When You Care Enough to Do Your Very Best: Genetic Counselor Experiences of Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a phenomenon that occurs when a caregiver feels overwhelmed by repeated empathic engagement with distressed clients (Figley, 2002). Research demonstrates its existence among nurses, physicians, and mental health professionals, but to date no published study has specifically investigated the nature and prevalence of compassion fatigue among genetic counselors. The present study was an initial attempt to identify and describe the phenomena in genetic counseling by conducting focus group interviews with 12 genetic counselors. Data analysis yielded several themes: a) compassion fatigue occurs and may compromise professional and personal functioning; b) prevalent triggers include delivering bad news and difficult patient issues (e.g., terminal illness, anger, psychopathology); c) effective coping strategies include consulting with colleagues, setting boundaries, and humor; and d) risk factors include personality characteristics and traumatic memories. Training, practice, and research recommendations are provided.     

Globalization, Neo-Liberalism and Community Psychology

A longitudinal analysis (1984–2005) of media language in Norway is presented, demonstrating how the current globalized capitalist market ideology is now permeating this long-established Scandinavian welfare state. This ideological shift carries powerful implications for community psychology, as traditional welfare state values of equal services based on a universalistic principle are set aside, and social and material inequalities are increasingly accepted. The methodology developed in the present study may serve as a “barometer of community changes”, to borrow a metaphor used by Sarason (2000).     

UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING ADOLESCENT DATING VIOLENCE: THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPMENTAL, SOCIOCULTURAL, AND GENDERED PERSPECTIVES

The three articles in this special section on the development of adolescent dating violence provide important insights that can help shape future research and theory. Several common themes emerged. The roots of adolescent dating violence are broad and deep; thus, developmental and sociocultural perspectives are necessary to adequately understand this phenomenon. Adolescent dating violence is deeply gendered and requires that researchers make gender a centerpiece of their theorizing. These two insights lead to the conclusion that prevention efforts must start early, be broad based, and include gender in a fundamental way. In addition, longitudinal and ecological approaches hold the most promise for future research.     

Social Interaction During Computer-based Activities: Comparisons by Number of Sessions, Gender, School-level, Gender Composition of the Group, and Computer-child Ratio

This study assessed the quality of social interactions that occur in group-based computer learning contexts. Gender comparisons of interactions were examined across 3 sessions with 116 preschoolers (M age?=?4.9 years) and 108 fifth and sixth-grade (M age?=?11.7 years) Canadian children from southwestern Ontario, when children had access to one computer per child (parallel computer) or one computer per group (integrated computer), and when they worked with same-gender or mixed-gender peers. Preschoolers engaged in more collaborative behaviors in mixed-gender than same-gender groups, while elementary children engaged in collaborative behaviors more often in integrated than parallel computer conditions. In mixed-gender groups, boys were more likely than girls to dominate the computer in elementary school while girls were more likely than boys to dominate the computer in preschool.     

Social-cognitive determinants of physical activity: the influence of social support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-regulation among participants in a church-based health promotion study.

A social-cognitive model of physical activity was tested, using structural equation analysis of data from 999 adults (21% African American; 66% female; 38% inactive) recruited from 14 southwestern Virginia churches participating in the baseline phase of a health promotion study. Within the model, age, race, social support, self-efficacy, and self-regulation contributed to participants' physical activity levels, but outcome expectations did not. Of the social-cognitive variables, self-regulation exerted the strongest effect on physical activity. Independent of self-regulation, self-efficacy had little effect. Social support influenced physical activity as a direct precursor to self-efficacy and self-regulation. The model provided a good fit to the data and explained 46% of the variance in physical activity among the diverse group of adults.     

The relationship between daily events and mood: The mood measure may matter

Measures of daily mood have been used as immediate indicators of the effects of the psychosocial environment, the latter concept often measured by daily events. We examined the prediction of two measures of daily mood, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and Nowlis Mood Adjective Checklist (MACL), by daily desirable and undesirable events and by day of the week. Unlike prior studies, the event assessment and type of subjects studied (community residents) were the same in both studies, allowing an attribution of differential associations between the two mood scales and either daily events or day of the week to the different mood measures. The mood measures had similar and expected associations with daily events, although the MACL scale generally had stronger associations with events. Surprisingly, the pattern of day of the week effects for positive, yet not negative, mood were different for the two mood measures. Consistent with the weekend's increase in desirable daily events, MACL positive affectincreased on weekends, relative to weekdays, whereas PANAS positive mooddecreased on weekends. Also, for both positive and negative affect scales, the MACL scales had stronger associations with day of week than the PANAS scales. These results suggest caution in the choice of mood measure to use in studies of daily events and pose questions about the meaning of these mood measures.This work was supported, in part, by grant MH39234 from NIMH. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.     

A review of outcome studies of rational-emotive therapy from 1982–1989

In 1977, DiGiuseppe and Miller provided a review of the literature assessing the effectiveness of Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET). In 1984, McGovern and Silverman completed a similar review for outcome studies conducted from 1977 through mid-1981. This present study is meant as a continuation of those reviews. The 89 studies reviewed are divided into three sections: outcome studies that do not compare Rational-Emotive Therapy with other types of treatment; a review of outcome studies that do compare RET with other types of psychotherapy; and a review of Rational-Emotive outcome studies that either combine RET with other therapies or are not appropriate for the first two sections. There does appear to be some increased sophistication in the research conducted since 1982. Increases were noted in the number of control groups used in the current research as well as in the number of follow-up studies. There also appears to be an improvement in the comparison of RET with other forms of therapy, and the number of problem areas in which RET has been tested has increased. A decrease in post-test only studies and an increased variety of subjects have also improved the current research. Issues such as socioeconomic status and I.Q. of subjects, duration of treatment, and lack of longitudinal studies remain unaddressed. It is suggested that future researchers concentrate on these specific problems to improve the credibility of RET. This review coincides with the previous findings that RET is a valuable, effective therapy that warrants increased research to broaden its application.Manuel S. Silverman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Counseling Psychology at Loyola University Chicago.Margaret M. McCarthy, M.A., is a recent graduate of Loyola University Chicago.Terrance McGovern, Ph.D., is in Private Practice in Downers Grove, Illinois.     

Measuring the stop point of rapid smoking

A method and an apparatus are described for measuring the point at which subjects elect to stop smoking when cigarette smoke is delivered more rapidly than in typical smoking. The device allows either the subject or the experimenter to control the volume of smoke and the interval between puffs. The device delivers reliable quantities of particulate matter from cigarette smoke. Subjects retested a week apart exhibited consistent stopping points.     

Temporal clause comprehension in fluent and nonfluent aphasics

Ten fluent and ten nonfluent aphasics participated in this study. Their ability to comprehend before and after clauses which mirrored the order of occurrence and those which did not mirror the order of events was investigated. Results indicate that type of aphasia was not a significant variable related to comprehension but that sentence type was a significant variable. Aphasics' comprehendbefore clauses better thanafter clauses. Nonfluent aphasics were able to comprehend those temporal clauses that mirror the order of occurrence better than those that do not. Order of mention was not a significant factor related to comprehension in the fluent group.