OBJECTIVE Depressed patients often experience interpersonal distress. Understanding how interpersonal distress and depressive symptoms are associated may have implications for understanding the etiology and maintenance of depression, as well as for treatment. In this naturalistic psychotherapy study, we explored whether change in depressive symptoms predicted subsequent change in interpersonal distress

OBJECTIVE This study investigated two proposed change mechanisms in preference accommodation, thought to improve psychotherapy outcomes: a direct effect of a match between clients' initial preferences and their subsequent experiences of the therapy activities, or a mediated "matching effect" operating through the working alliance. Furthermore, the study explored whether the effect of a preference-experience

OBJECTIVE This individual participant data meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy with a trauma focus (CBT-TF) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, we examined the effect of moderators on PTSD symptom severity. METHOD This study included randomized controlled trials comparing CBT-TF to an inactive or active comparison group for adults

OBJECTIVE Mindfulness interventions (MIs) train nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experience and aim to improve mental health and well-being. The evidence for their effect on interpersonal relationships is promising but uncertain. This study examines the effect of MIs on couple relationship satisfaction (RS). METHOD Randomized controlled trials of MIs including RS were selected based on systematic

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision in June 2022 revoked the constitutional right to abortion and left abortion policy jurisdiction up to the states. Data were collected in November 2022 through Prolific, a research participant recruitment service, to assess participants' perspectives on safe sex responsibilities in light of the Dobbs decision. Participants were 339 U.S. cisgender

Previous studies have demonstrated that a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with reduced sexual satisfaction among adult survivors. Recent studies have suggested that survivors of traumatic experiences may display sensory modulation dysfunction, manifested as either over- or under-responsiveness to sensory stimuli. In this study we examined a moderated mediation model according

OBJECTIVE This study aims at improving dropout and treatment nonresponse prevention by optimizing the performance of models for their prediction through the integration of item-level data. METHOD Routine data from 1,277 patients (Mage = 36.95, SDage = 13.64; 64.77% female) treated at Osnabrück University was used to train and evaluate 20 machine-learning algorithms and five ensemble models. Measures

Evidence-based psychological treatments for anxiety and depression are widely used, yet roughly half of those treated do not respond. Treatment response prediction could help to optimize patient outcomes and use of clinical resources. However, existing longitudinal studies with potentially valuable predictors are unlikely to include comprehensive, prospective measures of symptoms throughout therapy

Emotional and behavioural problems (EBP) are prevalent amongst children, and guided, parent-led digital interventions offer one method of improving access to effective treatments. This systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42023484098) aimed to examine the evidence base for, and characteristics of, these types of interventions through a narrative synthesis. Systematic searches were conducted using Medline

When using the experience sampling method (ESM), researchers must navigate a delicate balance between obtaining fine-grained snapshots of phenomena of interest and avoiding undue respondent burden, which can lead to disengagement and compromise data quality. To guide that process, we investigated how questionnaire length and sampling frequency impact careless and insufficient effort responding (C/IER)

Almost all countries in the world have witnessed a rapid increase in levels of economic inequality, a measure of the distribution of income and wealth across the population, since the advent of neoliberal economic policies in the 1970s. In this review, we conceptualize inequality as an ecological construct and discuss why it matters for the mental health of populations and for individual clinical outcomes

The Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) is a widely used interview measure of adolescent major depression (major depressive disorder), with sum scores and their changes over time interpreted as changes in one underlying construct. This interpretation assumes that the CDRS-R measures a single construct of depression (unidimensionality) in the same way across time (longitudinal invariance)-assumptions

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects over 300 million people globally. The etiology of MDD is linked to circadian rhythm disruption, including the diurnal pattern of mood, cognition, and physiological processes. The revised Mood Rhythm Instrument (MRhI-r) was developed to assess self-perceived rhythmicity of symptoms and has previously been tested in nonclinical populations. This study evaluates

Impulsivity is a personality trait with broad health implications. Urgency is a facet of impulsivity defined as the tendency to engage in rash action when experiencing strong emotions. Thus, as defined, urgency is a dynamic, if … then process. However, urgency has mostly been studied using cross-sectional dispositional scales and laboratory-based tasks. Recent work modeling urgency dynamically as the

The use of "normal" and related terms has increased across successive editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), from DSM-I to DSM-5. Despite its widespread use, "normal" remains an ambiguous and context-dependent term, reflecting statistical frequency and sociocultural expectations. "Normal" is also commonly understood as indicative of health. This Viewpoint examines

Anhedonia is a lack or loss of pleasure in daily life. This is the first systematic review to investigate anhedonia in mental health research with a focus on experience sampling methodology (ESM). The review aimed to identify how anhedonia is conceptualized and measured in ESM research, how it is experienced during daily life, and the quality of reporting in the published literature. To generate a

Chronic illness (CI) burdens both the patient and their romantic partner. CI management has been viewed as a dyadic process by theorists and clinical practitioners. Dyadic coping (DC) refers to the processes where one partner aids the other or both partners work together to cope with stress. We used the meta-analytical actor–partner interdependence model and its extension of actor–partner interdependence

A comprehensive understanding of specific factors contributing to variability in responsiveness of children with autism to interventions is paramount for making evidence-based clinical and policy decisions. This meta-analysis examined child and family characteristics, as well as intervention design factors, associated with outcomes of behavioral interventions for children with autism. A systematic

Bereavement can lead to complicated grief reactions including clinically significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (PTSS) post-loss. Gaining insight into specific and shared risk factors for these complicated grief reactions can help identify individuals needing support.

Most children under age 5 exceed recommended screen time guidelines, with lifelong implications for children’s psychosocial, cognitive, socio-emotional, and physiological outcomes. Socio-ecological models point towards the important contribution of parental knowledge, modelling, practices, self-efficacy and style on child screen use. This study aimed to determine the extent to which these parenting

OBJECTIVE Inhibitory learning models emphasize the central role of threat expectancy violation during exposure therapy. However, exposure is often implemented alongside cognitive restructuring, which reduces threat expectancies before exposure, reducing the potential for expectancy violation. This study examined whether the timing of expectancy violation (before/during exposure) and magnitude of expectancy

OBJECTIVE The growing demand for emergency department (ED) care for suicidal ideation and attempts in adolescents calls for effective interventions preventing post-ED recurrence of suicidal crises. Parents are tasked with implementing postdischarge suicide prevention recommendations, often with little support. To address this need, this study examined a parent-facing texting intervention targeting

OBJECTIVE To investigate if Sessions 1-4 Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores are associated with treatment outcome and if there is a differential effect between person-centered experiential therapy (PCET) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). METHOD A secondary data analysis of a prospectively registered and ethically approved pragmatic, noninferiority randomized controlled trial comparing

Traditionally, psychotherapy distinguishes between "common factors" and "specific mechanisms." Common factors can be defined as "unrecognized factors in any therapeutic situation-factors that may be even more important than those being purposely employed." Specific mechanisms, by contrast, are deliberately targeted by given therapeutic approaches as the primary drivers of change. This distinction is

Sexual pleasure is an integral component of sexual health, human rights, and overall wellbeing and can be a helpful lens for understanding the agency and freedom present at the individual, relational, and community level. Further, one's most pleasurable sexual experience can be a pivotal moment that allows for expanded understandings of pleasure and can change how one structures future sexual experiences

Masturbation with its numerous health benefits is an integral aspect of most people's sexuality and is typically observed across all stages of life. However, longitudinal studies exploring the frequencies of masturbation across major life phases are lacking. We examined the development of masturbation frequencies from ages 19-50 via multilevel growth curve modeling with a longitudinal population-based

TThe Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) offers an empirically derived, dimensional framework for conceptualizing mental health difficulties, designed with both research and clinical applications in mind. Although the HiTOP Consortium has made meaningful progress in developing clinical tools and training resources, current messaging frames HiTOP primarily as a corrective to shortcomings

Increasing recognition that neurodiversity is part of human diversity prompts reconsideration of the current dominant conceptualization of neurodivergence as inherently atypical or pathological. We propose a distinction between neurodevelopmental conditions and mental health conditions such that DSM neurodevelopmental disorders should no longer be subsumed under the mental disorder classification but

We explored demographic, psychological, and behavioral characteristics of five paraphilic interest groups in the UK: BDSM, pet play, age play/ABDL, furries, and balloon fetishists - chosen for their prevalence, power dynamics, and varied activities. Through an anonymous survey (N = 470), we assessed role identities, engagement patterns, and relational dynamics. Groups were more likely to have non-heterosexual

The working alliance is one of the most robust predictors of outcomes in adult psychotherapy. Since the alliance is often challenging to establish and maintain in psychotherapy with adolescents, conducting high-quality assessments of the alliance using sound measures in this population is critical. Still, measurement instruments developed for adults cannot be directly transferred to adolescent samples

The development of secure relationships between children and their adult carers, across the earliest years of life, emerges within a multifaceted and complex relational ecology. Here we present findings from a systematic scoping review designed to map the extent to which the relational ecology of child-caregiver relationships across early life (from conception to age 3 years) has been studied. A first

Parental psychosis has been reliably associated with adverse outcomes for both parents and children. Despite this, support for these families remains limited. Understanding the everyday parenting practices of parents with psychosis, and whether they differ from parents without psychosis is crucial for developing suitable, evidence-based interventions. We therefore aimed to synthesise quantitative and

Differences in adolescent temperament are associated with innumerable psychological outcomes in the developmental literature and can help link adult personality-based nosology to earlier development. The Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire-Revised is one important measure of adolescent temperament designed to capture constructs within the influential Rothbart temperament model. Yet conflicting

Fear and avoidance remain important concepts for understanding chronic pain. The objective of our research was to develop and evaluate a Polish version of a measure to assess these concepts: the 20-item Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS-20). The goal also included establishing a cutoff score to differentiate between individuals with a high level of pain-related disability and those with lower levels

This article examined the internet and social media usage among (young) individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Two meta-analyses were conducted to quantify (1) the relation between ASD/autistic traits and problematic internet use (PIU, which included generalized PIU, problematic gaming, excessive smartphone use), and (2) the relation between ASD/autistic traits and social media use. The results

Many sexual minority men (SMM) use sex position self-labels, including "top," "bottom," "versatile," as well as combinations like "vers/top" and "vers/bottom" to describe engagement in anal intercourse. Despite the use of these labels, there is limited literature identifying various aspects that may impact SMM's chosen sex position label. The purpose of this study was to examine factors (i.e. sexual

It is well established within the literature that early childhood trauma and maltreatment increase risk for adolescent offending behaviors. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are not currently well understood. The construct of moral injury, or distress and psychopathology stemming from events that violate an individual’s deeply held moral beliefs, has most frequently been studied in

Although anxiety sensitivity (AS), or the fear of anxiety-related symptoms, has been identified as a risk factor for the development of anxiety psychopathology, the pathways through which this fear is learned have not been fully elucidated. In the current review and meta-analysis, we aimed to systematically examine the association between parent-to-child fear learning pathways (vicarious learning,

This well-powered, pre-registered online study examined differences in orgasmic consistency among women both with and without ADHD symptomatology while controlling for sexual assertiveness and sexual attitudes, constructs yet to be explored in this context. A convenience sample of 815 (Mage = 28.93, SDage = 9.23) cisgender females, at least 18 years of age and sexually active with at least one partner

Previous research has shown a positive association between BDSM/kink behaviors and sexual satisfaction. The present study further explored this relationship within a Chilean population of BDSM practitioners. A total of 543 participants responded to an online questionnaire about BDSM/kink roles, practices, and overall sexual satisfaction. The main regression analyses evaluated the associations between

Systematic and meta-analytic reviews provide gold-standard evidence but are static and outdate quickly. Here we provide performance data on a new software platform, LitQuest, that uses artificial intelligence technologies to (1) accelerate screening of titles and abstracts from library literature searches, and (2) provide a software solution for enabling living systematic reviews by maintaining a saved

Although one in three U.S. contraceptive clients identify as something other than heterosexual, research has overlooked associations between sexual identity and experiences of provider-based contraceptive coercion - that is, pressure from a healthcare provider to use or not use birth control. In 2023, we used the online Prolific panel to survey U.S. reproductive-age people assigned female at birth

This study tests a theoretical model of sexual satisfaction in gay men that incorporates self and self-with-other schemata, identity processes, and sexual communication behaviors. Structural equation modeling based on cross-sectional correlational survey data from 199 gay men in the United Kingdom and Germany examined associations between the self-schema of internalized homonegativity, the self-with-other

In their introduction to the special issue on addressing clinical heterogeneity in psychopathology through brain science, Damme and Mittal (see record 2025-40884-001) highlighted the transformative potential of using brain data to uncover variability in mental health diagnoses and their underlying mechanisms. The articles in this issue exemplify this, such as Reimann et al. (see record 2025-40884-008)

Zilcha-Mano (see record 2026-05243-001) provided several important insights relating to our recent special issue on utilizing data from brain science to better manage clinical heterogeneity (Damme & Mittal, 2024) and expanded on these ideas by emphasizing that individualized definitions of what "healthy" is an important consideration as well. We agree that tailoring treatment planning to an individual

Cis-heteronormative frameworks have inadequately addressed the complexity of trans masculine, nonbinary, and agender (TMNB) individuals' sexual attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences, often marginalizing these perspectives. To fully capture the richness of TMNB sexuality, it is essential for researchers to resist the constraints of cis-heteronormativity by employing participatory research methods

There has been an increase in research using online forums for individuals who are attracted to children. This research is beneficial because it allows the study of individuals attracted to children recruited from the community, in contrast to individuals recruited from clinical or forensic samples. The aim of the present review was to explore who researchers are recruiting from online forums and how

Insight into predictors of functioning after treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) is limited, despite growing recognition that more focus on other aspects of recovery, especially psychosocial functioning, is warranted. The present study explored the utility of a widely used omnibus assessment instrument, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF)

The large impact and sequelae of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) place the development of accurate assessment tools a top priority. The latest version of the PTSD Checklist (PCL-5) is commonly administered in conjunction with the Life Events Checklist (LEC-5) to categorize a person as having or not having PTSD. Despite this being a common approach, researchers have yet to investigate to what degree

Depressive symptoms and sleep problems are detrimental for adolescents, with emotion regulation related to both problems. The present study explores emotion regulation as a potential mediator of the reciprocal associations between depressive symptoms and sleep problems and examines gender differences. A total of 1,535 adolescents (47.4% girls; baseline Mage = 13.19 years) were included in this four-wave

Addressing the persistent heterogeneity in psychopathology, treatment outcomes, and the science-practice gap requires a systematic approach to personalizing psychotherapy. Case conceptualization seeks to understand a patient's unique psychopathology by generating and continuously updating hypotheses about predisposing, precipitating, and maintaining factors. This study introduces a new data-driven

Physical activity has a well-known positive effect on mood and often occurs outside in natural light. The specific effects of natural light exposure on mood are understudied, but clinically significant as it may reflect a widely accessible method to enhance mood. This study thus aimed to disentangle the effects of (a) physical activity and (b) natural light exposure on daily mood. For 2 weeks, 131

Engagement in healthy and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours are related to a range of mental health outcomes. Most existing research has focussed on individual lifestyle behaviours, so it is not clear the extent to which clusters of healthy lifestyle behaviours relate to mental health outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review and quantitatively synthesise research which have examined

Moral injury (MI), characterized by distress stemming from exposure to events that transgress one's moral beliefs, has gained prominence as a focal point of study in military and Veteran populations. In recent years, researchers and clinicians have acknowledged that MI carries substantial significance within health care settings. However, existing measures of MI may not adequately address the experiences

Theory and evidence suggest that people attempt suicide to escape acute distress. However, little is known about why people select suicide instead of other ways to escape (e.g., alcohol/drug use). One possibility is that suicide-related stimuli in one's environment (e.g., suicide methods) bias this decision, particularly when such stimuli elicit little aversion. We tested whether suicide-related stimuli

Network analysis is a popular method researchers use to characterize the structure of psychopathology and inform personalized treatments. Typically, applied researchers, based on network theory, interpret symptoms with the highest strength centrality as most important to network structure and represent amenable treatment targets. This study examines the stability of strength centrality in idiographic

Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience fewer positive and more negative emotions and use fewer positive words to describe themselves. Natural language processing techniques have been used to predict depression, with pronoun and emotion usage being identified as important features. However, it is unclear how depressed individuals use positive and negative words when writing about

Childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a known risk factor for later alcohol-related outcomes, such as drinking at young ages or developing alcohol use disorder by adulthood. However, research has yet to determine whether common ADHD-related impairments (e.g., lower educational attainment) in early adulthood play a role in this outcome above and beyond ADHD symptom persistence

Loss-of-control eating (LOCE) is the subjective inability to stop eating once one has started or to refrain from food consumption. State-level affect, food craving, and reward dysfunction have all been implicated as vulnerabilities to recurrent LOCE, mostly studied in the context of binge eating (i.e., LOCE with objective overeating). Hypothetical purchase tasks are a behavioral economic approach to

The death of a romantic partner results in major changes to the surviving partner's psychological and physical well-being, yet post-bereavement sexual experiences are often disregarded in both research and clinical settings. Continuing bonds theory suggests that an internal emotional bond can persist between the bereaved and the memory of the deceased after the physical end of the relationship; that