The Effect of Enumeration of Self-Relevant Words on Self-Focused Attention and Repetitive Negative Thoughts

Perceiving the Self and Emotions with an Anxious Mind: Evidence from an Implicit Perceptual Task

Anxiety disorders cause mental distress and low wellbeing in many people worldwide. Theories of anxiety describe negative worldviews and self-views as maintaining factors of the disorders. Recent research in social cognition has found a link between depression and altered perceptual biases to emotions, but the same research on anxiety is still missing. In this study, we measured perceptual biases to emotional and self-related stimuli in sub-clinically anxious participants and healthy controls using a self-emotional shape-label matching task. Results demonstrate that anxious participants had a diminished perceptual self-bias compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the severity of anxiety was related to an emotional bias towards valanced other-related stimuli. The findings confirm the hypothesis that anxious individuals display an altered self-prioritisation effect in comparison with healthy individuals and that anxiety severity is linked to altered responses to emotionally valanced others. These findings have potential implications for early diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders.

The effect of revised process recording on self-focus and self-compassion: A randomized controlled pilot study

DESIGN AND METHODS

Thirty-five university nursing students in Japan participated in this randomized controlled trial. The revised process recording referred to self-compassion. Both the control and intervention groups completed the self-compassion scale (SCS) pre- and post-intervention. A repeated two-way analysis of variance examined the interaction effect of time × group on the SCS subscales.

FINDINGS

A significant interaction effect was observed only for mindfulness; the score only increased in the intervention group.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

The revised process recording might facilitate self-compassion, making it appropriate for nursing education.

Rumination and perceived social support from significant others interact to predict eating disorder attitudes and behaviors in university students

University students are at a greater risk for eating disorder attitudes and behaviors (EDAB) compared to the general population. This study examined the roles of rumination and perceived social support (PSS) from three domains in the occurrence of EDAB. Participants: A sample of students (N= 300) attending a rural Midwestern university. Methods: Participants completed online surveys which collected demographic information and assessed eating disorders, rumination, and PSS. Pearson's correlation and moderated regression were performed for analysis. Results: Of the sample, 63.6% of participants identified as women, 34.8% as men, and 1.7% with another gender. PSS from family and friends was negatively associated with EDAB. Rumination was positively associated with EDAB. High rumination and high PSS from significant others interacted to predict eating, shape, and weight concerns, but not dietary restraint. Conclusions: Findings support incorporating screening tools for PSS and rumination at on-campus counseling sessions to identify students at risk for EDAB.