Examining patience as a psycho-religious construct in Iranian patients with cardiovascular diseases: a pilot study

The current study aimed to compare patience and its components in cardiovascular patients (CVPs) with healthy individuals. Ninety-one patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) referring to the clinic of Imam Reza in the city of Shiraz in Iran, and 91 healthy individuals were recruited by convenience sampling method. They completed demographics questionnaire and the Patience Scale. The data were analysed by sets of analysis of covariance. Results showed significant difference between CVPs and healthy participants on patience (M?=?85.92, SD?=?12.69 vs. M?=?90.45, SD?=?11.33); patients had less patience mean than their healthy peers (F?=?9.423, η²?=?.050, p?=?.002). The results also indicated that cardiac patients had significantly lower scores on patience components of transcendence, persistence, and delay than the healthy group (all p’s?p?>?.05). According to the results of the present study, it can be inferred that less patience may play a key role in vulnerability to physical illnesses such as CVDs.     

Personality correlates of equity sensitivity for samples of Canadian, Bulgarian, and Mexican business people

Equity sensitivity concerns perceptions of what is or is not equitable. Previous studies have shown that equity sensitivity is associated with one's relationship orientation. Relationships are also influenced by personality variables. As both personality and equity sensitivity influence relationships, equity sensitivity and personality may be correlated also; so, this study examined that possibility. The relations of equity sensitivity with 3 personality variables were explored across three culturally different samples. This allowed validation across cultures of the proposed equity-personality relationship which has traditionally been assessed in a U.S. setting. In general, personality-equity sensitivity relationship was not supported across the samples.     

Visual working memory in young children

Five experiments investigated immediate memory for drawings of familiar objects in children of different ages. The aims were to demonstrate younger children’s greater dependence on visual working memory and to explore the nature of this memory system. Experiment 1 showed that visual similarity of drawings impaired recall in young (5-year-old) children but not in older (10-year-old) children. Experiment 2 showed that younger and older children were affected in contrasting ways when the temporal order of recall was manipulated. Experiment 3 explored a recency effect found in backward recall and investigated its sensitivity to the presentation modality of materials used to produce retroactive interference (RI). For younger children, recency was reduced by visual but not by auditory-verbal RI; for older children, recency was more sensitive to auditoryverbal RI. Experiment 4 confirmed the effect of visual RI on visual recency in young children and showed that the same RI had little effect on their recall of spoken words. These results confirm younger children’s dependence on visual working memory. A final experiment showed that the effects of visual similarity and visual RI are additive, suggesting that they reflect different modes of accessing stored visuospatial information. Implications of these findings for developmental issues and for the nature of visual working memory are discussed.     

Lexical decision and naming asymmetries: Influence of response selection and response bias

Signal detection measures were used to evaluate the effects of several response variables (manual vs. vocal, Go-NoGo vs. Yes-No) on lexical decision asymmetries. An unvarying right visual field advantage in discriminability (d') was observed in each condition. However, response criteria (beta) varied over visual fields and conditions. Naming and lexical decision were shown to have equivalent asymmetries when the effects of response bias are removed. The results indicate that postaccess decision processes make important contributions to lexical decision asymmetries.     

The Witness to Witness Program: Helping the Helpers in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Witness to Witness Program (W2W), based on Weingarten’s witnessing model (2000, 2003, 2004), began in July 2018 and originally was established to support healthcare workers and attorneys (our partners) who were experiencing empathic distress working with people involved in various stages of the detention process. The W2W program evolved to offer four primary components: clinician listening sessions geared to deep understanding of the person’s story of their work and its challenges; an inventory of the person’s current internal and external resources both in the present and in the past; help with removal of barriers to those resources; and development of a personal toolkit to handle stress. Additional services available to partners and their organizations included psycho-educational webinars, facilitated peer support groups, and organizational consultations to foster trauma-sensitive and resilience-hardy work environments. In March, after lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, W2W pivoted to focus on handouts and webinars addressing how to cope with distress and moral injury, maintaining resilience, coping with grief, and dealing with multiple losses caused by the pandemic. Disaster sparked collaboration and innovation. A train the trainer model was developed to reach more community health workers providing services to the Latinx community dealing with losses similar to those experienced by the clients they serve. W2W continues to create virtual communities of support. In doing so we practice doing reasonable hope together (Weingarten, Family Process, 2010, 49, 5).     

The Rutgers Arm, a rehabilitation system in virtual reality: a pilot study.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Its prevalence calls for innovative rehabilitation methods. The Rutgers Arm is a novel upper extremity rehabilitation system consisting of a low-friction table, three-dimensional (3D) tracker, custom forearm support, PC workstation, library of Java 3D virtual reality (VR) exercises, clinical database module, and a tele-rehabilitation extension. The system was tested on a chronic stroke subject, under local and tele-rehabilitation conditions, over 5 weeks of training. Results show improvements in arm motor control and shoulder range of motion, corresponding to improved Fugl-Meyer test scores. Exercise duration, level of difficulty, and patient motivation were maintained under tele-rehabilitaion. A 1-week retention trial showed that gains were maintained.     

Family consequences of refugee trauma

OBJECTIVE: To construct a model on the consequences of political violence for refugee families based upon a qualitative investigation. METHODS: This study used a grounded-theory approach to analyze qualitative evidence from the CAFES multi-family support and education groups with Bosnian refugee families in Chicago. Textual coding and analysis was conducted using ATLAS/ti for Windows. RESULTS: A grounded-theory model of Family Consequences of Refugee Trauma (FAMCORT) was constructed that describes Displaced Families of War across four realms of family life: (1) changes in family roles and obligations, (2) changes in family memories and communications, (3) changes in family relationships with other family members; and (4) changes in family connections with the ethnic community and nation state. In each realm, the model also specifies family strategies, called Families Rebuilding Lives, for managing those consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Political violence leads to changes in multiple dimensions of family life and also to strategies for managing those changes. Qualitative family research is useful in better understanding refugee families and in helping them through family-oriented mental health services.     

Toward kuleana (responsibility): A case study of a contextually grounded intervention for Native Hawaiian youth and young adults

As a minority ethnic group, Native Hawaiian youth and young adults face an array of issues associated with colonization, such as persistent structural discrimination and the loss of land and indigenous ways of knowing. They are also at risk for a wide range of negative behaviors, including interpersonal violence, suicide, substance use, and juvenile delinquency. This article explores how community youth development, critical pedagogies, and Hawaiian epistemology can help Native Hawaiian young adults cope with such issues. It begins with a brief discussion of critiques on conventional youth violence prevention programs. To address these critiques, three bodies of literature are introduced: 1) community youth development, 2) critical pedagogy, and 3) community epistemology. Data were derived from a single case study of a community-based youth program. The program, located in an impoverished, rural community in Hawai'i, entailed running an organic farm. Seventeen participants were involved in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Utilizing critical indigenous qualitative research, a content analysis of the interviews was conducted to build a working conceptual model. Preliminary findings suggest that a program with key processes of community youth development, critical pedagogies, and Hawaiian epistemology may serve as a vehicle for health and wellness, thus preventing a host of negative behaviors, such as violence. Based on the findings, a critical contextually based approach to violence prevention that focuses on providing opportunities for Native Hawaiian young adults to take an active participatory role in promoting health is proposed.     

The Efficacy of a Group Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) for Chinese Parents with a Child Diagnosed with ADHD in Hong Kong: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Study

The present pilot study evaluated the efficacy of the Level 4 Group Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with Hong Kong Chinese parents who had a child with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using a randomised controlled trial design. It was a mixed research method involving quantitative measurement and semi‐structured focus group. Participants were randomly assigned to Triple P (n = 8) or control group (n = 9) and completed measures on child disruptive behaviours, sense of parenting efficacy and satisfaction, family stress and service needs. Outcomes were assessed at pre‐, post‐, and 3‐month follow‐up. A focus group was also conducted with the participants in the intervention group upon the programme completion. Compared with the control group, the intervention group reported a significant reduction in intensity of child behaviour problems and a significant increase in parenting efficacy at post‐intervention. The gain in reducing intensity of child disruptive behaviours maintained to 3 months after the completion of programme. Qualitative data suggested the three key elements to help both parents and children get positive changes: understanding and empathy, emotional control, and persistence in applying positive parenting strategies. The results partially provided preliminary evidence supporting the efficacy of Triple P in reducing child behaviour problems for ADHD in Chinese society.