Pilot Evaluation of a University-Based Training in Trauma-Informed Services for Gang Intervention Workers

The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility and efficacy of a course designed to bring trauma-informed practices into community-based intervention programming for gang-involved youth and families. There have been no formally evaluated trauma trainings for gang intervention workers to date. Thirty gang intervention workers completed a University-based course on trauma, which aimed to raise the level of knowledge regarding trauma exposure and its effects on youth, increase intervention workers’ confidence in their ability to identify and respond to posttraumatic stress reactions among clients, and build resilience among staff. Pre-post results revealed that participants significantly improved in their knowledge related to trauma and confidence in their ability to respond to trauma among clients. Participants also rated themselves significantly higher on these domains compared to gang intervention workers who did not take the course. Participants rated the course positively on dimensions that are associated with staff members’ willingness to implement evidence-based interventions following training. The findings indicate a number of important recommendations for supporting gang intervention workers and integrating trauma-informed practices into gang intervention services.     

The impact of balance‐focused attitudes on job stress: Gender differences evidenced in American and Chinese samples

Based on gender role expectations model, we examined how balance‐focused attitudes would affect job stress by influencing individuals' perceptions of family interference with work (FIW), and investigated whether a gender difference would exist in the relationships among balance‐focused attitudes, FIW and job stress. Using two independent samples from the United States and China, we found support for the indirect influence of balance‐focused attitudes on job stress, through FIW. Participants with balance‐focused attitudes experienced lower levels of job stress as they perceived less interference from family to work. As expected, such indirect effect was more pronounce among male participants, meaning that the male participants benefited more from having balance‐focused attitudes. Discussion, theoretical and practical implications are provided.     

Biological correlates of social support and pressure at work in managers

The aim was to explore the patterns of correlations between psychosocial stress indices and neuroendocrinological factors in managers. Fifty-eight male managers in three Swedish companies constituted the sample. They answered two questionnaires with 17 selected stress indices and also an organizational test. The indices have been analyzed by means of computations of age adjusted partial correlations with nine different variables analyzed in fasting blood samples. The serum concentrations of lipids were the variables most strongly correlated with psychosocial factors. Neither smoking nor physical activity changed the correlations significantly. Good social support at work and in private life was consistently associated with low adverse serum lipids and corresponding lipoproteins. On the other hand, some indices of social support were associated with indices of high arousal levels. This may indicate a possible psychophysiological “load effect” of some aspects of social support in managers. The analyses of corporate culture measured as “Rules of the Game” indicated that “bureaucracy” was significantly associated with high LDL-cholesterol and low HDL-cholesterol. Managers have special conditions and therefore the patterns of associations between psychosocial conditions and coping strategies on one hand and endocrine-biochemical state on the other hand may be different, from those of other groups. To what extent such differences are due to individual characteristics or environmental factors needs to be further investigated. According to the results, however, good social support is in general health promoting also to managers, at least with regard to serum lipids. Bureaucracy, on the other hand, seems to be dangerous to the health of managers.     

Choosing Assessment Instruments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Screening and Outcome Research

Effect‐size results from Erford et al.'s ( 2016 ) meta‐analysis for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were used to compare 6 instruments' usefulness in measuring counseling treatment outcomes. Effect‐size comparisons indicated equivalent overall effect sizes using the Clinician‐Administered PTSD Scale, the Impact of Event Scale–Revised, the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, the PTSD Checklist, and the Structured Interview for PTSD. The Mississippi Scale for Combat‐Related PTSD yielded significantly more conservative (i.e., lower) effect‐size comparisons.     

应激的缓冲器：人格坚韧性

过去30年来,关注身心保健和组织行为的心理学家都对人格心理学中的一个概念发生了兴趣,就是人格坚韧性（hardiness）,大量实证研究证明人格坚韧性可以有效地缓解生活应激给人们带来的身心不适,并有助于提高人们在各领域的工作表现。该文在回顾西方以往研究的基础上,介绍这一概念,以及这方面研究的不足之处,并提出在中国开展此项研究的思路。作为整体人格结构的一部分,人格坚韧性应该从人格“大五”或“大七”结构中探索。在中国已有研究发现,人格“大七”维度对身心健康有不同的影响,哪些维度构成人格坚韧性,这些问题有待进一步的研究     

Job skill discretion and emotion control strategies as antecedents of recovery from work

Recovery from work protects employees’ health and well-being, and therefore it is important to understand its antecedents. The aim of this study conducted among 183 middle-aged participants drawn from the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development was to examine whether job skill discretion and emotion control strategies (emotional rumination and emotional inhibition) are related to psychological aspects of recovery from work (subjective recovery evaluation, psychological detachment and relaxation). The results of hierarchical general linear models confirmed the hypothesis that job skill discretion is positively associated with subjective recovery evaluation and relaxation. As expected, high emotional rumination predicted difficulties in psychological detachment and relaxation. Emotional inhibition moderated the relationship between job skill discretion and psychological detachment: where emotional inhibition was at a moderate level, job skill discretion was positively related to psychological detachment. The findings suggest that not only job characteristics but also individual factors contribute to recovery, revealing practical implications for employees, employers and occupational health care professionals seeking to promote employees’ work ability, health and well-being.     

Hopelessness as a Risk Factor for Post‐traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms Among Interpersonal Violence Survivors

Post‐traumatic stress disorder often co‐occurs with depression, and they may share common risk factors. One possible common cognitive risk factor is hopelessness. Thus, we examined whether hopelessness was related to symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder. Participants were 202 female survivors of interpersonal violence. Relationships between self‐reported and interviewer‐rated measures of hopelessness gathered at 2 weeks post‐trauma and self‐reported and interviewer‐rated symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder gathered at 2 weeks and 3 months post‐trauma were examined. Hierarchical, simultaneous regression analyses that co‐varied trauma type revealed that hopelessness was related to self‐reported symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder, both concurrently and prospectively. Follow‐up analyses revealed that relationships between hopelessness and symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder were due almost entirely to shared variance with depression. No relationships were found between hopelessness and interviewer‐rated symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder.     

Direct and Mediating Effects of an Anxiety Sensitivity Intervention on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Trauma-Exposed Individuals

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or fear of anxious arousal, is a higher-order cognitive risk-factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) composed of lower-order physical, cognitive, and social concerns regarding anxiety symptoms. Brief and effective interventions have been developed targeting AS and its constituent components. However, there is limited evidence as to whether an intervention aimed at targeting AS would result in reductions in PTS symptoms and whether the effects on PTS symptoms would be mediated by reductions in AS. Furthermore, there is no evidence whether these mediation effects would be because of the global or more specific components of AS. The direct and indirect effects of an AS intervention on PTS symptoms were examined in a sample of 82 trauma-exposed individuals (M age = 18.84 years, SD = 1.50) selected based on elevated AS levels (i.e., 1 SD above the mean) and assigned to either a treatment (n = 40) or an active control (n = 42) condition. Results indicated that the intervention led to reductions in Month 1 PTS symptoms, controlling for baseline PTS symptoms. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by changes in global AS and AS social concerns, occurring from intervention to Week 1. These findings provide an initial support for an AS intervention in amelioration of PTS symptoms and demonstrate that it is primarily reductions in the higher-order component of AS contributing to PTS symptom reduction.     

The relationship between daily stress and health: Replicating and extending previous findings

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to investigate the impact of daily stress, or hassles, on the physical and psychological health status of 112 adolescents over 10 consecutive days. Measures of hassles, daily somatic symptoms and mood, overall health status, and perceived social support were taken. A principal components analysis of the newly designed Secondary School Students' Hassles Scale generated four factors of which “management of time and work” accounted for 41 percent of the variance. Results supported previous findings that hassles levels were related inversely to daily health, daily mood, and overall health status. Perceived social support was found to be associated with general health but not with daily health and mood, and results from partial correlation analyses challenged the buffering role of social support between hassles and adaptational outcomes. The cross-cultural applicability of the hassles concept was discussed.     

Intolerance of uncertainty and emotional distress following the death of a loved one

Abstract

Research has shown that intolerance of uncertainty (IU) – the tendency to react negatively to situations that are uncertain – is involved in worry and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as in other anxiety symptoms and disorders. To our knowledge, no studies have yet examined the association between IU and emotional distress connected with the death of a loved one. Yet, it seems plausible that those who have more difficulties to tolerate the uncertainties that oftentimes occur following such a loss experience more intense distress. The current study examined this assumption, using self-reported data from 134 bereaved individuals. Findings showed that IU was positively and significantly correlated with symptom levels of complicated grief and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even when controlling for time since loss (the single demographic/loss-related variable associated with symptom levels), and for neuroticism and worry, which are both correlates of IU. Furthermore, IU was specifically related with worry and symptom levels of PTSD, but not complicated grief, when controlling the shared variance between worry, complicated grief severity, and PTSD-severity. The present findings complement prior research that has shown that IU is a cognitive vulnerability factor for worry, and indicate that it may also be involved in emotional distress following loss.