Browsing by master's degree program "Psykologian maisteriohjelma"

Aims: The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of a new phonemic awareness test to study children who have potential problems in their reading skills. The children were second graders whose reading skills either had or had not caused worry at home or school. The phonemic awareness test was developed for investigating and providing intervention on phonemic awareness. This new method includes ten different ways to change phonemes in a word. We determined if some of these phonemic changes are better at separating the groups from each other and whether there are differences between the tasks in the degree of difficulty. In addition, the children were also tested with standardized neuropsychological tests that measure reading-related skills. The study was done completely remotely and one of its aims was also to get additional information on feasibility of neuropsychological testing in remote environments. Methods: 16 participants took part in the study. Eight of them were children whose reading skills had caused worry and other eight whose reading skills had not caused such worry. The study was done remotely using Zoom and the experiment took about 1-1,5 hours depending on how quickly the child completed the tasks. There were 11 tasks altogether, which assessed the child’s reading and writing skills and skills that can affect these, such as phonological skills, working memory and rapid naming. Results: The groups differed from each other almost in every standardized test and also in the new phonemic awareness test. In the new phonemic awareness test children who had caused worry on their reading skills got less points in every part, but the groups differed statistically significantly in five of them only. These five included changing the beginning or the ending of the word, diphthong, diphthong to long vowel and changing a vowel to a consonant. The degree of difficulty varied between the subtests of the phonemic awareness task, the pattern of performance being comparable in the two groups. Detecting differences between word beginnings and syllables was the easiest and detecting diphthong and vowel to consonant or consonant to vowel changes were the most difficult. These results are promising, suggesting that the phonemic awareness test could serve to identify problems in phonemic awareness in children whose reading skills are suspected to be poor. This study also suggested the feasibility of carrying out neuropsychological tests remotely.

Objectives. Anxiety causes significant suffering in different life domains, and its prevalence rates are high already in childhood and adolescence. Often symptoms develop into a disorder which is why identifying factors associated with anxiety is important. Anxiety disorders run in families but only few studies have examined the association between maternal and child anxiety on a symptom level. It’s possible that this association is mediated by parenting competence but, as far as is known, this has never been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of maternal anxiety with child anxiety and fears both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. It was also examined whether this association is mediated by parenting competence. Methods. The sample of this study was part of the Finnish Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) cohort. The sample consisted of 992 mothers who evaluated their own anxiety symptoms (Beck Anxiety Inventory) first when children were 2–5 years old and again when they were 7–11 years old. In the latter follow-up mothers also evaluated their parenting competence (Parenting Sense of Competence) as well as children’s anxiety (Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale for Parents) and fears (The Short Form of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children – Revised). The association of maternal anxiety with child anxiety and fears was examined with linear regression analysis. The mediating effect of parenting competence was examined with mediation analysis. Results and conclusions. Child anxiety and fears were associated with both current and previous maternal anxiety. Children of more anxious mothers showed more anxiety and fear-related symptoms and the association with mother’s former symptoms was as strong as with mother’s current symptoms. The associations of maternal anxiety with children’s later anxiety and fears were partially mediated by parenting competence. These results support previous findings that even low maternal anxiety is associated with child development and elaborates them by showing that it is associated specifically with child anxiety and fear-related symptoms. The current findings also extend existing knowledge about this association by showing that it is partially mediated by parenting competence. These findings can be utilized in prevention and treatment of childhood anxiety.

Äidin perinataalimasennuksen eli raskaudenaikaisen ja synnytyksen jälkeisen masennuksen on todettu olevan yhteydessä moniin lapsen kasvun ja kehityksen ongelmiin. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on löydetty äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun yhteys lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Aihetta on kuitenkin tutkittu toistaiseksi melko vähän, ja ADHD-oireita käsitelleiden tutkimusten kohteina ovat olleet pääasiassa alle kouluikäiset lapset. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, onko äidin perinataalimasennusoireilu yhteydessä kouluikäisen lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja toiminnanohjaukseen. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään lisäksi, vaikuttaako sukupuoli äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen ADHD-oireiden väliseen yhteyteen sekä äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen väliseen yhteyteen. Tutkimukseen osallistui 2 002 äiti-lapsiparia, jotka kuuluivat suomalaiseen The Prediction and Prevention of Pre‐eclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) -kohorttitutkimukseen. Äidit vastasivat masennusoirekyselyyn 14 kertaa raskausaikana alkaen raskausviikolla 120/7–136/7 ja päättyen raskausviikolle 380/7–396/7 tai synnytykseen sekä kaksi viikkoa ja kuusi kuukautta synnytyksen jälkeen. Äidit arvioivat lastensa ADHD-oireita sekä ADHD Rating Scale että Conners’ 10-item Scale -kyselylomakkeilla ja toiminnanohjausta Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) -kyselylomakkeella. Äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun yhteyttä lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja toiminnanohjaukseen tutkittiin lineaarisella regressioanalyysillä, jossa huomioitiin useita äitiin ja lapseen liittyviä taustamuuttujia. Sukupuolen vaikutusta äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden sekä äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen välisiin yhteyksiin tutkittiin moderaatioanalyysillä. Lineaarisella regressioanalyysillä tutkittiin, onko sukupuolen ja äidin perinataalimasennuksen välillä yhdysvaikutusta ennustettaessa lapsen ADHD-oireita ja toiminnanohjausta. Tutkimuksen tuloksista ilmeni, että äidin masennusoireilu sekä raskausaikana että synnytyksen jälkeen oli yhteydessä lapsen voimakkaampiin ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Tulosten perusteella lapsen sukupuoli moderoi äidin ensimmäisen raskauskolmanneksen masennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen yliaktiivisuus-impulsiivisuusoireiden välistä yhteyttä. Sukupuoli ei kuitenkaan moderoinut muita äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden välillä löytyneitä yhteyksiä eikä vaikuttanut äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen väliseen yhteyteen. Tutkimus lisäsi tietoa siitä, kuinka äidin masennusoireilu jokaisena raskauskolmanneksena ja synnytyksen jälkeen on yhteydessä kouluikäisen lapsen voimakkaampiin ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa sukupuoli moderoi äidin ensimmäisen raskauskolmanneksen masennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen yliaktiivisuus-impulsiivisuusoireiden välistä yhteyttä, mutta kyseessä saattaa olla satunnainen löydös. Sukupuolen mahdollisesta vaikutuksesta äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden väliseen yhteyteen tarvitaan lisää tutkimuksia.

The aim of the study. Maternal depression during pregnancy occurs in up to one in four women. It is a serious condition that can have long-term negative effects on the development of the foetus and the child through a harmful intrauterine environment. Maternal depression during pregnancy is for instance associated with internalizing mental health symptoms and temperament in children. However, there is little research evidence on the association of maternal depression during pregnancy with anxiety symptoms in school-aged children. Childhood anxiety symptoms can have serious and long-term consequences for an individual in terms of psychosocial, academic and professional functioning. This study examines whether maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy increases the risk of anxiety symptoms in school-age children. I also investigate whether infant negative emotionality mediates the association between maternal depression symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children. Methods. The sample of this study, which consists of 1625 mother-child pairs, was part of a larger PREDO (The Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction) follow-up study. Data from 3-12 months infancy follow-up and follow-up at the age of 7 to 11 years were used in this study. Mothers rated depressive symptoms during pregnancy using a self-assessment questionnaire (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale). Mothers assessed their children's negative emotionality (Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire) in the infant follow-up and their children's anxiety symptoms (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, parent report version & The Short Form of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised) in the school-age follow-up. The associations between maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children were examined with linear regression analysis. Negative emotionality in infancy as a mediator of this relationship was examined with mediation analysis. Results and conclusions. According to this study, maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy increased the risk of anxiety symptoms in school-age children. The observed associations between maternal depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms in children were independent of all the covariates selected for this study, such as maternal depression symptoms during follow-up at the age of 7 to 11. Preliminary research findings were also obtained on negative emotionality in infancy as partly mediating the association between maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children. This study helps to increase understanding of the early risk factors of anxiety symptoms in children and the importance of preventive measures during pregnancy. High negative emotionality in early childhood is also a justified target for interventions.

Background: Parenting stress, romantic relationship satisfaction and their associations have been studied extensively, mostly with cross-sectional studies and in different clinical groups. However, parents of young children in non-clinical groups are less studied, especially with longitudinal settings. The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate the change in maternal parenting stress over time, associations with romantic relationship satisfaction and if romantic relationship satisfaction modifies the change in parenting stress. Methods: Our sample (n = 361) is drawn from the prospective cohort study “The InTraUterine sampling in early pregnancy” (ITU). Participating mothers took part in two follow-up assessments: first at the child’s age of 1–2-years and second at 3 years. Parenting stress was assessed at the first and second follow-ups with the “Parenting Stress Index-Short Form” (PSI-SF) questionnaire with three subscales: parental distress, parent-child dysfunctional interaction and difficult child. Romantic relationship satisfaction was assessed at the first follow-up with the satisfaction subscale form the “Dyadic Adjustment Scale” (DAS) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using linear regression models and mixed models. Child’s age, sex, daycare, and siblings, as well as mother’s education and mental health disorders were controlled for in the analyses. Results: Higher parenting stress at the first follow-up was associated with higher parenting stress at the second follow-up. Higher romantic relationship satisfaction was associated with lower parenting stress at the first follow-up in all the subscales, and at the second follow-up in parental distress and difficult child subscales. Parenting stress related to difficult child’s subscale appeared to increase over time in the entire sample, but in the closer examination the changes in parenting stress were partly different in the groups of high and low romantic relationship satisfaction. Controlling for background variables did not affect the results. Conclusions: The results of this thesis fill the previous gaps in longitudinal settings and studies carried out with mothers of young children in non-clinical groups. It seems that romantic relationship satisfaction may be connected to parenting stress and its change in the early childhood. A broader understanding of these phenomena in the family context may be beneficial for applications, for example in health care, in preventing problems and promoting wellbeing of families with children.

Physical and social anhedonia have shown some promise as possible indicators of later mental illness, especially of depression and schizophrenia. However, previous studies have focused on college students and clinical populations, limiting their generalizability into the whole population. Most previous studies have also been cross-sectional. The aim of this longitudinal study with a general population sample is to examine whether high social or physical anhedonia in young adulthood precedes later psychiatric diagnoses. In addition, cross-sectional connections between demographic factors (sex, age, marital status, education) and social and physical anhedonia were examined. The study sample (n=453) of young adults was recruited through the Health 2000 study, which is a representative sample of the adult Finnish population. In the beginning of the study, participants filled in the self-report Chapman Revised Anhedonia Scales, and their demographic factors were clarified using a questionnaire (marital status, education level) and health records (age, sex). After this there was a follow-up period of 9 to 12 years. The psychiatric diagnoses of the participants from the follow-up period were retrieved from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, which includes both inpatient and outpatient specialized psychiatric care. Two sets of analyses were done: analyses of variance (ANOVA) examining the cross-sectional associations between anhedonia and demographic factors (age, sex, marital status, education) and Cox regression analyses examining longitudinal associations between aforementioned variables and later psychiatric diagnoses. Male sex was associated with both higher physical and higher social anhedonia. 63 participants (13%) received at least one psychiatric diagnosis during the follow-up period. Three diagnostic groups were examined; one for receiving a depression diagnosis, one for receiving any anxiety diagnosis and one for receiving any psychiatric diagnosis. Physical or social anhedonia during young adulthood was not found to be associated with later psychiatric diagnoses. Instead, lack of marriage/cohabitation and female sex were found to be possible risk factors for receiving a diagnosis. Contrary to the hypotheses of this study, no association between anhedonia and later psychiatric diagnoses were found. However, the relatively small amount of diagnoses during the follow-up period restricted the statistical strength of the results. The results of this study suggest that anhedonia is not a major predictor of for receiving a later depression diagnosis, any anxiety diagnosis or any psychiatric diagnosis in the general young adult population.

The aim of the study. Conduct disorder and antisocial behaviour are externalizing symptoms. Furthermore antisocial behaviour is associsiated with substance use. Conduct disorder at adolescence have continuity with antisocial behaviour in adulthood and alcohol misuse in adolescence predict alcohol misuse in adulthood. This study examines association between conduct disorder and alcohol use in adolescence and antisocial behaviour and alcohol use in adulthood. Additionally this study examines ADHD symptoms effect to potential association. Methods. The data of this study is a part of a Finnish FinnTwin12 longitudinal study. The sample of this study consists of 1336 person. This study used 14 years and early adulthood (ages between 21 and 26 years) follow-up. Conduct symptoms, alcohol use and ADHD symptoms at adolescence were assessed with the C-SSAGA -psychiatric interview method for children. Antisocial behaviour and alcohol use at early adulthood were assessed with SSAGA -psychiatric interview method. Association between antisocial behaviour and alcohol use were analyzed with cross-lagged panel model. Results and conclusions. Conduct symptoms in adolescence is connected with antisocial behaviour and alcohol use at adulthood. However, alcohol use in adolescence is not connected with antisocial behaviour in adulthood. According to this study, support methods would be important to focus to children and youth with conduct symptoms. This create a possibility to prevent future problems related with alcohol use and antisocial behaviour.

Objectives. Different biases induced by stimulus and response history have been identified in the field of perceptual psychology. Serial dependence is a bias in the perception of objects caused by previous stimuli. Perception can also be biased towards the average of previous stimuli. This is called central tendency bias. The interdependence of responses in a serial task is serial response bias. These history biases have mostly been studied separately despite their effects being similar. This thesis aims to unravel the independent effects of the biases on observers’ responses in a perceptual task and the effect of working memory delay on their magnitude. Methods. The biases were studied with two experiments. Eleven subjects took part in the first experiment which used colored patches with different hues as stimuli. The second experiment had 7 subjects and used grating patches differing in orientation. Subjects were presented with a continuous stream of reference and comparison stimuli. In each trial, they had to respond if the comparison stimulus, presented second, was bluer or greener or was oriented more to the left or the right than the reference stimulus, presented first. Inter-stimulus interval was either short or long in two blocked conditions. The independent effects of the history biases on responses were tested using a generalized linear mixed model with a probit link function. Results and conclusions. In the hue experiment, independent effects were found for all history biases. Previous stimuli attracted the perception of subsequent stimuli and this effect lasted for 12-16 seconds. Independently of this, the percept was also biased towards the average of previous stimuli. In addition, subjects tended to change their response between trials. Working memory delay had no observable effect on the magnitude of the biases. In the orientation experiment, results on serial dependence were mixed, likely due to more noise in the data. Central tendency bias was not observed. Response bias was dependent on the inter-stimulus interval in such a way that with a short delay, subjects were more likely to repeat their choices and with a long, delay they were more likely to alternate between choices. The results clarify the relationships between previously reported history biases. Neither central tendency bias nor serial response bias can explain serial dependence. Furthermore, the results suggest that serial dependence cannot originate solely from the inertia of responses.

Objectives: Associations between family socioeconomic status and child and adolescent mental health have garnered increasing research interest in the last few decades. Parental mental health has also been shown to affect these associations. The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in household income are associated with changes in adolescent mental health, and whether parental psychological distress affects these possible associations. Methods: The sample of this study was derived from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and consisted of 9233 British adolescents aged 10 to 15 years and their biological mothers, stepmothers, or adopted mothers. The data of this study was gathered in four separate study waves. Adolescent mental health was measured with the self-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire total difficulties score. Parental psychological distress was measured with the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. Household income was equivalised to account for family size and composition. The data was analysed using fixed effects and random effects panel models. Adolescent sex, adolescent age, and parent age were included in the models as potential confounding variables. Results and conclusions: Greater household income was associated with less self-reported mental health symptoms in adolescents, but changes in household income were not associated with changes in adolescent mental health. Increases in parental psychological distress were associated with increases in adolescent mental health symptoms. The sex of the adolescent was not associated with adolescent mental health, while results regarding adolescent and parent age were mixed. The findings of this study suggest that there is an association between household income and adolescent mental health, but this association may not be causal in nature. The results also corroborate the status of parental mental health as an important determinant of adolescent mental health.

Objectives: Personality traits have been associated with fertility behaviour, but associations between personality and fertility intentions, especially uncertainty in fertility intentions, have not been studied before. Uncertainty in fertility intentions is the state in which an individual is not sure whether to have (more) children. Fertility intentions have been used to project population trends and to better understand reproductive decision-making processes. In this study, uncertainty in fertility intentions is studied from a biological point of view, by examining personality traits and their associations with uncertainty in fertility intentions, as well as how these associations differ between men and women. Methods: The data used in this study was from the German family panel (pairfam). The respondents (n=4420) were childless men and women aged 18-45 years. Long-term fertility intentions were assessed with a question about how many children the respondents realistically intended to have in their lifetime, and the answers were divided into three categories, one of which represented uncertain intentions. Personality traits were assessed using a short version of the Big Five Inventory. The associations were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression, and gender differences were analyzed using interaction terms between personality traits and gender. Age, partnership status, education and residence were controlled in the analysis. Results and conclusion: All personality traits, except extraversion, were associated with fertility intentions independent of socio-demographic factors. Higher neuroticism and openness were associated with higher uncertainty in fertility intentions, whereas higher conscientiousness and agreeableness were associated with higher likelihood of intending to have children. There were no differences between men and women in these associations. Male gender, older age, not having a partner, and higher education were related to higher uncertainty in fertility intentions. The results are mostly in line with previous studies on the associations between personality and actual number of children, except for conscientiousness, which has previously been associated with lower fertility. This study strengthens the notion that biological factors have associations with fertility behaviour, stressing the importance of further research on the topic.