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.     

Belongingness is a Mediating Factor Between Religious Service Attendance and Reduced Psychological Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Religion and Health - This study aimed to test whether pre-pandemic religious service attendance relates to both lesser impact from the COVID-19 pandemic and lower levels of...     

Correction to: Belongingness is a Mediating Factor Between Religious Service Attendance and Reduced Psychological Distress During the COVID‑19 Pandemic

Journal of Religion and Health -     

The Role of Overt and Covert Avoidance Strategies in Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms and Fear of Emotion

Models of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have largely focused on the role of cognitive (i.e. covert) processes in the maintenance of GAD symptoms, including cognitive avoidance (e.g., thought suppression). Researchers have begun to investigate more systematically the role of overt avoidance behaviors in GAD symptoms and processes. However, the contribution of both overt and covert avoidance strategies in GAD symptoms and emotional processes has not been examined yet. The aim of the present study was to investigate if both overt and covert avoidance strategies are related to (Objective 1) and make a unique contribution in the explanation of the variance of (Objective 2) GAD symptoms, chronic worry and emotional processes (i.e. fear of emotion). Individuals high in chronic worry and GAD symptoms (N?=?113) recruited from the community completed measures of the study variables. Greater use of overt and covert avoidance were both related to greater GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. However, covert avoidance was the only unique correlate of GAD symptoms, worry severity and fear of emotion. The results suggest that covert avoidance makes a greater contribution to GAD symptoms and fear of emotion, than does overt avoidance. Future studies are needed to understand how overt avoidance behaviors fit into theoretical models of chronic worry and GAD.

     

Is the world a just place? Countering the negative consequences of pervasive discrimination by affirming the world as just

Two studies (a) explored the role of pervasiveness of discrimination (pervasive vs. rare) in determining targets' responses to discrimination, and (b) examined the extent to which threats to participants' worldview can account, in part, for detrimental effects of pervasive discrimination. As predicted, across both studies, pervasiveness of discrimination moderated the relationship between attributions to prejudice for failure to obtain a job and psychological well-being (depressed affect and state self-esteem). When discrimination was presented as pervasive, attributions to prejudice related to lower state self-esteem and greater depressed affect. When discrimination was portrayed as rare, attributions to prejudice were related to higher state self-esteem and unrelated to depressed affect. Study 2 further showed that being able to affirm the world as just countered the negative consequences of pervasive discrimination, whereas it did not influence responses to discrimination that was perceived as rare.