The effects of social comparison and depressive mood on adolescent social decision-making

Neural mechanisms of social comparison in subthreshold depression

Social comparison is a common phenomenon in our daily life, through which people get to know themselves, and plays an important role in depression. In this study, event-related potential (ERP) was used to explore the temporal course of social comparison processing in the subthreshold depression group. Electrophysiological recordings were acquired from 30 subthreshold depressed individuals and 31 healthy individuals while they conducted the adapted dot estimation task. The ERP results revealed that there was a significant difference of feedback-related negativity (FRN) in the process of social comparison. Especially only in the subthreshold depression, the FRN amplitudes of worse off than some, better off than many comparisons were larger than those of upward comparisons and downward comparisons. Our results suggested that the abnormal reward sensitivity for worse off than some, better off than many comparisons might be prodromal symptoms in the subthreshold depression.

The Relationship Between Harsh Parenting and Smartphone Addiction Among Adolescents: Serial Mediating Role of Depression and Social Pain

Purpose

With the increasing prevalence of smart phones, adolescent smartphone addiction has garnered significant attention from researchers. Previous studies have revealed that smartphone addiction is associated with various internalization and externalization problems. Therefore, this present study aims to investigate the risk factors contributing to adolescent smartphone addiction.

Methods

Study 1 recruited a sample of 540, 690, and 470 Chinese students aged between 10-17 years for exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and predictive validity analysis of the social pain scale. Study 2 utilized data from a sample of 718 Chinese students aged between 10-17 years to examine the measurement model used revised social pain scale, smartphone addiction scale, harsh parenting scale, and depression sub-scale.

Results

The present study revealed that (1)The Social Pain Scale had good applicability in Chinese adolescents; (2) There were significant, positive correlations among harsh parenting, smartphone addiction, depression and social pain; (3) Social pain and depression played a partially serial mediating role in the relationship between harsh parenting and smartphone addiction, and similarly the relationship between paternal harsh parenting and smartphone addiction, while a completely serial mediating role in the relationship between maternal harsh parenting and smartphone addiction.

Conclusion

This study provides a direct path (improving parenting style) and an indirect path (reducing social pain to reduce depression) regarding interventions for adolescents with smartphone addiction, and establishes a basis for improving the situation of adolescent smartphone addiction.

Exploring the indirect effect of loneliness in the association between problematic use of social networks and cognitive function in Lebanese adolescents

BACKGROUND

Problematic use of social networks is a widespread problem that may exert deleterious impacts on cognitive functions. Moreover, studies have added an important link between loneliness and its harmful effect on cognitive functions. Other studies have also revealed that problematic use of social networks among teenagers has a pejorative influence on their social interactions, leading to increased social isolation. Therefore, the goal of our research was to investigate the link between problematic use of social networks and cognitive function in a group of Lebanese adolescents while also taking into consideration the indirect role of loneliness in this relationship.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study, which was carried out between January and April 2022, included 379 teenagers (aged between 13 and 17 years), from all Lebanese governorates. The PROCESS SPSS Macro version 3.4, model four was used to compute three pathways. Pathway A determined the regression coefficient for the effect of problematic use of social networks on loneliness; Pathway B examined the association between loneliness and cognitive function, and Pathway C' estimated the direct effect of problematic use of social networks on cognitive function.

RESULTS

Higher negative social comparison, addictive consequences of problematic use of social networks, and loneliness were significantly associated with worse cognitive function. Loneliness mediated the association between negative social comparison and worse cognitive function, as well as between addictive consequences of problematic use of social networks and worse cognitive function. In addition, higher financial burden was significantly correlated with worse cognitive function, whereas higher physical activity was related to better cognitive function.

CONCLUSION

In sum, the current study supports that problematic use of social networks is negatively associated with adolescents' cognitive function, where loneliness seems to play a pivotal role in this equation. The results thus endorse the importance of helping Lebanese adolescents to overcome problematic use of social networks and recover from their loneliness, to achieve a better cognitive/academic performance.

Neural bases of loss aversion when choosing for oneself versus known or unknown others

Despite the ubiquitous interdependence between one's own decisions and others' welfare, and the controversial evidence on the behavioral effect of choosing for others, the neural bases of making decisions for another versus oneself remain unexplored. We investigated whether loss aversion (LA; the tendency to avoid losses over approaching equivalent gains) is modulated by (i) choosing for oneself, other individuals, or both; (ii) knowing or not knowing the other recipients; or (iii) an interaction between these factors. We used fMRI to assess the brain activations associated with choosing whether to accept or reject mixed gambles, either for oneself, for another player, or both, in 2 groups of 28 participants who had or had not briefly interacted with the other players before scanning. Participants displayed higher LA for choices involving their payoff compared with those affecting only the payoff of other, known, players. This "social" modulation of decision-making was found to engage the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and its inhibitory connectivity to the middle cingulate cortex. This pattern might underpin decision-making for known others via self-other distinction processes associated with dorsomedial prefrontal areas, with this in turn promoting the inhibition of socially oriented responses through the downregulation of the midcingulate node of the empathy network.

The effect of chronic regulatory focus and social comparison on undergraduates' intertemporal choices under gain-loss frame

Intertemporal choice refers to decisions involving tradeoffs among costs and benefits occurred at different times. To investigate whether college students' intertemporal decision making under the gain and loss frames is affected by their chronic regulatory focus. Currently, experiment 1 investigated the influence of college students' chronic regulatory focus on intertemporal decision making under the gain and loss frames, and experiment 2 further explored the moderating effect of social comparison (i.e., upward or downward social comparison) during this process. The results showed that intertemporal choices of participants with promotive focus was no significant difference between the gain frame and loss frame, while college students with preventive focus chose later and larger rewards more in loss frame than in gain frame. Social comparison moderated the effects of the chronic regulatory focus on college students' intertemporal choice in gain and loss frames. The upward comparison enhanced the influence of regulatory focus on intertemporal choice in the gain and loss frames, while the downward comparison weakened it.

The relationship between parental psychological control and problematic smartphone use in early Chinese adolescence: A repeated-measures study at two time-points

The current study examined the bidirectional relationship between parental psychological control and problematic smartphone use (PSU) in early Chinese adolescence using a two time-points repeated-measures study and explored the role of psychological security and insomnia in the relationship between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU in early adolescence. The sample consisted of 2128 fourth- and fifth-grade students (55.69% male, age = 9 to 13, M_age ± SD = 10.91 ± 0.80) who participated in two measurements and completed questionnaires about parental psychological control, PSU, psychological security and insomnia. The results indicated that: (1) Autoregressive cross-lagged models showed a reciprocal relationship between parental psychological control and PSU severity in early adolescence. (2) Both psychological security and insomnia mediate the link between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU severity. (3) Psychological security and insomnia play serial mediating roles between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU severity. These findings indicate that reducing parental psychological control, boosting psychological security and alleviating insomnia symptoms in adolescents are all conducive to decrease PSU severity in early adolescence.

Relative deprivation and social anxiety among Chinese migrant children: Testing a moderated mediation model of perceived control and belief in a just world

To examine the relationship between relative deprivation and social anxiety, which affects mental health, and investigate the mediating role of perceived control and the moderating role of belief in a just world (BJW) in an understudied population in Asia, we surveyed 1573 rural-to-urban migrant children (48% female; M_age = 12.3, SD = 1.7) in southeast China. Relative deprivation was positively correlated with social anxiety; perceived control partially mediated this connection. Moreover, BJW moderated the indirect effect, which was stronger for male migrant children with lower levels of BJW. The limitations and practical implications of this study are discussed.

The Effects of Anhedonia in Social Context

Purpose of Review

Anhedonia is a transdiagnostic symptom comprising reduced subjective reward or pleasure. Anhedonia influences subjective anticipation and in-the-moment experiences. This review draws together affective learning and engagement evidence for anhedonia affecting subjective experiences of social environments.

Recent Findings

While social engagement is diminished consistently, subjective appraisals of social contexts vary across different mental health disorders. Low positive affect during social experiences or stimuli is reported in PTSD, mood, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. Diminished neural reward networks underpin the anticipation of social experiences in ADHD, schizophrenia spectrum, and autistic spectrum disorders. Multiple theories exist to explain how anhedonia might interfere with social environments.

Summary

Anhedonia is a barrier to engagement, motivation, and enjoyment of social contexts. While many studies characterize experiences during social contexts, learning theories provide the most promise for developing targeted interventions.