JARMAC Editor's Choice: December 2021

Viruses, vaccines, and COVID-19: Explaining and improving risky decision-making

AUTHORS: VALERIE F. REYNA, DAVID A.BRONIATOWSKI & SARAH M. EDELSON

Risky decision-making lies at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic and will determine future viral outbreaks. We review the underlying mechanisms and predictions offered by expectancy-value and dual-process theories and highlight how fuzzy-trace theory builds on these approaches. We discuss how social values relate to decision-making according to fuzzy-trace theory, including how categorical gist representations cue core values. Although gist often supports health-promoting behaviors (e.g., social distancing), why this is not always the case as with status-quo gist is explained, and suggestions are offered for how to overcome the “battle for the gist” as it plays out in social media.

The ecology of youth psychological wellbeing in the COVID-19 pandemic

AUTHORS: KAREN SALMON

The consequences of profound disruption to everyday life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will only emerge over time. I review evidence that points to parents at home with children as particularly vulnerable to increased psychological difficulties. Resultant compromised parenting may reduce children’s opportunities for interactions that promote cognitive and socioemotional development and expose them to increases in problematic caregiving behaviours. I discuss three evidence-based strategies that parents could adopt to buffer their child’s mental health and conclude that approaches to supporting parents and their children at this time must also address multisystem factors that compromise caregivers’ ability to provide nurturing care.