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
Attachment in adolescence
Last time, we looked at attachment in children. Today we turn to adolescents. First, Xia, Coffey & Fosco (2024) published “Daily Dynamics of Feeling Loved by Parents and Their Prospective Implications for Adolescent Flourishing” in Developmental Science. Here’s the edited abstract:
Feeling loved by one's caregiver is essential for individual flourishing (i.e., high levels of psychological well-being in multiple dimensions). Although similar constructs are found to benefit adolescent well-being, research that directly tests parental love as a feeling from the recipient's perspective is rare.
Attachment in childhood
Today and next time, I am presenting a series of articles on attachment, all published in Developmental Science. First, Misch, Kramer & Paulus (2024) published “The Relationship between Attachment Representations and Minimal Intergroup Bias in Preschool-Aged Children in Developmental Science. Here are edited excerpts:
Attachment theory proposes that young children's experience with their caregivers has a tremendous influence on how children navigate their social relationships
Moral injury
It’s been awhile since I posted about moral injury. From the What Is Moral Injury website: “Moral injury is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct.“ Here, we look at two articles related to posttraumatic stress. First, Mojallal, Simons, Simons & Swaminath (2024) published “Betrayal Trauma, Mindfulness, and Emotional Dysregulation: Associations with moral injury and posttraumatic stress disorder” in Traumatology. Here’s the edited abstract:
New Approaches to Youth Substance Misuse
This post follows the last. Abrams (2024) published “New Approaches to Youth Substance Misuse” in APA Monitor.
For years, students in middle and high schools across the country were urged to “just say no” to drugs and alcohol. But it’s no secret that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, which was typically delivered by police officers who urged total abstinence, didn’t work. A meta-analysis found the program largely ineffective and one study even showed that kids who completed D.A.R.E. were more likely than their peers to take drugs.
Research on substance use
This post and the next deal with substance use and abuse. Today we look at correlates. First, Clinchard et al. (2024) published “Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Substance Use: The role of parent–adolescent brain similarity and parental monitoring” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:
PTSD, public stigma, spirituality, chronic illness, lucid dreaming
Today, we look at three very different studies of PTSD, each addressing progress after a diagnosis. First, Weinberg, Soffer & Gilbar (2023) published “PTSD and Public Stigma: Examining the relationship between public stigmas attached to PTSD and self-esteem, spirituality, and well-being” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
Effects of social class in college
Today, I present two articles related to working class students. First, Claes, Smeding, Carré & Sommet (2024) published “The Social Class Test Gap: A worldwide investigation of the role of academic anxiety and income inequality in standardized test score disparities” in Journal of Educational Psychology. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
We conducted three preregistered studies using the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to provide a worldwide estimation of the standardized test gap between students from lower and higher social classes.
Information gathering in autism and alexithymia
This is a long post regarding an article I found intriguing. Lee, Long, Catmur, Hauser & Bird (2024) published “Information Gathering: Dissociable effects of autistic and alexithymic traits in youths aged 6–25 years” in Emotion. Here are highly edited excerpts:
Autistic youths tend to react negatively to uncertain events. Little is known about the cognitive processes associated with this intolerance of uncertainty, most notably the tendency to actively gather information to minimize uncertainty.
Antagonistic and the “better-than-average-effect”
Today, I examine an article I found intriguing. Hart, Hall, Lambert, Cease & Wahlers (2024) published “Antagonistic but Holier than Thou: Antagonistic people think they are (way) better-than-average on moral character” in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. Here’s the edited abstract:
Although clinical psychologists have long speculated that antagonistic individuals may lack insight into their moral deficits, some evidence has shown that more (vs. less) antagonistic people view moral traits as somewhat desirable and rate themselves as lower on moral characteristics (suggestive of some insight).
More on the alternative model
I have written before about the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD). Today, I present three more studies. First, Hines et al. (2024) published “Different Routes to the Same Destination? Comparing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition Section II- and alternative model of personality disorder-defined borderline personality disorder” in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. Here’s the edited abstract:
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is defined by the presence of at least five of nine symptoms in Section II of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition.
Parenting and culture
As the US becomes much more culturally diverse, professionals encounter a wider range of parenting styles and experiences. Today, we look at two articles that examine parenting from broader cultural perspectives. First, Bradshaw et al. (2024) published “Disentangling Autonomy-Supportive and psychologically controlling parenting: A meta-analysis of self-determination theory’s dual process model across cultures” in American Psychologist. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
Self-determination theory’s (SDT) dual process model claims that parental autonomy support relates positively to child well-being, while psychologically controlling parenting is linked positively to child ill-being.
Parent and sibling roles in adolescent anger
Today, we look at two articles related to teen behavior. First, Arbel (2024) published “Daily Profiles of Parents’ Supportive Extrinsic Emotion Regulation of Adolescents’ Negative Emotion” in Emotion. Here’s the edited abstract:
Parental support for adolescent emotion regulation is critical for adolescents’ health. Yet, little is known about parents’ daily support of adolescents’ emotion regulation. This study aimed to typify daily co-parent supportive extrinsic emotion regulation (EER) profiles directed toward adolescents’ daily distress and anger.
School relationships
Today, I look at what happens at school. First, Fu, Paskewich, Randolph, Bradshaw & Waasdorp (2024) published “Parent Perceptions of School Relationships: Considerations of racial–ethnic differences and youth’s peer victimization.” Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:
Literature has highlighted that social relationships at school are essential to school success, yet few studies have examined this construct from parents’ perspectives. Even less research has explored perceptions of social relationships in the school among parents whose children are bullying victims and potential racial–ethnic differences in the perceptions.
Research on emotion regulation
Today, I present three articles addressing different aspects of emotion regulation. First, Ricker, Sanchez, Cooley, Barnett & Gunder (2024) published “Interactive Effects of Parental Support and Psychological Control on Children’s Emotion Regulation” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:
Parents engage in a variety of behaviors that have important impacts on children’s psychosocial functioning, including their ability to effectively regulate emotions. Parental support includes behaviors that convey warmth, love, and acceptance, whereas parental psychological control includes shaming, guilt induction, and love withdrawal.
Music evoked nostalgia
Today, I present a single study that I found intriguing. Hennessy, Greer, Narayanan & Habibi (2024) published “Unique Affective Profile of Music-Evoked Nostalgia: An extension and conceptual replication of Barrett et al.’s (2010) study” in Emotion. Here’s the edited abstract:
Nostalgia is a mixed emotion, often evoked by music. This study sought to conceptually replicate and extend Barrett et al.’s pioneering work exploring music-evoked nostalgia,
Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy and PTSD
Today, I present a single study (that is available full-text) related to trauma and PTSD. Keyan, Garland, Choi-Christou, Tran, O'Donnell & Bryant (2024) published “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Predictors of Response to Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” in Psychological Bulletin. Here are excerpts from the abstract, public significance statement, and conclusion:
New research on social media
Today, I present one statement and two studies related to media use. First, from the APA website (2024) “APA Report Calls on Social Media Companies to Take Responsibility to Protect Youth.” Here’s the text with some portions in bold:
Raising age of social media permissions not sufficient, APA says
WASHINGTON — Almost a year after the American Psychological Association issued a landmark health advisory on social media use in adolescence,
Three studies of young children
I don’t often use articles dealing with toddlers and preschoolers, but I found each of these articles intriguing. First, Munoz, Kartushina & Mayor (2024) published “Sustained Pacifier Use is Associated with Smaller Vocabulary Sizes at 1 and 2 Years of Age: A cross-sectional study” in Developmental Science. Here is the edited abstract:
Emotional expression in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis
Today, I present a study of risk factors for diagnosis of psychosis. Fattal, Martinez, Gupta, Stephens, Haase & Mittal (2024) published “Disrupted Coherence between Autonomic Activation and Emotional Expression in Individuals at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:
Landmark studies have shown decreased coherence between different emotion response systems (e.g., physiology and facial expressions) in people with psychosis.
College students hospitalized for psychiatric crises
I’m following a long post with a short one today. Morpeth-Provost, Brownson & Boyer (2024) published “Demographic, Academic, and Clinical Characteristics of College Students Hospitalized for Psychiatric Crises” in Journal of Counseling Psychology. Abstract Impact Statement