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InPsych 2020 | Vol 42

Oct/Nov | Issue 5

InPsych 2020 | Vol 42

Education and research : Research snapshot

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Baby pain

Skin-to-skin contact with a parent may reduce an infant’s brain response to pain.

In a study in the UK, the impact of parental contact on infant pain-related brain activity was examined. Brain activity (EEG) was recorded during a clinically required heel lance in three age and sex-matched groups of infants aged up to 96 days old: while held by a parent in skin-to-skin contact (n = 9), while held by a parent with clothing on (n = 9) or (c) or not held at all (lying in cot or incubator) (n = 9). It was found that being held by skin-to-skin contact reduced the magnitude of pain-related brain activity compared to being held with clothing on. Infants’ brains were also found to use a different pathway to process their response to pain when infants were held skin-to-skin rather than with clothing on. Pain-related brain activity was also lower in infants that remained in the cot or incubator than those held in clothing, but the researchers suggested this may have been due to the disruption of being picked up before the procedure. While the findings do not indicate if the baby actually feels less pain when skin-to-skin, the research supports the important role of touch between parents and their infants.

https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1656 

COVID-19 protective behaviours

Brits were quick to take up protective behaviours in the early stages of the pandemic.

In a nationally representative sample, 1000 British adults were surveyed in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the adoption of recommended protective behaviours prior to the pandemic and more recently. There was a large increase in proactive behaviours between behaviours before and after the pandemic was declared, including etiquette around coughing and sneezing, handwashing, and avoiding contact with symptomatic people. For example, 66 per cent of participants reported avoiding touching their face with unwashed hands, compared to only 14 per cent avoiding this before the pandemic. Men were less likely than women to follow protective measures and were more likely to think that their own individual action would not make a difference in reducing the spread of COVID-19. Men also tended to have a lower level of belief in their own and British residents’ abilities to follow protective measures. People with prior higher frequency of social contacts were also found to engage in fewer protective measures during the pandemic than people with fewer social contacts. This research is part of a three-wave study of adoption of protective behaviours during the pandemic.

https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12235 

Marathon runners

Marathon running may improve resilience and emotion-regulation skills.

Australian researchers examined the resilience and personality traits of ultra-marathon runners by comparing differences between 20 runners and 20 people who were not runners (controls). Self-report responses to surveys and physiological responses to a computerised emotion-regulation task were obtained. Compared to the control participants, the ultra-marathon runners showed higher resilience, greater likelihood of engaging in positive reappraisal to regulate emotions and smaller physiological responses to emotionally negative stimuli. This suggests that running may improve emotion regulation skills and resilience. Ultra-marathon runners were also found to be less extroverted than control participants in terms of expression of social warmth. The researchers suggested that while runners may be less included to form close social connections outside of running, other research suggests that marathon running itself can be a very social experience. 

https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12287

Playfulness in adults

Completing short exercises to stimulate playfulness may improve wellbeing.

Adult playfulness is a personality trait that has been linked to positive outcomes. Researchers examined the impact of stimulating playfulness on happiness and depressive symptoms. In a randomised controlled trial, 533 participants from mostly European nationalities were assigned to complete one of three playfulness exercises or a placebo-controlled exercise. The playfulness exercises involved adapting online positive psychology interventions and included thinking about three playful things that had happened during the day, using playfulness in a different way or writing about playful experiences that had happened during the day. The placebo activity involved writing about early childhood memories. For all three interventions there were small and short-term improvements in wellbeing and decreases in depressive symptoms. The authors concluded that playfulness can be stimulated through short exercises which may have benefits for improving psychological functioning, but that further research is needed.

https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12220

References

Disclaimer: Published in InPsych on November 2020. The APS aims to ensure that information published in InPsych is current and accurate at the time of publication. Changes after publication may affect the accuracy of this information. Readers are responsible for ascertaining the currency and completeness of information they rely on, which is particularly important for government initiatives, legislation or best-practice principles which are open to amendment. The information provided in InPsych does not replace obtaining appropriate professional and/or legal advice.

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