The number of adolescents with anxiety problems seems to be increasing, especially in developed countries. An opinion article published in the journal Science proposes that maternal stress, quality of care and environmental conditions in the early years, together with current social and technological changes, may contribute to explaining this trend.
Research involving more than 200 patients with depression, whose symptoms had not improved after NHS talk therapy shows that those who took part in eight group sessions of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy saw their depressive symptoms reduced, compared with those who received treatment as usual. The study is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
The frequency of aggressive coalitions among female bonobos is associated with greater power over males, according to a study published in Communications Biology. The analysis is based on observations of six wild bonobo communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2021.
People who grow up with more brothers or sisters may have a more cooperative personality, i.e. with traits such as honesty, humility and agreeableness, according to a study published in PNAS. Using data from 700,000 adults surveyed online, the research concludes that mean honesty-humility and agreeableness scores are slightly higher in people with more siblings. Among those with the same number of siblings, people born middle and last have a slightly higher mean score than firstborns.
Unmarried people - whether single, divorced/separated or widowed - have a higher risk of having depressive symptoms than married people, says an international study. The paper, published in Nature Human Behaviour, includes data from more than 100,000 adults in China, Indonesia, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, the UK, the USA and the UK.
Chronic pain is a public health problem that affects almost one in six people in Spain, with very different origins and characteristics. Specialists in psychology and pain explain what it is, how it is treated, what consequences it has for those who suffer from it and how to learn to live with it.
The Twinning project is a UK-based initiative that organises soccer-based programmes, with the collaboration of professional clubs such as some Premier League clubs, to improve the mental and physical health of prisoners. Research has studied the behaviour of more than 670 of these participants and a group that did not participate, as well as collecting data related to the possible reintegration of those who were in this programme. According to the authors, who publish their research in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, ‘the results indicate that social bonding is associated with better behaviour in prison and a greater willingness of host communities to support reintegration efforts’.
People who believe in conspiracy theories can revise their opinions after conversing with a chatbot that presents them with "sufficiently compelling evidence", according to a study of 2,190 people published in Science. Other hypotheses propose that believing in conspiracies satisfies important psychological needs and that offering information is not enough to change these beliefs.
The mental health of young people has deteriorated over the last two decades and is entering a dangerous phase, according to a new Commission by The Lancet Psychiatry. Several global factors are involved, including inaction on climate change, intergenerational inequality, and adversity linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adolescent boys respond aggressively when they perceive that their masculinity is threatened, an analysis shows. In the study, aggression was higher when boys' motivation to follow what is considered 'typical' for their sex came from external expectations - for example, when their parents believed that men should have more power - rather than their own expectations. The study, which analysed data from 207 boys aged 10-14 and one of their parents, is published in Developmental Science.