Quality of Family and Work Roles and Its Relationship with Health Indicators in Men and Women

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether the perceived qualities of work-related, marital, and parenting roles differentially predict distress symptoms, cardiovascular risk, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Also, I sought to evaluate whether there are interactions among the quality of different roles (work, marital, and parenting) and whether there are differences between men and women. Participants were 340 women (ages 30–55 years) and 279 men (ages 21–66 years) who lived and worked in Bogotá, Colombia. The questionnaire included valid self-report scales, and questions of specific interest for this study. Results indicate that the perceived quality of the roles differentially predicts the health indicators studied. Psychological health indicators are more strongly predicted than the cardiovascular health indicators by role quality. Self-esteem and anxiety in men and depression in women are more strongly predicted by the perceived quality of the roles. There were differences as well as similarities between genders.     

Risk and Resistance Factors for Psychological Distress in Icelandic Parents of Chronically Ill Children: An Application of Wallander and Varni’s Disability-Stress-Coping Model

The purpose of the study was to investigate Wallander and Varni’s (1998) disability-stress coping model in a sample of 105 Icelandic parents of chronically ill children. The Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), the Attributional Scale (AS), the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC), the World Assumption scale (WAS), The Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ), The Impact on Family scale (IFS), the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC), and the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), were completed by the parents of children with various diseases. Despite the heterogeneity of the sample in terms of disease type, PTSD was present in 13.2% of the parents and an additional 28.6% had subclinical PTSD. Emotional coping, extent of daily care, time since diagnosis, and changes in employment due to the disease explained 71% of the variance in HTQ total score.     

Economic inequality enhances inferences that the normative climate is individualistic and competitive

In addition to the negative effects of economic inequality on a range of health and social outcomes, we propose that inequality should also affect how people perceive the broader normative climate in society. We predicted that people living in a more unequal (vs. equal) society are more likely to appraise the social context as one where individualism determines people's behavior. We tested this idea in three experiments by manipulating the degree of economic inequality in a fictional society. We showed that, compared to the low-inequality condition, participants in the high-inequality condition were more likely to project individualistic norms onto society. Furthermore, Experiments 2 and 3 showed that in the high- (vs. low-) economic-inequality condition, participants inferred more competition and less cooperation between people. Our results are discussed in light of the importance of the perception of a broader normative climate to explain the consequences of economic inequality.     

Neuropsychological Interventions for Decision-Making in Addiction: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Decision-making deficits are strong predictors of poor clinical outcomes in addiction treatment. However, research on interventions that address decision-making deficits...     

The magic,the life,the others: how can the imaginative dimension in reflective practice be used with student teachers? A learning experience through a self-study

In this article the author reflects upon the place imagination has in education and argues that imagination for adults is an important part of the reflective practice. The article explores the importance of going beyond the traditional way of thinking to capture the essence of understanding teaching and learning practice. The goal of this self-study is to create a way of professional development as a teacher educator which the author could utilise with teacher students. To accomplish that, the author travels to the three (imaginary) lands of reflective practice, and applies this as a way of reflective learning. The author demonstrates how reflective practices can draw together a dialogue between the embodied experience and understandings based on imaginative meanings. The author argues that reflective practice could benefit from a perspective that focuses on imaginative thoughts and more creative discussion in all aspects of education. Furthermore, to enhance students’ reflective learning one must first and foremost be able to grasp the imaginative element within oneself in order to improve students’ learning through reflective practice.     

Parenting practices and adolescent social anxiety: A direct or indirect relationship?

Background/ObjectivesAccording to existing evidence, parental educational practices and social anxiety are to some degree connected. However, the possibility that this relationship is an indirect one and is mediated by individual factors such as self-esteem or emotional regulation has not yet been explored. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the relationship between maternal and paternal educational practices and social anxiety, and test both the direct and the indirect pathways. Method: The representative sample consisted of 2,060 Andalusian students (47.7% girls, M_age = 14.34) who filled in various self-reports. Results: The structural equation models confirmed that a direct relationship, with a low effect size, exists between parental educational practices and social anxiety and that there is also an indirect relationship, mediated by negative self-esteem and emotional suppression (the emotional regulation strategy), which accounted here for 49.1% of the variance in social anxiety. Conclusions: Parental education practices seem to act as a family asset which either promotes or hinders the development of basic attitudes and competencies such as self-esteem or emotional regulation and, by doing this, either encourages or prevents the emergence of problems such as social anxiety.     

Effectiveness of therapy group in women with localized breast cancer

Background/ObjectiveBreast cancer causes high levels of anxiety and depression, deteriorating quality of life of patients. Several studies have found that group therapy reduces depression and anxiety also improves the quality of life. The aim of this study is to analyze group therapy effectiveness in emotional state and quality of life in women with breast cancer after finalized medical treatments.MethodParticipants in this study were 100 adult women diagnosed of breast cancer non-mestastasic and were divided into two types of intervention groups (Self-esteem-Social Skills and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy). Evaluation instruments were questionnaire Functional Assessment of Breast-cancer Therapy (FACT-B) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).ResultsA statistically significant effect of group therapy in reducing anxiety and depression were observed. Quality of life and emotional well-being significantly improved. These effects remain three months after intervention.ConclusionsThe results show that the psychological intervention group is efficient to improve emotional state and quality of life of women with breast cancer.     

Bullying in youth sport training: A nationwide exploratory and descriptive research in Portugal

We describe and analyse the incidence and nature of bullying behaviours in male adolescent athletes (n = 1458), from 9 different sports, and 97 sport clubs, across Portugal. We collected information about the prevalence of roles in bullying, types of bullying, the frequency and duration of episodes, the location and activities in which they occur, the number of athletes involved, the feelings of those involved, communication of victims and bullies about their involvement in bullying episodes, the reasons ascribed, coping strategies and victim support sources. Altogether about 10% of athletes reported having been victimized, 11% participated in bullying episodes as bullies, and 35% as bystanders. Bullying episodes were usually characterized by low frequency and low duration and were most frequently verbal bullying inside the sport club. However, when episodes became repeated and with long duration,this tended to generalize to multiple types of bullying (especially verbal and social) and multiple places where episodes occurred, in sport clubs and also in competition. We conclude that bullying in youth sport training is an important topic; there is a need for both prevention and early broadly based intervention which involves coaches, peers and family.     

South American Children’s Quality of Life: Intra-Urban Disparities along Life-Cycle Indicators

Applied Research in Quality of Life - By 2015, 80% of the population in South America was living in urban areas. Although children in urban areas, on average, enjoy better conditions than children...