Parentification and Alcohol Use: Conditional Effects of Religious Service Attendance

This study tested a model of the relation between parentification and alcohol use through differentiation of self (DoS), with religious service attendance as a moderator. Results provided mixed support for the model. Perceived unfair parentification was associated with decreased DoS, and lowered DoS corresponded to increased alcohol use. Religious service attendance moderated the association between increased perceived unfairness and increased alcohol use. Implications for practice focused on assessing perceived unfairness and integrating clients’ religiousness.     

Identifying mediators of training effects on performance-related psychobiosocial states: A single-case observational study in an elite female triathlete

ObjectivesRelationships between training load, psychobiosocial (PBS) states and performance are dynamic and individual-specific. The nature of these relationships can be investigated using a combination of dynamic linear models (DLMs) and mediating variable analysis, potentially assisting applied sports psychologists in planning and monitoring of individual elite athletes’ intervention programmes.DesignWe illustrate this approach by examining the relationships of training loads with a performance-related state (‘self-efficacy’) and the role of potential mediating PBS variables (‘fatigue/lack of energy’ and ‘being in shape’) in explaining these relationships in an elite triathlete across time.MethodSelf-reports of PBS states (twice weekly) and training data were collected over 137 days. Using DLMs and mediating variable analysis, direct (unmediated) and indirect (mediated) short-term associations of training load with ‘self-efficacy’ were examined.ResultsIn this triathlete, we found evidence for positive effects of training on ‘self-efficacy’, which were partly explained by feelings of ‘being in shape’ and suppressed by feelings of ‘fatigue/lack of energy’. Changes in the relationship between lagged training load and ‘fatigue/lack of energy’ were observed across time and were particularly pronounced in temporal proximity of an injury.ConclusionStrengths of the presented approach are its dynamic nature enabling the observation of changes occurring over time, use of statistical inference rather than visual data interpretation, and quantification of mediating effects to identify potential pathways of intervention. Additionally, the DLM method can identify complex nonlinear associations by examining correspondence between changes in levels of predictors and changes in magnitude and direction of predictor-outcome associations.     

The Parentification Inventory: Development,Validation, and Cross-Validation

Abstract

This study hypothesized that subjects who strongly endorse unrealistic beliefs about intimate relationships would score higher on a measure of exposure to popular romantic media than subjects who do not. The relationship between exposure to media and satisfaction with one's current intimate relationship was also explored. Results for the 109 adult subjects support the hypothesis (r=.18, p<.05). There was also a trend for married women who were more exposed to the popular romantic media to be less satisfied with their current intimate relationships (r=? .26, p<.10). These results would seem to have significant psychological and social implications.     

Family finances: The missing link in mft training

Abstract

After reviewing 25 accredited Marriage and Family Therapy programs, only one was found to require a course in family finances. This article addresses the issues associated with the absence of family finance training in most MFT programs. The omission persists in spite of ample evidence as to the influential role family finances play with regard to marital stability and satisfaction. Suggestions are made regarding course outlines and content that could be helpful in correcting this deficiency.     

Emotion effects during reading: Influence of an emotion target word on eye movements and processing

Recently, Scott, O'Donnell and Sereno reported that words of high valence and arousal are processed with greater ease than neutral words during sentence reading. However, this study unsystematically intermixed emotion (label a state of mind, e.g., terrified or happy) and emotion-laden words (refer to a concept that is associated with an emotional state, e.g., debt or marriage). We compared the eye-movement record while participants read sentences that contained a neutral target word (e.g., chair) or an emotion word (no emotion-laden words were included). Readers were able to process both positive (e.g., happy) and negative emotion words (e.g., distressed) faster than neutral words. This was true across a wide range of early (e.g., first fixation durations) and late (e.g., total times on the post-target region) measures. Additional analyses revealed that State Trait Anxiety Inventory scores interacted with the emotion effect and that the emotion effect was not due to arousal alone.     

Seeking spirituality through physicality in schools: learning from ‘Eastern movement forms’

This paper argues that we might learn from the ways in which Eastern movement forms with a self-cultivation focus approach the development of spirituality through physicality. It also argues that these movement forms have potential to assist in the development of children’s spirituality in school and Physical Education (PE) settings. First, the paper highlights a distinctive orientation to self-cultivation at the heart of which lies a focus on uniting body and mind through regular movement-based practice. Next, differing relationships between these movement forms and spirituality are identified as: fragments of established religious spirituality; spiritual exercise; and secular religious spirituality. Finally, three common pedagogic principles of these movement forms are highlighted and applied to the school and PE context: identifying self-identity and emotions; prioritising direct experience and changing the body-self through practice. It is suggested that these understandings of self-cultivating Eastern movement forms may help sensitise educators to approaching the cultivation of spirituality through physicality in schools using, not only Eastern movement forms but also Western activities delivered in accordance with these principles.