In recent decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased, with the major implications for public health. However, the factors that contribute to obesity in children are still poorly ...understood. The present study aimed to investigate the role of parental reflective functioning (PRF) in childhood obesity.
In a cross-sectional design, 120 sets of parents of 60 children (n = 30 with obesity, age range 6–11) were recruited by local paediatricians. Parents completed the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. Children's and parents’ weight (assessed by BMI), as well as their socio-economic status (SES), were assessed to explore the contribution of PRF in the prediction of children's weight, controlling for parents’ weight and SES.
t-test showed significant differences with medium effect sizes in BMI, SES and PRF between parents of children with and without obesity. The best model resulted from hierarchical multiple regression analyses and showed that mothers’ PRF predicted children's BMI above and beyond the prediction by parents’ BMI and SES.
Low maternal PRF could be an important target for intervention strategies, highlighting the need to consider parental responses to children's emotions in the treatment of childhood obesity, particularly in parents with low SES and high BMI.
En las últimas décadas la prevalencia de la obesidad infantil ha aumentad, teniendo implicaciones relevantes por la salud pública, pero hay todavía poca comprensión de los factores que contribuyen a la misma. La finalidad del estudio es investigar el papel de la función reflectiva parental (PRF) en la obesidad infantil.
En un estudio transversal, 120 parejas de padres de 60 niños (30 con obesidad, con edades entre 6 y 11 años) fueron reclutados por pediatras locales. Los padres tuvieron que rellenar el Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. El peso de los niños y de los padres (BMI), así como el estado socio-económico (SES) fueron evaluados para explorar la contribución del PRF a la predicción del peso de los niños, en relación al peso parental y al SES.
El t-test ha mostrado diferencias significativa entre padres de niños con y sin obesidad en BMI, SES y PRF. El mejor modelo resultado de los análisis de regresión múltiple jerárquica ha mostrado que el PRF materno puede predecir el BMI de los niños más que el BMI paterno y el SES.
Un PRF materno bajo podría representar una diana importante para estrategias de intervención.
Numerous international educational institutions have sounded the alarm about the gradual increase in the number of students failing to achieve a sufficient level of proficiency in mathematical ...abilities. Thus, the growing interest in identifying possible solutions and factors interfering with learning seems justified. In recent years, special attention has accrued to the possible role played by emotional factors.
In the present investigation, students in the first grade of a technical vocational secondary school are followed to assess the influence of math anxiety (MA) on the development of skill acquisition in calculus. A math skills assessment test is administered on two occasions, at the beginning and end of the school year.
Results highlighted that the score on the anxiety scale, administered at the beginning of the year, negatively correlated with the score obtained on the mathematics test, administered at the end of the school year: the higher the level of anxiety, the worse the performance. Furthermore, the score obtained in the second administration makes it possible to divide the students tested into two groups: students who improved their performance and students who did not benefit at all from repeating the test. In these two groups, an analysis of the relationships between the outcome of the end-of-year mathematics test and the level of MA at the beginning of the year showed that MA correlates negatively with performance only in students who will fail to acquire new expertise in mathematics over the course of the school year.
The results suggest that MA may interfere with the smooth development of math skills. Assessing the level of MA at the beginning of the school year could prove to be a useful tool in identifying which and how many students are at risk of failing to achieve the skills expected from the usual course of instruction. A consideration of anxiety as one of the variables at play in the genesis of learning difficulties may prompt educators to modify teaching methodology and strategies by increasing focus on the impact of the emotional dimension on learning.
We will describe in two articles ("Sense of self and psychosis", 1 and 2) the theoretical basis and the methodology of a new therapeutic group approach called amniotic therapy, which aims to improve ...the sense of self of psychotic patients. In this first article we explore the role of the surface of the body and its early sensorimotor interactions in the processes of self/other identification and differentiation. We propose that these processes have common origins, the body surface and its interactions, but different destinies, depending on where the body's surface is projected. When it is projected intrapsychically we have differentiation, and when it is projected externally onto the body's surface of the other, we have identification. Identification is a reciprocal process, in which the self's and the other's surfaces mutually contain each other and co-create a shared field. The neural correlates of identification and differentiation are discussed. The second article, which follows, describes amniotic therapy and explores a single case study.
Some people diagnosed with schizophrenia show an alteration of the sense of self. From a psychodynamic perspective, it has been hypothesized they have disorders of the integration of self/other ...identification/differentiation processes. From a neuroscientific view some with this diagnosis present dysfunctions in neural correlates of representation of self from other (the implicit sensorimotor-based bodily self), and self united with other. In "Sense of self and psychosis, part 1" we discussed scientific literature offering empirical evidence for the psychodynamic clinical observations that patients with diagnoses of psychoses didn't receive adequate early infancy parental care and sufficient affective-sensorial/tactile interactions. Introducing parental care/cutaneous interactions seemed relevant in the analytic treatment of psychoses, as the pioneers of the psychoanalytic approach to psychosis suggested. From this theoretical basis we developed amniotic therapy, which reproduces the affective-tactile interactions of early infancy, insufficient in cases of psychosis, and aims at integrating the processes of differentiation and identification. We present a single case study of an experimental intervention plan including amniotic therapy. Results showed increases in interoception and global functioning, with significant decreases in positive symptoms suggesting that amniotic therapy contributes to increasing the protective strength of self-boundaries and integration of identification/differentiation processes.
Objective. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention to treat overweight/obese children and adolescents. The main outcome was ...cardiometabolic risk based on the waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) measurement. Secondary outcomes were (1) changes in body composition; (2) adherence to a Mediterranean diet; and (3) physical performance. Method. The study involved 74 overweight/obese children or adolescents. The intervention was multidisciplinary including nutrition, exercise, and psychological aspects based on a family-based approach; it was delivered for six months for children and three months for adolescents. Before and after the intervention, several anthropometric measures (height, body weight, body mass index or BMI, waist circumference, and body composition), cardiometabolic risk index (waist-to-height ratio or WHTR), and nutrition habits of the participants and their families were evaluated. In addition, a set of functional motor fitness tests was performed to evaluate physical performance measures. Results. After the intervention both children and adolescents showed a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, waist circumference, fat mass, and WHTR index and an improvement of fat-free mass, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and physical fitness performance. Conclusion. A family-based multidisciplinary approach is effective in the short term in ameliorating the health status, the nutrition habits, and physical performance in children and adolescents.
IntroductionNumerous international educational institutions have sounded the alarm about the gradual increase in the number of students failing to achieve a sufficient level of proficiency in ...mathematical abilities. Thus, the growing interest in identifying possible solutions and factors interfering with learning seems justified. In recent years, special attention has accrued to the possible role played by emotional factors.MethodsIn the present investigation, students in the first grade of a technical vocational secondary school are followed to assess the influence of math anxiety (MA) on the development of skill acquisition in calculus. A math skills assessment test is administered on two occasions, at the beginning and end of the school year.ResultsResults highlighted that the score on the anxiety scale, administered at the beginning of the year, negatively correlated with the score obtained on the mathematics test, administered at the end of the school year: the higher the level of anxiety, the worse the performance. Furthermore, the score obtained in the second administration makes it possible to divide the students tested into two groups: students who improved their performance and students who did not benefit at all from repeating the test. In these two groups, an analysis of the relationships between the outcome of the end-of-year mathematics test and the level of MA at the beginning of the year showed that MA correlates negatively with performance only in students who will fail to acquire new expertise in mathematics over the course of the school year.DiscussionThe results suggest that MA may interfere with the smooth development of math skills. Assessing the level of MA at the beginning of the school year could prove to be a useful tool in identifying which and how many students are at risk of failing to achieve the skills expected from the usual course of instruction. A consideration of anxiety as one of the variables at play in the genesis of learning difficulties may prompt educators to modify teaching methodology and strategies by increasing focus on the impact of the emotional dimension on learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns regarding millions of children's mental health. For schools, the real challenge has been how to manage the situation in terms of education and development. The ...present investigation was carried out to evaluate a school re-entry program that supported teachers and students with activities aimed at processing emotions and lockdown experiences in their classrooms. Results show that the program was well perceived and was associated with a consequent reduction in children's state anxiety and negative emotions. We conclude that a school re-entry program can play an important role in fostering resilience and development during a crisis.
Several studies highlight that many students feel negative feelings about mathematical learning and that the mathematics anxiety
seems to play a central role in mathematical performance. More ...specifically students with higher level of maths anxiety are less
efficient in mathematical tasks. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between specific mathematics anxiety as
assessed by AMAS, trait and state anxiety as assessed by STAI-Y, and mathematical skills assessed through the ABCA tests in a
sample of 83 adolescent students (78.3% males) without diagnosis of dyscalculia and cognitive disorder attending their first year of
secondary school. Results showed that 38% of the students referred high level of maths anxiety. Independent T-test revealed that
female students referred a higher level of maths anxiety as well as of trait and state anxiety than male ones, while there were no
differences in the mathematics performance. The simultaneous multivariate linear regression analysis showed that maths anxiety was
influenced by trait anxiety and in its turn has an impact on the high level mathematics performances (i.e. arithmetic facts).
Understanding the relationships between maths anxiety and maths learning and performance may have relevant implications in
clinical, educational and didactic practice.
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