The Biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans inherently need nature for their mental well-being. Hence, the current contrast between natural environments and artificial urban settings may...Show moreThe Biophilia hypothesis suggests that humans inherently need nature for their mental well-being. Hence, the current contrast between natural environments and artificial urban settings may contribute to modern stress levels. Studies show that adolescents, who out of all the age groups feel the least connected to nature, are highly prone to mental health problems. However, research on the relationship between nature connectedness and mental health in adolescents remains scarce. This paper analyzed scores from the Connectedness to Nature Scale (CNS) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in 214 adolescents (172 women, 39 men, 2 non-binaries, 1 genderqueer) between the age of 16-25, M = 20, to investigate the association between mental health and connectedness to nature. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a non-significant and negative relationship between adolescents’ mental health and their connectedness to nature. Although this finding contrasts with prior literature, the relationship seems to be more complex with other contextual factors that were not included in the study. CNS might positively impact mental health only as a moderator between mental well-being and exposure to green spaces, although this study did not test this moderating relationship. Possible influential factors include sensitivity to climate change at high CNS levels. Avenues for future research include studying connectedness to nature as a moderator in the relationship between exposure to green spaces and mental health as well as including contextual variables to inform nature-based therapies.Show less
Since kindergarten, we have the innate desire to turn strangers we like into friends. Friends accompany us the longest of any interpersonal relationship throughout our lives and are seen as pivotal...Show moreSince kindergarten, we have the innate desire to turn strangers we like into friends. Friends accompany us the longest of any interpersonal relationship throughout our lives and are seen as pivotal to making our time on earth worthwhile. The study delves into the best friendships of young adults and investigates whether the participant’s best-friend relationship significantly contributes to their mental well-being. This paper explored this relationship by extracting selected questionnaires from an extensive master ́s research project with the participation of 214 young adults between 16 to 25 years of age. The Network Relationship Inventory (NRI) questionnaire was used to determine the quality of the best-friend relationship, while the Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) assessed mental well-being. The results indicated a significant linear relationship between subjective well-being and relationship quality with your best friend. Therefore, this study concludes that finding yourself in a mutually supportive relationship benefits psychosocial functioning. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously due to the lack of inclusion of other external factors and a sample size mainly derived from a Dutch population.Show less
Adolescence is a critical period in life, marked by profound shifts in physical, psychological, and social aspects. This phase exposes adolescents to heightened vulnerability to mental health...Show moreAdolescence is a critical period in life, marked by profound shifts in physical, psychological, and social aspects. This phase exposes adolescents to heightened vulnerability to mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety, which can have long-term consequences on their overall wellbeing. This study aims to investigate the impact of gender, race, and personality traits on mental health outcomes, specifically depression and anxiety, among adolescents. The study, utilizing a crosssectional design and data from the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) dataset, examines relationships between these variables, with responses from an online questionnaire from 28,599 adolescents aged 13 to 24 from 132 countries. Welch’s t-test reveals significant gender differences, with females exhibiting higher levels of depression and anxiety compared to males. Additionally, Welch’s one-way ANOVA found significant variations in depression and anxiety scores among different racial groups, emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive interventions. Personality traits, particularly high neuroticism and low extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness, are consistently associated with elevated levels of depression and anxiety as shown in the multiple regression analysis. The overall models incorporating predictors of gender, race, and personality traits collectively have an impact on predicting the levels of depression and anxiety. Limitations include unequal variances of different variables, the use of self-report measures and the cross-sectional design, suggesting cautious interpretation of the findings. These results underscore the critical need for continued exploration into the nuanced interplay of gender, race, and personality traits in shaping adolescent mental health outcomes.Show less
Cognitive abilities such as problem solving, logic reasoning and general knowledge have traditionally been theorized and studied as factor models, whereby latent unobserved variables such as...Show moreCognitive abilities such as problem solving, logic reasoning and general knowledge have traditionally been theorized and studied as factor models, whereby latent unobserved variables such as general intelligence (g-factor), or crystallized (gc) and fluid intelligence (gf) pose as the underlying mechanisms for performance on cognitive tests. However, the mutualism theory of intelligence conceptualizes general cognitive ability and its components as a network, in which individual cognitive abilities (e.g., reasoning and vocabulary) influence and facilitate each other’s development. Studies into the use of mutualism theory have supported the theory as an explanation of the development between different cognitive constructs. Studies into development within a singular construct, however, remains sparse. Our study aimed to fill this gap in the literature. Using this network psychometrics we researched the construct general knowledge (gkn) using a data set of answers to a multiple-choice general knowledge test, obtained from the Open-Source Psychometrics Project database. Grouping the participants based on age (13-18, 19-24 and 25-35 years old) we found that overall, the partial correlations are weaker for the youngest group and strongest for the older groups. This suggests that general knowledge is not as strongly developed in the youngest group compared to the older groups. We also found that the youngest group had the most positive partial correlations overall, suggesting that mutualism is most active in this age range. Concurrently, we found that the middle group had the highest of both total amount of partial correlations, and total amount of positive partial correlations. The oldest group had the widest range in partial correlations, and the smallest number of partial correlations compared to the total amount of partial correlations recorded, suggesting that the development of general knowledge strengthens with age from younger to older adolescence and that this development levels off in (early) adulthood. These findings support the theory of mutualism and opens up avenues for further research into the use of mutualism theory to investigate the development of (constructs of) intelligence and related factorsShow less
