The Relationship Between Religious and Psychospiritual Measures and an Inflammation Marker (CRP) in Older Adults Experiencing Life Event Stress

Journal of Religion and Health - Inflammation, often measured by C-reactive protein (CRP), is thought to be related to a number of debilitating illnesses as we age, including cardiovascular...     

Reading the Bible,Stressful Life Events,and Hope: Assessing an Overlooked Coping Resource

Journal of Religion and Health - Many people rely on religion to deal with the stressors in their lives. The purpose of this study is to examine a religious coping resource that has received...     

A MEDIATIONAL MODEL RELATING SOCIOTROPY, AMBIVALENCE OVER EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION, AND DISORDERED EATING

Two factors that have been found to predict eating disorders are sociotropy or dependent personality style and ambivalence over emotional expression, but there has been little consideration of the relationship between them and how this relationship may contribute to an understanding of eating disorders. A mediational model is proposed in which high sociotropy leads to greater ambivalence over expressing emotions, which in turn increases vulnerability to eating disorders. Consistent with predictions, among 115 college women, a high level of sociotropy was associated with a high level of ambivalence over emotional expression, which in turn was associated with increased disordered eating. Furthermore, ambivalence over emotional expression significantly mediated the effect of sociotropy on disordered eating, even when controlling for depression level. Findings are considered within a developmental framework, and treatment implications are discussed.     

Assessment Centers: Current Practices in the United States

Purpose  

The goals of this investigation were to review current AC practices in the United States by evaluating whether they follow the Guidelines and Ethical Considerations for Assessment Center Operations (International Task Force on Assessment Centers, 2000). We both expanded upon and compared our results to a prior benchmarking study (Spychalski et al. in Personnel Psychol, 50:71–90, 1997), and investigated practices regarding job analysis, AC development, dimensions (i.e., job requirements), exercises, assessor characteristics and training, behavior recording, data integration, organizational policy, assessee rights, AC evaluation and AC technology. Data were collected via an online survey completed by individuals from human resource departments of organizations (N = 54) across the U.S; organizations to whom the survey was sent were selected by sampling Fortune 500 organizations based on economic sector.     

Spiritual Struggles and Health: Assessing the Influence of Socioeconomic Status

Growing evidence suggests that spiritual struggles may play a major role in explaining the relationship between religion and health. Even so, there are significant gaps in the literature. More specifically, researchers do not know enough about how spiritual struggles arise in the first place. This study has two major goals. The first is to see whether socioeconomic status is associated with spiritual struggles. The second is to see whether spiritual struggles are associated with physical health. A conceptual model is tested that contains the following core hypotheses: (1) individuals with lower levels of educational attainment are more likely to encounter chronic economic difficulties; (2) people who experience ongoing financial strain are more likely to live in rundown neighborhoods; (3) people who live in dilapidated neighborhoods will be more angry than their well‐to‐do counterparts; (4) people who are more angry will, in turn, be more likely to experience spiritual struggles; and (5) greater spiritual struggles will be associated with more symptoms of physical illness. Data from a recent nationwide survey (N = 2,146) provide empirical support for each hypothesis.     

Volunteer Work,Religious Commitment,and Resting Pulse Rates

Research indicates that greater involvement in volunteer activities is associated with better health. We aim to contribute to this literature in two ways. First, rather than rely on self-reports of health, measured resting pulse rates serve as the dependent variable. Second, an effort is made to see if religious commitment moderates the relationship between volunteering and resting pulse rates. Data that come from a recent nationwide survey (N = 2265) suggest that volunteer work is associated with lower resting pulse rates. The results also reveal that the relationship between engaging in volunteer work and resting pulse rates improves among study participants who are more deeply committed to religion.     

How do location and control over the music influence listeners’ responses?

This study uses Mehrabian and Russell's ( 1974 ) Pleasure‐Arousal‐Dominance (PAD) model to consider how responses to both the music heard and overall in‐situ listening experience are influenced by the listener's degree of control over music selected for a particular listening episode and the location in which the listening takes place. Following recruitment via campus advertisements and a university research participation program, 216 individuals completed a background questionnaire and music listening task in a 3 (location) × 2 (experimenter‐ or participant‐selected music) design. After the listening task, participants completed a short questionnaire concerning the music they heard and the overall in‐situ listening experience. Results demonstrated that there was a positive relationship between control and liking for the music and episode, whether the former was considered in terms of: (1) whether the music was self‐selected or experimenter‐selected or (2) overt ratings of perceived control. Furthermore, the location and liking for the music were related to people's judgments of their enjoyment of the overall experience. This research indicates that the PAD model is a useful framework for understanding everyday music listening and supports the contention that, in a musical context, dominance may be operationalized as control over the music.     

Stable negative social exchanges and health

Negative social exchanges with family, friends, and neighbors are known to be an important source of stress in daily life, and chronic stress is theorized to have especially potent impacts on health. Little is known about the health effects of stably high levels of negative social exchanges, however. In a national, longitudinal study of older adults (N = 666), we examined the association between stable negative social exchanges and health over a 2-year period. Trait-state-error models indicated that higher levels of stable negative social exchanges were significantly predictive of lower self-rated health, greater functional limitations, and a higher number of health conditions over 2 years after controlling for initial levels of health and sociodemographic variables. These results highlight the importance of examining continual and recurring interpersonal problems in efforts to understand the health effects of social relationships.     

Psychosocial factors in outcomes of heart surgery: the impact of religious involvement and depressive symptoms.

This article reports a prospective study of religiousness and recovery from heart surgery. Religiousness and other psychosocial factors were assessed in 142 patients about a week prior to surgery. Those with stronger religious beliefs subsequently had fewer complications and shorter hospital stays, the former effect mediating the latter. Attendance at religious services was unrelated to complications but predicted longer hospitalizations. Prayer was not related to recovery. Depressive symptoms were associated with longer hospital stays. Dispositional optimism, trait hostility, and social support were unrelated to outcomes. Effects of religious beliefs and attendance were stronger among women than men and were independent of biomedical and other psychosocial predictors. These findings encourage further examination of differential health effects of the various elements of religiousness.