Patterns of psychological distress in mothers of preterm infants

Mothers of preterm infants experience significant psychological distress, with elevated levels of inter-correlated depressive, stress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. In a sample of racially and ethnically diverse mothers of preterm infants, we identified differing patterns of psychological distress during infant hospitalization and examined the effect of these psychological distress patterns on longitudinal trajectories of each psychological distress measure and on maternal perceptions of the child over the first year of the infant's life. Mothers of preterm infants (N = 232) completed five questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, anxiety, post-traumatic stress symptoms, stress due to infant appearance, and stress due to parental role alteration during enrollment during the neonatal hospitalization, discharge, and at 2, 6, and 12 months of age adjusted for prematurity. Latent class analysis on the enrollment psychological distress variables allowed us to identify five sub-groups of mothers exhibiting similar patterns of psychological distress, differing primarily in degree and type: low distress, moderate distress, high NICU-related distress, high depressive and anxiety symptoms, and extreme distress. These classes continued to show different longitudinal trajectories for the psychological distress measures through 12 months corrected age. Mothers in the extreme distress class and, to a lesser degree, mothers in the high depressive and anxiety symptom class remained at risk of significant psychological distress one year after discharge and had less positive perceptions of their child (greater worry and higher perceptions of child vulnerability). In conclusion, distinctive sub-groups of mothers during hospitalization had different patterns of psychological distress throughout the 12-month period and may require different interventions in the NICU.     

Stress-sensitivity and reciprocal associations between stressful events and adolescent temperament

This study aimed to elucidate the longitudinal, bidirectional associations between stressful life events (SLEs) and adolescent temperament. Subsequently, the study investigated whether the effects of SLEs on future temperament were moderated by (a) a cumulative sensitivity gene index (b) the 5-HTTLPR (the polymorphism most consistently indicated as a sensitivity genotype) and (c) pre/perinatal risk. Data were used from TRAILS, a large population cohort of Dutch adolescents (n = 1475). Temperament was assessed at 11, 16 and 19 years. Data of SLEs that occurred between age 0–11, 11–16, and 16–19 were captured using interviews. The results indicated that SLEs and temperament traits are associated from childhood to adolescence and that the direction of the effects differed between temperament traits. Whereas SLEs were found to predict subsequent fear, SLEs were predicted by, but not predictive of, shyness and affiliation. For effortful control and frustration a fully reciprocal model was found. The cumulative sensitivity gene index, 5-HTTLPR and the pre/perinatal risk did not moderate the effects of SLEs on future temperament.     

Sex differences in domain-specific depressogenic cognitive responses to negative and positive life events

Maladaptive cognitive responses to stressful life events represent well-replicated risk factors for depression. Research indicates that stressful life events that are dependent on the individual to occur or are interpersonal may generate more maladaptive cognitive responses than those that are independent and/or non-interpersonal. The current study examined the roles of sex and life event domains in eliciting depressogenic cognitive responses. Participants were 212 (71% female) undergraduate students who completed seven weekly questionnaires on participant-identified most negative and most positive life events over the previous 7 days. Additionally, participants reported levels of brooding and cognitive style in response to the most negative event and levels of positive rumination and dampening in response to the most positive event. Data were analyzed using mixed ANOVAs. Results indicated that females engaged in greater brooding regardless of event dependency. In addition, dependent and interpersonal life events generated greater brooding while dependent and non-interpersonal negative events generated greater negative cognitive style. An interaction between sex and domain was observed for dampening positive life events, such that males did not differ between interpersonal and non-interpersonal life events while females were more likely to dampen following interpersonal life events than non-interpersonal events.     

Reduced emotional stress reactivity to a real-life academic examination stressor in students participating in a 20-week aerobic exercise training: A randomised controlled trial using Ambulatory Assessment

ObjectivesTo examine if a preventive 20-week aerobic exercise intervention (AET) can improve emotional stress reactivity during real-life stress.DesignRandomised controlled trial; within-subject design.MethodSixty-one inactive students were randomly assigned to a waiting control and an AET group. To capture the situation-specific, intra-individual data in real life, electronic diaries were used. Participants reported their moods and perceived stress (PS) repeatedly over two days during their daily routines pre- and post-intervention. The pre-intervention baseline assessment was scheduled at the beginning of the semester, and the post-intervention assessment was scheduled at a real-life stressful episode, an academic examination. For the aerobic fitness assessment, both groups completed a cardiopulmonary exercise test on the treadmill before and after the intervention. Multilevel models (MLMs) were conducted to compare within- and between-subject associations.ResultsSignificant emotional stress reactivity was evident in both groups during all assessment periods. However, participants in the AET group showed lower emotional stress reactivity compared with their control counterparts after the 20-week training programme during the real-life stress episode (the academic examination).ConclusionsAET conferred beneficial effects on emotional stress reactivity during an academic examination, which is likely an extremely stressful real-life situation for students.AET appears to be a promising strategy against the negative health effects of accumulated emotional stress reactivity.     

Am stressed,must travel: The relationship between mode choice and commuting stress

The stress of commuting has serious public health and social implications. By comparing stress across different modes it is possible to determine which modes are more heavily contributing to this potential health and social issue. This study uses a large-scale university travel survey to compare commuter stress across three modes of transportation (walking, driving, and using public transit). It also investigates the specific factors that contribute to stress using these modes. Using ordered logistic regressions, the study develops a general model of stress and three mode-specific models. Results show that driving is the most stressful mode of transportation when compared to others. We also find that stressors for some modes are not stressors for others. Knowing which specific factors make certain modes stressful will help transportation and public health professionals make commuting a safer, more enjoyable, and less stressful activity; in turn this could mitigate the potentially serious health outcomes of a stressful commute.     

“All I have to do is pass”: A discursive analysis of student athletes' talk about prioritising sport to the detriment of education to overcome stressors encountered in combining elite sport and tertiary education

ObjectivesIncreasingly, athletes are expected to undertake tertiary education contemporaneously with their sporting careers. However, to do so may prove difficult and stressful. Exploration of the stressors encountered by student-athletes in combining the two pursuits is limited. There is also limited research examining whether combining the two pursuits impacts upon sporting or educational success.Design and methodA discursive psychological approach was employed, examining twenty interviews conducted with Australian athletes enrolled in tertiary education, exploring how athletes integrated sport and education.ResultsWithin the interviews, athletes constructed their primary academic goal as to ‘just pass’. Athletes repeatedly presented themselves as sacrificing educational success to integrate the two pursuits. Moreover, athletes constructed accounts of themselves as prioritising sport, but as passive in decision-making around priorities. In doing so, athletes produced accounts that removed their own agency for their sacrificed academic success. The interviewees also constructed time as a barrier to the successful integration of sport and education. In the dataset time was constructed either as fixed, limited and externally controlled, or as flexible and controllable.ConclusionsThese alternate constructions allowed athletes to remove agency for poor educational outcomes, or conversely, enabled them to present themselves as successfully able to integrate sport and education. Thus, differing constructions of time were used to achieve different rhetorical ends. Implications and interventions for supporting student athletes successfully to combine sport and education are discussed.     

Construction and evaluation of a self rating scale for stress‐induced Exhaustion Disorder,the Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale

Prolonged stress (≥ six months) may cause a condition which has been named exhaustion disorder (ED) with ICD‐10 code F43.8. ED is characterised by exhaustion, cognitive problems, poor sleep and reduced tolerance to further stress. ED can cause long term disability and depressive symptoms may develop. The aim was to construct and evaluate a self‐rating scale, the Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS), for the assessment of ED symptoms. A second aim was to examine the relationship between self‐rated symptoms of ED, depression, and anxiety using KEDS and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD). Items were selected based on their correspondence to criteria for ED as formulated by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW), with seven response alternatives in a Likert‐format. Self‐ratings performed by 317 clinically assessed participants were used to analyse the scale's psychometric properties. KEDS consists of nine items with a scale range of 0–54. Receiver operating characteristics analysis demonstrated that a cut‐off score of 19 was accompanied by high sensitivity and specificity (each above 95%) in the discrimination between healthy subjects and patients with ED. Reliability was satisfactory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that ED, depression and anxiety are best regarded as different phenomena. KEDS may be a useful tool in the assessment of symptoms of Exhaustion Disorder in clinical as well as research settings. There is evidence that the symptom clusters of ED, anxiety and depression, respectively, reflect three different underlying dimensions.     

EI training and pre-service teacher wellbeing

Teaching is a profession of high occupational stress and ‘emotional labour’ that can potentially result in job dissatisfaction, mental health problems, and leaving the profession. Emotional intelligence (EI) encompasses an array of emotional competencies that facilitate the identification, processing, and regulation of emotion and may enhance successful stress management, as well as augmentation of teacher well-being and classroom performance. Drawing upon research that EI can be developed through specific training, a modified version of the program, “Managing Occupational Stress through the Development of Emotional Intelligence” (Hansen, Gardner, & Stough, 2007), was administered to pre-service teachers over a five-week period. A control group completed only the questionnaire protocol of EI and other measures at the start, end, and one month following the program. Results were generally in line with those obtained by Poole and Saklofske (2009) suggesting that EI and related psychological well-being variables can be positively impacted by focused EI training.     

Brief,pre-retrieval stress differentially influences long-term memory depending on sex and corticosteroid response

Previous work has indicated that stress generally impairs memory retrieval. However, little research has addressed discrepancies that exist in this line of work and the factors that could explain why stress can exert differential effects on retrieval processes. Therefore, we examined the influence of brief, pre-retrieval stress that was administered immediately before testing on long-term memory in males and females. Participants learned a list of 42 words varying in emotional valence and arousal. Following the learning phase, participants were given an immediate free recall test. Twenty-four hours later, participants submerged their non-dominant hand in a bath of ice cold (Stress) or warm (No Stress) water for 3 min. Immediately following this manipulation, participants’ memory for the word list was assessed via free recall and recognition tests. We observed no group differences on short-term memory. However, male participants who showed a robust cortisol response to the stress exhibited enhanced long-term recognition memory, while male participants who demonstrated a blunted cortisol response to the stress exhibited impaired long-term recall and recognition memory. These findings suggest that the effects of brief, pre-retrieval stress on long-term memory are sex-specific and mediated by corticosteroid mechanisms.     

Differential effect of ill-being and chronic stress on cradling behavior of first and multi-time parents

A preference for cradling infants on the left side has been demonstrated in women, as has a relation of reduced left-cradling and stress/negative affect. This relation has not yet been investigated in male participants. Due to less left-cradling in non-fathers compared to fathers it was suggested that fatherhood might have an influence on cradling behavior. The present study investigated the cradling preference of first- and multi-time parents before and after birth, and its relation to ill-being and stress. Results revealed that cradling behavior of first-time fathers was not different before and after the birth of the infant. Thus, fatherhood does not seem to have an acute influence on cradling behavior. Furthermore, cradling behavior of first- and multi-time parents was differentially influenced by ill-being and stress.These results present new information about the course of cradling preference from pregnancy to postpartum and indicate that the relation of cradling and ill-being/stress is more complex for parents than for non-parents.