Background and aims
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is included as a condition for further study in Section 3 of the DSM‐5. Nine criteria were proposed with a threshold of five or more criteria ...recommended for diagnosis. The aims of this study were to assess how the specific criteria contribute to diagnosis and to estimate prevalence rates of IGD based on DSM‐5 recommendations.
Design
Large‐scale, state‐representative school survey using a standardized questionnaire.
Setting
Germany (Lower Saxony).
Participants
A total of 11 003 ninth‐graders aged 13–18 years (mean = 14.88, 51.09% male).
Measurements
IGD was assessed with a DSM‐5 adapted version of the Video Game Dependency Scale that covered all nine criteria of IGD.
Findings
In total, 1.16% 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96, 1.36 of respondents were classified with IGD according to DSM‐5 recommendations. IGD students played games for longer periods, skipped school more often, had lower grades in school, reported more sleep problems and more often endorsed feeling ‘addicted to gaming’ than their non‐IGD counterparts. The most frequently reported DSM‐5 criteria overall were ‘escape adverse moods’ (5.30%) and ‘preoccupation’ (3.91%), but endorsement of these criteria rarely related to IGD diagnosis. Conditional inference trees showed that the criteria ‘give up other activities’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘withdrawal’ were of key importance for identifying IGD as defined by DSM‐5.
Conclusions
Based on a state‐wide representative school survey in Germany, endorsement of five or more criteria of DSM‐5 internet gaming disorder (IGD) occurred in 1.16% of the students, and these students evidence greater impairment compared with non‐IGD students. Symptoms related to ‘give up other activities’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘withdrawal’ are most relevant for IGD diagnosis in this age group.
Given the lasting positive effects of prenatal and infancy home visiting in the United States on disadvantaged mothers and children at school age, we analyzed the follow-up effects of a German home ...visiting program (
). We hypothesized improvements in 3 domains at child age 7 years: (1) child development and life satisfaction, (2) maternal mental health and life satisfaction, and (3) adverse parenting, abusive parenting, and neglectful parenting.
We conducted a randomized controlled trial of home visiting, enrolling 755 pregnant, low-income women with no previous live births. The intervention comprised 32.7 home visits by family midwives and/or social pedagogues until child age 2 years. Assessments were completed on 533 7-year-old firstborn offspring to evaluate 8 primary hypotheses.
We found significant positive effects for 4 of the 8 primary hypotheses. Mothers in the intervention group reported fewer behavioral problems among their children in the Child Behavior Checklist (effect size ES = 0.21; 95% confidence interval CI: 0.03 to 0.38), less child abusive parenting (ES = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.37), fewer maternal mental health problems (ES = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.43), and higher maternal life satisfaction (ES = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.07 to 0.43). Additional preregistered subgroup analyses regarding child sex revealed larger effects for boys and mothers of boys.
The results suggest that in a western European welfare state, home visiting targeting disadvantaged mothers has lasting effects in important outcome domains. Therefore, home visits also appear to be an effective and efficient public health intervention in European settings.
Objective:
At present, the most frequently investigated psychosocial intervention for borderline personality disorder (BPD) is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). We conducted a meta-analysis to ...examine the efficacy and long-term effectiveness of DBT.
Method:
Systematic bibliographic research was undertaken to find relevant literature from online databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, PsychSpider, Medline). We excluded studies in which patients with diagnoses other than BPD were treated, the treatment did not comprise all components specified in the DBT manual or in the suggestions for inpatient DBT programs, patients failed to be diagnosed according to the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
, and the intervention group comprised fewer than 10 patients. Using a mixed-effect hierarchical modeling approach, we calculated global effect sizes and effect sizes for suicidal and self-injurious behaviors.
Results:
Calculations of postintervention global effect sizes were based on 16 studies. Of these, 8 were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and 8 were neither randomized nor controlled (nRCT). The dropout rate was 27.3% pre- to posttreatment. A moderate global effect and a moderate effect size for suicidal and self-injurious behaviors were found, when including a moderator for RCTs with borderline-specific treatments. There was no evidence for the influence of other moderators (e.g., quality of studies, setting, duration of intervention). A small impairment was shown from posttreatment to follow-up, including 5 RCTs only.
Conclusions:
Future research should compare DBT with other active borderline-specific treatments that have also demonstrated their efficacy using several long-term follow-up assessment points.
Prior studies observed involvement with video games to vary between different sociodemographic strata with considerable higher gaming time in males compared to females. However, empirical evidence ...explaining the gender gap in gaming time is still scarce. The present study aims to evaluate if the higher gaming time can be attributed to gender specific game genre preferences.
A nationwide representative survey comprising 3073 participants aged 16–93 years (M = 49.1; SD = 18.2) was conducted. Video game use and genre preferences were assessed via a written questionnaire. OLS regression and subsequent mediation analyses were used to determine significant predictors of gaming time and to evaluate the contribution of genre preferences.
Higher age, high education and employment predicted lower gaming time whereas male gender and the preference of certain game genres predicted higher gaming time. Mediation analyses revealed that the higher gaming time of males is fully mediated by the higher preference of role-playing and shooter games among this gender group.
The higher gaming time of men is fully accounted for by the male specific preference for certain game genres. Future research should address the functional connection between genre preferences and gaming behavior in further detail.
•Predictors of video gaming are evaluated in a representative sample of German adults.•Lower gaming is predicted by higher age, high education and employment.•Higher gaming is predicted by male gender and preference of certain video game genres.•Higher gaming in males is fully mediated by gender specific game genre preferences.
The SCL-K-9 is the latest short version of the multidimensional Symptom-Checklist 90-R. Up to now, its psychometric properties have not been clarified sufficiently as the nine items have not yet been ...presented exclusively in a representative sample. Therefore, psychometric properties, model fit values as well as norm-values were analyzed.
For the sample, N = 2,507 participants aged 14 to 92, n = 1,379 women and n = 1,128 men, and a mean age of 48.79 (SD = 17.91), were selected from the general population by random-route sampling. Confirmatory factor analyses applying full information maximum likelihood (FIML) tested the model fit. The reliability estimations and effect sizes were reported.
The items' discriminative power ranged between .49 to .65, and the Cronbach's Alpha was α = .87, which stands for a good reliability of the SCL-K-9. Norm values as well as gender and age specificities were presented in this section. The CFA with all nine items loading on one latent factor resulted in a good fit. There was evidence of invariance across age and gender groups.
Based on these results, the short screening version SCL-K-9 of the Symptom-Checklist 90-R showed good reliability and good model fit; specific norm values could be determined. Further studies should evaluate the usefulness of the standardization in clinical samples.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Research has shown that childhood victimization is associated with later involvement in delinquency. Prevalence rates of childhood victimization also tend to be higher among prison inmates compared ...with the general population. However, it has rarely been examined if childhood experiences—both negative and positive—have an effect on prison misconduct. We analyzed self-report data from more than 4,800 male and female adult prisoners in Germany to examine if childhood experiences of harsh parenting and parental warmth are associated with physical inmate-on-inmate violence. We also assessed the inmates’ attitude toward violence and examined if violence approval mediates the relationship between childhood experiences and violent misconduct. The results of the structural equation models show that both harsh parenting and positive, caring parental behavior have a small, but significant effect on violent prison misconduct, which is completely mediated by the inmates’ attitude toward violence. Furthermore, the results suggest that the same model holds for both male and female inmates, indicating that childhood victimization is not a gender-responsive need. The strength of the direct association between violence approval and violent misconduct underscores the need to assess the inmates’ attitude toward violence to identify those most at risk of engaging in violence during incarceration.
•Post-test calculation of COSMEA tests utilizing sophisticated measurement systems.•Detailed analysis of simulation results for different condensation models.•Recommendations for improvements of ...ATHLET heat transfer package.•Implemented model improvements show much better agreement with experimental data.•Best results are obtained by using the Thome condensation model.
Based on a series of COSMEA experiments conducted in the scope of the PANAS project, the paper presents results of post-test simulations performed with a standard version of ATHLET as well as with an improved version of the code. After an overview on the research topics, the paper discusses the heat transfer phenomena in an emergency condenser pipe, the corresponding physical models implemented in ATHLET and the input deck developed to simulate the COSMEA tests. First results of the simulations with version 3.3 of ATHLET showed a significant underestimation of the heat transfer, an overestimation of the condensate outlet temperature and, depending on the experimental conditions, an underestimation or overestimation of the condensation rate. An in-depth analysis of the results helps to identify possible reasons for the deviations. The second set of simulations with an improved version of the code shows much better agreement with the experimental data. The corresponding part of the paper describes the modifications to the source code in the convection and condensation heat transfer models, the physical reasons behind these modifications and the improvements obtained with the updated models. In comparing three condensation models against experimental outcomes, including the Dobson-Chato, KONWAR, and Thome models, the Thome model demonstrated the highest degree of congruence with experimental data. Additionally, the study revealed that heat transfer correlations tailored for the rough flow regime are essential to elucidate the heat transfer phenomena on the secondary side of the COSMEA test section, leading to their subsequent integration into the ATHLET code.
Data on the prevalence of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and direct self-injurious behavior in adolescents with a migration background are scarce. There are hints that this population is at ...risk. The aim of the study is to investigate the epidemiology of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and direct self-injurious behavior in adolescents with a migration background in Germany while taking gender-specific differences into consideration.
A representative study with N = 10,638 students (mean age 14.91 years, SD = .73).) in the state of Lower Saxony in Germany was conducted. In the 2014-2015 school year, 672 classes were selected by randomly sampling different school types. The participation rate was 84.1%, excluding any classes for which the director refused to provide consent. A total of 49.8% were female adolescents, and 23.3% of the participants had a migration background. Target variables were assessed with items from the Ottawa Self-Injury Inventory, the Self-Harm Behavior Questionnaire and the Self-Harm Inventory, partly adapted.
Of all students, 7.6% had a lifetime history of suicide attempts, and 36.6% answered with a rating of at least "rarely" when asked to rate the lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation. The 12-month prevalence of direct self-injurious behavior was 17.8%. Adolescents with a migration background showed a significantly higher prevalence of all three constructs (p = .006; p < .001; p = .006). Male students with a migration background reported a significantly higher lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts (4.7% vs. 3.1%) than native males (p = .009). Female students with a migration background reported a significantly higher lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts (15.9% vs. 10.4%) and suicidal ideation ("often" 12.1% vs. 8.9%) than native female students (p < .001; p = .008).
Our assessment indicates an elevated risk for suicidal behaviors in adolescents with a migration background. From research on adults, it is known that the dominant motives for suicidal behavior in migrants are associated with their migration history/situation. As suggested by Cramer and Kapusta's (Front Psychol 8:1756, 2017) theoretical model, the Social-Ecological Framework of Theory, Assessment, and Prevention, there is a need for culturally sensitive preventions that take into account the specific reasons for suicide attempts in migrants.
Support for corporal punishment (CP) has been associated with religiosity. Yet, little is known about which aspects of religiosity predict support for CP. To close this gap in the literature, we ...investigated how individual and social religiosity, religious fundamentalism, belief in heaven, belief in hell, and demographic variables contribute for the support of CP. We analyzed population-based cross-sectional data, as gathered in the General Social Survey, with a final sample size of n = 671. Using ordinal regression, we found that increased support for CP was best predicted by belief in heaven and religious fundamentalism. These results suggest that support for CP seems to emerge mainly from absolute belief in divine reward and retribution. Religious parents might endorse CP as a means to ensure that their children enter heaven.
Recent developments in society, together with an increase in the number of far-right motivated crimes in Germany, suggest that far right-wing attitudes are becoming increasingly popular within public ...opinion. Since political attitudes are shaped within the family and peer setting during the adolescent stage, assessing the potential interplay of family and peer relationships with regard to such attitudes appears essential. The present study aims to explore (1) the relationship between perceived parental far right-wing attitudes, as reported by adolescents, and adolescents’ self-reported far right-wing attitudes, as well as (2) the unique and moderating effects of variables related to the contact hypothesis (ethnic minority friends and exposure to ethnic minority group members in the social environment). Using data from a representative school survey of seventh and ninth grade German adolescents, multilevel linear regression models indicated a statistically significant positive association between adolescent-reported parental far right-wing attitudes and adolescents’ far right-wing attitudes. Furthermore, the analyses demonstrated a small but statistically significant moderating effect of friendship with individuals of an ethnic minority: the relationship between parental and adolescent far right-wing attitudes was weaker for adolescents who had more ethnic minority friends. Thus, adolescents who were friends with individuals of an ethnic minority appeared to be less congruent with their parents’ far right-wing attitudes, compared to adolescents without any ethnic minority friends. In contrast, the overall level of exposure to ethnic minority group members in the social environment did not affect the strength of the relationship between perceived parental and adolescent far right-wing attitudes.
Highlights
Parent-adolescent similarity of far right-wing attitudes and effects of ethnic minority contact among German adolescents.
We found a significant positive association between adolescent-reported parental and adolescents’ far right-wing attitudes.
Results show a unique moderating effect of intergroup friendship on parent-adolescent similarity of far right-wing attitudes.
Recommendations include the development of further educational initiatives that target the facilitation of intergroup friendship.
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