Post-traumatic stress symptoms in adolescents exposed to an earthquake: Association with self-efficacy,perceived magnitude,and fear

The objective of this study was to evaluate th×e relationship between the magnitude of an earthquake, the fear experienced, the self-efficacy beliefs, and post-traumatic stress symptoms in adolescents. We expected self-efficacy beliefs to predict post-traumatic stress symptoms, and this relation to be mediated by fear. We used data from a longitudinal project on adolescent normative development that was under way at the time of the 2010 earthquake in Chile. Six months before the earthquake, 218 adolescents responded to a self-efficacy beliefs scale; three months after the earthquake they reported the perceived magnitude of the event, the fear they experienced, and their post-traumatic stress symptoms. Results showed that perceived magnitude was not associated with fear or post-traumatic stress symptoms, but self-efficacy beliefs and fear were associated with post-traumatic stress symptoms. The hypothesized role of fear as a mediator in the relation between self-efficacy beliefs and post-traumatic stress symptoms was supported by the data. The results of the study, suggest that preventive interventions aimed to increase awareness of how to face a disaster may not only contribute to save lives but may also increase adolescentś sense of personal efficacy, reducing subsequent emotional reactivity associated with the event.     

AN ANALYST'S UNCERTAINTY AND FEAR

The motivations for choosing psychoanalysis as a profession are many and differ depending on the psychology of the analyst. However, common to most psychoanalysts is the desire to forge a helpful relationship with the individuals with whom they work therapeutically. This article presents an example of what happens when an analyst is confronted by a patient for whom being in a relationship and being helped are intolerable.     

Comparing thought suppression and mindfulness as coping techniques for spider fear

The current study compared thought suppression, focused attention (mindfulness) and unfocused attention as strategies for managing spider fear. Spider fearful participants were exposed to a strategy induction before completing a Behavioural Approach Test (BAT). The BAT is a 10 step measurement of how close participants are willing to move towards a spider. Participants were instructed to use what they learned in the pre-BAT induction to help them advance through the steps of the BAT. The results of the study indicated that participants given the thought suppression or the unfocused attention induction moved through significantly less steps of the BAT than did those given the focused attention (mindful) induction. Additionally, the thought suppression group felt significantly more anxious than the focused and unfocused attention groups following completion of the BAT. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of thought suppression on avoidance behaviour in phobias.     

Mediators of the shame-guilt-psychological adjustment relationship

Lynch, J. S., Hill, E. D., Nagoshi, J. L. & Nagoshi, C. T. Mediators of the shame-guilt-psychological adjustment relationship. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 53, 437-443. A college student sample (109 women, 90 men) was administered measures of psychological adjustment, shame, guilt, personal fear of invalidity, and aspects of empathy, including personal distress in emergencies and fantasy involvement. Consistent with previous studies, shame but not guilt was significantly positively correlated with poor psychological adjustment. Path analyses with bootstrapped mediation tests indicated that the shame-adjustment relationship was significantly mediated by fear of invalidity, personal distress, and fantasy involvement. A novel finding was that the relationship between guilt and maladjustment was significantly mediated by proneness to fantasy. The findings are discussed in terms of an integrated theory of the shame-fear/distress-maladjustment relationship as a framework for understanding the maladaptive, individualistic shame experience.     

中小学生的灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响：中介和调节效应

汶川地震后1年时,采用灾难暴露程度问卷、主观害怕程度问卷、社会支持问卷和创伤后应激障碍症状量表,对地震极重灾区的3058名中小学生进行调查,考察灾难暴露程度、主观害怕程度、社会支持与创伤后应激障碍的关系。结果发现：（1）震后1年时中小学生创伤后应激障碍的发生率为9.6%,其中有目睹他人死亡经历的学生的创伤后应激障碍发生率为16.2%;（2）灾难暴露程度能正向预测创伤后应激障碍,而主观害怕程度在灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响中起部分中介作用;（3）社会支持在灾难暴露程度与创伤后应激障碍的关系中起调节作用,但不能调节主观害怕程度与创伤后应激障碍之间的关系。其中,无论支持的性质如何,父母和教师的支持都能缓解灾难暴露程度对创伤后应激障碍的影响,而同学和其他人的支持则不具有调节效应。     

线上社交焦虑:社交媒体中的人际负性体验

线上社交焦虑指个体在社交媒体交往情境中感知到的紧张和恐惧等人际负性体验,包含隐私担忧、交往焦虑和负面评价恐惧三个方面。线上社交焦虑可以通过质性分析法、实验诱发法和问卷测量法进行研究。线上社交焦虑既会受到社交媒体自身特点、个体特征因素、网络欺凌和文化因素的影响,还会对个体的心理与行为产生后效。未来研究者需要开发有效的本土化测量工具、探索其形成和作用机制、关注线上社交焦虑悖论以及推动对其干预。     

Children's social wariness toward a different-race stranger relates to individual differences in temperament

When children first meet a stranger, there is great variation in how much they will approach and engage with the stranger. While individual differences in this type of behavior—called social wariness—are well-documented in temperament research, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the social groups (such as race) of the stranger and how these characteristics might influence children's social wariness. In contrast, research on children's social bias and interracial friendships rarely examines individual differences in temperament and how temperament might influence cross-group interactions. The current study bridges the gap across these different fields of research by examining whether the racial group of an unfamiliar peer or adult moderates the association between temperament and the social wariness that children display. Utilizing a longitudinal dataset that collected multiple measurements of children's temperament and behaviors (including parent-reported shyness and social wariness toward unfamiliar adults and peers) across early childhood, we found that 2- to 7-year-old children with high parent-reported shyness showed greater social wariness toward a different-race stranger compared to a same-race stranger, whereas children with low parent-reported shyness did not. These results point to the importance of considering racial group membership in temperament research and the potential role that temperament might play in children's cross-race interactions.

Research Highlights

• Previous research on temperament has not considered how the race of strangers could influence children's social wariness.
• We find evidence that 2- to 7-year-old children with high parent-reported shyness show greater social wariness toward a different-race stranger compared to a same-race stranger.
• These results point to the importance of considering racial group membership in temperament research.
• Our findings also suggest temperament may play a role in children's cross-race interactions.

     

Is emotion regulation associated with cancer-related psychological symptoms?

Objectives: This study examined the cross-sectional and prospective relationships between subjective (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression and experiential avoidance) and objective (high-frequency heart rate variability [HF-HRV]) measures of emotion regulation (ER) and a set of psychological symptoms (anxiety, depression, fear of cancer recurrence [FCR], insomnia, fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairments) among women receiving radiation therapy for non-metastatic breast cancer.

Design: Eighty-one participants completed a battery of self-report scales within 10 days before the start of radiotherapy (T1) and within 10 days after its end (T2; approximately 6 weeks after T1). HF-HRV at rest was measured at T1.

Results: Canonical correlation analyses revealed that higher levels of experiential avoidance and expressive suppression were cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of all symptoms, except pain, at T1 and at T2 (both p’s?<?0.0001). Higher levels of suppression and reappraisal at T1 were marginally associated with reduced FCR and with increased depression and fatigue between T1 and T2 (p?=?0.07). HF-HRV was not associated with symptoms cross-sectionally or prospectively.

Conclusions: Although preliminary, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that maladaptive ER strategies, assessed subjectively, may cross-sectionally act as a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying several cancer-related psychological symptoms.     

Editorial

No abstract available for this article.     

青少年早期负面评价恐惧的发展轨迹及其影响因素

采用问卷法对977名初中生在校三年间负面评价恐惧的发展状况进行三次追踪测试，通过建构潜变量增长模型，检验初中生负面评价恐惧的变化趋势，并考察学业自尊和社交自尊对负面评价恐惧变化的影响。结果发现：（1）初中青少年负面评价恐惧呈上升趋势；（2）从初一到初三，学生较高的学业自尊和社交自尊显著抑制负面评价恐惧的增长；（3）性别对负面评价恐惧发展轨迹的影响是由于自尊的性别差异引起的。