Mental health challenges among adolescents are increasingly recognised as a global concern. Social and emotional competencies are key protective factors that support psychological resilience and reduce risk behaviours. The Smart Skills programme is a universal school-based preventive programme designed for primary school students aged 11–14 (grades 6–8), aimed at enhancing social skills and emotional well-being. The study employed a single-group pre-test–post-test design. A total of N = 119 students aged 11–15 participated in the programme, which consisted of 15 weekly sessions integrating psychoeducation, video modelling, and skill training. Outcomes included social skills, health-related quality of life and intentions to engage in risk behaviours; temporal orientation was analysed as an exploratory variable. The data were analysed using paired-sample t-tests with Holm correction for multiple comparisons. After the correction, significant pre–post increases were found for social skills and quality of life, and lower intentions were found for selected risk behaviours (using medication to get high, using designer drugs, engaging in erotic behaviour online, viewing erotic content online). Changes in perceived stress and negative temporal orientation were significant only at the uncorrected level. All effects were small. Because the study did not include a control group, the observed changes cannot be attributed to the programme; the results should be treated as preliminary and require verification in a controlled study with a longer follow-up.
The aim of the experiment was to examine the relationship between extraversion, negative mood regulation expectancies, and the ego-moving or time-moving perspective on time. The research was largely based on the so-called theories of embodied cognition, according to which various abstract concepts are rooted in the common domain of space. The participants (N = 101) were divided into three groups: the ego-moving group, the time-moving group, and the control group. The ego-moving group participants were stimulated to think about time in ego-moving terms, while the time-moving group participants were stimulated to think about it in time-moving terms. The activation of a given perspective on time was carried out by means of an exercise that involved moving events to selected days of the week. The results showed that both in the case of the ego-moving and time-moving perspective extraversion was positively related to expectancies for negative mood regulation. For extraverts, thinking about time as controllable or uncontrollable does not have much impact on their belief that they can cope with negative mood. The results may be of a practical significance for therapy and psychological counseling.
An increasing number of studies have examined the effects of psychedelics on mental wellbeing and their potential use as adjunctive therapy for depressive and anxiety disorders. In this review, we compiled research from the past ten years that focused specifically on the impact of psychedelic use on personality traits. A systematic search was conducted across the databases Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus, as well as the trial registry ClinicalTrials.gov, identifying a total of 27 studies including a total of 1,941 participants. The findings from these studies are heterogeneous; however, majority of them report that psychedelics may induce changes in personality traits associated with improvements in mental health, particularly reductions in neuroticism. Adaptive changes appear to be influenced by baseline participant characteristics, including personality traits, as well as qualitative aspects of the psychedelic experience itself. The current evidence is limited, as most studies involved small sample sizes, highlighting the need for more randomized, double-blind controlled trials to draw definitive conclusions. Future research would also benefit from focusing on psychedelic-naïve participants to better understand the effects in individuals without prior exposure. Overall, while preliminary findings are promising, rigorous and larger-scale investigations are essential to clarify the mechanisms and long-term impact of psychedelics on personality and psychological wellbeing.
Anxiety is a variable conceptualized in two ways—as a short-term state and as a trait. The most popular tool for the measurement of anxiety using separate scales is the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). A number of objections have been raised in the literature about the content, factor, and criterion validity of the STAI. In particular, factor analyses of the STAI to date have been conducted using a cross-sectional approach, and no factor or multilevel analyses have been carried out based on longitudinal studies. In our study, a brief version of the STAI state-anxiety scale is proposed to improve content validity by reducing items going beyond the anxiety construct. A diary study lasting 14 days was conducted with a sample of 146 people. A two-level confirmatory factor analysis supported a one-factor structure at both the within-person and between-person levels. At both levels, the congeneric reliability of the brief version of the STAI was high.
Narcissism affects how people interpret and react to psychological stressors. How stressful events are processed with temporal categories may play a role in the adaptivity of the defense mechanisms used. This study aimed to test whether the connection of narcissism with adaptive and maladaptive defense styles is mediated by present hedonistic and past negative time perspectives—two perspectives related to the characteristics of narcissism. N = 719 participants from the general population took part in the online panel-based questionnaire study. The results show that narcissism relates positively to adaptive and maladaptive defense styles. This relationship is mediated by the present hedonistic time perspective in both models and the past negative time perspective only in the case of maladaptive defense style as a dependent variable. The results show empirical evidence for the twofold nature of narcissism and present hedonism in coping with stressors. They also hint at using time perspective themes in the therapeutic work on defense mechanisms in people with high narcissism. This is the first study to assess time perspectives in the context of defense mechanisms and narcissism performed on a large sample. It is valuable for scientific and practical settings given the high prevalence of narcissistic traits in the population.
