Both articles today deal with families of sexual and gender minority youth. First, Bitran et al. (2024) published “The Effects of Family Support and Smartphone-Derived Homestay on Daily Mood and Depression Among sexual and gender minority adolescents. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents are at elevated risk for depression. This risk is especially pronounced among adolescents whose home environment is unsupportive or nonaffirming, as these adolescents may face familial rejection due to their identity.

This is another long post but relates to work with high SES. Laurin, Engstrom, Alic & Tracy (2024) published “Is Being Elite the Same as Living an Easy Life? Two distinct ways of experiencing subjective socioeconomic status” in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Here are some highly edited portions of the article:

Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts a large number of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; here, we build on these findings to try to paint a comprehensive picture of what people who occupy different SES ranks are like.

Sometimes, I am simply intrigued by an article. Here’s one that immediately captured my attention. Chang, Silver & Holman (2024) published “Betrayal Trauma and Somatic Symptoms among Patients in a Medically Underserved Primary Care Clinic” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Betrayal Trauma Theory posits that victims of trauma are more prone to developing psychological and physical problems if the traumatic event includes the element of betrayal.

Today, I present a long summary of an interesting article. Duncan, Zhang, Futris & Sims (2024) published “Examining Predictors of Relationship Dissolution among Unmarried Parents: Applying the vulnerability–stress–adaptation framework” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s some highly edited information from the article:

Prior research has established that parents who are in a relationship, yet unmarried at the time of their child’s birth, are at an increased risk of relationship instability. However, the processes that may lead to the dissolution of these unmarried parents’ couple relationships are less clear. Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation model, the present study examined data from a sample of 1,575 mother and father dyads who participated in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study over a 9-year period. A

Today, I present three studies of treatment for depression. First, Cuijpers, Harrer, Miguel, Ciharova & Karyotaki (2023) published “Five Decades of Research on Psychological Treatments of Depression: A historical and meta-analytic overview” in American Psychologist. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Since the 1970s, hundreds of randomized trials have examined the effects of psychotherapies for depression, and this number is increasing every year. In this study, we report outcomes from a living systematic review of these studies.

I like to present studies that utilize technology not available to the average clinician. Su et al. (2024) published “Atypical Child–Parent Neural Synchrony is Linked to Negative Family Emotional Climate and Children’s Psychopathological Symptoms” in American Psychologist. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Family emotional climate is fundamental to children’s well-being and mental health. Family environments filled with negative emotions may lead to increased psychopathological symptoms in the child through dysfunctional child–parent interactions.

The rates of suicidal ideation in LGBTQ+ individuals are clearly high. Today, I look at a study of Bi+ individuals. Katz, Chang, Dorrell, Selby & Feinstein (2023) published “Aspects of Positive Identity Buffer the Longitudinal Associations Between Discrimination and Suicidal Ideation Among Bi+ Young Adults” in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Prior research has demonstrated that discrimination is associated with suicidal ideation among bi + individuals, but little is known about resilience factors (both general and bi + specific) that may buffer these associations.

Today, I present an article that deals with one of my favorite research topics – sleep. Harb, González-Van Wart, Brzezinski, deRoon-Cassini & Larson (2024) published “Subtypes of Childhood Maltreatment and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in an Adult Trauma Sample: The mechanistic role of sleep” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Childhood maltreatment is indisputably linked to adverse mental health outcomes, including an increased risk to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adulthood.

I do a lot of questioning of the value of IQ and other general mental ability (GMA) tests. Whether or not you work in personnel selection, you may find this article interesting. Berry, Lievens, Zhang & Sackett (2024) published “Insights from an Updated Personnel Selection Meta-analytic Matrix: Revisiting general mental ability tests’ role in the validity–diversity trade-off” in Journal of Applied Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

General mental ability (GMA) tests have long been at the heart of the validity–diversity trade-off, with conventional wisdom being that reducing their weight in personnel selection can improve adverse impact, but that this results in steep costs to criterion-related validity.

I’ve written about harsh parenting before, but both studies today relate to respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). RSA is heart rate variability that is in synchrony with respiration. It is state dependent and affected by factors such as breathing pattern, sleep and wakefulness, psychological stress and physical activity (Eckberg, 1983). First, Li, Sturge-Apple & Lunkenheimer (2023) published “Longitudinal Associations between Maternal Harsh Parenting and Child Temperament: The moderating role of children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia” in Journal of Family Psychology.  Here’s the edited abstract:

To better understand biology by environment interactions in early temperament, we examined whether children’s respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Today, I look at attention challenges in older adults. Schumann, Evans & Robinson (2023) published “Interference and Attentional Switching in Aging” in Neuropsychology.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

Diffusion decision modeling (DDM) is a validated cognitive modeling method that has been used to provide insights into why older adults are slower than younger adults on a wide variety of cognitive tasks. DDM results have shown that increased processing time, caution, and sensorimotor factors have explained most of this slowing.

Today, I look at emotion regulation and depression in three studies. First, Liu, Springstein, Tuck, English & Thompson (2023) published “Everyday Emotion Regulation Goals, Motives, and Strategies in Current and Remitted Major Depressive Disorder: An experience sampling study” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

People with major depressive disorder (MDD) report difficulties with emotion regulation (ER), particularly in habitual strategy use. We examined ER strategy use and other aspects of ER—desired emotional states (emotion goals) and reasons for ER (ER motives)—in current and remitted MDD.

I was unfamiliar with the term ‘moral injury’ and found two interesting studies that help explain it. First, Hall & Neighbors (2024) published “Positive Associations Between Potentially Morally Injurious Experiences and Alcohol Outcomes in College Students: Results from a dominance analysis” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Here are the abstract and impact statements:

A novel framework for understanding college students’ alcohol use is moral injury—psychological distress that stems from events that violate moral beliefs.

Today, I am looking at a study of health literacy – which refers to capacities for understanding, evaluating, using, and engaging with written text to participate in the society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential. Health numeracy is the ability to access, use, interpret, and communicate mathematical information and ideas, to engage in and manage mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life. Stocks, et al. (2024) published “Racial Disparities in Health Literacy and Numeracy: The role of sociodemographic and psychological risk factors” in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.  Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

As a practicing professional psychologist, you may have encountered the pressing need to understand and address racial disparities in health literacy and numeracy within your everyday clinical practice.

Today, we examine three recent studies of motivation. First, Hubley, Edwards, Miele & Scholer (2023) published “Metamotivational Beliefs about Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation” in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  Here’s the edited abstract:

Although intrinsic motivation is often viewed as preferable to more extrinsic forms of motivation, there is evidence that the adaptiveness of these motivational states depends on the nature of the task being completed (e.g., Cerasoli et al., 2014). Specifically, research suggests task-motivation fit such that intrinsic motivation tends to benefit performance on open-ended tasks (tasks that involve qualitative performance assessment; e.g., creative writing) and extrinsic motivation benefits performance on closed-ended tasks (tasks that involve quantitative performance assessment; e.g., multiple choice).

Today I look at two studies that deal with interactions between child negative emotionality and parenting behavior. First, Rousseau & Frenkel (2023) published “The Importance of Differentiating between Cold and Hot Response Inhibition in the Parenting Context, When Examining Associations with Harsh Parenting” in Emotion. Here’s the edited abstract:

Harsh parenting (HP) entails physical and verbal expressions of anger and aggression toward children, usually observed as response to child negative emotionality.

Today, I look at parents and nonbinary teens, but in terms of assessment. First, Matsuno, Huynh & Abreu (2024) published “Development and Validation of the Trans- and Nonbinary-Affirming Parental Practices (TAPP) Measure” in Journal of Family Psychology.  Here’s the edited abstract:

Parental support is instrumental in protecting the mental health of trans and nonbinary youth (TNB).

This is the first of two posts dealing with adolescence, here through three studies of parent-teen relationships. First, Bray, Gallegos, Cain & Zaring-Hinkle (2022) published “Parental monitoring, family conflict, and adolescent alcohol use: A longitudinal latent class analysis” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s the edited abstract:

This study examined relationships among parental monitoring, family conflict, and subgroups of adolescent alcohol use identified through longitudinal latent class analyses (LLCA).

It’s not at all surprising that victims of childhood sexual abuse have difficulty in adult romantic relationships. Lassri & Gewirtz-Meydan (2024) published “Breaking the Cycle: Mentalizing moderates and mediates the link between childhood sexual abuse and satisfaction with adult romantic relationships” in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Here are the edited abstract and impact statements:

I like theory but know that many practitioners have little time for it. Today, I work with a single article that got my attention. Wright, Ringwald, Hopwood & Pincus (2022) published “It’s Time to Replace the Personality Disorders with the Interpersonal Disorders” in American Psychologist.  Here are the edited abstract and public significance statements:

Personality disorders (PDs) are among the most common and severe classes of psychopathology. From a clinical perspective, it is challenging to help individuals with personality disorders because treatment ruptures, discontinuation, reversals, and failures are relatively common. An additional clinical challenge is that the model used to diagnose personality disorders is demonstrably incorrect.