Parent conversations with young children: Implications for child well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parent-child conversations may minimize the impact of stressful situations on children's well-being. Parents were encouraged to talk with their children about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, yet research suggests that parent stress in response to the pandemic was associated with disruptions in parenting and increased child emotional distress. In the present study, 205 parents of children aged 3-6 years (50.

Pandemic play moderates the relation between caregiver stress and child emotional distress in contexts of economic adversity.

It is well-established that caregiver stress is linked to increased emotional distress among children, and recent evidence highlights similar associations between caregiver and child emotional well-being during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Examining protective factors and coping mechanisms that are associated with resiliency in the face of pandemic-related stress can highlight potential strategies that may help children adapt to other unexpected hardships outside of a global pandemic. Previous research found that playing about the pandemic moderated an association between caregiver stress and children's emotional distress.

Pretend play as abstraction: Implications for early development and beyond.

Humans are the only species that engages in sustained, complex pretend play. As pretend play is practically ubiquitous across cultures, it might support or afford a context for developmental advances during the juvenile period that have implications for functioning in adulthood. Early in development, learning to separate our thoughts from reality is practiced in pretend play and is associated with changes not just in cognition, but in emotional and social domains as well.

The Effectiveness of Post-Vaccination and Post-Infection Protection in the Hospital Staff of Three Prague Hospitals: A Cohort Study of 8-Month Follow-Up from the Start of the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign (COVANESS).

Continuous assessment of the effectiveness of approved COVID-19 vaccines is crucial to gain an insight into the longer-term impact on health outcomes, and eventually boosting public confidence. For this reason, we conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study using data on infection and vaccination rates among employees of three Prague hospitals in the period between 27 December 2020 and 31 August 2021. The post-vaccination and post-infection protectiveness were assessed in a total of 11,443 hospital workers who were followed up for more than 14 days either after their Comirnaty vaccination or study enrolment, depending on their previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Child Adjustment During COVID-19: The Role of Economic Hardship, Caregiver Stress, and Pandemic Play.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to many lifestyle changes and economic hardships for families with young children. Previous research on risk and resilience highlights that children's adjustment to family hardships is influenced by caregiver stress, but individual child behaviors and characteristics may protect children from negative outcomes. Interestingly, many children have been reported to incorporate COVID-19 themes in their pretend play.

Pretending with realistic and fantastical stories facilitates executive function in 3-year-old children.

Fictional stories can affect many aspects of children's behavior and cognition, yet little is known about how they might help or hinder children's executive function skills. The current study investigated the role of story content (fantasy or reality) and mode of engagement with the story (pretense or a non-pretense control) on children's inhibitory control, an important component of early executive function. A total of 60 3-year-olds were randomly assigned to hear a fantastical or realistic story and were encouraged to engage in either pretense or a non-pretense activity related to the story.

On Command Drug Delivery via Cell-Conveyed Phototherapeutics.

Herein, the use of red blood cells (RBCs) as carriers of cytoplasmically interned phototherapeutic agents is described. Photolysis promotes drug release from the RBC carrier thereby providing the means to target specific diseased sites. This strategy is realized with a vitamin B12-taxane conjugate (B12-TAX), in which the drug is linked to the vitamin via a photolabile CoC bond.

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children.

Self-distancing (i.e., creating mental distance between the self and a stimulus by adopting a less egocentric perspective) has been studied as a way to improve adolescents' and adults' emotion regulation.

The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children.

This study investigated the benefits of self-distancing (i.e., taking an outsider's view of one's own situation) on young children's perseverance.

A Stitch in Time: Strategic Self-Control in High School and College Students.

A growing body of research indicates that self-control is critical to academic success. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the diverse strategies students use to implement self-control or how well these strategies work. To address these issues, we conducted a naturalistic investigation of self-control strategies (Study 1) and two field experiments (Studies 2 and 3).

What would Batman do? Self-distancing improves executive function in young children.

This experimental research assessed the influence of graded levels of self-distancing - psychological distancing from one's egocentric perspective - on executive function (EF) in young children. Three- (n = 48) and 5-year-old (n = 48) children were randomly assigned to one of four manipulations of distance from the self (from proximal to distal: self-immersed, control, third person, and exemplar) on a comprehensive measure of EF. Performance increased as a function of self-distancing across age groups.

Spontaneous Self-Distancing and Adaptive Self-Reflection Across Adolescence.

Experiments performed primarily with adults show that self-distancing facilitates adaptive self-reflection. However, no research has investigated whether adolescents spontaneously engage in this process or whether doing so is linked to adaptive outcomes. In this study, 226 African American adolescents, aged 11-20, reflected on an anger-related interpersonal experience.

The Academic Diligence Task (ADT): Assessing Individual Differences in Effort on Tedious but Important Schoolwork.

The current study reports on the development and validation of the Academic Diligence Task (ADT), designed to assess the tendency to expend effort on academic tasks which are tedious in the moment but valued in the long-term. In this novel online task, students allocate their time between solving simple math problems (framed as beneficial for problem solving skills) and, alternatively, playing Tetris or watching entertaining videos. Using a large sample of high school seniors ( = 921), the ADT demonstrated convergent validity with self-report ratings of Big Five conscientiousness and its facets, self-control and grit, as well as discriminant validity from theoretically unrelated constructs, such as Big Five extraversion, openness, and emotional stability, test anxiety, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect.

A Behind-the-Scenes Guide to School-Based Research.

Schools are an important context for both basic and applied scientific research. Unlike the laboratory, however, the physical and social conditions of schools are not under the exclusive control of scientists. In this article, we liken collecting data in schools to putting on a theatrical production.

Evidence for a relation between executive function and pretense representation in preschool children.

Several theoretical formulations suggest a relation between children's pretense and executive function (EF) skills. However, there is little empirical evidence for a correlation between these constructs in early development. Preschool children ( = 104; age = 4-0) were given batteries of EF and pretense representation measures, as well as verbal, memory, and appearance-reality control tasks.

The effects of interruptions on oncologists' patient assessment and medication ordering practices.

Interruptions are causal factors in medication errors. Although researchers have assessed the nature and frequency of interruptions during medication administration, there has been little focus on understanding their effects during medication ordering. The goal of this research was to examine the nature, frequency, and impact of interruptions on oncologists' ordering practices.

Optimizing the design of preprinted orders for ambulatory chemotherapy: combining oncology, human factors, and graphic design.

Purpose: To establish a set of guidelines for developing ambulatory chemotherapy preprinted orders.

Methods: Multiple methods were used to develop the preprinted order guidelines. These included (A) a comprehensive literature review and an environmental scan; (B) analyses of field study observations and incident reports; (C) critical review of evidence from the literature and the field study observation analyses; (D) review of the draft guidelines by a clinical advisory group; and (E) collaboration with graphic designers to develop sample preprinted orders, refine the design guidelines, and format the resulting content.

Checking it twice: an evaluation of checklists for detecting medication errors at the bedside using a chemotherapy model.

Objective: To determine what components of a checklist contribute to effective detection of medication errors at the bedside.

Design: High-fidelity simulation study of outpatient chemotherapy administration.

Setting: Usability laboratory.