Search

Social media has become a pervasive presence in everyday life, including among youths. In 2023, for the first time, CDC's nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey included an item assessing U.S. high school students' frequency of social media use. Data from this survey were used to estimate the prevalence of frequent social media use (i.e., used social media at least several times a day) among high school students and associations between frequent social media use and experiences with bullying victimization, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and suicide risk. All prevalence estimates and measures of association used Taylor series linearization. Prevalence ratios were calculated using logistic regression with predicted marginals. Overall, 77.0% of students reported frequent social media use, with observed differences by sex, sexual identity, and racial and ethnic identity. Frequent social media use was associated with a higher prevalence of bullying victimization at school and electronically, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and some suicide risk among students (considering attempting suicide and having made a suicide plan), both overall and in stratified models. This analysis characterizes the potential harms of frequent social media use for adolescent health among a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students. Findings might support multisectoral efforts to create safer digital environments for youths, including decision-making about social media policies, practices, and protections., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Breakfast consumption is positively associated with academic achievement and diet quality among students, whereas skipping breakfast has been linked with poor mental health. Data from CDC's 2023 nationally representative Youth Risk Behavior Survey were used to describe how often high school students ate breakfast in the past 7 days and the associations between skipping breakfast every day (ate breakfast on 0 of the past 7 days), experiencing persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, school connectedness, and self-reported grades. Prevalence estimates and corresponding 95% CIs were calculated, and t-tests were used to identify differences within demographic groups (e.g., sex, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to calculate prevalence ratios describing breakfast skipping, adjusting for demographics, and stratified by sex and race and ethnicity. Most students missed breakfast ≥1 time in the past 7 days (72.6%), and 17.9% of students skipped breakfast every day, with differences by sex, sexual identity, and race and ethnicity. Overall, and among both males and females, students who experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness were more likely to skip breakfast every day. The association between feelings of sadness and hopelessness and skipping breakfast was generally consistent across racial and ethnic groups. In contrast, greater levels of school connectedness and earning mostly As or Bs were inversely associated with skipping breakfast. Students who had higher school connectedness were approximately 30% less likely to skip breakfast on all 7 days. Skipping breakfast and poor mental health co-occur among many adolescents and might impede students' readiness to learn. School efforts to make breakfast accessible and appealing to high school students might yield multiple benefits and help reinforce school administrators' efforts to recover student learning losses that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents, school decision-makers, and organizations that partner with schools and families can use these findings to guide efforts to promote breakfast consumption., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. Sarah A. Sliwa reported being a part-time adjunct faculty member at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and being an unpaid advisory board member for Concrete Jungle, a nonprofit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. No other potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Objective: Suicide ideation (SI) is prevalent among college students, and suicide disclosure (SD) is critical for crisis intervention. However, students with SI may worry about stigmatizing responses to their disclosure. To better understand the mechanism of stigmatizing responses to SD, we investigated the effects of a hypothetical classmate's SD on college students' emotions and reasoning when providing advice to a distressed classmate., Method: In a randomized controlled experiment, students wrote advice to a hypothetical classmate who recently failed in his pursuit of a romantic relationship with a peer. The experimental/control group also learned he wanted to either commit suicide/quit school . When typing the advice, participants' facial expressions were recorded and analyzed by Facereader7.1. After advising, participants reported their sadness, joy, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust when advising. Finally, trained coders coded the common themes of their advice and rated the wise reasoning involved. Additionally, two experts in suicide prevention rated the helpfulness of their advice for the classmate., Results: The experimental group showed significantly fewer facial expressions of happiness, reported higher sadness and fear, provided less helpful advice, and mentioned "confronting reality" less during advising. The difference in disgust and wise reasoning was nonsignificant., Conclusion: Learning of a classmate's SI may increase fear and sadness among recipients and reduce the helpfulness of their advice. Increased psychoeducation for students that focuses on improving emotional regulation (especially facial expressions) during SI may reduce the stigma surrounding SI and prevent perceived burdensomeness among individuals with SI after SD.

People's emotional states are influenced not just by events occurring in the present but also by how events have unfolded in the past and how they are likely to unfold in the future. To what extent do young children understand the ways in which past events can affect current emotions even if they are no longer ongoing? In the current study, we explored children's ability to understand how others feel at the cessation of events-as events change from being present to being past. We asked 97 4- to 6-year-olds (40.2% female) and 35 adults (54.3% female) to judge how characters felt once particular types of events had ended relative to how they felt during these events. We found that from age 4, children judged (as adults do) that the character would feel positive at the cessation of negative events-what we refer to as temporal relief. This understanding of relief occurs earlier than has been shown in previous research. However, children were less likely than adults to judge others as feeling sad at the cessation of positive events-what we refer to as temporal disappointment. Overall, our findings suggest that children not only understand that the cessation of events can affect others' emotions but also recognize that people feel differently following the cessation of positive, negative, and neutral events., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Maternal depression is a predictor of the emergence of depression in the offspring. Attention bias (AB) to negative emotional stimuli in children may serve as a risk factor for children of depressed parents. The present study aimed to examine the effect of maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) history on AB to emotional faces in children at age four, before the age of onset for full-blown psychiatric symptoms. The study also compared AB patterns between mothers and their offspring. Fifty-eight mothers and their four-year-old children participated in this study, of which 27 high-risk (HR) children had mothers with MDD during their children's lifetime. Attention to emotional faces was measured in both children and their mothers using an eye-tracking visual search task. HR children exhibited faster detection and longer dwell time toward the sad than happy target faces. The low-risk (LR) children also displayed a sad bias but to a lesser degree. Children across both groups showed AB towards angry target faces, likely reflecting a normative AB pattern. Our findings indicate that AB to sad faces may serve as an early marker of depression risk. However, we provided limited support for the mother-child association of AB. Future research is needed to examine the longitudinal intergenerational transmission of AB related to depression and possible mechanisms underlying the emergence of AB in offspring of depressed parents., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Recent technology has enabled researchers to collect ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine within-person correlates of suicidal thoughts. Prior studies examined generalized temporal dynamics of emotions and suicidal thinking over brief periods, but it is not yet known how variable these processes are across people., Method: We use data EMA data delivered over two weeks with youth/young adults (N = 60) who reported past year self-injurious thoughts/behaviors. We used group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME) to model group- and person-specific associations of negative emotions (i.e., fear, sadness, shame, guilt, and anger) and suicidal thoughts., Results: 29 participants (48.33%) reported at least one instance of a suicidal thought and were included in GIMME models. In group level models, we consistently observed autoregressive effects for suicidal thoughts (e.g., earlier thoughts predicting later thoughts), although the magnitude and direction of this link varied from person-to-person. Among emotions, sadness was most frequently associated with contemporaneous suicidal thoughts, but this was evident for less than half of the sample, while other emotional correlates of suicidal thoughts broadly differed across people. No emotion variable was linked to future suicidal thoughts in >14% of the sample, CONCLUSIONS: Emotion-based correlates of suicidal thoughts are heterogeneous across people. Better understanding of the individual-level pathways maintaining suicidal thoughts/behaviors may lead to more effective, personalized interventions., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Emotion is a fundamental aspect of human life and therefore is critically encoded in language. To facilitate research into the encoding of emotion in language and how emotion associations affect language processing, we present a new set of emotion norms for over 24,000 Dutch words. The emotion norms include ratings of two key dimensions of emotion: valence and arousal, as well as ratings on discrete emotion categories: happiness, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and surprise. We show that emotional information can predict word processing, such that responses to positive words are facilitated in contrast to neutral and negative words. We also demonstrate how the ratings of emotion are related to personality characteristics. The data are available via the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/9htuv/ ) and serve as a valuable resource for research into emotion as well as in applied settings such as healthcare and digital communication., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Previous research suggests that sharing emotionally intense experiences with others, for example by undergoing dysphoric collective rituals together, can lead to "identity fusion," a visceral feeling of oneness that predicts group cohesion and self-sacrifice for the group. In this pre-registered research, we provide the first quantitative investigation of identity fusion following participation in a national funeral, surveying 1632 members of the British public. As predicted, individuals reporting intense sadness during Queen Elizabeth II's funeral exhibited higher levels of identity fusion and pro-group commitment, as evidenced by generosity pledges to a British Monarchist charity. Also consistent with our hypotheses, feelings of unity in grief and emotional sharedness during the event mediated the relationship between sadness intensity and pro-group commitment. These findings shed light on importance of collective rituals in fostering group cohesion, cooperation, and the dynamics of shared emotional experiences within communities., (© 2024. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)

Objectives: To date there is no universally accepted model that describes the development of substance related addictive behavior. In order to address this gap, the study sought to examine whether the association between primary emotions and the inclination toward addictive behavior is mediated by an anxious attachment style., Methods: The total sample consisted of 900 German speaking non-clinical adults (age: M  = 27; SD  = 9.60; 71.6% female). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to examine the connection between the primary emotions (SADNESS and ANGER), and the latent variables attachment anxiety and symptoms of addictive behavior., Results: Substance use symptomatology was correlated with higher attachment anxiety ( r  = 0.15), SADNESS ( r  = 0.15), and ANGER ( r  = 0.11). The effect of SADNESS on addictive behavior is mediated by attachment anxiety ( p  < 0.01) whereas ANGER had a direct effect on addictive behavior ( p  < 0.01). The final SEM explains 4% of the variance of addictive behaviors and 22% of attachment anxiety., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both SADNESS and ANGER, along with attachment anxiety, are dispositions that contribute to the risk of engaging in addictive behavior. However, while ANGER directly influences addictive behavior, SADNESS acts through its impact on attachment anxiety., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Fuchshuber, Andres, Prandstätter, Roithmeier, Schmautz, Schwerdtfeger and Unterrainer.)

The current study used secondary data from the 17th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2021 to identify risk factors influencing the frequency with which adolescents in Korea experience generalized anxiety. Participants were 54,848 adolescents. Risk factors for generalized anxiety were analyzed using a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model. Of participants, 23.7% reported no generalized anxiety experiences. Risk factors identified in the count model were being female and having low household economic status as well as perceived stress, sadness, subjective sleep insufficiency, and loneliness. In the logit model, being female, in middle school, having middle and low household economic status, not living with family, having perceived stress, sadness, suicidal ideation, subjective sleep insufficiency, loneliness, and body image distortion were significant predictors of future anxiety among participants without anxiety. These results may be useful for planning nursing interventions to improve and prevent future health problems in adolescents. [ Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 62 (6), 46-55.].

Copyright of Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Pain is rarely communicated alone, as it is often accompanied by emotions such as anger or sadness. Communicating these affective states involves shared representations. However, how an individual conceptually represents these combined states must first be tested. The objective of this study was to measure the interaction between pain and negative emotions on two types of facial representations of these states, namely visual (i.e., interactive virtual agents; VAs) and sensorimotor (i.e., one's production of facial configurations). Twenty-eight participants (15 women) read short written scenarios involving only pain or a combined experience of pain and a negative emotion (anger, disgust, fear, or sadness). They produced facial configurations representing these experiences on the faces of the VAs and on their face (own production or imitation of VAs). The results suggest that affective states related to a direct threat to the body (i.e., anger, disgust, and pain) share a similar facial representation, while those that present no immediate danger (i.e., fear and sadness) differ. Although visual and sensorimotor representations of these states provide congruent affective information, they are differently influenced by factors associated with the communication cycle. These findings contribute to our understanding of pain communication in different affective contexts., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

We argue that a comprehensive understanding of emotional development across adulthood must go beyond broad dimensions of affect and consider discrete emotions. Current evidence focuses on sadness and anger, two negative emotions that exert contrasting age trajectories because anger has high adaptive value in young adulthood, when people have abundant resources and need to carve out a niche in society, whereas sadness has high adaptive value in old age, a time of declining resources that requires adaptation to increasingly unattainable goals. We conclude that our position about the age-graded experience and adaptive value of emotions should hold for a variety of negative and positive emotions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Appraisal-Tendency Framework outlines that discrete emotions of similar valence behave differently, based on each emotion's specific appraisal profile. In the domain of pricing decisions, a seminal paper by Lerner and colleagues report incidental, negative emotions of disgust and sadness to show a divergent effect on spending decisions based on the perceived ownership of a commodity. Specifically, disgust-reduced spending while sadness increased spending on a new product. However, these researchers theorized, but did not statistically test the effects of emotion-induced motivational goals for sadness ("change circumstances") and disgust ("expel and avoid") as the drivers behind their divergent effects on spending. This study ( N = 403) sought to replicate these primary findings in close adherence to the original protocol with better measurement properties in a different geographical location. It further extended the examination by empirically testing the distinct mediating processes for sadness and disgust by utilizing measures identified from a pilot study ( N = 169) based on the original protocol. We found support for the effect of sadness (vs. disgust and neutral) in inducing higher choice prices through the motivational goal of changing circumstances, but the expected pattern of results for disgust was not replicated. Additionally, we examined the role of arousal in this context as a factor driving the effect of these emotions on spending. Our research offers new insights regarding the well-known "misery-is not miserly" effect for practitioners while also providing impetus for future research on the endowment effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Most people agree that romantic relationships greatly affect how we feel. For example, we typically feel happier when getting married but sadder when breaking up. However, previous research primarily focused on changes in cognitive but less so affective well-being around positive and negative relationship events. Set-point theory suggests that subjective well-being might change shortly around such experiences but bounce back in the long run. Using data from the Socio-Economic Panel study (SOEP), we examined changes in life satisfaction, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and anger in the 5 years before and 5 years after moving in with a partner ( N = 4,399), marriage ( N = 3,731), separation ( N = 3,538), and divorce ( N = 1,103). Life satisfaction and happiness increased slightly in the years before moving in and marriage. For marriage, these effects were short-lived and diminished after 1 year. Separation and divorce were associated with much larger well-being impairments (especially a strong increase of sadness) that were most pronounced shortly before and after the event and attenuated in the following years. Changes in anxiety and anger were much smaller. Our findings suggest that romantic relationship events not only relate to substantial changes in life satisfaction but also affective well-being. These changes vary for different well-being facets, are most pronounced for happiness and sadness at the time of the event, and bounce back in the long run. As one of the first studies, we demonstrate that set-point theory not only applies to cognitive but also affective well-being around romantic relationship events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The "fearful ape hypothesis" could be regarded as one aspect of a more general "suffering ape hypothesis": Humans are more likely to experience negative emotions (e.g., fear, sadness), aversive symptoms (e.g., pain, fever), and to engage in self-harming behavior (e.g., cutting, suicide attempts) because these might motivate affiliative, consolatory, and supportive behavior from their prosocial environment thereby enhancing evolutionary fitness.

Through the manipulation of color and form, visual abstract art is often used to convey feelings and emotions. Here, we explored how colors and lines are used to express basic emotions and whether non-artists express emotions through art in similar ways as trained artists. Both artists and non-artists created abstract color drawings and line drawings depicting six emotions (i.e., anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and wonder). To test whether people represented basic emotions in similar ways, we computationally predicted the emotion of a given drawing by comparing it to a set of references created by averaging across all other participants' drawings within each emotion category. We found that prediction accuracy was higher for color drawings than line drawings and higher for color drawings by non-artists than by artists. In a behavioral experiment, we found that people (N = 242) could also accurately infer emotions, showing the same pattern of results as our computational predictions. Further computational analyses of the drawings revealed systematic use of certain colors and line features to depict each basic emotion (e.g., anger is generally redder and more densely drawn than other emotions, sadness is more blue and contains more vertical lines). Taken together, these results imply that abstract color and line drawings are able to convey certain emotions based on their visual features, which are also used by human observers to understand the intended emotional connotation of abstract artworks.

Research shows negative affect increases in healthy adolescents, and this normative change is paralleled by increasing risk for the onset of psychopathology. However, research is limited in characterizing qualitative differences in the type of negative affect experienced beyond the positive-negative valence dimension. In the current study, we establish the relationship between different forms of negative affect and functioning outcomes (i.e., different facets of social functioning and life satisfaction), and examine whether these forms of negative affect are differentially prevalent across late childhood and adolescence. Seven-hundred and 70 participants aged 8-17 years completed self-report measures that assessed a wide range of negative affective experiences. A factor analysis on the negative affect items revealed a four-factor solution that characterized the dimensions of affective experience, with factors reflecting general anxiety, anger, evaluative anxiety, and sadness . Generalized additive model approaches revealed general anxiety increased nonlinearly with age and was associated with decreased reports of emotional support, a facet of social functioning. Anger was associated with increased perceived hostility, perceived rejection, and decreased life satisfaction, and remained stable across the age range. Evaluative anxiety was associated with greater loneliness and increased linearly with increasing age. Sadness was associated with all outcome measures and showed nonlinear changes with age, with notable increases in midadolescence. These results show that subsuming these subtypes of negative affect under a singular concept may obscure meaningful relationships between affect, age, and functioning. Exploring diverse forms of negative affect may help refine theories of emotional development and ultimately inform windows of risk for psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined whether sadness, but not anger, could facilitate adaptive goal disengagement capacity in the context of older adult's stress-related experiences. To this end, we investigated whether the within-person effects of sadness and anger on older adults' goal disengagement capacity were moderated by stress perceptions and diurnal cortisol levels. In addition, we tested whether an association between sadness and goal disengagement capacity could protect emotional well-being when older adults experience higher than normal perceived stress or cortisol. The study used data from a 6-wave 10-year longitudinal study of 184 community-dwelling older adults ( M age = 72.08, SD age = 5.70). Participants' sadness, anger, goal disengagement capacity, perceived stress, diurnal cortisol levels, emotional well-being (i.e., positive and negative affect), and sociodemographic variables were assessed at each wave. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that within-person increases in sadness, but not anger, predicted increased goal disengagement capacity among older adults who generally secreted high levels of cortisol. Moreover, older adults' who disengaged more easily when they felt sad were protected from declines in positive affect during assessments in which they secreted high, but not low, levels of cortisol. The study's findings suggest that generally enhanced cortisol output may facilitate an association between sadness and older adults' goal disengagement capacity and that this process may protect against declines in emotional well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotions that differ on the approach-avoidance dimension are thought to have different functions. Based on the motivational dimensional model of affect, we expected high-approach tendency (and not valence) to facilitate sports performance in a gaming context. Moreover, we expected the influence of high-approach emotions on performance to be mediated by higher levels of cognitive and physiological challenge as an approach-related response. To test these hypotheses, 241 men completed 5 matches of a soccer video game FIFA 19. Before each match, approach tendencies and valence were experimentally manipulated by showing films that elicit amusement, enthusiasm, sadness, anger, and neutral states. Approach tendency, challenge/threat evaluations, cardiovascular responses, and game scores were recorded. After watching enthusiastic and amusing videos, gamers displayed stronger approach tendencies, and, in turn, improved performance, compared to negative emotions and neutral conditions. Moreover, enthusiasm produced a stronger approach tendency and promoted better performance than amusement. Elicitation of unpleasant emotions (anger and sadness) had no effect on approach tendencies or gaming-outcomes relative to the neutral conditions. Across all conditions, gamers with higher levels of cognitive and cardiovascular challenge achieved higher scores. These findings indicate that in a gaming context performance is enhanced by pleasant emotions with high-approach tendencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Emognition dataset is dedicated to testing methods for emotion recognition (ER) from physiological responses and facial expressions. We collected data from 43 participants who watched short film clips eliciting nine discrete emotions: amusement, awe, enthusiasm, liking, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. Three wearables were used to record physiological data: EEG, BVP (2x), HR, EDA, SKT, ACC (3x), and GYRO (2x); in parallel with the upper-body videos. After each film clip, participants completed two types of self-reports: (1) related to nine discrete emotions and (2) three affective dimensions: valence, arousal, and motivation. The obtained data facilitates various ER approaches, e.g., multimodal ER, EEG- vs. cardiovascular-based ER, discrete to dimensional representation transitions. The technical validation indicated that watching film clips elicited the targeted emotions. It also supported signals' high quality., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Sadness is a negative emotion typically elicited by loss experiences. Given that losses increase with age, sadness should be relatively salient in this life phase. Such sadness experiences may serve an adaptive function in old age, if they facilitate detachment from unattainable goals. Thus, we predicted increased and less variable levels of sadness to occur among older, as compared with younger, adults in response to film clips involving loss-related themes. To test this prediction, a sample of 52 younger ( M age = 23.75 years, SD = 4.52) and 52 older adults ( M age = 71.21 years, SD = 6.11) watched four films and reported their sadness on multiple occasions during each film. In partial support of the hypotheses, the results showed that older, as compared with younger, adults reported greater sadness in response to one out of four film clips. However, there was no conclusive evidence for age differences in sadness variability within or across the films. Additional analyses revealed that age differences were not significant for another emotion, anxiety, in neither reactivity nor variability. Finally, although there were no age differences in mean levels of interest in the films, interest showed less variability among older, as compared with younger, adults. These findings are discussed from the perspective of a discrete emotions theory proposing distinct functions and associated differential age-related changes for different negative emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Public health measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic have led to feelings of loneliness among older adults, which, prior to COVID, has been associated with subsequent morbidity and mortality. We sought to identify differences in feelings of loneliness, sadness, and social disconnection early in the pandemic across racial groups, and possible mitigating factors., Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis using the weighted nationally-representative Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey COVID-19 supplement, collected summer 2020. We included all Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older who did not respond by proxy. We examined changes in loneliness, sadness, or feelings of social disconnection. Multivariable logistic regression models accounted for sociodemographic variables, access to primary care and the internet, and history of depression or dementia., Results: Among 8125 beneficiaries, representative of 43.7 million Medicare beneficiaries, 22.6% reported loneliness or sadness, and 37.1% feeling socially disconnected. In fully-adjusted models, Hispanic/Latinx beneficiaries were most likely to report loneliness or sadness (OR = 1.3, CI: 1.02-1.65; p = 0.02) and Black beneficiaries were least likely to report feeling socially disconnected (OR = 0.55; CI: 0.42-0.73; p < 0.001). Internet access was associated with increased odds of both (OR = 1.29, 95 CI: 1.07-1.56; p = 0.009; and OR = 1.42, 95 CI: 1.24-1.63; p < 0.001, respectively). Access to primary care was associated with lower odds of both (OR = 0.77, 95 CI: 0.61-0.96; p = 0.02; and OR = 0.72, 95 CI: 0.61-0.87; p < 0.001)., Conclusions: Loneliness, sadness, and feelings of social disconnection were common among older Medicare beneficiaries early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences by race/ethnicity may be driven by different living structures and social networks, and warrant further study. Policy makers and clinicians should consider facilitating connection by phone or in person, as internet access did not diminish feelings of loneliness, particularly for those living alone. Access to primary care, and tools for clinicians to address loneliness should be prioritized., (© 2021 The American Geriatrics Society.)

Previous research has shown that emotions can alter our sense of ownership. Whether this relationship is modulated by differences in emotion experience and awareness, however, remains unclear. We investigated this by comparing the susceptibility to the rubber hand illusion (RHI) between participants who were either exposed to a low-arousing emotion induction (sadness) or placed in a neutral control group. Several factors that might influence this relationship were considered: dissociative symptoms were included to observe if a sadness induction led to a higher RHI score in participants scoring high in dissociation, as a result of detached emotion experience. Whether the level of awareness of the emotion mattered was also tested, as subliminal processing was shown to require less focal attention. Therefore, our sample (N = 122) was divided into three experimental groups: Sad pictures were presented to two of the three groups differing in presentation mode (subliminal: n = 40, supraliminal: n = 41), neutral pictures were presented supraliminally to the control group (n = 41). Additionally, the effects of slow (3 cm/s) and fast (30 cm/s) stroking, applied either synchronously or asynchronously, were examined as the comforting effects of stroking might interfere with the emotion induction. Results showed that the supraliminal sadness induction was associated with a stronger subjective illusion, but not with a higher proprioceptive drift compared to the subliminal induction. In addition, a stronger subjective illusion after fast and synchronous stroking was found compared to slow and asynchronous stroking. A significant proprioceptive drift was detected independent of group and stroking style. Both slow and synchronous stroking were perceived as more comforting than their respective counterparts. Participants with higher dissociative symptoms were more susceptible to the subjective illusion, especially in the supraliminal group in the synchronous condition. We concluded that individual differences in emotion experience are likely to play a role in body ownership. However, we cannot clarify at this stage whether differences in proprioception and the subjective illusion depend on the type of emotion experienced (e.g. different levels of arousal) and on concomitant changes in multisensory integration processes., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Backgrounds: Accurate measurement and suitable strategies facilitate people regulate their sadness in an effective manner. Regulating or mitigating negative emotions, particularly sadness, is crucial mainly because constant negative emotions may lead to psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety. This paper presents an overview of sadness regulation strategies and related measurement., Method: Upon adhering to five-step scoping review, this study combed through articles that looked into sadness regulation retrieved from eight databases., Results: As a result of reviewing 40 selected articles, 110 strategies were identified to regulate emotions, particularly sadness. Some of the most commonly reported strategies include expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, distraction, seeking social or emotional support, and rumination. The four types of measures emerged from the review are self-reported, informant report (parents or peers), open-ended questions, and emotion regulation instructions. Notably, most studies had tested psychometric properties using Cronbach's alpha alone, while only a handful had assessed validity (construct and factorial validity) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha or test-retest) based on responses captured from questionnaire survey., Conclusion: Several sadness regulation strategies appeared to vary based on gender, age, and use of strategy. Despite the general measurement of emotion regulation, only one measure was developed to measure sadness regulation exclusively for children. Future studies may develop a comprehensive battery of measures to assess sadness regulation using multi-component method., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This study aims to explore the experiences of family caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic-imposed visitation restrictions at formal care settings (FCS) such as assisted living centers and traditional nursing homes. Participants ( N = 512) were recruited from an international caregiving social media site that was developed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive data was collected on the family caregivers, the care recipient and facility. Respondents also provided a single feeling word describing their experience and an open-ended question allowed for further exploration. Caregivers were predominantly daughters ( n = 375). The most common reported feeling words were sadness ( n = 200), trauma ( n = 108), anger ( n = 65), frustration ( n = 56), helplessness ( n = 50), and anxiety ( n = 36). Thematic analysis revealed four overarching themes: 1) isolation 2) rapid decline 3) inhumane care and 4) lack of oversight. This study highlights the importance of addressing the mental, emotional and physical needs of both care recipient and family caregiver during this challenging time. Caregiver visitation policy reform that includes the care recipient and family caregiver is also discussed.

People's preference to help single victims about whom they have some information is known as the identifiable victim effect. Previous research suggests that this effect stems from an intensive emotional reaction toward specific victims. The findings of two studies consistently show that the identifiability effect is attenuated when the subject is in a positive mood. Study 1 (along with a pilot study) demonstrate causal relationships between mood and identifiability, while using different manipulations to induce moods. In both studies, donations to identified victims exceeded donations to unidentified people-in the Negative Mood manipulations-while participants in the Positive Mood conditions showed no such preference. In Study 2, individual differences in people's moods interacted with the recipient's identifiability in predicting donations, demonstrating that the identifiability effect is attenuated by a positive mood. In addition, emotional reactions toward the victims replicate the donation pattern, suggesting emotions as a possible explanation for the observed donation pattern., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist

The current laboratory-based study examined individual differences in sadness coherence (i.e., coherence between objectively coded sad facial expressions and heart rate in response to a sad film clip) and associations with dispositional affect (i.e., positive and negative affect, extraversion, neuroticism) and age in a sample of younger and older adults. Results showed that (a) greater sadness coherence was associated with lower dispositional negative affect (i.e., greater positive to negative affect ratio; lower neuroticism) and (b) older adults had greater sadness coherence than younger adults. Findings remained stable when controlling for covariates. Results were specific to coherence characterized by an inverse association between heart rate and facial expressions of sadness (i.e., did not emerge for absolute changes in heart rate or skin conductance), specific to sad facial expressions (i.e., did not emerge for happy facial expressions), specific to stimulus (i.e., did not emerge for sadness coherence in response to a happy film clip), generalized across overall levels of emotional responding (i.e., sad facial expressions; heart rate reactivity), and remained stable when controlling for expressive suppression. These findings demonstrate that individuals who exhibit greater sadness coherence experience more favorable dispositional affect, consistent with evolutionary-functionalist models of emotion, and that sadness coherence is higher in late life, consistent with developmental accounts of heightened reactivity to loss in late life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: This study examined the association between sports- or physical activity-related concussions and having seriously considered attempting suicide, made a suicide plan, or attempted suicide (ie, suicidality), and tested potential moderators of the association., Hypothesis: Risk factors such as persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, low academic grades, few hours of sleep, and current alcohol or marijuana use will increase the odds of suicidality among those who self-reported sports- or physical activity-related concussions, while protective factors such as physical activity and having played on a sports team will decrease the odds., Study Design: Cross-sectional study., Level of Evidence: Level 4., Methods: This study used data from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a biennial, school-based, nationally representative survey of US students in grade levels 9 to 12 (N = 14,765). Logistic regression models examined associations between self-reported sports- or physical activity-related concussions and suicidality among the students, and whether physical activity, having played on a sports team, persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, academic grades, hours of sleep, or current alcohol or marijuana use moderated those associations., Results: Sports- or physical activity-related concussions were found to be associated with suicidality. The associations remained significant in models that adjusted for demographic characteristics, and they did not appear to be moderated by physical activity, having played on sports team, academic grades, or sleep., Conclusions: Given the findings of this study and others, health care providers are advised to ask students who have experienced a concussion about their emotional well-being as part of their symptom-based assessment, using validated, age- appropriate concussion symptom scales. Comprehensively assessing students who have experienced a sports- or physical activity-related concussion for persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness may alert providers to thoughts of suicidal ideation and will allow for earlier intervention., Clinical Relevance: If thoughts of suicide are discovered among adolescents with a concussion, or if other risk factors are observed, referrals to medical and mental health providers for a more comprehensive assessment may be warranted.

A growing body of research has demonstrated how the link between pornography use and various manifestations of psychological distress and dissatisfaction is explained by moral incongruence-the experience of violating one's deeply held moral values. The predictive power of moral incongruence, however, has yet to be applied to other sexual activities. Drawing on data from available waves of the General Social Surveys (1988-2018: n men  = 6590, n women  = 7047; 1989-2018: n men  = 3558, n women  = 4841), this study extended moral incongruence theory by testing whether engaging in same-sex or non-marital sexual activity when one rejects either as morally wrong is associated with a greater likelihood of reporting unhappiness. Analyses demonstrated that American men (but not women) who reported engaging in same-sex sex in the previous year were more likely than other men to say they were unhappy, but only if they viewed homosexuality as "always wrong." Analyses also showed that American women (not men) who reported higher frequencies of non-marital sex in the previous year were more likely than other women to report being unhappy, but only if they viewed non-marital sex as "always wrong." Though nuanced by gender, findings affirmed expectations from moral incongruence research: Sexual behavior per se is not associated with unhappiness, but moral inconsistency or conflict regarding one's sexual behavior is.

Background: No studies have been conducted to date on the dimensional and discrete classification of emotions to study the emotional reactivity of older adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Additionally, the presentation of film clips with affective content is currently one of the most effective and widely used Mood Induction Procedures (MIPS). However, it has been scarcely used in AD patients., Objective: Based on the dimensional and discrete models of emotion, this study examines the emotional reactivity of older adults with AD, using a popular set of film clips to induce emotions., Methods: We compared the responses of older adults aged over 65-years with mild to moderate AD (n = 15) and a healthy comparison group (n = 17) to six target emotions: disgust, fear, anger, sadness, amusement, and tenderness., Results: The results showed significant differences in the reactivity of fear, anger, and sadness between AD patients and healthy comparison group. However, the responses of the two groups to positive film clips were similar. Only in the amusement clip did the AD participants show a higher intensity response., Conclusion: These findings suggest that the characteristic loss of cognitive abilities in AD is related to a reduction in the ability to react to emotional stimuli, especially negative ones. However, these abilities seem to be preserved when it comes to positive emotions. Future research is necessary to investigate whether the positivity effect is present in AD patients.

Past research has shown that pain experience reduces feelings of guilt for earlier wrongdoings. In this paper, we aim to investigate whether watching other people in pain can reduce feelings of guilt. In Study 1 (N = 60), we found that participants' levels of guilt and sadness decreased after they watched a one-minute movie clip showing a painful medical procedure. Study 2 (N = 156), eliminated an alternative explanation in which pain observation but not the misattribution of unrelated excitation reduced guilt. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 60), pain observation lowered participants' feelings of guilt but not their feelings of shame. Overall, these results suggest that the guilt-reducing effect of pain may appear even without the actual experience of physical pain., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Sadness, an emotional experience of daily life, is typically associated with negative experiences such as the loss of a loved one. However, sadness also has an adaptive function, as it can help us respond appropriately to environmental demands. While previous research has revealed positive functions of sadness, it is unclear whether laypeople recognize any positive aspects of sadness. In the present three-part study, we aimed to identify whether laypeople conceptualize any positive features of sadness. In Part 1, we asked Japanese participants ( n  = 122) to describe the features of "sadness," and their responses revealed 37 different sadness features, some of which were assumed to be positive aspects (e.g., meaning making). In Part 2, we asked a second group of Japanese participants ( n  = 140) to rate the centrality of each previously named feature, and we then classified the features into either central or peripheral sadness features. At this point, participants reported positive aspects of sadness (e.g., co-occurrence of positive emotion). To confirm the differences between central and peripheral features, in Part 3 we examined automatic responses toward these features from a third group of Japanese participants ( n  = 91) and demonstrated the relationship between the concept of sadness and its characteristic features. We presented these participants with a subset of the features of sadness and then asked them to complete a recall and recognition task. As expected, they recalled central features more often than peripheral features of sadness, and they generated false recognitions to central features. In conclusion, this three-part study indicated that there are positive features related to the function of sadness that laypeople can identify in their mental lexicon.

Subthreshold depression (StD) is more prevalent than major depressive disorder (MDD) all over the world. Previous studies have indicated that depression is associated with impaired perception of facial expressions. However, for individuals with StD, whether perceptual sensitivity toward facial expressions could be altered and whether these alterations could stabilize over time remain largely unknown. Using the QUEST psychometric procedure, here we assessed recognition thresholds of five facial expressions (angry, fear, happy, sad and neutral) for individuals with StD and non-depressed controls. These subjects were retested after approximately 2-month time intervals. At the initial assessment, individuals with StD demonstrated lower recognition thresholds (i.e., stronger sensitivity) for only sadness compared to non-depressed controls. At the follow-up assessment, we classified the StD group as two subgroups: the non-remitted and the remitted group. For the former, lower recognition thresholds for only sadness were again found; for the latter, there was no significant difference. More importantly, individuals displaying lower recognition thresholds for sadness at the initial assessment were less likely to improve in depressive symptoms at the follow-up assessment. These results indicate that the alteration of perceptual sensitivity toward the sad expression for individuals with StD is associated with the current clinical state., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Past research has provided some evidence of positive relationships between leisure and cognitive functioning, but questions remain regarding their mechanisms. We argue that specific negative emotions may provide promising theoretical mechanisms for the leisure-cognition link. Guided by theories of leisure and emotion-specificity, we used a large-sample, longitudinal dataset of adult participants ( N  = 3536; 1940 females; M age  = 56.16) to examine the leisure-cognition link over about a decade and to test whether sadness, anger, or fear would be supported as emotion-specific mediators of the leisure-cognition link. Analyses were performed using observed variable path analyses and latent variable structural equation modelling. Controlling for demographics (age, gender, education level) and baseline cognitive functioning, leisure predicted better episodic memory and executive function a decade later. Moreover, both observed variable and latent variable mediational analyses supported sadness as a mediator of the link between leisure and episodic memory as well as executive function, such that leisure predicted reduced sadness, in turn predicting improved cognitive functioning. In contrast, neither fear nor anger were supported as mediators of the leisure-cognition link. Thus, the results support long-term links between leisure and cognitive functioning and also support sadness as an emotion-specific mediator of these relationships.

Purpose: Primary care providers are positioned to identify adolescents at risk for depression and prevent major depressive disorder. To identify subthreshold depression, we examined the language adolescents use to describe their symptoms., Methods: Adolescents ages 13-18 with elevated levels on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale and/or a history of depression who were part of a large randomized clinical trial to prevent depressive disorder were included. We used content analysis to analyze transcripts of semi-structured interviews., Results: Saturation was reached at 37 interviews. Adolescents self-identified as African American ( N = 15), Hispanic ( N = 10), and White ( N = 21). Three domains were revealed; external sources of stress, adolescent expressions of sadness, and seeking help and care. Within these domains, 12 distinct themes emerged contextualizing these domains. No variations in the expression of the themes identified for subthreshold depression were found between the three ethno-cultural groups., Implications for Practice: Our study identifies, in adolescents' own words, how adolescents with subthreshold depression express feelings and cope with symptoms, and may guide primary care providers to recognize subthreshold depression early. These findings are a step toward filling the gap in the empirical literature needed to improve identification of adolescents at risk for depression in nonspecialist settings., (© Copyright 2020 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.)

Retrieving positive autobiographical memories effectively repairs mood in healthy individuals. This is not the case in individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) possibly due to lower levels of positive emotions elicited by the positive memories. We examined whether the intensity of emotions experienced from recalling the happiest, saddest, and most anxious autobiographical memories differed between individuals with MDD ( n = 30) and healthy controls ( n = 46). Participants retrieved their happiest, saddest, and most anxious autobiographical memories and rated the emotional intensity experienced at the time of the event and at the time of recall. For all memory types, emotional intensity at the time of the event did not differ between MDD and CTL groups. However, the MDD (vs. CTL) group experienced less happiness recalling their happiest memories, more sadness recalling their saddest memories, and marginally more nervousness recalling their most anxious memories. The CTL group experienced more intense emotions when retrieving happiest (vs. saddest or most anxious) memories. Greater sadness when recalling their saddest memories and less happiness when recalling their happiest memories in the MDD (vs. CTL) group may hinder effective mood regulation and perpetuate negative mood.

This research tested the hypothesis that emotional crying facilitates coping and recovery, specifically through physiological changes that occur during crying. Female undergraduate students (N = 197) were randomly assigned to either a sad or neutral condition using short videos. Sad videos were selected for their extreme emotion elicitation. We predicted that compared to those who did not cry to the stimuli and those who were exposed to neutral videos, people who cried would (a) be able to withstand a stressful task for longer; (b) show lower levels of cortisol following crying and exposure to the stressor; and (c) have faster recovery (i.e., return to baseline levels of affect). The final groups consisted of the neutral group (n = 65), sad criers (n = 71), and sad noncriers (n = 61). After a 5-min baseline period, participants watched either the sad or neutral videos for 17 min and then completed a physical stressor (cold pressor test). Heart rate and respiration were continuously recorded, whereas salivary samples for cortisol were taken at 4 separate time points during testing. Analyses revealed no differences between the 3 groups in time withstanding the stressor or cortisol changes. Respiration rate, however, increased in the neutral group and noncriers while watching the videos, with criers' respiration remaining stable. Furthermore, heart rate was found to decelerate just before crying, with a return to baseline during the first crying period. These results suggest that crying may assist in generally maintaining biological homeostasis, perhaps consciously through self-soothing via purposeful breathing and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Until now, depression research has taken a surprisingly narrow approach to modelling the disease, mainly focusing on some form of psychomotor retardation within a mechanistic framework of depression etiology. However, depression has many symptoms and each is associated with a vast number of substrates. Thus, to deepen our insights, this SI ("Depression Symptoms") reviewed the behavioral and neurobiological sequelae of individual symptoms, specifically, psychomotor retardation, sadness, low motivation, fatigue, sleep/circadian disruption, weight/appetite changes, and cognitive affective biases. This manuscript aims to integrate the most central information provided by the individual reviews. As a result, a dynamic model of depression development is proposed, which views depression as a cumulative process, where different symptoms develop at different stages, referred to as early, intermediate, and advanced, that require treatment with different pharmaceutical agents, that is, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors early on and dopamine-based antidepressants at the advanced stage. Furthermore, the model views hypothalamic disruption as the source of early symptoms and site of early intervention. Longitudinal animal models that are capable of modelling the different stages of depression, including transitions between the stages, may be helpful to uncover novel biomarkers and treatment approaches., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Older adults experience greater emotional well-being in late life. However, older adults may be vulnerable to certain physiologic risk factors, including less physiologic resilience to prolonged stress. Depression and anxiety can be difficult to diagnose in late life owing to differences in self-reported symptoms from younger adults and unclear distinctions between normative and non-normative emotional experiences. We discuss age differences in the presentations of depression and anxiety, and normative and non-normative late life developmental trajectories around bereavement and grief, social isolation and loneliness, and thoughts of death and suicide. We provide recommendations for clinicians for assessing and diagnosing older adults., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors have nothing to disclose. This work was supported by an NIMH National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship (T32MH20061; Conwell, PI)., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To analyze differences by age group in anxiety, depression, loneliness and comorbid anxiety and depression in young people, middle aged adults and older adults during the lock-down period at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the association between negative self-perceptions of aging and psychological symptoms controlling by age group., Method: Participants are 1501 people (age range 18 to 88 years). Anxiety, sadness, loneliness and self-perceptions of aging were assessed. The sample was divided according to the age group and quartiles (lower, intermediate levels, and higher) of anxiety, sadness, loneliness and self-perceptions of aging., Results: Older adults reported lower levels of anxiety and sadness than middle aged adults, and middle aged adults reported lower levels than younger participants. Middle aged adults reported the lowest loneliness, followed by older adults and younger participants. For each age group, those with more negative self-perceptions of aging reported higher anxiety, sadness and loneliness. More comorbid anxiety and sadness was found in younger adults and less in older adults; more depressed participants in the middle aged group, and more older adults and less younger participants were found in the group with the lowest levels of anxiety and sadness. For all the age groups, participants with high levels of comorbid anxiety and sadness are those who report the highest scores in negative self-perceptions of aging., Conclusions: Older adults reported lower psychological anxiety, sadness and loneliness than the other age groups. Having negative self-perceptions of aging damage psychological health irrespective of the chronological age., (Copyright © 2020 SEGG. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The current study examined associations between rumination and executive function difficulties in preadolescent youth, using predictions outlined in the attentional scope and multiple systems models of rumination. This study aimed to (a) extend current conceptual models of rumination to youth, (b) clarify disparate model predictions regarding working memory updating ("updating"), inhibition, and shifting abilities, and (c) examine differential neurocognitive predictions between two forms of rumination, sadness and anger. One hundred and fifty-nine youths oversampled for ADHD and other forms of child psychopathology associated with executive dysfunction (aged 8-13; 53.5% male; 59.1% Caucasian) completed a battery of assessments, including self-report measures of rumination and computerized neurocognitive tasks. Multiple regression analyses were conducted assessing relations between rumination and each executive function, controlling for both sadness and anger rumination to assess their unique associations. Sadness rumination was associated with poorer updating (β = -0.18, p = 0.046) and shifting abilities (β = 0.20, p = 0.03) but not inhibition (β = -0.04, p = 0.62), offering partial support to the attentional scope and multiple systems models. In contrast, anger rumination was associated with better updating abilities (β = 0.20, p = 0.03) but not shifting (β = -0.15, p = 0.11) or inhibition (β = 0.08, p = 0.35). Together, these results suggest (a) developmental differences in the neurocognitive correlates associated with rumination risk in youth compared to findings from the adult literature, and (b) that the executive function correlates of children's responses to negative emotions are affect-specific, such that sadness rumination is associated with difficulties replacing negative thoughts and shifting between mental sets, while anger rumination is associated with a better ability to maintain negative thoughts.

A lockdown of people has been used as an efficient public health measure to fight against the exponential spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and allows the health system to manage the number of patients. The aim of this study (clinicaltrials.gov NCT00430818) was to evaluate the impact of both perceived stress aroused by Covid-19 and of emotions triggered by the lockdown situation on the individual experience of time. A large sample of the French population responded to a survey on their experience of the passage of time during the lockdown compared to before the lockdown. The perceived stress resulting from Covid-19 and stress at work and home were also assessed, as were the emotions felt. The results showed that people have experienced a slowing down of time during the lockdown. This time experience was not explained by the levels of perceived stress or anxiety, although these were considerable, but rather by the increase in boredom and sadness felt in the lockdown situation. The increased anger and fear of death only explained a small part of variance in the time judgment. The conscious experience of time therefore reflected the psychological difficulties experienced during lockdown and was not related to their perceived level of stress or anxiety., Competing Interests: No authors have competing interests.

Subjective happiness is often regarded as a major life goal. Although Japan is an economically powerful country, the level of subjective well-being reported among Japanese adolescents is lower than in other countries. We aimed to investigate the lifestyle factors related to unhappiness in Japanese adolescents. We collected data through the 2017-2018 Lifestyle Survey of Adolescents, a nationally representative cross-sectional study enrolled in randomly selected junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. We assessed the prevalence of subjective unhappiness in junior and senior high school students according to school life factors and daily lifestyle habits. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between these factors and unhappiness. A total of 64,329 students were included in the sample (mean age 15.7 years, 53.9% boys). The average prevalence of unhappiness was 10.2%. The logistic regression analyses indicated that unhappiness was strongly associated with being male and with engaging in unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as not having breakfast, poor sleep quality, and some problematic Internet usage. Although the prevalence of unhappiness was significantly higher among current smokers and alcohol drinkers, these behaviors were not associated with unhappiness in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Unhappiness among Japanese adolescents appears to be strongly related to how they spend their daily life. We therefore consider it desirable for school officials to educate students on the importance of happiness and lifestyle factors conducive to happiness., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

One of the cardinal symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) is persistent sadness. Do people with MDD actually prefer sad stimuli, potentially perpetuating their depression? Millgram, Joormann, Huppert, and Tamir (2015) observed such preferences and interpreted them as reflecting a maladaptive emotion regulatory goal to upregulate sad feelings. We assessed emotional music choice among both those with MDD and healthy controls (HC), and assessed the reasons for music preferences in these two groups. Seventy-six female participants (38 per group) completed two tasks: (1) Millgram et al.'s (2015) music task wherein participants listened to happy, neutral, and sad music excerpts and chose the one they wanted to listen to most, and (2) a novel Emotional Music Selection Task (EMST) wherein participants chose preferred music clips, varying in emotion and energy level, in paired-choice trials. In the replication music task, MDD people were more likely to choose sad music. However, inconsistent with any motivation to upregulate sadness, people with MDD reported that they chose sad music because it was low in energy levels (e.g., relaxing). EMST results revealed that MDD people had a stronger preference for both low energy and sad music, relative to HC. The strong appeal of sad music to people with MDD may be related to its calming effects rather than any desire to increase or maintain sad feelings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Inflexibility of the autonomic nervous system is relevant to depression vulnerability, but the downstream behavioral consequences of autonomic inflexibility are not well understood. Rumination, a perseverative thinking style that characterizes depression, is one candidate phenotype relevant to autonomic inflexibility. Undergraduates (N = 134) completed a sadness induction while respiratory sinus arrhythmia was measured, and completed four waves of follow-up over twelve weeks during which rumination, stressful events, and symptoms of depression were measured. Individuals with less autonomic flexibility had higher levels of trait rumination, and were more likely to ruminate in daily life, regardless of stress exposure, whereas individuals with more autonomic flexibility ruminated more only in the context of stress. These findings provide the first evidence that autonomic inflexibility may confer vulnerability to context-insensitive rumination. This work suggests a potential behavioral mechanism by which autonomic inflexibility leads to problems with self-regulation and depression, suggesting multiple avenues for intervention to target these markers of vulnerability., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)