Correction to: Differences in Anxiety and Depression Among Migrant and Non-Migrant Primary School Children in The Netherlands
Examining Predictors of Psychological Distress Among Youth Engaging with Jigsaw for a Brief Intervention
Abstract
Risk factors for psychological distress among help-seeking youth are poorly understood. Addressing this gap is important for informing mental health service provision. This study aimed to identify risk factors among youth attending Jigsaw, a youth mental health service in Ireland. Routine data were collected from N = 9,673 youth who engaged with Jigsaw (Mean age = 16.9 years, SD = 3.14), including presenting issues, levels of psychological distress, age, and gender. Confirmatory Factor Analysis identified thirteen factors of clustering issues. Several factors, including Self-criticism and Negative Thoughts, were strongly associated with items clustering as psychological distress, however these factors were poorly predictive of distress as measured by the CORE (YP-CORE: R2 = 14.7%, CORE-10: R2 = 6.9%). The findings provide insight into associations between young people’s identified presenting issues and self-identified distress. Implications include applying appropriate therapeutic modalities to focus on risk factors and informing routine outcome measurement in integrated youth mental health services.
An 8-Week Online Body Scan Meditation Intervention for Tinnitus: Accessibility, Adherence, and Rates of Clinically Meaningful Success
Abstract
Objectives
Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an external source and is experienced by up to 15% of the general population. There are many causes of tinnitus, but no cure is currently available. It has significant comorbidities with clinical anxiety, depression, and insomnia, and degrades quality of life in 1–2% of society at large. Currently, psychological interventions are the best way forward in assisting tinnitus habituation, but treatment availability and suitable experience to deliver such interventions are limited.
Methods
One hundred five individuals with chronic tinnitus took part in this study. An 8-week programme of guided online meditations focused on mindfulness was compared with a waiting list control group. Intervention outcomes were assessed by changes to tinnitus distress (Tinnitus Functional Index), tinnitus cognitions (Tinnitus Cognitions Questionnaire), and mindful awareness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale).
Results
As hypothesised, the online intervention saw clinically meaningful reductions in tinnitus distress for 30% of our sample (16 participants). Furthermore, the intervention saw significant increases in mindful awareness and significant reductions in negative thoughts about tinnitus, when compared with waiting list controls. There were no significant changes in positive thoughts about tinnitus. Twenty-one participants failed to complete the study and were considered “no change” as per intention-to-treat (ITT) paradigms.
Conclusions
In the absence of accessible psychological interventions, online mindfulness programmes including body scans are recommended for individuals with tinnitus as an effective and low-cost self-help tool. Reductions in negative thoughts around tinnitus are considered key to living alongside the condition (i.e. tinnitus habituation). Suggestions are made for improving future adherence rates, including recommendations for investigation in conjunction with other interventions.
Mindfulness and Other Virtues in the Development of Intercultural and Interreligious Competence
Abstract
This paper offers a commentary on Oman’s article, “Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda.” We focus on engaging and extending some of Oman’s questions and ideas about connections between mindfulness and intercultural and interreligious competence, and we make applications to the personal and professional formation of helping professionals (e.g., mental health professionals, clergy). Mindfulness is considered in relation to a dialectical emphasis on both intercultural (or diversity) competence and humility with connections to the cultural humility literature. This leads us to question whether mindfulness could be framed as a virtue, a capacity and practice that facilitates virtues (e.g., humility), or both. A brief summary of related research on virtues, spiritual practices, and intercultural competence is offered to frame some key future research questions. Like some other commentary articles in this series, we engage aspects of religious diversity in relation to mindfulness-based practices. But our unique contribution includes the application of a specific developmental model of interreligious competence to the use of mindfulness by helping professionals. We illustrate differing interreligious orientations toward mindfulness and the potential impact of each orientation on professional practice. The final section offers some contextualization of these interreligious orientations within religious minority communities using Jewish communities as an example by further probing of one of Oman’s sources on Jewish mindfulness.
Forms of Peer Victimization and School Adjustment Among Japanese Adolescents: A Multilevel Analysis
Abstract
The psychosocial correlates and consequences of peer victimization are well documented. However, there is limited knowledge about whether different forms of peer victimization (relational and physical) are predictive of school-based social and motivational factors among adolescents from non-Western cultures. The present study examined the relationship between individual and school-level forms of peer victimization and school adjustment among Japanese adolescents, and the mediating role that these factors may play. The Japanese sample (N = 6109 from 185 schools, Mage = 15.78, SD = 0.29, 51% girls and 49% boys) was drawn from a large international dataset, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. Results showed that school-level relational victimization was associated with individual-level relational victimization, and school-level physical victimization was associated with individual-level physical victimization, after controlling for age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Individual-level relational victimization was also uniquely associated with indices of school adjustment (negative affect, positive affect, and fear of failure) over and above physical victimization. While controlling for relational victimization, individual-level physical victimization was associated with indices of school adjustment (positive affect and meaning in life). In further findings, school-level relational and physical victimization were indirectly, but not directly, related to some of students’ school adjustment through individual-level relational and physical victimization. These parallel and differential associations suggest the importance of considering the role of relational and physical victimization in school adjustment among Japanese adolescents.
Young Children of Mothers with a History of Depression Show Attention Bias to Sad Faces: An Eye-tracking Study
Abstract
Maternal depression is a predictor of the emergence of depression in the offspring. Attention bias (AB) to negative emotional stimuli in children may serve as a risk factor for children of depressed parents. The present study aimed to examine the effect of maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) history on AB to emotional faces in children at age four, before the age of onset for full-blown psychiatric symptoms. The study also compared AB patterns between mothers and their offspring. Fifty-eight mothers and their four-year-old children participated in this study, of which 27 high-risk (HR) children had mothers with MDD during their children’s lifetime. Attention to emotional faces was measured in both children and their mothers using an eye-tracking visual search task. HR children exhibited faster detection and longer dwell time toward the sad than happy target faces. The low-risk (LR) children also displayed a sad bias but to a lesser degree. Children across both groups showed AB towards angry target faces, likely reflecting a normative AB pattern. Our findings indicate that AB to sad faces may serve as an early marker of depression risk. However, we provided limited support for the mother-child association of AB. Future research is needed to examine the longitudinal intergenerational transmission of AB related to depression and possible mechanisms underlying the emergence of AB in offspring of depressed parents.