BACKGROUND: Understanding the emotional context of feeding behavior may help identify causal mechanisms of food avoidance among individuals with anorexia nervosa. Although predominant food avoidance models assume fear of fat drives feeding behavior, disgust may be more theoretically and proximally relevant to moment-to-moment experiences of feeding. This study, therefore, aimed to examine affect and food avoidance using automated affect analysis from facial response by measuring time-specific transitions in disgust during a laboratory eating paradigm. We hypothesized that phase transitions in disgust would distinguish temporally self-initiated eating from food avoidance.
METHODS: Sixty-three adolescents with anorexia nervosa or another low-weight eating disorder (LWED) and 27 age- and sex-matched controls were recruited as part of a larger study; 45 patients and 22 controls provided data on autonomous eating and facial affect during a laboratory meal. Dynamic structural equation models quantified moment-to-moment relationships between disgust and feeding behavior.
RESULTS: Self-initiated eating was associated with greater increases in disgust, but not fear, intensity among those with LWED relative to control participants and greater disgust intensity predicted lower likelihood of self-initiated eating.
CONCLUSIONS: Phasic transitions in disgust provide moment-to-moment evidence of affective influence on self-initiated eating and lend credibility to the hypothesis that disgust contributes to food avoidance and initiation in individuals with LWED.

BACKGROUND: Existing research highlights the significance of prosocial behavior (voluntary, intentional behavior that results in benefits for another) to people\'s well-being. Yet, the extent to which this expected positive relation operates at the within-person level (e.g., is more prosocial behavior than usual related to a higher than usual level of well-being?) while taking into account stable interindividual differences, remains a research question that deserves further investigation. In this study, we aimed to explore the relations between prosocial behavior and hedonic (HWB; subjective assessment of life satisfaction and happiness) and eudaimonic (EWB; actualization of human potential in alignment with personal goals, including concepts like meaning in life and closeness to others) well-being in daily life.
METHODS: Using ecological momentary assessment for 4 weeks, data were collected from two British samples, comprising 82 adolescents and 166 adults.
RESULTS: Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling revealed a positive relations between prosocial behavior and HWB/EWB at both between and within-person levels across the samples.
CONCLUSIONS: In summary, these findings further support the positive link between prosocial behavior and well-being in everyday life. Notably, this association was consistent across different age groups (adolescent and adults) at both between and within-person levels.

The extended process model of emotion regulation provides a framework for understanding how emotional experiences and emotion regulation (ER) mutually influence each other over time. To investigate this reciprocal relationship, 202 adults completed a ten-day experience-sampling survey capturing levels of negative affect (NA) experience and use of ten ER strategies in daily life. Residual dynamic structural equation models (DSEMs) were used to examine within-person cross-lagged and autoregressive effects of NA and ER (strategy use and between-strategy variability). Results showed that NA predicted lower between-strategy variability, lower subsequent use of acceptance and problem-solving, but higher subsequent use of rumination and worry. Moreover, reappraisal and between-strategy variability predicted lower subsequent NA levels, while expressive suppression and worry predicted higher subsequent NA levels. Stable autoregressive effects were found for NA and for maladaptive ER strategies (e.g., rumination and worry). Exploratory correlation analyses revealed positive associations between NA inertia and maladaptive ER strategies. Together, these findings provide evidence of a dynamic interplay between NA and ER. This work deepens how we understand the challenges of applying ER strategies in daily life. Future clinical and translational research should consider these dynamic perspectives on ER and affect.

The positive association between meaning in life (MIL) and mindfulness has been supported; however, previous research has been limited to the trait level. To explore the dynamics of mindfulness and MIL in the state level, the present study used the experience sampling method (ESM) and conducted a dynamic structural equation model (DSEM). In addition, we examined the moderation of baseline depression in this dynamic relationship and the protective role of the dynamics on depression. We recruited 184 college students (Mage = 21.58, 33.15% male), who reported three times a day for 14 consecutive days, and analyzed the 7726 collected responses. Firstly, a virtuous cycle between mindfulness and MIL was proven. Besides, the baseline depressive symptoms moderated the predictive of mindfulness on MIL, suggesting state mindfulness gave people with more depressive symptoms more meaningful in daily life. Lastly, the result also demonstrated the positive prediction of mindfulness on MIL and alleviated the worsening of depressive symptoms within 2 weeks. The findings extended the relationship between MIL and mindfulness from trait level to state level, enriching the self-determination theory, and examined the unique effect of depressive symptoms in the dynamics.

UNASSIGNED: Longitudinal studies with annual follow-up including psychological and social variables in substance use disorder recovery are scarce. We investigated whether levels of substance use, satisfaction with life, and psychological distress fluctuate across five years in relation to having drug-free friends.
UNASSIGNED: A prospective naturalistic cohort study of change trajectories in a cohort of people diagnosed with substance use disorder and using multiple substances with quarterly and annual follow-up over five years. Two-hundred-and-eight patients were recruited from substance use disorder treatment in Rogaland, Norway. Out of these, 164 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria. We used Bayesian two-level dynamic structural equation modelling. The variable \'drug-free friends\' was assessed by a self-reporting questionnaire, while psychological distress was assessed using the Symptoms Checklist 90 Revised. Satisfaction with life was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale while drug use was assessed using the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test.
UNASSIGNED: The main findings are that higher-than-average psychological distress at a three-month lag credibly predicts higher-than-normal substance use at the concurrent time point t. Substance use and satisfaction with life seem to have synchronous trajectories over time, i.e. as the first decreases the latter increases and vice versa. During the five years after treatment, the participants mainly experienced a decrease in substance use and increase in satisfaction with life.
UNASSIGNED: Since the participants experienced positive and negative fluctuations for several years after treatment, it seems crucial to establish a dialogue with treatment professionals in order to create functional solutions for maintaining motivation and aiding recovery.

Bidirectional relations have long been of interest in psychology and other social behavioral sciences. In recent years, the widespread use of intensive longitudinal data has provided new opportunities to examine dynamic bidirectional relations between variables. However, most previous studies have focused on the effect of one variable on the other (i.e., cross-lagged effects) rather than the overall effect representing the dynamic interplay between two variables (i.e., feedback effects), which we believe may be due to a lack of relevant methodological guidance. To quantify bidirectional relations as a whole, this study attempted to provide guidance for the estimation and interpretation of feedback effects based on dynamic structural equation models. First, we illustrated the estimation procedure for the average and person-specific feedback effects. Then, to facilitate the interpretation of feedback effects, we established an empirical benchmark by quantitatively synthesizing the results of relevant empirical studies. Finally, we used a set of empirical data to demonstrate how feedback effects can help (a) test theories based on bidirectional relations and (b) reveal correlates of individual differences in bidirectional relations. We also discussed the broad application prospects of feedback effects from a dynamic systems perspective. This study provides guidance for applied researchers interested in further examining feedback effects in bidirectional relations, and the shift from focusing on cross-lagged effects only to a comprehensive consideration of feedback effects may provide new insights into the study of bidirectional relations.

Although the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDoC) framework proposes biological and environmental mechanisms intersect in the etiology of psychopathology, there is no guidance on how to define or measure experiences in the environment within the RDoC matrix. Interpersonal dynamics during caregiver-child interactions involve temporal coordination of interacting partners\' biobehavioral functioning; repeated experiences of signaling to caregivers and responding to caregivers\' signals shape children\'s subsequent socioemotional and brain development. We begin with a review of the extant literature on caregiver-child dynamics, which reveals that RDoC\'s units of analysis (brain circuits, physiology, behavior, and self-report) are inextricably linked with moment-to-moment changes in the caregiving environment. We then offer a proof-of-concept for integrating biobehavioral RDoC units and environmental components via caregiver-child dynamics. Our approach uses dynamic structural equation models to estimate within-dyad dynamics involving arousal, social, cognitive, and negative or positive affective processes based on second-by-second changes in parasympathetic activity (RSA) during a conflict discussion and a positive event-planning task. Our results illustrate variation in parent-child RSA synchrony, suggesting differences depending on the driver (i.e., child- or parent-led) and on the unique and intersecting domains involved (e.g., positive or negative affect valence systems). We conclude with recommendations for conducting robust, methodologically rigorous studies of interpersonal dynamics that advance the RDoC framework and provide a summary of the clinical implications of this research. Examining caregiver-child dynamics during and across multiple dyadic interaction paradigms that differentially elicit key domains of functioning can deepen understanding of how caregiver- and child-led interpersonal dynamics contribute to child psychopathology risk.

Given that noncompliance is the most common externalizing problem during middle childhood and reliably predicts significant conduct problems, innovations in elucidating its etiology are sorely needed. Evaluation of in-the-moment antecedents and consequences of child noncompliance improves traction on this goal, given that multiple theories contend that child noncompliance and parent behavior mutually influence each other through negative reciprocation as well as contingent praise processes. Among a sample of 140 families (child age: 6-10 years; 32.1% female), the present study capitalized on intensive repeated measures of observed child noncompliance and parent negative talk and praise objectively coded during three unique tasks. We employed dynamic structural equation modeling to evaluate within-dyad parent-child behavioral dynamics and between-dyad differences therein. Results provided mixed support for hypotheses and suggested that antecedents and consequences of child noncompliance differed according to task demands and child ADHD symptoms. Contrary to models of coercive cycles, during child-led play, parent negative talk was more likely following prior child noncompliance, but child noncompliance was less likely following prior parent negative talk. As expected, during parent-led play, parent praise was less likely following prior child noncompliance, which was also less likely following prior parent praise. Relative to youth with fewer symptoms, for children with elevated ADHD symptoms, during a challenging clean-up task, child noncompliance was less stable and less contingent on prior parent negative talk. Results are discussed in terms of their implications of real-time parent-child interactions for typical and atypical development of externalizing problems.

To design effective policies against COVID-19, there is a need for more evidence-based research. However, associations between actual policies and temporal behavior changes have remained underexplored. To fill this important research gap, a nationwide retrospective life-oriented panel survey on individuals\' behavior changes from April to September 2020 was implemented in Japan. Reliability of information sources, risk perceptions, and attitudes toward policymaking were also investigated. Valid data were collected from 2643 respondents residing in different parts of the country. Risks were reported about general infections and public transport use. Attitudes toward policymaking were mainly about policymaking capacity and PASS-LASTING based policy measures. A dynamic structural equation model (DSEM) was developed to quantify dynamic associations between individuals\' behavior changes over time and subjective assessments (i.e., attitudes) of policymaking. Survey results revealed that behavior changes are mostly characterized by avoidance behaviors. Modeling estimation results showed a statistically-significant sequential cause-effect relationship between accumulated behavior changes in the past, subjective factors, and the most recent behavior changes. The most recent behavior changes are mostly affected by accumulated behavior changes in the past. Effects of subjective assessments of policymaking on the most recent behavior changes are significant but moderate. Among attitudes toward policymaking, attitudes toward policymaking capacity are more influential than willingness to follow PASS-LASTING based policy measures. High risks of using public transport are found to significantly influence the most recent behavior changes, together with other risk perception factors. Insights into effective COVID-19 policymaking are summarized.

Network systems are commonly encountered and investigated in various disciplines, and network dynamics that refer to collective node state changes over time are one area of particular interests of many researchers. Recently, dynamic structural equation model (DSEM) has been introduced into the field of network dynamics as a powerful statistical inference tool. In this study, in recognition that parameter identifiability is the prerequisite of reliable parameter inference, a general and efficient approach is proposed for the first time to address the structural parameter identifiability problem of linear DSEMs for cyclic networks. The key idea is to transform a DSEM to an equivalent frequency domain representation, then Masons gain is employed to deal with feedback loops in cyclic networks when generating identifiability equations. The identifiability result of every unknown parameter is obtained with the identifiability matrix method. The proposed approach is computationally efficient because no symbolic or expensive numerical computations are involved, and can be applicable to a broad range of linear DSEMs. Finally, selected benchmark examples of brain networks, social networks and molecular interaction networks are given to illustrate the potential application of the proposed method, and we compare the results from DSEMs, state-transition models and ordinary differential equation models.