When virtual contact is all you need: Subtle reminders of Facebook preempt social‐contact restoration after exclusion

In the Internet age, people who feel alone can use online social media to restore a sense of social connectedness. In the present experiment, participants were either excluded or included in Cyberball, a virtual ball‐tossing game. Afterwards, a Facebook icon or a control icon (Flash Player) was shown on the margin of a computer screen during a filler task. In the control condition, excluded (vs. included) participants subsequently expressed greater interest in social contact. This response to exclusion was absent after the subtle exposure to the Facebook icon. The effect of icon presentation was moderated by relational Facebook use: The interest in further social contact after exclusion was particularly low in participants who reported employing Facebook to maintain relationships to a greater (vs. lower) extent. In sum, our findings suggest that Facebook can dispense with compensatory affiliation attempts after exclusion, especially in more socially minded Facebook users. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does Bullying Affect Work-to-Private-Life Interference? Testing the Mediating Role of Resilience

Objectives. The present study, using the conservation of resources theory as a theoretical framework, aims to establish whether work-related bullying is associated with the development of two different types of work-to-private-life interference, i.e., time based and strain based. The study also aims to test whether these relationships are mediated by resilience. Method. In total, 333 nurses filled out a self-report questionnaire. Data analyses were performed by using structural equation model. Results. Results confirmed the hypothesized model: work-related bullying is associated with both strain-based and time-based work-to-private-life interferences. The bootstrap test indicated the presence of an indirect effect of bullying on both types of work-to-private-life interference via resilience. Originality/Value. The present study contributes to improve the understanding on the mechanisms linking work-related bullying and worker well-being, by providing evidence for the mediating role of resilience between bullying and both time-based and strain-based work–life interferences. Practical implications. The present study suggests that the intervention programs, in order to be effectiveness in sustaining work–life balance among nurses, should take into great account the social climate in the organizational context, e.g., the quality of the social climate with particular reference to the bullying prevention.     

Treatment of Maternal Depression With In-Home Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Augmented by a Parenting Enhancement: A Case Report

Depression is prevalent among mothers who participate in home visitation programs. This case study describes In-Home Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (IH-CBT), an empirically based treatment for depressed mothers that is strongly integrated with ongoing home visitation. The use of a Parenting Enhancement for Maternal Depression (PEMD) module was added to address parenting difficulties in a depressed mother. This case describes issues and challenges encountered in delivering treatment in the home with low-income, depressed mothers. Issues involving engagement, adaptation to the setting, responding to the unique needs of low-income mothers, and partnership with concurrent home visiting to optimize outcomes are considered. Long-term follow-up (18 months after the end of treatment) permits examination of sustainability of gains. Implications for treating this high-risk population are discussed.     

PREDICTORS OF SELF‐REPORTED GAINS IN A RELATIONSHIP‐BASED HOME‐VISITING PROJECT FOR MOTHERS AFTER CHILDBIRTH

We assessed mothers’ self‐reported gains from a postpartum home‐visiting (HV) project in which home visitors are volunteer mothers from the community. Hypotheses were that gains are positively related to (a) mothers’ felt‐closeness with their home visitor, (b) mothers’ level of sociodemographic risk, and (c) the home visitors’ preproject training in support services for families or children (Professionalism). One hundred sixty‐four clients returned written evaluations of the HV project. Items assessing gains were reduced to two factors: Improved Well‐Being (“Self”) and Improved Infant Care (“Infant”). Repeated measures general linear models, with Gains (Self, Infant) as the repeated measure, and multiple regression analyses evaluated the hypotheses. Across the sample, gains on both factors were moderate, although gain scores were higher regarding Self than for Infant. Results show that (a) Mothers’ felt‐closeness with their volunteer was strongly related to mothers’ gains; (b) high‐risk mothers gained more from the project than did mothers of lower risk, particularly regarding Infant Care; and (c) mothers visited by volunteers who were professionals reported more substantial gains than did mothers visited by volunteers who were not professionals. Findings can help explain variance in mothers’ gains from such projects and could be useful in improving their efficacy.     

Integrating new soldiers: The role of leaders and unit members

The benefits of positively integrating newcomers into organizations are well known in civilian contexts. Less known is the role of integration among US soldiers who frequently relocate and integrate into new units. Perceptions of integration were examined both cross-sectionally and longitudinally as predictors of mental health, anger reactions, unit climate and functional impairment for soldiers who recently joined their unit. In addition to rating their perceptions of integration, soldiers also rated their leader and unit member support for integration. Cross-sectional correlations indicated that positive personal integration was significantly associated with fewer mental health problems, fewer anger reactions, better unit climate, and less functional impairment. Positive leader and unit support for integration was significantly associated with better unit climate. Positive leader support was also associated with fewer mental health symptoms. Only the associations of positive personal integration, with anxiety symptoms and unit climate held over time. Mediation analyses showed that personal integration fully mediated the cross-sectional relationship between leader support for integration and depression symptoms and partially mediated the relationship between leader support for integration and anxiety symptoms and unit climate. Personal integration also partially mediated the relationship between unit member support for integration and unit climate. These findings identify the importance of the individual’s personal perception of integration in predicting reduced mental health symptoms and increased unit climate, both in the short and long term. Leaders and unit members facilitate this process and could therefore benefit from training on how best to integrate new members to the unit.     

Neuropsychological complications of insulin dependent diabetes in children

Previous research suggests that children with insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM) show selective impairments on neuropsychological tests, with those developing IDDM before 5 years of age appearing to be the most affected. The effect of hypoglycaemia on the developing brain has been suggested as a possible risk factor as has the disruptive effect of chronic hyperglycaemia on myelinisation. A cohort of children (n = 124) with newly diagnosed IDDM, managed at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne has been assembled and evaluated 3 months post diagnosis on standardised tests of general intelligence, attention, memory, new learning, executive functions, and educational achievement. The performance of the children with IDDM has been compared with that of a demographically representative control group (n = 129) of healthy children. At this baseline assessment, the findings strongly support the hypothesis that the neuropsychological and educational profiles of newly diagnosed children are not different from that of controls early in the course of the illness. Both groups will be reassessed 2 and 5 years after the initial evaluation when it is hypothesised that children with diabetes will perform more poorly. Parameters of the illness, such as age of onset, major metabolic crises, and history of glycaemic control will be related to the test performance of the children with IDDM to identify specific risk factors for neuropsychological and educational sequelae in that population.     

Abstracting and extracting: Causal coherence and the development of the life story

This study compared life story memories of emerging adults and early adolescents to other autobiographical memories. Participants described three scenes of their respective life stories, a high point, low point, and turning point narrative, and described the connections between them in a fourth narrative. Participants also related four autobiographical narratives from corresponding time periods for comparison. Narratives were analysed for two measures of causal coherence, narrative complexity and meaning making, and for thematic coherence. Life story narratives contained more self-related lessons and insights and greater recognition of complexity than non-life-story narratives, but these differences were confined to narratives of turning points and connections between events. Thematic connections between narratives were more abstract and self-related in life story narratives. Emerging adults' narratives, when compared to those of early adolescents, showed more evidence of self-related abstract thinking and recognition of multiple dimensions. Findings indicate consistent ways in which life story memories differ from other autobiographic memories, and show evidence of development in adolescence.     

Motivation-focused thinking: Buffering against stress-related physical symptoms and depressive symptomology

Developmental transitions are experienced throughout the life course and necessitate adapting to consequential and unpredictable changes that can undermine health. Our six-month study (n = 239) explored whether selective secondary control striving (motivation-focused thinking) protects against the elevated levels of stress and depressive symptoms increasingly common to young adults navigating the challenging school-to-university transition. Path analyses supplemented with tests of moderated mediation revealed that, for young adults who face challenging obstacles to goal attainment, selective secondary control indirectly reduced long-term stress-related physical and depressive symptoms through selective primary control and previously unexamined measures of discrete emotions. Results advance the existing literature by demonstrating that (a) selective secondary control has health benefits for vulnerable young adults and (b) these benefits are largely a consequence of the process variables proposed in Heckhausen et al.’s (2010) theory.