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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/sedentary-time-linked-to-faster-brain-aging-in-older-adults-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Sedentary time linked to faster brain aging in older adults, study finds</a>
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<p><p>A neuroimaging study of older adults found that those who spent more time sitting tended to have worse episodic memory. They also showed faster reductions in hippocampal volume over the 7-year study period and experienced more rapid declines in cognitive processing speed. The findings were published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.70157"><em>Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association</em></a>.</p>
<p>Sedentary behavior refers to activities that involve sitting or lying down and require very low energy expenditure, such as watching TV, working at a desk, or using a computer. It is distinct from simply being physically inactive; a person can meet daily exercise recommendations and still spend much of the day in a sedentary state.</p>
<p>Prolonged sedentary behavior is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, including increased risks of heart disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. It has also been linked to poor posture, back pain, reduced muscle strength, and higher levels of anxiety and depression.</p>
<p>Study author Marissa A. Gogniat and her colleagues set out to examine the relationship between sedentary time and structural brain changes in older adults who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They hypothesized that, after adjusting for daily physical activity, higher levels of sedentary behavior at baseline would be associated with greater neurodegeneration—especially in brain regions vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease, such as the temporal and parietal lobes. They also expected more sedentary time to be linked with worse cognitive performance, particularly in memory and language, which are commonly affected in Alzheimer’s disease.</p>
<p>Participants were drawn from the Legacy and Expansion Cohorts of the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project, a longitudinal observational study of older adults without dementia at baseline.</p>
<p>The sample included 404 individuals with an average age of 71. About 54% were male. Of these, 244 participants completed at least one follow-up assessment over the course of the study, while 160 had data collected at only a single time point.</p>
<p>Each participant wore a triaxial accelerometer on their non-dominant wrist for 10 consecutive days, 24 hours a day. These devices measured movement and allowed researchers to quantify sedentary time, as well as levels of light and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.</p>
<p>Participants also underwent brain imaging using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), completed comprehensive neuropsychological assessments, and provided blood samples that were used to determine whether they carried the APOE ε4 allele—a well-established genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.</p>
<p>The cognitive assessments evaluated episodic memory, language, processing speed, executive function, and visuospatial ability.</p>
<p>Cross-sectional findings showed that individuals who spent more time sitting had smaller volumes in brain regions commonly affected by Alzheimer’s disease. This included lower total gray matter volume and reduced volumes in the frontal and parietal lobes. These individuals also tended to perform worse on tests of episodic memory.</p>
<p>When the researchers analyzed changes over time, they found that higher sedentary time at baseline predicted a faster decline in hippocampal volume—a key brain structure involved in memory. In addition, participants with greater sedentary time experienced more rapid declines in naming ability and cognitive processing speed. These age-related declines occur naturally, but the study found they progressed more quickly in those who spent more time being sedentary.</p>
<p>“In conclusion, we found that greater sedentary behavior was associated with worse neurodegeneration and cognition cross-sectionally and longitudinally despite high levels of physical activity among the cohort,” the study authors wrote. “Healthcare professionals might consider assessing not only a patient’s exercise regimen but also the amount of time they are sedentary throughout the day, recommending a reduction in such sedentary behavior in addition to increasing daily physical activity.”</p>
<p>The study contributes to the growing body of research linking sedentary behavior with cognitive decline and brain atrophy in older adulthood. However, the observational design does not allow for conclusions about causality. While sedentary behavior may contribute to neurodegeneration, it is also possible that early brain changes associated with cognitive decline lead individuals to spend more time sitting.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.70157">Increased sedentary behavior is associated with neurodegeneration and worse cognition in older adults over a 7-year period despite high levels of physical activity</a>,” was authored by Marissa A. Gogniat, Omair A. Khan, Judy Li, Chorong Park, W. Hudson Robb, Panpan Zhang, Yunyi Sun, Elizabeth E. Moore, Michelle L. Houston, Kimberly R. Pechman, Niranjana Shashikumar, L. Taylor Davis, Dandan Liu, Bennett A. Landman, Keith R. Cole, Corey J. Bolton, Katherine A. Gifford, Timothy J. Hohman, Kelsie Full, and Angela L. Jefferson.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-with-short-video-addiction-show-altered-brain-responses-during-decision-making/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">People with short-video addiction show altered brain responses during decision-making</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 8th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new brain imaging study suggests that people who report symptoms of addiction to short-form video platforms—such as TikTok or Instagram Reels—may be less sensitive to financial losses and make faster, more impulsive decisions. The findings, published in <em><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925002538" target="_blank">NeuroImage</a></em>, show that this lower sensitivity to losses is associated with distinct brain activation patterns during decision-making, particularly in regions involved in evaluating rewards and guiding behavior.</p>
<p>Behaviors associated with addiction—such as substance use and gambling—are linked to a reduced ability to weigh potential costs and benefits. Individuals with these behaviors often prioritize short-term rewards over long-term consequences. While much attention has been paid to these traditional forms of addiction, the rise of short-form video platforms has introduced a new category of potentially harmful digital habits. These apps provide a continuous stream of highly tailored content that can trigger dopamine release and encourage repeated use.</p>
<p>“Short-form video addiction is a global public health threat—with users in China spending 151 minutes daily on average, and 95.5% of internet users engaged. This high-intensity ‘instant reward’ consumption not only impairs attention, sleep, and mental health but also increases depression risk,” said study author <a href="https://wanglab.mysxl.cn/" target="_blank">Qiang Wang</a>, a professor of psychology at Tianjin Normal University.</p>
<p>“While substance addictions (e.g., gambling, alcohol) consistently show reduced sensitivity to losses, how short-form video addiction alters the brain’s evaluation of ‘risk vs. loss’ was virtually unexplored. Thus, we pioneered an integration of computational modeling (DDM) and neuroimaging (fMRI) to uncover: 1). Whether addicts undervalue long-term costs of usage (e.g., time loss, health risks); 2). How neural evidence accumulation speed and motor-sensory networks drive such decision biases.”</p>
<p>Specifically, the research team wanted to understand whether individuals who report more symptoms of short-form video addiction also show reduced “loss aversion”—a psychological tendency to give greater weight to losses than to equivalent gains. Loss aversion is generally considered a protective feature of decision-making, as it helps people avoid risky behavior. Previous studies have found that people with gambling disorder, alcohol dependence, and certain drug addictions show reduced loss aversion, but little was known about how this pattern might emerge in non-substance behavioral addictions, like compulsive short-video use.</p>
<p>To explore this question, the researchers recruited 36 university students aged 18 to 24, all of whom completed a widely used measure of short-video addiction symptoms. This questionnaire asked how often participants experienced cravings, difficulty controlling their use, or negative consequences from excessive short-video watching. All participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a mixed gambling task, which involved accepting or rejecting hypothetical gambles that offered varying combinations of potential monetary gains and losses. The researchers designed the task to measure how sensitive each participant was to potential losses compared to gains.</p>
<p>The team used a behavioral modeling technique known as the drift diffusion model (DDM) to break down the decision-making process into measurable components. This model estimates how quickly a person accumulates evidence in favor of one decision or another, how much evidence they require to make a choice, and how long non-decision processes (like sensory encoding or motor response) take. It allows researchers to distinguish between people who are slow and cautious versus those who make hasty decisions with less deliberation.</p>
<p>The analysis revealed a link between short-video addiction symptoms and lower loss aversion. In other words, participants who scored higher on the addiction scale were less deterred by the possibility of financial losses and more likely to take risks. These individuals also showed faster accumulation of decision evidence, suggesting a tendency to make quicker, more impulsive choices. This link between addiction symptoms, reduced sensitivity to loss, and accelerated decision-making was statistically robust and remained significant even after accounting for differences in age, sex, and socioeconomic background.</p>
<p>To better understand the brain mechanisms underlying these behavioral patterns, the researchers examined neural activity during the decision-making task. They found that participants with higher short-video addiction symptoms showed reduced activation in a brain region called the precuneus during gain-related decisions. This part of the brain is associated with self-reflection, cognitive control, and value-based evaluation. In contrast, these participants showed increased activation in the cerebellum and the postcentral gyrus—areas involved in motor control and sensory processing—when evaluating potential losses.</p>
<p>Follow-up statistical tests showed that brain activity in the precuneus played a mediating role in the relationship between short-form video addiction symptoms and both loss aversion and decision speed. In other words, reduced activation in this region helped explain why individuals with more addiction symptoms were less sensitive to losses and made quicker decisions. Additional analyses using a method called inter-subject representational similarity analysis further revealed that people with similar patterns of short-form video addiction symptoms also had similar brain activation profiles in cognitive control and motor-related networks during gain and loss processing.</p>
<p>“Studies have found that people with high levels of short-form video addiction are less sensitive to loss and more impulsive in decision-making (evidence accumulates faster),” Wang told PsyPost. “This suggests that they may underestimate the long-term costs of swipe short videos (e.g. time waste, sleep problems), and focus more on immediate pleasure.” </p>
<p>“From a neural perspective, abnormal activity of the brain’s cognitive control network (e.g. frontal pole, frontal gyrus) and sensorimotor network (e.g. central posterior gyrus) is a potential cause. The public needs to be vigilant: The ‘instant reward’ design of short videos may subtly change the brain’s decision-making patterns, leading to uncontrolled use.”</p>
<p>While the study provides new insights into the brain mechanisms that may underlie compulsive short-form video use, there are some limitations. The sample size was relatively small and consisted only of young adults enrolled in a university, limiting the ability to generalize the findings to other age groups or populations. The study also relied on a hypothetical gambling task, which may not fully capture the emotional and social dynamics involved in real-world short-video consumption. Future research could benefit from incorporating more ecologically valid tasks or using longitudinal designs to track how brain and behavior change over time with increased platform use.</p>
<p>In addition, the study’s design does not allow for causal conclusions. While the findings suggest a strong association between short-form video addiction symptoms, loss sensitivity, and brain activity patterns, they do not establish whether excessive platform use changes the brain, or whether people with certain cognitive styles or neural profiles are more prone to developing problematic usage patterns. Further research is needed to understand how these relationships unfold over time and whether targeted interventions—such as cognitive training or behavioral therapy—could help restore more balanced decision-making in affected individuals.</p>
<p>“In the future, we plan to: 1). explore the short-form video addiction risk prediction model based on brain imaging; 2). further explore the neural mechanism of short-form video addiction through longitudinal design; and 3). explore the psychological mechanism and molecular basis of short-form video addiction,” Wang explained. “The long-term goal is to integrate the multi-dimensional evidence of ‘brain imaging-psychological mechanism-molecular basis’ to reduce the risk of addiction from the source.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121250" target="_blank">Loss aversion and evidence accumulation in short-video addiction: A behavioral and neuroimaging investigation</a>,” was authored by Chang Liu, Jinlian Wang, Hanbing Li, Qianyi Shangguan, Weipeng Jin, Wenwei Zhu, Pinchun Wang, Xuyi Chen, and Qiang Wang.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/new-study-uncovers-a-surprising-effect-of-cold-water-immersion/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">New study uncovers a surprising effect of cold-water immersion</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 8th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>Spending half an hour submerged in cold water could lead people to eat more in the hours that follow, according to a new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.114914" target="_blank">Physiology & Behavior</a></em>. The research showed that participants consumed significantly more food after a session of cold-water immersion compared to when they sat in warm water or just sat in a room at a comfortable temperature. This finding may be important for people using cold-water exposure to support recovery, improve well-being, or manage weight.</p>
<p>Cold-water immersion, or sitting in cold water for therapeutic or recreational purposes, is growing in popularity. Many athletes and fitness enthusiasts use it to reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Some people also use it as a way to boost mood or improve overall health. But as more people adopt cold-water immersion, researchers have started to question whether it could influence other behaviors—especially eating. </p>
<p>Because the body loses heat more quickly in water than in air, and has to work harder to stay warm, cold-water exposure may increase energy expenditure. Some studies suggest this may also increase appetite or lead to overeating afterward. Until now, it remained unclear whether cold-water exposure alone, without any exercise involved, affects food intake.</p>
<p>To explore this question, a team of researchers in the United Kingdom designed an experiment to isolate the effects of passive cold-water immersion. They recruited 15 healthy and physically active adults—10 men and 5 women—between the ages of 20 and 59. The participants were not dieting, did not smoke, and had been weight-stable for at least three months. To avoid bias, they were told the study was about how water immersion affects energy expenditure, not appetite or eating behavior.</p>
<p>Each participant completed three different trial conditions in random order, with at least a week between each one. In one condition, they sat chest-deep in 16°C (about 61°F) water for 30 minutes. In another, they sat in warmer water at 35°C (95°F), a temperature considered thermoneutral for water. In the third condition, they sat in a room set to 26°C (79°F) air, also considered thermoneutral. In all three trials, participants were immersed or seated at the same time of day and followed the same pre-immersion routine, including a standard breakfast.</p>
<p>Throughout the immersion sessions, the researchers measured energy expenditure using indirect calorimetry and monitored core body temperature, shivering, heart rate, and subjective feelings of hunger and fullness. After each session, participants were dried off and presented with a homogenous pasta meal. They were instructed to eat until they felt “comfortably full.” The researchers then weighed how much food was eaten and calculated total energy intake.</p>
<p>The results revealed a clear pattern. After sitting in the cold water, participants ate significantly more food. On average, they consumed about 2,783 kilojoules (kJ), compared to 1,817 kJ after the warm-water condition and 1,894 kJ after the thermoneutral air condition. The increase in energy intake after cold-water immersion was about 34% higher than after warm-water immersion and 32% higher than after the air-based condition. These differences were statistically significant and observed across participants, regardless of their body size or composition.</p>
<p>Importantly, participants did not report feeling hungrier after the cold-water session, nor did they rate their levels of fullness or satisfaction any differently across the three conditions. This suggests that their increased eating was not driven by subjective feelings of appetite but may have been a physiological response to the cold exposure itself.</p>
<p>The researchers also found that energy expenditure was higher during the cold-water immersion. Participants burned approximately 224 kJ during the 30-minute cold session, compared to about 135 kJ in the warm water and 129 kJ in the thermoneutral air. Shivering, which was absent in the warm conditions, was commonly reported during cold-water immersion and ranged from mild to severe.</p>
<p>A drop in core body temperature was also observed after the cold exposure. Although body temperature remained stable during the 30-minute immersion, it fell significantly in the 15 minutes afterward—an effect known as the “after-drop.” This delayed drop in core temperature may reflect the body’s internal redistribution of cold blood from the skin back into the core. The researchers propose that this cooling effect may trigger an increase in food intake, possibly as a way to generate heat through digestion.</p>
<p>While the study cannot say for certain why people ate more after cold-water immersion, the findings suggest that the body may be attempting to restore thermal balance by taking in more energy. One possible explanation is that the body uses food as a fuel source to warm itself up, through what is known as the thermic effect of food. This is the increase in energy expenditure that occurs during digestion. The researchers speculate that the extra calories consumed may help raise body temperature after cold exposure, although more research is needed to confirm this.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the researchers also found that food intake was not higher after warm-water immersion, suggesting that being in water alone was not enough to trigger extra eating. Nor was there a significant difference between the warm-water and thermoneutral air conditions. This contradicts some earlier research that found increased energy intake after both warm and cold water immersion following exercise. However, in the present study, participants were not physically active before their immersion sessions, and body temperature was measured using more accurate methods.</p>
<p>The findings raise new questions about how environmental temperature, body temperature, and eating behavior interact. Some animal studies have shown that specific brain regions involved in hunger are activated by cold exposure. For example, in mice, neurons in the hypothalamus become more active in the cold and drive food-seeking behavior. While this has not yet been directly tested in humans, the current study lends support to the idea that cold exposure may stimulate eating even in the absence of conscious hunger.</p>
<p>But, as with all research, there are limitations to keep in mind. The study looked only at short-term effects and did not measure what participants ate for the rest of the day. It is possible that people naturally adjust their intake later on to compensate for the extra calories consumed. The study also included a relatively small sample of 15 participants, though the authors note that this was sufficient to detect meaningful differences in energy intake. Another limitation is that hormone levels were not measured, so it remains unknown whether changes in appetite-related hormones such as ghrelin or leptin played a role.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the findings could have practical implications. People who use cold-water immersion for recovery or well-being may be at risk of unintentionally increasing their food intake afterward, which could make it harder to manage weight. While cold exposure does increase energy expenditure slightly, the increase in food intake observed in this study outweighed the calories burned during immersion. Whether this effect persists over time or leads to changes in body weight with repeated cold-water use remains to be seen.</p>
<p>The authors encourage future research to explore whether similar effects occur after longer or repeated immersion, how cold exposure affects appetite-regulating hormones, and whether individual differences such as body composition or fitness level influence responses. More studies are also needed to test whether strategies like meal timing or food composition could help offset the tendency to overeat after being in cold water.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.114914" target="_blank">Effects of cold-water immersion on energy expenditure, ad-libitum energy intake and appetite in healthy adults</a>,” was authored by Marie J. Grigg, C. Douglas Thake, Judith E. Allgrove, and David R. Broom.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/adopted-teenagers-appear-to-navigate-dating-much-like-their-non%E2%80%91adopted-classmates/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Being adopted doesn’t change how teens handle love and dating</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 7th 2025, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12351" target="_blank">Journal of Adolescence</a></em> provides evidence that adoption status had no bearing on whether 15‑ to 18‑year‑olds had a boyfriend or girlfriend or on how long those relationships lasted. The adopted group did report slightly more emotional support and slightly more arguments in their relationships, but the connection between relationship quality and well‑being looked the same for everyone in the study.</p>
<p>The research team set out to fill a noticeable gap in knowledge about adopted youths’ romantic lives. Previous adoption studies have shed light on health, academic achievement, and family attachment, yet almost nothing is known about how teenagers who joined their families through adoption experience dating. This question is important because adolescence is the period when intimate partnerships begin to shape identity, social skills, and eventual adult relationships. </p>
<p>International findings hint that adopted children can face extra hurdles with peers, making it unclear whether they approach romance differently or experience unique benefits or challenges. The Spanish context offered an additional wrinkle: the country experienced a surge of international adoptions in the early 2000s, so large numbers of internationally adopted youth were now in secondary school alongside peers adopted within Spain’s child‑protection system.</p>
<p>To explore these issues, the investigators used responses from the 2017–2018 Spanish edition of the Health Behaviour in School‑aged Children survey, a nationwide project conducted during class time. The full survey includes thousands of pupils, but only students who were 15 or older answered the dating questions. From those respondents, the researchers identified 276 adopted adolescents and drew a comparison group of 276 non‑adopted classmates matched on age and gender. </p>
<p>About two thirds of the adopted participants were girls, a reflection of China’s one‑child policy era that resulted in many girls being adopted by Spanish families. Nearly three quarters of them had been adopted internationally, most often from Asia or Eastern Europe; the rest had been adopted domestically after early contact with child‑protection services. Half of the adopted teens had joined their families in infancy, while the rest arrived later in childhood.</p>
<p>Students completed the anonymous questionnaire on computers during regular school hours. They first answered whether they currently had a romantic partner. If not, they were asked if they had ever had one. Those who had ever dated then indicated how long the relationship had lasted: less than six months, six months to one year, or more than one year. They also rated three qualities of that relationship—conflict, emotional support, and affection—using nine items adapted from a well‑known relationship inventory. </p>
<p>For example, they noted how often they and their partner argued, how often their partner cheered them up when they felt down, and how loved they felt. Finally, all participants completed two measures of well‑being: a ten‑item health‑related quality‑of‑life questionnaire that asked about energy, mood, and loneliness during the past week, and a life‑satisfaction ladder where respondents placed their current life on a 0‑to‑10 rung scale.</p>
<p>Standard statistical tests compared adopted and non‑adopted students on each outcome and explored differences between domestic and international adoptees. The analyses also examined whether relationship quality was linked to health‑related quality of life and life satisfaction and whether these links varied by adoption status.</p>
<p>The findings painted a picture of broad similarity. Twenty‑nine percent of adopted teens and twenty‑three percent of non‑adopted teens said they were dating someone at the moment. An additional forty‑one percent of adopted and forty‑eight percent of non‑adopted teens had dated in the past. These differences were not statistically meaningful. Relationship length was alike as well: in both groups the most common pattern was a relationship of under six months, yet about one in three ongoing relationships had already lasted more than a year.</p>
<p>When the adopted group was split into domestic and international subgroups a modest pattern emerged. Domestic adoptees were somewhat more likely to report having dated in the past than either international adoptees or non‑adopted youth, although the three groups did not differ in current dating rates or in how long their current relationships had lasted. The authors note that early dating can be helpful or risky depending on context and called for more work to understand why domestically adopted teens might start dating earlier.</p>
<p>Relationship quality revealed both reassuring and intriguing patterns. On average, adopted teens scored higher than their non‑adopted peers on emotional support—suggesting they felt especially able to lean on their partners for comfort. At the same time they reported slightly more conflict. The size of both differences was small, and the groups did not differ on affection, the measure that asked how loved they felt. When domestic and international adoptees were compared separately with the non‑adopted group, the extra conflict was driven mainly by the international subgroup, hinting that early experiences before adoption or cultural background might influence how disagreements play out.</p>
<p>A key question was whether these relationship qualities related to well‑being. Across the full sample, teens who described more conflict tended to report poorer health‑related quality of life and lower life satisfaction, while teens who felt more supported and more loved tended to report better well‑being. Importantly, adoption status did not change these links. In other words, supportive, affectionate romantic relationships were associated with higher well‑being for both adopted and non‑adopted adolescents, and contentious relationships were linked to lower well‑being for both groups.</p>
<p>The study, while informative, had limitations that shape how the results should be interpreted. The adopted sample, though one of the largest assembled for this type of question, still included just 276 teenagers, and girls and internationally adopted youth were over‑represented. Results might look different in a larger or more balanced sample or in countries with different adoption systems. All measures came from self‑reports collected at a single point in time, which means the data capture perceptions rather than observed behavior and cannot determine which factor came first—poor well‑being or relationship conflict, for example. </p>
<p>Cultural factors unique to Spain, such as the prominence of international adoption from China and Eastern Europe, may also limit how well the findings translate elsewhere. Finally, the survey did not gather information on sexual orientation, gender identity, or ethnicity, all of which could influence dating experiences.</p>
<p>But even with these caveats, the research adds a valuable chapter to the story of adopted adolescents’ development. The absence of large group differences suggests that many adopted teens build romantic ties that look much like those of their classmates. The small uptick in both emotional closeness and conflict hints that adopted youth might experience romance with a bit more intensity, possibly linked to attachment histories that remain in flux during adolescence. The fact that supportive relationships were linked to better well‑being for adopted and non‑adopted teens alike underscores the universal importance of healthy connection.</p>
<p>Future investigations can build on this foundation by following adopted and non‑adopted adolescents over time to see how early dating experiences influence adult relationships, mental health, and family formation. Larger multi‑country samples would allow researchers to explore how adoption policies and cultural norms shape romance. Including partner reports, observational data, and biological markers of stress could deepen our understanding of how conflict and support operate within teenage relationships.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12351" target="_blank">The romantic relationships of adopted adolescents</a>,” was authored by Carmen Paniagua, Inmaculada Sánchez-Queija, Carmen Moreno, and Francisco Rivera.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/probiotics-show-promise-for-reducing-hyperactivity-in-young-children-with-autism-and-adhd/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Probiotics show promise for reducing hyperactivity in young children with autism and ADHD</a>
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<p><p>Scientists continue to hunt for safe ways to ease the day-to-day challenges faced by children with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A new randomized, placebo-controlled trial published in <em><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-024-01278-7" target="_blank">Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology</a></em> reports that a 12-week course of two probiotic strains was linked to lower hyperactivity-impulsivity ratings in children aged five to nine and to modest gains in comfort-related quality-of-life scores among children with autism.</p>
<p>Autism spectrum disorder describes a set of lifelong developmental differences marked by persistent social-communication difficulties and a preference for repetitive or highly focused behaviours. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in contrast, is characterized by age-inappropriate levels of inattention, motor restlessness, and impulsive actions.</p>
<p>Both conditions emerge early in life, show high rates of overlap, and often involve delays in executive functions that help a child plan, inhibit urges, and regulate emotions. Over recent years, researchers have turned their attention to the community of microbes that lives inside the gut.</p>
<p>Some intestinal bacteria can manufacture or modulate neurotransmitters such as dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid, chemicals that also shape reward, movement, and self-control within the brain. If the mix of microbes differs in children with neurodevelopmental conditions, supplying strains that boost those messenger molecules could conceivably ease everyday symptoms.</p>
<p>To examine this possibility, a team of researchers in Spain conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial involving 80 children aged 5 to 16 years. The study included 38 children diagnosed with ADHD and 42 children diagnosed with autism, some of whom had both diagnoses. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a daily probiotic supplement or a placebo for 12 weeks. The probiotic mixture contained two strains of bacteria—<em>Lactiplantibacillus plantarum</em> and <em>Levilactobacillus brevis</em>—which are known to promote the synthesis of dopamine and GABA.</p>
<p>Before the first dose and again after twelve weeks, parents completed standard rating scales that capture inattentive behaviours, hyperactivity-impulsivity, peer relations, and other challenges. For children with autism, parents also filled out the Social Responsiveness Scale, which gauges social awareness, communication, and repetitive patterns.</p>
<p>Each child took a computerized continuous-performance task that records omission errors (a sign of inattention) and commission errors (a sign of impulsivity). Parents answered questionnaires about executive function in everyday life, recorded their child’s sleep patterns, and judged five domains of health-related quality of life.</p>
<p>Statistical analyses included every child who started the trial, whether or not the family missed a few doses, reflecting real-world use. Across the whole sample, average scores on parent checklists and performance tasks shifted only slightly and did so to a similar degree in the probiotic and placebo groups. When the team separated the data by age, a clearer pattern emerged. Among children aged five to nine, parent ratings of hyperactivity-impulsivity fell more sharply in the probiotic condition than in the placebo condition.</p>
<p>The difference equaled a very large effect size in the autism group and a moderate-to-large effect size in the attention-deficit group. Within-group comparisons told a similar story: young recipients of the probiotic moved from the “elevated” into the “high-average” range on that subscale, while their peers on placebo showed no reliable change.</p>
<p>Performance on the continuous-performance task largely mirrored those parent reports. Children with autism who swallowed the probiotic made fewer commission errors—an index of hurried responses—by the end of the study, whereas the placebo group showed a smaller drop. Detectability scores, which reflect how well a child can distinguish target from non-target stimuli, nudged upward only in the placebo arm. Reaction-time variability, a hallmark of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, was unchanged in both arms.</p>
<p>When the researchers looked beyond core symptoms, they found one additional glimmer of benefit. On the Child Health and Illness Profile, a broad inventory of perceived well-being, children with autism in the probiotic arm reported a higher sense of physical comfort—covering aches, energy, and stomach complaints—than they had at baseline, and the effect size again reached the large range. Sleep ratings, executive-function scores, and social-communication scales stayed level for most participants, regardless of the supplement they received.</p>
<p>How might a bacterial drink calm hyperactivity in younger children yet leave inattention untouched? One possibility is that the strains used in the trial release gamma-aminobutyric acid, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that tempers motor activity. Earlier work shows lower gamma-aminobutyric acid levels in parts of the brain that coordinate movement and impulse control in both neurodevelopmental conditions.</p>
<p>If a probiotic raises the supply of that transmitter—either directly or by stimulating host cells to produce more—it could dampen fidgety behaviour without necessarily sharpening focus. Alternatively, the microbes could influence dopamine signalling, which plays out differently in circuits that support controlled attention versus those that regulate action.</p>
<p>The modest scope of the changes tempers enthusiasm. The trial lasted only three months, a brief window in the long developmental arc of these conditions. The participating families were, on average, socially advantaged and reported few severe behaviour challenges, limiting room for improvement. The sample size—just over eighty—was sufficient to detect large effects but not the nuanced gains that might unfold in smaller subgroups, such as children with pronounced gastrointestinal complaints or those who do not respond well to medication.</p>
<p>Most importantly, the investigators did not profile each child’s gut microbiome before and after treatment, so it remains unclear whether the probiotic actually took hold and shifted microbial balance in a way that mattered to the brain.</p>
<p>Future studies could address those gaps by enrolling larger cohorts across multiple clinics, extending the intervention to six months or a year, and adding stool sequencing to confirm bacterial colonisation and neurotransmitter output. Researchers might also explore whether combining probiotics with traditional behavioural therapies or with dietary fibre that feeds beneficial microbes produces a stronger signal.</p>
<p>Trials that begin during infancy, before hyperactivity or social-communication problems are fully established, may reveal whether microbial support can alter developmental trajectories rather than merely quiet symptoms that have already appeared.</p>
<p>While the current findings are preliminary, they add weight to the idea that the gut-brain connection offers a promising, low-risk target for supporting children with neurodevelopmental differences.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-024-01278-7" target="_blank">Effect of Probiotics on the Symptomatology of Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents: Pilot Study</a>,” was authored by Meritxell Rojo-Marticella, Victoria Arija, and Josefa Canals-Sans.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/number-of-children-affected-by-parental-substance-use-has-surged-to-19-million-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Number of children affected by parental substance use has surged to 19 million, study finds</a>
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<p><p>About 1 in 4 U.S. children – nearly 19 million – have at least one parent with substance use disorder. This includes parents who misuse alcohol, marijuana, prescription opioids or illegal drugs. Our estimate reflects an increase of over 2 million children since 2020 and an increase of 10 million from an earlier estimate using data from 2009 to 2014.</p>
<p>Those are the key findings from a new study my colleagues and I published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0828">in the journal <em>JAMA Pediatrics</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>To arrive at this estimate, our team used data from the <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health">National Survey on Drug Use and Health</a> in 2023, the most recently released year of data. Nearly 57,000 people ages 12 and up responded.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>As a researcher <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0nERiGAAAAAJ&hl=en">who studies substance use</a> in adolescents and young adults, I know these children are at considerable risk for the disorder, and other mental health issues, such as behavioral problems and symptoms of anxiety and depression.</p>
<p>Substance use disorder is a psychiatric condition marked by <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/substance-use-and-mental-health">frequent and heavy substance use</a>. The disorder is characterized by numerous symptoms, including behaviors such as driving while intoxicated and fights with family and friends over substance use.</p>
<p>This disorder also affects a parent’s ability to be an attentive and loving caregiver. Children of these parents are more likely to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000421">exposed to violence</a>, initiate substance use <a href="https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2017.78.458">at a younger age</a>, be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796018000148">less prepared for school</a> and enter <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK195985/">the child welfare system</a>. They are also more likely to have mental health problems <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000063">both as children</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2023-221720">as adults</a>, and they have a much higher chance of developing a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2019.1693974">substance use disorder in adulthood</a>.</p>
<p>Of the 19 million children, our study found about 3.5 million live with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0828">parent who has multiple substance use disorders</a>. More than 6 million have a parent with both a substance use disorder and significant symptoms of depression, anxiety or both. Alcohol is by far the most common substance used, with 12.5 million children affected.</p>
<p>Our 19 million estimate is significantly larger than an earlier estimate based on older data. That study, which reviewed data from 2009 to 2014, indicated that 8.7 million U.S. children – or roughly 1 in 8 – <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_3223/ShortReport-3223.pdf">lived with a parent, or parents, with substance use disorder</a>. That’s a difference of about 10 million children.</p>
<p>This happened primarily because between the time of the two studies – from 2014 to 2023 – the criteria for diagnosing someone with substance use disorder <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/ADM.0000000000001469">became broader and more inclusive</a>. That change alone accounted for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/ADM.0000000000001469">more than an 80% jump</a> in the estimate of children affected by parental substance use disorder. There was also a further increase of 2 million in the number of affected children since 2020, which reflects the rising number of parents with a substance use disorder.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>There is a critical need to better identify parents with substance use disorder and the children who are affected by it. In my experience, many pediatric clinicians screen children for substance use, but they are much less likely to screen accompanying parents. So the first step is to make such screenings common and expected for both children and their adult caregivers.</p>
<p>But that is not the case now. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that recommends screening and prevention best practices for clinicians, does not yet recommend <a href="https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/drug-use-illicit-screening">such a screening for children</a>, although that could help direct those in need to treatment and prevent the worst outcomes from substance use disorder.</p>
<p>Additional intervention, which requires funding, is needed from federal, state and local government. This may seem fanciful in an age of scrutinized government budgets. But the alternative is a bill that comes due later: millions of adults exposed to this disorder at an early age, only to struggle decades later with their own substance use and mental health problems.</p>
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<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-of-us-children-have-parents-with-substance-use-disorder-and-the-consequences-are-staggering-new-research-256979">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/national-narcissism-linked-to-emotional-impairments-and-dehumanization-new-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">National narcissism linked to emotional impairments and dehumanization, new study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 7th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>People who view their nation as uniquely important and demand special recognition for it may struggle to recognize emotions in others, experience more anger and contempt, and be more likely to dehumanize those both inside and outside their national group. That’s the conclusion of a new study published in <em><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224545.2025.2479783https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00224545.2025.2479783" target="_blank">The Journal of Social Psychology</a></em>, which found that national narcissism is consistently associated with deficits in emotional understanding and elevated levels of antagonistic emotions.</p>
<p>National narcissism is a form of identification with one’s country that goes beyond healthy pride or belonging. It involves an inflated belief in the greatness of one’s nation, coupled with a need for external validation and hypersensitivity to perceived slights. </p>
<p>People high in national narcissism believe their country is special and should be recognized as such by others, but they also feel that their nation is constantly under threat or misunderstood. Previous research has shown that national narcissism is linked to prejudice, conspiracy beliefs, and hostility toward outsiders. But less is known about the emotional processes that may help explain these attitudes.</p>
<p>The authors of the new study proposed that this defensive form of national identification might be rooted in emotional dysfunction. They hypothesized that national narcissism would be associated with difficulty recognizing one’s own emotions, a tendency to experience negative emotions—especially anger, disgust, and contempt—and a reduced ability to recognize emotional expressions in others. They also examined whether poor emotion recognition could help explain why national narcissism is linked to dehumanizing views of others.</p>
<p>To test these ideas, the researchers conducted four separate studies using a combination of self-report surveys, emotion recognition tasks, and a week-long diary method. All studies were conducted in Poland using samples of adults recruited either from the general population or through social media. Participants completed standardized measures of national narcissism, national identity, emotional awareness, and facial emotion recognition.</p>
<p>In the first study, 432 Polish adults completed a measure of national narcissism and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, which assesses difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions. As predicted, those with higher levels of national narcissism reported more trouble recognizing their own feelings. Importantly, the researchers controlled for general national pride—known as national identity—and found that the effect was unique to the narcissistic form of identification.</p>
<p>The second and third studies looked more closely at the emotional experiences of people with different levels of national narcissism. Study 2a surveyed 417 people, while Study 2b followed 199 participants over the course of a week. Both studies used the Differential Emotions Scale to track the frequency of specific emotions. </p>
<p>Across both studies, people high in national narcissism reported more frequent experiences of anger, disgust, and contempt—emotions that tend to orient people toward conflict or withdrawal. These participants were also more likely to feel surprise and fear, which may reflect a heightened sense of threat. In contrast, those high in secure national identity tended to feel more joy and interest and less contempt or disgust.</p>
<p>The fourth study included a nationally representative sample of over 1,500 adults. Participants completed an emotion recognition task using standardized facial expressions and were told that the faces belonged either to their own national group or to an out-group. The study also measured dehumanization using a visual scale that asked participants to rate how “evolved” they perceived various groups to be, including Poles, Jews, LGBTQ+ people, Russians, and Ukrainians.</p>
<p>The results showed that people with higher national narcissism were worse at recognizing emotional expressions, regardless of whether the target was an in-group or out-group member. In contrast, those high in national identity (but low in national narcissism) were better at identifying emotions. The researchers also found that national narcissism was linked to higher levels of dehumanization of out-groups. Even Poles—the in-group—were dehumanized to some degree by those high in national narcissism. </p>
<p>Critically, the ability to recognize others’ emotions partially explained the link between national narcissism and dehumanization. In other words, people who scored high in national narcissism were more likely to see others as less than fully human in part because they struggled to accurately perceive emotional cues.</p>
<p>Together, the four studies paint a consistent picture: national narcissism is associated with a pattern of emotional dysfunction that includes difficulty understanding both personal and social emotions, a tendency toward negative and antagonistic emotional experiences, and a reduced capacity for empathy. These emotional tendencies may help explain why national narcissism predicts hostility toward others, including fellow citizens.</p>
<p>The authors suggest that this pattern of emotional impairment may make people more vulnerable to seeing others as threats. When individuals struggle to identify emotions in others, they may misinterpret ambiguous cues—like a neutral or friendly facial expression—as mocking, threatening, or disrespectful. This misinterpretation, in turn, could trigger anger or contempt, which makes dehumanization and derogation more likely.</p>
<p>While the findings shed light on an important psychological mechanism behind nationalistic hostility, the study has limitations. All the data came from Polish participants, so the results might not generalize to other cultural contexts. Also, most of the measures were self-reported, which can introduce bias. Although one of the studies used a week-long diary approach and emotion recognition tasks, the research was still observational, meaning it cannot establish cause and effect. </p>
<p>Future studies could use longer-term diary methods, physiological measures, or experimental designs to more clearly track how emotional processes shape national identity and intergroup behavior over time.</p>
<p>The authors also point to the possibility of designing interventions to reduce national narcissism by improving emotional skills. If emotion recognition and emotional awareness can be taught—through structured training or therapeutic programs—it may be possible to reduce defensive forms of national identification and increase openness to others. Research in other areas has shown that emotional intelligence training can improve social functioning and reduce prejudice, making this a promising area for future exploration.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2025.2479783" target="_blank">Emotional processes underlying national narcissism</a>,” was authored by Marta Rogoza, Marta Marchlewska, Radosław Rogoza, Zuzanna Molenda, Dagmara Szczepańska, Oliwia Maciantowicz, and Dominika Maison.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/personality-may-be-a-key-factor-connecting-negative-parenting-experiences-to-adult-challenges/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Personality may be a key factor connecting negative parenting experiences to adult challenges</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 7th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>Adults who report having experienced cold, abusive, or controlling parenting during childhood tend to face greater difficulties in daily life—and these problems may be partly explained by their personality traits, according to new research published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941251329782" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Psychological Reports</a></em>. The findings suggest that early family environments can shape how people function in adulthood, not just through trauma but through persistent patterns in how they think, act, and relate to others.</p>
<p>The researchers were interested in understanding how negative parenting experiences could have long-term consequences that extend into adulthood. Previous studies had shown that people who experience dysfunctional parenting—such as parents who are emotionally neglectful, abusive, or overly controlling—often report more problems with emotional regulation, lower self-esteem, and difficulty maintaining relationships.</p>
<p>But it was not yet clear what internal processes might link these early experiences to problems in adulthood. One possibility is that personality traits shaped by early experiences help explain why some people struggle more than others. The study aimed to explore that link in detail, focusing on traits associated with antisocial tendencies like psychopathy and sadism, while also accounting for broader personality traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness.</p>
<p>To conduct the study, researchers recruited 446 adult participants from across the United States using an online platform. Participants ranged in age from young adulthood to late middle age, with an average age of 46. The sample was evenly split between men and women, and the majority identified as White. Participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires that measured their current personality traits, past experiences of parenting during childhood, and how much difficulty they experienced in various areas of life, including social, emotional, and work functioning.</p>
<p>To assess negative parenting, the researchers asked participants to recall how their parents behaved toward them before the age of 16. They looked at three specific styles: indifference (such as being emotionally cold or unresponsive), abuse (which included verbal, physical, or sexual mistreatment), and overcontrol (which involved being excessively protective or intrusive). These styles were measured separately for mothers and fathers.</p>
<p>Participants also completed standard psychological assessments of sadistic and psychopathic traits. Sadism, in this context, refers to the tendency to enjoy causing others pain or discomfort, while psychopathy includes traits like impulsivity, emotional coldness, and disregard for rules or others’ well-being.</p>
<p>The researchers also measured agreeableness and conscientiousness, two of the five basic personality traits that have been widely studied in psychology. Finally, they used a validated scale to measure how much the participants struggled with daily functioning, including problems with family relationships, social life, work, and self-management.</p>
<p>The researchers then analyzed how the reported parenting styles were related to current life difficulties, and whether this relationship was explained by differences in personality traits. They found that people who reported more negative parenting—especially from their mothers—also tended to report higher levels of psychopathy, and that psychopathy in turn predicted greater difficulty functioning in daily life. However, this pattern was not seen for sadism. In other words, psychopathy appeared to serve as a bridge between negative parenting and later life problems, at least in a statistical sense.</p>
<p>But the story became more complicated when the researchers added agreeableness and conscientiousness to their analysis. Once these broader traits were taken into account, the link between dysfunctional parenting and functional impairment through psychopathy disappeared.</p>
<p>Instead, the relationship was better explained by low levels of conscientiousness. People who reported more cold, abusive, or controlling parenting—again, especially from mothers—also tended to score lower on conscientiousness, and those with lower conscientiousness reported more problems managing their daily lives.</p>
<p>This finding suggests that the more specific traits associated with psychopathy may not be the key factor in linking early family environments to adult struggles. Rather, general personality traits, particularly conscientiousness, might better capture how childhood experiences shape adult functioning.</p>
<p>Conscientiousness includes characteristics like impulse control, planning, organization, and reliability—skills that are important for managing work, relationships, and everyday responsibilities. Low conscientiousness has previously been linked to many forms of dysfunction, including substance abuse, risky behavior, and unemployment.</p>
<p>The researchers also found that these patterns were somewhat different for men and women. When they ran the same analyses separately by sex, the mediating role of psychopathy between dysfunctional parenting and life impairment held up for men but not for women. This is consistent with other research suggesting that men are more likely to respond to harsh early environments with externalizing behaviors like rule-breaking or emotional detachment, whereas women may react in different ways.</p>
<p>The authors interpreted this through the lens of life history theory, which proposes that people adapt their behavior and personality to the kinds of environments they experience growing up. In unstable or threatening settings, some individuals may adopt faster, more impulsive strategies as a way to survive, even if those strategies later interfere with social success or well-being.</p>
<p>The study also raised questions about whether mothers’ behaviors have a stronger long-term impact than fathers’. Although the data included assessments of both parents, the associations between dysfunctional parenting and adult outcomes were generally stronger for maternal behaviors. This could reflect the larger role mothers tend to play in child-rearing, or it could be due to biases in how people remember and report their early experiences. The researchers acknowledged that the literature is mixed on this point and called for more nuanced research that considers both parents together.</p>
<p>But the study has some limitations to keep in mind. It relied entirely on self-report measures, which are subject to memory distortions and social desirability bias. Participants were asked to recall parenting behaviors that occurred decades earlier, which may not always be accurate. The cross-sectional design also means the researchers cannot draw firm conclusions about cause and effect. While the findings are consistent with the idea that dysfunctional parenting contributes to later personality traits and functional difficulties, they do not prove it. Longitudinal studies that track individuals over time would be better suited to test these kinds of developmental pathways.</p>
<p>The study also focused on negative parenting and antisocial traits, leaving open the question of how positive parenting might foster strengths or resilience. And while the sample was diverse in age, it was not representative of clinical populations or people experiencing severe dysfunction. Future research might explore whether similar patterns hold in other groups, including those with diagnosed personality disorders or people undergoing treatment.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941251329782" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Lasting Effects of Bad Parenting: Effects of Dysfunctional Parenting on Functional Impairment Through Antisocial Personality</a>,” was authored by Charlotte Kinrade, William Hart, and Peter J. Castagna</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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