The effect of perceived stress on the relationship between perfectionism and burnout in coaches

Abstract

The effects of perceived stress (PS) on the relationship between adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism and burnout were examined. Smith's (1986) stress appraisal model and Kelley, Eklund, and Ritter-Taylor's (1999) model of coach burnout were used to test two models of burnout in a sample of college coaches (N=177). The results indicated that there is an indirect effect of self-evaluative perfectionism (i.e., maladaptive form of perfectionism) on burnout through PS as well as a significant direct link to burnout, accounting for 56% of its variance. In contrast, conscientious perfectionism (CP) (i.e., adaptive perfectionism) did not directly impact burnout, nor was there an indirect effect through PS. Based on Lazarus's (1999) ideas about stress appraisal, the results suggested that maladaptive forms of perfectionism resulted in more threatening perceptions of stress, thus, potentially leading to the experience of burnout. However, adaptive forms of perfectionism did not seem to result in increased appraisals of stress or result in burnout. The results did indicate a significant correlation between the two forms of perfectionism, which may explain why CP did not significantly impact PS or burnout.     

Predictors of Differential Responding on a Sentence Completion Task in Traumatized Children

Information-processing theories posit that persons who have experienced trauma may have disturbed emotional processing and therefore exhibit an excess of negative responses to otherwise neutral cues. The role of this mechanism in traumatized children has yet to be fully investigated. This study examined the relationship of varied clinical characteristics and theoretically relevant moderating variables to increased trauma related responding on a non-idiographic sentence completion task. One hundred and eighty-nine children (ages 6–17) residing at a residential home between 1996 and 2011 who had experienced physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse were administered a sentence completion task and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) shortly after their admission. Three independent raters determined whether sentence completion responses were trauma related (TRR), non-trauma related, or ambiguous. Trauma related responses were then reviewed for either avoidant/denial style responding or loss related responding. The TSCC posttraumatic stress subscale (PTS) was the only subscale that was uniquely related to TRR. A significant interaction between abuse type and PTS was found with sexual abuse moderating the effect of PTS on TRR. Additionally, age at assessment was positively correlated with both TRR and loss related responding. Time since removal from home was negatively correlated with TRR. Gender differences were found for TRR and loss related responding. These findings highlight the empirical relevance of the sentence completion task in clinical research. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research, assessment, and intervention.     

Sensory Processing Difficulties, Behavioral Problems, and Parental Stress in a Clinical Population of Young Children

This study examined the relationship between sensory processing difficulties, parental stress, and behavioral problems in a clinical sample of young children with developmental and behavioral difficulties. We hypothesized that a high rate of sensory processing difficulties would be found, that there would be a high rate of comorbidity between sensory processing difficulties and behavioral problems, and that children’s sensory processing difficulties and parental stress would be highly correlated. Parents of 59 children ages two to five who attended an out-patient clinic in a low income, urban community completed the Child Behavior Checklist, Parental Stress Inventory-Short Form and the Short Sensory Profile. Children in this clinical population showed a high prevalence (55.9 %) of sensory processing difficulties, a significantly higher rate than previously reported. Sensory processing deficits were correlated with behavioral difficulties and parental stress levels-suggesting that as sensory processing difficulties increase, so do behavioral difficulties and parental stress. Parents of children with sensory processing deficits had significantly higher levels of parental stress than parents of children without sensory deficits. Parenting stress levels were also clinically elevated for the cohort of children in which sensory processing difficulties and behavioral concerns co-existed. These findings suggest that treatment outcomes might improve and parental stress could be reduced if mental health clinicians were trained to identify and address sensory problems. This could result in more children being screened and treated for sensory processing difficulties and an eventual reduction in the rates of parental stress.     

Resilience to Childhood Abuse and Neglect in College Students

This study examined the prevalence of a history of childhood maltreatment in a college sample and identified the relationship between being maltreated as a child and later college adjustment in men and women. Results indicate that men who had been maltreated in childhood had more resilient outcomes in college than women who had been maltreated in childhood. Negative life events and protective factors acted as mediators in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and college adjustment for women, and protective factors acted as a moderator in the relationship between childhood maltreatment and college adjustment for men.     

Genetic differences in response to novelty and spatial memory using a two-trial recognition task in mice

A two-trial memory task, based on a free-choice exploration paradigm in a Y-maze, was previously developed to study recognition processes in Sprague-Dawley rats. Because this paradigm avoids the use of electric shock or deprivation that may have nonspecific effects and does not require learning of a rule, it may be particularly useful for studying memory in mice. Four inbred strains (Balb/cByJ, DBA/2J, C57BL/6J, and SJL/J), an F1 hybrid (C57BL/6 x SJL/J), and one outbred strain (CD1) were used to validate this task in mice and to characterize a strain distribution in response to novelty and working memory. Exploration was measured with a short (2 min) intertrial interval (ITI) between acquisition and retrieval, while memory was examined with longer intervals (30 min, 1 h, and 2 h). A study of the time course of the response to novelty revealed varying degrees of preference and/or habituation to novelty among the different strains, with CD1 exhibiting a very high response to novelty and others showing lower (C57 x SJL hybrids) to complete absence (SJL) of exploration of novelty. Memory span, assessed with increasing ITIs, varied widely among strains from 30 min (C57 x SJL hybrids) to at least 2 h (C57 and BALB). Such demonstrated sensitivity to a wide range of behavioral phenotypes supports the use of this spatial memory task as an effective tool for the study of genetic influences on the response to novelty and recognition processes in mice.     

Authoritarianism and Political Impoverishment: Deficits in Knowledge and Civic Disinterest

Past research shows that authoritarian individuals hold strong opinions about a variety of political and social issues, such as race relations and military conflict. What has not been established, though, is the amount of general political knowledge that authoritarians possess. In this study, three groups of college students were administered Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale; most of them also received items assessing general political knowledge and specific knowledge about the 2000 presidential election, as well as items assessing interest in politics. Relative to students with low RWA scores, those with high scores possessed less political knowledge; moreover, they expressed less interest in learning about politics. In general, authoritarianism was unrelated to how individuals got their political information or how credible they found their sources. The implication that authoritarians hold strong attitudinal beliefs with weak political knowledge is discussed.     

Informal social support characteristics and utilization of parenting support services among low‐income African American mothers of premature infants

Service delivery efforts to attenuate the risks associated with parenting premature infants in poverty often are compromised because those at greatest risk do not use available parenting support services. Yet, relatively little is known about the networks of support surrounding these parents. This study investigated both the characteristics of informal social support within a sample of 31 low‐income, African American mothers of premature infants at high risk for parenting difficulties and their use of community parenting support services. The findings suggest that mothers had small (M = 4.97, SD = 1.80), but highly mobilized, social support networks consisting primarily of family members. Among six different types of support, informational guidance and parenting support were available from the fewest people in participants' networks. Only 32.3% of the sample was aware of and 16.1% of the sample had ever used formal parenting support services. Participants who had received informal support from more than five people in the last month were significantly more likely to have knowledge about existing community parenting support services than those receiving support from smaller social networks. Patterns of knowledge about and utilization of services were examined with regard to network characteristics, perceived maternal desire for more parenting support opportunities than were available, and presence of special needs in the child. The implications of these findings for parenting support programs are discussed. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Toward a Psychology of Religion, Spirituality, Meaning-Search, and Aging: Past Research and a Practical Application

The current work is a combined review of several major theoretical issues in religious gerontology and of related research findings. It is intended to briefly inform, rather than to serve as a comprehensive review of the literature. The current author's primary goals are to put-forth points of information about contemporary terminology, to conceptualize motives for meaning-search at any age, to synthesize a few major findings and associated flaws in the research, and to describe a practical approach to the psychology of religion and spirituality (i.e., coping outcomes research). Within the current work, the reader is directed to sources of extensive reviews of data and of broader theoretical debates.