Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ., Volume 16, Issue 2 (February 2026) – 16 articles

Background: Adolescence is a developmental window of heightened vulnerability to psychological distress, yet the interplay between pathology and protective factors remains understudied in a low-to-middle-income urban district in North Lima, Peru. This study examined the network structure of resilience, happiness, and mental health indicators in Peruvian adolescents to identify precise intervention targets. Methods: A sample of 559 adolescents (49.9% boys; Mage = 14.72, SD = 1.43) recruited from public secondary schools in Carabayllo, a low-to-middle-income urban district in North Lima, Peru, completed validated measures of resilience (CD-RISC-25), subjective happiness, and mental health (anxiety, depression, and stress). A Gaussian Graphical Model was estimated using non-regularized partial correlations. Node centrality, predictability, and network stability were assessed, and a Network Comparison Test evaluated structural differences by sex. Results: Anxiety, depression, and stress formed a tightly interconnected core, with the strongest edge between stress and anxiety. Among the psychological resources, self-regulation and external resources showed the highest centrality and predictability, followed by personal competence and tenacity. Happiness occupied a peripheral position but maintained a negative association with depression. The network demonstrated strong stability (CS = 0.75). No significant structural or global strength differences emerged between boys and girls. Conclusions: Findings challenge generic well-being approaches, revealing that happiness is a distal factor rather than a central buffer in this population. Instead, the network architecture suggests that interrupting the stress–anxiety loop and fostering self-regulation skills constitute the most effective pathways for school-based mental health protection, regardless of student gender. Full article

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a global mental health concern, with recent research focussing on the psychological mechanisms that contribute to its development and maintenance. Alexithymia, characterised by difficulty identifying and expressing emotions, has been identified as a potential risk factor for PTSD. This study was a preliminary investigation of a model of the relationship between alexithymia and PTSD symptoms, focussing on the potential mediating roles of self-compassion and difficulties in emotional regulation. Participants (N = 332), who were university students and members of the community, completed self-report measures of the key variables. As expected, alexithymia was strongly associated with higher levels of PTSD symptoms. Three mediation pathways were also significant. In one, alexithymia was associated with greater regulation difficulties for negative emotions, which was associated with higher levels of PTSD symptoms. In the second, higher alexithymia was associated with greater difficulties regulating positive emotions, which was associated with higher levels of PTSD symptoms. The final pathway involved a serial mediation in which higher alexithymia was associated with lower self-compassion, and lower self-compassion was associated with greater difficulties in regulating negative emotions, which were associated with higher PTSD symptoms. Contrary to expectation, self-compassion had no direct relationship with PTSD symptoms and did not relate to difficulties in regulating positive emotions. The general pattern of results was evident for the PTSD subtypes of negative alterations in cognitions and mood and alterations in arousal and reactivity. However, mediation by difficulties in regulating positive emotions was nonsignificant for the symptoms of re-experiencing and avoidance. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed. Full article

(1) Background: The complexity of today’s healthcare system requires the formation of highly cohesive work teams that guarantee safe and high-quality care. Clinical simulation has become established as a pedagogical strategy capable of promoting the collaborative skills of teams of students and healthcare professionals. The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of learning through clinical simulation on group cohesion in nursing student teams. (2) Methods: A pre–post quasi-experimental study without a control group was conducted with final-year nursing students using the short Spanish version of the Group Environment Questionnaire, validated for nursing students. This questionnaire was administered twice, before and after participation in clinical simulation sessions. (3) Results: Clinical simulation significantly increased group cohesion in most items and in all dimensions with moderate to large effect sizes (r > 0.5). The Group Integration-Task (GI-T) dimension showed the greatest improvement after clinical simulation. Although causal relationships cannot be established, the results suggest an association between exposure to clinical simulation and increased group cohesion. (4) Conclusions: Clinical simulation was associated with significant improvements in both task-oriented and social dimensions of group cohesion among nursing students. These findings suggest that clinical simulation may enhance collaboration, communication, and commitment to shared goals within student teams. Future studies including control groups are needed to confirm these associations and further explore the impact of clinical simulation on team performance in both student and healthcare professional contexts. Full article

Problematic internet use has been consistently associated with different adverse effects on bio-psycho-social health outcomes. However, there is a lack of consensus in the definition and measures. This study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the Internet Addiction Test–Short Form (IAT-7) into Spanish and to evaluate its validity and reliability among adolescents. A total of 783 participants aged 12–18 years completed the questionnaires while 106 answered again two months later to assess test–retest reliability. Construct validity was examined using confirmatory factor analysis to test the two-factor structure. Convergent and discriminant validity, reliability, and invariance were analyzed. All items showed significant standardized loadings (0.55–0.85; p < 0.001), and fit indices supported the two-factor model. Both factors showed adequate convergent validity, while moderate correlation between factors (ρ = 0.667) supported discriminant validity. Test–retest reliability was strong (ICC = 0.814), and internal consistency was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.850; McDonald’s ω = 0.853). Furthermore, measurement invariance analyses supported the equivalence of the scale across gender and age. In conclusion, the Spanish IAT-7 is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing problematic internet use in adolescents aged 12–18 years. Full article

Background/Objectives: Commitment to self-tracking refers to the extent to which individuals are dedicated to the practice of wearable- and app-based self-monitoring. This commitment is behaviorally grounded and captures users’ sustained investment in wearable and app-based self-monitoring. The objective of this study was to validate the Commitment to Self-Tracking (C2ST) scale in Czechia by examining its dimensionality, confirmatory model fit, reliability, and known-groups evidence among self-tracking device users. Methods: The results were obtained from a face-to-face survey of a sample of 502 self-tracking device users who were recruited from the Czech general population using address-based sampling. The sample was randomly split into two subsamples for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Item- and scale-level descriptive statistics and internal consistency (Cronbach’s α, McDonald’s ω) were calculated. The EFA was utilized to evaluate the factorability and latent structure of the model, and the CFA was employed to assess the model’s fit. The known-groups validity was examined using nonparametric group comparisons (Kruskal–Wallis H and Mann–Whitney U tests) with theoretically relevant external indicators, such as social comparison orientation, willingness to share data, perceived usefulness of tracking, and self-rated health. Results: The C2ST score demonstrated a full range of theoretical variation, exhibiting minimal floor (7.2%) and ceiling (2.0%) effects and a nearly symmetrical distribution. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be high (α = 0.968; ω = 0.968), and the corrected item-total correlations were uniformly high. The EFA supported a single-factor solution that explained 74.4% of the variance. The CFA model demonstrated a unidimensional structure, indicating that the observed variables were best explained by a single factor. An improved model attained an adequate-to-excellent fit (RMSEA = 0.051; SRMR = 0.018; CFI = 0.991; TLI = 0.986) and accounted for substantial item variance (R² = 0.60–0.82). The known-groups validity was supported by pronounced differences in C2ST scores across social comparison and data-sharing orientations, as well as perceived usefulness of tracking for health and training goals (all p < 0.001). Conclusions: The Czech C2ST has been demonstrated to exhibit high reliability and a clear, unidimensional structure. Additionally, it exhibited robust CFA support and theory-consistent known-groups validity among self-tracking device users. The scale is appropriate for research on self-tracking commitment and persistence. Full article

Mental health concerns are increasingly prevalent among postgraduate students, who face academic, social, and career pressures. Although research on student mental health is expanding, less is known about the psychological resources that support well-being in postgraduate learners. Meaning in life has been identified as a key psychological resource that helps individuals interpret challenges and maintain coherence and well-being, and recent research highlights the contribution of self-transcendent traits such as gratitude, forgiveness, and spirituality in fostering meaning in life. However, empirical evidence on these interrelationships remains limited. This study involves 1527 Pakistani postgraduate students (M = 795; mean age = 24.89 years) recruited through multistage random sampling from ten public universities in Punjab. Participants completed the Gratitude Questionnaire, Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Spirituality Scale, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and Mental Health Inventory (assessing psychological well-being and psychological distress). Correlation analyses showed that gratitude, forgiveness, and spirituality were positively associated with psychological well-being and negatively associated with psychological distress. Structural equation modeling (SEM) further indicated that these traits predicted mental health both directly and indirectly, with meaning in life serving as significant partial mediator. Overall, the findings highlight the central role of meaning in life in linking self-transcendent traits to mental health among postgraduate students and suggest important implications for culturally sensitive, university-based mental health initiatives. Full article

This study examined the mediating role of problem-solving attitudes in the relationship between catastrophic thinking and environmental awareness among university students using structural equation modeling. Two samples of undergraduate students from Al-Azhar University, Egypt, participated: a psychometric validation sample (N = 670) and a main study sample (N = 989). Participants completed three validated instruments assessing catastrophic thinking, problem-solving attitudes, and environmental awareness. Results revealed that catastrophic thinking was significantly negatively associated with environmental awareness both directly (β = −0.266) and indirectly through problem-solving attitudes (β = −0.172), with the indirect pathway accounting for approximately 39% of the total effect. The structural model demonstrated excellent fit to the data, and all hypothesized relationships were statistically significant. These findings suggest that catastrophic cognitions are associated with reduced environmental awareness both directly and through their negative relationship with problem-solving orientations that facilitate engagement with complex issues including environmental challenges. The study highlights the importance of addressing trait-level cognitive distortions alongside environmental content in education programs, as general catastrophic thinking patterns may impair environmental awareness even among students without climate-specific anxiety. Full article

Background and Objectives: Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated high performance on knowledge-based medical examinations but their capabilities on cognitive aptitude tests emphasizing reasoning and abstraction remain underexplored. The Test for Medical Studies (TMS), a German medical school admission test, provides a standardized framework to examine these capabilities. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and consistency of multiple LLMs on text-based and visual-analytic TMS items. Materials and Methods: Eight contemporary LLMs, comprising proprietary and open-source systems, were evaluated using a multi-run design on standardized TMS items spanning text-based and visual-analytic cognitive domains. Results: Mean accuracy remained substantially below levels typically reported for knowledge-based medical examinations, with marked performance differences between text-based and visual-analytic subtests. Open-source models performed competitively compared with proprietary systems. Inter-run reliability was heterogeneous, indicating notable variability across repeated evaluations. Conclusions: Current LLMs show limited and domain-dependent performance on cognitive aptitude tasks relevant to medical school admission. High accuracy on knowledge-based examinations does not translate into stable performance on aptitude tests emphasizing fluid intelligence. The observed modality-dependent performance patterns and inter-run variability highlight the importance of differentiated, multi-run evaluation strategies when assessing LLMs for applications in medical education. Full article

Background: Experiential avoidance (EA) refers to the tendency to evade or suppress unpleasant internal experiences, such as distressing thoughts, emotions, or bodily sensations. Increasing evidence indicates that EA plays a central role in the onset and maintenance of addictive behaviours. Objective: To synthesise quantitative evidence on the association between experiential avoidance (EA), operationalised as psychological inflexibility, and psychoactive substance use (PSU) outcomes, including substance use frequency/quantity, craving, dependence severity, relapse/abstinence, and treatment response, and to characterise putative pathways (EA as predictor/mediator) and correlates (e.g., affect regulation and trauma-related factors). Methods: A systematic search was conducted in SCOPUS, Web of Science, PubMed, and APA PsycNet, following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Eligible studies included experimental and observational designs, clinical and non-clinical populations, and publications from January 2000 to January 2026 in English or Spanish. Primary outcomes were PSU behaviour and severity (frequency/quantity, craving, dependence symptoms, relapse/abstinence) and treatment outcomes; secondary outcomes included emotional and behavioural correlates linked to EA. Results: Across studies, higher levels of EA were consistently associated with greater substance use—particularly alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other illicit drugs. EA frequently mediated the relationships between emotional dysregulation, trauma exposure, and addictive behaviour. Elevated EA was also linked to impulsivity, psychiatric comorbidity, and poorer treatment adherence and outcomes. Interventions explicitly targeting EA—most notably Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)—showed promising effects in reducing avoidance and substance use. Conclusions: Experiential avoidance emerges as a transdiagnostic process underlying vulnerability to, and persistence of, substance use disorders. Integrating third-wave behavioural interventions that promote psychological flexibility may enhance the efficacy of addiction treatment. Future research should explore these mechanisms in culturally diverse and under-represented contexts. Full article

In recent years, the number of people viewing pet videos and images online has risen. Although numerous studies have shown that owning pets positively impacts human mental health, the potential mental health benefits of prolonged exposure to pet media content remain debated. This study conducted three experiments to investigate how viewing pet videos affects human emotional face processing and to clarify the associated emotional regulatory mechanisms. Experiment 1 examined how viewing pet videos influences attentional bias toward emotional faces. Experiment 2 assessed the impact of watching pet videos on the valence perception of emotional faces. Experiment 3 analyzed how exposure to pet videos affects the valence perception of emotional text. The results showed that watching pet videos increased attentional bias toward subsequent positive emotional faces and decreased bias toward negative ones. This effect resulted from higher perceived valence ratings for both positive and neutral emotional faces. Importantly, this effect was only observed in facial stimuli with social attributes. These findings indicate that watching pet videos modulates emotional processing, and prolonged exposure to pet media content may affect mental health through this mechanism. Full article

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently struggle with emotion regulation, which can be influenced by parental practices and the supportive role of siblings in encouraging emotional and social development. The study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting practices and emotional regulation of children with ASD and to explore the mediating role of the prosocial behavior of siblings between parenting practices and emotional regulation in children with ASD. Additionally, this study investigated the moderating role of sibling gender in the relationship between prosocial behavior and emotional regulation. A total of 600 parents/caregivers aged 25–40 years (M = 32.91, SD = 4.23) of children with ASD were selected from special education institutes in Lahore, Pakistan, using a non-probability, purposive sampling method. Although the majority of respondents were mothers (94.5%), the term parenting practices is used to reflect a family-level caregiving construct rather than exclusively maternal behavior. Data were interpreted through IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and PROCESS macros, revealing that authoritative parenting had a significant positive relation with emotional regulation in children with ASD. Results also indicated that the prosocial behavior of siblings partially mediated the relationship between authoritative parenting and emotional regulation in children with ASD. Furthermore, sibling gender significantly moderated the indirect effect, with female siblings showing stronger facilitation of emotional regulation through prosocial behaviors compared to male siblings. Full article

Inner strength is increasingly recognized as a protective factor in mental health, but its structure and dynamics remain underexplored, particularly in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms. This study applied network analysis to investigate the complex relationships among inner strengths in individuals exhibiting BPD symptoms, aiming to identify core and bridging strengths that could inform targeted interventions. The sample comprised 346 Thai university students (25.4% males, 74.6% females; mean age = 21.60 ± 2.24 years) who screened positive for BPD symptoms using the Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder. Network analysis revealed that inner strengths formed an interconnected system with both core and peripheral features. The strongest association was observed between generosity and loving-kindness. A cognitive behavioral cluster comprising perseverance, wisdom, and determination also emerged. Centrality analysis identified loving-kindness as the most influential node in terms of direct connections, while equanimity exhibited the highest bridge centrality. Generosity and determination demonstrated the greatest expected influence. A negative link between truthfulness and equanimity highlighted a potential conflict between absolute honesty and inner balance in this population. Notably, exploratory analyses by gender revealed distinct network structures. In males, determination, wisdom, and precept emerged as central strengths; however, results for males should be interpreted with caution due to sample size. In females, perseverance, loving-kindness, and meditation were the most influential. These gender-specific patterns suggest that targeting different core strengths according to gender may enhance the effectiveness of interventions for individuals with BPD symptoms. Overall, the findings suggest that fostering specific inner strengths, particularly equanimity, loving-kindness, and those identified as central for each gender, may enhance psychological resilience and inform more tailored intervention strategies for BPD. Full article

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis (PROSPERO ID: CRD42024575181) was to quantify the relationships between dispositional and situational achievement goal involvement and sport confidence. A secondary purpose was to examine potential moderators of these relationships. Published studies reporting sufficient data, including one achievement goal measure from the dichotomous framework and one measure of sport confidence in an athlete sample, were included. Information sources included EBSCOhost databases, Web of Science databases, and relevant meta-analyses. The random-effects correlational coefficient (r) served as the summary statistic. Thirty-six studies yielding 37 independent samples, published between 1988 and 2026, which met all inclusion criteria, representing a total of 10,461 participants from youth to elite sports across four continents. Meta-analyzed random-effects correlations between task climate (k = 15, r = 0.33 [95% CI 0.23, 0.43]), ego climate (k = 13, r = −0.08 [95% CI −0.16, −0.00]), task orientation (k = 26, r = 0.27 [95% CI 0.21, 0.32]), ego orientation (k = 26, r = 0.11 [95% CI 0.06, 0.17]), and sport confidence ranged from small and negative to medium and positive in magnitude. Mixed-effects moderator analyses revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) for task climate when comparing state (r = 0.24) versus trait (r = 0.41) sport confidence measures, for task orientation scale (TEOSQ r = 0.31 vs. POSQ r = 0.18) in relation to sport confidence, and for study quality (lowest r = 0.35, medium r = 0.18, highest r = 0.24) in the task orientation–sport confidence relationship. However, nearly all prediction intervals for the examined relationships crossed zero, with the exception of a few TEOSQ- and POSQ-based moderator analyses. Thus, researchers and practitioners are cautioned that relationships between dispositional achievement goals, motivational climate perceptions, and sport confidence might be minimal or vary based on the dispositional achievement goal measure. Full article

Low back pain is common and negatively impacts quality of life and workplace productivity. However, few studies have focused on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) where risk factors are prevalent. This cross-sectional study examined the association and structural relationships between physical and social factors in low back pain among Japanese SME workers. We analyzed survey data collected between April 2021 and August 2022 from 762 SME workers aged 18–65 years in Shimane, Japan, to assess acute (less than 3 months) and chronic low back pain using a self-reported questionnaire. Workplace physical (physical load) and social (stress of interpersonal relations) factors were measured using a brief job stress-related questionnaire. Associations between workplace factors and acute and chronic low back pain were evaluated using multivariable, multinomial logistic regression. Among the 762 workers, 50.9% and 7.3% reported acute and chronic low back pain, respectively. The odds ratio (OR) for acute pain was 2.08 for ‘Very much so’ in those with a high physical load. Compared with those with low interpersonal stress, the OR for chronic pain was 2.20 for medium stress and 2.82 for high stress. Reducing physical workloads may mitigate acute low back pain, while lowering interpersonal stress at work may reduce chronic low back pain. Future studies should investigate whether improving workplace physical and social factors is longitudinally effective. Full article

Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) is gaining attention as a promising approach to modulate emotional, cognitive, and autonomic processes. This exploratory study analyzed the short-term effects of manual vagal maneuver (MVM), applied to the left or the right side of the neck (carotid region), on emotional regulation, cognitive performance, and cardiac autonomic activity in healthy young females. Sixty participants, divided equally into three groups (left MVM, right MVM, and control), completed attentional tasks under their respective conditions. Heart rate variability (HRV), cardiac coherence, self-reported emotional states, and task performance were measured. The preliminary findings of this pilot study offer mixed evidence: while both stimulation groups seem to show significant improvements in attentional performance, only left-sided MVM was associated with increased cardiac coherence and elevated perceived emotional dominance. No significant changes were observed in HRV indices across groups, highlighting potential limitations of current physiological markers in capturing subtle autonomic modulation. These preliminary findings from a pilot study suggest that, in young healthy women, stimulation—particularly on the left side—may have a potential to enhance cognitive and affective functioning, even though no detectable changes were observed in conventional HRV metrics. Given the small sample size and other important methodological limitations, such as the single-session design, these results should be interpreted with caution, and replication in larger, more rigorous studies is necessary. Full article