inflexible and biased social interpretations, socioemotional functioning, and eating disorder symptoms. A total of 310 participants from the general population, recruited from an online crowdsourcing platform, completed measures of socioemotional functioning (e.g., rejection sensitivity, negative social exchange), eating disorder symptoms, and positive and negative interpretation bias and inflexibility on a single measurement occasion. Socioemotional functioning impairments (Pillai's trace=0.11, p < .001), but not negative (β=.07, p =.162) or positive (β=-.01, p =.804) interpretation bias or inflexible interpretations (β=.04, p =.446), were associated with eating disorder symptoms in multiple regression models. In network analyses controlling statistically for multiple markers of socioemotional functioning, eating disorder symptoms were directly associated with negative (but not positive) interpretation bias. Inflexible interpretations were indirectly linked to symptoms via co-dampening of positive emotions. Exploratory causal discovery analyses suggested that several socioemotional functioning variables (social anxiety, depression, negative social exchange) may cause eating disorder symptoms. Consistent with cognitive-interpersonal models of disordered eating, our results suggest that less accurate (biased, inflexible) interpretations of social information contribute to patterns of cognition (anxious anticipation of rejection) and emotion regulation (down-regulation of positive social emotion) thought to encourage disordered eating. This study suggests that less accurate interpretations of ambiguous social information encourage anxious anticipation of rejection and downregulation of positive social emotions, both of which are thought to promote eating disorder symptoms. Knowledge provided by this study about the likely relations between interpretive processes, social/emotional functioning, and eating disorder symptoms may help inform treatments for eating disorders, particularly those that attempt to modify patterns of interpretation.

Screen use and internet addiction among parents of young children: A nationwide Canadian cross-sectional survey.

ObjectivesTo establish the factorial structure and internal consistency of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in parents, the level and correlates of problematic internet use, and patterns and types of screen use.Study designData were collected through an online questionnaire about preconception health among Canadian women and men with ≥1 child. The questionnaire included the IAT and questions about time spent on screens by device type, use of screens during meals and in the bedroom, and perceptions of overuse. Factor analysis was completed to determine the factorial structure of the IAT, with multivariable linear regression used to determine correlates of the IAT.ResultsThe sample included 1,156 respondents (mean age: 34.3 years; 83.1% female). The IAT had two factors: “impairment in time management” and “impairment in socio-emotional functioning” of which respondents had more impairment in time management than socio-emotional functioning. Based on the original IAT, 19.4% of respondents would be classified as having a mild internet use problem with 3.0% having a moderate or severe issue. In the multivariable model, perceived stress (b = .28, SE = .05, p < .001) and depressive symptoms (b = .24, SE = .10, p = .017) were associated with higher IAT scores. Handheld mobile devices were the most common type of screen used (mean = 3 hours/day) followed by watching television (mean = 2 hours/day).ConclusionParents spent a significant portion of their time each day using screens, particularly handheld mobile devices. The disruption caused by mobile devices may hinder opportunities for positive parent-child interactions, demonstrating the need for resources to support parents ever-growing use of technologies.

Homeschooling: What do we know and what do we need to learn?

AbstractIn this article, we identify approaches for understanding more thoroughly the academic and social experiences of homeschooled students. The growth of the homeschooling movement in the United States, questions about the need for additional regulation, and the importance of high‐quality education for children motivate this scholarly effort. We begin by defining homeschooling and outlining why it is a topic worthy of study. Next, we describe who is homeschooled, motivations for homeschooling, and ways parents engage in homeschooling. Preliminary evidence suggests that homeschoolers perform equal to or better than their conventionally schooled peers on measures of achievement and socioemotional functioning, but methodological limitations, especially selection effects, make it premature to draw definitive conclusions. Throughout the article, we offer suggestions for advancing knowledge on homeschooling.

Sensory processing sensitivity behavior moderates the association between environmental harshness, unpredictability, and child socioemotional functioning.

Building on Ellis et al.'s theorization for potent dimensions of environmental adversity, the present work sought to evaluate how environmental harshness and unpredictability might function directly and in interaction with child sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) to shape the development of child socioemotional functioning. Participants were 235 young children (Mage = 2.97 at the first measurement occasion) and their parents, who were followed for two consecutive annual measurement occasions. Child SPS was measured through behavioral observation across multiple tasks within the laboratory setting. Greater environmental unpredictability was significantly associated with the development of children's externalizing problems over a year only for children with high SPS. Follow-up analyses indicated that the unpredictability-x-SPS interaction was consistent with differential susceptibility, such that high SPS children showed greater increases in externalizing problems under high unpredictability, but also lower increases/greater decreases in externalizing problems under low unpredictability. Such association did not apply to children with low SPS.

‘I am not who you think I am’: public stigma and invisible brain injury (‘No soy quien creen que soy’: estigma público y daño cerebral invisible)

ABSTRACT Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is a silent epidemic that affects people’s cognitive, neurobehavioural and socio-emotional functioning, generating impairments that are often invisible, that is, not apparent to the naked eye and difficult to understand. The literature suggests that the invisibility of ABI in addition to a lack of knowledge, misinformation and unfamiliarity in the general public are common sources of the stigma towards this population. As a consequence, psychoeducation to the general public has been defined as a key intervention, even though it has been traditionally directed at ABI survivors, their families and their immediate social environment. The purpose of this literature review is to outline the relationship between invisible deficits and public stigma. This review is theoretically guided by the social attribution theory and the danger appraisal model. We also discuss the implications of these models for the neuropsychological rehabilitation of people with ABI, placing special emphasis on the need to make psychoeducation available to the general public as an intervention that reduces stigma and, consequently, facilitates community reintegration.

Right uncinate fasciculus supports socioemotional sensitivity in health and neurodegenerative disease

The uncinate fasciculus (UF) connects fronto-insular and temporal gray matter regions involved in visceral emotional reactivity and semantic appraisal, but the precise role of this tract in socioemotional functioning is not well-understood. Using the Revised-Self Monitoring (RSMS) informant questionnaire, we examined whether fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right UF corresponded to socioemotional sensitivity during face-to-face interactions in 145 individuals (40 healthy older adults [NC], and 105 patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration [FTLD] syndromes in whom this tract is selectively vulnerable, including 31 behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia [bvFTD], 39 semantic variant primary progressive aphasia [svPPA], and 35 nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia [nfvPPA]). Voxelwise and region-of-interest-based DWI analyses revealed that FA in the right but not left UF significantly predicted RSMS score in the full sample, and in NC and svPPA subgroups alone. Right UF integrity did not predict RSMS score in the bvFTD group, but gray matter volume in the right orbitofrontal cortex adjacent to the UF was a significant predictor. Our results suggest that better socioemotional sensitivity is specifically supported by right UF white matter, highlighting a key neuro-affective relationship found in both healthy aging and neurologically affected individuals. The finding that poorer socioemotional sensitivity corresponded to right UF damage in svPPA but was more robustly influenced by gray matter atrophy adjacent to the UF in bvFTD may have important implications for endpoint selection in clinical trial design for patients with FTLD.

Equine-Assisted Therapy as a Complementary Approach for Adolescents with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Preliminary Study After a Terrorist Attack

Equine-Assisted Therapy (EAT) is a complementary therapeutic approach for children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and recent scientific studies show the benefits. Therapy with the mediation of the horse facilitates the therapeutic alliance and improves social skills, emotional regulation, and resilience. The purpose of this study is to describe goals, modalities, and benefits of equine-assisted therapy for adolescents with PTSD, and to analyze how and why these results are obtained. Ten EAT sessions were offered to two adolescents with PTSD following a terrorist attack. According to the observed symptoms, the therapeutic objectives and modalities are established and described. The evaluation is based on a self-evaluation by the adolescents, and on an EAT observation grid. The results show a positive evolution, with a very strong alliance and participation. Equine-assisted therapy facilitated adherence to care, improved socio-emotional and cognitive functioning, helped regulation in behavior and emotions, restored confidence and self esteem, and provided wellness. Understanding the action of EAT for children and adolescent with posttraumatic stress disorder helps to explain the benefits and effectiveness of this complementary therapy. The factors involved are analyzed according to several approaches: psycho-affective, cognitive, social, neurobiological, and therapeutic. Studies need to be continued with larger samples to obtain evidence-based data and to validate the results of equine-assisted therapy in adolescents with PTSD.

Too Anxious to Talk: Social Anxiety, Academic Communication, and Students’ Experiences in Higher Education

Social anxiety is related to a host of negative student outcomes in the educational context, including physical symptoms of anxiety, reduced cognitive functioning, and poor academic performance. Despite the prevalence of social anxiety, little is known about mechanisms that may underlie associations between social anxiety and outcomes in the context of higher education. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate a conceptual model linking social anxiety, communication with peers and instructors, students’ experiences (i.e., engagement, connectedness, and satisfaction), and indices of socio-emotional functioning at university. Participants were 1,073 undergraduate students ( Mage = 20.3 years, SD = 3.49) who completed a series of self-report measures. Among the results, social anxiety was negatively related to communication with instructors, socio-emotional functioning, and student experiences, and academic communication accounted for significant variance in the links between social anxiety and student experiences. In addition, there was at least some evidence that student experiences partially mediated the association between social anxiety and socio-emotional functioning. Gender effects suggest that social anxiety is related to less communication with instructors, lower engagement and satisfaction, and poorer socio-emotional functioning among females compared with males. Results are situated within current literature examining social anxiety in education. The discussion provides concrete suggestions for educational practitioners to increase support for students who experience social anxiety.