Causal explanations for lack of pregnancy applying the common sense model of illness representation to the fertility context

Abstract

Objectives: The current study explored causal explanations for lack of pregnancy and association with help-seeking behaviour. Differences based on gender and country Human Development Index were examined.

Design: A mixed method design was used.

Main outcome measures: Data were drawn from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study, a cross-sectional study of 10,045 individuals (1690 men; 8355 women) from 79 countries. Respondents rated to what extent they believed their lack of pregnancy was due to something they or their partner had done/not done or other factors and described their reasons for making this rating.

Results: Respondents were aged 18–50 (M?=?31.83) years, partnered and had been trying to achieve a pregnancy/father a child for over six months (M?=?2.8 years). Men and women primarily believed their lack of pregnancy was due to medical problems or chance/bad luck. Thematic analysis of textual responses from 29.7% of the sample found that respondents focused on their personal experience or a salient life event when describing the cause of their lack of pregnancy. Women expressed more regret and helplessness about causes than men. Significant country differences were observed.

Conclusions: Individuals may develop inaccurate causal explanations based on their personal experiences. Access to accurate information is necessary to facilitate timely help-seeking.     

‘So many women suffer in silence’: a thematic analysis of women’s written accounts of coping with endometriosis

Abstract

Objective: To understand women’s experiences of coping with endometriosis, and impact on their lives.

Design: Women accessed an online questionnaire through a U.K.-based endometriosis charity website.

Methods: Thirty-four women, aged 22–56 years, with self-reported medically-diagnosed endometriosis, 30 of whom were White, responded to open-ended questions, analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results: Participants spoke about their lives being a constant struggle, where they tried to maintain their personal and working lives whilst dealing with long-term pain. Women had to ‘battle’ for an accurate diagnosis, and had limited faith in health professionals. Coping strategies included avoidance of social events to conserve energy (self-pacing), and avoiding taking painkillers to retain alertness. Women did not feel able to be honest with family and friends about their symptoms, and felt socially isolated and misunderstood.

Conclusions: Implications for health professionals are discussed, including the need for earlier diagnosis and taking women’s symptoms more seriously at referral; understanding the need to conserve energy in the context of long-term pain; that not taking pain medication may be an active choice to retain alertness; and that avoiding being honest with friends and family and subsequent feelings of isolation may be common experiences relevant to designing treatment programmes.     

Openness to psychological explanations and treatment among people with Fibromyalgia versus Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objective: The classic perspective in the psychosomatic literature is that patients with medically unexplained syndromes do not acknowledge psychologically-based causes for their conditions and will not engage in psychological treatments. These assumptions were tested by contrasting the illness models and reported treatment experiences of individuals with fibromyalgia (FM), a syndrome with a currently unknown organic origin, with those of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a ‘legitimate’ (i.e. organic) condition.

Method: 193 patients with FM and 176 with RA completed measures assessing their views about the causes of their condition, the treatments they had used and their judged effectiveness.

Results: Contrary to prediction, compared to patients with RA, patients with FM were more likely to endorse psychological causes for their condition and reported having used more psychological management approaches. Moreover, patients with FM considered psychological approaches to be more effective than narcotics.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that patients with FM do not react defensively to the implication of psychogenic causes. Rather, as a group, they tend to acknowledge both the psychosocial influences on and the effectiveness of psychological management approaches for their condition.     

Religiousness,collectivism, and helping behavior: The invigorating role of abusive supervision

IntroductionVoluntary helping behaviors are important for spurring organizational effectiveness.ObjectivesThis study investigates how employees’ religiousness and collectivism might enhance their propensity to help their peers on a voluntary basis, as well as how this relationship might be invigorated by the presence of abusive supervision.MethodsSurvey data were collected from employees and their supervisors in Pakistan-based organizations. The hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression analysis.ResultsReligiousness relates positively to helping behavior, and this relationship is stronger when employees experience abusive supervision, possibly because their religiousness motivates them to protect their colleagues against the hardships created by such a resource-draining leadership style. Although collectivism does not have a direct significant relationship with helping behavior overall, abusive supervision invigorates this relationship.ConclusionFor organizations seeking to increase voluntary work behaviors, the results show that religiousness and collectivism are two personal resources that can enhance an organizational culture that promotes collegiality and mutual support, particularly when employees believe that their supervisors are hostile to followers and abuse their leadership positions.     

Perceived self-regulation of exercise goals and interfering goals among regular and irregular exercisers: a life space analysis

ObjectivesTo investigate whether adults self-classified as regular and irregular exercisers tend to differentially perceive the self-regulation of their exercise goals (a between groups comparison) and whether the groups’ differ in their self-regulatory perceptions of an exercise goal versus a goal that strongly interferes with exercise (a within groups comparison).DesignsCross-Sectional Survey.MethodsCollege students (N=399, 66% female), who were either regular or irregular exercisers, completed the Goal Systems Assessment Battery [GSAB; Karoly, P., & Ruehlman, L. S. (1995). Goal cognition and its clinical implications: Development and preliminary validation of four motivational assessment instruments. Assessment, 2, 113–129] for the goal of exercise and for a self-selected interfering goal. The GSAB gauges how individuals evaluate multiple functional components of self-regulation.ResultsA doubly multivariate MANOVA revealed a significant interaction between exercise regularity and goal type. Irregular exercisers manifested a pattern of goal regulatory thinking favoring their interfering goal relative to their exercise goal with respect to its value and the extent of their monitoring, planning, social comparison, and self-rewarding their progress toward that goal. Regular exercisers tended not to make such regulatory distinctions.ConclusionsAlthough life pursuits identified as interfering with exercise (e.g. academic goals) generally require more of a psychological investment than engaging in exercise, regular exercisers tend to construe their physical activity goals in a manner that closely matches their ratings of competing life aspirations. A dual focus on exercise goals and their aspirational rivals may inform motivational theory and intervention.     

Role of parental emotional support in illusion of scholastic incompetence

IntroductionSelf-perceptions of competence are involved in motivational processes explaining that although pupils’ capacities are comparable, their academic achievement differs greatly. In general, pupils with an illusion of scholastic incompetence exhibit a set of negative characteristics concerning their academic functioning.ObjectiveThis article seeks to better understand the links between emotional support from parents and children's under-evaluation of their own scholastic competence.MethodSelf-reports from 626 pupils in Grades 4 and 5 (mean age: 10 years, 8 months) and one of their parents were analysed.ResultsPupils with an illusion of incompetence perceive the emotional support provided by their parents as less available and less unconditional. This difference is not echoed in their parents’ own report of the emotional support they think they give their child. However, parents of children with an illusion of incompetence do report reacting to their children's actions with criticism and disapproval more often than other parents.ConclusionThe quality of parental emotional support as perceived by the children predicts the bias they have when evaluating their own scholastic competence. Their parents’ perception also predicts this bias, albeit more modestly.     

Meaning in life and violations of beliefs and goals: reciprocal relations among individuals with congestive heart failure

Background and objectives: In the context of highly stressful experiences, violations of beliefs and goals and meaning in life may have a reciprocal relationship over time. More violations may lead to lowered meaning, whereas higher meaning may lead to lowered violations. The present study examines this relationship among congestive heart failure (CHF) patients.

Design: A cross-lagged panel design was used.

Methods: CHF patients (N?=?142) reported twice, six months apart, on their meaning in life and the extent to which CHF violates their beliefs and goals.

Results: Overall, results were consistent with a reciprocal relationship, showing that greater goal violations led to negative subsequent changes in meaning, whereas greater meaning led to favorable subsequent changes in violations of beliefs and goals.

Conclusions: Meaning in life and violations may contribute to one another, and therefore, in understanding the adjustment process, it is important to consider their interrelationship. The results are also broadly informative regarding the experience of meaning, showing that disruption of beliefs and goals may undermine meaning.     

The role of centrality to self-concept in moderating the associations between injury perceptions and outcomes

Abstract

Objectives: To test the centrality of injury to self-concept as a moderator of the associations between injury perceptions and outcomes.

Methods: Two concurrent studies on samples of injured individuals.

Measures: The centrality of injury to one’s self concept was measured by the degree of self-injury separation (PRISM); injury perceptions were measured by the injury perception questionnaire; and outcomes by standard scales of self-assessed health, physical, emotional and social functioning, vitality, depression, anxiety and somatisation. Regression analyses examined the significance of adding the interactions between injury centrality and injury perceptions to explained outcome variance, beyond their separate contributions.

Results: Both injury centrality and injury perceptions significantly explained variance in patients’ functioning and well-being. Injury centrality moderated the associations between various injury perceptions and outcomes, especially pronounced for emotional representations of the injury. As hypothesised, the effects of injury perceptions on outcomes were stronger among patients for whom the injury was central to their self-concept compared to patients who perceived the injury as peripheral to their self-concept.

Conclusions: ‘Centrality to the self’ is a moderator of the impact of perceptions on outcomes of injuries. The findings suggest ways to tailor interventions to sub-groups of injured patients based on injury centrality to their self-concept.     

Discrepancy in internalized values of workers in extreme situations: Consequences for soldiers and risk for the organization

IntroductionIn the present paper, we address the double-edged role of values among Army personnel and how they can be used in information warfare. We suggest that value discrepancy may impact the agent's trust and consequently, affect behaviour and ultimately destabilize the organization.ObjectivesBased on cognitive dissonance theory and the meaning maintenance model, we hypothesized that exposing trained soldiers to information which confronts their core values and involves both their peers and their institution could promote an overwhelming reaction that could finally alter their trust in the organization.MethodTo examine the proposed model, interviews were conducted with 38 active-duty soldiers that permits to stress the importance of values for their personal life. To complete the interviews, a staged observation was led with the second set of participants (n = 21). Its goal was to evaluate the soldiers’ reaction to a message aiming at their values.ResultsQualitative and quantitative analysis of the Interviews confirmed both the importance of the said values and stressed the ambivalence toward their institution. The results of the staged observation suggested that a low credibility source of information aiming at their central values could lead to a direct emotional reaction, that could potentially lead to a decrease in institutional trust, and therefore ultimately in the organisation performance.ConclusionThe discussion focuses on the consequences of this mechanism, the fundamental necessity for the organization of taking this process into account. Finally, we suggest ways to cope with this risk which can alter strategy deployment and goal achievement.     

Hope and social support utilisation among different age groups of women with breast cancer and their spouses

Objective: Social support and hope are considered positive, important contributors to psychological well-being for women with breast cancer and their spouses. Few studies examine the role of age in relation to these variables. The current study compares the relationship between social support, hope and depression among different age groups of women with advanced breast cancer and their healthy spouses.

Design: Cross-sectional sample of 150 women with advanced breast cancer and their spouses.

Main outcome measures: Social support, hope, depression and socio-demographic data. Analysis included comparison of these variables between groups of older and younger patients and their spouses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine hope as a mediator of the relationship between social support and depression within each group (older and younger patients and spouses).

Results: Older patients and spouses reported lower levels of depression than younger ones. SEM showed that social support related directly to depression among younger women and older spouses, while hope was directly related to depression among older women and younger spouses and acted as a mediator between social support and depression.

Conclusions: Theoretical, empirical and clinical implications regarding the understanding of the role of age in coping with cancer are discussed.     

Learning by explaining: Impacts of explanations on the development of a competence

IntroductionPrevious research has mainly studied the impact of activity explanation on performances (e.g., Chi, 2009), but little research has been done to examine its impact on the development of a competence.ObjectiveA model of dynamic analysis of competence (Coulet, 2011) has been used to measure the impact of activity explanation on the development of a technical competence.MethodExplanation of tasks of varying complexity has been manipulated in two experimental studies; effects of activity explanation have been measured on objective performance, perceptions related to the task and final explanations.ResultsParticipants who explained their activity not only performed better on the tasks, but also showed more positive perceptions of their relations to the task and a better ability to produce didactic explanations.ConclusionPsychological processes involved in explaining activity and their implications are examined and discussed.     

Alcohol use and dating violence among college students

IntroductionNumerous studies have focused on the association of dating violence (DV) and alcohol use. However, little research has as yet assessed their co-occurrence in short timeframes.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate alcohol use in the two hours preceding DV and in the two hours following DV.MethodCollege students (n = 649, 71% females, mean age = 19.8) reported their experience of DV and their hazardous drinking on self-administered questionnaires. They also reported their alcohol use in the two hours preceding – as well as following – a specific DV event (i.e. insult between dating partners).ResultsChi-square tests outline that alcohol use in the two hours preceding an insult is associated with alcohol use in the two hours following an insult. Regressions show that higher scores of hazardous drinking puts students at risk of insulting or being insulted in a context of alcohol use.ConclusionThe findings can contribute to DV prevention programs among college students.     

Experimental test of a planning intervention for forming a ‘higher order’ health-habit

Abstract

Objective: Habit-formation interventions may help individuals initiate and maintain behaviour change. This paper proposes and empirically tests the idea that it is possible for individuals to form ‘higher-order habits’, or behaviours that can be executed in more than one way, and still be habitual.

Design: Participants (N?=?82) were healthy adults randomly assigned to an action-and-coping-planning intervention for forming a ‘higher-order habit’ of filling half of their dinner plates with fruits and vegetables or a control condition. Key measures were collected at baseline and 1, 2 and 3 weeks post-baseline. Participants submitted 3 pictures per week of their dinner plates via snapchat/email.

Main Outcome Measures: Intrinsic motivation, habit strength and behavioural frequency for filling half their dinner plates with fruits and vegetables.

Results: Intervention participants reported significantly greater habit strength at each follow-up time point. Controls did show some degree of habit formation, despite not fully forming a habit. Behavioural automaticity increased despite consuming a variety of fruits/vegetables; results did not depend on participants’ intrinsic motivation to consume fruits/vegetables.

Conclusion: It may be possible for individuals to form ‘higher-order’ habits, which may be particularly important in health contexts, in which many target behaviours are complex and can be seen as higher-order.     

Young men’s minimisation of their body dissatisfaction

Abstract

Objective: To examine men’s body dissatisfaction qualitatively.

Design: Forty-two British men aged 18–45 years took part in a two-session group intervention across 12 groups. The intervention was designed to improve body dissatisfaction by engaging them in a critique of the appearance ideal through written and behavioural exercises.

Main outcome measures/results: Analysis of the topics discussed during the intervention generated two core themes. Theme 1 showed that, in general, men minimised the existence of their own body dissatisfaction while (somewhat surprisingly) outlining the ubiquity and potency of the appearance ideal for men in general. Theme 2 involved men reporting the problematic impact of body dissatisfaction in their lives (despite earlier minimisation), such as social avoidance, strict eating and supplement regimes, or difficulty in situations where the body was exposed.

Conclusion: The results stress the need to acknowledge that men experience a range of impacts of body dissatisfaction beyond clinical presentations (such as disordered eating) that influence their everyday lives, while also recognising that they tend to minimise this dissatisfaction in conversation. These findings have important implications for advocacy and interventions to improve men’s body dissatisfaction.     

Influence of teachers’ political orientation and values on their success prediction toward students from different socioeconomic background

IntroductionTeachers tend to develop negative expectations and behaviours towards students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to test the influence of teacher political orientation, as well as their attachment to power and universalism values, on their predictions of academic success towards students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.MethodEighty-eight high school teachers (M_age = 38.04 years; 44.3% men) responded to a questionnaire of political ideology and values, as well as to a questionnaire evaluating their prediction of success towards male high school students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.ResultsTeachers predicted a better academic success for students coming from a high socioeconomic background. Despite relatively small effect size, political ideology, as well as attachment to power and universalism values, predicted the bias of judgment.ConclusionTaking into consideration teachers’ ideology and values would deepen understanding of processes underlying expectations development.     

Negotiating female judoka identities in Greece: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

ObjectivesThe objectives of this paper are to trace the discourses through which female Greek judokas articulate their sporting experiences and to explore how they construct their identities through the negotiation of sociocultural beliefs and gender stereotypes.DesignThis article is based on interview data from a larger ethnographic research with women judo athletes, grounded in a cultural praxis framework.MethodTen semi-structured interviews were conducted during fieldwork in Greece. Interview data were analyzed drawing on a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis.ResultsWe identified four concepts—biology, gender, femininity, and judo/sport—that were central to unearthing the discourses in which female Greek judokas constructed their identities. Female athletes (strategically) negotiated multiple identities, each serving different purposes.ConclusionThe gender power dynamics in Greek society at large are reproduced in the sporting experience of Greek female judokas. Although women have agency to negotiate their identity, they tend to accept the “given” subject positions within dominant discourses of gender relations. By doing so, female athletes become agents in the reproduction of patriarchal power.     

The assessment of incarcerated sexual delinquents’ risk of recidivism

IntroductionThe present study examined the possibility of assessing the risk of sexual recidivism on the basis of static and dynamic factors.ObjectiveA comparison was carried out of detainees on the basis of their scores on a predictive scale of risk of recidivism, on their empathy towards the victim, on their attributive style, and on their self-esteem.MethodThree samples of detainees were compared: two samples of individuals guilty of sexual crime (one sample having committed the aggression towards adults, the second towards children under fifteen years of age) and a control group composed of non-sexual delinquents.ResultsResults showed that sexual offenders targeting children had a lower risk of recidivism than sexual offenders of adults. However, when considering only the recidivists, no difference was found in risk between the two populations.ConclusionIn conclusion, some of the dynamic factors that were analyzed could be retained to complete the static factors in predictive scales of risk of recidivism.     

Identity and athletic retirement: A prospective study

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to reexamine the relationship between identity and athletic retirement using a longitudinal, prospective design.MethodOne-on-one, in-depth interviews were conducted with three male and three female university student athletes at three times: at the outset of their last season of competition, approximately 1 month after their retirement, and approximately 1 year later. The unstructured raw data was analyzed inductively following procedures established in the literature [Côté, Salmela, Baria, & Russell (1993). Organizing and interpreting unstructured qualitative data. The Sport Psychologist, 7, 127–137; Côté, Salmela, & Russell (1995). The knowledge of high-performance gymnastic coaches: Methodological framework. The Sport Psychologist, 9, 65–75; Miller & Kerr (2002a). The athletic, academic, and social experiences of intercollegiate student-athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 25, 346–367].ResultsThe findings revealed the participants committed themselves strongly to their athletic goals and anticipated disrupted identities upon retirement. As a result, they employed several coping strategies including the proactive diminishment of their athletic identities prior to retirement. Decreasing the prominence of their athletic identities precluded a major identity crisis or confusion upon and following athletic retirement.ConclusionsThe study concludes that the redefinition of self long before sport career termination may protect one's identity during this transition process.     

The experiences of transgender and non-binary children and young people and their parents in healthcare settings in England,UK: Interviews with members of a family support group

Abstract

Background: Transgender and non-binary children and young people and their parents in England, UK are poorly served across a range of healthcare settings. Whilst UK equalities legislation and international guidance on transgender healthcare pathways protects this group from discrimination and mandates an affirmative approach, services in England are not keeping pace.

Aims: This study aims to draw on the experiences of transgender and non-binary children, young people and their parents in a support group in England in order to investigate their experiences of healthcare provision, and to develop some ideas for improvement.

Method: Data was collected with participants in a family support group which offers a parent helpline service, social groups for children and parents, and training for schools and other organizations. 65 parents and children from 27 families from the family support group attended participatory workshops where they were given a range of briefs: “health,” “family,” “friends,” and “education.” Their participation involved being asked to define their own interview questions and collect data by interviewing each other. Their interview notes constituted the raw data. Data was coded inductively by the author with respondent checking as a second stage.

Results: Results constitute the views of a small group of people, so cannot be generalized. However, they do illustrate some of the issues which may arise. Participants’ experiences elicited five key themes: professionals’ perceived lack of clinical and therapeutic knowledge; mental distress caused by excessive waiting lists; professionals’ stereotyped gender assumptions; direct discrimination within healthcare settings; and a lack of attention to parent and child voice, especially in terms of school-based experiences and where a patient had a diagnosis of autism.     

The Hepatitis C treatment experience: Patients’ perceptions of the facilitators of and barriers to uptake,adherence and completion

Objective: This study explores the perceptions of patients receiving treatment for Hepatitis C to determine what factors influence their decision to commence treatment, ability to maintain adherence and complete their treatment program.

Design: Semi-structured interview techniques were used in a qualitative study of 20 patients undergoing treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC).

Main outcome measures: To explore patients’ perceived barriers and facilitators of Hepatitis C treatment adherence and completion.

Results: Analysis of patient interviews identified four key themes: (1) motivations for commencing CHC treatment – fear of death and ridding themselves of stigma and shame; (2) the influential role of provider communication – patients reported that information and feedback that was personalised to their needs and lifestyles was the most effective for improving adherence to treatment; (3) facilitators of treatment adherence and completion – social, emotional and practical support improved adherence and completion, as did temporarily ceasing employment; (4) barriers to treatment adherence and completion – these included side effects, stigma, a complicated dosing schedule and limitations of the public healthcare system.

Conclusion: To increase treatment adherence and completion rates, a patient-centred approach is required that addresses patients’ social, practical, and emotional support needs and adaptive coping strategies.