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Although most teachers realize the seriousness of bullying and try to intervene, some take a passive stance, while others take active action. The present study examined individual and environmental factors that make teachers either passive or active interveners. Self-reported questionnaires were collected from 200 middle school teachers in South Korea. Teachers were classified into either active (54.5%) or passive action clusters according to differences in individual (learned helplessness, attributional style, preparedness) and environmental (social support) factors. In each cluster, the moderation effects of social support between teacher preparedness and bullying intervention were analyzed. Results indicate that adequate social support from school administrators is critical for passive teachers. However, in the case of active teachers, social support from colleagues was the most important moderator. For both groups of teachers, preparedness in bullying is necessary to increase their bullying intervention. The results indicate that the implementation of differential strategies for each teacher cluster is key to promoting bullying intervention.

Background: Firefighters are routinely exposed to various traumatic events and often experience a range of trauma-related symptoms. Although these repeated traumatic exposures rarely progress to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, firefighters are still considered to be a vulnerable population with regard to trauma.AimsTo investigate how the human brain responds to or compensates for the repeated experience of traumatic stress.Method: We included 98 healthy firefighters with repeated traumatic experiences but without any diagnosis of mental illness and 98 non-firefighter healthy individuals without any history of trauma. Functional connectivity within the fear circuitry, which consists of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula, amygdala, hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), was examined using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Trauma-related symptoms were evaluated using the Impact of Event Scale - Revised.Results: The firefighter group had greater functional connectivity between the insula and several regions of the fear circuitry including the bilateral amygdalae, bilateral hippocampi and vmPFC as compared with healthy individuals. In the firefighter group, stronger insula-amygdala connectivity was associated with greater severity of trauma-related symptoms (β = 0.36, P = 0.005), whereas higher insula-vmPFC connectivity was related to milder symptoms in response to repeated trauma (β = -0.28, P = 0.01).Conclusions: The current findings suggest an active involvement of insular functional connectivity in response to repeated traumatic stress. Functional connectivity of the insula in relation to the amygdala and vmPFC may be potential pathways that underlie the risk for and resilience to repeated traumatic stress, respectively.Declaration of interestNone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this randomised crossover study is to validate the Korean version of the Affective Go/No‐go (AGN) test. The Korean words for the AGN test were selected after careful evaluation of emotional valences, word length and frequency. Fifteen Korean advanced learners of English were administered both Korean and English versions, yielding 30 data points. The performance of both language versions was compared for each of the AGN test parameters (response latency, commission error and omission error) using two‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were estimated to evaluate associations between the two versions. The ICCs were high for response latencies of all valences and commission errors of positive and neutral words, but not for that of negative words and omission errors of all valences. A similar pattern of test results, as revealed by the high ICCs and non‐significant interaction effects between language and word valence, suggests that the psychometric properties of the AGN test may be comparable over different language versions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy and safety of Tremella fuciformis (TF) as a nutritional supplement were assessed in individuals with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). Seventy-five individuals with SCI were enrolled in an 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of TF (600 mg/day, n = 30 or 1200 mg/day, n = 30) or placebo (n = 15). The primary outcome measure was changes in total scores of the subjective memory complaint questionnaire. The secondary outcome measures were changes in performance on short-term memory and executive functions, which were assessed using standardized cognitive tests. In addition, voxel-based morphometry was performed to examine the effects of TF on changes in gray matter volume. The individuals in the TF group showed greater improvements in the total scores on the subjective memory complaint questionnaire compared with those in the placebo group. There were also significantly greater improvements in short-term memory and executive functions in the TF group relative to the placebo group. Exploratory analysis demonstrated that there were significant group-by-visit interactions on the left precuneus, right supramarginal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, and right postcentral gyrus at corrected P < .05. Overall frequency of adverse events did not differ among high-dose TF (40.4%), low-dose TF (35.1%), and placebo groups (41.4%). The current findings suggest that TF could be safely administered to relieve subjective memory complaints and enhance cognition in individuals with SCI.