Search

The present study (a) tested whether a structure of common mental disorders within the hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology was invariant from late childhood to adolescence in a sample of Mexican-origin youth, (b) examined the developmental course of psychopathology at different levels of the hierarchy, and (c) tested the degree to which changes in psychopathology were associated with changes in the Big Five personality domains. Results were consistent with the longitudinal hierarchical invariance of common mental disorders from age 12 to 17 (n = 674). Further, initial levels of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability were positively associated with lower initial levels of a higher order factor of psychopathology, and increases in extraversion and decreases in neuroticism were associated with decreases in a higher order factor of psychopathology, which captured the general tendency for externalizing, internalizing, and attention-hyperactivity-related dimensions of psychopathology to correlate. Results of the present study indicate that a hierarchical model of common mental disorders extends to Mexican-origin youth and that developmental change in Big Five personality are related to developmental change in psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and poorer pulmonary function are highly prevalent psychiatric and medical conditions. In the present study, we tested for the individual, additive, and modifying associations of PTSD symptomatology and pulmonary function with cognitive performance. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, a total of 1,401 World Trade Center (WTC) responders (mean age = 53, SD = 8 years, 92% males) participated in the study. Cogstate assessment measured cognitive performance. PTSD symptomatology was measured using the trauma‐specific version of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL‐17) adapted for the WTC attacks. The 1‐second forced expiratory volume and forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) ratio was used to measure pulmonary function. Linear regressions with cognitive performance as the outcome were conducted to assess individual, additive, and moderating associations of PTSD symptomatology and pulmonary function. Results: Higher PTSD symptomatology and poorer pulmonary function were negatively associated with cognitive performance. A 10% increase on the FEV1/FVC ratio moderated the association between PTSD symptomatology and cognition, whereby its association with cognition was stronger when PTSD symptomatology was higher (est. = 0.01, 95%CI = 0.004, 0.01, p < 0.001). When stratified by responder type, these associations persisted in trained (est. = 0.01, 95%CI = 0.01, 0.02, p < 0.001), but not in non‐trained (est. = 0.004, 95% C.I. = −0.01, 0.02, p = 0.39) responders. Conclusions: In the presence of higher PTSD, better pulmonary functioning is associated with better cognitive performance. Early intervention efforts to mitigate preventable cognitive decline in high‐risk populations should be studied, especially since intervention in one modality may have an impact on others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symptoms of anxiety and depression are commonly comorbid and partially share a genetic etiology. Mean levels of anxiety and depression increase over the transition to adolescence, particularly in girls, suggesting a possible role of pubertal development in the activation of underlying genetic risks. The current study examined how genetic and environmental influences on anxiety and depression differed by chronological age and pubertal status. We analyzed composite scores from child self-reports and parent informant-reports of internalizing symptomology in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 1,913 individual twins from 1,006 pairs (ages 8--20 years) from the Texas Twin Project. Biometric models tested age and pubertal status as moderators of genetic and environmental influences shared between and specific to anxiety and depression to determine whether etiology of internalizing symptomology differs across development as a function of age or puberty. Genetic influences did not increase as a function of age or puberty, but instead shared environmental effects decreased with age. In an exploratory model that considered the moderators simultaneously, developmental differences in etiology were reflected in genetic and environmental effects unique to depression. Results suggest that genetic variance in internalizing problems is relatively constant during adolescence, with environmental influences more varied across development.

Objective: World Trade Center (WTC) responders are susceptible to both cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairments, particularly chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. The present study examined self-reported behavioral impairments in a sample of 732 WTC responders, 199 of whom were determined to have high risk of WTC-related cortical atrophy by an artificial neural network. Results: We found that responders at increased risk of cortical atrophy showed behavioral impairment across five domains: motivation, mood, disinhibition, empathy, and psychosis (14.6% vs 3.9% in the low-risk group; P = 3.90 × 10−7). Factor analysis models revealed that responders at high risk of cortical atrophy tended to have deficits generalized across all aspects of behavioral impairment with focal dysfunction in sensory psychosis. We additionally describe how relationships are modulated by exposure severity and pharmacological treatments. Discussion: Our findings suggest a potential link between sensory deficits and the development of cortical atrophy in WTC responders and may indicate symptoms consistent with a clinical portrait of parietal dominant Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia (ADRD). Results underscore the importance of investigating neuropsychiatric symptomatology in clinical evaluations of possible ADRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Risk of sleep disturbances depends on individuals' personality, and a large body of evidence indicates that individuals prone to neuroticism, impulsivity, and (low) extraversion are more likely to experience them. Origins of these associations are unclear, but common genetic background may play an important role. Participants included 405 twin pairs (mean age of 54 years; 59% female) from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) who reported on their personality traits (broad and specific), as well as sleep disturbances (problems with falling asleep, staying asleep, waking early, and feeling unrested). Uni‐ and bivariate biometric decompositions evaluated contributions of genetic and environmental factors to associations between personality and poor sleep, as well as unique contributions from individual traits. Neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and aggressiveness were the strongest phenotypic predictors of poor sleep. Genetic sources of covariance were about twice as large as non‐shared environmental sources, and only shared genetic background accounted for links between aggressiveness and poor sleep. Neuroticism and extraversion accounted for most of the genetic overlap between personality and sleep disturbances. The findings shed light on developmental antecedents of ties between personality and poor sleep, suggesting a larger role of common genetic background than idiosyncratic life experiences. The results also suggest that emotion‐related traits play the most important role for poor sleep, compared to other personality traits, and may partially account for genetic associations with other traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This paper models cognitive aging, across mid and late life, and estimates birth cohort and sex differences in both initial levels and aging trajectories over time in a sample with multiple cohorts and a wide span of ages. Methods The data used in this study came from the first 9 waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, spanning 2002–2019. There were n = 76,014 observations (proportion male 45%). Dependent measures were verbal fluency, immediate recall, delayed recall, and orientation. Data were modeled using a Bayesian logistic growth curve model. Results Cognitive aging was substantial in 3 of the 4 variables examined. For verbal fluency and immediate recall, males and females could expect to lose about 30% of their initial ability between the ages of 52 and 89. Delayed recall showed a steeper decline, with males losing 40% and females losing 50% of their delayed recall ability between ages 52 and 89 (although females had a higher initial level of delayed recall). Orientation alone was not particularly affected by aging, with less than a 10% change for either males or females. Furthermore, we found cohort effects for initial ability level, with particularly steep increases for cohorts born between approximately 1930 and 1950. Discussion These cohort effects generally favored later-born cohorts. Implications and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Loneliness represents a public health threat given its central role in predicting adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Prior research has established four of the Big Five personality traits as consistent cross‐sectional predictors of loneliness in largely western, White samples. However, it is not clear if the personality predictors of loneliness vary across cultures. Method: The present study estimates associations between the Big Five traits and loneliness across distinct samples of White American, Black American, and Japanese adults (n = 6051 at T1). Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling were used to examine measurement invariance properties of the Big Five and loneliness across these groups. The factor structures were then carried forward to estimate associations between personality and loneliness across two assessments waves using structural equation modeling. Results: While Neuroticism was a strong predictor across groups, low Extraversion was more predictive of loneliness in Japan than in the U.S., and low Conscientiousness was only a significant predictor in the U.S. Conclusions: Previous literature offers a framework for interpreting these findings in that loneliness may be shaped comparatively more through interconnectedness in Japanese culture, while, in the U.S., individual goals and personal romantic expectations are more salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a peak period for risk‐taking, but research has largely overlooked positive manifestations of adolescent risk‐taking due to ambiguity regarding operationalization and measurement of positive risk‐taking. We address this limitation using a mixed‐methods approach. We elicited free responses from contemporary college students (N = 74, Mage = 20.1 years) describing a time they took a risk. Qualitative analysis informed the construction of a self‐report positive risk‐taking scale, which was administered to a population‐based sample of adolescents (N = 1,249, Mage = 16 years) for quantitative validation and examination of associations with normative and impulsive personality. Sensation seeking predicted negative and positive risk‐taking, whereas extraversion and openness were predominantly related to positive risk‐taking. Results provide promising evidence for a valid measure of adolescents' engagement in positive risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]