Adjustment Profiles of Low-Income Caregivers from the United States and South Africa: Contrasts and Commonalities

Although low-income parents living in under-resourced communities in the United States and around the world face challenges, many do well while others struggle in one or more areas of functioning. The present study examined patterns of adjustment among maternal caregivers living in the United States (US) (N?=?320) and South Africa (SA) (N?=?324). Cluster analyses across four domains of functioning representing both positive and negative adjustment and conducted within country revealed similar patterns of adjustment, with a majority of caregivers (37.8% in the US; 47.5% in SA) landing in a “holding steady” pattern, exhibiting good but not exceptional adjustment. Other patterns of adjustment (three additional in the US sample; two additional in the SA sample) showed elevated impairment in somatic complaints, problems with alcohol, or life satisfaction. In both the US and SA, support from family, friends, and neighbors differentiated the adjustment profiles. Further, both current stressors within and outside of the family and previous stressors including direct and indirect exposure to violence discriminated caregivers who were “holding steady” from those who were struggling in one or more domains. Additionally, across both countries, caregivers who were “holding steady” evidenced less avoidant coping. Implications of this work for fostering resilience among caregivers and their children are discussed.     

Health-Promoting Verses as mentioned in the Holy Quran

The Quran is regarded as both the spiritual and behavioral guidance for all Muslims. This narrative study was designed at examining relevant health-promoting verses in the Quran and to identify the chapters and verses where keywords and phrases are mentioned relevant to health promotion and behavior. Twenty-eight verses were identified, with a focus on diet and nutrition, personal hygiene, alcohol abstention, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle. These results suggest that the Quran could serve as an influential medium for culturally competent public health practitioners in diverse populations, particularly in Muslim communities, for improving and maintaining healthy behaviors.     

Cumulative Risk,Emotion Dysregulation,and Adjustment in South African Youth

Research on cumulative risk is growing, however, little work has occurred in low- or middle-income countries, and few studies have focused on processes linking risk to outcomes. This study explored relations between components of cumulative risk and adjustment in a sample of 324 South African youth (M age?=?13.11 years; SD?=?1.54 years; 65% female; 56% Black/African; 14% Colored; 23% Indian; 7% White), and tested competing models of emotion dysregulation as a mediator or moderator of risk—adjustment links. Data was collected from youth and their female caregivers during home interviews. Structural equation models and regression analyses accounting for age and sex contributions revealed that emotion dysregulation mediated associations between sociodemographic risk and internalizing symptoms, externalizing problem behavior, and drug use severity, and moderated links between psychosocial risk and internalizing symptoms and externalizing problem behavior. For the mediator models, sociodemographic risk was associated with impaired emotion regulation, which in turn was linked with heightened adjustment difficulties. For the moderator models, psychosocial risk was linked with adjustment problems only when emotion dysregulation was high. These data indicate the importance of disentangling components of cumulative risk. Future research within the South African cultural context might build on these findings by adapting and testing school- or family-based prevention or intervention programs that include modules on emotion regulation.     

Comorbidity of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and major depression in primary school children

The study investigated comorbid Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and depression in a sample of rural primary school children in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A total of 320 learners participated in this study of whom 160 learners had teacher and parent identified ADHD symptoms (females?=?50%; age range 6–14 years). All the learners took the Beck Depression Youth Inventory, second edition. Data were analysed applying ANOVA to investigate the possible differences between and within age, gender, and ADHD subtype group differences in depression symptomatology. Results indicated no statistically significant differences in the scores on the depression scale between the children with ADHD as identified by parents and teachers and the comparison group peers.     

Adversarial Growth in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and their Partners: Relationships with Illness Perceptions,Disability and Distress

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and their partners show adversarial growth and to examine which psychological and disability variables contribute to this in patients and their partners. The study also investigated the relationship between growth and distress. Seventy-two patients with MS and their partners provided demographic information and completed measures of posttraumatic growth, illness perceptions, depression, cognitive function and disability. Both patients and partners showed adversarial growth, with patients reporting significantly higher growth than partners. The only significant predictor for patient growth was partner growth, and vice versa. Dissimilarity in illness representations between patients and their partners on the consequences of MS dimension, patient mood and patient growth accounted for significant variance in partner growth. The findings support the idea of a ‘communal search for meaning’ where patients and their partners experience the trauma of having a chronic illness and subsequently find positive aspects together.     

Some cautionary notes regarding the use of aggregated scores as a measure of behavioral stability

The utility of the method of aggregation as a measure of behavioral consistency was examined in 26 studies involving computer-generated, repeated-measurement data. The first series of studies involved rectangular distributions in which score constant. A second series of studies used normally distributed z scores, and score consistency was manipulated by inducing a desired correlation between the scores in adjacent trials. In both sets of studies, the aggregate stability coefficient was a strictly increasing function of the number of aggregated trials, and even trivial amounts of score stability resulted in large stability coefficients. In a third series of studies, high stability coefficients occurred when computed on combined unstable subsamples which differed from each other only in central tendency. Terminal aggregate coefficients were compared with Spearman-Brown prophecy and Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients computed on the experimental data. It was concluded that the method of aggregation produces spuriously high estimates of behavioral consistency. It was further shown that the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula and coefficient alpha accurately predict the results of the aggregation method, suggesting that aggregation is an internal consistency reliability procedure. The equating of stability with traditional notions of reliability was questioned.     

Conditioning of counter-empathetic emotional responses

The present research tested the hypothesis that the quality of an observer's vicarious emotional response, as measured by autonomic, expressive, and self-report indexes, is a function of the observer's conditioning history with particular facial expressive displays of emotion. It was predicted that conditions of congruence (Symmetry) between the affective expression of a model and the outcome (shock or reward) presented to an observer would enhance initial empathetic responses, but that conditions of incongruence (Asymmetry) between the model's displays and observer's outcomes would lead to counter-empathetic responses. These changes in the quality of observers' vicarious emotional responses should generalize to a test phase when no rewards or punishments are presented to observers. The results for all measures were consistent and indicate that asymmetric conditioning modified the initial empathetic responses of observers to either counter-empathetic responses or indifference. On the other hand, symmetric conditioning enhanced observers' initial empathetic responses. These effects were evident in the test phase when no reinforcements were administered to the subject. The results are consistent with the theoretical assumption that facial expressions of emotion can acquire meaning and hedonic valence because of their predictive significance and thus can function as conditioned stimuli capable of evoking empathetic and counter-empathetic emotional responses.     

Tutor-Pupil Relationship and Academic Progress

This study examines the characteristics of the tutor-student relationship in small tutorial groups and the degree of association between this relationship and academic success. Four factors were identified: a general factor of likeableness and factors representing equality, personal involvement, and control in the relationship. The likeableness factor was significantly related to academic success but the other factors were not.