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
Complex posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms
Gallagher, Moreland, Watters & Yalch (2022) published “Relative Effects of Childhood Trauma, Intimate Partner Violence, and Other Traumatic Life Events on Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms” in Traumatology. Here’s the abstract:
Play in Predictive Minds
Andersen, Kiverstein, Miller & Roepstorff (2022) published “Play in Predictive Minds: A cognitive theory of play” in Psychological Review.
Belonging in school
Two recent studies suggest the importance of belonging in school. First, Rambaran, Hoffman, Rivas-Drake, Schaefer, Umaña-Taylor & Ryan (2022) published “Belonging in Diverse Contexts: Sociability among same-ethnic and cross-ethnic peers” in Psychology. Here’s the abstract:
Triangulation and child adjustment after parental divorce
van Dijk, van der Valk, Deković & Branje (2022) published “Triangulation and Child Adjustment After Parental Divorce: Underlying mechanisms and risk factors” in Journal of Family Psychology.
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:
Rural tele-mental health challenges
Sweet, Campion, Bixler, Sylvester & Ghanem (2022) published “Rural Tele-mental Health Use During the Pandemic for Adjustment Disorders, Anxiety, and Depression” in Journal of Rural Mental Health.
Reading to learn math
Hübner, Merrell, Cramman, Little, Bolden, & Nagengast (2022) published “Reading to Learn? The co-development of mathematics and reading during primary school” in Child Development. I like studies with huge samples and sophisticated statistical techniques. Here’s the abstract:
Shame on me for needing you
Swerdlow, Sandel & Johnson (2022) published “Shame on Me for Needing You: A multistudy examination of links between receiving interpersonal emotion regulation and experiencing shame” in Emotion. I was intrigued by the title and the notion of asking people about their experiences with interpersonal emotional regulation. Here’s the abstract:
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.
Different family processes and adolescent functioning
Xia (2022) published “Different Families, Diverse Strengths: Long-term implications of early childhood family processes on adolescent positive functioning” in Developmental Psychology. I like research that focuses on different models of family functioning. The sample size here and its diversity are acceptable. Here’s the abstract:
Greater income inequality, lower school belonging
King, Chiu & Du (2022) published “Greater Income Inequality, Lower School Belonging: Multilevel and cross-temporal analyses of 65 countries” in Journal of Educational Psychology.
The Work and Social Adjustment Scale for Youth
De Los Reyes et al. (2022) published “The Work and Social Adjustment Scale for Youth: Psychometric properties of the teacher version and evidence of contextual variability in psychosocial impairments” in Psychological Assessment.
Social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism
Zubielevitch, Osborne, Milojev & Sibley (2022) published “Social Dominance Orientation and Right-wing Authoritarianism Across the Adult Lifespan: An examination of aging and cohort effects” in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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:
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.
Brain Circuits and Addiction
Vadali (2022) published “Human Brain Lesions Provide Lead to Brain Circuit That Could Be Targeted to Treat Addiction” in Harvard Gazette June 16, 2022.
Primary care providers’ practices regarding patient sleep: Impact of integrated behavioral health
Golden, Cosottile, Meadows, Parikh & O'Dell (2022) published “Primary Care Providers’ Practices Regarding Patient Sleep: Impact of integrated behavioral health” in Families, Systems, & Health. I have written before about sleep and about interdisciplinary teams; this work combines the two. Here’s the abstract:
ACEs screening in adolescent primary care
Hostutler, Snider, Wolf, & Grant (2022) published “ACEs Screening in Adolescent Primary Care: Psychological flexibility as a moderator” in Families, Systems, & Health. I have posted about ACEs before and the challenge of knowing when asking about them can be harmful. In this study, they argue that screening for psychological flexibility may be important in order to work first on modifying flexibility before examining ACEs. Here’s the abstract:
Depression’s causal role in Alzheimer’s disease
An article in Monitor in Psychology in June 2022 addressed “Depression’s Causal Role in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Here’s the abstract:
Paths to postsecondary education enrollment among adolescents with and without childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Di Lonardo Burr et al. (2022) published “Paths to Postsecondary Education Enrollment Among Adolescents With and Without Childhood Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A longitudinal analysis of symptom and academic trajectories” in Child Development. Here’s the abstract: