Relationship between Direct and Relational Bullying and Emotional Well-being among Adolescents: The role of Self-compassion

Toxic sensation seeking? Psychological distress, cyberbullying, and the moderating effect of online disinhibition among adults

Cyberbullying among adults is barely studied, though its consequences may be as severe as in children and adolescents. The present study investigated the links between psychological distress, cyber-perpetration, and passive cyber-bystander behavior. We also explored the moderating role of toxic disinhibition in this regard. Our sample comprised 385 adults aged 19-66 (M = 28.35, SD = 11.22, 76.62% females). The results suggested that psychological distress was significantly associated with cyberbullying perpetration and passive bystander behavior. Also, higher psychological distress significantly predicted toxic disinhibition. Further moderation analyses suggested that at high and medium levels of toxic disinhibition, psychological distress significantly predicted cyberbullying perpetration but not passive cyber-bystander behavior. Finally, we discuss our results regarding their theoretical and practical implication for cyberbullying prevention among adults.

Experimental evaluation of a neurophysiological intervention designed to increase student resilience: a pilot study

Social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions have shown promise for building resilience and protecting youth from adverse outcomes. This study reports on an experimental pilot evaluation of the Smart Brain Wise Heart SEL intervention during the 2021-2022 school year. Smart Brain Wise Heart (SBWH) uses a neurophysiological approach among ninth-grade students to evaluate the intervention's impact on youth resiliency, self-compassion, peer violence exposure, internalising disorders, and hyperactivity. Results did not indicate any significant universal changes in target outcomes. These null findings regarding universal impact may be explained by the unprecedented difficulty of implementing a school-based intervention amid ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and administrative issues. Despite these obstacles, students with lower academic achievement in the intervention condition scored significantly higher for resilience and self-compassion and lower on depressive symptoms than their peers in the comparison condition, even when controlling for baseline scores, sex, attachment (father, mother, peer), and exposure to adverse childhood experiences. Our findings suggest SBWH programming may have important implications for the trajectories of students exhibiting lower academic achievement, at a minimum, by significantly improving their emotional resilience, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms during a vital developmental stage. More research is urgently needed under optimal conditions to assess the universal implementation of the program.

Mindfulness and psychological well-being in adolescents: the mediating role of self-compassion, emotional dysregulation and cognitive flexibility

INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is a critical period of growth. Mental health during adolescence is one of the most important determinants of mental health in adulthood. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between mindfulness and psychological well-being of adolescents considering the mediating role of self-compassion, emotional dysregulation and cognitive flexibility.

METHODS

The method of this research is cross-sectional. The research population was adolescents (elementary, first and second high school) in Zanjan, Iran in 2021, whose approximate number was 14,000. Data through adolescent mindfulness questionnaires (Brown, West, Loverich, and Biegel, 2011), short form of psychological well-being questionnaire (Ryff and Keyes, 1995), short form of self-compassion scale (Raes et al., 2011), difficulty in Emotion regulation (Gratz and Roemer, 2004) and cognitive flexibility (Dennis and Vander Wal, 2010) were collected. Data analysis was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient and path analysis with SPSS-26 and lisrel-10.2 software.

RESULTS

According the results, in addition to the fact that mindfulness is directly and positively related to psychological well-being (p < 0.05), it is also indirectly through self-compassion and Cognitive flexibility has a positive and significant relationship with psychological well-being and also mindfulness has an indirect, negative and significant relationship with psychological well-being through emotional dysregulation (p < 0.05). The results supported the goodness of model fit and confirmation of hypotheses.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, it is recommended that practitioners provide the basis for promoting psychological well-being through mindfulness, emotional dysregulation, self-compassion and cognitive flexibility.