Coping with Stress, Executive Functions, and Depressive Symptoms: Focusing on Flexible Responses to Stress.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kato T
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8304560 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectiveCognitive difficulties are a common complaint among patients with breast cancer and may adversely affect psychological well-being. In particular, problems with executive functioning (EF) may interfere with coping, which is known to influence depressive symptoms. The current study was designed to examine correlations between EF, coping, and depressive symptoms in breast cancer survivors and to longitudinally test the hypothesis that coping mediates the relationship between EF and depressive symptoms.MethodsParticipants included 171 women with early-stage breast cancer assessed at the end of primary treatment with surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy and at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after treatment follow-ups as part of the Mind-Body Study. Participants completed questionnaires to assess subjective EF, approach and avoidant coping, and depressive symptoms, and neuropsychological testing was conducted to assess objective EF. Bivariate correlations were used to examine associations between EF, coping, and depressive symptoms. Mediation analyses were conducted using a bootstrapping approach (PROCESS).ResultsAt 1 year after treatment, objective and subjective EFs were correlated with avoidant coping (r = -0.172 [p = .024] and r = 0.297 [p < .001], respectively). In longitudinal analyses, use of the avoidant strategy behavioral disengagement at 1 year mediated the association between objective (95% bootstrap confidence interval = -0.282 to -0.042) and subjective (95% bootstrap confidence interval = 0.020 to 0.254) EFs at 6 months and depressive symptoms at 2 years.ConclusionsThis study highlights how problems with EF during survivorship are associated with avoidant coping and depressive symptoms. Thus, these findings identify potential cognitive and affective targets for depression intervention in this population.
| S-EPMC8691137 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study aimed to investigate and compare the executive functions of students with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms with those functions in healthy ones.This study was a comparative and non-clinical analysis. The study population comprised all students of Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. A total of 448 students were recruited using convenience sampling method. They were also screened using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) test comprising 21 items. Of study participants, 30 people were depressed, 27 had anxiety, and 15 suffered from stress. Then, 50 control people were matched with them. Next, both groups were compared using the Stroop test, Wisconsin card sorting, and cognitive ability test.Using MANOVA test, data analysis revealed no significant differences among 4 groups with regard to selective attention and shifting attention. Depressed group reacted rapidly as opposed to the anxiety group with regard to measures of shifting attention and cognitive abilities; it was observed that the memory, inhibition control, planning, and flexibility of the healthy group were better than those of the 3 other groups.The findings of this research raised specific issues in relation to the role of depression, anxiety, and stress in the disruption of the executive functions of sufferers. Selective and shifting attention and cognitive abilities are specifically affected in this regard. Meanwhile, the role of stress in impairing decision making and the major role of anxiety in impairing sustained attention was shown to be considerable.
| S-EPMC5535328 | biostudies-other
Project description:Introduction: The interrelationship between social support, depressive symptoms, stress and self-esteem in young adults remains unclear. This study aims to test the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between social support and depressive symptoms and the moderating role of perceived stress in the relationship between the two. This is important to inform components of future intervention development targeting youth depression. Methods: Three hundred forty-four (N = 344) young adults in Cyprus aged 17-26 (78% female) completed measures of self-esteem, social support, depressive symptoms, and perceived stress. Structural equation models were used to examine the interactions between social support and depressive psychopathology, whereas mediational analyses were run to examine the mediating role of self-esteem. Latent moderated mediation models were applied to examine the potentially moderating role of perceived stress. Results: Perceived social support from family and friends were significantly related to lower depressive symptoms. Self-esteem fully mediated the relationship between perceived family support and depressive symptoms. Perceived stress moderated the model, and perceived social support was found to be more protective against depressive symptoms when moderate levels of stress were presented. Conclusion: The study demonstrates that social support is protective against depressive symptoms. Self-esteem and perceived stress are important mechanisms that interact with this effect. Implications include the efforts to increase perceived family support during college years and management of stress levels before working with depressive symptoms.
| S-EPMC6340372 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The present prospective study examined the relations among stressful life events, coping, and depressive symptoms in children at varied risk for depression. Participants were 227 children between 7 and 17 years old (mean age = 12.13 years, SD = 2.31, 54.6 % female) who were part of a longitudinal study of depressed and nondepressed parents and their children. Youth completed measures assessing stressful life events and coping strategies at four time points over 22 months. Children's depressive symptoms were assessed at each time point by clinical interviews of parents and children, and children's self-report. Structural equation modeling indicated that stressful life events significantly predicted subsequent depressive symptoms. Bootstrap analyses of the indirect effects in three different models revealed that primary control engagement coping and disengagement coping strategies partially mediated the relation between stressful life events and children's depressive symptoms across time. Regarding the direction of effects, more consistent relations were found for coping as a mediator of the link from stress to depressive symptoms than from symptoms to stress. Thus, one potential mechanism by which stressful life events may contribute to depressive symptoms in children is through less use of primary control coping and greater use of disengagement coping strategies. This is consistent with the view that the adverse effects of stress may contribute to impairments in the ability to cope effectively.
| S-EPMC4284153 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOffspring of parents with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) and especially those exposed to a current episode of parental depression have been found to be at increased risk for developing depression themselves. Exposure to a current parental depressive episode also reduces the efficacy of interventions in high risk or depressed adolescents. This highlights the need to identify protective factors for adolescents exposed to a current parental depressive episode. Executive functions serve as an important cognitive resource, involved in the ability to regulate mood and thoughts and cope with stressful events. This study examined the buffering role of two components of executive functioning, inhibitory control and mental flexibility, in the association between a current parental episode of MDD and adolescent depressive symptoms.MethodsA high-risk sample of 288 adolescent offspring of parents with recurrent major depressive disorder completed an Affective Go/No Go and a Verbal Fluency task. Parents and adolescents underwent psychiatric interviews.ResultsIn the presence of a current parental depressive episode in the parent, adolescents with better inhibitory control and mental flexibility had fewer depressive symptoms after controlling for age, gender and IQ.LimitationsParticipants were the offspring of depressed parents and it is not clear whether the protective effects of executive functioning observed here would generalise to other populations.ConclusionsExecutive functions may protect against adolescent depression in the presence of a parental depressive episode. It may be beneficial to target executive functions in preventive programs for individuals at high-risk for depression.
| S-EPMC4871808 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Depression is associated with deficits in executive functions (EFs)-cognitive control abilities that regulate goal-directed thoughts and actions-but the etiology of these associations is unclear. We examined the relations between depressive symptoms and multiple EF latent variables in a population-based sample of 439 twin pairs assessed at mean ages 12, 17, and 23 years. Greater depressive symptoms negatively related to a Common EF factor capturing shared variance across response inhibition, working memory updating, and mental set shifting tasks, and also negatively related to an Updating-Specific factor, but not a Shifting-Specific factor. Cross-lagged panel models suggested that the Common EF correlations reflected within-wave associations rather than prospective effects, whereas the Updating-Specific correlations reflected associations of earlier depression levels with later Updating-Specific ability. Twin models were consistent with a model in which Common EF and Updating-Specific abilities relate to depression through correlated genetic risk, with no significant environmental correlations.
| S-EPMC6150459 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study examined the independent and mediated associations between maternal depression symptoms (MDS), mother-child interaction, and child executive function (EF) in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,037 children (50% boys) from predominantly low-income and rural communities. When children were 6, 15 and 24 months of age, mothers reported their level of depressive symptomatology. At 24 and 36 months of age, mother-child interactions during play were rated for warmth-sensitivity and harsh-intrusiveness, and dyadic joint attention and maternal language complexity were assessed from a book sharing activity. Children's EF (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, and set shifting) were assessed at ages 36 and 48 months using a battery of six tasks. Results indicated that MDS at ages 15 and 24 months were negatively associated with children's EF at age 48 months. Additionally, harsh-intrusive mother-child interactions partially mediated this link. Although warmth-sensitivity, dyadic joint attention and maternal language complexity were all longitudinally related to EF, they did not serve as mediating mechanisms between MDS and EF. These results were obtained while controlling for multiple demographic factors, children's earlier cognitive abilities, maternal general distress and childcare experiences. Findings from this study identify 1 mechanism through which early exposure to MDS could be related to children's EF. (PsycINFO Database Record
| S-EPMC5750080 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveAccording to the dual-process theory, coping flexibility is defined as the ability to produce and implement a new coping strategy in place of an ineffective coping strategy. Specifically, coping flexibility includes two processes: evaluation coping and adaptive coping. Evaluation coping refers to sensitivity to feedback about the efficacy of a coping strategy, and adaptive coping involves the willingness to implement alternative coping strategies. The coping flexibility hypothesis (CFH) postulates that more flexible coping will be associated with more adaptive outcomes; importantly, there are numerous theories and studies that support the CFH. The main purpose of this study was to test the CFH based on dual-process theory.MethodsA total of 1,770 Japanese college students participated and, completed a set of questionnaires that measured coping flexibility (evaluation coping and adaptive coping) and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were measured via the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.ResultsThe proportions of women and men who reported depressive symptoms were 58.69% (95% CIs [55.74, 61.66]) and 54.17% (95% CIs [50.37, 57.95]), respectively when a cut-off score of 16 on the CES-D was used. A multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that evaluation coping (OR = 0.86, 95% CIs [0.83, 0.0.89]) and adaptive coping (OR = 0.91, 95% CIs [0.88, 0.93]) were significantly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms.ConclusionThe results of the present study indicated that the CFH based on dual-process theory was supported in a Japanese sample.
| S-EPMC4444128 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between internalizing and externalizing symptoms and deficits in executive functions (EF) as well as to examine the overall heterogeneity of EFs in a sample of preschool children attending a psychiatric clinic (n?=?171). First, based on cut-off points signifying clinical levels of impairment on the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), children were assigned into groups of internalizing, externalizing, combined or mild symptoms and compared to a reference group (n?=?667) with regard to day care teacher ratings of EFs on the Attention and Executive Function Rating Inventory-Preschool (ATTEX-P). Second, latent profile analysis (LPA) was employed to identify distinct subgroups of children representing different EF profiles with unique strengths and weaknesses in EFs. The first set of analyses indicated that all symptom groups had more difficulties in EFs than the reference group did, and the internalizing group had less inhibition-related problems than the other symptom groups did. Using LPA, five EF profiles were identified: average, weak average, attentional problems, inhibitory problems, and overall problems. The EF profiles were significantly associated with gender, maternal education level, and psychiatric symptom type. Overall, the findings suggest that the comparison of means of internalizing and externalizing groups mainly captures the fairly obvious differences in inhibition-related domains among young psychiatric outpatient children, whereas the person-oriented approach, based on individual differences, identifies heterogeneity related to attentional functions, planning, and initiating one's action. The variability in EF difficulties suggests that a comprehensive evaluation of a child's EF profile is important regardless of the type of psychiatric symptoms the child presents with.
| S-EPMC7497399 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:Although numerous studies address the relationships of depression with coping processes directed toward approaching or avoiding stressful experiences, the large majority are cross-sectional in design, assess coping processes at only one timepoint, or solely include prediction of the linear slope of depressive symptoms. In this research, coping processes were investigated as predictors of depressive symptoms, symptom trajectory classes (consistently high, recovery, consistently low), and major depressive episodes (MDEs) over 12 months in the cancer context. METHOD:Women (N = 460) within 4 months of breast cancer diagnosis completed assessments of cancer-related coping processes, depressive symptoms, and MDEs at 7 points across 1 year. RESULTS:Beyond sociodemographic and medical variables, coping through cancer-related avoidance an average of 2 months after diagnosis was associated with likelihood of being in the high depressive symptom trajectory class and occurrence of a MDE during the year. Less decline in avoidant coping over time also predicted poor outcomes. In contrast, high initial engagement in approach-oriented coping, as well as increases in coping through emotional expression and acceptance, were associated with lower depressive symptoms across assessments and higher likelihood of being in the recovery or low trajectory class. CONCLUSIONS:Greater engagement in cancer-related avoidant coping was associated with all three indicators of depression, and greater approach-oriented coping was related to more favorable outcomes (except MDE). Sustained or increasing coping through emotional expression or acceptance predicted recovery from initially high depressive symptoms. Approach- and avoidance-oriented coping processes constitute malleable targets for preventive and ameliorative approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC6166440 | biostudies-literature