Explore the vast range of titles available.

The objective of this study was to investigate (i) whether childhood family SES predicts offspring’s compassion between ages 20–50 years and (ii) whether adulthood SES predicts compassion or vice versa. We used the prospective population-based Young Finns data ( N = 637–2300). Childhood family SES was evaluated in 1980; participants’ adulthood SES in 2001 and 2011; and compassion for others in 1997, 2001, and 2012. Compassion for others was evaluated with the Compassion scale of the Temperament and Character Inventory. The results showed that high childhood family SES (a composite score of educational level, occupational status, unemployment status, and level of income) predicted offspring’s higher compassion between ages 30–40 years but not in early adulthood or middle age. These results were obtained independently of a variety of potential confounders (disruptive behavior in childhood; parental mental disorder; frequency of parental alcohol use and alcohol intoxication). Moreover, high compassion for others in adulthood (a composite score of educational level, occupational status, and unemployment status) predicted higher adulthood SES later in their life (after a 10-year follow-up), but not vice versa. In conclusion, favorable socioeconomic environment in childhood appears to have a positive effect on offspring’s compassion in their middle adulthood. This effect may attenuate by middle age. High compassion for others seems to promote the achievement of higher SES in adulthood.

BackgroundThis study investigated (i) whether compassion is associated with blood pressure or hypertension in adulthood and (ii) whether familial risk for hypertension modifies these associations.MethodThe participants (N = 1112–1293) came from the prospective Young Finns Study. Parental hypertension was assessed in 1983–2007; participants’ blood pressure in 2001, 2007, and 2011; hypertension in 2007 and 2011 (participants were aged 30–49 years in 2007–2011); and compassion in 2001.ResultsHigh compassion predicted lower levels of diastolic and systolic blood pressure in adulthood. Additionally, high compassion was related to lower risk for hypertension in adulthood among individuals with no familial risk for hypertension (independently of age, sex, participants’ and their parents’ socioeconomic factors, and participants’ health behaviors). Compassion was not related to hypertension in adulthood among individuals with familial risk for hypertension.ConclusionHigh compassion predicts lower diastolic and systolic blood pressure in adulthood. Moreover, high compassion may protect against hypertension among individuals without familial risk for hypertension. As our sample consisted of comparatively young participants, our findings provide novel implications for especially early-onset hypertension.

Recently, the use of information and communications technology (ICT) at school has been extensively increased in Finland. This study investigated whether the use of ICT at school is linked to students ‘learning outcomes in Finland. We used the Finnish PISA 2015 data (N=5037). Cognitive learning outcomes (i.e. science, mathematics, reading, collaborative problem-solving) were evaluated with computer-based tests. ICT use at school, ICT availability at school, and students’ perceived ICT competence were assessed with self-rating questionnaires. Frequent ICT use at school predicted students’ weaker performance in all the cognitive learning outcomes, when adjusted for age, gender, parental socioeconomic status, students’ ICT competence, and ICT availability at school. Further, the effect of ICT use on learning outcomes was more negative in students with higher than lower ICT skills. Frequent use of  ICT at school appears to be linked to weaker cognitive learning outcomes in Finland. This may be explained by working memory overload and task-switching during the use of digital technologies. This finding also suggests that even though students with ICT skills are good at mechanical use of digital device, they may not have abilities for a goal-oriented and self-directed use of digital technologies that could promote their learning.

BackgroundThis study investigated whether self-reported cognitive functions (i.e. task orientation, distractibility, persistence, flexibility, and perseverance) predict the trajectory of paranoid ideation over a 15-year prospective follow-up in adulthood.MethodsThe participants came from the population-based Young Finns study (N = 1210‒1213). Paranoid ideation was assessed with the Paranoid Ideation Scale of the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90R) in 1997, 2001, 2007, and 2012. Self-reported cognitive functions were evaluated in 1997 with the Task orientation, Distractibility, Persistence, and Flexibility scales of the DOTS-R (the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey) and the Perseverance scale of the FCB-TI (the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour – Temperament Inventory). The data was analyzed using growth curve models that were adjusted for age, sex, and socioeconomic factors in childhood and adulthood.ResultsLow self-reported task orientation, low persistence, high distractibility, low flexibility, and high perseverance predicted higher level of paranoid ideation over the 15-year follow-up.ConclusionsSelf-reported cognitive functions seem to predict paranoid ideation over a long-term follow-up. Promoting cognitive functions in early interventions may have long-term protective influences against the development of paranoid ideation in non-clinical populations.

This meta-analysis investigated (1) whether ethnic minority and majority members have a neural inter-group bias toward each other, and (2) whether various ethnic groups (i.e., White, Black, and Asian) are processed in the brain differently by the other respective ethnicities. A systematic coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies was conducted using Web of Science, PubMed, and PsycINFO (altogether 50 datasets, = 1211, 50.1% female). We found that ethnic minority members did not show any signs of neural inter-group bias (e.g., no majority-group derogation). Ethnic majority members, in turn, expressed biased responses toward minority (vs. majority) members in frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital regions that are known to be involved in e.g., facial processing, attention, and perspective-taking. We also found differences in neural response patterns toward different ethnic groups (White, Black, and Asian); broadest biases in neural response patterns were evident toward Black individuals (in non-Black individuals). Heterogeneity was mostly minor or low. Overall, the findings increase understanding of neural processes involved in ethnicity perception and cognition as well as ethnic prejudices and discrimination. This meta-analysis provides explanations for previous behavioral reports on ethnic discrimination toward minority groups.

Introduction Schizophrenia is characterized by weaker test-measured cognitive performance, which is partially explained by disease-related secondary factors (after the onset of the disorder) such as side effects of antipsychotics, stigma, or sedentary behavior. We examined whether polygenic risk for schizophrenia (PRSSCZ) is associated with (a) test-measured or (b) self-reported cognitive performance in individuals who have not converted into non-affective psychosis during follow-up to extending to middle age. Methods The participants came from the population-based Young Finns Study, born between 1962 and 1977 ( n  = 2217). Participants with diagnosed non-affective psychoses were excluded from the sample. Diagnoses collected from the Care Register for Health Care. PRS SCZ was calculated on the basis of the most recent genome-wide association study on schizophrenia. Cognitive performance was measured with (1) subtests of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, measuring visuospatial learning, reaction time, sustained attention, and executive function and (2) self-reported executive functions including distractibility, task orientation, and rigidity. Results In individuals who have not developed non-affective psychoses during follow-up to middle age, high PRS SCZ was associated with lower scores in all test-measured cognitive domains. These associations sustained after controlling for health behaviors and socioeconomic factors. PRS SCZ was not associated with self-reported distractibility or task orientation but was related to an increasing trajectory of rigidity when approaching middle age. Conclusion We observed lower cognitive functioning in domains similar to those reported in studies of patients with schizophrenia. Thus, some difficulties in cognitive performance may not be fully attributable to the disorder itself but may partly reflect normative developmental trajectories in individuals with high polygenic liabilities. Clinical trial number Not applicable.

Evidence is accumulating on the connection of early adversities and harsh family environment with epigenetic ageing. We investigated whether early psychosocial resilience is associated with epigenetic ageing in adulthood. We used the population‐based Young Finns data (n = 1593). Early psychosocial resilience was assessed in 1980–1989 across five broad domains: (1) index of psychological strength (self‐esteem at home/in general/at school, perceived possibilities to influence at home, internal life control), (2) index of social satisfaction (perceived support from family/friends and life satisfaction), (3) index of leisure time activities (hobbies and physical fitness), (4) index of responsible health behaviors (infrequent smoking or alcohol consumption), and (5) index of school career (school grades and adaptation). Epigenetic ages were calculated for blood samples from 2011, and the analyses were performed with variables describing age deviation (AgeDevHannum, AgeDevHorvath, AgeDevPheno, AgeDevGrim) and DunedinPACE. Covariates included early family environment, polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia and major depression, adulthood education, and adulthood health behaviors. All of the early resilience indexes were associated with lower levels of epigenetic ageing in adulthood, most consistently with AgeDevGrim and DunedinPACE. The associations of psychological strength and social satisfaction, in particular, seemed to be non‐linear. In a smaller subsample (n = 289), high early resilience was related to lower AgeDevGrim over a 25‐year follow‐up in those who had high “baseline” levels of AgeDevGrim. In conclusion, early resilience seems to associate with lower level of epigenetic ageing in adulthood. Our results tentatively suggest that early resilience may increase “equality in epigenetic ageing” in a general population. Various domains of early psychosocial resilience were associated with lower epigenetic ageing in the population‐based sample of the Young Finns Study. Our results tentatively suggest that early resilience may increase “equality in epigenetic ageing” in a general population.

This article charts the ideology and mobilization of the women’s crisis center movement—the most recognizable example of postcommunist feminist activism until 2011—over the first decade of the twenty-first century as Russia moved toward consolidation and authoritarianism. We draw on our experience in and observation of this movement, a 2008 photoethnography project, and a nationwide survey of crisis centers conducted in 2008–9. By the end of Vladimir Putin’s first presidency, we find that Russia’s semiauthoritarianism was infused with a new masculinism, leaving less room for self-identified feminisms and for feminisms that include critique of male roles. The crisis centers as a phenomenon were etaticized and domesticated: they no longer resembled an autonomous movement, and much of the feminism had been lost. Yet even staff at state agencies frame their work in the language of women’s rights, a shift from their earlier tendency to assert that women provoke the violence against them. Previous studies of feminism under authoritarianism suggest that feminism is often driven underground, both in terms of activities and the way activists can frame their claims. Our study suggests that in the growing number of semiauthoritarian states such as Russia, feminism may go inside the state, a tribute to the transnational women’s activism of the last three decades. However, such insider feminism often has much more moderate claims and comes at the expense of autonomous feminism.

We investigated (i) the predictive relationships of compassion with negative emotionality (a marker of susceptibility to stress) and vital exhaustion (a marker of chronic stress response) and (ii) the effect of compassion on the developmental courses of negative emotionality and vital exhaustion over a follow-up from early adulthood to middle age. We used the prospective Young Finns data (n = 1031–1495, aged 20–50). Compassion was evaluated in 1997, 2001, and 2012; and vital exhaustion and negative emotionality in 2001, 2007, and 2012. The predictive paths from compassion to vital exhaustion and negative emotionality were stronger than vice versa: high compassion predicted lower vital exhaustion and lower negative emotionality. The effect of high compassion on lower vital exhaustion and lower negative emotionality was evident from early adulthood to middle age. Overall, high compassion appears to protect against dimensions of stress from early adulthood to middle age, whereas this study found no evidence that dimensions of stress could reduce disposition to feel compassion for others’ distress over a long-term follow-up.

IntroductionThis study investigated the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between self-reported compassion and sleep quality.MethodsThe data came from the population-based Young Finns Study with an 11-year follow-up on compassion and sleep (n = 1064). We used regression models, multilevel models, and cross-lagged panel models to analyze the data.ResultsThe results showed that high compassion was cross-sectionally associated with lesser sleep deficiency and fewer sleep difficulties. High compassion also predicted fewer sleep difficulties over an 11-year follow-up (adjusted for age, gender, socioeconomic position in childhood and adulthood, body mass index, health behaviors, and working conditions). This association disappeared when controlling for depressive symptoms. The predictive pathway seemed to proceed more likely from high compassion to fewer sleep difficulties than vice versa.DiscussionCompassion may buffer against sleep difficulties, possibly via reducing depressive symptoms.