New Research From Clinical Psychological Science

A Connectome-Wide Functional Signature of Trait Anger
M. Justin Kim, Maxwell L. Elliott, Annchen R. Knodt, and Ahmad R. Hariri

This neuroimaging research suggests that anger as a trait might be interpreted as a greater propensity to provoked action. Kim and colleagues analyzed the variability in connectome-wide functional connectivity (i.e., the connectivity patterns across the whole brain) in 1,048 individuals and examined how self-reported trait anger mapped onto the connectivity variability of three brain regions that serve action-related functions. Results indicated that trait anger modulated the functional connectivity of these regions, with brain networks supporting somatomotor, affective, self-referential, and visual information processes. These findings support the potential utility of trait anger as a marker for disorders characterized by aggressive behavior.

Inefficient Attentional Control Explains Verbal-Memory Deficits Among Military Veterans With Posttraumatic Reexperiencing Symptoms
Craig A. Marquardt et al.

Marquardt and colleagues tested the verbal functioning of a sample of U.S. military veterans previously deployed to combat zones. Participants completed clinical assessments and verbal tasks, including memory tests for words. Results indicated that veterans with impaired verbal memory were more likely to show what are known as reexperiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but not show other types of PTSD symptoms. Slowed response times during encoding appeared to explain the association between reexperiencing the traumatic events and memory performance, which is consistent with altered attentional control as an explanation for impaired verbal memory in PTSD.

Issues in Estimating Interpretable Lower Order Factors in Second-Order Hierarchical Models: Commentary on Clark et al. (2021)
Tyler M. Moore and Benjamin B. Lahey

In a previous article, Clark and colleagues suggested that there appeared to be modest practical implications of modeling the general factor of psychopathology using different approaches—second-order models or bifactor models. In the present article, Moore and Lahey comment on the original article and argue that bifactor models should be the first option for hierarchical modeling. Modeling simulated data and real data indicated that proportionality of factor loadings impacts whether models are comparable. Also, proportionality constraints appear to limit only second-order models, suggesting that bifactor models might be optimal for hierarchical modeling.

Audiovisual Temporal Processing in Children and Adolescents With Schizophrenia and Children and Adolescents With Autism: Evidence From Simultaneity-Judgment Tasks and Eye-Tracking Data
Han-yu Zhou et al.

Individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to perceive sensory stimuli (e.g., visual and auditory) as occurring simultaneously even when they are separated by a long lapse of time. Widened audiovisual temporal-binding windows may contribute to different symptoms in SCZ and ASD. Zhou and colleagues used an eye-tracking task and sensory tasks to study the underlying mechanisms of abnormal temporal integration in SCZ and ASD. Both groups appeared to have difficulty detecting audiovisual speech asynchrony. However, the widened temporal-binding window was associated with generalized deficits in SZC but only with speech-processing deficits in ASD.

Mechanisms of Mental-Health Disparities Among Minoritized Groups: How Well Are the Top Journals in Clinical Psychology Representing This Work?
Leah M. Adams and Adam Bryant Miller

How frequently do clinical psychology journals publish research on the mechanisms underlying mental-health disparities among minoritized populations? Adams and Miller searched five journals published in the past 17 years and identified 61 empirical articles examining minoritized groups. Overall, very few articles addressed mental-health disparities among minoritized populations, although the rate at which articles on this topic have been published has increased. For example, 65% of the articles had been published since 2015, and most (n = 11) were published in 2020. The researchers examine potential explanations for this scarcity and discuss recommendations for future research.

Well-Being and Cognition Are Coupled During Development: A Preregistered Longitudinal Study of 1,136 Children and Adolescents
Delia Fuhrmann, Anne-Laura van Harmelen, and Rogier A. Kievit

Fuhrman and colleagues analyzed longitudinal cognitive and well-being data from 1,136 children between the ages of 6 and 15 years. Results indicated that cognition and well-being were already linked at 6 to 7 years of age. Lower externalizing symptoms (i.e., overactivity, poor impulse control, noncompliance, and aggression) in childhood predicted more favorable planning trajectories, and higher vocabulary in childhood predicted less loneliness in adolescence. Social and biological factors (e.g., relationships with parents and peers, socioeconomic status, puberty onset) appeared to mediate the connections between well-being and cognition.

A Novel Measure of Real-Time Perseverative Thought
Elizabeth C. Wade, Rivka T. Cohen, Paddy Loftus, and Ayelet Meron Ruscio

Wade and colleagues propose the use of a joystick to measure real-time perseverative thinking (PT; repetitive negative thinking) as an alternative to self-report scales that do not capture the temporal information of PT. The researchers tested individuals with varied levels of trait PT, including individuals with PT-related disorders such as anxiety disorder or major depression, and individuals with no psychopathology. Participants used a joystick to provide continuous ratings of thought valence and intensity following exposure to scenarios of different valences. Trait PT, clinical status, and stimulus valence predicted the joystick responses (e.g., individuals with higher PT showed more extreme joystick values).

Adolescents’ Online Coping: When Less Is More but None Is Worse
Kathryn L. Modecki, Megan Duvenage, Bep Uink, Bonnie L. Barber, and Caroline L. Donovan

Moderate use of online coping efforts, especially to seek support and self-distraction, might benefit adolescents’ emotional well-being. Modecki and colleagues examined how youths (ages 13–17) used technology to cope with stress. Each participant responded to experience sampling surveys 5 times per day for 7 days, reporting their current emotions and whether they had experienced a stressor or uplift and used technology since the last report. Results indicated that participants who engaged in moderate (not absent but not excessive) online coping after experiencing stressors experienced reduced negative emotions, such as sadness, and increased positive emotions, such as joy.