Brain Sensitivity to Exclusion is Associated with Core Network Closure

Racism and psychosis: an umbrella review and qualitative analysis of the mental health consequences of racism

Black people and People of Color are disproportionately affected by racism and show increased rates of psychosis. To examine whether racialized migrant groups are particularly exposed to racism and therefore have higher risks for psychosis, this paper (1) systematically assesses rates of psychosis among racialized migrant groups concerning the country of origin, and (2) analyzes interviews regarding the association of racism experiences with psychosis-related symptoms in racialized Black people and People of Color populations in Germany. We present an umbrella review of meta-analyses that report the incidence of positive symptoms (e.g., hallucinations and delusions) and negative symptoms (e.g., apathy and incoherent speech) of diagnosed schizophrenia, other non-affective psychotic disorders (e.g., schizoaffective disorder) or first-episode psychosis among migrants by country of origin. We also report 20 interviews with first- and second-generation migrants racialized as Black and of Color in Germany to capture and classify their experiences of racism as well as racism-associated mental health challenges. In the umbrella review, psychosis risk was greatest when migration occurred from developing countries. Effect size estimates were even larger among Caribbean and African migrants. In the qualitative study, the application of the constant comparative method yielded four subordinate themes that form a subclinical psychosis symptomatology profile related to experiences of racism: (1) a sense of differentness, (2) negative self-awareness, (3) paranoid ideation regarding general persecution, and (4) self-questioning and self-esteem instability. We here provide converging evidence from a quantitative and qualitative analysis that the risk of poor mental health and psychotic experiences is related to racism associated with minority status and migration.

Social Resources as Cognitive Structures: Thinking about a Dense Support Network Increases Perceived Support

Two experiments examined how the ways in which people mentally represent their personal networks affect perceptions of social support. Social support research often uses “name generators” in which individuals are asked to choose how many people they receive support from, resulting in cognitive networks that confound size and density. Taking a fixed size approach, Study 1 showed that the density of chronically activated networks predicted perceived support in both emotional and informational domains. Study 2 assigned participants to think of a dense or sparse personal network of equal size to test whether experimentally manipulated density can influence perceived support. Results indicated that thinking of a dense (vs. sparse) network led to higher perceived support, which in turn promoted more confidence in coping with life stressors. Collectively, these studies highlight how moment-to-moment changes in cognitive networks can influence social resources and explicate key psychological mechanisms tied to cognitive social structures.

Social Media Usage and Development of Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence: A Review

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are now part of almost everyone's social life, especially for the newer generations. Children and teenagers grew up together with these Internet-based services, which have become an integral part of their personal and social life. However, as reported in various studies, psychological and psychiatric problems are sometimes associated with problematic usage of social media. The primary purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the cognitive, psychological, and social outcomes correlated with a problematic use of social media sites during the developmental stages, from age 10 to 19 years. With a specific focus on depression, anxiety, eating, and neurodevelopmental disorders, the review also discusses evidence related to genetic and neurobiological issues, together with the implications in clinical work and future directions under a multidisciplinary perspective. While the scientific community has made significant progress in enhancing our understanding of the impact of social media on teenagers' lives, more research integrating biological and environmental factors is required to fully elucidate the development of these disorders.

Social Exclusion Shifts Personal Network Scope

Social exclusion has the potential to alter subsequent social interactions with the members of personal networks, especially given their online availability in contemporary life. Nonetheless, there is minimal research examining how social challenges such as exclusion alter ensuing interactions with personal ties. Here, we tested whether being excluded during a social interaction changed which relationships are most salient in an ostensibly unrelated, online news sharing task. Across three operationalizations of tie strength, exclusion (vs. inclusion) increased sharing to close friends, but (unexpectedly) decreased sharing to close family members. The findings provide preliminary evidence that negative encounters may shift attention toward certain types of network ties and away from others. Future work is needed to examine how social experiences influence personal network scope – i.e., who comes to mind – in the background of daily life.