Effects of occupational future time perspective on managing stressful work situations

According to the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST; Carstensen, 2006), older adults perceive their future time as increasingly limited, which motivates them to focus more on emotional goals and prefer passive emotion‐focused strategies. This study aims to investigate the effect of occupational future time perspective (OFTP) on the use of problem‐solving strategies in stressful work situations and to examine the effectiveness of these strategies on psychological well‐being. A sample of 199 Chinese clerical workers responded to a structured questionnaire on problem‐solving strategy use in relation to hypothetical work scenarios. Results revealed that relative to those with limited OFTP, workers with expansive OFTP preferred problem‐focused and proactive strategies in both low‐ and high‐emotionally salient scenarios. Workers with limited OFTP consistently preferred passive strategies irrespective of emotional salience. OFTP moderated the effect of problem‐focused strategies on psychological distress. In particular, there was a significant negative relationship between problem‐focused strategies and psychological distress among workers with expansive OFTP, but such pattern of relationship was not observed among workers with limited OFTP. Findings of this study inform the training strategies employed by practitioners to fit the developmental goals of workers in order to maximise their strengths at work.     

Parent–Child Discrepant Effects on Positive Youth Outcomes at the Aggregate Family Functioning Context in Hong Kong

Prior investigations concerning the influence of parent–child discrepancies in family functioning on child development seldom examined different family functioning components, e.g., parenting and family processes, in a single study, or they predominantly emphasized the negative side of child outcomes, e.g., delinquencies and psychological problems. What’s more, most studies considered parent–child discrepant effects independent of aggregate nature of the family dynamics under study and also did not consider any potential factors’ role in mediating the relationship. To fill in the research gap, a sample of 223 Chinese parent-youth dyads, in which the youth were mainly in their middle and late adolescence as well as young adulthood, was surveyed to examine the effects of parent–child discrepancies in family functioning in terms of effective parenting and positive family processes on the youths’ positive outcomes, i.e., self-control and other perspective taking behavior. In the current study, youth self-concept was included as a mediator, and the aggregate nature of family functioning components was taken into account. Results affirmed the adverse effects of parent–child discrepancies on the two positive youth outcomes directly or indirectly through self-concept. However, these adverse effects are found to be contingent on the aggregate family functioning. Implications and future study directions are also discussed.     

Cognitive behaviour therapy approach to assessing dysfunctional thoughts

Research shows that the client who is emotionally distressed will have many negative or dysfunctional thoughts. Some of these thoughts are irrelevant or less important to the patient's problem. This means that some thoughts are more central to the client's problem than the others. Among these relevant central thoughts, one thought is hypothesed to be the most central to the client's problem. This is known as a critical thought and should be the most appropriate cognitive target for intervention. In addition, this paper suggests that the therapist/nurse should treat each of the expressed emotions relating to a negative event as a separate entity for assessment. Rationale and clinical strategies for the assessment, particularly on the identification of the critical thought, are discussed.     

Drink alcohol and dim the lights: The impact of cognitive deficits on medial frontal cortex function

Scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings indicate that regions in the medial frontal cortex (MFC) are active following errors. Alcohol consumption reduces this error-related activity, perhaps suggesting that alcohol disrupts the operation of an error-monitoring system in the MFC. However, it could also be that alcohol consumption affects the MFC only indirectly, by impairing stimulus processing and thus making errors harder to detect. This interpretation leads to the prediction that stimulus degradation should likewise reduce error-related activity in the MFC. To test this hypothesis, behavioral and EEG data were collected as participants performed a speeded response task with either bright or very dim stimuli. The results using dim stimuli replicated the observed effects of alcohol consumption—with slowed responses accompanied by reduced error-related MFC activity. The sensitivity of the MFC to disrupted processing elsewhere in the brain suggests complications in interpreting evidence of disturbed MFC function. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health Conte Center for Neuroscience Research (Grant P50-MH62196 to N.Y.) and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (to S.N.).     

SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS' ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATUS AND REVICTIMIZATION RISK

How a victim of rape characterizes her assault has potential implications for her postassault experiences and revictimization risk. Prior research has identified several potential benefits to not conceptualizing one's experience as a form of victimization. The current study sought to identify whether there are costs to not acknowledging rape as well, specifically whether unacknowledged victims are at elevated risk of revictimization. The revictimization risk behaviors of 334 acknowledged and unacknowledged female college rape victims were compared. Unacknowledged victims reported more hazardous alcohol use and were more likely to report that they continued a relationship with the assailant after the assault. A subsample of 105 victims completed a 6-month follow-up survey regarding sexual victimization during the follow-up period. Unacknowledged victims were nearly twice as likely to report having experienced an attempted rape during the 6-month follow-up period. Implications of the results for future work evaluating rape acknowledgment, rape recovery, and revictimization are discussed.     

Academic Stressors and Anxiety in Children: The Role of Paternal Support

We examined the role of paternal support in the relation between academic stress and the mental health of primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants of this cross-sectional study were 1,171 fifth and sixth graders. The results indicated that academic stress was a risk factor that heightened student anxiety levels and that parental emotional support was a protective factor that contributed to better mental health among children. However, paternal informational support delivered to children during times of high academic stress appeared to heighten student anxiety levels. The practical implications of the findings on parent education are discussed.     

Reliability and Validity of the Thai “Global Person Generated Index”, an Individualised Measure of Quality of Life

The “Global Person Generated Index” (GPGI) is an individualised measure of global quality of life (QoL). Individualised measures have been used within a health context, however until recently have been rarely used to explore global QoL. This paper establishes the GPGI’s validity and reliability in Thailand. Data were collected from participants in two sites in Northeast Thailand. Participants completed the Thai GPGI, the “Satisfaction with Life Scale”(SWLS), a modified “Positive and Negative Affect Scale” (PANAS) and provided demographic data. 81 participants provided data at T1. 70 participants completed data for test-retest (two week interval) reliability comparisons. Test-retest reliability correlation was 0.678 (p < 0.001) for participants reporting no change in QoL. GPGI correlated moderately with SWLS (0.381, p < 0.01) and PANAS scales (0.291 and −0.378, both p < 0.01), indicating validity. GPGI scores were related to health and correlated to a moderate degree with income (0.379, p < 0.05). GPGI scores did not show the expected differences in scores based on gender, although this may be owing to cultural issues. Areas nominated as important to QoL included family, money, house, health and employment, which mirrors items on other QoL scales and previous work with individualised measures. The Thai GPGI is reliable for group comparisons and valid. The difficulties of designing cross-cultural construct validity hypotheses are acknowledged. Areas nominated as important to QoL were diverse and largely asset based. The GPGI is recommended for use to explore global QoL and potentially useful for needs assessment and exploration of response shift.