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Objective:
The open expression of hatred, hostility, and violence against minorities has become a common online phenomenon. Adolescents are at particular risk of being involved in different hate speech roles (e.g., witness, perpetrator).
However, the correlates of their involvement as perpetrators and the mechanisms that might explain their involvement in hate speech across different roles have not yet been thoroughly investigated.
To this end, this study investigates moral disengagement and empathy as correlates of online hate speech perpetration and the moderation effects of empathy and moral disengagement in the relationship between witnessing and perpetrating online hate speech.
Method:
The sample consists of 3,560 7th to 9th graders from 40 schools in Germany and Switzerland. Self-report questionnaires were utilized to assess online hate speech involvement, moral disengagement, and empathy.
Results:
Multilevel regression analyses revealed that moral disengagement and witnessing online hate speech were positively associated with online hate speech perpetration, while empathy was negatively associated with it.
The findings also showed that the positive relationship between witnessing and perpetrating online hate speech was stronger at higher levels of moral disengagement and weaker when moral disengagement was low.
The association between witnessing and perpetrating online hate speech was weaker when adolescents had higher rather than lower levels of empathy.
Conclusions:
The findings underscore the need for prevention efforts to accelerate moral engagement and empathy as critical future directions in hate speech prevention. This study also contributes to our understanding of underlying mechanisms that explain adolescents' involvement across different roles in hate speech.
The attentional bias to negative information enables humans to quickly identify and to respond appropriately to potentially threatening situations. Because of its adaptive function, the enhanced sensitivity to negative information is expected to represent a universal trait, shared by all humans regardless of their cultural background. However, existing research focuses almost exclusively on humans from Western industrialized societies, who are not representative for the human species. Therefore, we compare humans from two distinct cultural contexts: adolescents and children from Germany, a Western industrialized society, and from the not equal Akhoe Hai parallel to om, semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers in Namibia. We predicted that both groups show an attentional bias toward negative facial expressions as compared to neutral or positive faces. We used eye-tracking to measure their fixation duration on facial expressions depicting different emotions, including negative (fear, anger), positive (happy), and neutral faces. Both Germans and the not equal Akhoe Hai parallel to om gazed longer at fearful faces, but shorter on angry faces, challenging the notion of a general bias toward negative emotions. For happy faces, fixation durations varied between the two groups, suggesting more flexibility in the response to positive emotions. Our findings emphasize the need for placing research on emotion perception into an evolutionary, cross-cultural comparative framework that considers the adaptive significance of specific emotions, rather than differentiating between positive and negative information, and enables systematic comparisons across participants from diverse cultural backgrounds.
As part of the POPS study (Potsdam prevention of eating disorders) 300 adolescents aged between 10 and 13 years completed questionnaires measuring satisfaction with weight and muscles, body change strategies and disturbed eating behavior. More than half of the girls and a third of the boys are dissatisfied with their weight. Nearly 70% of the male participants were unhappy with their muscles. Both forms of body dissatisfaction are influenced by similar sociocultural and psychological factors. While weight dissatisfaction leads to weight reduction strategies and disturbed eating, muscle dissatisfaction results in muscle enhancement methods. Potential harmful consequences of excessive muscle building techniques are discussed. The data emphasize the need for a sex-specific investigation of body dissatisfaction and its consequences. Body image aspects relevant to boys should be added to intervention and prevention approaches.
Background: Recently, first evidence has been reported for a geneparenting interaction (G x E) with regard to adolescent alcohol use. The present investigation set out to extend this research using the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism as a genetic susceptibility factor. Moreover, the current study examined whether a potential G x E would be consistent with one of two models of geneenvironment interplay (genetic vulnerability vs. differential susceptibility). Methods: Data were collected as part of an ongoing epidemiological cohort study following the outcome of early risk factors from birth into adulthood. Two hundred and eighty-five participants (130 males, 155 females) were genotyped for the COMT Val(158) Met polymorphism and were administered an alcohol interview, providing measures of current frequency and amount of drinking at ages 15 and 19 years. Information on three dimensions of perceived parenting behavior was obtained from the 15-year-olds. Results: Adolescents homozygous for the Met allele showed higher drinking activity at age 19 years when their parents had engaged in less supervision or were less involved, while their drinking activity was reduced under conditions of favorable parenting. No such relationship was found in individuals carrying the Val allele. Conclusions: The present findings correspond with the pattern of results predicted by the differential susceptibility hypothesis, suggesting that environmental variation would have a greater impact in individuals carrying a genetic susceptibility such that, in this group, exposure to negative environmental conditions would result in more adverse outcomes and the experience of favorable conditions would lead to more positive outcomes.
Cognitive flexibility in adolescent patients with unipolar affective disorders - gender differences
(2013)
Objective: Several studies have revealed impairments in cognitive functions among patients with affective disorders (AD). However, to date there are few neuropsychological studies on cognitive flexibility among adolescent patients with AD, especially on gender differences in AD. Here, we investigate cognitive functions, especially cognitive flexibility, in adolescent patients with unipolar AD (UAD) compared to a healthy control group (CG). Method: The study population consists of 17 male patients (M-age = 15.4 +/- 1.3) and 22 female patients with UAD (M-age = 15.6 +/- 1.4) as well as 20 male (M-age = 16.0 +/- 1.0) and 30 female (M-age = 15.7 +/- 0.9) healthy adolescents. A neuropsychological test battery was conducted, and depressive symptoms, psychological stress, and intelligence were also assessed. Results: The analyses revealed no significant group differences regarding cognitive flexibility or visual processing speed, albeit slight better performance in motor processing speed for the CG. Furthermore, no gender differences were observed regarding cognitive flexibility, though female subjects general displayed better performance in processing speed. Conclusions: Overall, there are no indications for serious deficits and specific gender differences in cognitive flexibility or processing speed in adolescent patients with UAD. Independent of psychological distress, female subjects seem to have some advantages in processing speed.
Cognitive Function in Adolescent Patients with Anorexia Nervosa and Unipolar Affective Disorders
(2016)
Studies have shown impairments in cognitive function among adult patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and affective disorders (AD). The association between cognitive dysfunctions, AN and AD as well as the specificity for these psychiatric diagnoses remains unclear. Therefore, we examined cognitive flexibility and processing speed in 47 female adolescent patients with AN, 21 female adolescent patients with unipolar affective disorders and 48 female healthy adolescents. All participants completed a neuropsychological test battery. There were no significant group differences regarding cognitive function, except for psychomotor processing speed with poorer performance in patients with AN. A further analysis revealed that all groups performed with the normal range, although patients with AN were over represented in the poorest performing quartile. We found no severe cognitive impairments in either patient group. Nevertheless, belonging to the AN group contributed significantly to poor performances in neuropsychological tasks. Therefore, we conclude that the risk for cognitive impairments is slightly higher for patients with AN. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Introduction: Studies that combined balance and resistance training induced larger performance improvements compared with single mode training. Agility exercises contain more dynamic and sport-specific movements compared with balance training. Thus, the purpose of this study was to contrast the effects of combined balance and plyometric training with combined agility and plyometric training and an active control on physical fitness in youth.
Methods: Fifty-seven male soccer players aged 10–12 years participated in an 8-week training program (2 × week). They were randomly assigned to a balance-plyometric (BPT: n = 21), agility-plyometric (APT: n = 20) or control group (n = 16). Measures included proxies of muscle power [countermovement jump (CMJ), triple-hop-test (THT)], muscle strength [reactive strength index (RSI), maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) of handgrip, back extensors, knee extensors], agility [4-m × 9-m shuttle run, Illinois change of direction test (ICODT) with and without the ball], balance (Standing Stork, Y-Balance), and speed (10–30 m sprints).
Results: Significant time × group interactions were found for CMJ, hand grip MVIC force, ICODT without a ball, agility (4 m × 9 m), standing stork balance, Y-balance, 10 and 30-m sprint. The APT pre- to post-test measures displayed large ES improvements for hand grip MVIC force, ICODT without a ball, agility test, CMJ, standing stork balance test, Y-balance test but only moderate ES improvements with the 10 and 30 m sprints. The BPT group showed small (30 m sprint), moderate (hand grip MVIC, ICODTwithout a ball) and large ES [agility (4 m × 9 m) test, CMJ, standing stork balance test, Y-balance] improvements, respectively.
Conclusion: In conclusion, both training groups provided significant improvements in all measures. It is recommended that youth incorporate balance exercises into their training and progress to agility with their strength and power training.
Introduction: Studies that combined balance and resistance training induced larger performance improvements compared with single mode training. Agility exercises contain more dynamic and sport-specific movements compared with balance training. Thus, the purpose of this study was to contrast the effects of combined balance and plyometric training with combined agility and plyometric training and an active control on physical fitness in youth.
Methods: Fifty-seven male soccer players aged 10–12 years participated in an 8-week training program (2 × week). They were randomly assigned to a balance-plyometric (BPT: n = 21), agility-plyometric (APT: n = 20) or control group (n = 16). Measures included proxies of muscle power [countermovement jump (CMJ), triple-hop-test (THT)], muscle strength [reactive strength index (RSI), maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) of handgrip, back extensors, knee extensors], agility [4-m × 9-m shuttle run, Illinois change of direction test (ICODT) with and without the ball], balance (Standing Stork, Y-Balance), and speed (10–30 m sprints).
Results: Significant time × group interactions were found for CMJ, hand grip MVIC force, ICODT without a ball, agility (4 m × 9 m), standing stork balance, Y-balance, 10 and 30-m sprint. The APT pre- to post-test measures displayed large ES improvements for hand grip MVIC force, ICODT without a ball, agility test, CMJ, standing stork balance test, Y-balance test but only moderate ES improvements with the 10 and 30 m sprints. The BPT group showed small (30 m sprint), moderate (hand grip MVIC, ICODTwithout a ball) and large ES [agility (4 m × 9 m) test, CMJ, standing stork balance test, Y-balance] improvements, respectively.
Conclusion: In conclusion, both training groups provided significant improvements in all measures. It is recommended that youth incorporate balance exercises into their training and progress to agility with their strength and power training.
According to the results of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) published in 2009, only 5% to 8% of the 15-17-year-old adolescents reach the current recommendations on health-enhancing physical activity This result (besides others in the survey) rests on data measured with the 25-item physical activity questionnaire for children and adolescents (MoMo-AFB). The present study compares two different methods of assessing physical activity with the purpose of testing the validity of the MoMo-AFB self-report. First, we measured the physical activity status of 73 15 to 18-year-old pupils (32 boys and 41 girls) over seven days via objective accelerometry (ActiGraph GT1M), then the pupils completed the MoMo-AFB for the same (previous) period. Results show that using the MoMo-AFB leads to higher levels of self-reported physical activity than measuring it with accelerometers. Furthermore, only the MoMo-AFB subscale MVPA (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity), that uses two single items to decide whether the health-enhancing physical activity recommendation is reached or failed, corresponds statistically significantly with the accelerometry data. For all other subscales (e.g. school- or leisure time activity), we found no agreement. Further research, first of all on the measurement quality of the MoMo-AFB but also on the physical (in)activity status of children and adolescents, is needed.
The prevalence of obesity in the pediatric population has become a major public health issue. Indeed, the dramatic increase of this epidemic causes multiple and harmful consequences, Physical activity, particularly physical exercise, remains to be the cornerstone of interventions against childhood obesity. Given the conflicting findings with reference to the relevant literature addressing the effects of exercise on adiposity and physical fitness outcomes in obese children and adolescents, the effect of duration-matched concurrent training (CT) [50% resistance (RT) and 50% high-intensity-interval-training (HIIT)] on body composition and physical fitness in obese youth remains to be elucidated. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 9-weeks of CT compared to RT or HIIT alone, on body composition and selected physical fitness components in healthy sedentary obese youth. Out of 73 participants, only 37; [14 males and 23 females; age 13.4 ± 0.9 years; body-mass-index (BMI): 31.2 ± 4.8 kg·m-2] were eligible and randomized into three groups: HIIT (n = 12): 3-4 sets×12 runs at 80–110% peak velocity, with 10-s passive recovery between bouts; RT (n = 12): 6 exercises; 3–4 sets × 10 repetition maximum (RM) and CT (n = 13): 50% serial completion of RT and HIIT. CT promoted significant greater gains compared to HIIT and RT on body composition (p < 0.01, d = large), 6-min-walking test distance (6 MWT-distance) and on 6 MWT-VO2max (p < 0.03, d = large). In addition, CT showed substantially greater improvements than HIIT in the medicine ball throw test (20.2 vs. 13.6%, p < 0.04, d = large). On the other hand, RT exhibited significantly greater gains in relative hand grip strength (p < 0.03, d = large) and CMJ (p < 0.01, d = large) than HIIT and CT. CT promoted greater benefits for fat, body mass loss and cardiorespiratory fitness than HIIT or RT modalities. This study provides important information for practitioners and therapists on the application of effective exercise regimes with obese youth to induce significant and beneficial body composition changes. The applied CT program and the respective programming parameters in terms of exercise intensity and volume can be used by practitioners as an effective exercise treatment to fight the pandemic overweight and obesity in youth.