Kesaan Kandasamy

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between academic motivation and mental health remains unclear among Canadian undergraduate students. This study examined associations between academic motivation and mental health, sociodemographic, and COVID-related factors in Canadian undergraduate students during the period of returning back to in-person learning (third stage of the pandemic from January–March 2022). A sample of 1868 undergraduates across British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec completed a cross-sectional online survey in Winter 2022. Regression models revealed that depression was associated with lower academic motivation (βs ≥ 0.12, ps < 0.001), whereas stress and resilience were associated with higher academic motivation (βs ≥ 0.07, ps ≤ 0.001), controlling for related sociodemographic or COVID-related factors. Results also identified some sociodemographic (e.g., year of study, gender, English as first language status) and COVID-related factors (e.g., preference for in-person vs. online learning) for academic motivation. Results highlight factors associated with the academic motivation of students when returning back to in-person learning.

It remains unclear how Canadian students fared at the transition back to in-person schooling towards the end of the pandemic. This study assessed the mental health of 1,873 Canadian full-time undergraduates (71.7% women; age 17–24 years, M = 20.59) from three provinces between January 19 and March 4, 2022. About one third reported severe symptoms of depression (33.7%), anxiety (38.4%), and stress (27.8%). Resilience was a robust protective predictor, even after controlling for sociodemographic and COVID-related covariates. Several sociodemographic and COVID-related variables were also protective. Findings highlight ongoing mental health challenges and protective factors for Canadian undergraduate students towards the end of the pandemic.

The current study investigates the peritraumatic distress of Chinese residents living in Canada and identifies the associated sociodemographic and pandemic-related predictors during the initial phases of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown (i.e., from April 2020 to June 2020). A final sample of 457 valid participants aged 18 or older completed an online survey in which peritraumatic distress was assessed with the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). The results showed 32.76% of the sample was in the mild to moderate range (i.e., 28–51) and 5.03% in the severe range (i.e., 52 to higher) for peritraumatic distress. The hierarchical regression models on the continuous CPDI score identified life satisfaction as a consistent protector for the CPDI (absolute values of βs = −1.21 to −0.49, ps < 0.001). After controlling for life satisfaction, the following sociodemographic risk factors were identified: being middle-aged, being employed (relative to retired people/students), living in Ontario (rather than elsewhere), and a poor health status. Furthermore, the following pandemic-related risk factors were identified: a higher self-contraction worry, more of a COVID-19 information authenticity concern, a higher future infection rate prediction, and a higher personal health hygiene appraisal. The results of our study shed light on cognitive, experiential, behavioural, and sociodemographic factors associated with peritraumatic distress for Chinese residents living in Canada during the early outbreak stage of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated health inequalities, with a potentially heightened mental health risk for Mainland Chinese in Canada, given the rising anti-Chinese discrimination, and barriers in assessing health services. In this context, this study aimed to assess non-pathological psychological distress towards COVID-19 and identify its sociodemographic risk factors among Mainland Chinese in Canada at the early stages of the pandemic. Methods: A sample of 731 Mainland Chinese aged 16 or older completed an on-line survey to examine their attitudes, behavioural, and psychological responses towards COVID-19. Non-pathological psychological distress was assessed with a 7-item self-report scale to capture common emotional reactions towards COVID-19. Results: A factor analysis revealed a single-factor structure of the 7-item COVID-19 psychological distress scale (Eigen λ = 3.79). A composite psychological distress index (PDI) score was calculated from these items and used as the outcome variable. Multivariate regression models identified age, financial satisfaction, health status, and perceived/experienced discrimination as significant predictors of psychological distress (ps ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: Mainland Chinese in Canada who were over 25, in poor financial/health status, or with perceived/experienced discrimination were at a higher risk for COVID-19-related psychological distress. The health inequity across these factors would inform the services to mitigate mental health risk in minority groups.

The current study examined the sociodemographic factors associated with perceived and experienced anti-Chinese discrimination and discrimination as a predictor of psychological distress and loneliness among Chinese Canadians. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in early 2021 with a sample of 899 Chinese Canadians (i.e., immigrants, citizens, visitors, and international students) during the Wave 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, anti-Chinese discrimination was generally associated with younger age and poor financial or health status. Christianity/Catholicism believers were less likely to report perceived discrimination, whereas being married/partnered and living with family reduced the incidences of experienced discrimination. Most importantly, hierarchical linear regression models showed that both perceived and experienced discrimination predicted higher psychological distress (βs = 4.90–7.57, ps ≤ .001) and loneliness (βs = .89–1.73, ps ≤ .003), before and after controlling for all related sociodemographic covariates. Additionally, older age, higher education, better financial or health status could all buffer psychological distress, whereas living with family or in a house and better financial or health status could mitigate feeling of loneliness. The results suggested that discrimination has a robust detrimental impact on mental health conditions among Chinese Canadians.

The present study examined the effect of event segmentation on cognitive control mode use in a sample of older adults (N = 30; M_age = 73, SD_age = 4.75) using a modified AX-Continuous Performance Test (AX-CPT). This task included a perceptual event boundary between each cue and its forthcoming probe by means of a spatial shift across the left and right side of the display. Past research showed that young adults’ existing proactive control bias could be enhanced in an event segmented AX-CPT relative to their performance on a standard AX-CPT. For older adults who adopt reactive control by default, the event boundary was expected to impede cue-reactivation during probe presentation, and thus further enhance their existing reactive control bias. To examine this, older adults were tested with a standard and an event segmented AX-CPT in two blocks, with error rates revealing a shift toward greater reactive control use in the event segmented relative to the standard AX-CPT. Findings supported our hypothesis that placing a spatial event boundary between each cue and forthcoming probe would further enhance older adults’ reactive control bias. This study contributes to the sparse but growing literature on the effects of task-specific manipulations on cognitive control use. The results are discussed in light of the dual mechanisms of control framework and the event horizon model.

The dual mechanisms of control framework (DMC) proposes two modes of cognitive control: proactive and reactive control. In anticipation of an interference event, young adults primarily use a more proactive control mode, whereas older adults tend to use a more reactive one during the event, due to age-related deficits in working memory. The current study aimed to examine the effects of mood induction on cognitive control mode in older (ages 65+) compared to young adults (ages 18–30) with a standard letter-cue (Experiment 1) and a modified face-cue AX-CPT (Experiment 2). Mood induction into negative and/or positive mood versus neutral mood was conducted prior to the cognitive control task. Experiment 1 replicated the typical pattern of proactive control use in young adults and reactive control use in older adults. In Experiment 2, older adults showed comparable proactive control to young adults in their response time (RT). Mood induction showed little effect on cognitive control across the two experiments. These results did not reveal consistent effects of mood (negative or positive) on cognitive control mode in young and older adults, but discovered (or demonstrated) that older adults can engage proactive control when dichotomous face cues (female or male) are used in AX-CPT.