TRIAL REGISTRATION:ACTRN12619001243101.

This study examined whether an emotion socialisation parenting program, Tuning in to Toddlers (TOTS), contributed to observed improvements in mother-toddler emotional availability. Parents of toddlers aged 18-36 months were recruited through childcare centres and maternal child health centres in Melbourne, Australia and were allocated to either an intervention or a waitlist control condition in a cluster-randomised controlled design. Parents in the intervention condition participated in 6 group sessions of TOTS. Baseline and 12-month follow up observation assessments for 99 mother-toddler dyads (intervention, n = 50; control, n = 49) were coded using the Emotional Availability Scales (4th edition) and analysed for between-group differences and clinically reliable change. Compared with the control condition, mothers in the intervention condition showed significant improvements in maternal sensitivity (p = 0.004). Further, significantly more intervention dyads reliably improved on maternal structuring (p =0 .013) and child responsiveness (p =0 .042), whereas those who received no intervention reliably deteriorated on maternal sensitivity (p = 0.001) and non-intrusiveness (p = 0.040). Thus, the preliminary evidence from this study indicates that an emotion socialisation program delivered to parents of toddlers may influence emotional availability.

Mental fatigue has been highly cited as having a negative impact on endurance performance. Few, however, have investigated whether different types of mental fatigue, namely active and passive fatigue, might affect endurance performance differently. This study used a repeated-measures design where 11 participants completed a 3 km run after three 32-min conditions: an actively fatiguing task (Task-load Dual-back; TloadDback); a passively fatiguing task (Mackworth Clock); and a control task (Documentary). Subjective ratings and performance on a second task (Flanker task) were taken before and after the 32-min tasks, while ratings of perceived effort, motivation and workload were taken during the 3 km run. Results showed that both fatigue conditions were mentally fatiguing, with the TloadDback rated as more demanding and the Mackworth Clock more boring and less motivating. Performance on subsequent tasks showed different effects: the TloadDback condition had the slowest responses on the post-test Flanker task, while the Mackworth Clock condition had the slowest completion time on the 3 km run, though this difference in completion times was non-significant. These results suggest that different cognitive tasks lead to different types of mental fatigue, which can lead to different outcomes on subsequent cognitive tasks but non-significant differences on subsequent physical tasks. This study highlights that to understand the influence of mental fatigue on physical performance, it is important to understand the cognitive tasks used and how different cognitive and physical tasks interact. Future work should examine whether performance outcomes in other areas commonly affected by mental fatigue, like technical and tactical sporting skills, are affected differently by active and passive fatigue.

Objectives: Cognitive impairment, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and dependence in instrumental activities of daily living (ADL) are common after stroke; however, little is known about how these outcomes may differ following treatment with endovascular clot retrieval (ECR), intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), or conservative management.Methods: Patients were recruited after acute treatment and invited to participate in an outcome assessment 90-120 days post-stroke. The assessment included a cognitive test battery and several questionnaires. The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant disruptions in recruitment and data collection, and the t-PA and conservative management groups were combined into a standard medical care (SMC) group.Results: Sixty-two participants were included in the study (ECR = 31, SMC = 31). Mean age was 66.5 (20-86) years, and 35 (56.5%) participants were male. Participants treated with ECR had significantly higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores at presentation and significantly lower education. After adjusting for stroke severity, premorbid intellectual ability, and age, treatment with ECR was associated with significantly better performances on measures of cognitive screening, visual working memory, and verbal learning and memory. Participants treated with ECR also experienced less fatigue and were more likely to achieve independence in basic and instrumental ADLs. Despite this, cognitive impairment and fatigue were still common among participants treated with ECR and anxiety and depression symptoms were experienced similarly by both groups.Conclusions: Cognitive impairment and fatigue were less common but still prevalent following treatment with ECR. This has important practical implications for stroke rehabilitation, and routine assessment of cognition, emotion, and fatigue is recommended for all stroke survivors regardless of stroke treatment and functional outcome.

The thermosensory system is relevant to both the conceptualization and treatment of depression. There is evidence that depression is associated with changes in thermoregulatory functioning, and that thermosensory pathways can be recruited to influence affect and reduce depressive symptoms. In this study, we investigated the relationship between severity of depressive symptoms and changes to measures of subjective experiences associated with thermoregulatory processes as well as the relationship between severity of depressive symptoms and affective responses to warm stimuli, specifically frequency of warmth-seeking behavior. Participants (N = 529) completed measures of depressive symptoms, subjective experiences associated with thermoregulatory processes (i.e., perceived sweating and preferred ambient temperature) and frequency of warmth-seeking behavior (e.g., long hot baths, saunas, etc.). We demonstrate that, controlling for age and gender, greater severity of depressive symptoms is associated with greater perceived sweating and lower preferred ambient temperature. Furthermore, we demonstrate that greater severity of depressive symptoms is associated with more frequent warmth-seeking behavior, and that something other than thermal preference (i.e., stated preference for warmer temperature) is driving this behavior. These data highlight the importance of incorporating the thermoregulatory system in our conceptualization of the pathophysiology of depression and support the potential to recruit thermosensory pathways to target depressive symptoms.

Resumo A leniência organizacional, definida como a falha sistemática da gestão em lidar com problemas de desempenho (como baixa produtividade, baixa qualidade de trabalho, absenteísmo, etc.), é frequentemente uma realidade em organizações públicas. Propomos que as consequências negativas da leniência organizacional podem ir além da perda de produtividade de alguns funcionários com baixo desempenho. Especificamente, investigamos em que medida a percepção de leniência organizacional pode afetar negativamente o clima organizacional e a satisfação no trabalho dos servidores públicos em geral. Propomos que o efeito negativo da leniência organizacional é mediado tanto pela percepção de reconhecimento recebido quanto pela congruência de valor entre os servidores e a organização, formando um modelo de mediação paralela. Em outras palavras, a percepção de leniência organizacional pode fazer com que os funcionários públicos sintam que seus esforços não são adequadamente reconhecidos e, ao mesmo tempo, diminui a percepção de alinhamento entre seus valores e as práticas da organização. Para testar nossas hipóteses, realizamos uma pesquisa com 256 funcionários do governo de várias organizações públicas no Brasil. Os dados foram analisados utilizando regressão linear múltipla com mínimos quadrados ordinários e testes de mediação. Consistente com nossas previsões, encontramos que a percepção de leniência organizacional está negativamente relacionada à satisfação no trabalho em nossa amostra, e tanto o reconhecimento percebido quanto a congruência de valor mediam esse efeito.

Background Little is known regarding cognitive outcomes following treatment with endovascular clot retrieval (ECR) and intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). We aimed to determine if there were any differences on a measure of cognitive screening between patients treated with ECR, t-PA, and those who were managed conservatively. Methods The medical records of ischaemic stroke patients admitted to Monash Medical Centre between January 2019 and December 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Information extracted from medical records included age, sex, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale at presentation, location of occlusion, treatment type, medical history, and cognitive screening performance measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Results Eighty-two patients met the inclusion criteria (mean age = 66.5 ± 13.9; 49 male, 33 female). Patients treated with ECR performed significantly better on the MoCA (n = 36, 24.1 ± 4.3) compared to those who were managed conservatively (n = 26, 20.7 ± 5.5). Performance for patients treated with t-PA (n = 20, 23.9 ± 3.5) fell between the ECR and conservative management groups, but they did not significantly differ from either. Conclusion Our retrospective chart review found that ischaemic stroke patients treated with ECR appear to perform better on cognitive screening compared to patients who are managed conservatively. We also found that patients treated with ECR and t-PA appear to have similar cognitive screening performances in the acute stages following ischaemic stroke, although this finding is likely to have been impacted by group differences in stroke characteristics and may reflect the possibility that the ECR group performed better than expected based on their stroke severity.

Most studies of religious service attendance and emotional well-being are only capable of evaluating "trait" aspects of religious attendance, or long-term patterns and habits that form an attendance routine. Methodological limitations make it difficult to capture the immediate (i.e., "state") effects of attending a specific religious worship service. Using the SoulPulse Study, a 2-week microlongitudinal study consisting of two daily cell phone surveys, we move beyond this limitation by examining trait attendance, state attendance, and the interaction of the two on 10 emotional/affective outcome variables. We find that both state attendance and trait attendance are associated with well-being, though state attendance performs more consistently across the 10 positive and negative emotion items. Leveraging Iannaccone's concept of "religious capital," we present evidence in state x trait interaction models that only those who have high trait levels of attendance are able to capture the emotional benefit of state attendance. This study informs the broader literature on religious attendance and well-being by providing evidence that religious attendance can be considered a "practice" that must first be internalized as a set of familiar routines prior to being activated for personal well-being.

Abstract Organizational leniency, defined as management’s systematic failure to address performance problems (such as low productivity, poor quality of work, absenteeism, etc.), is often a reality in public organizations. We posit that the negative consequences of organizational leniency may extend beyond the lost productivity of a few poor-performing employees. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which perceived organizational leniency may adversely affect the organizational climate and job satisfaction of public employees at large. We propose that the negative effect of organizational leniency is mediated by both perceived recognition received and employee-organization value congruence, forming a parallel mediation model. In other words, perceived organizational leniency may make public employees feel that their efforts are inadequately recognized and also diminishes how much they feel their values align with organizational practices. To test our hypotheses, we surveyed 256 government employees from various public organizations in Brazil. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression with ordinary least squares and mediation tests. Consistent with our predictions, we found that perceived organizational leniency is negatively related to job satisfaction, with both perceived recognition and value congruence mediating this effect.

Working conditions in the age of digitalization harbour risks for chronic stress experience and development of burnout. However, real-world investigations into biological effects of technostress are sparse. This study aimed at assessing prospective associations of (digital) work stressors, burnout symptoms, and two biomarkers indicative for chronic stress. N=238 (182 females, Mage=28.5 years) hospital employees participated in a pre-registered prospective cohort study with two follow-ups six months apart (T2, T3). Participants answered standardized questionnaires on job strain (job demand-control ratio, JDCR), technostressors (work interruptions, multitasking, information overload), burnout symptoms (exhaustion, mental distance), and relevant confounders. Furthermore, they provided capillary blood samples for C- reactive protein (CRP) and hair strands for hair cortisol concentration (HCC) analysis. We performed structural equation modelling. Factorial structure of survey measures was confirmed. Burnout symptoms (MT2=2.17, MT3=2.33) and HCC (MT2=4.72, MT3=9.73; pg/mg) increased significantly over time, CRP not (MT2=1.15, MT3=1.20; mg/L). Adjusted path models showed that technostress, but not JDCR, negatively predicted HCC (B=-1.55, p=.003) and positively predicted burnout (B=0.12, p=.012) over time. There were no cross-lagged effects between HCC and burnout symptoms. However, we identified significant reciprocal associations of HCC and CRP. To our knowledge, this is the first study on prospective effects of technostressors on employees' endocrine and immune system. Results suggest differential effects of technostressors on psychological health and HCC. Given the key role of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis function in pathogenesis, occupational interventions should specifically aim at reducing technostressors (like interruptions) rather than job strain in general.

Workplace stress is related to job turnover and intention to leave (ITL) the job and/or profession. The specific mechanisms that drive this association have received less attention, however substantive research using the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) workplace stress model provides an avenue to address this issue and inform workplace interventions to improve employee retention. Our meta-analysis of the associations of components of the ERI model with ITL (k = 23, N = 73,671) demonstrated that low rewards (r = -.41, CI: -.46, -.37) were more associated with an ITL than ERI (r = .33 CI: .27, .38), overcommitment (r = .26, CI: .21, .31), and effort (r = .25, CI: .20, .30). Moderation analysis showed that females were more likely than males to report ITL when effort was high and that males were more likely to report an ITL the profession when rewards were low. Although all components of the ERI model were related cross-sectionally with ITL, prospective designs that target male-dominated professions are required to assess if the findings are robust.

Research in cognitive fatigue has identified the negative impact that cognitive exertion can have on subsequent task performance. An underexamined question is whether there are different types of fatigue, particularly: active fatigue, similar to cognitive fatigue, and passive fatigue, similar to boredom. This online study examined whether active and passive fatigue can be elicited and differentiated using computerized cognitive tasks. We compared subjective and behavioural outcomes to look for distinctions between fatigue types in response to different cognitive tasks. A sample of 122 participants (53% male; age 30.04 ± 3.50 years) rated their subjective state before and after one of three 8-min cognitive task conditions (TloadDback, Mackworth Clock, Documentary/Control). Next, participants also completed a second cognitive task (Flanker task). The task expected to be actively fatiguing (TloadDback) was rated the most difficult, effortful, and mentally and temporally demanding. The task expected to be passively fatiguing (Mackworth Clock) had the greatest increases in subjective fatigue, boredom, and sleepiness, and the greatest decrease in "want-to" motivation. There were no differences between conditions for Flanker performance. We showed that different fatigue types could be elicited using different computerized cognitive tasks. The passively fatiguing task had the most negative influence on subjective fatigue and motivation, suggesting a nonengaging or "boringly fatiguing" task induces a more detrimental type of fatigue. A key next step is to examine longer cognitive tasks to determine whether effects from different fatigue types become more prominent with time-on-task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

We examine independent and joint influences of public service motivation (PSM), job prosocial impact, and job reward equity on public employee engagement. Using panel data collected from 56 public managers in Pakistan, we find that managers with high levels of PSM feel more engaged when they experience high reward equity but job prosocial impact or when they experience high job prosocial impact but low reward equity. Managers with low to moderate levels of PSM, however, report being more engaged when both job reward equity and job prosocial impact are high. These findings provide a nuanced understanding of how PSM affects public employee engagement.

In recent years, law enforcement officers in the USA have faced substantial new demands due to the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide community protests for racial justice and police reform. To understand the impacts of these new demands, this study investigates changes in officer work engagement and burnout over time and the role of public service motivation (PSM) in sustaining high work engagement and attenuating burnout. Using survey data collected in 2019 and 2021 from all officers working in a state-level police organization in the Midwest region of the USA, we find not only that officer work engagement has decreased and burnout has increased but also that PSM is an important predictor of officer work engagement. Contrary to our expectation, we also observe a positive relationship between PSM and burnout among frontline officers in 2019 and no evidence of a relationship in 2021. These findings confirm the adverse impacts of COVID-19 and community unrest on officer work engagement and burnout and suggest that PSM generally enhances officer work engagement but under certain conditions may also increase officer burnout.

Depression is the leading cause of disease burden globally. Existing antidepressant treatments that target the central nervous system have limited efficacy and come at the cost of significant side effects. Thus, there is growing interest in novel therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression, including interventions that target interoceptive signaling. The thermosensory system may hold particular promise, given evidence that depression is associated with impairments in thermosensory functioning, and that whole-body hyperthermia produces an antidepressant effect in patients with major depressive disorder. In this study, we investigated whether the severity of depressive symptoms in a non-clinical population moderated the effect of local skin warming on subjective and physiological stress responses following exposure to an acute social stressor. Following exposure to the stressor, participants (N = 90) rested their arm on a heat blanket that was either turned on (local skin warming condition) or left off (control condition). We demonstrate that local skin warming increased fingertip temperature, a marker of reduced sympathetic nervous system activity, but only for participants with high levels of depressive symptoms. While local skin warming also inhibited salivary alpha amylase, severity of depressive symptoms did not moderate this effect, and no effect was found for electrodermal activity. These data highlight the importance of incorporating peripheral physiology in our conceptualization of the pathophysiology of depression and show that changes in sympathetic nervous system activity may underpin the antidepressant effect of warm stimuli.

Background Understanding the strategies people with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) spontaneously use can inform targeted memory training. Method Strategy use was observed for 99 people with aMCI and 100 healthy older adults (HOA) on two memory tasks. Results No differences were found between aMCI and HOA in the amount or types of strategies used, but strategy use varied with task. Association was more effective for one task, whereas on the other task, use of written notes or multiple strategies were detrimental to performance and related to poorer performance than active (spaced) retrieval, for aMCI. Conclusion Our findings suggest the importance of identifying ineffective habits, in addition to instruction in more beneficial approaches.

Digital parenting programs aim to increase program access, improve psychosocial outcomes for parents and children, and support triage to targeted interventions where required. This meta-analysis assessed the efficacy of online parenting programs in improving parenting skills and capabilities, and by consequence, the mental health and well-being of parents and children, and the quality of the parent–child relationship. Studies were included if they were: (1) online, (2) self-delivered, (3) designed for universal general population prevention, (4) evaluated experimental or quasi-experimental designs, and (5) assessed parent and child emotional and/or relational health, from pregnancy to 5 years of age. A systematic search of electronic databases and grey literature identified 22 studies that met inclusion criteria, including 24 independent samples, with 5671 unique parents. Meta-analyses were conducted using random effects models and Cohen’s d effects. Small-to-moderate improvements in parent depression, anxiety, self-efficacy, and social support were observed. No effects on parent stress, satisfaction, or parent–child relationship quality were observed. Meta-regression and sub-group analysis were conducted to identify sensitivity or moderation effects. Collectively, findings suggest any benefits of online parenting programs mostly occur at the time of the intervention, for parent mental health and well-being outcomes, and that enduring effects are unlikely. However, given the cost effectiveness and accessibility of online programs, further research into ways of sustaining effects on parenting outcomes is warranted. Furthermore, given the centrality of the parent–child bond to child development across the lifecourse, additional investment in new digitally facilitated approaches focusing on this bond are likewise warranted. PROSPERO registration CRD42021275647.

Jockeys work in high-risk environments that rely heavily on attention- and decision-making to perform well and safely. Workplace stress literature has often overlooked the impact of stress on cognition, and designs that include physiological measures are rare. This study assessed the prospective concurrent relationships between workplace stress, depression symptoms and low-grade inflammation with cognitive performance among professional jockeys. Professional jockeys (N = 35, Mage = 32.29) provided information on workplace stress and depression symptoms, with serum levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-10, TNFα) and cytokine balance (IL-6: IL-10, TNFα: IL-10) quantified with SIMOA, and cognitive performance with CogSport computer-based testing battery. These measures were repeated after a twelve-month interval. Increased workplace stress between testing intervals was associated to an increased cytokine imbalance (β = 0.447, p = .015) after controlling for age and gender. Increases in cytokine imbalance occurred in unison with decreases in attention (β = 0.516, p = .002), decision-making (β = 0.452, p = .009) and working memory (β = 0.492, p = .004). These preliminary findings suggest the underlying mechanisms linking workplace stress and reduced cognitive performance may be influenced by measures of low-grade inflammation and specifically a cytokine imbalance. Our findings suggest a measure of cytokine balance may explain the heterogenous findings in previous studies that have focussed solely on the association of workplace stress with pro-inflammatory cytokines. Future work is needed however, to provide a broader evidence-base for our claims to better inform designs to intervene in the higher workplace stress-poorer cognition relationship.