Strengthening Couples from a Single-Parent Household Using Relational Cultural Therapy

ABSTRACT

Individuals initially learn about intimate relationships from observing others, such as their parents or caregivers’ relationship, which may positively or negatively affect their own romantic relationship. This article focuses on the application of Relational-Cultural Therapy (RCT) concepts to establish resilience among couples with at least one partner from a single-parent household. Some individuals from single-parent households may not have witnessed romantic relationships to confidently engage in adult romantic relationships. Additionally, clinicians may not consider family background as a source of contention for a couple’s presenting concerns. Thus, this article provides creative interventions and implications to assist counselors in working with couples.     

The Effect of Problem-Solving Based Family Therapy on Emotional Intimacy and Marital Quality of Cultural Couples in Tabriz

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of problem-solving based family therapy on the emotional intimacy and marital quality of cultural couples in Tabriz. The research method was quasi-experimental by designing the pretest and post-test with the experimental group. The statistical population of this research consisted of all cultural couples with marital problems referring to counseling centers of Tabriz Education in 2019. The research sample based on The Cochran formula consisted of 32 couples that were selected by purposeful sampling and were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group was exposed to 10 sessions of problem-solving based family therapy and the control group received no interventions. The research tool was the Marital Quality Index and the Intimacy Questionnaire, which was completed by both groups at the beginning and end of the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software and inferential statistics of covariance analysis were also investigated. The results of covariance analysis showed that problem-solving based family therapy had a significant impact on the emotional intimacy and marital quality of cultural couples. Therefore, problem-solving based family therapy can be used as a treatment in couples with marital problems.     

Factors affecting the success of Hmong college students in America

This study explores barriers and success factors of Hmong students in American colleges by interviewing five Hmong graduate students from refugee families in the US. Emerging themes revolve around academic, cultural and financial barriers. Professors, advisors, classmates, academic support programmes, family, financial aid and their own psychological resources were identified as supportive factors in addressing their academic, cultural and financial needs. Implications and recommendations are drawn on how college counsellors and other professionals may best assist Hmong college students.     

亲子间教育期望差异对小学生情感幸福感的影响:学业成绩和学业自我效能感的中介作用

以891名河北省衡水市某小学4~6年级学生为研究对象，采用问卷调查的方式，考察了亲子间教育期望差异对小学生情感幸福感的影响，以及学业成绩和学业自我效能感的多重中介作用。结果发现：（1）亲子间教育期望差异影响小学生情感幸福感，与感知到的父母教育期望和自我教育期望一致相比，当感知到的父母教育期望高于自我教育期望时，小学生的积极情感水平更低而消极情感水平更高；（2）学业成绩和学业自我效能感在“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”这一差异方向与积极情感间起部分中介作用，在“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”与消极情感间起完全中介作用。具体而言，“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”可直接影响积极情感，还可通过学业成绩和学业自我效能感的链式中介作用以及学业自我效能感的独立中介作用间接影响积极情感；同时，“感知到的父母教育期望 > 自我教育期望”可通过学业成绩和学业自我效能感的链式中介作用、学业自我效能感的独立中介作用以及学业成绩的独立中介作用影响消极情感。     

Examining the relationship between hardiness and perceived stress-related growth in a sport injury context

This study examined the relationship between hardiness, coping and perceived stress-related growth (SRG) in a sport injury context. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, a cross-sectional design was employed, whereby 206 previously injured athletes (148 male, 58 female, M_age = 22.23 years) who had recently returned to sport completed three questionnaires: Dispositional Resilience Scale, Stress-Related Growth Scale, and Brief COPE. Pearson product–moment correlations and Preacher's and Hayes's (2008) bootstrapping procedure were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed a significant positive relationship between hardiness and perceived SRG. Two coping strategies were found to mediate this relationship: emotional support and positive reframing. This would suggest that those higher in hardiness may have fostered SRG by mobilising their social support for emotional reasons (e.g., moral support, sympathy or understanding) and having the ability to construe their injury in positive terms; however, more rigorous methodologies are needed to confirm or refute these observations. These findings support some of the central tenets of Joseph and Linley's (2005) organismic valuing theory and provide implications for professional practice. Future researchers should embrace qualitative inquiry to enhance the interpretability and meaningfulness of these findings (e.g., interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis), and use prospective, longitudinal pre-to-post sport injury designs to further substantiate them.     

Countering anti-Muslim attitudes among Christian and religiously unaffiliated 13- to 15-year-old students in England and Wales: testing the contact hypothesis

ABSTRACT

Drawing on data provided by 5,811 students from schools in England, Wales, and London who self-identified as either ‘no religion’ or as Christian, this study explored the effect of the contact hypothesis (having friends who are Muslims) on scores recorded on the seven-item Scale of Anti-Muslim Attitude (SAMA), after controlling for type of school (with or without a religious character), location (England, Wales, and London), personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) and religious factors (self-assigned affiliation as Christian, worship attendance, and belief in God). The data demonstrated the positive effect of having friends who are Muslim on lowering anti-Muslim attitudes. The path is then described from educational research to curriculum development in the design of resources that offer young learners vicarious experience of having friends who are Muslims.     

Stopping Rules for Computer Adaptive Testing When Item Banks Have Nonuniform Information

The standard error (SE) stopping rule, which terminates a computer adaptive test (CAT) when the SE is less than a threshold, is effective when there are informative questions for all trait levels. However, in domains such as patient-reported outcomes, the items in a bank might all target one end of the trait continuum (e.g., negative symptoms), and the bank may lack depth for many individuals. In such cases, the predicted standard error reduction (PSER) stopping rule will stop the CAT even if the SE threshold has not been reached and can avoid administering excessive questions that provide little additional information. By tuning the parameters of the PSER algorithm, a practitioner can specify a desired tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency. Using simulated data for the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Anxiety and Physical Function banks, we demonstrate that these parameters can substantially impact CAT performance. When the parameters were optimally tuned, the PSER stopping rule was found to outperform the SE stopping rule overall, particularly for individuals not targeted by the bank, and presented roughly the same number of items across the trait continuum. Therefore, the PSER stopping rule provides an effective method for balancing the precision and efficiency of a CAT.