Work–family conflicts,cognitive appraisal,and burnout: Testing the mediation effect with structural equation modelling

Work–family conflict constitutes an important source of occupational stress predicting teachers’ burnout, and cognitive variables have shown to be core structures in explaining human adaptation to stress. Nevertheless, the role of cognitive appraisal needs to be fully analysed to comprehend how it can mediate the relationship between stress and burnout. In order to understand the potential mediation of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between stress and burnout, we adopted conceptual models of stress that highlighted the value of cognitive appraisal on positive and negative reactions to work demands. Also, we analysed the potential moderation of sex and age in the relationship between work–family conflict, cognitive appraisal, and burnout due to inconsistent findings on how these personal variables can interfere on these relations. In this study, we used structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the mediating of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between work–family conflicts and burnout. A survey with measures of work–family conflicts, cognitive appraisal, and burnout was administered to the participants consisting of 438 Portuguese teachers from kindergarten through high school, aged between 28 and 67 years (M = 46.85; SD = 7.88), 304 of whom were females (69.41%). The results confirmed that cognitive appraisal partially mediated the relationship between work–family conflict and burnout. The mediation effect of cognitive appraisal on the relationship between work–family conflict and burnout was invariant regardless of teachers’ sex or age. In sum, cognitive appraisal should be considered in order to understand teachers’ adaptation to work.     

家人情感卷入对老年自我刻板印象的影响：基于潜变量增长模型的分析

本研究使用问卷法对257名老年人进行了历时1年的3次追踪测试, 采用潜变量增长模型与交叉滞后回归分析考察了家人情感卷入与老年自我刻板印象的变化趋势, 家人情感卷入发展与老年自我刻板印象发展的关系, 以及家人情感卷入对老年自我刻板印象的时序效应。结果发现：(1)老年人感知到的家人情感卷入在1年内呈线性递减, 而老年自我刻板印象呈线性增长; (2)家人情感卷入的初始水平负向预测老年自我刻板印象的初始水平与增长速率; (3)家人情感卷入的下降速率也显著预测了老年自我刻板印象的增长速率; (4)交叉滞后回归分析进一步支持了老年人家人情感卷入对老年自我刻板印象的总体负向预测作用。本研究为老年刻板印象内化的家庭过程提供了理论支持, 并对减少老年刻板印象内化、改善消极老年自我刻板印象的干预具有一定的实践价值。     

A LONGITUDINAL,PERSON‐CENTERED ANALYSIS OF EARLY HEAD START MOTHERS’ PARENTING

This study used a person‐centered approach to examine stability and change in parenting typologies across early childhood. Profiles were associated within and across time with contextual covariates, including demographic characteristics, risk factors, and Early Head Start participation. Participants were drawn from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (N = 2, 876). Parenting profiles were identified based on observed parenting dimensions at 14, 24, and 36 months, and pre‐Kindergarten (pre‐K). Results suggested a four‐profile solution at each time point: Supportive, Lukewarm (14 & 24 months)/Sufficient (36 months and pre‐K), Harsh, and Detached. Supportive was the largest, most stable, and most likely transitioned into profile while Harsh and Detached represented rare profiles with moderate to low membership stability across time. Depression and family conflict emerged as important correlates of unsupportive parenting profiles both within and across time. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for both policy and implementation practices for low‐income mothers with young children.     

Modality-specific interference between action planning and perceptual processing

This paper reports a study which examined an interaction between action planning and processing of perceptual information in two different sensory modalities. In line with the idea that action planning consists in representing the action’s sensory outcomes, it was assumed that different types of actions should be coupled with different modalities. A visual and auditory oddball paradigm was combined with two types of actions: pointing and knocking (unrelated to the perceptual task). Results showed an interactive effect between the action type and the sensory modality of the oddballs, with impaired detection of auditory oddballs for knocking (congruent) action, as compared to a pointing (incongruent) action. These findings reveal that action planning can interact with modality-specific perceptual processing and that preparing an action presumably binds the respective perceptual features with an action plan, thereby making these features less available for other tasks.     

家庭功能对青少年冒险行为的影响:自我控制能力与不良同伴交往的序列中介效应

采用问卷法对922名中学生进行调查,考察了家庭功能与青少年冒险行为的关系以及自我控制能力、不良同伴交往的中介作用。结果发现:(1)家庭功能、自我控制能力、不良同伴交往和冒险行为两两之间相关显著;(2)自我控制能力在家庭功能与青少年冒险行为之间起中介作用;(3)自我控制能力和不良同伴交往在家庭功能和青少年冒险行为之间构成序列中介,家庭功能对青少年冒险行为的影响主要通过家庭功能——自我控制能力——不良同伴交往——冒险行为这一路径实现。研究结果进一步揭示了家庭、同伴和个体自身因素影响青少年冒险行为的内在机制。     

中职女生社交自卑感及其与家庭功能、心理健康的关系:一项交叉滞后研究

为探讨中职女生社交自卑感的特点及其与家庭功能、心理健康的关系,采用社交自卑感量表、家庭亲密度与适应性量表和中学生心理健康量表对来自河南省内2所中等职业学校的1066名一年级中职女生进行间隔半年的两次问卷调查。结果发现：（1）89.21%的中职女生有社交自卑感体验,中职女生的社交自卑感与家庭社会经济地位相关显著,农村生源中职女生的社交自卑感显著高于城市生源中职女生;（2）家庭适应性可以边缘预测随后的社交自卑感,心理健康可以显著预测随后的社交自卑感;（3）社交自卑感、家庭功能和心理健康的关系模式在城市生源和农村生源的中职女生中具有较强的稳定性;（4）来自再婚/离异家庭中职女生的心理健康对随后的社交自卑感的预测作用高于来自完整家庭的中职女生。本研究表明,中职女生存在比较明显的社交自卑感,社交自卑感与家庭功能、心理健康之间存在动态联系。     

Ethical Problems in Planning for and Responses to Pandemic Influenza in Ghana and Malawi

Ethical problems are addressed in various ways within countries in planning for and response to pandemic influenza. Here we report on a qualitative study, in which 46 policymakers in Malawi and Ghana were interviewed on how they identified and resolved ethical problems. The study results revealed that ethical problems involving conflicts of values and choices were raised in reference to the extent and role of resources (inequities) and nature of public health interventions (intrusive measures), including the extent and processes of decision making, reasoning, and justification. There is a need for an ethical framework within pandemic preparedness plans to resolve and avert these problems.     

When Home Is Where the Harm Is: Family Betrayal and Posttraumatic Outcomes in Young Adulthood

Research on institutional betrayal has found that institutional wrongdoing that fails to prevent or respond supportively to victims of abuse adds to the burden of trauma. In this two-study investigation with young adult university students, we demonstrated parallels between institutional betrayal and ways that families can fail to prevent or respond supportively to child abuse perpetrated by a trusted other, a phenomenon we call family betrayal (FB). In Study 1, psychometric analysis of a new FB questionnaire provided evidence of its internal consistency, unidimensionality, and convergent and discriminant validity. The majority (approximately 72%) of young adults abused in childhood reported a history of FB, with an average of 4.26 FB events (SD = 4.45, range 0–14). Consistent with betrayal trauma theory, Study 2 revealed that FB was 4× more likely to occur in relation to childhood abuse by someone very close to the victim (vs. non-interpersonal victimization), with a particularly strong effect for female participants. FB history predicted significant delay to disclosure of a self-identified worst traumatic event (η_p² = .017) and significant increases in dissociation (?R² = .05) and posttraumatic stress (?R² = .07) symptoms in young adulthood. Moreover, with FB in the regression models, only FB—not child abuse nor recent interpersonal victimization—predicted dissociation and clinically significant elevations in posttraumatic stress. Findings suggest that FB is a prevalent phenomenon among young adults abused as children and that it explains unique, clinically significant variance in posttraumatic distress, warranting increased attention from trauma researchers and clinicians.