Age, sex, social class, and quality of family interaction as determinants of adolescents' future orientation: a developmental task interpretation

This study is concerned with the effect of age, sex, social class, and quality of family interaction on the future orientation of adolescents aged 10-11, 14-15, and 17-19 years. Seventy-three girls and 75 boys were interviewed about their future hopes and fears. The content and extension of each aim and fear as well as the amount of planning, knowledge, and perceived locus of control involved was estimated from answers. The contents of aims and fears were closely related to the developmental tasks. Nearly half the subjects were afraid of war. The extension of subjects' future orientation decreased, whereas their knowledge about the future increased with age. The subjects from the higher social classes were oriented farther into the future than those from the lower classes. An interpretation emphasizing the importance of the principal developmental tasks on young people's future orientation is discussed.     

JUDGING WEIGHT UNDER GROUP PRESSURE

Subjects judged weights after hearing the judgments of four 'confederates' whose responses had been predetermined by the experimenter. Although the actual stimulus weight was held constant (500 grams), the confederates' judgments increased systematically from 500 to 900 (Exp. I), or decreased from 500 to 100 grams (Exp. II). The subjects' judgments followed those of the confederates very closely, and this group-induced change appeared to be accepted privately in most cases.     

Optimistic,Approach-oriented,and Avoidance Strategies in Social Situations: Three Studies on Loneliness and Peer Relationships

The aim of the three studies was to examine the extent to which the cognitive and behavioural strategies young adults apply in social situations are associated with their subsequent feelings of loneliness, their peer relationships, and social behaviour. In Study 1, 303 young adults first filled in the Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire (SAQ) and, 1 year later, the revised UCLA Loneliness scale. In Study 2, 71 young adults filled in first the SAQ and, 4 months later, the UCLA Loneliness scale and a sociometric questionnaire measuring popularity and unpopularity. In Study 3, 35 young adults who had participated in Study 1 were rated by student tutors according to their social behaviour in an academic group situation. The results showed that the less optimistic the subjects were, the less they applied an approach-oriented strategy, and the more they used a social avoidance strategy, the more lonely they were. Furthermore, the more they used an approach-oriented strategy and the less they reported social avoidance, the more successful they were in their peer relationships. These two strategies were also associated with the ways in which an observer perceived their behaviour in a group situation, whereas social optimism was not.     

Interpersonally traumatised patients’ view of significant and corrective experiences in the psychotherapeutic relationship

Background: Clinical experience points to the importance of significant experiences in the therapy relationship for patients who have been interpersonally traumatised but the empirical research is limited.

Aim: The aim was to gain increased knowledge about how significant and potentially corrective experiences within the therapeutic relationship were described by patients in trauma-focused therapy and how the participants thought such experiences might have affected the therapeutic work.

Method: Five patients who were, or recently had been, in trauma-focused therapy were interviewed about their experiences of the therapy relationship. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews.

Results: Four themes were identified: ‘Human contact’, ‘Validation’, ‘To face the painful’ and ‘Development of trust’. Positive experiences in the therapeutic relationship were sometimes seen as crucial for the therapeutic work and for patients’ improvement.

Conclusions: Previous findings about the significance of corrective experiences in psychotherapy were confirmed, particularly experiences of the therapist’s accepting stance, personal and human contact and encouragement. The therapist’s ability to evoke trust in the patient and her capacity to help patients to face painful material may be particularly important for traumatised patients.     

Caregiving representations in war conditions: Associations with maternal trauma,mental health,and mother–infant interaction

Risk features in mothers’ caregiving representations remain understudied in dangerous environments where infants most urgently need protective parenting. This pilot study examines the feasibility of a novel coding system for the Parent Development Interview (PDI) interview (ARR, Assessment of Representational Risk) in assessing 50 war-exposed Palestinian mothers’ caregiving representations. First, we explored the content and structure of risks in the representations. Second, we examined associations between the high-risk representations, mothers’ pre- and postnatal exposure to traumatic war events (TWE), depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and self-rated emotional availability (EA) with their 1-year-old infants. Following three dimensions of high-risk caregiving representations were identified: self/dyadic dysregulation, unavailable, and fearful. Mothers’ prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with dysregulating and fearful representations, and their postnatal PTSD with fearful representations. TWE were not associated with the high-risk representations. Moreover, mothers of boys reported more fearful representations, and mothers with financial difficulties reported more unavailable representations. TWE and high-risk representations were not associated with EA. However, qualitative analysis of the representations indicated risks in the mother–infant relationship. Further, older mothers and mothers with postnatal PTSD reported lower EA. Cultural variance in caregiving representations and the use of self-report measures among traumatized mothers are discussed.     

Confidence in work‐related goals and feelings of exhaustion during a therapeutic intervention for burnout: A time‐series approach

This study investigated recursive relations between confidence in achieving work‐related goals and work exhaustion among employees who participated in an intervention to reduce their burnout. Thirty‐six employees of age 33–59 years suffering from severe burnout (28 females and 8 males) filled in burnout and well‐being measures before and after a 10‐month therapeutic intervention. They also filled in weekly measures of confidence in work‐related goals (progress and capability) and work exhaustion throughout the intervention, as well as 4 weeks before and 4 weeks afterwards. Intra‐individual variation was modelled using dynamic factor analyses. The results showed that, for most participants, confidence in work‐related goals and work exhaustion during a given week could be predicted from those of the preceding week. Moreover, high self‐esteem predicted low weekly stability in goal confidence, whereas high burnout contributed to high weekly stability in work exhaustion. The intra‐individual stabilities in goal confidence and exhaustion also predicted which of the participants benefited from the intervention in terms of increasing well‐being and decreasing work‐related stress.     

A preliminary look at loneliness as a moderator of the link between perfectionism and depressive and anxious symptoms in college students: does being lonely make perfectionistic strivings more distressing?

An integrative model involving perfectionism [Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470] and loneliness as predictors of depressive and anxious symptoms was proposed and tested in 383 college students. Beyond the expected additive influences of the two predictors in the prediction of symptoms, loneliness was also hypothesized to moderate the link between perfectionism and symptoms. Results indicated that other-oriented perfectionism predicted anxious symptoms, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted both depressive and anxious symptoms. Loneliness was found to add incremental validity to these predictions. Moreover, the Perfectionism x Loneliness interaction was found to further augment the prediction of depressive and anxious symptoms. These findings are taken to offer support for a more contextual model of perfectionism. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Treatment Engagement: Building Therapeutic Alliance in Home-Based Treatment with Adolescents and their Families

Client engagement is an essential yet challenging ingredient in effective therapy. Engaged clients are more likely to bond with therapists and counselors, endorse treatment goals, participate to a greater degree, remain in treatment longer, and report higher levels of satisfaction. This study explored the process of engaging high-risk youth and their parents in a unique home-based family therapy intervention. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 families who completed family therapy sessions that included a core component aimed at increasing treatment engagement. Parents’ and youths’ perceptions of engagement suggest the importance of developing therapeutic alliance with therapists, who facilitated building a shared alliance among family members. Implications for improving client engagement are discussed within the context of alliance building with the therapist and among family members.