Coping strategies and cognitive functioning in elderly people from a rural community in Italy

Stressful situations may contribute to pathological states in elderly people facing harmful events. This study investigated the relationships between adopting appropriate coping strategies, transforming circumstances to personal preferences or adjusting personal preferences to situational constraints, and the efficiency of cognitive functioning in an elderly sample of 121 residents drawn from a rural community in southern Italy. They were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Tenacious Goal Pursuit, Flexible Goal Adjustment, and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Intercorrelations of scores suggested that facing stressful situations is somewhat associated with efficient cognitive functioning and coping strategies that ensure a wide range of solutions.     

Health service use costs by personality disorder following specialist and nonspecialist treatment: a comparative study

The impact of specialist psychosocial treatment on health service use costs by patients with personality disorder is not yet sufficiently documented. In this prospective study we compare patterns of health service costs by three groups of people with personality disorder treated in a hospital-based program (IPP), a step down program (SDP), and a general psychiatric program (GPP). Total service use costs at follow up, compared with intake costs, showed that significantly higher savings were achieved by SDP and IIP compared with GPP. Cost reductions in SDP were significantly greater than in IPP. Significant cost reductions were found between treatment programs in social worker and community psychiatric nursing and psychotherapy. The cost-effectiveness of the two specialist treatment programs was indicated by the significant association between total cost reduction and clinical outcome in GPP and IPP, but not in GPP. The effect of Major Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder on health service use alone and in combination was also investigated. The finding that Major Depression was found to be more significantly associated with higher health service use costs than Borderline Personality Disorder is discussed.     

HIV/AIDS communication among adolescents in psychiatric care and their parents.

The authors examined HIV/AIDS communication among 207 parent-adolescent dyads in psychiatric care to better understand the relationship between family communication and sexual risk behavior in an at-risk population. Dyads reported content and rated quality of family HIV/AIDS discussions, and adolescent sexual risk was assessed. Families discussed transmission, prevention, consequences, myths, and compassion. Parent-reported discussion of consequences was associated with greater sexual risk behavior, but only for girls. Higher quality communication reported by adolescents was associated with less sexual risk. Parents may send different messages about HIV/AIDS to sons versus daughters, and messages related to consequences may not effectively reduce risk among daughters. However, for boys and girls in psychiatric care, teaching parents how to discuss HIV/AIDS may promote safer sexual behavior.     

Respect and Membership in the Moral Community

Some philosophers object that Kant’s respect cannot express mutual recognition because it is an attitude owed to persons in virtue of an abstract notion of autonomy and invite us to integrate the vocabulary of respect with other persons-concepts or to replace it with a social conception of recognition. This paper argues for a dialogical interpretation of respect as the key-mode of recognition of membership in the moral community. This interpretation highlights the relational and practical nature of respect, and accounts for its governing role over other persons-regarding concepts.

Effects of anger suppression on pain severity and pain behaviors among chronic pain patients: evaluation of an ironic process model

OBJECTIVE: Evidence for links between anger inhibition or suppression and chronic pain severity is based mostly on studies with correlation designs. Following from ironic process theory, we proposed that attempts to suppress angry thoughts during provocation would increase subsequent pain intensity among chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients, and do so through paradoxically enhanced accessibility of anger. DESIGN: CLBP patients (N = 58) were assigned to suppression and nonsuppression conditions while performing a computer maze task with a harassing confederate. A structured pain behavior task (SPBT) followed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported anger, anxiety, and sadness following maze task. Self-reported pain severity and number of observed pain behaviors during SPBT. RESULTS: Patients told to suppress during provocation: (a) reported greater anger following the maze task, reported greater pain intensity during the SPBT, and exhibited more pain behaviors than patients not suppressing; (b) postmaze anger levels significantly mediated group differences on pain behaviors. CONCLUSION: Attempts by CLBP patients to suppress anger may aggravate pain related to their clinical condition through ironically increased feelings of anger.     

Development of an Attitudes and Intentions Scale for Construction Skills Training Programs

Attrition is a major problem in construction skills training programs for young adults, with dropout rates ranging between 45% and 65%. Training resources could be used more efficiently if trainees' completion rates were increased. Understanding and measuring the psychological characteristics contributing to attrition allows training practitioners to implement interventions to reduce dropout. This article reports the development of an instrument designed to measure constructs that inform participants' performance and success within the construction training domain. Instrument reliability and validity as well as areas of further research are discussed.     

The Impact of Youth Risk on Mentoring Relationship Quality: Do Mentor Characteristics Matter?

Although mentoring is a widely used intervention strategy, effect sizes for at‐risk youth remain modest. Research is therefore needed to maximize the impact of mentoring for at‐risk youth who might struggle to benefit from mentoring relationships. This study tested the hypothesis that different types of youth risk would have a negative impact on mentoring relationship quality and duration and explored whether mentor characteristics exacerbated or mitigated these negative effects. Results showed that elevated environmental stress at a youth's home and/or school predicted shorter match duration, and elevated rates of youth behavioral problems, such as poor academic performance or misconduct, predicted greater youth dissatisfaction and less positive mentor perceptions of relationship quality. Mentors with greater self‐efficacy and more previous involvement with youth in their communities were able to buffer the negative effects of environmental stress on match duration. Similarly, mentors' previous involvement with youth buffered the negative effects of youth behavioral problems on mentor perceptions of relationship quality. Findings have important implications for the matching of mentors and at‐risk youth in a way that improves mentoring outcomes.