Online support seeking, co-rumination, and mental health in adolescent girls

Introduction

Adolescents frequently use informal support seeking to cope with stress and worries. Past research in face-to-face contexts has shown that the relationship between informal support seeking and mental health is influenced by the specific strategy used and the mode through which support is sought. To date, little research has considered the relationship between support seeking online and adolescent mental health.

Methods

In this study, structural equation modeling (SEM) examined the mediating role of co-rumination in the relationships between seeking support from friends or online and two measures of mental health: depression and anxiety. Participants were 186 adolescent girls, drawn from four independent girls' schools in Sydney, Australia. Four brief vignettes described common social stressors and participants rated their likelihood of seeking support from close friends and from informal online sources. Co-rumination was measured using a short form of the Co-rumination Questionnaire and depression and anxiety were measured with the youth version of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-Youth (DASS-Y).

Results

Different patterns of findings were found for support seeking from close friends and support seeking online. First, support seeking from friends was related to lower levels of depression and anxiety while seeking support online was related to higher levels depression and anxiety. Second, co-rumination suppressed the relationship between seeking support from friends and depression, but not online support seeking and depression or anxiety.

Discussion

These findings suggest that co-rumination reduces the benefits of seeking support from friends but is unrelated to online support seeking. The findings also confirm the problematic nature of online support seeking for adolescent girls' mental health, particularly in response to social stressors.

What Drives Quality Physical Education? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Learning and Development Effects From Physical Education-Based Interventions

Objective

To determine the effects of learning interventions aimed at optimizing the quality of physical education (PE) on psychomotor, cognitive, affective and social learning outcomes in children and adolescents.

Design

A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data Sources

After searching PsycInfo, ERIC, and SportDiscus electronic databases, we identified 135 eligible studies published between January 1, 1995 to May 1, 2021.

Eligibility Criteria for Selecting Studies

We included randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, and controlled trials that assessed the effect of a PE-based intervention against one of the four identified learning domains in youth at school (aged 5–18 years).

Results

One hundred and thirty five (135) studies with over 42,500 participants and 193 calculated effect sizes were included in the study. The mean effect across all the learning and development outcomes was small to medium (Cohen's d = 0.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] (0.27–0.37). When adjusted for publication bias using the Duval and Tweedie Trim and Fill Method, this mean effect size increased to d = 0.40 (CI = 0.34–0.46). Effect sizes varied significantly based on learning and development outcomes. Interventions that consistently report above or below the mean d = 0.40 effect are identified based on learning outcome. The greatest effects across interventions were witnessed in psychomotor learning outcomes (d = 0.52) followed by affective (d = 0.47), social (d = 0.32), and cognitive (d = 0.17) learning outcomes. A minority (<10%) of PE interventions captured by this systematic review and meta-analysis reported having a negative effect on student learning and development.

Conclusion

The interventions with the greatest effects on student learning and development were dependant on the learning domains. Some PE interventions with a pedagogical focus such as games-based approaches, TARGET/Mastery Teaching, and Sport Education were found to be strong investments across multiple domains. The evidence is limited however by consistency in intervention dosage, study design, and data collection instruments. The study received no internal or external funding and was not prospectively registered.

Genetic testing in familial isolated hyperparathyroidism: unexpected results and their implications

Familial hyperparathyroidism is not uncommon in clinical endocrine practice. It encompasses a spectrum of disorders including multiple endocrine neoplasia types 1 (MEN1) and 2A, hyperparathyroidism-jaw tumour syndrome (HPT-JT), familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH), and familial isolated hyperparathyroidism (FIHP). Distinguishing among the five syndromes is often difficult but has profound implications for the management of patient and family. The availability of specific genetic testing for four of the syndromes has improved diagnostic accuracy and simplified family monitoring in many cases but its current cost and limited accessibility require rationalisation of its use. No gene has yet been associated exclusively with FIHP. FIHP phenotypes have been associated with mutant MEN1 and calcium-sensing receptor (CASR) genotypes and, very recently, with mutation in the newly identified HRPT2 gene. The relative proportions of these are not yet clear. We report results of MEN1, CASR, and HRPT2 genotyping of 22 unrelated subjects with FIHP phenotypes. We found 5 (23%) with MEN1 mutations, four (18%) with CASR mutations, and none with an HRPT2 mutation. All those with mutations had multiglandular hyperparathyroidism. Of the subjects with CASR mutations, none were of the typical FHH phenotype. These findings strongly favour a recommendation for MEN1 and CASR genotyping of patients with multiglandular FIHP, irrespective of urinary calcium excretion. However, it appears that HRPT2 genotyping should be reserved for cases in which other features of the HPT-JT phenotype have occurred in the kindred. Also apparent is the need for further investigation to identify additional genes associated with FIHP.

A new characterization of injury severity

ASCOT (A Severity Characterization of Trauma) is a physiologic and anatomic characterization of injury severity which combines emergency department admission values of Glasgow Coma Scale, systolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, patient age, and AIS-85 anatomic injury scores in a way that obviates ISS shortcomings. ASCOT values are related to survival probability using the logistic function and regression weights reaffirm the importance of head injury and coma to the prediction of patient outcome. The ability of TRISS and ASCOT to discriminate survivors from non-survivors and the reliability of their predictions, as measured by the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic, were compared using Major Trauma Outcome Study (MTOS) patient data. ASCOT performance matched or exceeded TRISS's for blunt-injured patients and for penetrating-injured patients. ASCOT performance gains were modest for blunt-injured patients. The Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics suggest that ASCOT reliably predicts patient outcome for penetrating-injured patients and nearly so for blunt-injured patients. Statistically reliable predictions were not achieved by TRISS for either set. ASCOT provides a more precise description of patient physiologic status and injury number, location, and severity than TRISS. The ASCOT patient description may be useful in relating to other important outcomes not highly correlated with TRISS or the Injury Severity Score (ISS) such as disability, length of stay, and resources required for treatment.

The effects of stimulation rate on calcium-dependent action potentials recorded from chick embryo heart cell aggregates

1. Action potentials were recorded from aggregates of heart cells prepared from 3- to 7-day chick embryos. At 3 days the maximum rate of rise (+ Vmax) was insensitive to TTX; at 7 days it was considerably reduced by TTX. 2. In the presence of TTX the action potential overshoot was dependent on [Ca]0; the results may be fitted using constant field theory and assuming that the membrane is over a hundred times more permeable to Ca than to Na or K. 3. An increase in stimulation rate in the range 0.2-2 Hz led to an increase in both overshoot and + Vmax. This effect was not seen after addition of 20 mM-tetraethylammonium ions, nor when Sr was substituted for Ca in the external medium. We suggest that these rate-dependent changes may result from partial inactivation of an outward K current.

The postnatal development of adrenoceptor responses in isolated papillary muscles from rat

The postnatal development of positive inotropic responses in ventricular tissue was investigated using isolated rat papillary muscles. Responses to exogenous noradrenaline or isoprenaline were already fully developed in preparations from newborn rats. These newborn preparations were also supersensitive to noradrenaline. Responses to field stimulation of intramural nerves or to tyramine were very low in preparations from animals of up to two weeks in age, but had increased to near adult values by 3 weeks of age. This increase in responsiveness was correlated with a progressive increase in sympathetic innervation revealed by fluorescence histochemistry. It is concluded that beta-receptors are present on the ventricular myocardium at birth in the rat, but that positive inotropic responses to sympathetic nerve stimulation do not develop until between 2 and 3 weeks of age.

Adrenergic innervation of the mouse heart revealed at an early stage using alpha-methylnoradrenaline

The development of noradrenergic innervation was studied in the mouse heart using fluorescence histochemistry. Following incubation of hearts with alpha-methylnoradrenaline fluorescent nerve fibres were seen as early as 13 days in utero. It is suggested that the neuronal uptake mechanism for noradrenaline is functional at an early stage.