Biological rhythm and emotional and behavioral problems among schoolchildren in Southern Brazil

Impact of COVID-19 on emotional and behavioral problems among preschool children: a meta-analysis

The impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on society is continuous, resulting in negative psychological consequences. Given the vulnerability and sensitivity to the environment among preschool children, their emotional and behavioral problems deserve more attention. The current study aimed to explore the impact of the epidemic on preschool children's mental health by determining the pooled prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems amidst the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic and to reveal potential reasons for variations between studies. Published studies were searched in Embase, PubMed, ProQuest, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wanfang. Based on the inclusion criteria outlined in this study, a total of 10 studies encompassing 38,059 participants were incorporated. Employing a random-effect model for estimating the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems, the results revealed a pooled prevalence rate of 24.3% (95% CI, 0.15-0.38; I²=99.9%) among preschool children. This rate surpasses the pre-outbreak prevalence observed in different countries, signifying a detrimental influence of the epidemic on the mental well-being of preschoolers. Therefore, mental health care and recovery are essential for the vulnerable group during and after the public health crisis. Specific emotional and behavioral problems among preschool children are expected to be researched in the future to provide more targeted guidance for intervention.

Moderating effects of smoking and drinking on the relationship between biological rhythm and psychological health and gender differences among adolescents

OBJECTIVES

To determine whether smoking and drinking moderate the correlation between biological rhythm and mental health and the role of gender differences in these moderating effects.

METHODS

Adolescents from three cities, all twelve middle schools (N = 7,986), named Shenzhen, Nanchang and Shenyang in China, were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire including the details of biological rhythm, psychological health, and the status of smoking and drinking. The PROCESS program was used to analyze whether smoking and drinking moderated the relationship between biological rhythm and psychological health.

RESULTS

The analyses revealed poorer psychological health and greater likelihood of smoking and drinking in participants with higher scores for biological rhythm disorder (P < 0.001). Specifically, smoking and drinking accelerated the relationship between biological rhythm and psychological health in the total sample (B = 0.05, P < 0.05; B = 0.06, P < 0.001) and only the subgroup of girls (B = 0.09, P < 0.05; B = 0.12, P < 0.001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

As the findings suggest, attention should be given to smoking, drinking and gender-specific approaches employed to alleviate the psychological disorders of adolescents with biological rhythm disorders.

Self-perceived rhythmicity in affective and cognitive functions is related to psychiatric symptoms in adolescents

The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between self-perceived rhythms measured using the Mood Rhythm Instrument for adolescents (MRhI-Y) and depressive and psychiatric symptoms measured with the Children's Depressive Instrument (CDI) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). In this study, 186 adolescents were recruited in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We performed a Spearman correlation analysis to evaluate the relationships between quantitative variables. All variables that had a statistically significant correlation were included in ANOVA multiple regression models. The dependent variables in the multiple regression analyses were CDI score and total and emotional scores on the SDQ. We found that only Cognitive self-perceived rhythmicity contributed significantly to the first multiple regression with CDI as the outcome variable. The second regression with SDQ Emotional score as the outcome variable showed that female sex, age, and self-perceived affective rhythmicity contributed significantly to the model. The third regression with SDQ total score as the outcome variable showed that chronotype, self-perceived cognitive symptoms, and affective rhythmicity contributed significantly to the model. In conclusion, we found that lower self-perceived rhythmicity in cognitive factors and higher self-perceived rhythmicity in affective factors were related to presence and intensity of psychiatric and depressive symptoms.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychological distress and biological rhythm in China’s general population: A path analysis model

Objective

When facing major emergency public accidents, men and women may react differently. Our research aimed to assess the influence of gender difference on social support, information preference, biological rhythm, psychological distress, and the possible interaction among these factors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, 3,237 respondents aged 12 years and older finished the online survey. Levels of social support, information preference, biological rhythm, and psychological distress were assessed using validated scales. A path analysis was conducted to explore possible associations among these variables.

Results

The path analysis indicated that women with high levels of social support had a lower possibility of biological rhythm disorders and lower levels of somatization symptoms of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. The influence of social support on somatization symptoms was exerted via biological rhythm. Women tended to believe both negative and positive information, while men preferred more extreme information.

Conclusion

Our results highlighted gender difference in study variables during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of social support in alleviating psychological distress and biological rhythm disorders. Moreover, we confirmed that information preference differed significantly by somatization symptoms of psychological distress, suggesting extra efforts to provide more individualized epidemic information. Longitudinal research is required to further explore casual inferences.

Browsing makes you feel less bad: An ecological momentary assessment of passive Qzone use and young women's negative emotions

Passively browsing other's content on social networking sites (SNS) is popular among young females. It remains unclear how passive use relates to female's negative emotions, and especially whether short-term associations are confined by individual differences. This study used ecological momentary assessment over the course of one week to examine the associations between passive use of SNS and negative emotions, and investigated whether individual differences (i.e., self-esteem and life satisfaction) would moderate this relationship. A sample of N = 99 Chinese female undergraduates (M_age = 18.81, SD_age = 0.84) completed a baseline online survey on self-esteem and life satisfaction, and received a daily online survey about their Qzone use as well as their negative emotions for seven days. Multilevel modeling revealed that passively browsing Qzone on a given day was associated with less negative emotions. However, the within-person association was independent of self-esteem and life satisfaction. Implications of passive SNS use are discussed especially regarding their potential to reduce negative feelings among Chinese young female undergraduate students, at least in the short term.

Changes in Emotional-Behavioral Functioning Among Pre-school Children Following the Initial Stage Danish COVID-19 Lockdown and Home Confinement

Unintended negative outcomes on child behavior due to lockdown and home confinement following the corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic needs highlighting to effectively address these issues in the current and future health crises. In this sub-study of the ODIN-study, the objectives were to determine whether the Danish lockdown and home confinement following the COVID-19 pandemic affected changes in emotional-behavioral functioning of pre-school-aged children using the validated Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) answered by parents shortly before lockdown and 3 weeks into lockdown, and moreover, to examine whether baseline family and social characteristics could predict change in child emotional-behavioral functioning during lockdown. Parents of 40 (82%) children with a mean(SD) age of 5.0(0.7) completed the baseline questionnaire and the lockdown follow-up questionnaire. The SDQ-Total difficulties score (SDQ-TD) and Prosocial Behavioral score (PSB) changed significantly from pre- to lockdown [SDQ-TD mean(SD): 6.0(3.8) and 7.9(5.2); P = 0.02, respectively and PSB mean(SD): 8.5(1.4) and 7.9(1.5); P = 0.03, respectively]. Attending leisure time activities before lockdown was a predicting factor of changes to the worse in the children’s SDQ-TD scores, with a mean difference in SDQ-TD between those with and without activities of 3.16 (95%CI 0.27–6.12); P = 0.03. In conclusion, the study showed a modest decrease in child-emotional behavioral functioning during the COVID-19 lockdown, potentially due to parental stress. Although these results might not be generalizable due to small sample size and selected population, the results point to a need of a greater awareness of child mental wellbeing during a lockdown situation.

Past, present, and future of sleep medicine research in Latin America

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Sleep medicine is a relatively young field with exponential growth in development and research in the last decades. Parallel to the advances in the United States, Latin America also had its beginnings in sleep medicine housed in neuroscience laboratories. Since the very first Latin American meeting in 1985, and the first sleep society in 1993, sleep research has undergone significant development in subsequent years. From contributions in animal research that allowed understanding of the activity of the brain during sleep to the studies that improved our knowledge of sleep disorders in humans, Latin America has become a scientific hub for expansion of sleep research. In this article, we present a historical account of the development of sleep medicine in Latin America, the current state of education and the achievements in research throughout history, and the latest advances in the trending areas of sleep science and medicine. These findings were presented during World Sleep Society meeting in Vancouver in 2019 and complement the work on sleep societies and training published by Vizcarra-Escobar et al in their article "Sleep societies and sleep training programs in Latin America" (J Clin Sleep Med. 2020;16(6):983-988).