Infant Distress During Immunization: A Multimethod Assessment

The purpose of this study was to comprehensively describe infant procedural distress and pain across assessment modalities, and to compare similarities and differences across measures. A multimethod assessment of distress was conducted to investigate infants (N = 37) undergoing routine immunizations. Measures of infant distress included Parent report, nurse report, infant heart rate, and an observational measure of infant distress. Parents rated their infant's distress and pain significantly higher than did nurses. Observational and physiological ratings of infant distress were found to vary significantly by phase, and there were no correlations between adult ratings of pain and distress and physiological ratings. Findings suggest that infant procedural distress can be assessed in a number of manners. The discordance between these measures emphasizes the need for multimethod assessment of pediatric procedural distress in both research and clinical settings. Given the differences between parent and nurse ratings, clinicians should be aware that different assessment methods might lead to different conclusions about infant procedural distress.     

Coping and Emotional Distress in Primary and Recurrent Breast Cancer Patients

The purpose of this study was to explore the emotional distress and coping strategies among women with primary as against recurrent (local or metastatic) breast cancer. The study sample consisted of 80 women, all 1 year postdiagnosis of primary or recurrent breast cancer. All women completed a demographic questionnaire, the Emotional Symptoms Checklist (SCL-90R) and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). Patients with recurrence reported higher levels of depression and anxiety as well as a higher global severity index (GSI). This group used significantly fewer problem-solving and positive-focus strategies. Emotion-focused coping predicted depression and the GSI, but only positive attitude predicted the level of anxiety. The state of disease was a major predictor of emotional symptoms, and to a lesser extent of the coping strategies used. Although emotion-focused coping had a deleterious effect on emotional well-being, our study highlighted the importance and relevance of positive attitude for reducing emotional distress in general and level of anxiety in particular. Promotion of positive-focus coping strategies should thus be a key element in psychological interventions with cancer patients.     

The Assessment of Marital Adjustment with Muslim Populations: A Reliability Study of the Locke–Wallace Marital Adjustment Test

The Muslim population is growing rapidly throughout the world and a sizable population of 6–8 million Muslims is estimated in North America alone. This population deals with a vast array of issues, including marital adjustment. Nevertheless, the marriage and family literature lacks the research needed to facilitate therapeutic treatment with Muslim couples adequately. Marital adjustment assessments that are commonly utilized have been tested on predominantly Anglo-American or Caucasian couples. The present study is a preliminary investigation of the Locke–Wallace marital adjustment test’s (LWMAT) reliability when administered to married, Muslim-American people.     

Experimentally Detecting How Cultural Differences on Social Anxiety Measures Misrepresent Cultural Differences in Emotional Well-being

Previous research, statistically accounting for self-construal factors and thereby eliminating widely reported culture main effects in social anxiety scores between East Asians and European-Americans (Norasakkunkit and Kalick 2002 Culture, ethnicity, and emotional distress measures: The role of self-construal and self-enhancement. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 33(1), 56–70.) suggested that social anxiety measures penalize individuals for being low on independent self-construal; therefore, cultural differences in emotional distress according to social anxiety measures may possibly misrepresent cultural differences in emotional well-being. In the current experimental study, 127 Japanese and 126 American participants were either primed or not primed to access an independent mode of thought prior to filling out two commonly used measures of social anxiety and a measure of emotional well-being. Independent priming caused social anxiety scores to decrease. Yet, independent priming did not influence levels of self-reported emotional well-being. Furthermore, although the Japanese respondents were shown to be more distressed according to both of the standardized social anxiety measures, this finding was actually reversed with respect to self-reported emotional well-being. The evidence thus points to high scores on measurements of social anxiety being directly and causally linked to low levels of independence, while no link was found between independence and emotional well-being.

Children’s Intent Attributions and Feelings of Distress: Associations with Maternal and Paternal Parenting Practices

Many studies point to the importance of social information processing mechanisms in understanding distinct child behaviors such as aggression. However, few studies have assessed whether parenting might be related to such mechanisms. This study considers how aversive forms of parenting (i.e., corporal punishment, psychological control) as well as parental warmth and responsiveness might be concurrently associated with children’s hostile intent attributions and emotional distress in response to ambiguous provocation scenarios (both instrumental and relational). A sample of 219 children (101 boys, 118 girls) and their parents participated. Bivariate associations showed that parenting dimensions and child variables were significantly associated in mostly expected ways, but only in father–child relationships (especially father–son relationships). Analyses generally showed dimensions of aversive parenting by fathers to be associated with a greater tendency toward hostile attributional bias in children. Moreover, paternal warmth and responsiveness, as well as corporal punishment, were associated with less emotional distress in boys. In contrast, paternal psychological control predicted greater emotional distress in boys. The findings suggest that the tone of the father–son relationship, in particular, may help set the tone for how boys interpret their social world. Psychological control figures prominently in this regard.     

Coping, routine activities, and recovery from acute distress among emergency medical personnel after a mass shooting incident

Emergency medical workers’ distress and recovery patterns after a mass shooting were related to their coping behaviors and routine daily activities. This longitudinal repeated measures study assessed 31 emergency medical workers’ psychological and psychosomatic symptoms self-rated for the weeks before, those just after, and one full month after the shooting. Coping behaviors and time in creative activities were related to increased acute distress; recovery was related to more time in constructive activities. Thinking about the incident was related to higher acute distress but better recovery on several SCL9OR scales. Exercise predicted recovery on Obsessive-Compulsive and Hostility scales. Studies evaluating emergency workers’ reactions to and recovery from critical incidents should use repeated measures designs, should assess short-term recovery, and should distinguish among symptoms.     

Coping, routine activities, and recovery from acute distress among emergency medical personnel after a mass shooting incident

Emergency medical workers’ distress and recovery patterns after a mass shooting were related to their coping behaviors and routine daily activities. This longitudinal repeated measures study assessed 31 emergency medical workers’ psychological and psychosomatic symptoms self-rated for the weeks before, those just after, and one full month after the shooting. Coping behaviors and time in creative activities were related to increased acute distress; recovery was related to more time in constructive activities. Thinking about the incident was related to higher acute distress but better recovery on several SCL9OR scales. Exercise predicted recovery on Obsessive-Compulsive and Hostility scales. Studies evaluating emergency workers’ reactions to and recovery from critical incidents should use repeated measures designs, should assess short-term recovery, and should distinguish among symptoms.     

Emotional distress and the perceived interference of menstruation

The relation of perceived interference of menstruation on expected behaviors to emotional distress was examined. It was predicted that the perceived interference of menstruation would be more predictive of emotional distress associated with menstruation than either menstrual or premenstrual pain. Participants completed measures of menstrual pain and visual analogue scales of emotional distress (anger, frustration, depression, anxiety, fear). Measures of perceived ability to tolerate the pain, the perceived interference of the pain, and attitudes toward menstruation were also collected. Results indicated that perceived interference was the strongest predictor of emotional distress secondary to menstrual pain. Ratings of menstrual and premenstrual pain were also significant predictors of emotional distress. Results supported the major hypothesis of the study and provide evidence that the appraisal of interference imposed by a particular condition or Stressor may be an important factor in stress and coping processes.     

Genetic Counseling Outcomes: Perceived Risk and Distress After Counseling for Hereditary Colorectal Cancer

Genetic counseling may turn risk information into cancer prevention behavior by modifying health beliefs and cancer-related distress. We assessed the effect of genetic counseling on these factors in 101 adult first-degree-relatives of colorectal cancer patients from families with known or suspected hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer. Before counseling and once afterward, subjects completed self-report measures of perceived lifetime risk and cancer-distress. Most persons overestimated their cancer risk, and higher perceived risk was associated with believing that colorectal cancer cannot be prevented. Individual perceived risk changed after counseling, although mean perceived risk was unchanged. After adjusting for baseline risk, older persons and those with higher estimated objective cancer risk had larger postcounseling decreases. Distress after counseling was positively correlated with baseline distress and anxiety symptoms, and inversely correlated with tolerance for ambiguity. The findings suggest counseling interventions that should increase the likelihood of screening and offer hypotheses for future research.