studies & articles

The Blog

One of the many pleasures of being a professor was feeling the need to stay on top of the research in psychology. When I first learned about the half-life of knowledge, the literature typically said it was 3-5 years in technical fields. As a retired professor, I am still a member of the American Psychological Association and subscribe to a service that delivers abstracts and open-source articles from a large number of journals. As an alumna of Harvard, I also get information from them and I have the time to peruse multiple sources. This is a pleasure most professionals don’t have, especially if they value
work-life balance.

I still love research and, when I was asked to write the blog, I enthusiastically agreed. I try to select articles based on their relevance to practitioners, but also to capture both emerging themes and important corrections. I am hopeful that, moving forward, we will have ways to enable readers to easily engage in conversations with me and each other.

-Dr. Karen Nelson

Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Rural mental health

Today, we’re looking at studies of clients in rural areas. First, Kruis, Sprouse-McClam, Johnson, Guille & Harvey (2024) published “Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Psychiatric Collaborative Care in Rural United States: A mixed-methods systematic review” in Journal of Rural Mental Health. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Behavioral health (BH) disorders are highly prevalent in the United States and especially concerning in rural areas, which severely lack access to BH services.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Studies of Young Adults

Today, we’re looking at three studies of satisfaction in young adults. First, Lansford et al. (2025) published “Predictors of Young Adults' Primal World Beliefs in Eight Countries” in Child Development. Here’s the edited abstract:

Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture understanding of general characteristics of the world, such as whether the world is Good and Enticing. Children (N = 1215, 50% girls), mothers, and fathers from Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden,

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Stereotype threat

Today I am presenting three articles related to stereotype threat. First, Fourgassie, Subra & Sanitioso (2025) published “Revisiting the Concept of Stereotype Threat(s): Is it all about the situation?” in Psychological Review.  Here’s the edited abstract:

Nearly 30 years ago, Steele and Aronson (1995) proposed the concept of stereotype threat. Despite the rich literature on the topic, the robustness and significance of stereotype threat effects face scrutiny due to unsuccessful replications and meta-analyses.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Heritage culture

Today, I look at two studies that I thought were important especially to white professionals working with clients different from themselves. First, Cobb, Schwartz & Martinez (2025) published “A Theory of Cultural Continuity: Heritage culture retention as an important psychological motivation” in Psychological Review.  Here’s the edited abstract:

In this article, we advance the thesis, called the cultural continuity hypothesis, which states that heritage culture retention represents an important psychological motivation that underlies a wide array of human behaviors and that is important for positive psychosocial functioning.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Two studies of mindfulness-based interventions

Today, I present two articles that address mindfulness. First, Mak, Wong & Ng (2023) published “The Use of Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Stroke Rehabilitation: A scoping review” in Rehabilitation Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

There is emerging evidence for the use of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to improve health outcomes in the context of stroke rehabilitation. This scoping review identified recently available evidence and possible research gaps regarding how MBIs affect psychological and physical rehabilitation outcomes in individuals poststroke.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Temperament cognitive control and anxiety

Drexler et al. (2024) published “Longitudinal Relations among Temperament, Cognitive Control, and Anxiety: From toddlerhood to late adolescence” in Developmental Psychology.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Conceptions of forgiveness across the lifespan

Today, I present lengthy excerpts from an article I found interesting. McLaughlin, Marshall & McAuliffe (2024) published “Developing Conceptions of Forgiveness across the Lifespan in Child Development. Here are edited excerpts:

Understanding how to respond to transgressions is central to cooperation, yet little is known about how individuals understand the consequences of these responses.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Cognitive deficits and enhancements in youth from adverse conditions

Today, I present information from an article I found methodologically intriguing. Vermeent, Young, DeJoseph, Schubert & Frankenhuis (2024) published “Cognitive Deficits and Enhancements in Youth from Adverse Conditions: An integrative assessment using Drift Diffusion Modeling in the ABCD study” in Developmental Science. Here are the edited abstract and conclusion:

Childhood adversity can lead to cognitive deficits or enhancements, depending on many factors.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Research on gender diverse youth

I found four very interesting articles related to gender diverse youth. First, Abreu, Martin, Hainsworth, Toomey, Vázquez & Gattamorta (2024) published “Radical Hope in Parents of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth in the United States” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

More COVID research

I don’t bother with most COVID research I see because it is so often obvious. Today, I look at three studies I found interesting for very different reasons. The first one is a correction so it’s presented oddly, but the abstract itself is worth reading. “Correction to ‘Parenting young children during COVID-19: Parenting stress trajectories, parental mental health, and child problem behaviors’ by Aviles et al. (2024)” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Research on older adults

I recently found two articles about older adults that I found intriguing. First, Fenton, Smail, Lin, Striley & Kaufmann (2024) published “Associations between Driving Cessation and Mental Health among Rural and Urban Older Adults” in Journal of Rural Mental Health. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Interesting new measures

Today, I present abstracts regarding three instruments that may be of interest to those who do psychological testing. First, Laslo-Roth & George-Levi (2024) published “The Development and Validation of the Emotional Entitlement Questionnaire (EEQ)” in Emotion. Here’s the edited abstract:

Beliefs about what one is entitled to emotionally may make a unique contribution to emotional and interpersonal experiences.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome

I was unfamiliar with Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome and am devoting today to it. Becker (2025) published “Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome: A construct at the crossroads” in American Psychologist. Here are some excerpts:

Initially described in the mid-1980s, cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS; previously termed sluggish cognitive tempo) is a set of symptoms comprising excessive daydreaming, mental confusion, and hypoactivity that is distinct from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other psychopathology dimensions and independently associated with functional outcomes.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Compassion and self-compassion

Since last time we looked at bullying and anger, today we’re looking at compassion and self-compassion. First, Sun, Wu & Goodwin (2025) published “Are Moral People Happier? Answers from reputation-based measures of moral character” in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

Philosophers have long debated whether moral virtue contributes to happiness or whether morality and happiness are in conflict. Yet, little empirical research directly addresses this question.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Cyberbullying and social rejection

Today, we’re looking at three studies related to cyberbehaviors. First, Scott & Barlett (2025) published “Traumatizing Others and Getting Traumatized Online: Examining the mediating influences of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization via the Integrative Cyberbullying Theory” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Here’s the edited abstract

The current literature and theorizing on cyberbehaviors (cyberbullying perpetration and cybervictimization) are largely separate—primarily focusing on one cyberbehavior in lieu of the other.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Timing and parenting

Today, we’re looking at two very different studies related to timing. First, Blanchard, Kerr, Kirkorian, Barr, Hoebeke & Heeren (2025) published “The Affective Dynamics of Parenting: Inertia of emotional distance characterizes severe parental burnout” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

Our emotional trajectories make up our affective experience—but these can be disrupted during mental illness.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Cognitive Reappraisal for Dyslexia

Today, I present a single article on anxiety and dyslexia. McDowall, Rimfield & Krishnan (2024) published “Cognitive Reappraisal Reduces Academic Anxiety in University Students with Dyslexia” in Mind, Brain & Education. Here are edited excerpts:

University students with dyslexia have greater anxiety than their peers without dyslexia, especially related to their academic studies. Most universities focus on mitigating the learning needs of these students, for example, providing more time during exams.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Impacts of moving frequently

When I post a long blog, I try to follow it with a shorter one. This article is also the only one I have found on the topic. Given fragile economic times for many people, we can expect more children moving as homes are foreclosed, apartment owners change, and families can’t make rent and mortgage payments. Abenavoli, Amadon & Briggs (2025) published “Cascading Effects of Residential Mobility on Maternal and Child Mental Health” in Developmental Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statement:

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Poverty effects

I recently found two articles dealing with effects of poverty on children. First, Cooper, Bayly, Tennie, Lupini & Wadsworth (2025) published “Family Risk Classes Predict Longitudinal Parent and Child Outcomes: Understanding the implications of poverty-related adversity” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here are highly edited excerpts:

Experiencing poverty and associated risk factors can be detrimental to families’ mental health and well-being. However, it is unclear whether experiencing specific types or patterns of adversity leads to distinct outcomes.

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Karen Nelson Karen Nelson

Emotion regulation in daily life

Both of the articles today come from Emotion and each deals with emotion regulation. First,  Ho, Joormann, Kober & Gadassi-Polack (2025) published “Social Reorientation of Emotion Regulation: Changing roles of family and peers during adolescence” in Emotion. The edited abstract follows:

The emotional climate of the family and peer group is theorized to play a central role in the development of emotion regulation (ER) in children and adolescents, such that warmer, more supportive environments promote more effective ER.

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