Reciprocal relationships between resource loss and psychological distress following exposure to political violence: an empirical investigation of COR theory's loss spirals

Abstract We conducted a four-wave prospective study of Palestinian adults living in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, interviewed between 2007 and 2009 at 6-month interval to explore transactional relationships between resource loss (i.e., intra and interpersonal resource loss) and psychological distress (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms). Initially, 1196 Palestinians completed the first wave interview and 752 of these participants completed all four interviews. A cross-lagged panel design was constructed to model the effects of trauma exposure on both resource loss and psychological distress and the subsequent reciprocal effects of resource loss and psychological distress across four time waves. Specifically, resource loss was modeled to predict distress, which in turn was expected to predict further resource loss. Structural equation modeling was used to test this design. We found that psychological distress significantly predicts resource loss across shorter, 6-month time waves, but that resource loss predicts distress across longer, 12-month intervals. These findings support the Conservation of Resources theory's corollary of loss spirals.     

Unique Ways in Which the Quality of Friendships Matter for Life Satisfaction

Journal of Happiness Studies - The quality of individuals’ social relationships consistently predicts greater well-being. But little is known about the relative importance of different...     

Religiousness and College Student Alcohol Use: Examining the Role of Social Support

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of social support in the relationship between religiousness and alcohol use in a sample of college students. Two dimensions of religiousness: religious commitment and religious coping were examined as predictors of alcohol use. Participants were male and female college students (N = 221); the majority of the sample was Christian (73.8%). Emotional social support was tested as a mediator. Both religiousness dimensions and emotional social support were related to less frequent alcohol use; however, mediation was not supported. These findings indicate that religious commitment and dispositional religious coping are protective against alcohol use, yet social support does not account for this relationship.

Thinking Fat and Feeling Blue: Eating Behaviors, Ruminative Coping, and Depressive Symptoms in College Women

Restrained and binge eating are related to depressive symptomatology in women; we examined the role of ruminative coping in this association. Sample participants (N?=?329) were female college students in the Midwestern U.S. who completed a health behaviors survey. Multiple regression models examining the pathway between eating (restrained and bingeing, respectively) and depressive symptoms were tested; ruminative coping was examined as the mediator in all models. Models in which dysregulated eating predicted depressive symptoms explained more variance than those testing the reverse pathway. Ruminative coping fully mediated the association between restrained eating and depressive symptoms and partially mediated the association between binge eating and depressive symptoms. Findings suggest ruminative coping is a mechanism linking disordered eating and depressive symptoms.     

Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings

Conservation of resources (COR) theory is a stress and motivational theory that has been applied broadly in the organizational literature. Increasingly, this literature is transforming from a focus on resource‐setting fit to an understanding that ‘fitting’ is an active process that operates dynamically with both individuals and settings altering and metamorphosing. COR theory provides a framework to understand, predict, and examine this transactional relationship that can then be used to shape settings towards more optimal balance of resource cost and benefit. Rather than focusing on single, isolated variables or seeing individuals and settings as independent agents, COR theory suggests that resources exist in caravans. Therefore, employers that hope to ensure employee engagement must maximize the ecology that fosters resource caravan enrichment and challenge that promotes excellence, dedication, and commitment.     

Developing preventive mental health interventions for refugee families in resettlement

In refugee resettlement, positive psychosocial outcomes for youth and adults depend to a great extent on their families. Yet refugee families find few empirically based services geared toward them. Preventive mental health interventions that aim to stop, lessen, or delay possible negative individual mental health and behavioral sequelae through improving family and community protective resources in resettled refugee families are needed. This paper describes 8 characteristics that preventive mental health interventions should address to meet the needs of refugee families, including: Feasibility, Acceptability, Culturally Tailored, Multilevel, Time Focused, Prosaicness, Effectiveness, and Adaptability. To address these 8 characteristics in the complex environment of refugee resettlement requires modifying the process of developmental research through incorporating innovative mental health services research strategies, including: resilience framework, community collaboration, mixed methods with focused ethnography, and the comprehensive dynamic trial. A preventive intervention development cycle for refugee families is proposed based on a program of research on refugees and migrants using these services research strategies. Furthering preventive mental health for refugee families also requires new policy directives, multisystemic partnerships, and research training.     

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.