Existing research proposed that moving from a disorder-level analysis to a symptom-level analysis may provide a more fine-grained understanding of psychopathology. This study aimed to explore the relations between two dimensions (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, CR; expressive suppression, ES) of emotion regulation and individual symptoms of depression and anxiety among medical staff during the late stage of COVID-19 pandemic. We examined depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and emotion regulation among 420 medical staff during the late stage of COVID-19 pandemic via network analysis. Two networks (i.e. emotion regulation-depression network and emotion regulation-anxiety network) were constructed in the present study. Bridge centrality index was calculated for each variable within the two networks. Among the present sample, the prevalences of depression and anxiety are 39.5% and 26.0%. CR and ES showed distinct connections to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results of bridge centrality showed that in both networks, CR had a negative bridge expected influence value while ES had a positive bridge expected influence value. The results revealed the specific role of CR and ES in relation to depression and anxiety at a symptom level. Implications for clinical preventions and interventions are discussed.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed risks to public mental health worldwide. University students, who are already recognised as a vulnerable population, are at elevated risk of mental health issues given COVID-19-related disruptions to higher education. To assist universities in effectively allocating resources to the launch of targeted, population-level interventions, the current study aimed to uncover predictors of university students’ psychological wellbeing during the pandemic via a data-driven approach. Methods: Data were collected from 3973 Australian university students ((median age = 22, aged from 18 to 79); 70.6% female)) at five time points during 2020. Feature selection was conducted via least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) to identify predictors from a comprehensive set of variables. Selected variables were then entered into an ordinary least squares (OLS) model to compare coefficients and assess statistical significance. Results: Six negative predictors of university students’ psychological wellbeing emerged: White/European ethnicity, restriction stress, perceived worry on mental health, dietary changes, perceived sufficiency of distancing communication, and social isolation. Physical health status, emotional support, and resilience were positively associated with students’ psychological wellbeing. Social isolation has the largest effect on students’ psychological wellbeing. Notably, age, gender, international status, and educational level did not emerge as predictors of wellbeing. Conclusion: To cost-effectively support student wellbeing through 2021 and beyond, universities should consider investing in internet- and tele- based interventions explicitly targeting perceived social isolation among students. Course-based online forums as well as internet- and tele-based logotherapy may be promising candidates for improving students’ psychological wellbeing.

Background: Existing research has demonstrated that problematic smartphone use (PSU) may reflect a composition of heterogeneous symptoms, with individual PSU symptoms uniquely related to predisposing variables. The Big Five personality traits represent one of the most frequently examined predisposing variables in relation to PSU. However, no studies to date have examined the trait-to-symptom association between the Big Five personality traits and PSU. Using a network analysis approach, we aimed to understand: 1) specific pathways linking each of the Big Five personality traits to PSU symptoms and 2) the bridging effects of each Big Five personality trait on the PSU symptom cluster.Methods: A regularised graphical Gaussian model was estimated among 1,849 Chinese university students. PSU symptoms were assessed with items from the Problematic Smartphone Use Scale. Facets of the Big Five personality traits were assessed with the subscales of the Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory-15. An empirical index (i.e., bridge expected influence) was used to quantify bridge nodes.Results: Results revealed specific and distinct pathways between the Big Five personality traits and PSU symptoms (e.g., Neuroticism-Escapism/Avoidance, Conscientiousness-Preoccupation and Extraversion-Escapism/Avoidance). Further, Neuroticism showed the highest positive bridge centrality among the Big Five personality traits, while Conscientiousness had the highest negative bridge centrality.Discussion and conclusions: The current study provided direct empirical evidence concerning specific pathways between the Big Five personality traits and PSU symptoms and highlighted the influential role of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness as potential targets for early detection and treatment of PSU.

Background: Returning to social life after the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown may increase risk of social anxiety, which is highly co-morbid with depression. However, few studies have reported the association between them.Aims: To explore the complex relationship between social anxiety and depression symptoms in left-behind children after the lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted 6 months after the lockdown removal. A total of 3,107 left-behind children completed the survey with a mean age of 13.33 and a response rate of 87.77%. Depression and social anxiety severity were assessed by the DSM-5 Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents and the DSM-5 Social Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, respectively. The symptom-level association between the two disorders was examined using network analysis.Results: After the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown, the prevalence of depression and social anxiety in left-behind children was 19.57% and 12.36%, respectively, with a co-morbidity rate of 8.98%. Network analysis showed that “Social tension” and “Social avoidance” had the greatest expected influence; “Humiliation” and “Motor” were bridge symptom nodes in the network. The directed acyclic graph indicated that “Social fright” was at the upstream of all symptoms.Conclusion: Attention should be paid to social anxiety symptoms in left-behind children after the lifting of COVID-19 lockdown. Prevention and intervention measures should be taken promptly to reduce the comorbidity of social anxiety and depression symptoms in the left-behind children after the lifting of lockdown.

Background: Researchers are only just beginning to understand the neurocognitive drivers of addiction-like eating behaviours, a highly distressing and relatively common condition. Two constructs have been consistently linked to addiction-like eating: distress-driven impulsivity and cognitive inflexibility. Despite a large body of addiction research showing that impulsivity-related traits can interact with other risk markers to result in an especially heightened risk for addictive behaviours, no study to date has examined how distress-driven impulsivity interacts with cognitive inflexibility in relation to addiction-like eating behaviours. The current study examines the interactive contribution of distress-driven impulsivity and cognitive inflexibility to addiction-like eating behaviours. Method: One hundred and thirty-one participants [mean age 21 years (SD = 2.3), 61.8% female] completed the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale, the S-UPPS-P impulsivity scale, and a cognitive flexibility task. A bootstrap method was used to examine the associations between distress-driven impulsivity, cognitive inflexibility, and their interaction with addiction-like eating behaviours. Results: There was a significant interaction effect between distress-driven impulsivity and cognitive flexibility (P = 0.03). The follow-up test revealed that higher distress-driven impulsivity was associated with more addiction-like eating behaviours among participants classified as cognitively inflexible only. Conclusion: The current findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying addiction-like eating behaviours, including how traits and cognition might interact to drive them. The findings also suggest that interventions that directly address distress-driven impulsivity and cognitive inflexibility might be effective in reducing risk for addiction-like eating and related disorders.

Modern internet pornography allows users to harness sexual novelty in numerous ways, which can be used to overcome desensitisation through increasing volume of use (quantitative tolerance), progressing to more stimulating genres (qualitative escalation), skipping between stimuli (tab-jumping), delaying orgasm ('edging'), and engaging in pornographic binges. However, existing research has not yet evaluated how these potentially reciprocal consumption patterns relate to problematic pornography use (PPU). To this end, we recruited two independent samples of male pornography users (N₁ = 1,356, M_age = 36.86, SD = 11.26; N₂ = 944, M_age = 38.69, SD = 12.26) and examined the relationships between these behavioural dimensions and self-reported difficulties in controlling one's pornography use. Data were analysed through the network analysis approach (using Gaussian graphical models). As hypothesised, i) quantitative tolerance was centrally placed within the overall network, and ii) acted as a statistical bridge node between other patterns of pornography use (e.g., pornographic binges), and all measured facets of PPU. Our results are consistent with other emerging literature suggesting that tolerance, pornographic binges, tab-jumping, and edging behaviours as relevant features ofPPU, and that upscaling overall usage may connect broader patterns of use with problematic engagement. Clinical and theoretical implications, as well as future research directions, are discussed.