Resilience and Family Psychosocial Processes Among Children of Parents with Serious Mental Disorders

Resilience involves successful adaptation despite adverse circumstances, and is operationalized in this study as a multidimensional construct which consists of both positive and negative indicators of adaptation. Previous research has emphasized the importance of parental psychopathology in predicting child adaptation among children of parents with serious mental disorders. In contrast, we hypothesized five family psychosocial processes as common sequelae to serious parental mental disorder that are central to child adaptation beyond that predicted by parental psychiatric status. These are diminished family financial resources, social network constriction, impaired performance of parenting tasks, increased familial stress, and disruption of the parent-child bond. We examined the relationship of these processes to child adaptation independently through hierarchical regression analyses after taking into account parental psychiatric symptoms and functioning as well as the child's age and gender. One hundred seventy-seven children of mothers with serious mental disorder, ages 2–17 years old, were assessed on measures of adaptation. Results indicated that family psychosocial processes are a more consistent and powerful predictor of child adaptation than parental psychopathology. Results also indicated that, for these children, adaptation is predicted most consistently by parenting performance, and to lesser extents, by the parent-child bond and familial stress. We discuss our results in terms of their implications for theory and intervention with children of parents with serious mental disorders and for the study of resilience.     

The Micro-Category account of analogy

Here, we investigate how activation of mental representations of categories during analogical reasoning influences subsequent cognitive processing. Specifically, we present and test the central predictions of the "Micro-Category" account of analogy. This account emphasizes the role of categories in aligning terms for analogical mapping. In a semantic priming paradigm, a four-word analogy task was compared to two other four-word tasks. Stimuli were identical in all tasks; only the instructions given to participants differed. Participants were instructed to identify analogy relations, category relations, or conventionalized semantic relations in the four-word sets. After each four-word set, a single target word appeared and participants named this word aloud. Target words that referred to category relations in the preceding four-word sets were primed as strongly when participants identified analogies as when participants identified categories, suggesting that activation of category concepts plays an important role in analogical thinking. In addition, priming of category-referent words in the analogy and category tasks was significantly greater than priming of these words when participants identified conventionalized semantic relations. Since identical stimuli were used in all conditions, this finding indicates that it is the activation of category relations, distinct from any effect of basic semantic association, that causes analogical reasoning to prime category-referent words. We delineate how the "Micro-Category" account of analogy predicts these phenomena and unifies findings from diverse areas of research concerning analogical reasoning.     

The origins of fatherhood: an ancient family process.

Despite appearances to the contrary (fostered by anthropocentric nursery stories), a distinct role for male parents does not exist in nature. Fatherhood was invented by humans during the agricultural revolution about six thousand years ago. Symbolized by the new god-king, it incorporated the mother's originally superior role in primate families--the control or ownership of children. The male deity could even make his own offspring without female help. This inflated political figure was designed to compensate for the male's modest role in procreation, once the facts of life were known. Patriarchy was born out of an envious attack on mothers.     

Reviews: Books Photography

RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS: THE EMERGENCE OF A TRADITION. Edited by Stephen A. Mitchell and Lewis Aron. 514 pp. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1999. $39.95. D.H. LAWRENCE AND THE PARADOXES OF PSYCHIC LIFE. By Barbara Ann Schapiro. 155 pp. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. $17.95. TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC: THE TRIUMPH OF THE IRRATIONAL. By Richard Stivers. 240 pp. New York: Continuum Press. 1999. $24. REFLECTIONS ON A RAVAGED CENTURY. By Robert Conquest. 317 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, $27.95. THE MYSTERIES WITHIN A SURGEON REFLECTS ON MEDICAL MYTHS. By Sherwin B. Nuland. 274 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000, $24.00. DISEASE, PAIN, AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR. By Elisabeth Stenager and Egon Stenager. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Medical Press, 1998. $17.95. TRAUMA ASSESSMENTS: A CLINICIAN'S GUIDE. By E. B. Carlson. 307 pp. New York: The Guilford Press, 1997. $30. ON INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD: AN ELEMENTARY TEXTBOOK. By David A. Freedman, M.D. 247 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $27.95. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. By Mitch Albom. 192 pp. New York: Doubleday, 1997. $21. THE SORROWS OF THE QUAKER JESUS; JAMES NAYLER AND THE PURITAN CRACKDOWN ON THE FREE SPIRIT. By Leo Damrosch. 322 pp. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, $39.95. THE PASTORAL CARE OF DEPRESSION: A GUIDEBOOK. By Binford W. Gilbert. 127 pp. New York: The Haworth Pastoral Press, 1998. $19.95. LEARNING DISABILITIES AND PSYCHIC CONFLICT: A PSYCHOANALYTIC CASEBOOK. By Arden Aibel Rothstein, Ph.D., and Jules Glenn, M.D. 504 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, Inc., 1999. $78. HAUNTED CHILDREN: RETHINKING MEDICATION OF COMMON PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS. By Arthur F. Roemmelt, MD. 196 pp. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998. $17.95. NAVIGATING THE DEEP RIVER: SPIRITUALITY IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES. By Archie Smith, Jr. 181 pp. Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press, 1997. $15.95. AL-JUNUN: MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD. Edited by Ihsan Al-Issa. 382 pp. Madison: International Universities Press, 2000. $48. Witnessing the Lack of Sanctuary     

Effectiveness and Effects of Promotion Strategies for Behaviour Change: Solar Water Disinfection in Zimbabwe

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a sustainable method of water treatment. Despite the simplicity and many advantages of SODIS, past behaviour change campaigns have seen limited success. This study aims to compare intervention strategies in their efficiency in changing behaviour and to analyse which behavioural factors are differentially affected. The following factors were analysed in this study: intention, subjective norm, behavioural control, beliefs, habits, frequency of talking, knowledge and tension. The promotion strategies used in this intervention study were promoters, a pass‐on task, prompts, public commitment and disseminating knowledge with inducing tension. Inhabitants of high‐density areas near Harare, Zimbabwe, were interviewed at different points in time. High SODIS consumption was achieved when the promoter intervention was followed by a memory‐aiding technique such as prompts or public commitment. Consequently, this combined‐intervention strategy increased all behavioural factors and kept them at a high level. A continued pass‐on task alone did not change behaviour and had decreasing effects on several behavioural factors. When the pass‐on task was combined with disseminating knowledge with inducing tension, high SODIS water consumption was also reached, but several behavioural factors stayed at a low level. More effective intervention strategies are identified and discussed.     

Team Science,Justice, and the Co‐Production of Knowledge

Science increasingly consists of interdisciplinary team‐based research to address complex social, biomedical, public health, and global challenges through a practice known as team science. In this article, I discuss the added value of team science, including participatory team science, for generating scientific knowledge. Participatory team science involves the inclusion of public stakeholders on science teams as co‐producers of knowledge. I also discuss how constructivism offers a common philosophical foundation for both community psychology and team science, and how this foundation aligns well with contemporary developments in science that emphasize the co‐production of knowledge. I conclude with a discussion of how the co‐production of knowledge in team science can promote justice.     

Lästererfahrungen, Körperbild und Körpergewicht bei jungen Erwachsenen

Background

Negative comments (teasing) on weight and body image in adolescence might predict body dissatisfaction, overweight and eating disorders in adulthood. This study investigated 134 nursing students for a relationship between a history of teasing, body image and weight.

Materials and methods

Subjects with a body mass index (BMI)>?25 kg/m² reported more teasing compared with normal subjects whereas those with a BMI<?20 kg/m² showed lower values compared with normal or overweight subjects. Teasing questionnaire values correlated with aspects of negative body image. The BMI was predicted by factors age (p?=?0.001), sex (p?=?0.016) and teasing subscale weight (p?=?0.001).

Conclusions

It is remarkable that low teasing experience was associated with low weight, which might point to underweight as protective factor against teasing; however, the cross-sectional design of this study precludes direct causal inferences.     

High blood pressure and marital discord: not being nasty matters more than being nice

Theories linking anger and blood pressure (BP) reactivity to cardiovascular disease must be able to identify naturally occurring stressors that arouse emotion with sufficient frequency to cause chronic physiologic stress. We examine the impact of normal family arguments on 43 patients (24 women, 19 men) with essential hypertension. Patients and their partners discussed a threatening disagreement for 10 min while BP and conversation were recorded. Discussing problems increased BP, but the causal pathways differed by sex. In women, hostile interaction and marital dissatisfaction were associated with increased BP; "supportive" or "neutral" exchanges were unrelated to BP. In men, BP fluctuations were related only to the patient's speech rate. These findings are consistent with other research on sex differences in communication and social problem-solving styles and implicate different mechanisms (frequent anger, active coping) through which marital discord could increase risk. Implications for intervention are considered.