International Students' Personal and Multicultural Strengths: Reducing Acculturative Stress and Promoting Adjustment

International students are often encouraged to cope with acculturative stress by relying on personal and multicultural strengths. The authors explored this assumption by testing personal growth initiative, hardiness, and universal‐diverse orientation as predictors of international students’ acculturative stress and adjustment. Data from 336 international students supported a partially mediated model, such that greater levels of personal and multicultural strengths predicted less acculturative problems, thus leading to better adjustment.     

Self-blame attributions,control appraisals and distress among cardiac rehabilitation patients

This study examined associations between self-blame attributions, control appraisals and distress among cardiovascular disease patients participating in a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme. Questionnaire data were collected from 129 patients at the beginning and end of CR. We found little evidence that characterological self-blame (CSB) affects distress symptoms, but behavioural self-blame at the beginning of CR was positively associated with distress symptoms concurrently, and 12 weeks later. Furthermore, diet- and exercise-focused self-blame was only modestly, positively related to control appraisals concurrently, while CSB was negatively associated with control. Prospectively, we found few significant associations between self-blame and control. Results imply that making any type of self-blame attribution during CR does not aid in adjustment or enhanced control appraisals. Our findings suggest that CR staff should encourage patients to recognise their control over reducing risk for recurrence, but should discourage patients from looking backward and ruminating about factors that may have contributed to disease onset.     

Measuring coping flexibility

Abstract

The present study examined coping flexibility and correlates of this style of approaching stressful situations. Two methods for assessing coping flexibility, the Flex (Schwartz and Daltroy, 1991) and a modification of the Ways of Coping Checklist (Folkman and Lazarus. 1980) were administered to 28 men and 32 women, who were also asked questions about their age, gender, style of impression management (self-monitoring and social desirability), and basic personality variables from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen. 1982). Subjects responded to four common scenarios described by a 2 (social/nonsocial) × 2 (minor/major) matrix. Gender differences were not found for the Flex, but men exhibited more flexibility than did women when determined by the WOC range score. Older subjects exhibited smaller ranges on both the Flex and the WOC, suggesting that they were less flexible in coping than were younger subjects. Correlations with the Self-Monitoring scale approached significance for the Flex and were significant for the WOC. Greater flexibility was associated with greater well-being and achievement and negatively correlated with stress reactions and alienation.     

Rumination is independently associated with poor psychological health: Comparing emotion regulation strategies

Objective: Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are related to psychological health, with most work examining reappraisal and suppression. Yet, emerging findings suggest that rumination may have stronger relationships with psychological health, namely depression, than other ER strategies. This paper replicated and extended this work by testing whether rumination was independently associated with a range of poor psychological health risk indicators and outcomes. In addition, it explored whether the reason why rumination is so deleterious to health is because it underlies the stress–health relationship.

Design: Participants (n = 218) completed measures online.

Main outcome measures: Surveys assessed ER strategies (reappraisal, suppression, proactive coping, emotion support seeking, and rumination), health risk indicators (hostility, optimism, self-esteem), health outcomes (depression, poor sleep quality, anxiety) and perceived chronic stress.

Results: Multivariate regression analyses revealed rumination as the only ER strategy with a consistent independent effect on all the health risk indicators and outcomes. Bootstrapping analyses revealed indirect effects of perceived chronic stress on all the health variables via rumination.

Conclusion: Rumination had a deleterious relationship with psychological health, perhaps because rumination underlies the relationship between stress and psychological health. Results have implications for interventions, particularly emphasizing the need to target ruminative thinking after stressful experiences.     

Gender differences in the relationship of moderator variables to stress and symptoms

Abstract

This study focused on gender differences in the relationship of four moderator variables (hostility, social support, optimism, and Type A behavior) to perceptions of symptoms and stress based on a sample of 120 female and 79 male undergraduates. Results confirmed significant gender differences in hostility, Type A behavior, and social support but not in optimism. Multiple regression analyses exposed distinct gender differences. For females, social support accounted for 21% and hostility 5% of the total variance in perceived stress. For males, only hostility accounted for any significant variance (10%). Hostility contributed 21% and social support contributed 13% to the total variance in the number of symptoms for females. For males, optimism contributed 14% and hostility 5%. Results indicate that social support is a potent variable for females in their perception of both stress and symptoms but essentially unrelated for males. Hostility, however, relates to perceptions of stress and symptoms for both sexes.     

Changing unbalanced coping profiles-A prospective controlled intervention trial in worksite health promotion

Abstract

Effective coping is based upon a broad variety of available strategies and a good balance between instrumental and palliative coping efforts. Thus, stress management training (SMT) should focus on broadening and balancing individual coping-profiles. This study investigated changes in coping profiles after participation in SMT at the worksite. The sample consisted of 82 healthy working persons who participated in a 12-week-SMT and 55 matched controls without intervention. The SMT consisted of six training elements: three of them (assertiveness, cognitive restructuring and time management) addressed instrumental coping and the other three (relaxation, physical activity and scheduling of pleasant activities) focussed on palliative coping. All subjects filled in standardized questionaires on coping, well-being and strain before and after the training. Cluster analyses performed on initial coping scores resulted in a 3-cluster solution: (1) “active flexible coping” (n = 53), (2) “problem-focused coping” (n = 40) and (3) “resignative avoidant coping” (n = 44). Analyses of covariance revealed that SMT-participants of Cluster 2 showed significant improvements regarding emotion-focused coping and those of Cluster 3 regarding problem-focused coping compared to controls of the same cluster. There were also significant associations between these clusterspecific changes of coping and improvements of well-being. In consequence, the SMT improved coping by supplementing one-sided initial coping-profiles.     

Towards a psychosocial mediator model of hostility and CHD

Abstract

How might hostility contribute to the development of CHD? One possible explanation, labelled “psychosocial vulnerability”, is that hostile individuals inhabit a more taxing interpersonal world, and that increased stress, in turn, causes CHD. However, previous research testing this proposition has suffered from a measurement confound by employing self-reports of stress, social support, and hostility. One hundred and twelve subjects participated in the current study and completed the Cook-Medley Hostility scale. Then, each subject's closest friend was asked to estimate for the past year: (1) how many stressors had been encountered by the subject; (2) how easily the subject was upset by a stressor; (3) how many emotional reactions the subject disclosed after a stressor; and (4) how much social support was available to the subject. Results suggested that hostile men and women may both be phychosocially vulnerable, but they are so at different stages of the stressor-distress process. There was no relation between hostility and observed stressor frequency for either men or women, however, hostility in men was found to be related to increased distress in reaction to stressors and in women was related to decreased disclosure about these stressful events. Importantly, hostility in both men and women was related to decreased levels of observed social support, as compared to their non-hostile peers.     

The effectiveness of smoking cessation programs: Determinants and outcomes

Abstract

In this review, smoking cessation is discussed from a stress and coping perspective. Nicotine has been found to produce potentially reinforcing effects. Smoking cessation is best characterized as a process with various stages, of which the stage of relapse remains a major area for intervention research. Mood and expectancies appear to be major determinants of behavior in this stage. Social support apparently still needs conceptual refinement before it may be applied effectively in interventions. Effects of multicomponent treatment has been found to be increased when combined with nicotine replacement therapy. Notwithstanding the sometimes modest quit rates, smoking cessation has been found to be cost-effective among high-risk groups, both from an economical and health perspective. New research should focus on emotional and cognitive processes involved in cessation, in particularly self-efficacy expectations. While public policies may be most efficient in reducing the number of smokers in our society, an increasing number of smokers will be confronted with the addictive character of their smoking.     

Evaluating the impact of a worksite stress management programme for distressed student nurses: A randomised controlled trial

Abstract

The effectiveness of a stress management intervention designed to reduce affective distress in 79 student nurses who previously reported significant distress, was evaluated by comparing stress management with wait-list control. The intervention had reliable, positive effects on affective outcomes including General Health Questionnaire-30, State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of domestic satisfaction. The intervention also led to an increase in Direct Coping use.

State Anxiety immediately preceding two important examinations, i.e. at 3 and 18 month follow-up, was lower for students receiving stress management. However, no effect was detected on sickness, absence and examination performance following this intervention. Stress management delivered in groups reduces affective distress and increases adaptive coping use in both clinical and academic settings.