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 8/23/23 Karen Nelson 8/23/23

Affect regulation and depression

Here, I am discussing two articles on affect regulation. First, Everaert, Benisty, Gadassi Polack, Joormann & Mishne (2022) published “Which Features of Repetitive Negative Thinking and Positive Reappraisal Predict Depression? An in-depth investigation using artificial neural networks with feature selection” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here’s the edited abstract with some information in bold:

Karen Nelson 7/31/23 Karen Nelson 7/31/23

Perceived parental social support for LGBTQ+ children

McCurdy & Russell (2023) published “Perceived Parental Social Support and Psychological Control Predict Depressive Symptoms for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning Youth in the United States” in Child Development. I have edited both the abstract and the article and added bold for major findings:

Karen Nelson 7/5/23 Karen Nelson 7/5/23

Predictors of aging well

Here, I present two studies, each attempting to better understand what predicts aging well. First, Bergman & Bodner (2022) published “Aging Anxiety in Older Adults: The role of self-esteem and meaning in life” in GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry. Here’s their abstract:

Karen Nelson 5/16/23 Karen Nelson 5/16/23

Sleep and depression – three studies

I have written about sleep before. Here, I present three studies all relating to effects of sleep problems on adolescents and each using a different methodology. In the first, Hoyniak, Whalen, Hennefield, Tillman, Barch & Luby (2022) published “Early Childhood Sleep Problems Predict Increased Risk for the Later Development of Suicidal Thoughts” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. They begin by noting that, “Suicidal thoughts and behaviors in youth are an escalating and immediate public health concern.” Here’s more from the abstract:

Karen Nelson 3/20/23 Karen Nelson 3/20/23

Physical inactivity, depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning in individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

Timblin, Rahmani, Ryczek, Hill & Jones (2022) published “Physical Inactivity Links Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Functioning Among Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease” in Neuropsychology. Here’s the abstract:

Karen Nelson 3/10/23 Karen Nelson 3/10/23

The interconnected development of depressive symptoms and school functioning from mid-adolescence to early adulthood

Olivier, Morin, Leo & Salmela-Aro (2022) published “The Interconnected Development of Depressive Symptoms and School Functioning from Mid-adolescence to Early Adulthood: A piecewise growth mixture analysis” in Journal of Educational Psychology.

Karen Nelson 2/25/23 Karen Nelson 2/25/23

Early childhood temperament, anxiety, and depression

Olino, Finsaas, Dyson, Carlson, & Klein (2022) published “A Multimethod, Multiinformant Study of Early Childhood Temperament and Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescence” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here’s the abstract:

Karen Nelson 2/20/23 Karen Nelson 2/20/23

Daily relationship satisfaction and depressed mood

Biesen & Smith (2022) published “Daily Relationship Satisfaction and Depressed Mood: The moderating roles of support satisfaction, over- and under-provision” in Journal of Family Psychology. I like this study because it gathers information from both partners daily. The bidirectional nature of depressed mood and relationship satisfaction is not at all surprising but this work emphasizes the value of couples therapeutic interventions.