More romantic or more realistic: trajectories and influencing factors of romantic love among Chinese college students from entering college to graduation

College is a significant transition in the growth of individuals, and romantic relationships play an important role in the future development of individuals. Understanding young people’s attitudes toward love is helpful for formulating strategies to guide them to form correct attitudes toward love, promote the formation of positive and healthy attitudes toward marriage and life. This study aimed to explore the trajectories of college students’ attitudes toward love, reveal the development law of their attitudes toward love, and identify the influencing factors that lead to changes in their attitudes toward love. Descriptive and correlation analyses were performed on participants’ attitudes toward love, followed by utilization of a growth mixture model to explore latent trajectory classes and a multinomial logistic regression model to analyze influencing factors across trajectories.The results indicated that romantic attitudes could be divided into three groups: “high-increasing”, “low-decreasing” and “low-increasing”, and realistic attitudes could be divided into three groups: “high-increasing”, “low-increasing” and “high-decreasing”. Gender, major, extroversion, and hometown location were factors influencing whether students fell into different trajectory classes. Overall, society and colleges should pay more attention to changes in college students’ attitudes toward love, provide timely intervention and guidance, and prevent them from suffering from behavioral, physical, and psychological problems.

Pursuing Safety in Social Connection: A Flexibly Fluid Perspective on Risk Regulation in Relationships

People are fundamentally motivated to be included in social connections that feel safe, connections where they are consistently cared for and protected, not hurt or exploited. Romantic relationships have long played a crucial role in satisfying this fundamental need. This article reconceptualizes the risk-regulation model to argue that people draw on experiences from inside and outside their romantic relationships to satisfy their fundamental need to feel safe depending on others. We first review the direct relational cues (i.e., a partner's affectionate touch, responsive versus unresponsive behavior, and relative power) and indirect cues (i.e., bodily sensations, collective value in the eyes of others, and living conditions) that signal the current safety of social connection and motivate people to connect to others or protect themselves against them. We then review how people's chronic capacity to trust in others controls their sensitivity and reactivity to the safety cues. The article concludes with future research directions.

Patrones de violencia en las relaciones de pareja en adolescentes: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

Un grupo creciente de investigaciones ha sugerido la existencia de diferentes patrones de violencia en las relaciones de pareja durante la adolescencia. El objetivo de este estudio fue revisar y sintetizar la evidencia científica respecto a patrones de violencia en las relaciones de pareja en adolescentes, a través de una revisión sistemática de la literatura. La búsqueda se realizó en las bases de datos Pubmed, Scopus, Scielo, ebsco, Web of Science, Sage Journals, Taylor andFrancis Journals, Wiley, y el motor de búsqueda Google Académico; no hubo restricciones en el año de publicación. Se incluyeron investigaciones que analizaron la violencia desde una perspectiva centrada en la persona (e.g., uso de análisis de clases latentes). Para evaluar la calidad de los estudios transversales se usó la herramienta Axis de 20 ítems, y para los estudios longitudinales, la lista de verificación de Tooth et al. (2005) de 33 ítems. Se identificaron 212 estudios y después de elegir por criterios de elegibilidad, se incluyeron 27. Los patrones de violencia con mayor frecuencia fueron: violencia multiforme (34 %), victimización o perpetración por violencia psicológica y física (26%), violencia bidireccional psicológica/verbal (26 %), baja violencia (26 %) y alta violencia (23 %). Los patrones de violencia se relacionaron con diferentes variables tales como experiencias adversas en la infancia, variables sociodemográficas, relación familiar e indicadores de salud mental. Estos patrones evidencian que la violencia en las relaciones de pareja durante la adolescenciason un fenómeno complejo y multifactorial.

Predicting romantic interest during early relationship development: A preregistered investigation using machine learning

There are massive literatures on initial attraction and established relationships. But few studies capture early relationship development: the interstitial period in which people experience rising and falling romantic interest for partners who could—but often do not—become sexual or dating partners. In this study, 208 single participants reported on 1,065 potential romantic partners across 7,179 data points over 7 months. In stage 1, we used random forests (a type of machine learning) to estimate how well different classes of variables (e.g., individual differences vs. target-specific constructs) predicted participants’ romantic interest in these potential partners. We also tested (and found only modest support for) the perceiver × target moderation account of compatibility: the meta-theoretical perspective that some types of perceivers experience greater romantic interest for some types of targets. In stage 2, we used multilevel modeling to depict predictors retained by the random-forests models; robust (positive) main effects emerged for many variables, including sociosexuality, sex drive, perceptions of the partner’s positive attributes (e.g., attractive and exciting), attachment features (e.g., proximity seeking), and perceived interest. Finally, we found no support for ideal partner preference-matching effects on romantic interest. The discussion highlights the need for new models to explain the origin of romantic compatibility.

Unidimensional analysis of the nursing diagnoses of situational low self-esteem and chronic low self-esteem

PURPOSE

To analyze the unidimensionality of the nursing diagnoses low situational self-esteem and low chronic self-esteem proposed by NANDA-I.

DESING AND METHODS

Diagnostic accuracy study carried out with 180 patients with depressed mood in a psychiatric hospital in northeastern Brazil.

FINDINGS

The analysis of the latent class considered the hypothesis of low self-esteem as a unique construct and included the indicators: Excessive seeking of reassurance, repeatedly unsuccessfulness in life events, rejection of positive feedback, insomnia, solitude, and nonassertive behavior.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The recognition of low self-esteem as a unique diagnostic construct allows nurses to be more assertive in the provision of care.

Cultural differences in stress and affection following social support receipt

Culturally appropriate social support predicts better psychological outcomes. Motivation for providing social support may vary cross-culturally, with more independent cultures valuing self-esteem and more interdependent cultures valuing closeness. Participants in the U.S. (N = 85) and Singapore (N = 78) reported on emotions and social support receipt using the Day Reconstruction Method. We examined cultural differences in stress and affection, and tested country as a moderator of the associations between both social support receipt and social support motivation, and next-episode emotions. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that not only did the emotional correlates of social support receipt vary by country, but that recipient perceptions of esteem-building and closeness-fostering SS also differentially correlated with subsequent emotion. For example, esteem-building SS predicted greater next-episode stress for Singaporean participants, but less stress in the U.S. Esteem-building SS predicted more next-episode affection only in the U.S. Culturally appropriate social support predicts positive psychological outcomes. This research highlights the importance of considering culture when examining the dynamic emotional correlates of social support receipt.

Factors associated with fear of intimacy among a representative sample of the Lebanese population: The role of depression, social phobia, self-esteem, intimate partner violence, attachment, and maladaptive schemas

PURPOSE

To assess fear of intimacy (FOI) in the Lebanese population, and its correlates such as depression, social phobia, self-esteem, attachment, and maladaptive schemas.

DESIGN/METHODS

This cross-sectional study, conducted between November 2017 and May 2018, enrolled 707 community-dwelling participants.

RESULTS

Higher FOI scores were associated with an increase in the defectiveness schema (β = 0.483), social phobia score (β = 0.16), mistrust schema (β = 0.519), vulnerability schema (β = 0.482), emotional deprivation schema (β = 0.548), attachment style D (dismissing) (β = 0.913) and failure schema, whereas lower FOI was significantly associated with an increase in the entitlement schema (β = -0.362), insufficient schema (β = -0.377), and the self-esteem score (β = -0.288).

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Implementing educational programs are needed to enable persons to develop healthy intimate relationships, taking into account attachment styles and inappropriate early schemas.

The pursuit of social acceptance: aberrant conformity in social anxiety disorder

The defining pathological features of social anxiety disorder primarily concern the social landscape, yet few empirical studies have examined the potentially aberrant behavioral and neural patterns in this population using socially interactive paradigms. We addressed this issue by investigating the behavioral and neural patterns associated with social conformity in patients with social anxiety disorder. We recorded event-related potentials when healthy subjects (n = 19), and patients with social anxiety disorder (n = 20) made attractiveness judgements of unfamiliar others, while at the same time, being exposed to congruent/incongruent peer ratings. Afterwards, participants were asked to rerate the same faces without the presence of peer ratings. When compared with healthy controls, social anxiety disorder patients exhibited more positive attitudes to unfamiliar others and conformed more with peers-higher feedback. These behavioral effects were in parallel with neural responses associated with social conflict in the N400 signal, showing higher conformity to peers-higher feedback compared with peers-lower or peers-agree feedback among social anxiety disorder patients. Our findings provide evidence on the behavioral and neural patterns of social anxiety disorder during social interactions, and support the hypothesis that individuals with social anxiety disorder are more motivated to pursue social acceptance and possibly avoid social rejection.

Is Viewing Sexually Explicit Material Cheating on Your Partner? A Comparison Between the United States and Spain

This cross-sectional study examined whether university students from the U.S. (n = 392) and Spain (n = 200) considered the viewing of sexually explicit material (SEM) to be tantamount to committing infidelity. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 36 (U.S. sample) and 18 to 35 (Spain sample), respectively. At both universities, the study was made available to students via a computer program that allows recruitment and completion of the questionnaires online. It was found that the majority of U.S. and Spanish participants (73 and 77%, respectively) indicated that they did not consider viewing SEM as an act of infidelity. Also, overall, U.S. participants, those who were not currently in a relationship, and those who do not view SEM, were significantly more likely to believe that viewing SEM constituted infidelity compared to Spanish participants, those currently in a relationship, and those who view SEM. Finally, it was found that among U.S. and Spanish participants, intolerance of infidelity in general, negative attitudes toward SEM, and the proclivity for jealousy significantly correlated with believing that viewing SEM was tantamount to infidelity. For U.S. participants only, religiosity and (low) self-esteem also correlated with the belief that viewing SEM was infidelity. Implications of the findings are discussed.