The stigma of having a parent with mental illness: Genetic attributions and associative stigma

Children often report associative stigma because they are ‘contaminated’ by association with a parent who has a mental illness. An exploratory study was conducted to investigate the role of genetic attributions in the aetiology of associative stigma. The first hypothesis was that genetic attributions would predict associative stigma over and above the contribution of biochemical and stressful‐event attributions, while the second hypothesis was that the relationship between genetic attributions and associative stigma would be mediated by the perceived likelihood that children would develop the same disorder as their parents. Two‐hundred‐and‐two individuals were asked to read a hypothetical scenario describing a teenage girl whose mother had been diagnosed with either schizophrenia or depression. Both hypotheses were supported. The findings of the study have implications for a number of professions working in the community such as teachers and psychologists. Additional avenues for future research are also explored.     

Relationships between psychological stress,coping and disordered eating: A review

Abstract

Objective: Psychological stress and inadequate coping skills have been hypothesized to play important roles in the etiology of disordered eating. This paper reviews the empirical evidence which has emerged regarding the proposed relationships among stress. coping skills and various forms of disordered eating. Method: A search of psychological and medical databases was conducted to identify studies examining life events, and other types of psychological stress and coping strategies, in relation to the onset of disordered eating. Results: Despite methodological limitations such as the use of non-representative samples and retrospective methodologies, evidence of relationships between stress. coping and disordered eating was obtained in the majority of studies reviewed. Discussion: The implications of these findings am discussed and suggestions for future research, including the utilization of longitudinal. prospective studies, am presented.     

“Giving Back to Society What Society Gave Us”: Altruism,Coping, and Meaning Making by Two Refugee Communities in South Australia

We aimed to explore how refugee people utilised their coping resources and strategies to find meaning in their past and present experiences. Using an experience‐centred narrative approach, we analysed the stories of 24 former refugees from two African countries resettled in South Australia. Data analysis revealed altruism and helping behaviour as a prominent and recurring theme of participants' narrated lives. This meta‐theme encompassed four subthemes: (a) surviving war and exile, (b) adapting to Australian society, (c) reaching back home, and (d) meaning making through religious beliefs. Helping, cooperating, and sharing were entwined with participants' coping strategies and meaning making of experience. Participants' socio‐historical, cultural, and religious context influenced the interpretations of their experiences. Taken together, our findings identified a counter narrative in refugee mental health research beyond trauma and psychopathology. Specifically, we have shown that when the refugee experience is also accompanied by situational contingencies such as receiving help and being called upon to help, together with evaluations such as empathy, identification with suffering, and gratitude, people can be motivated to help others. Future research is needed to explore how altruism and helping behaviour can promote healing from trauma, alleviate distress of separation, and ameliorate acculturation stress among diverse refugee populations.     

Children's coping with peer rejection: the role of depressive symptoms,social competence,and gender

The present study investigated children's anticipated emotional response and anticipated coping in response to peer rejection, as well as the qualifying effects of gender, depressive symptoms, and perceived social competence. Participants (N = 234), ranging in age between 10 and 13 years, were presented with two written vignettes depicting peer rejection. The most highly endorsed coping strategies were behavioural distraction, problem‐focused behaviour, and positive reappraisal. Results indicate that children higher in depressive symptoms reported a more negative anticipated mood impact. Moreover, children higher in depressive symptoms were less inclined to endorse behavioural and cognitive coping strategies typically associated with mood improvement (e.g., behavioural distraction, positive reappraisal). Independent of depression, children scoring higher on perceived social competence reported more active, problem‐oriented coping behaviour in response to the stressors. Types of coping were largely unaffected by gender, however girls reported higher levels of anticipated sadness than boys in response to the rejection vignettes. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rural breast cancer patients,coping and depressive symptoms: A prospective comparison study

Many studies have revealed that individual differences in coping responses to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are associated with psychological adjustment. The vast majority of these studies, however, focus exclusively on urban breast cancer survivors despite that rural breast cancer survivors are likely to have distinct experiences both in general and in relation to breast cancer. The current study quantitatively examined the coping strategies employed by both rural and urban breast cancer patients while they were undergoing radiation therapy. Further, the influence of these coping behaviours on concurrent as well as subsequent depressive symptoms (3 and 6 months later) was examined. The results revealed that the rurality of breast cancer patients was unrelated to the ways in which they coped, but did influence the relationships between some coping responses and depressive symptoms. Specifically, active coping and positive reinterpretation were negatively related to depressive symptoms for more rural breast cancer patients, but not their relatively urban counterparts. Similarly, behavioural disengagement was more strongly related to depressive symptoms for more rural patients. Possible reasons for this pattern of results and implications are discussed.     

Use of student support services among university students: associations with problem-focused coping,experience of personal difficulty and psychological distress

ABSTRACT

Universities provide a range of problem-focused social support services to help students who are experiencing personal difficulties. The current study examines how the effectiveness of students' (N = 131) problem-coping style, experience of personal difficulty and psychological distress are associated with actual use of support services in the academic setting. Results indicate that students who experienced a personal difficulty and who had a more reflective problem-coping style were more likely to use student support services. In addition, students with less effective problem-focused coping styles (more reactive and suppressive, less reflective) reported greater psychological distress. The potential personal, psychological and academic benefits of the reflective problem-coping style are discussed.     

Manifestations of anxiety and coping strategies in patients with metastatic lung cancer and their family caregivers: a qualitative study

Objective: Advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is common, deadly, and associated with impairing anxiety for patients and caregivers who often co-experience similar symptoms that can vary together over time. We aimed to discover themes as to how NSCLC patients and caregivers express and cope with anxiety.

Design: Semi-structured interviews of patient-caregiver dyads (N?=?21), coded using NVivo Software.

Main Outcome Measures: Open-ended questions on anxiety mutuality, giving or receiving care, communication, and the most difficult aspects of having or caring for someone with Stage IV NSCLC.

Results: Analyses revealed that patients and caregivers were linked psychologically, co-experiencing symptoms of distress or coping, rising and falling together. Shared patient and caregiver themes emerged of cognitive, behavioural and physiological manifestations of anxiety and coping mechanisms.

Conclusions: Patient and caregiver expressions of anxiety and coping methods mapped onto the cognitive-behavioural model, implying potential use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to address these issues. This expands understanding of symptoms and coping strategies in NSCLC, explores patient-caregiver interaction, and confirms the need for future clinical intervention. Future research should focus on development and dissemination of CBT-based dyadic interventions addressing anxiety in NSCLC patients and caregivers.     

危及生命的慢性疾病应对中的积极心理效应:证据、质疑与建议

危及生命的慢性疾病指病程长、治愈难、治疗周期长、严重情况下会危及生命且严重影响患者及其家属正常生活的疾病.研究发现,乐观、抗争勇气、心理一致感、受益发现和创伤后成长等积极心理因素在危及生命的慢性疾病应对过程中能产生积极效果,并证实积极心理通过生物加工、行为加工、社会加工三条路径促进患者对疾病的应对.对疾病态度或感知进行干预以及直接诱发积极心理等干预方法能对疾病康复产生良好的效果.对该领域研究的质疑主要包括研究方法的科学性以及积极心理和疾病应对间因果关系的明确程度两个方面.针对质疑,未来研究应以实验法为主导并结合其它方法,进一步探讨积极心理与疾病应对和康复之间的因果关系.     

Living with painful diabetic neuropathy: insights from focus groups into fears and coping strategies

Objective: Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is known to negatively affect quality of life. Being physically active is a crucial part of successful diabetes self-management, but regimen adherence is often low. Coping strategies and fears have shown to be related to less physical activity (PA). The aim of the present study was to obtain more in-depth information on psychological risk factors leading to less PA in persons with PDN.

Design: Three semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with a representative sample of persons with PDN (N?=?12). Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a hybrid method of thematic analyses and a grounded theory approach.

Main Outcome Measures: Fears and coping strategies related to PA in persons with PDN.

Results: Several specific fears were identified; fear of hypoglycaemia, fear of pain increase, fear of total exhaustion, fear of physical injury, fear of falling, fear of loss of identity, and fear of negative evaluation by others. To cope with these fears, avoidance, remaining active, cognitive distraction, and acceptance strategies were described.

Conclusion: In persons with PDN, diabetes-related fears and pain-related fears play a role in less engagement in PA, indicating the need for new methods for improving self-management in persons with PDN.     

Mood regulation expectancies, affect intensity, dispositional coping, and depressive symptoms: A conceptual analysis and empirical reanalysis

In a recent article, Flett, Blankstein and Obertinsky (1996, Personality and Individual Differences, 20, 221–228) examined cross-sectional relations between affect intensity, generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR expectancies), coping dispositions, and depression in a sample of 153 women. However, they did not report partial correlations of affect intensity and NMR expectancies, independent of each other, with coping and depression. Such information is needed for development of models of the coping process which integrate the roles of temperament variables, such as affect intensity, and cognitive-social learning person variables, such as NMR expectancies. Reanalysis of Flett etal.'s correlation matrix revealed that affect intensity and NMR expectancies were each independently associated with distinct coping dispositions, but that only NMR expectancies were independently associated with depressive symptoms.     

Childhood obesity stigma: association with television, videogame, and magazine exposure

Although the stigmatization of obesity among children is highly prevalent, its origins and relationship to mass media exposure are largely unknown. Ninety boys and 171 girls aged 10–13 years (mean BMI = 19.84) were asked to rank, in order of liking, 12 figures of peers depicted both with and without various disabilities or obesity, and to rate their attitudes towards the obese child on visual analogue scales. Weekly time spent watching television, watching videogames, and reading magazines on weekdays and weekends was assessed. Total media use, magazine use, and videogame use were significantly correlated with more negative reactions to obese girls and boys. Regression analyses revealed that greater dislike of obese children relative to their non-overweight peers was uniquely predicted by magazine reading time. Thus, media exposure was associated with stigmatizing attitudes towards obese children. Mass media sources may lead children to devalue and stigmatize peers with above-average body weights.     

Relationships between cognitive coping,self-esteem,anxiety and depression: A cluster-analysis approach

It is important for prevention efforts and for designing appropriate interventions to identify people at risk of depression while considering cognitive coping and individual characteristics. This study with 334 French adults examined the ways in which people may combine the use of several cognitive coping strategies and investigated whether depression, self-esteem, and state- and trait-anxiety would differ across distinctive cognitive coping profiles. A two-phased cluster analytic plan was employed to derive clusters of cognitive coping profiles. We identified three profiles that differed according to the levels of depression, self-esteem, and state- and trait-anxiety. Research should therefore not focus on a single cognitive coping strategy, but on all cognitive coping strategies that are used simultaneously to investigate the relation between cognitive coping and emotional problems. Cognitive coping profiles provided a deeper understanding of how different individuals cope with negative and unpleasant events, and they allowed us to identify targeted groups that are most likely to benefit from specific mental health promotion and prevention campaigns.     

Type D personality,physical symptoms and subjective stress: The mediating effects of coping and social support

Coping style and social support may represent mechanisms to explain the relationship between Type D personality and ill-health. This study investigated whether Type D is associated with physical symptoms and perceived stress in a non-cardiac population, and if these relationships are mediated by coping and social support. In a cross-sectional study, 304 participants (110 males, mean age 22.1 years) completed measures of Type D, physical symptoms, coping, perceived stress and social support. Results showed that Type D, the interaction of negative affectivity and social inhibition (NA?×?SI), was positively correlated with physical symptoms, perceived stress, and avoidant coping, and negatively correlated with social support, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. A series of bootstrapped multiple mediator tests showed that social support and avoidant coping fully mediated the relationship between Type D and physical symptoms. Furthermore, social support and emotion-focused coping partially mediated the relationship between Type D and perceived stress. These findings demonstrate for the first time that Type D personality is associated with physical symptoms in a non-cardiac population. Social support and coping style represent mechanisms that can, in part, explain the relationship between Type D and physical symptoms, and Type D and perceived stress.     

From chaos and insecurity to understanding and coping: experienced benefits of a group-based education programme for people with chronic fatigue syndrome

The aim of this study was to elicit participants' experiences with a multidisciplinary patient education programme and their views regarding the usefulness of the programme. Focus group interviews were conducted with 10 participants immediately and nine months following participation in the programme and analysed using thematic analysis. Initially, the participants experienced confusion and insecurity regarding coping with the illness. Participation in the programme appeared to promote understanding, acceptance and coping through gaining greater knowledge, learning coping strategies and exchanging experiences, as well as receiving understanding and acceptance. Thus, the programme was experienced to be a beneficial intervention. However, the participants expressed a need for more guidance or follow-up to maintain the practice of coping strategies for better coping with their illness.     

The role of meaning in gastric cancer patients: relationships among meaning structures,coping, and psychological well-being

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Research demonstrates that the experience of cancer invariably violates patients’ meaning structures, prompting them to use coping strategies to alleviate stress and enhance well-being. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of coping strategies in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being in gastric cancer patients.

Design and Method: One hundred eighty-seven patients (96 women and 91 men) with gastric cancer completed questionnaires measuring meaning in life, changes of beliefs and goals, coping, and psychological well-being. Participants were between 27 and 82 years of age. They were diagnosed with gastric cancer from 1 to 3.2 years ago. Using Structural Equation Modeling, both the direct and indirect associations between meaning structures, coping, and psychological well-being were examined.

Results: Meaning in life exerted significant indirect effects on psychological well-being through three coping strategies: problem-, emotion-, and meaning-focused. The relationship between changes of beliefs and goals and psychological well-being was also mediated by coping.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that coping strategies are mediators in the relationship between global and situational meaning and psychological well-being. They also provide empirical evidence that in severe cancer-related stress conditions both meaning structures and coping strategies influence patients’ psychological well-being.     

Clinical outcomes of a coping with stress training program among patients suffering from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: a pilot study

This study evaluated the clinical effects of an intervention aimed at enhancing specific self-efficacy for coping with stress (CSSE) among patients with psychosis. Fourteen patients, 21–60 years old, diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder voluntarily participated and were randomly assigned to a training and a control group. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-24 was used to assess psychotic symptoms (primary outcomes) at baseline, post-intervention, and three- and six-month follow-ups. The participants also completed self-reports on well-being and satisfaction with intervention outcomes (secondary outcomes) at post-intervention and at the two follow-up assessments. Trained patients showed a significant decrease in all measures of psychotic symptoms (for disorientation, not significant (NS); effect sizes up to d = 4.80). This decline in symptoms remained significant at the follow-ups, with clinical enhancements on some of the subscales. By contrast, control participants showed no significant change in their symptoms. Short- and long-term overall well-being and satisfaction with outcomes were higher among the participants who received the training program. Our findings point out the relevance of enhancing CSSE among patients with psychosis, along with enhancing their coping skills for managing their illness. We conclude that CSSE training should be considered in future therapeutic interventions for psychotic disorders.     

Cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping: associations with working memory,positive and negative affect,and symptoms of anxiety/depression

Abstract

The current study examined the relations of measures of cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping with working memory abilities, positive and negative affect, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in young adults (N=124). Results indicate significant relations between working memory abilities and reports of secondary control coping and between reports of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal. Associations were also found between measures of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal and positive and negative affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Further, the findings suggest that reports of cognitive reappraisal may be more strongly predictive of positive affect whereas secondary control coping may be more strongly predictive of negative affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Overall, the results suggest that current measures of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal capture related but distinct constructs and suggest that the assessment of working memory may be more strongly related to secondary control coping in predicting individual differences in distress.     

On the links between positive religious coping,satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms among a multinational sample of Muslims

This study tested the levels and consequences of positive religious coping among a multinational sample of Muslims. The sample consisted of 706 university students recruited in three Muslim countries: Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Malaysia. Participants' average age was 22.61, and 65% of them were females. This investigation applied a cross‐sectional comparative methodology. Measures used: demographics, positive religious coping, satisfaction with life and depressive symptoms. The findings indicated that (a) participants reported high levels of positive religious coping usage, and Malaysians scored significantly higher in this regard than both Palestinians and Turks; (b) positive religious coping correlated positively with satisfaction with life but was not linked to depressive symptoms and (c) the magnitude of correlation between positive and satisfaction with life was significantly higher among Malaysians than among both Palestinians and Turks. The findings suggest that to understand the implications of positive religious coping for the health and well‐being of Muslims, a detailed and nuanced analysis is needed.     

PTSD symptoms among tsunami exposed mothers in Sri Lanka: the role of disaster exposure,culturally specific coping strategies,and recovery efforts

Background and objectives: Women in Sri Lanka have been uniquely exposed to a complex and protracted set of stressors stemming from a civil war conflict spanning over 25 years and the tsunami which struck Southeast Asia in 2004. This study investigates coping strategies and their association with trauma-related symptoms of tsunami-exposed mothers in Sri Lanka at two time points.

Design: Data for this study come from surveys administered in two waves of data collection to investigate both mothers’ and adolescent children’s post-tsunami mental health in early 2005, three months after the tsunami struck, and again in 2008, three years later.

Methods: Latent-variable structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses among 160 tsunami-affected mothers in the Polhena village, Matara district, Sri Lanka.

Results: Among the various coping strategies examined, the use of cultural rituals as well as inner psychological strength was associated with lower levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms. In contrast, passive religious beliefs were associated with greater posttraumatic stress levels.

Conclusions: The results of this study reveal the differential associations of various coping strategies including rituals used by mothers exposed to the tsunami in Sri Lanka and their posttraumatic stress symptom levels.     

污名应对研究：发展脉络、理论取向与展望

污名应对是指被污名者运用不同策略来反抗社会赋予他们的贬低性标签的动态过程。这一领域的研究正在从站在污名施予者的立场考察污名的影响转向到强调被污名者作为主动应对者。目前,对污名应对的研究有三种理论取向：权衡比较取向、认同威胁取向和个人与情境互动取向。污名应对研究对于改善被污名者的心理健康和改进消除污名影响的政策等有重要意义。未来应进一步加强对可隐藏性污名应对的研究,综合使用量化和质性研究范式,关注污名应对的纵向研究,加强污名应对理论的实际应用