Prospective and retrospective account-making in diary entries: A model of anxiety reduction and avoidance

An account-making model of diary-keeping is proposed which suggests that diary use can function as a means of avoiding and reducing both stress and anxiety. Subjects with high scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Hassles and Uplifts Scale were selected for the study. An experimental and control group were formed, and stress, anxiety and hassles measured pre- and post-diary-keeping. Support was found for the model in that rated levels of stress, anxiety and hassles were reduced following the adoption of diary-keeping. Significant negative correlations were found between the number of diary entries a subject made and hassles scores. Overall, the study suggests that diary-keeping is beneficial for both avoiding stress and anxiety provoking experiences, and for coping with stress and anxiety resulting from past experiences.     

Is John Henryism a resilience factor in women experiencing intimate partner violence?

Background: Research suggests that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are two common mental health problems in intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. Research has found that while Black women consistently report higher rates of victimization than White women, they also report less severe PTSD and depressive symptoms, suggesting that Black IPV survivors might be more resilient to PTSD and depression than are White survivors. Design: We implemented a correlational study with 81 Black and 100 White female survivors of IPV to determine if John Henryism (JH; i.e., a predisposed active coping mechanism) contributes to the resilience observed in Black IPV survivors. Methods: Participants completed the John Henryism Active Coping Scale, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, Davidson Trauma Scale, and the Abusive Behavior Inventory. Results: Results demonstrated that White woman endorsed more severe depressive symptoms as compared to Black women. Severity of PTSD symptoms and JH was not significantly different between races. JH did not moderate the relationship between race and depression; however, for PTSD, JH was found to be protective of PTSD in White women, while demonstrating little impact on Black women. Conclusions: The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the minority stress model.     

Interpretive bias,repressive coping,and trait anxiety

Objectives: According to vigilance–avoidance theory, repressors have an avoidant interpretive bias, i.e., they interpret ambiguous self-relevant situations in a nonthreatening fashion. This study sought to demarcate the range of situations associated with avoidant interpretive bias in repressors. Design: Four groups of participants, representing the four combinations of low- and high-trait anxiety and defensiveness, were identified. Those low in trait anxiety and high in defensiveness were categorized as repressors. Methods: Participants (N = 163) rated their likelihood of making both threatening and nonthreatening interpretations of 32 ambiguous scenarios over four domains: social, intellectual, physical, and health. Half the scenarios were self-relevant and half were other relevant. Brief measures of state anxiety were taken after each likelihood rating. Results: Repressors displayed an avoidant interpretive bias for ambiguous threats in the social and intellectual domains but not the health or physical domains. This was due to repressors' low level of trait anxiety rather than their high defensiveness. Conclusions: Individuals high in trait anxiety are especially sensitive to situations involving social evaluation but not those characterized by danger to their health or physical well-being.     

Perfectionism and coping with daily failures: positive reframing helps achieve satisfaction at the end of the day

Differentiating perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, the present study examined how perfectionism predicts what coping strategies people use, when dealing with failures, and how perfectionism and coping influence people's satisfaction. A sample of 149 students completed daily reports for 3–14 days, reporting the most bothersome failure they experienced during the day, what strategies they used to cope with the failure, and how satisfied they felt at the end of the day. Multilevel regression analyses showed that perfectionistic concerns predicted more frequent use of self-blame, less frequent use of active coping and acceptance, and higher satisfaction at the end of the day, whereas perfectionistic strivings predicted less frequent use of self-blame and higher satisfaction. Although positive reframing, acceptance, and humor predicted higher satisfaction for all students, further analyses showed that positive reframing coping was particularly helpful for students high in perfectionistic concern. The findings suggest that accommodative coping strategies are generally helpful in dealing with personal failures, with positive reframing being a coping strategy that works particularly well for people high in perfectionistic concerns (who are prone to dissatisfaction) to achieve higher satisfaction at the end of the day.     

Is academic buoyancy anything more than adaptive coping?

Abstract

Academic buoyancy refers to a positive, constructive, and adaptive response to the types of challenges and setbacks experienced in a typical and everyday academic setting. In this project we examined whether academic buoyancy explained any additional variance in test anxiety over and above that explained by coping. Two hundred and ninety-eight students in their final two years of compulsory schooling completed self-report measures of academic buoyancy, coping, and test anxiety. Results suggested that buoyancy was inversely related to test anxiety and unrelated to coping. With the exception of test-irrelevant thoughts, test anxiety was positively related to avoidance coping and social support. Test-irrelevant thoughts were inversely related to task focus, unrelated to social support, and positively related to avoidance. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that academic buoyancy explained a significant additional proportion of variance in test anxiety when the variance for coping had already been accounted for. These findings suggest that academic buoyancy can be considered as a distinct construct from that of adaptive coping.     

Dyadic coping in Latino couples: validity of the Spanish version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory

Abstract

This study seeks to validate the Spanish version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) in a Latino population with data from 113 heterosexual couples. Results for both partners confirm the factorial structure for the Spanish version (Subscales: Stress Communication, Emotion- and Problem-Focused Supportive, Delegated, and Negative Dyadic Coping, Emotion- and Problem-Focused Common Dyadic Coping, and Evaluation of Dyadic Coping; Aggregated Scales: Dyadic Coping by Oneself and by Partner) and support the discriminant validity of its subscales and the concurrent, and criterion validity of the subscales and aggregated scales. These results do not only indicate that the Spanish version of the DCI can be used reliably as a measure of coping in Spanish-speaking Latino couples, but they also suggest that this group relies on dyadic coping frequently and that this type of coping is associated with positive relationship functioning and individual coping. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Associations between adults' recalled childhood bullying victimization,current social anxiety,coping, and self-blame: evidence for moderation and indirect effects

Abstract

Prior studies have shown that bullying victimization is common during childhood and may have negative effects over the short term. Evidence is also emerging that childhood bullying victimization in the form of teasing may precipitate social anxiety in adulthood. The present study extended the field by testing for associations between adults' recall of four common subtypes of childhood bullying victimization and their current social anxiety. It also provided the first test of whether coping moderated those associations, if they were indirect effects through self-blame, and if sex differences existed. Data were collected from 582 students aged 23+ years at two universities in the UK. Collectively, and for social exclusion and relational victimization uniquely, the subtypes of bullying victimization did predict social anxiety. Evidence for hypothesized moderation and indirect effects was obtained but these varied by subtype of victimization (but not sex). The theoretical and practical implications of these results were discussed.     

Euthanasia,Senicide, and the Aging Society

ABSTRACT

The elderly, particularly the severely demented, are at the cutting edge of the debate over active euthanasia. Such debilitated persons fall below the standards of “personhood” as these have been defined by various moral philosophers. With the pressures of economic hard times, one might predict that the most impaired aged would be candidates for “direct termination.” However, this essay defends the thesis that the prohibition against mercy killing must be upheld despite such pressures. It draws on the wisdom of both Hippocrates and Abraham.     

The Continuity Perspective of Aging and Retirement Applied to Protestant Clergy: An Analysis of Theory

ABSTRACT

This paper has examined some of the conceptual and operational issues of the continuity perspective, which is considered as more appropriate than others reviewed for the study of clergy retirement. As a solution to the dilemma of the inevitable changes associated with old age and the notion of continuity, the use of the sociological concept of “career” was suggested. With this concept as a guide, four components – situational/environmental factors, activity, psychological continuity, and occupational subculture – of a continuity perspective have been outlined.     

Book Reviews

Panic attacks and depression frequently co‐occur, and the presence of this co‐morbidity is often associated with worse outcomes compared with each disorder alone. Despite this, not everyone who experiences panic attacks also suffers from depression, suggesting that individual difference factors may play a role in this co‐morbidity. The purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary investigation of two such individual difference factors, examining the role of anxiety sensitivity and lack of emotional approach coping in depressive symptom severity among a non‐clinical sample of uncued panickers. A sample of 79 college students reporting the occurrence of uncued panic attacks within the past year completed a series of questionnaires assessing the lower‐order factors of anxiety sensitivity, emotional approach coping, panic attack frequency, panic‐related disability, panic symptom severity and depressive symptom severity. Participants with more severe depressive symptoms reported greater anxiety sensitivity, panic attack frequency, panic symptom severity, panic‐related disability and lack of emotional approach coping. The particular anxiety sensitivity dimension of fear of cognitive dyscontrol and lack of emotional approach coping emerged as the best predictors of depressive symptom severity. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the improved understanding of this co‐morbidity, as well as its treatment.