Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries.

It is crucial to understand why people comply with measures to contain viruses and their effects during pandemics. We provide evidence from 35 countries (N = 12,553) from 6 continents during the COVID-19 pandemic (between 2021 and 2022) obtained via cross-sectional surveys that the social perception of key protagonists on two basic dimensions-warmth and competence-plays a crucial role in shaping pandemic-related behaviors. Firstly, when asked in an open question format, heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were universally identified as key protagonists across countries.

Assessing adolescents' readiness for action and attitudes toward obesity prevention: Instrument development and psychometric properties.

Engaging adolescents in obesity prevention is a main objective of the CO-CREATE project. This paper presents the development of a questionnaire to assess readiness for action and attitudes toward obesity prevention among adolescents. The questionnaire was developed based on literature searches and internal discussions with experts in the CO-CREATE consortium.

Association between real-time strategy video game learning outcomes and pre-training brain white matter structure: preliminary study.

In recent years the association between video games, cognition, and the brain has been actively investigated. However, it is still unclear how individual predispositions, such as brain structure characteristics, play a role in the process of acquiring new skills, such as video games. The aim of this preliminary study was to investigate whether acquisition of cognitive-motor skills from the real-time strategy video game (StarCraft II) is associated with pre-training measures of brain white matter integrity.

An (Un)Holy Trinity: Differences in Climate Change-Induced Distress Between Believers and Non-believers in God Disappear After Controlling for Left-Right Political Orientation.

We examined differences in reactions to climate change as a function of belief in God. We studied four samples, convenience samples of university students in the USA (n = 627) and in Poland (n = 628), a nationally representative sample of adults in Poland (n = 1154), and a nationally representative sample of adults in the USA (n = 1098). In each study we measured the distress people felt about climate change, belief in God, and left-right political orientation.

Applying a systems perspective to understand the mechanisms of the European School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.

Background: For the past two decades, the percentage of European children who consume fruit daily has remained at around 40%, despite numerous school-based policy efforts and interventions. This study aimed to apply a systems approach to provide an integrated perspective of the mechanisms of the European School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (the Scheme) to understand better how to increase its long-term impact on children's fruit and vegetable consumption.

Methods: We developed a causal loop diagram by synthesizing peer-reviewed articles and national government documents related to the Scheme, following the conceptualization steps of system dynamics.

Acceptability of policies targeting dietary behaviours and physical activity: a systematic review of tools and outcomes.

Background: Successful implementation of health policies require acceptance from the public and policy-makers. This review aimed to identify tools used to assess the acceptability of policies targeting physical activity and dietary behaviour, and examine if acceptability differs depending on characteristics of the policy and of the respondents.

Methods: A systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42021232326) was conducted using three databases (Science Direct, PubMed and Web of Science).

Reaching consensus on definitions for food and physical activity policies: experience from the Policy Evaluation Network.

Background: An upsurge in policy evaluation research within public health sciences has led to multi-disciplinary research networks like the 'Policy Evaluation Network' (PEN). This multi-disciplinary collaboration highlighted the need for consensus on clear, common terminology and definitions to facilitate the multi-disciplinary research. This article outlines the development process of the PEN definitions glossary tool, with a focus on the key domains of policy design, implementation and outcomes as they apply to physical activity, sedentary behaviour and dietary behaviours.

What we know about the actual implementation process of public physical activity policies: results from a scoping review.

Background: Physical inactivity rates have remained high worldwide since 2001. Public policies are an essential upstream lever to target individual physical activity (PA) behaviour. However, implementers have different strategies and face implementation challenges that are poorly understood.

Handwashing adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study based on protection motivation theory.

Rationale: The associations between the number of COVID-19 cases/deaths and subsequent uptake of protective behaviors may reflect cognitive and behavioral responses to threat-relevant information.

Objective: Applying protection motivation theory (PMT), this study explored whether the number of total COVID-19 cases/deaths and general anxiety were associated with cross-situational handwashing adherence and whether these associations were mediated by PMT-specific self-regulatory cognitions (threat appraisal: perceived vulnerability, perceived illness severity; coping appraisal: self-efficacy, response efficacy, response costs).

Method: The study (#NCT04367337) was conducted in March-September 2020 among 1256 adults residing in 14 countries.

Predictors of Psychological Distress across Three Time Periods during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland.

Background: Since the onset of COVID-19, public health policies and public opinions changed from stringent preventive measures against spread of COVID-19 to policies accommodating life with continued, diminished risk for contracting COVID-19. Poland is a country that demonstrated severe psychological impact and negative mental health. The study aims to examine psychological impact and changes in levels of depression, anxiety, and stress among three cross-sectional samples of Polish people and COVID-19-related factors associated with adverse mental health.

Role of DTI-MRI parameters in diagnosis of ALS: useful biomarkers for daily practice? Tertiary centre experience and literature review.

Introduction: Despite the rapid development of neuroimaging techniques, the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) remains a significant challenge. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is important for ruling out ALS mimickers, while Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a useful tool for the identification of cortical tract damage. The aim of this study was to identify the optimal set of DTI parameters to support the diagnosis of ALS that could be applied to everyday MRI and be used as a disease biomarker in daily practice.

Ethical considerations in engaging young people in European obesity prevention research: The CO-CREATE experience.

Engaging youth in obesity prevention research and policy action is essential to develop strategies that are relevant and sensitive to their needs. Research with young people requires critical reflection to safeguard their rights, dignity, and well-being. The CO-CREATE project used various methods to engage approximately 300 European youth aged 15-19 years in the development of policies to prevent adolescent obesity.

Policy implementation and priorities to create healthy food environments using the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI): A pooled level analysis across eleven European countries.

Background: Food environments have been recognised as highly influential on population diets. Government policies have great potential to create healthy food environments to promote healthy diets. This study aimed to evaluate food environment policy implementation in European countries and identify priority actions for governments to create healthy food environments.

Actual status and future directions of cardiac telerehabilitation.

Telerehabilitation (TR) was developed to achieve the same results as would be achieved by the standard rehabilitation process and to overcome potential geographical barriers and staff deficiencies. This is especially relevant in periodic crisis situations, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Proper execution of TR strategy requires both well-educated staff and dedicated equipment.

Looking through rainbow-rimmed glasses: Taking neurodiversity perspective is related to subjective well-being of autistic adults.

Autistic adults experience a high level of distress. Finding new ways to support their well-being is an important goal for researchers and clinicians. We assessed the way autistic adults view their autism, as a disorder or as a type of mind (neurodiversity), and the level they integrate with other autistic people, and we checked how those factors contribute to their well-being.

Individual Characteristics and Pain Sensitivity during Pregnancy-A Cross-Sectional Study in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women.

The aim of the study was to describe the characteristics and factors related to pain perception in pregnant women, such as optimism, personality traits, and fear of developing COVID-19 consequences. Sixty-six pregnant women aged 23 to 42 years participated in the study, and the comparison group consisted of n = 59 non-pregnant female students aged 19 to 23 years. Pressure pain threshold and pain tolerance were measured with an algometer.

How Should Job Crafting Interventions Be Implemented to Make Their Effects Last? Protocol for a Group Concept Mapping Study.

Background: By means of job crafting (JC) employees shape and customize their job design to align it with their preferences. Research has so far shown that such bottom-up proactivity can be stimulated via JC interventions. While the overall effectiveness behind these interventions has been supported, it is unclear how to implement these interventions to make their effects lasting.

Insights into effects of individual, dyadic, and collaborative planning interventions on automatic, conscious, and social process variables.

Objective: Going beyond the effects of individual planning ("I-for-me"), we investigate the associations of dyadic ("we-for-me") and collaborative ("we-for-us") planning with automatic, conscious, and social process variables that may elucidate the differences through which these three types of planning operate. We tested the effects of three planning interventions on: (1) habit strength, representing an automatic process, (2) the use of individual planning, representing a conscious process, (3) the use of collaborative planning, representing conscious and social processes, and (4) collaborative social control, representing a social process.

Methods: N = 320 adults were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) the active control condition, (2) the individual planning condition, (3) the dyadic planning condition, or (4) the collaborative planning condition.

Dyadic reciprocal associations between self-efficacy and planning predict sedentary behaviour.

Objectives: There are two alternative hypotheses regarding bidirectional associations between self-efficacy and planning in predicting health behaviour change: self-efficacy may establish planning (cultivation hypothesis) or planning may enable the formation of self-efficacy (enabling hypothesis). This study investigates the order in which these two social cognitions are linked in adult-adult dyads in the context of sedentary behaviours (SB).

Design: A longitudinal study with 4 measurement points, spanning 8 months.

Efficiency of attentional processes in attention network theory and autistic symptoms in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Attentional impairments in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been studied extensively, particularly in toddlers and young children. Attentional processes in teenagers with ASD are not fully understood, nor are the relationships between attentional deficits and ASD symptoms in this group.

Method: The aim of this study was to measure the attentional characteristics that attention network theory posits as being related to attention processes: alerting, orientating, and executive attention.

Multiple health-related behaviours among Fly-In Fly-Out workers in the mining industry in Australia: A cross-sectional survey during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) workers travel to work at isolated locations, and rotate continuous workdays with leave periods at home, and such work practice is common in the offshore oil and gas and onshore mining industry worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health actions appear to have had a negative impact on several health-related behaviours among the general population. However, little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health behaviours of FIFO workers, who have shown higher pre-pandemic rates of risky behaviours than the general population in Australia.

Mimicry of partially occluded emotional faces: do we mimic what we see or what we know?

Facial electromyography (EMG) was used to investigate patterns of facial mimicry in response to partial facial expressions in two contexts that differ in how naturalistic and socially significant the faces are. Experiment 1 presented participants with either the upper- or lower-half of facial expressions and used a forced-choice emotion categorisation task. This task emphasises cognition at the expense of ecological and social validity.

Personality Traits, Personal Values, and Life Satisfaction among Polish Nurses.

Nurses' life satisfaction (LS) predicts their health and the level of care they provide to patients, thus policies for promoting quality of nurses' work require actions to increase their LS. The aim of this study was to examine relations between LS and two levels of personality (traits and values) among Polish nurses, including joint effects of traits and values in a model integrating all variables to check whether meta-values can mediate trait-LS relationships. Nurses ( = 155) aged 23-64 completed the NEO-FFI, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and PVQ40.

A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis by the Many Smiles Collaboration.

Following theories of emotional embodiment, the facial feedback hypothesis suggests that individuals' subjective experiences of emotion are influenced by their facial expressions. However, evidence for this hypothesis has been mixed. We thus formed a global adversarial collaboration and carried out a preregistered, multicentre study designed to specify and test the conditions that should most reliably produce facial feedback effects.