Religious coping in highly religious psychiatric inpatients

This study among highly religious psychiatric patients in a mental hospital in the Netherlands focused on the following issues: their religious and spiritual beliefs and activities; their religious coping activities, measured using Pargament's three coping styles and a positive religious coping scale; the influence of religious coping on psychological and existential well-being; and the predictive value of general religiousness, as compared with religious coping activities, regarding psychological and existential well-being.

For this population of inpatients, religion had a positive influence on their ways of dealing with mental problems; religious coping was positively correlated with existential and psychological well-being. General religiousness as well as religious coping were positively correlated with existential well-being, whereas psychological well-being primarily was predicted by positive religious coping.

Results are discussed in the context of theoretical notions of religious coping, addressing in particular the positive influence of religious beliefs, relying on God, religious activities and religious social support in psychological and existential times of crisis.     

Theory/Analysis Mismatch: Comment on Fredrickson and Joiner’s (2002) Test of the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions

Fredrickson’s (1998, ‘What good are positive emotions?’, Review of General Psychology 2, pp. 300–319; 2001, ‘The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions’, American Psychologist 56, pp. 218–226) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions posits that positive emotions improve coping skills and that improved coping skills increase positive emotions, resulting in an upward spiral toward emotional well-being. Fredrickson and Joiner (2002, ‘Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being’, Psychological Science 13, pp. 172–175) claimed that the results of their analyses supported the broaden-and-build theory but in fact their analyses did not test this theory. The broaden-and-build theory clearly describes a within-occasion across-persons psychological process; the analyses, however, tested a within-occasion across-persons theory.     

The Effect of Age and Socio-Cultural Factors on Self-Rated Well-Being and Metacognitive and Mnestic Efficiency Among Healthy Elderly People

The aim of the present research was to investigate the effect of cross-cultural and age-related factors on self-referent metacognitive efficiency, psychological well-being, and mnestic performance in late adulthood. Ninety-three healthy adults recruited in individualistic northwest Italian and collectivistic Sardinian contexts were respectively assigned to the Old (i.e., 65–74 years) and Very Old (i.e., ≥ 75 years) groups and were individually administered a battery of well-being and metacognitive measures and working memory tasks. A series of MANOVAs was carried out on well-being and metacognitive measures and working memory tasks. Sardinians showed greater levels of perceived well-being, less marked psychological distress, and more preserved mnestic functions than the controls from the northwest Italian context. Moreover, participants from the Old group self-referred more coping strategies, emotional competencies, and personal satisfaction, and less depressive symptoms. Then, a hierarchical linear regressions where different socio-demographic, working memory metacognitive and social desirability measures were used as predictors of general psychological well-being shows that socio cultural context, social desirability, visuo-spatial sequential working memory and metamemory measures predict perceived well-being. Socio-cultural contexts emphasizing the positive social role of the elderly seem to promote psychological well-being, that is, life quality in late adulthood.     

Emotional autonomy and adjustment among emerging adults: The moderating role of family relationships

Emerging adults build their personal maturity within the family context; however, few studies focus on the role of emotional autonomy during this stage. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between emotional autonomy and adjustment during emerging adulthood, bearing in mind the possible moderating role of parental support in this relationship. Data were collected from 1,502 Spanish undergraduate students (903 women) aged between 18 and 29. Participants completed measures of emotional autonomy (EAS, Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986), family social support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988), psychological well-being (PWBS; Ryff, Lee, Essex & Schmutte, 1995) and psychological distress (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). The results indicate that emotional autonomy correlates negatively with family support and psychological well-being and positively with psychological distress. However, only when young people perceive a family context with low social support is gaining emotional distance from their parents associated with an increase in their psychological well-being. Our findings highlight the crucial role that the family environment plays in well-being during young adulthood, and reveal that the effect of emotional distancing from parents on adjustment depends on the quality of the family climate. Future research should seek to gain greater insight into emotional autonomy during emerging adulthood, taking into account cross-cultural diversity.     

Ambivalence Over Emotional Expression and Psychological Weil-Being Among Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients and Their Spouses1

Associations between ambivalence over emotional expression and psychological well-being among rheumatoid arthritis patients and their spouses were investigated. Sixty-nine couples completed questionnaires assessing ambivalence over emotional expression, emotional expressiveness, psychological well-being, and strategies used in coping with arthritis. Associations between the patient's ambivalence and psychological well-being were stronger for those married to a highly ambivalent spouse, although this pattern of results was not found for spouses. Lower psychological well-being among more ambivalent spouses, and to a lesser extent patients, could be partially explained by their greater use of passive and distancing coping strategies. Results emphasize the importance of taking a dyadic approach to the study of psychological functioning among chronically ill patients and their spouses.     

Resilience and Coping as Predictors of Well-Being in Adults

Well-being is one of the keys to successful and optimal development across the lifespan. Based on the idea that development involves changes in individuals’ adaptive capacity to meet their needs over time, the changes that occur in the second half of life require effort to adapt to the new reality. This study used a structural model to test the effects of coping strategies and resilience on well-being in a sample of 305 mid-life adults. Several constructs were measured: coping strategies, resilience, and well-being. A final model was obtained with good fit indices; psychological well-being was positively predicted by resilience and negatively by emotional coping. Moreover, positive reappraisal and avoidance form part of both coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused). Considering the characteristics of the model, educational intervention programs could be developed to promote skills that favor good adaptation at this stage in the life cycle and contribute to promoting successful aging.     

压力性生活事件对青少年主观幸福感的影响机制

在应对的交互作用模式、压力缓冲与压力易损性假说基础上提出一个有调节的中介模型,探讨应对方式在青少年压力性生活事件与主观幸福感之间的中介效应,以及情绪智力的调节效应。被试为1670名青少年,研究工具包括青少年生活事件量表、特质应对方式问卷、情绪智力量表和主观幸福感问卷。结果显示:(1)应对方式在压力性生活事件与主观幸福感之间起部分中介作用。(2)情绪智力在压力性生活事件对应对方式的影响中起调节作用:在低压力性生活事件下,高情绪智力的青少年应对方式较好,在高压力性生活事件下,不论情绪智力如何,应对方式都不好,情绪智力是压力易损因子。     

Measurement of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS) expanded

An expanded Spanish version of the Measure of Affect Regulation Styles (MARS), was applied to episodes of anger and sadness, in a sample of 355 graduate students from Chile, Spain, and Mexico. The study examines the association between affective regulation, adaptation to episodes and dispositional coping and emotional regulation, and psychological well-being. With regard to perceived improvement of adaptive goals, the following adaptive affect regulation strategies were confirmed: Instrumental coping, seeking social support, positive reappraisal, distraction, rumination, self-comfort, self-control, and emotional expression were functional; whereas inhibition and suppression were dysfunctional. Adaptive strategies were positively associated with psychological well-being, reappraisal and humor as a coping strategy. Negative associations were found between adaptive strategies and suppression and alexithymia. Maladaptive strategies show the opposite profile. Confrontation, instrumental coping, social support as well as social isolation were more frequently found in anger, an approach emotion.     

中国背景下情绪智力与心理健康关系的元分析

本研究使用元分析的方法探讨了情绪智力与心理健康的关系（包括心理健康症状学指标、感知到的压力、应对方式、社会适应及主观幸福感）,共纳入104篇文献,151个独立样本和75754名被试。结果发现,个体情绪智力与积极应对、社会适应以及主观幸福感呈现显著正相关,与心理健康症状学指标、感知到的压力以及消极应对呈现显著负相关。此外,情绪智力与心理健康的关系受到出版年代、被试年龄、情绪智力理论模型和测量工具的调节作用。结论表明,情绪智力与积极心理健康变量的联系强于与消极心理健康变量的联系,且存在较长时期的稳定性。     

Coping styles in adults with cystic fibrosis: implications for emotional and social quality of life

As life expectancy increases, interest has grown surrounding the factors that may influence quality of life (QOL) for people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The aim of the current study was to examine which specific coping styles were positively or negatively associated with social and emotional QOL in a CF sample. One hundred and twenty-two respondents aged 18 and over were recruited through an online support group. Respondents completed the ‘CF Questionnaire-Revised (CFQ-R)’ and the ‘Brief COPE’. The CFQ-R is a disease-specific instrument designed to measure the impact of CF on nine QOL domains and the Brief COPE is a 28 item questionnaire which assesses 14 coping scales. A multivariate regression model revealed that higher substance abuse and disengagement was associated with lower emotional QOL whereas greater use of religion, instrumental coping and acceptance was positively associated with emotional QOL. Active coping was linked to better social QOL and a negative association was reported between distraction coping with both emotional and social domains. Given the burden of CF, ascertaining which factors enhance or diminish emotion and social well-being is now an integral component of QOL research. The current findings may therefore have value in informing clinical interventions which aim to cater for the psychological needs of individuals with CF.     

Patterns of Coping Among Persons with HIV Infection: Configurations, Correlates, and Change

This study examines coping in response to HIV infection, using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample (n = 2,864) of HIV-infected persons. We investigated configurations of coping responses, the correlates of configuration membership, the stability of coping configurations, and the relationship of coping to emotional well-being. Four coping configurations emerged from cluster analyses: relatively frequent use of blame-withdrawal coping, frequent use of distancing, frequent active-approach coping, and infrequent use of all three coping strategies (passive copers). Passive copers had few symptoms, high levels of physical functioning, and high emotional well-being; blame-withdrawal copers had the opposite pattern. Of those completing a second interview 1 year after baseline, 46% had the same coping configuration. Increases in the number of HIV-related symptoms raised the probability of blame-withdrawal coping at follow-up, whereas decreases raised the probability of passive coping. Infrequent use of coping responses at baseline was related to greater emotional well-being 1 year later. This result, in conjunction with the high levels of emotional well-being in the passive cluster, suggests that high levels of distress can induce blame-withdrawal coping whereas coping efforts are minimal when social support and emotional well-being are high. Results highlight issues in ascertaining the causal direction between coping and psychological outcomes, as well as in specifying the nature of stressful situations with which people are coping.     

La répression émotionnelle et son rôle en psychopathologie

In the context of studies on mechanisms of emotional treatment and regulation in affective blunting, this paper focalizes on those whose objective is to disminish awareness of subjective emotional experience. The cognitive mechanism of repression is first presented, defined as a coping strategy which, used in a habitual way, is conceptualised as a personality dimension. Its role on the whole panel of emotional components and the researches on its underlying cognitive mechanisms, in particular those which may explain the observed memory deficits for negative emotional events, are developed. The paper also presents models of maturation of emotional awareness, differentiating several hypothetic ways of emotional treatment which determine specific emotional subjective experiences. In regard of studies which have explored these modes of emotional treatment in alexithymia, hypotheses on their role in the blunting of affect process and on the quality of subjective experience are proposed.     

The evaluation of an equine-assisted therapy programme with a group of boys in a youth care facility

The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an equine-assisted therapy programme aimed at improving the psychological well-being of boys in a custodial school of industry. Participants were 39 boys who live in a youth care facility for boys who display problem behaviour. They were from different cultural groups (Black, Coloured, and White) and aged between 14 and 18 years. Horses were utilised in the structured sessions to help the boys learn different coping skills through experiential learning. Data were collected on the boys’ level of coping and subjective well-being in order to assess the efficacy of the programme. The data were analysed using independent groups t-test comparisons. The results showed that the programme significantly improved the boys’ subjective well-being, problem focused coping, and emotion focused coping. However, their levels of dysfunctional coping were unchanged following the intervention. An equine-assisted therapy programme appears to show modest evidence of enhancing psychological well-being of adolescent boys in custodial care.     

Coping and quality of life after tumor surgery: personal and social resources promote different domains of quality of life

Personal and social resources facilitate the adaptation to critical life events. The present study investigates whether general self-efficacy beliefs and received social support elevate cancer patients' physical, emotional, and social well-being directly, or whether these effects are rather mediated by active or meaning-focused coping. Gastrointestinal, colorectal, and lung cancer patients were approached at 1 month and at 6 months after surgery (N=175). Structural equation models indicate that self-efficacy at 1 month after surgery exerted a positive direct effect on all three domains of health-related quality of life at 6 months after surgery, but indirect effects through active and meaning-focused coping were also observed. Initial received support elevated later emotional well-being, but not the other two quality of life domains. This effect was not mediated by coping. Results suggest the development of interventions to increase optimistic self-beliefs and coping skills in tumor-surgery patients.     

Dealing with negative social exchanges in later life: coping responses, goals, and effectiveness

Negative exchanges have been shown to detract from psychological well-being in later life, but little research has investigated how older adults respond to such exchanges. The authors examined older adults' coping responses, goals, and effectiveness following a specific negative social exchange. The findings revealed that participants' coping responses and the effectiveness of these responses varied as a function of their coping goals. The results underscore the importance of considering older adults' coping responses and goals when evaluating factors that affect the impact of negative social exchanges on well-being in later life.     

Facebook's Contribution to Well-being among Adolescent and Young Adults as a Function of Mental Resilience

Studies of correlations between general internet use and psychological well-being have shown mixed results. The present study aimed to elucidate the relationship between Facebook use and psychological well-being, with mental resilience expected to moderate the relationship. Two hundred Israeli adolescents and young adults completed questionnaires assessing their Facebook use, mental resilience, and psychological well-being. Results showed that Facebook use was positively correlated with psychological well-being, and that this relationship was particularly strong for participants with low mental resilience. The findings support a positive effect of Facebook use as providing a virtual supportive community for individuals who may lack the social skills needed to develop social capital and confidence through traditional communication paths.     

A Couple-Based Psychological Treatment for Chronic Pain and Relationship Distress

Chronic pain impacts individuals with pain as well as their loved ones. Yet, there has been little attention to the social context in individual psychological treatment approaches to chronic pain management. With this need in mind, we developed a couple-based treatment, “Mindful Living and Relating,” aimed at alleviating pain and suffering by promoting couples’ psychological and relational flexibility skills. Currently, there is no integrative treatment that fully harnesses the power of the couple, treating both the individual with chronic pain and the spouse as two individuals who are each in need of developing greater psychological and relational flexibility to improve their own and their partners’ health. Mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based action exercises were used to promote psychological flexibility. The intervention also targets relational flexibility, which we define as the ability to interact with one’s partner, fully attending to the present moment, and responding empathically in a way that serves one’s own and one’s partner’s values. To this end, the intervention also included exercises aimed at applying psychological flexibility skills to social interactions as well as emotional disclosure and empathic responding exercises to enhance relational flexibility. The case presented demonstrates that healthy coping with pain and stress may be most successful and sustainable when one is involved in a supportive relationship with someone who also practices psychological flexibility skills and when both partners use relational flexibility skills during their interactions.     

主观幸福感代际传递：有调节的中介效应

采用问卷法考察父母的主观幸福感与子女的主观幸福感的代际传递效应,同时探讨亲子沟通的中介作用和子女情感自主性的调节作用。结果发现：（1）父母的主观幸福感显著预测初中生子女的主观幸福感;（2）亲子沟通在父母的主观幸福感影响初中生子女的主观幸福感中起部分中介作用;（3）子女的情感自主性可以调节亲子沟通对初中生的子女主观幸福感的影响,情感自主性低的子女的主观幸福感更容易受到亲子沟通的影响,而情感自主性高的个体则会减弱亲子沟通的作用。     

The acute psychobiological impact of the intensive care experience on relatives

There is a growing awareness amongst critical care practitioners that the impact of intensive care medicine extends beyond the patient to include the psychological impact on close family members. Several studies have addressed the needs of relatives within the intensive care context but the psychobiological impact of the experience has largely been ignored. Such impact is important in respect to health and well-being of the relative, with potential to influence patient recovery. The current feasibility study aimed to examine the acute psychobiological impact of the intensive care experience on relatives. Using a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative data were collected simultaneously. Six relatives of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a District General Hospital, were assessed within 48 h of admission. Qualitative data were provided from semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Quantitative data were collected using a range of standardised self-report questionnaires measuring coping responses, emotion, trauma symptoms and social support, and through sampling of diurnal salivary cortisol as a biomarker of stress. Four themes were identified from interview: the ICU environment, emotional responses, family relationships and support. Questionnaires identified high levels of anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms; the most commonly utilised coping techniques were acceptance, seeking support through advice and information, and substance use. Social support emerged as a key factor with focused inner circle support relating to family and ICU staff. Depressed mood and avoidance were linked to greater mean cortisol levels across the day. Greater social network and coping via self-distraction were related to lower evening cortisol, indicating them as protective factors in the ICU context. The experience of ICU has a psychological and physiological impact on relatives, suggesting the importance of identifying cost-effective interventions with evaluations of health benefits to both relatives and patients.     

Functions of Career Resilience Against Reality Shock,Focusing on Full‐time Employees During Their First Year of Work

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of career resilience in coping with reality shock. Career resilience was defined as psychological traits that help individuals to cope with career risks and promote their own career development. It consisted of five factors: (a) ability to cope with problems and changes; (b) social skills; (c) interest in novelty; (d) optimism about the future; and (e) willingness to help others. Full‐time employees in their first year of employment (N = 233) participated in an online survey to measure career resilience, reality shock, and the degree of career development. The study found that coping with changes and being optimistic about the future could prevent the experience of reality shock. The result also suggested that good social skills prevented experience of reality shock from inhibiting career development.