Search for meaning,finding meaning and adjustment in women following miscarriage: A longitudinal study

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between meaning making and psychological adjustment in 127 women who experienced a miscarriage.

Design: A longitudinal and controlled study design was employed.

Main outcome measures: Meaning-making variables and distress outcomes were examined at four, seven and 16?weeks after miscarriage, in two groups of women, one who had medical investigations of the cause of their loss, and a control group receiving standard care.

Results: Search for meaning was very common and it declined with time after miscarriage. By seven weeks post-loss, more than half the women reported that they had found meaning/understood why the miscarriage happened. Providing information about the cause of the loss was associated with finding meaning. A decline in the search for meaning and finding meaning at seven weeks post-miscarriage, predicted levels of distress at 16?weeks, whilst controlling for the initial distress and for significant background factors.

Conclusions: This study provides support for the notion that search for meaning is very common following negative life events, such as miscarriage, and that finding meaning is important in many peoples’ process of adjustment. Providing information about the cause of the loss facilitates finding meaning.     

Social support,coping, and psychological adjustment among caregivers of head-injured patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test a mediational model of risk and protective factors associated with the psychological adjustment of caregivers of head-injured patients. Forty-three caregivers of patients who had suffered a head injury participated in the study. Findings strongly supported hypotheses. Caregiver burden was associated with poorer psychological adjustment. Social support and a higher percentage of approach coping strategies relative to overall coping strategies were associated with better psychological adjustment. As predicted, caregiver burden showed a direct relationship to psychological adjustment, while social support showed an indirect relationship to adjustment mediated by percentage approach coping.     

Change and processes of change within interventions to promote adjustment to multiple sclerosis: Learning from patient experiences

This qualitative study was nested within a trial of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and supportive listening for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). It aimed to enrich understanding of the changes made during therapy and to explore processes of change. In-depth interviews with 30 participants from the treatment trial were analysed inductively and five main themes were developed. The benefits that participants described experiencing as a result of the interventions were highly variable, idiosyncratic and often departed from outcomes measured within the trial. Tuning into and sharing one’s thoughts and feelings and learning specific strategies for living with MS appeared to be important processes for change, and participants identified the latter as particularly important for sustaining long-term benefits from therapy. Whether participants fully engaged with the interventions appeared to be related to their perceptions of being the right sort of candidate for the intervention, their expectations and motivations, the therapeutic relationship, adequate tailoring of the intervention, and practical issues. This study builds on previous research on factors and processes involved in adjustment to MS, the benefits of CBT for this population and highlights important issues to consider when developing psychosocial interventions for people with MS.     

Dissimilarity in mother and adolescent illness representations of type 1 diabetes and negative emotional adjustment

The study explored how two measures of mother–adolescent dissimilarity in illness representations relate to negative emotional adjustment in mothers and adolescents. Eighty-four adolescents with type 1 diabetes (age 11.5–17.5) and their mothers completed the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire and measures of negative emotional adjustment. Adolescents viewed diabetes as less chronic, containing fewer negative emotional representations, and that mother had less control over the illness than did mothers. Mother–adolescent mean differences in representations were not associated with negative adjustment for adolescents; mean differences in coherence were related to negative adjustment for mothers, when controlling the individual's own representations. A measure of dissimilarity based on the sum of squared differences between mother and adolescent was associated with negative adolescent adjustment when controlling adolescent's own representations, but no relations were found for mothers. Dyadic approaches to coping with chronic illness will benefit by understanding how dissimilarity in illness representations between patient and caregiver relate to adjustment.     

Religion and coping with health-related stress

Abstract

The empirical evidence concerning the association between various aspects of religion and adjustment to health-related stressors is reviewed, including examination of whether religion acts as a stress buffer or deterrent. Considerable literature suggests that some aspects of religion are consistently associated with adjustment to illness, and evidence for religion as a stress buffer and as a stress deterrent were found. Potential pathways by which religion may influence adjustment to illness were also delineated, including: (1) providing an interpretive framework or cognitive schema; (2) enhancing coping resources; and (3) facilitating access to social support and promoting social integration. Design, methodological and measurement limitations in the extant literature were noted. Further research is needed to elucidate how religion functions as a natural resource during health-related crises.     

Influencing and adjusting in daily emotional situations: A comparison of European and Asian American action styles

Emotions are for action, but action styles in emotional episodes may vary across cultural contexts. Based on culturally different models of agency, we expected that those who engage in European-American contexts will use more influence in emotional situations, while those who engage in East-Asian contexts will use more adjustment. European-American (N=60) and Asian-American (N=44) college students reported their action style during emotional episodes four times a day during a week. Asian Americans adjusted more than European Americans, whereas both used influence to a similar extent. These cultural differences in action style varied across types of emotion experienced. Moreover, influencing was associated with life satisfaction for European Americans, but not for Asian Americans.     

Posttraumatic Response and Children Exposed to Parental Violence

Summary

In this article some of the literature on children's responses to natural and person-created trauma are discussed. In addition, data relevant to children's posttraumatic response as a result of exposure to interparental violence are presented. Using a factor analytic procedure, the study attempted to examine how the DSM-IV symptom clusters for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder come together for this sample of children. General suggestions are made regarding possible intervention with exposed children experiencing posttraumatic symptoms.     

Psychological Adjustment,Coping, and Emotion Regulation as Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth

Abstract

The present study examined factors contributing to reported benefits of traumatic experiences or posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a college sample. Specifically, we examined dimensions typically associated with trauma recovery (i.e., psychological functioning, coping, emotion regulation) and features of the trauma (i.e., number and recency of traumatic events, average, and maximal distress). Participants (N= 193) completed standardized questionnaires measuring these constructs. Results indicated that active coping and subjective well-being independently contributed to PTG, but social desirability and symptom distress were independent of growth. These results were consistent with study expectations. Although not specifically predicted, maximal trauma distress also uniquely predicted PTG. Contrary to expectations, effective emotion regulation did not contribute to PTG.     

Effects of focus of attention on physiological,behavioural, and reported state anxiety in repressors,low-anxious,high-anxious,and defensive high-anxious individuals

Abstract

Discrepancies between physiological activity, behavioural anxiety, and self-reported anxiety were examined when focus of attention was manipulated in a public speech task for four groups of individuals: repressors, low-anxious, high-anxious, and the defensive high-anxious. They were exposed to self-focus (when their behaviour was socially evaluated) and other-focus (when their behaviour was not socially evaluated) conditions. Repressors had consistently the lowest level of self-reported anxiety, but had consistently greater physiological activity in all conditions and greater behavioural anxiety in the self-focus condition. The high-anxious showed the opposite pattern, i.e. their self-reported anxiety was greater than their physiological and behavioural anxiety, and this finding was significant in the self-focus condition. No significant pattern of discrepancy was found for the low-anxious or defensive high-anxious groups. The findings are discussed and interpreted within the framework of recent cognitive models of anxiety.     

Action-control beliefs and behaviors as predictors of change in adjustment across the transition to middle school

Abstract

We examined longitudinal changes in young adolescents’ (N=368) action-control beliefs, coping behaviors, and adjustment (i.e., positive and negative affect, depression, aggression) across the transition from elementary school to middle school. Results indicated greater inter-individual instability in adjustment during this transition than during the previous school year. Using ordinary least-squares (OLS) growth models to extract intra-individual change scores for each variable (i.e., slopes and intercepts), we conducted a series of stepwise regressions to determine which features of control beliefs and coping behaviors best predicted changes in adjustment across the transition to middle school. We found that negative coping behaviors (i.e., antisocial coping) consistently predicted negative changes in the adjustment variables (e.g., greater depression, more aggression), whereas positive beliefs and behaviors did not consistently predict changes in the adjustment variables.