The timing of psychosocial transitions and changes in women's lives: an examination of women aged 45 to 60

Sixty-four middle-class women from four cohorts aged 45, 50, 55, and 60 participated in a retrospective interview concerning psychosocial changes in their adult lives. Their responses provided self-report data relating to specific psychosocial changes, and judges who read the interview protocols provided independent ratings of major psychosocial transitions. The results indicated that major psychosocial transitions were more likely to be associated with phases of the family cycle than with chronological age; within the family cycle, transitions were more likely to occur during the preschool (28% of the women), launching (42% of the women), and postparental (33% of the women) phases than during the no children, school-age, or adolescent phases; transitions associated with the preschool and launching phases were characterized by dissatisfaction, personal disruption, marital unhappiness, and decreased personal development, whereas transitions associated with the postparental phase were characterized by personal mellowing and improved marital relations; and finally, numerous self-reported psychosocial changes were associated with family cycle phase, and a small number of changes was associated with chronological age.     

Clients' perspectives on problems many years after traumatic brain injury

This study investigated the types of self-reported main problems that persons report many years following a traumatic brain injury. This preliminary study is part of a large ongoing study of disability and handicap in adults following traumatic brain injury. As part of an extensive interview, subjects were asked an open-ended question regarding their current main problems which they thought resulted from their traumatic brain injury. Responses were obtained from 166 adult subjects (119 men and 47 women) whose time postinjury ranged from 9 to 24 years. Categories for responses were subsequently developed. The most commonly reported categories of problems were those relating to movement (39%), cognition (36%), and sensory impairment (31%). Findings suggest that subjects' long-term concerns were related to specific impairments more than to psychosocial, emotional, or behavioral issues. Methodological issues concerning this research are discussed in relation to findings.     

Female Juvenile Offenders: Defining an Early-Onset Pathway for Delinquency

We examined whether childhood factors predict age of first arrest in adolescent girls referred for placement and treatment for serious delinquency problems (N = 62). Measures included child characteristics (i.e., age of menstrual onset, childhood ADHD, and IQ), family environmental factors (i.e., severe punishment, parental transitions, and sexual abuse), biological parent criminality, and juvenile court records. Parental transitions and biological parent criminality significantly predicted the age of first arrest (M = 12.5 years), and IQ showed a trend to be a significant predictor. The final model accounted for 52% of the variance. A younger age of first arrest was related to increased health-risking sexual behaviors and to increased self-reported delinquency. Logistic regression analyses indicted that membership in an early-onset group could be reliably formed using family and child predictors, with accurate classifications for 46-90% of the girls. Family environmental and child characteristics played a strong role in predicting which girls would be arrested at an earlier age. The strong predictive utility of parental transitions and biological parent criminality, in particular, suggest two avenues for identifying girls at risk for delinquency problems.     

Patterns of psychosocial risk and long-term outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis

This study examined the extent to which patterns of psychosocial risk were uniquely associated with long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), after demographic factors and self-reported symptom severity over time were accounted for. Data were collected over an 8-year period from 561 individuals with RA who were participants in the ongoing UCSF RA Panel Study in 1995. Panel members were interviewed annually, using a comprehensive structured telephone interview. Psychosocial factors assessed included mastery, perceptions about adequacy of social support, the impact of RA and self-assessed ability to cope with RA and satisfaction with health and function. Cluster analysis of psychosocial factors identified three distinctive patterns/levels of psychosocial risk (high, medium and low risk). The unique effects of psychosocial risk status on changes in depressive symptoms, basic functional limitations, global pain ratings and average annual doctor visits over an 8-year period were estimated, using growth curve analyses. Analyses controlled for demographic factors (gender, marital/partner status, education, age and ethnicity), disease duration and year in the panel and time-varying self-reported symptom severity (morning stiffness, swollen joint counts, co-morbid medical conditions, extra-articular RA symptoms and changes in joint appearance), as well as self-reported medications taken over time (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs [DMARDS], and prednisone). Overall, 32.4% of total variance in depressive symptoms was accounted for by the fully-estimated model, with 12.9% uniquely associated with psychosocial risk status. Half of the total variance (50.0%) in basic functional limitations was explained, with 12.1% of variance uniquely predicted by psychosocial risk status. Psychosocial risk status accounted for comparatively little total explained variance in global pain ratings (total = 38.6%, incremental = 3.2%), and average annual total doctor visits (total = 10.9%, incremental = 1.5%). Thus, psychosocial risk factors are more closely linked to depressive symptoms and function over time. Global pain and utilization appear to be more closely related to disease factors.     

Care Orientation in the Teens as a Predictor of Young Adult Psychosocial Adjustment

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a watershed period in development that carries risk for poor psychosocial adjustment. It also carries potential for positive transitions into the caregiving roles and responsibilities of adult life. Research to date has predominantly focused on adolescent predictors of problematic rather than positive transitions; yet predictors of the latter hold equal (if not greater) promise for informing health promoting interventions. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to define patterns of psychosocial adjustment and maladjustment in young adulthood (21-years of age); (2) to examine the unique role of adolescent prosocial behaviour (e.g., volunteering and civic engagement) in promoting adjustment and reducing maladjustment in young adulthood; and, (3) to examine whether protective developmental relationships are maintained after adjustment for other covariates including socio-economic background factors and personality characteristics. Data were drawn from the Victorian cohort of the International Youth Development Study (IYDS; N = 2407), a representative sample of students in Victoria, Australia. Students were assessed in Grade 9 (Mean age = 15-years) and followed up at age 21-years. LPA identified three psychosocial adjustment classes at age 21 defined as: (1) Adjusted (24.8 %); (2) Normative (63.9 %); and, (3) Maladjusted (11.3 %). Adolescent volunteering, belief in a moral order, family opportunities for prosocial behaviour, and commitment to school were associated with enhanced adjustment and reduced maladjustment in young adulthood. Findings highlight the potential benefit of interventions designed to enhance adolescent prosocial behaviours and care orientation in promoting healthy transitions into young adult life.     

Chronic Illness and the Life Cycle:A Conceptual Framework

This article provides a conceptual framework for thinking about the system created at the interface of chronic illness with the family life cycle. First, a psychosocial typology and time phases of illness schema is described as a necessary, preliminary step to create a common language that bridges the worlds of illness, individual, and family development. This schema organizes similarities and differences between diseases in a manner useful to psychosocial-developmental rather than biomedical inquiry. Then, drawing on several major life-cycle theories in the literature, key concepts (periods of transition, life-structure building and maintaining, centripetality, and centrifugality) are used in a complementary fashion to link these three lines of development. Equipped with these psychosocial languages, consideration is given to transgenerational aspects of illness, loss, and crisis, and the interwoven threads of illness, family, and individual development. Clinical vignettes are provided to highlight this conceptual framework.     

Major depression in the transition to adulthood: risks and impairments.

An ongoing longitudinal community study (N = 375) examined childhood risks and later adult impairments associated with 1-year Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) diagnoses of major depression during the transition to adulthood. Risks from birth to age 9 were reported by mothers, participants, and teachers. Teacher-reported hostility at age 6 predicted later depression. At age 9, self-perceptions of anxiety/depression, unpopularity, familial rejection, and abuse were potent risks. For men, neonatal and childhood health problems predicted later depression. For women, risks included family constellation, parental death, and poor academic achievement at age 9. Men and women who were depressed at age 18, age 21, or both demonstrated extensive psychosocial impairments in early adulthood, including poor overall functioning, interpersonal and behavioral problems, low self-esteem, and suicidality.     

Subjective Age and Personality Development: A 10‐Year Study

Personality theory and research typically focus on chronological age as a key indicator of personality development. This study examines whether the subjective experience of age is an alternative marker of the biomedical and psychosocial factors that contribute to individual differences in personality development. The present study uses data from the Midlife in the United States longitudinal survey (N = 3,617) to examine how subjective age is associated with stability and change in personality and the dynamic associations between subjective age and personality traits over a 10‐year period. Regression analyses indicated that a younger subjective age at baseline was associated with increases in Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness; correlated changes were also found. The rank‐order stability of Extraversion and Openness and overall profile consistency were higher among those with a younger subjective age at baseline and were also associated with the rate of subjective aging over time. The present study reveals that beyond chronological age, the age an individual feels is related to changes in characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time.     

Reasoning in the personal and moral domains: Adolescent and young adult women's decision-making regarding abortion

The present investigation of adolescent and young adult women's reasoning, and decision-making about abortion was conducted to determine whether reasoning about abortion could be described by moral, social-conventional, and personal concepts and to examine relationships between domain of reasoning and action choices. Seventy single women, ranging in age from 13 to 31 and divided between 25 women having abortions, 23 women continuing their pregnancies, and 22 never-pregnant women, were administered a semi-structured clinical interview about abortion and two hypothetical moral judgement dilemmas. A classification task was developed to provide an additional measure of reasoning in different domains. Another 29 single, first-pregnant women provided a comparison of the effects of these procedures on decision-making. Content analysis of the protocols revealed that responses to the abortion interview could be reliably distinguished between concepts of morality and personal issues and their coordination or lack of coordination. Subjects treating abortion as a moral issue were more likely to continue their pregnancies while subjects treating abortion as a personal issue were more likely to obtain an abortion. Differences in reasoning between pregnant and nonpregnant subjects were not observed. Moral responses to the abortion interview were found to be highly related to hypothetical moral judgments.     

Are anxiously attached women better mindreaders?

This research was aimed at providing first evidence concerning the relationship between adults’ self-reported attachment style and their performance on a standard ‘theory of mind’ task. Based on adult attachment theory, we hypothesized that the two dimensions of self-reported adult attachment, anxiety and avoidance, are differently related to ‘theory of mind,’ and that this relationship is moderated by variables concerning the ‘theory of mind’ stimuli. The ‘Experiences in Close Relationships’ questionnaire and the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ test were administered to 132 young women. In line with our expectations, women’s attachment-related anxiety was associated with better mind reading concerning stimuli that were emotionally neutral or difficult to recognize.     

Conceptions of the Transition to Adulthood: Perspectives From Adolescence Through Midlife

Conceptions of the transition to adulthood were examined among adolescents (age 13–19, N = 171), emerging adults (age 20–29, N = 179), and young-to-midlife adults (age 30–55, N = 165). The focus was on whether conceptions of the transition to adulthood would be different among young-to-midlife adults compared to the younger age groups. In all age groups, individualistic criteria were the most likely to be considered important markers of the transition to adulthood, specifically accepting responsibility for one's actions, deciding on one's beliefs and values, establishing an equal relationship with parents, and becoming financially independent. However, young-to-midlife adults were less likely than adolescents to consider biological transitions to be important, and more likely than adolescents or emerging adults to view norm compliance (such as avoiding drunk driving) as a necessary part of the transition to adulthood. In all three groups, role transitions (e.g., marriage) ranked lowest in importance.     

Animal Expertise: Evidence of Phase Transitions by Utilizing Running Estimates of Performance Variability

Animal behavioral flexibility is facilitated by the ability of animals to acquire expertise. For motor skills, expertise development is obvious; however, for perceptual and cognitive skills it is hidden from view. The study of covert skills in people is facilitated by the ability of people to verbally report what they are doing. Verbal reports are not an option when studying other animals. Nevertheless, systemic changes may be detectable by changes in performance variability. An increase in performance variability occurs during a period of self-reported skill phase transition in people in which more than 1 strategy is used in an intermixed fashion. For 2 perceptual categorization tasks in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), 1 visual and 1 olfactory, running measures of performance variability reveal an increase in performance variability during training similar to the one seen during reported phase transitions in people. The use of running estimates of performance variability may be a new tool for detecting the occurrence of phase transitions in skill in nonlanguage users.     

Cancer Genetic Counselees’ Self-Reported Psychological Distress, Changes in Life, and Adherence to Recommended Surveillance Programs 3–7 Years Post Counseling

The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to investigate psychological distress, changes in life, adherence to surveillance programs and satisfaction with cancer genetic counseling based on Swedish participants’ self-reported data. A total of 218 probands (72% response rate) affected by breast, breast/ovarian or colorectal cancer and/or a family history of cancer were surveyed 3–7 years after receiving cancer genetic counseling. Participants reported a relatively high level of anxiety and a low level of depression. Probands affected by colorectal cancer reported a higher level of depression than did non-affected individuals with a family history of colorectal cancer. Overall, the participants reported moderate changes in family relations, priorities and appreciation of daily life activities. The majority of at-risk probands reportedly adhered to recommended surveillance programs. The mean level of satisfaction with cancer genetic counseling was high. About half of the participants would have accepted additional counseling sessions, contact with a psychologist or further help concerning informing family members. The present results indicate no adverse effects of genetic counseling, but they do suggest that typical counseling procedures could be improved by provision of additional psychosocial support.     

Socio-Demographic Variables Affecting Well-Being: A Study on Indian Rural Women

The women in Indian villages perform multiple roles that include looking after the various needs of the family members, participating in home bound income generating activities (e.g. animal husbandry, agricultural activities) and holding jobs outside the home. Against this backdrop this study addressed two related goals: (a) to understand the perception of the dual role by the rural women, their work status and preferences and the attitude of their families and society towards women and (b) to explore variation in their well-being as a function of chronological age, level of education and work status. A large sample of 221 rural women (age range 18 to 56 years) drawn from villages of Haryana participated in the study. The relevant data were obtained through interview and observation. The findings showed that family and society appreciated the efforts of the rural women. Age and level of education emerged as significant factors in determining the experience of well-being.     

Examining Criteria for Adulthood Among Young People in Sabah (East Malaysia)

This study aims to identify perceived adult status and to explore the criteria for adulthood of young people in Sabah (East Malaysia). The differences in such criteria based on gender and student status are also examined. Data collected from 208 respondents were analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The empirical results of CFA revealed six criteria for adulthood: family capacities, norm compliance, interdependence, biological transitions, role transitions, and chronological transitions. However, the independence factor was discarded for further analysis because of having weak item loadings. In addition, the ANOVA test showed that women have higher interdependency and higher family capacities than men. Traditionally, women are more “other-oriented”—frequently thinking about the perspectives and needs of others—and are acknowledged as the main caregivers for children. Students are found to emphasize role transitions and biological transitions in determining their adulthood more than nonstudents. The present findings enable policymakers to obtain current emerging adults’ views regarding the differences in criteria for adulthood based on gender and student status. Present findings permit a better understanding of the value of emerging adults’ mental health as they encounter social, emotional, psychological, and physical challenges. This awareness would facilitate the provision of appropriate developmental programs for emerging adults to assist them in achieving adulthood. Directions for future research are also provided.

     

Adolescents' knowledge of medical terminology and family health history.

Compared 309 youths ages 11 to 15 years and their parents with respect to their comprehension of terms for seven common medical disorders: heart attack, stroke, atherosclerosis, ulcer, hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. For two thirds of the adolescent sample, accuracy of reporting of these disorders among the parents and grandparents was assessed. Results indicated considerable variation among disorders with respect to both comprehension of terms and accuracy of family health history. Adolescents' age was a major predictor of knowledge of medical terms (r = .41). Age was not related to accuracy of family health information. Consonant with this finding, adolescents' level of accuracy regarding family health history was generally similar to that of previous adult samples, suggesting that family health information is acquired and retained at an early age. Adolescents were more accurate concerning parents' compared with grandparents' history of hypertension.     

FACES III and the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Technique as Measures of Cohesion and Closeness

In a longitudinal study of psychosocial factors in children with recent onset of rheumatic disease (N = 72 ), it was hypothesized that FACES III cohesion sum scores would be correlated with family closeness as measured by the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Technique (KFST). A second aim was to examine how these instruments were associated with semi-structured interview assessments of child and family psychosocial function, and whether these associations were linear or curvilinear. FACES III cohesion sum scores and KFST family mean interpersonal distance were not correlated, whereas the cohesion sum scores were related to the mother-father distance on the KFST. Where associations with child and family psychosocial function were found, they were linear. The results support the usefulness of a distinction between cohesion as a family or group characteristic and dyadic closeness, especially between the parent figures. The need for further conceptual clarification and more thorough empirical validation procedures in this area is emphasized.     

Intrusions in preschoolers’ recall of traumatic childhood events

We investigated the presence of intrusions in preschoolers’ memories for traumatic incidents by examining 30-, 36-, and 48-month-olds’ initial and 6-month recall of traumatic events that required emergency room treatment. The basic findings were (1) the number of preschoolers who produced an intrusion at the 6th month’s interview declined with age, (2) only the youngest preschoolers produced reliably more intrusions at 6 months than initially, (3) the amount of intruded information did not vary with age, and (4) the amount of information correctly recalled about the target traumatic event increased with age and was not affected by the presence of intrusions at any age. That preschoolers were able to recall considerable information concerning the target event, regardless of whether they did or did not produce intrusions, has implications for the veracity of their memories of trauma in real-life situations over extended retention intervals.     

Does distress tolerance moderate the impact of major life events on psychosocial variables and behaviors important in the management of HIV?

Living with HIV involves management of multiple stressful disease-related and other life events. Distress tolerance may provide a functional, individual-based context for qualifying the established relationships between major life events and psychosocial variables important in the management of HIV. The present study provided a preliminary test of the hypothesis that distress tolerance moderates the impact of major life events on these predictors of disease progression. HIV-positive patients (n=116) completed psychosocial and medical questionnaires. Results indicated that major life events interacted with distress tolerance such that lower distress tolerance and higher life events were associated with significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms, substance use coping, alcohol and cocaine use, and medication adherence. In addition, distress tolerance was directly related to self-reported HIV-related symptoms. These results suggest that low distress tolerance, particularly in the face of major life events, may present significant challenges to adaptive management of HIV. Distress tolerance assessment may help to specify targets for cognitive-behavioral and stress management treatments for people living with HIV.