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Labor market policies, such as training and sanctions, are commonly used to bring workers back to work. By analogy to medical treatments, exposure to these tools can have side effects. We study the effects on health using individual-level population registers on labor market outcomes, drug prescriptions, and sickness absence, comparing outcomes before and after exposure to training and sanctions. Training improves cardiovascular and mental health, and lowers sickness absence. This is likely to be the result of the instantaneous features of participation, such as the adoption of a more rigorous daily routine, rather than improved employment prospects. Benefits sanctions cause a short-run deterioration of mental health.
Background:
Using the internet to search for information or share images about self-harm is an emerging risk among young people. The aims of this study were (a) to analyze the prevalence of different types of self-harm on the internet and differences by sex and age, and (b) to examine the relationship of self-harm on the internet with intrapersonal factors (i.e., depression and anxiety) and interpersonal factors (i.e., family cohesion and social resources).
Method:
The sample consisted of 1,877 adolescents (946 girls) between 12 and 17 years old (Mage = 13.41, SD = 1.25) who completed self-report measures.
Results:
Approximately 11% of the participants had been involved in some type of self-harm on the internet. The prevalence was significantly higher among girls than boys and among adolescents older than 15 years old. Depression and anxiety increased the risk of self-harm on the internet, whereas family cohesion decreased the probability of self-harm on the internet.
Conclusions:
Self-harm on the internet is a relatively widespread phenomenon among Spanish adolescents. Prevention programs should include emotional regulation, coping skills, and resilience to reduce in this behavior.
The present study proposes and tests pathways by which racial discrimination might be positively related to bullying victimization among Black and White adolescents. Data were derived from the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health, a national survey that provides data on children's physical and mental health and their families. Data were collected from households with one or more children between June 2016 to February 2017.
A letter was sent to randomly selected households, who were invited to participate in the survey. The caregivers consisted of 66.9% females and 33.1% males for the White sample, whose mean age was 47.51 (SD = 7.26), and 76.8% females and 23.2% males for the Black sample, whose mean age was 47.61 (SD = 9.71).
In terms of the adolescents, 49.0% were females among the White sample, whose mean age was 14.73 (SD = 1.69). For Black adolescents, 47.9% were females and the mean age was 14.67(SD = 1.66).
Measures for the study included bullying perpetration, racial discrimination, academic disengagement, and socio-demographic variables of the parent and child.
Analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and structural path analyses.
For adolescents in both racial groups, racial discrimination appears to be positively associated with depression, which was positively associated with bullying perpetration. For White adolescents, racial discrimination was positively associated with academic disengagement, which was also positively associated with bullying perpetration. For Black adolescents, although racial discrimination was not significantly associated with academic disengagement, academic disengagement was positively associated with bullying perpetration.
The post-antiretroviral therapy era has transformed HIV into a chronic disease and non-HIV comorbidities (i.e., cardiovascular and mental diseases) are more prevalent in PLWH. The source of these non-HIV comorbidities aside from traditional risk factor include HIV infection, inflammation, distorted immune activation, burden of chronic diseases, and unhealthy lifestyle like sedentarism. Exercise is known for its beneficial effects in mental and physical health; reasons why exercise is recommended to prevent and treat difference cardiovascular and mental diseases in the general population. This cumulative thesis aimed to comprehend the relation exercise has to non-HIV comorbidities in German PLWH. Four studies were conducted to 1) understand exercise effects in cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength on PLWH through a systematic review and meta-analyses and 2) determine the likelihood of German PLWH developing non-HIV comorbidities, in a cross-sectional study. Meta-analytic examination indicates PLWH cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max SMD = 0.61 ml·kg·min-1, 95% CI: 0.35-0.88, z = 4.47, p < 0.001, I2 = 50%) and strength (of remark lowerbody strength by 16.8 kg, 95% CI: 13–20.6, p< 0.001) improves after an exercise intervention in comparison to a control group. Cross-sectional data suggest exercise has a positive effect on German PLWH mental health (less anxiety and depressive symptoms) and protects against the development of anxiety (PR: 0.57, 95%IC: 0.36 – 0.91, p = 0.01) and depression (PR: 0.62, 95%IC: 0.41 – 0.94, p = 0.01). Likewise, exercise duration is related to a lower likelihood of reporting heart arrhythmias (PR: 0.20, 95%IC: 0.10 – 0.60, p < 0.01) and exercise frequency to a lower likelihood of reporting diabetes mellitus (PR: 0.40, 95%IC: 0.10 – 1, p < 0.01) in German PLWH. A preliminary recommendation for German PLWH who want to engage in exercise can be to exercise ≥ 1 time per week, at an intensity of 5 METs per session or > 103 MET·min·day-1, with a duration ≥ 150 minutes per week. Nevertheless, further research is needed to comprehend exercise dose response and protective effect for cardiovascular diseases, anxiety, and depression in German PLWH.
Sedentarism is a risk factor for depression and anxiety. People living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) have a higher prevalence of anxiety and depression compared to HIV-negative individuals. This cross-sectional study (n = 450, median age 44 (19-75), 7.3% females) evaluates the prevalence rates and prevalence ratio (PR) of anxiety and/or depression in PLWH associated with recreational exercise. A decreased likelihood of having anxiety (PR=0.57; 0.36-0.91; p = 0.01), depression (PR=0.41; 0.36-0.94; p=0.01), and comorbid anxiety and depression (PR = 0,43; 0.24-0.75; p=0.002) was found in exercising compared to non-exercising PLWH. Recreational exercise is associated with a lower risk for anxiety and/or depression. Further prospective studies are needed to provide insights on the direction of this association.
The prevalence of depression and anxiety is increased in obese patients compared to healthy humans, which is partially due to a shared pathogenesis, including insulin resistance and inflammation. These factors are also linked to intestinal dysbiosis. Additionally, the chronic consumption of diets rich in saturated fats results in body weight gain, hormonal resistances and unfavorable changes in the microbiome composition. The intake of Lactobacilli has already been shown to improve dysbiosis along with metabolism and mood. Yet, the beneficial role and the underlying mechanism of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) to improve emotional behavior in established diet-induced obese conditions are, so far, unknown. To characterize the role of LGG in diet-induced obesity, female and male C57BL/6N mice were fed a semi-synthetic low-fat diet (LFD, 10 % kcal from fat) or a conventional high-fat diet (HFD, 45 % kcal from fat) for initial 6 weeks, which was followed by daily oral gavage of vehicle or 1x10^8 CFU of LGG until the end of the experiment. Mice were subjected to basic metabolic and extensive behavioral phenotyping, with a focus on emotional behavior. Moreover, composition of cecal gut microbiome, metabolomic profile in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid was investigated and followed by molecular analyses. Both HFD-feeding and LGG application resulted in sex-specific differences. While LGG prevented the increase of plasma insulin, adrenal gland weight and hyperactivity in diet-induced obese female mice, there was no regulation of anxiodepressive-like behavior. In contrast, metabolism of male mice did not benefit from LGG application, but strikingly, LGG decreased specifically depressive-like behavior in the Mousetail Suspension Test which was confirmed by the Splash Test characterizing motivation for ’self-care’. The microbiome analysis in male mice revealed that HFD-feeding, but not LGG application, altered cecal microbiome composition, indicating a direct effect of LGG on behavioral regulation. However, in female mice, both HFD-feeding and LGG application resulted in changes of microbiome composition, which presumably affected metabolism. Moreover, as diet-induced obese female mice unexpectedly did not exhibit anxiodepressive-like behavior, follow-up analyses were conducted in male mice. Here, HFD-feeding significantly altered abundance of plasma lipids whereas LGG decreased branched chain amino acids which associated with improved emotional behavior. In nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and VTA/SN, which belong to the dopaminergic system, LGG restored HFD-induced decrease of tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in dopamine synthesis, on gene expression level. Lastly, transcriptome analysis in the NAcc identified gene expression of cholecystokinin as a potential mediator of the effect of LGG on HFD-induced emotional alterations. In summary, this thesis revealed the beneficial effects of LGG application on emotional alterations in established diet-induced obesity. Furthermore, both HFD-feeding and LGG treatment exhibited sex-specific effects, resulting in metabolic improvements in female mice while LGG application mitigated depressive-like behavior in obese male mice along with a molecular signature of restored dopamine synthesis and neuropeptide signaling.
Online hate speech has become a widespread problem in the daily life of adolescents. Despite growing societal and academic interest in this online risk, not much is known about the relationship between online hate speech victimization (OHSV) and adolescents' mental well-being.
In addition, potential factors influencing the magnitude of this relationship remain unclear. To address these gaps in the literature, this study investigated the relationship between OHSV and depressive symptoms and the buffering effects of resilience in this relationship. The sample consists of 1,632 adolescents (49.1% girls) between 12 and 18 years old (M-age = 13.83, SDage = 1.23), recruited from nine schools across Spain.
Self-report questionnaires were administered to assess OHSV, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Regression analyses revealed that OHSV was positively linked to depressive symptoms.
In addition, victims of online hate speech were less likely to report depressive symptoms when they reported average or high levels of resilience (i.e., social competence, personal competence, structured style, social resources, and family cohesion) compared with those with low levels of resilience.
Our findings highlight the need for the development of intervention programs and the relevance of focusing on internal and external developmental assets to mitigate negative outcomes for victims of online hate speech.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of perceived social support from friends in the associations between self-isolation practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and adolescents' mental health (i.e., depression, subjective health complaints, self-harm), measured six months later (Time 2). Participants were 1,567 7(th) and 8(th) graders (51% female; 51% white; M age = 13.67) from the United States. They completed questionnaires on perceived social support from friends, depression, subjective health complaints, and self-harm at Time 1, and self-isolation practices during COVID-19, depression, subjective health complaints, and self-harm at Time 2. The findings revealed that self-isolation practices during COVID-19 was related positively to Time 1 perceived social support from friends, and negatively to Time 2 depression, subjective health complaints, and self-harm, while accounting for Time 1 mental health outcomes. Higher perceived social support from friends at Time 1 buffered against the negative impacts on adolescents' mental health outcomes at Time 2 when they practiced greater self-isolation during COVID-19, while lower perceived social support at Time 1 had the opposite effects on Time 2 mental health outcomes.