Secondary traumatization among former prisoners of wars' adult children: the mediating role of parental bonding

Background and Objectives: The aversive impact of combat and parents' combat-induced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on young children has been examined in a few studies. However, the long-term toll of war captivity on secondary traumatization (ST) and the parental bonding of adult children remain unknown. This study examined ST symptoms and parental bonding among adult children of former prisoners of war (ex-POWs' children) that were compared to adult children of comparable veterans (controls' children). Furthermore, we examined the mediating role of parental bonding and exposure to stress in the association between group and ST symptoms. Design: A correlative, cross-sectional study. Methods: Participants were Israeli ex-POWs' children (N = 98) and controls' children (N = 90), whose fathers fought in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. All participants completed a battery of self-reported questionnaires. Results: Ex-POWs' children reported a higher number of ST symptoms and lower levels of fathers' care, as compared to controls' children. Importantly, exposure to stress stemming from fathers' behaviors and fathers' care was found to mediate the association between research group and ST. Conclusions: Forty years after the war ended, the experience of living with ex-POWs is associated with ex-POWs' children psychological outcome.     

Coping,mastery, stress appraisals,mental preparation,and unit cohesion predicting distress and performance: a longitudinal study of soldiers undertaking evacuation tasks

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the associations of psychological and military variables with distress and performance evaluation among 168 Israeli soldiers who took part in evacuating fellow Israeli civilians in the summer of 2005 during the disengagement from Gaza. Coping, mastery, stress appraisals, mental preparation, unit cohesion, and psychological distress were assessed at T1, one to two weeks before the disengagement. A sub-sample of 68 of the 168 soldiers completed the distress measure again at T2, eight to nine weeks after T1, together with performance evaluation of the disengagement task. The main findings indicated positive associations of T1 distress with high T1 emotion-focused coping, and negative associations with education and T1 mastery. Emotion-focused coping at T1 predicted low performance evaluation at T2, while mental preparation at T1 predicted high performance evaluation at T2. Stress appraisals at T1 were found to be an important mediator of the associations of T1 coping, mastery, unit cohesion, and mental preparation with T1 distress. Similar mediator results were found for T2 performance evaluation.     

Visual Information Processing Speed in Hypnotized and Nonhypnotized Subjects

Using a backward-masking paradigm with a bias-free and ceiling-free psychophysical task, we tested hypnotized and control subjects for speed of visual information processing. Approximately half of each group received visual imagery suggestions in an attempt to influence attention. Imagery produced no significant differential effect. Although an absence of a hypnotizability-performance relationship was in keeping with findings of a previous study, those subjects in the present study who performed under hypnosis were, as a group, significantly superior to the other subjects in speed of information processing.     

Using Score Equating and Measurement Invariance to Examine the Flynn Effect in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

The Flynn effect (FE; i.e., increase in mean IQ scores over time) is commonly viewed as reflecting population shifts in intelligence, despite the fact that most FE studies have not investigated the assumption of score comparability. Consequently, the extent to which these mean differences in IQ scores reflect population shifts in cognitive abilities versus changes in the instruments used to measure these abilities is unclear. In this study, we used modern psychometric tools to examine the FE. First, we equated raw scores for each common subtest to be on the same scale across instruments. This enabled the combination of scores from all three instruments into one of 13 age groups before converting raw scores into Z scores. Second, using age-based standardized scores for standardization samples, we examined measurement invariance across the second (revised), third, and fourth editions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Results indicate that while scores were equivalent across the third and fourth editions, they were not equivalent across the second and third editions. Results suggest that there is some evidence for an increase in intelligence, but also call into question many published FE findings as presuming the instruments' scores are invariant when this assumption is not warranted.     

Parents' Empathic Responses and Pain and Distress in Pediatric Patients

We investigated the relationship between parents' empathic responses prior to their children undergoing cancer treatment procedures and children's pain/distress during the procedures. We hypothesized: (1) parents' empathic distress would be positively associated with children's pain/distress, (2) parents' empathic concern would be negatively associated with children's pain/distress; and (3) parents' enduring dispositions and social support would be associated with their empathic responses. Parents completed: (1) measures of dispositions and perceived social support several weeks before their children underwent the procedures, and (2) state measures of empathic distress and empathic concern just before the procedures. Empathic distress was positively associated with children's pain; empathic concern was negatively associated with children's pain/distress. Predictions about dispositions and social support were also substantially confirmed.     

Illness intrusiveness and quality of life in end-stage renal disease: comparison and stability across treatment modalities

Investigated the degree to which chronic, life-threatening illness and its treatment interfere with continued involvements in valued activities and interests--that is, illness intrusiveness--and its impact on quality of life in end-stage renal disease. Data were collected on two occasions separated by a lag of 6 weeks. Mixed analyses of variance indicated that life domains were affected differentially across treatments. Perceived illness intrusiveness correlated significantly with treatment time requirements, uremic symptoms, intercurrent nonrenal illnesses, fatigue, and difficulties in daily activities. Significant quality-of-life differences were observed across treatment modalities for satisfaction/happiness and pessimism/illness-related concerns but not for depression/distress. Perceived illness intrusiveness correlated significantly with each of these quality-of-life measures. Results were stable over time. These findings substantiate the construct of illness intrusiveness as a mediator of the psychosocial impact of chronic, life-threatening illness.     

The effects of changing the phase and duration of sleep.

The relative effects of extended sleep, reduced sleep, and shifts of habitual sleep time on subsequent performance and mood were studied. Ten healthy male university students who regularly sleep 9.5-10.5 hr were the subjects. Measurements were obtained from a 45-min auditory vigilance task, a 5-min experimenter-paced addition task and a mood adjective check list 30 min after awakening, at midday, and in the evening following five electroencephalographically recorded nights of sleep. The experimental treatments compromised at 9.5-10.5 hr habitual sleep condition and four conditions in which the regular sleep period was lengthened, reduced, delayed, and advanced by 3hr. Following each 3-hr altered condition of sleep there was an equivalent decline in vigilance performance and in subjective arousal as measured by the mood scales. Together with other recent evidence, the present results support the hypothesis that acute disruption of the 24-hr sleep-wakefulness cycle produces degradations in human performance largely independent of total sleep time.     

An operant approach to rehabilitation medicine: overcoming learned nonuse by shaping.

A new approach to the rehabilitation of movement, based primarily on the principles of operant conditioning, was derived from research with deafferented monkeys. The analysis suggests that a certain proportion of excess motor disability after certain types of injury involves a learned suppression of movement and may be termed learned nonuse. Learned nonuse can be overcome by changing the contingencies of reinforcement so that they strongly favor use of an affected upper extremity in the chronic postinjury situation. The techniques employed here involved 2 weeks of restricting movement of the opposite (unaffected) extremity and training of the affected limb. Initial work with humans has been with chronic stroke patients for whom the approach has yielded large improvements in motor ability and functional independence. We report here preliminary data suggesting that shaping with verbal feedback further enhances the motor recovery.