Background Historically social connection has been an important way through which humans have coped with large-scale threatening events. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns have deprived people of major sources of social support and coping, with others representing threats. Hence, a major stressor during the pandemic has been a sense of social disconnection and loneliness. This study explores how people’s experience of compassion and feeling socially safe and connected, in contrast to feeling socially disconnected, lonely and fearful of compassion, effects the impact of perceived threat of COVID-19 on post-traumatic growth and post-traumatic stress. Methods Adult participants from the general population (N = 4057) across 21 countries worldwide, completed self-report measures of social connection (compassion for self, from others, for others; social safeness), social disconnection (fears of compassion for self, from others, for others; loneliness), perceived threat of COVID-19, post-traumatic growth and traumatic stress. Results Perceived threat of COVID-19 predicted increased post-traumatic growth and traumatic stress. Social connection (compassion and social safeness) predicted higher post-traumatic growth and traumatic stress, whereas social disconnection (fears of compassion and loneliness) predicted increased traumatic symptoms only. Social connection heightened the impact of perceived threat of COVID-19 on post-traumatic growth, while social disconnection weakened this impact. Social disconnection magnified the impact of the perceived threat of COVID-19 on traumatic stress. These effects were consistent across all countries. Conclusions Social connection is key to how people adapt and cope with the worldwide COVID-19 crisis and may facilitate post-traumatic growth in the context of the threat experienced during the pandemic. In contrast, social disconnection increases vulnerability to develop post-traumatic stress in this threatening context. Public health and Government organizations could implement interventions to foster compassion and feelings of social safeness and reduce experiences of social disconnection, thus promoting growth, resilience and mental wellbeing during and following the pandemic.

ObjectiveAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent disorders in childhood, which may pose risks in later life such as academic underachievement and anti-social behaviour. It has been suggested that mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) may contribute to positive outcomes with child and adult populations. In this article, we aim to systematically review the literature regarding the effectiveness of MBI on both children with ADHD and their parents.MethodSeven databases were searched using the PRISMA criteria and included peer-reviewed journals and grey literature.ResultsTen studies met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggested that MBI had positive results in addressing attention deficits in children with ADHD, but in terms of hyperactivity, the evidence was conflicting. MBI interventions also appear to effectively address parental stress and family functioning. However, the rating from the quality assessment showed several methodological limitations.DiscussionThe current evidence on the impact of MBI on ADHD symptoms is non-conclusive. However, promising data indicated the potential for MBI in addressing parental stress and family functioning. Further research is recommended to overcome the current methodological limitations.

Background: There is ample evidence of the high mental health burden caused by Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Several constructs such as experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, shame, and self-criticism have recently emerged as potential intervention targets to improve mental health in IBD. Psychotherapeutic models such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and compassion-based interventions are known to target these constructs. In this protocol, we aim to describe a two-arm Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) testing the efficacy of an ACT and compassion-focused intervention named Living with Intention, Fullness, and Engagement with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (LIFEwithIBD) intervention + Treatment As Usual (TAU) vs. TAU in improving psychological distress, quality of life, work and social functioning, IBD symptom perception, illness-related shame, psychological flexibility, self-compassion, disease activity, inflammation biomarkers, and gut microbiota diversity.Methods: This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03840707, date assigned 13/02/2019). The LIFEwithIBD intervention is an adaptation to the IBD population of the Mind programme for people with cancer, an acceptance, mindfulness, and compassion-based intervention designed to be delivered in a group format. The LIFEwithIBD intervention's structure and topics are presented in this protocol. Participants were recruited at the Gastroenterology Service of the Coimbra University Hospital between June and September 2019. Of the 355 patients screened, 61 participants were selected, randomly assigned to one of two conditions [experimental group (LIFEwithIBD + TAU) or control group (TAU)] and completed the baseline assessment. Outcome measurement took place at baseline, post-intervention, 3- and 12-month follow-ups.Discussion: Results from this RCT will support future studies testing the LIFEwithIBD intervention or other acceptance and/or compassion-based interventions for IBD.

It has been widely recognised by economists that economic relationships are typically non-linear. This is so that, for example, C. W. J. Granger and T. Teräsvirta [Modelling Nonlinear Economic Relationships, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993], inter alia, have dedicated a whole book to the subject of modelling non-linear economic relationships. Non-linear relationships are present in many aspects of economic activity, and particularly so in the context of financial markets. Examples of this include the attitude of investors towards the risk and the process of generating financial variables such as stock returns, dividends, interest rates, and so on. On the other hand, the performance of an economy also presents strong signs of a non-linear behaviour: e.g. business cycles, production functions, growth rates, unemployment, etc. Although the shape of non-linearity in these relationships may be rather complex, there are cases where one may admit some sort of linear relationship between the relevant variables within certain regimes. This is the case when one aims to study the co-movements of stock returns volatility and some relevant macroeconomic factors. One obvious question that we may pose in this context is whether the magnitude of positive and negative responses differs for similar positive and negative variations in the predictors, in which case we can say that the underlying variables display asymmetric adjustment. Markets characterised by higher elasticity of supply are likely to show less asymmetry than their counterparts due to increased security of supply. Models of financial markets have incorporated asymmetry using GARCH-type methodologies. An alternative way to deal with these cases is to use threshold autoregressive (TAR) and momentum threshold autoregressive (M-TAR) models to address the problem of multivariate asymmetry. These methodologies are essential when the asymmetric variables are non-stationary (but not only), because of the low power of unit roots and cointegration tests in such cases. In a non-stationary framework, asymmetric cointegration tests were developed by [W. Enders, and P. Siklos, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 19(2), 2001, 166-176] using a modified error correction model derived from the original EG testing procedure. We apply this methodology to the Portuguese and U.S. stock markets using monthly observations from

Using the models proposed by (Treynor & Mazuy, 1966; Henriksson & Merton, 1981), the present study examines the selection and timing abilities of mutual fund managers to denote the practice of these strategies as a means to achieve superior performance. For the 163 European equity mutual funds that followed active management strategies between January 2000 and December 2016, there was no evidence that fund managers used market timing abilities to anticipate the market movements. However, the selectivity component of returns presents slightly positive results, despite the poor overall performance.