Support groups for parents with an adult child suffering from bipolar disorder

Confronted with the disconcerting behaviour exhibited by their children, parents of bipolar patients are in severe distress. Research focuses on the study of the ‘burden’ that the pathology puts on caregivers, owing to their experience of depression, sometimes combined with the presence of hostile attitudes and negative affects. In France, parents of adult patients encounter an initial specific difficulty: they are not systematically included in the care management system. Thanks to the initiative of an association of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, the authors set up a psychoanalytic support group for the parents of ‘bipolar’ adults. The diagnosis of a bipolar disorder is established by a psychiatrist within a medical structure. Support groups for parents do exist in France, but their experiences have not led to scientific publications on this specific topic. Existing publications focus on other types of pathology and other therapeutic approaches. In this article, we will highlight how this type of psychoanalytic support group, with operating rules based on the theoretical work of Anzieu, can help parents of patients with bipolar disorders. Group participants accepted the principle of a research study that maintained their anonymity. We collected and analysed qualitative data from the first year of the group, so we highlight the specific difficulties of these parents, faced with chronic disease. The relevance of our qualitative study also resides in the data collected over a period of time, enabling us to see the progress made, and encouraging us to reflect on the place of psychoanalytic groups for parents, as well as on the care management of this pathology.     

上司地位知觉对下属默契的影响——反馈寻求行为和观点采择的作用

下属默契指的是下属与上司间不经言传而暗相投合的状态,它能潜移默化地提升下属绩效。因此,探讨下属默契的产生原因,对组织有着重要意义。鉴于此,本文以目标动机模型为理论基础,探讨了上司地位知觉对下属默契的影响及其内部机制。通过对186名企业员工的调查分析发现,上司地位知觉对下属默契有显著的正向影响;反馈寻求行为在此过程中起部分中介作用;此外,下属的观点采择能力调节了反馈寻求行为与下属默契间的正向关系。     

社会支持对大学生社会幸福感的影响—希望的中介作用

基于积极心理学,采用问卷调查法,对1098名大学生进行调查,探讨社会支持对社会幸福感的影响,并基于希望进行中介效应检验,借此构建三个变量之间的关系模型,探索促进大学生心理健康发展的内在机制。结果表明:社会支持、希望与社会幸福感之间两两相关显著; 社会支持和希望及其各维度,显著正向影响大学生的社会幸福感; 社会支持通过希望影响大学生社会幸福感水平。研究结果证实了希望在社会支持影响社会幸福感中起部分中介作用的心理机制,为大学生心理健康教育提供了参考建议。     

Workplace ostracism And workplace behaviors: A moderated mediation model of perceived stress and psychological empowerment

Background and objectives: Workplace ostracism research has examined numerous underlying mechanisms to understand the link between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes. Ostracism has been suggested to be an interpersonal stressor; however, research has not investigated workplace ostracism from a stress perspective. Therefore, the study investigated the mediating effect of perceived stress for the relationships between workplace ostracism and helping behavior, voicing behavior, and task performance. The study also investigated the moderating effect of psychological empowerment for the relationships between perceived stress and behavioral outcomes.

Design: The study design was a three-wave self-reported questionnaire.

Method: The study sampled 225 full-time employees in South Korea and regression analyses with bootstrapping were conducted to test the moderated mediation models.

Results: The bootstrapped 95% CI around the indirect effects did not contain zero; therefore, perceived stress mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and helping behavior (–.06), voicing behavior (–.07), and task performance (–.07). Further, the moderated mediation analyses found perceived stress mediated the relationships between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes only when individuals perceived low levels of psychological empowerment.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that workplace ostracism is a stressor and psychological empowerment can mitigate the negative effects of ostracism on behavioral outcomes.     

Couple adjustment to a stressful life event: a dyadic investigation of the roles of positive reframing and perceived benefits

Background and Objectives: This study examines positive reframing (a form of meaning making), perceived benefits (a form of meanings made) and adjustment in couples who experienced a stressful life event in the past year. This study tested whether couple members’ scores were nonindependent and whether one’s own perceived benefits was predicted by their own positive reframing (actor effect) as well as their partner’s positive reframing (partner effect). Further, this study tested actor and partner effects for the link between perceived benefits and adjustment and whether positive reframing (the initial variable) works through perceived benefits (the mediator) to affect adjustment (the outcome) at the dyadic level.

Design: A standard dyadic design was used.

Methods: Eighty couples completed measures of positive reframing, perceived benefits, and adjustment (depression, anxiety, positive affect, life satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction).

Results: Partners’ scores on study variables were related, and although only actor effects were found for the path between positive reframing and perceived benefits, both actor and partner effects were found for the path between perceived benefits and adjustment. Mediation was found for actor–actor and actor-partner indirect effects.

Conclusions: Results indicate that a greater focus on interpersonal factors is needed to further meaning-making theory and inform practice.     

The mediating role of identity incompatibility in the relationship between perceived discrimination and acculturation preferences in two generations of the ethnic Russian minority in the North Caucasus

Abstract

The present study tested a model in which the perceived incompatibility of ethnic Russian and regional North Caucasian identities mediates the relationship between perceived discrimination and acculturation strategies in two generations of ethnic Russian minority members living in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, North Caucasus, Russian Federation. Two identities might be perceived incompatible when they represent conflicting sets of norms and values and the two communities may place competing demands on individual commitment and loyalty. We sampled 105 dyads from ethnic Russian families (youth: M = 18 years, SD = 2.35, 48.6% female; parents: M = 43 years, SD = 6.97, 68.6% female). The questionnaire included measures of perceived discrimination, perceived identity incompatibility, and acculturation strategies. The results of multigroup path analysis showed that the perceived identity incompatibility mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and two strategies, aimed at culture maintenance (integration and separation) in both generations. Identity incompatibility is regarded as a psychological mechanism that explains the impact of perceived discrimination on minority acculturation preferences in a multicultural region.     

A Cross-Lagged Panel Approach to Understanding Social Support and Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Veterans: Assessment Modality Matters

Although there is a strong and consistent association between social support and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the directionality of this association has been debated, with some research indicating that social support protects against PTSD symptoms, whereas other research suggests that PTSD symptoms erode social support. The majority of studies in the literature have been cross-sectional, rendering directionality impossible to determine. Cross-lagged panel models overcome many previous limitations; however, findings from the few studies employing these designs have been mixed, possibly due to methodological differences including self-report versus clinician-administered assessment. The current study used a cross-lagged panel structural equation model to explore the relationship between social support and chronic PTSD symptoms over a 1-year period in a sample of 264 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans assessed several years after trauma exposure. Approximately a third of the sample met criteria for PTSD at the baseline assessment, with veterans’ trauma occurring an average of 6 years prior to baseline. Two separate models were run, with one using PTSD symptoms assessed via self-report and the other using clinician-assessed PTSD symptoms. Excellent model fit was found for both models. Results indicated that the relationship between social support and PTSD symptoms was affected by assessment modality. Whereas the self-report model indicated a bidirectional relationship between social support and PTSD symptoms over time, the clinician-assessed model indicated only that baseline PTSD symptoms predicted social support 1 year later. Results highlight that assessment modality is one factor that likely impacts disparate findings across previous studies. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed, with suggestions for the growing body of literature utilizing these designs to dismantle this complex association.     

Prototypes and same-gender bias in perceptions of hiring discrimination

The present study investigated the relative importance of two explanations behind perceptions of gender discrimination in hiring: prototypes and same-gender bias. According to the prototype explanation, people perceive an event as discrimination to the extent that it fits their preconceptions of typical discrimination. In contrast, the same-gender bias explanation asserts that people more readily detect discrimination toward members of their own gender. In four experiments (n = 797), women and men made considerably stronger discrimination attributions, and were moderately more discouraged from seeking work, when the victim was female rather than male. Further, a series of regressions analyses showed beliefs in discrimination of women to be moderately correlated with discrimination attributions of female victims, but little added explanatory value of participant gender, stigma consciousness, or feminist identification. The results offer strong support for the prototype explanation.     

教师支持与心理素质对中学生学业成绩的影响

采用学生感知教师支持行为问卷和中学生心理素质问卷,对西南地区两所中学7~12年级的824名在校中学生进行调查研究,探讨教师整体支持和不同类型支持与中学生学业成绩的关系及心理素质在其中的中介作用。结果发现：（1）教师整体支持与中学生心理素质、学业成绩间存在显著正相关;教师情感支持与中学生心理素质、学业成绩间存在显著正相关,教师学习支持、能力支持与中学生心理素质存在显著正相关,但与学业成绩相关均不显著;（2）控制性别和年龄后,心理素质在教师整体支持与学业成绩的关系中起完全中介作用;心理素质在教师情感支持与学业成绩关系中起部分中介作用,在教师学习支持与学业成绩、教师能力支持与学业成绩关系中均起完全中介作用。