Family Belongingness,Gang Friendships,and Psychological Distress in Adolescent Achievement

The authors investigated connections among social, psychological, and academic functioning of ethnically diverse urban youth. Participants included 310 seventh graders (mean age = 12.10 years) from an ethnically diverse middle school in which no ethnic group was a majority. Social engagements with family and gang members were predictive of academic achievement in the expected directions, with psychological distress mediating the effects of these social engagements on academic achievement. Implications for counselors’ work with ethnically diverse urban youth are discussed.     

General Belongingness,Workplace Belongingness,and Depressive Symptoms

Research has shown that a strong relationship exists between belongingness and depressive symptoms; however, the contribution of specific types of belongingness remains unknown. Participants (N=369) completed the sense of belonging instrument, psychological sense of organizational membership, and the depression scale of the depression anxiety stress scales. Factor analysis demonstrated that workplace and general belongingness are distinct constructs. When regressed onto depressive symptoms, these belongingness types made independent contributions, together accounting for 45% of variance, with no moderation effects evident. Hence, general belongingness and specific workplace belongingness appear to have strong additive links to depressive symptoms. These results add support to the belongingness hypothesis and sociometer theory and have significant implication for depression prevention and treatment. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会排斥对产品触觉信息偏好的影响及其作用机制

社会排斥的现象在当今社会日益凸显,已成为世界各国探究社会政策和不平等问题的一个重要方向。然而却鲜少有研究从心理机制的角度探讨社会排斥对人们的产品偏好的影响。本文通过1个预实验和4个主实验,系统研究了社会排斥如何影响个体对不同触感产品的偏好,并探讨了其内在影响机制。实验结果发现在经历社会排斥(相较于社会接纳)之后,个体更偏好触感柔软的产品,消极心理体验是其内在驱动机制,并且该作用机制被归属感的重要性所调节。当归属感被认为很重要时,个体在经历社会排斥后对柔软触感产品的偏好以及消极心理体验的中介作用会被强化,而当归属感被认为不重要时,以上效应会被削弱。本文还对研究结论的理论贡献和实践应用进行了深入讨论。     

Drinking to belong: The effect of a friendship threat and self-esteem on college student drinking

The current study examined how implicit and explicit self-esteem and time spent drinking with friends influence college student drinking after a friendship threat manipulation. Poisson regression analyses revealed that students with low implicit self-esteem showed a greater increase in alcohol consumption when drinking with friends after experiencing a friendship threat than in the control condition. These effects were not found among students with high implicit self-esteem. A similar, but weaker, pattern emerged when testing the independent effects of explicit self-esteem. We suggest that low self-esteem students are drinking because they lack the self-resources to deal with unmet belongingness needs. These findings suggest that low implicit self-esteem may be a risk factor for college student drinking.     

Counselling in organisations: What is the experience of the lone counsellor?

Aims: To explore and understand lone counsellors' experiences of working in organisations, and to indicate means of enhancing this. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants and subjected to a qualitative, grounded theory analysis (Glaser, 1992; Glaser, 1998). Findings: Lone counsellors felt lonely, isolated and stressed in the workplace. The ‘lone battling’ behaviour adopted in an attempt to seek acceptance within the organisation and meaningful relationships with likeminded others in the counselling community was only partially successful. The lone counselling experience is understood to be a product of the tension inherent in organisational dynamics. Discussion: The findings help to confirm the belongingness hypothesis proposed by Baumeister and Leary (1995) that states that the need to belong is a fundamental motivation. Implications: The relevance of these findings to the training and employment of counsellors and other lone workers is discussed as well as areas for further research.     

The Burden of Not Belonging: A Qualitative Study of the Applicability of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide Constructs of Belongingness and Burdensomeness to Ethnocultural Minoritized Youth

Guided by the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (IPTS), this study aims to understand the applicability of the constructs of belongingness and burdensomeness and their relevance to suicide risk and mental health among ethnocultural minoritized youth. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted using five focus groups with 29 self-identified Latinx and Black adolescents aged 13–17 years to explore the meaning they ascribed to belongingness and burdensomeness. Views of social media related to these constructs were also explored. Template analysis was used to analyze the data. Themes highlighted dimensions such as caring, self-worth, and liability, congruent with the IPTS dimensions of belongingness and burdensomeness. Notably, new themes emerged reflecting the distinctive experiences of these populations, such as the importance of being true to themselves, the burden of not belonging to families, and cultural aspects of liability, highlighting dimensions not found in the existing IPTS theoretical constructs. Consideration of the diverse experiences of ethnocultural minoritized youth can strengthen theoretical constructs, clinical practice, and aid in developing intervention strategies to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors for suicide behaviors relevant to such youth.     

Social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation: the moderating role of interpersonal distress

Background and Objectives: Existing models of social anxiety scarcely account for interpersonal stress generation. These models also seldom include interpersonal factors that compound the effects of social anxiety. Given recent findings that two forms of interpersonal distress, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, intensify social anxiety and cause interpersonal stress generation, these two constructs may be especially relevant to examining social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation together.

Design: The current study extended prior research by examining the role of social anxiety in the occurrence of negative and positive interpersonal events and evaluated whether interpersonal distress moderated these associations.

Methods: Undergraduate students (N?=?243; M?=?20.46 years; 83% female) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belongingness, as well as a self-report measure and clinician-rated interview assessing negative and positive interpersonal events that occurred over the past six weeks.

Results: Higher levels of social anxiety were associated only with a higher occurrence of negative interpersonal dependent events, after controlling for depressive symptoms. This relationship was stronger among individuals who also reported higher levels of perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness.

Conclusions: It may be important to more strongly consider interpersonal stress generation in models of social anxiety.     

Interpersonal Trauma,Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms,and the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide in Women Seeking Shelter from Intimate Partner Violence

This study examined how trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms of reexperiencing, avoidance, numbing, dysphoric arousal, and anxious arousal relate to the major components of the interpersonal theory of suicide; namely, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and the acquired capability for suicide. A sample of 137 women seeking shelter from intimate partner violence completed self-report assessments. Symptoms of dysphoric arousal and numbing were uniquely and positively associated with thwarted belongingness. Numbing symptoms were uniquely and positively associated with perceived burdensomeness. Reexperiencing and anxious arousal symptoms were uniquely but negatively associated with the acquired capability for suicide. Interpersonal trauma was also positively associated with acquired capability, but only when examined independently. Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms of dysphoric arousal and numbing symptoms might complement brief screenings for acute suicide risk and can help inform in-shelter activities as well as postshelter treatment recommendations to decrease suicide risk for shelter-seeking women.     

Social connectedness as a source and consequence of meaning in life

Multiple studies have shown that the sense of belonging and connectedness contribute to meaning in life, but does meaning also influence social connectedness? The present research examines the reciprocal relationships between meaning and different types of connectedness: intimate, relational, and collective. Analyzing data from a nationally representative longitudinal study (Study 1) with cross-lagged panel models, we found that only collective connectedness was prospectively associated with meaning, whereas meaning was prospectively associated with all three types of connectedness, controlling for life satisfaction. The beneficial effect of meaning extended to behavioral indicators of collective and intimate connectedness (Study 2). Higher levels of meaning in life were prospectively associated with an increased likelihood of joining voluntary associations and getting married, and, for people high in marital satisfaction, with a decreased likelihood of marital separation. Together, these findings suggest that the relationship between social connectedness and meaning in life is bidirectional.     

Consumer Well-Being (CWB): The Effects of Self-Image Congruence, Brand-Community Belongingness, Brand Loyalty, and Consumption Recency

Consumer well-being (CWB) refers to the extent to which a particular consumer good or service creates an overall perception of the quality-of-life impact of that product. We developed a model that posits that CWB related to a specific product is heavily influenced by self-image congruence and brand-community belongingness. Self-image congruence is also hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by brand loyalty. Similarly, brand-community belongingness is hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by consumption recency. Our survey data of 275 undergraduate students reporting on their coffee consumption showed the following: (1) CWB was significantly predicted by brand loyalty and brand-community belongingness; (2) the effect of brand loyalty on CWB was moderated by self-image congruence, and (3) the effect of brand-community belongingness was moderated by consumption recency.