Theravive Home

A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at moral reasoning about gang violence by children and adolescents exposed to maras in Honduras and not exposed in Nicaragua. “My interest in child moral development and community violence involving gangs comes from my own personal experiences growing up,” study author Franklin Moreno told us. “My study is about how children and adolescents morally evaluate and reason about acts of physical violence associated with gangs that impact the communities they live in. [More]

A recent article published in the Journal of Professional Psychology, Research and Practice looked at emotional support animal assessments and the importance of creating a standard and comprehensive model for mental health professionals. “This is the third in a series of articles that address emotional support animals and the appropriate role of professionals certifying these pets for their patients,” researcher, Leisl Bryant told us. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association looked at breaks in the workplace and why some employees take their breaks and others don’t. “Our research is about breaks in the workplace,” study author Vincent Phan told us. “We were hoping to get a better sense of employees’ reasons for taking breaks at work, as well as their reasons for not taking breaks despite wanting or needing a break.” Past theory and research within the occupational health psychology literature would suggest that employees may want a break when they feel tired or upset, or when they feel their performance on the job isn’t as good as they would like. However, employees do not always take breaks when they want to do so. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders looked at the social and cognitive vulnerability to COVID-19-related stress in pregnancy. “We were interested to find out whether being pregnant during the pandemic was associated with postpartum mental wellbeing of the mothers and their babies,” study author Susanne Schweizer told us. “In particular, we were interested whether the experiencing stress related to the pandemic (including, stressors such as economic and health-related worries) would be associated with more postpartum depression and anxiety in the mothers and poorer affect in the children.” [More]

Having low levels of stress and a four year college degree are strongly associated with psychological resilience in women 80 and over. Researchers from The Ohio State University found that stronger social support and higher levels of self-rated health were also helpful in building resilience. [More]

A new recently published study looked at robotic mental well-being coaches for the workplace. “This study investigated the use and deployment of two different robotic forms to deliver positive psychology exercises over four weeks, and how the robotic form impacts on the coachee’s robotic coach perceptions, robotic coach personality, and robotic coach-coachee alliance,” study author Micol Spitale told us. “We hypothesized that the design features, such as the form, may impact the coachees’ perceptions towards the robotic coach.” [More]

There has been a lot of research into how leaders with low self-esteem are likely to cause toxic stress at work. Simon L. Dolan, author of De-Stress at Work: Understanding and Combatting Chronic Stress has brought together the research into a book. In the chapter about toxic leaders specifically, he summarizes and analyses the results of many other studies and he has done many studies himself. “The underlying concept behind this book, is to demystify the concept of chronic stress,” Dolan told us. “It is poorly understood, poorly used, and there are no, or very few, valid diagnostic tools available to professionals in the field." [More]

People with PTSD or are at high risk of PTSD have specific patterns in four types of biomarkers that can be measured through a blood test. The research suggests the biomarkers could be used as a tool to predict whether a person is likely to develop PTSD, as well as help diagnose the condition and monitor how effectively someone is responding to treatment. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Health Psychology looked at a longitudinal assessment of COVID-19 fear and psychological wellbeing in the United Kingdom. “Our study examined how fear of the COVID-19 virus impacted psychological wellbeing in a UK population at two different timepoints during the pandemic,” study author Martyn Quigley told us. “The first timepoint took place when the number of COVID-19 related deaths and hospitalizations were high and the number of those who were vaccinated were low. The second timepoint took place when the number of deaths and hospitalizations were considerably lower, and most of the population were vaccinated.” [More]

Daily engagement in political news can have a negative impact on mental health, but disengaging can also have consequences. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that strategies to manage the negative emotions that come from daily engagement may also reduce an individual’s motivation to act on what they care about politically. [More]