Associations of sleep quality with war-related anxiety, childhood stressors, and war-related stressors in a sample of adult Israeli civilians during the Hamas-Israel war.

The current study examined the sleep quality of Israeli adults following the onset of the Hamas-Israel war, and the associations of reduced sleep quality with the magnitude of war-related anxiety and exposure to adverse war-related events. We also examined whether exposure to stressors during childhood predicts a greater war-related reduction in sleep quality. 536 Israeli adults (mean age 31.

The intersection between alexithymia, testosterone reactivity, and coparenting in fathers predicts child's prosocial behavior.

The development of prosocial skills in children is a key predictor of long-term social, cognitive, and emotional functioning. However, the role of fathers' psychological characteristics in fostering prosocial development, including during the prenatal period, and the mechanisms underlying their influence, remain relatively unexplored. This study aimed to examine whether a higher tendency of alexithymia, a difficulty to identify and verbalize emotions, in expectant fathers predicts prosocial behavior of two-year-old toddlers through the quality of coparenting and whether greater testosterone increase during a stressful parenting task moderates this indirect effect.

Promoting couples' resilience to relationship obsessive compulsive disorder (ROCD) symptoms using a CBT-based mobile application: A randomized controlled trial.

Relationship Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ROCD) is a disabling form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) centering on interpersonal relationships. Previous findings suggest ROCD symptoms are particularly detrimental to romantic relationships. In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), we assessed influence a CBT-based mobile application used by both partners on resilience to ROCD symptoms, cognitions, and relationship dissatisfaction.

Insomnia Severity Mediates the Association between COVID-19 Related Anxiety and Increase in Tobacco Smoking During the COVID-19 Pandemic among Adults.

Objectives: Examining the associations of COVID-19 related anxiety and insomnia with increased smoking following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigating whether increased insomnia severity mediates the association between COVID-19 related anxiety and increased smoking.

Methods: 598 participants, aged 18-40, out of whom 140 self-identified as smokers, completed online questionnaires during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures included two items assessing COVID-19 related anxiety, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Insomnia Severity Index, which included a pre-pandemic retrospective report.

Associations Between Childhood Stressors, COVID-19-Related Anxiety, and Sleep Quality of Adults During the Third Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel.

Purpose: Studies point to a persistent effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep quality and mental health, including anxiety. Exposure to stressors during childhood increases the susceptibility to anxiety in later life. Given the negative effects of anxiety on sleep quality, the present study aimed to examine the associations between various childhood stressors and poor sleep quality of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether these associations are mediated by COVID-19-related anxiety.

The multifaceted role of empathy in the transmission of postpartum depressive symptoms between parents.

Postpartum depression is a common challenge faced by mothers and fathers and can be transmitted between them. Despite the well-documented adverse effects of postpartum depressive symptoms (PPDS) on parents and children, not much is known about risk factors pertaining to the transmission of PPDS between parents. Guided by The Social Functions of Emotions theory, the current study tested the moderating effects of different forms of empathy, including perspective-taking, empathic concern, and personal distress on the transmission of PPDS between parents.

The effects of childhood unpredictability and harshness on emotional control and relationship quality: A life history perspective.

Being able to control oneself in emotionally upsetting situations is essential for good relationship functioning. According to life history theory, childhood exposure to harshness and unpredictability should forecast diminished emotional control and lower relationship quality. We examined this in three studies.

Developmental trajectories of infant nighttime awakenings are associated with infant-mother and infant-father attachment security.

This longitudinal study examined developmental trajectories of infant sleep problems from 3 to 24 months old and investigated associations with infant-parent attachment security and dependency. In a sample of 107 Israeli families, number and duration of infant nighttime awakenings were measured at 3, 6, 9, and 24 months old, using mothers' and fathers' reports on the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ). Infant-parent attachment security and infant-parent dependency was assessed at 24 months old, using the observer Attachment Q-Sort procedure (AQS) with both parents.

Predicting infant-father attachment: the role of pre- and postnatal triadic family alliance and paternal testosterone levels.

This longitudinal study examined whether prenatal family alliance and prenatal paternal testosterone levels predicted infant-mother and infant-father attachment security and whether this association was mediated by postnatal family alliance and postnatal paternal testosterone levels. In 105 couples expecting their first child, family alliance was assessed in the third trimester of pregnancy with the prenatal version of the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP). Family alliance was measured again 6 months postnatally, using the LTP.

Attachment and Jealousy: Understanding the Dynamic Experience of Jealousy Using the Response Escalation Paradigm.

Jealousy is a complex, dynamic experience that unfolds over time in relationship-threatening situations. Prior research has used retrospective reports that cannot disentangle initial levels and change in jealousy in response to escalating threat. In three studies, we examined responses to the Response Escalation Paradigm (REP)-a 5-stage hypothetical scenario in which individuals are exposed to increasing levels of relationship threat-as a function of attachment orientations.

Attachment within life history theory: an evolutionary perspective on individual differences in attachment.

In this article, we discuss theory and research on how individual differences in adult attachment mediate the adaptive calibration of reproductive strategies, cognitive schemas, and emotional expression and regulation. We first present an integration of attachment theory and life history theory. Then, we discuss how early harsh and/or unpredictable environments may promote insecure attachment by hampering parents' ability to provide sensitive and reliable care to their children.

The role of dissociation in revictimization across the lifespan: A 32-year prospective study.

Exposure to childhood abuse puts women at risk for revictimization in adult intimate relationships, but knowledge about the mechanism by which it occurs is limited. The present study investigated whether dissociation mediates the effect of exposure to physical or sexual child abuse on intimate partner violence in adulthood. We tested this using prospective data collected from birth to age 32 from 80 female participants in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation.

The importance of parental verbal and embodied mentalizing in shaping parental experiences of stress and coparenting.

Parental mentalizing-recognizing that children are separate psychological entities, who have their own thoughts, wishes, and intentions that motivate their behaviors-is traditionally considered a verbal, linguistic capacity. This paper aimed to examine the relation between parental verbal mentalizing (parental reflective function; PRF) and its nonverbal form-parental embodied mentalizing (PEM)-and how both constructs contribute to parents' subjective experience of parenting, namely parental stress and coparental alliance. 68 mothers and their three-months-old babies were observed to assess PEM, interviewed to code PRF, and completed self-reports of coparental alliance and parental stress.

Standing on shaky ground? Dyadic and longitudinal associations between posttraumatic stress and relationship quality postearthquake.

In the current study, we took a unique dyadic approach to examine how people's relationship quality following an earthquake was associated with their and their partner's posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and whether support exchanges in the relationship protected relationship quality in the face of this adversity. Ninety-nine heterosexual couples were studied over 4 time points for approximately 15 months following the Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes. The data were analyzed using moderated growth-curve modeling in an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model framework.

Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Interference, Symptoms, and Maladaptive Beliefs.

Background: Obsessive preoccupation, doubts, and compulsive behaviors focusing on one's romantic relationship and partner are receiving increasing clinical, theoretical, and empirical attention. Commonly referred to as relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder (ROCD), such symptoms have been linked with decreased relational and sexual functioning and lower mood, even after controlling for other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. To date, however, these symptoms have been studied in community samples alone.

The effect of unpredictable early childhood environments on parenting in adulthood.

Life history theory suggests that individual differences in parenting are partially rooted in environmental conditions experienced early in life. Whereas certain conditions should promote increased investment in parenting, unpredictable and/or harsh environments should promote decreased investment in parenting, especially in men. We tested this hypothesis in 3 studies.

Partner-focused obsessions and self-esteem: An experimental investigation.

Background: Relationship-related obsessive-compulsive phenomena (ROCD) are encountered frequently in the clinic, and involve severe consequences to personal and relational well-being. One common presentation of ROCD involves disabling preoccupation and doubts focusing on intimate partner's flaws (partner-focused obsessions). It was previously suggested that individuals perceiving their partner's failures or flaws as reflecting on their own self-worth may be more sensitive to intrusive thoughts pertaining to their partner's qualities and characteristics.

Childhood Maltreatment, Shame-Proneness and Self-Criticism in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Sequential Mediational Model.

Unlabelled: Previous research has shown a robust link between emotional abuse and neglect with social anxiety symptoms. However, the mechanisms through which these links operate are less clear. We hypothesized a model in which early experiences of abuse and neglect create aversive shame states, internalized into a stable shame-based cognitive-affective schema.

Right or flawed: relationship obsessions and sexual satisfaction.

Introduction: Relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder (ROCD) is marked by the presence of obsessions and compulsions focusing on romantic relationships. ROCD symptoms were previously linked with decreased relationship quality and might interfere with sexual functioning.

Aim: The study aims to examine the association between ROCD symptoms and sexual satisfaction.

When sex goes wrong: a behavioral systems perspective on individual differences in sexual attitudes, motives, feelings, and behaviors.

In the research program summarized here, we adopted a behavioral systems approach to explain individual differences in human sexual behavior. In the 1st stage, we developed the Sexual System Functioning Scale (SSFS)-a self-report instrument for assessing hyperactivation and deactivation of the sexual system. Sexual hyperactivation involves intense but anxious expressions of sexual desire, whereas sexual deactivation includes inhibition of sexual inclinations.

Obsessing about intimate-relationships: testing the double relationship-vulnerability hypothesis.

Background And Objectives: Obsessive preoccupation and doubts centering on one's intimate relationship may have a negative impact on the romantic dyad and lead to significant distress. In this research we investigated whether the co-occurrence of attachment anxiety and overreliance on intimate relationships for self-worth-what we call double relationship-vulnerability-is linked with relationship-centered obsessions and obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

Methods: Study 1 employed a correlational design to examine the link between double relationship-vulnerability and relationship-centered obsessions.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy improves emotional reactivity to social stress: results from a randomized controlled trial.

The high likelihood of recurrence in depression is linked to a progressive increase in emotional reactivity to stress (stress sensitization). Mindfulness-based therapies teach mindfulness skills designed to decrease emotional reactivity in the face of negative affect-producing stressors. The primary aim of the current study was to assess whether Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is efficacious in reducing emotional reactivity to social evaluative threat in a clinical sample with recurrent depression.

A pilot investigation of emotion-focused two-chair dialogue intervention for self-criticism.

Unlabelled: Self-criticism plays a key role in many psychological disorders and predicts poor outcome in psychotherapy. Yet, psychotherapy research directly targeting self-critical processes is limited. In this pilot study, we examined the efficacy of an emotion-focused intervention, the two-chair dialogue task, on self-criticism, self-compassion and the ability to self-reassure in times of stress, as well as on depressive and anxiety symptoms among nine self-critical clients.

Neuropsychological evidence of impaired cognitive empathy in euthymic bipolar disorder.

The empathic abilities have never been examined in bipolar disorder patients, despite frequent observations of impaired social behavior. To examine the neuropsychological processes that underlie the affective and cognitive empathic ability in bipolar disorder, the authors compared affective and cognitive empathic abilities, as well as theory of mind and executive functions, of euthymic bipolar disorder patients and healthy comparison subjects. Significant deficits in cognitive empathy and theory of mind were observed, while affective empathy was elevated in bipolar disorder.