Temperament and Brain Systems as Predictors of Assertive Communication Traits

Previous research has shown a relationship between measures of the big three (extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) and similar validated measures (behavior activation scale, BAS and behavioral inhibition system, BIS) of activation and inhibition systems. The purpose of this study was to compare the extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) measures with the BAS and BIS measures to determine how well they can predict an individual's assertive communication traits. Results of this investigation indicated that the E and N measures were substantially better overall predictors of assertive communication traits.     

‘Always ready and always well’: Exploring stress on school principals in Chile

Educational systems worldwide have increased the responsibilities and tasks of principals, seeking to improve schools’ performance. As a result, the role of principals has become increasingly challenging and stressful, having a negative impact on principals’ attraction and retention, job satisfaction as well as their mental and physical health. This paper explores how a group of 21 Chilean school principals working in the Valparaiso Region experience stress, based on individual semi-structured interviews about their subjective experiences in their role. Findings suggest that principals consider their work to be challenging, associated with several demanding situations in their schools which contribute to feeling stress. Stressors identified by principals can be organized into three groups: work-related, such as dealing with bureaucratic pressures and lack of support from municipal authorities; relationship-related, such as managing relations with a wide range of school actors and the emotional burden of interacting with them; and time-related, such as being always available to solve problems and feeling isolated in this task.     

Inappropriate Parental Divorce Disclosures,the Factors that Prompt them,and their Impact on Parents’ and Adolescents’ Well-Being

Recent research has shown that parents’ inappropriate disclosures about the divorce process can be stressful for adolescents. However, little is known about the conditions that prompt parents to disclose inappropriate information about the divorce to them. The current study examines factors (a lack of social support, a lack of control over divorce stressors, and the severity of the divorce stressors) that potentially influence parents to reveal inappropriate information about the divorce to their adolescents. It also explores the impact that these inappropriate disclosures have on parents’ and adolescents’ well-being. Surveys were gathered from 118 custodial parent–adolescent dyads. The results suggest that a lack of social support and the severity of the stressors did not influence parents’ inappropriate disclosures. Custodial parents’ lack of control over their divorce-related stressors was the only factor associated with their inappropriate disclosures. When a lack of control over divorced-related stressors was considered, parents with less stressful interparental conflict were likely to be distressed by their inappropriate disclosures, whereas parents who had a strained relationship with their former spouse were not. Adolescents’ perceptions of the inappropriate disclosures were also a stronger predictor of adolescents’ well-being than the parents’ perceptions of their own disclosures.     

Inclusion: identifying potential stressors for regular class teachers

This research investigates the potential stressors for teachers during inclusion. The study reports findings from 571 Queensland primary school teachers who were involved with including a child with a moderate or severe intellectual disability in their regular classrooms. Teachers who responded to the Teacher Stress and Coping Questionnaire (TSC) did not appear to be overly stressed by inclusion. Issues that related to a teacher's professional competence and the behaviour of the child with the intellectual disability were the most stressful for teachers. Female teachers reported greater stress than their male counterparts when coping with classroom issues. An increase in number of years involved with inclusion and participation in formal training were associated with a reduction in stress. Discussion focuses on the need to identify potential stressors during inclusion to enable more appropriate preservice and inservice training and support to be provided.     

Teaching young children: perceived satisfaction and stress

This paper explores how early years teachers feel about their work. Responses to an open-ended questionnaire indicated that teachers found working with young children both satisfying and rewarding. However, they felt they were being impeded by external factors, such as educational change and current curriculum initiatives, which caused them stress. More specifically, teachers expressed frustration in implementing policies that they felt were contrary to their own pedagogical understandings and professional values. It is concluded that teachers need to be more actively involved with consultation processes that affect their work.     

Comforting Apprehensive Communicators: The Effects of Reappraisal and Distraction on Cortisol Levels Among Students in a Public Speaking Class

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of interpersonal communication as a source of comforting on the physiological stress associated with giving an in-class speech. Cortisol was used as an objective measure of stress reactivity, and the effects of distracting or reappraisal messages were examined. Salivary cortisol was collected from 42 students enrolled in an introductory public speaking course, in five intervals. The final collection showed that participants in the distraction condition experienced significantly less stress than participants in the control condition. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding the trajectory of decay to detect the stress-reducing benefits of comforting communication.     

Do Different Levels of Inquiry Lead to Different Learning Outcomes? A comparison between guided and structured inquiry

Although the effects of open inquiry vs. more didactic approaches have been studied extensively, the effects of different types of inquiry have not received as much attention. We examined the effects of guided vs. structured inquiry on secondary students' learning of science. Students from three schools in north-eastern Thailand participated (N?=?239, Grades 7 and 10). Two classes in each school were randomly assigned to either the guided or the structured-inquiry condition. Students had a total of 14–15 hours of instructions in each condition. The dependent measures were science content knowledge, science process skills, scientific attitudes, and self-perceived stress. In comparison to the structured-inquiry condition, students in the guided-inquiry condition showed greater improvement in both science content knowledge and science process skills. For scientific attitudes and stress, students in one school benefited from guided inquiry much more than they did from structured inquiry. Findings were explained in terms of differences in the degree to which students engaged effortfully with the teaching material.     

The relationship between motivational climate,perceived ability and sources of distress among elite athletes

Situational factors as well as individual differences are assumed to play an important role in perceptions of stress. One factor that may affect an elite athlete's perception of stress may be his or her perceived motivational climate. To examine the relative importance of dispositional and situational factors on the perceptions of distress (i.e. negative stress), we assessed goal orientations, perception of motivational climate and sources of distress among Norwegian participants at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer. Perception of a performance climate was associated with cognitive sources of distress, the coach, and team aspects as a source of distress. Furthermore, a performance climate was a signi cant predictor of high total distress. The athletes with lower perceptions of ability perceived the coach to be more a source of distress than athletes with a high perception of ability. A perception of a mastery climate was negatively associated with the coach as a source of distress. These findings indicate that, to reduce the perception of distress, the coach should focus on creating a mastery climate for elite athletes.     

State anxiety and motor performance: Testing the conscious processing hypothesis

Previous research has argued that skills acquired explicitly are more likely to fail under stressful conditions than skills that have been learned implicitly.The present study addressed an alternative explanation for the robustness under stress of implicit task performance. As implicit learners acquired the skill of golf putting while generating random letters, it is possible that they became desensitized to self-generated verbalizations and thus immune to the effects of competitive anxiety. We tested this interpretation while controlling for a further rival hypothesis generated by Eysenck's Processing Efficiency Theory. Wealso examined the effect of increased state anxiety on the kinematic processes underlying performance breakdowns. For task performance, we found evidence that partially supported the conscious processing hypothesis, while the results of the kinematic analysis of the putting stroke were equivocal. Analysis of self-reported effort scores provided partial support for processing efficiency theory.     

Acculturation orientations and mental health when facing post-migration stress: Differences between unaccompanied and accompanied male Middle Eastern refugee adolescents,first- and second-generation immigrant and native peers in Germany

ObjectiveThis study examined the mental health of Middle Eastern male unaccompanied refugee adolescents in Germany in relation to the mental health of accompanied refugee peers, first- and second-generation immigrant and native peers. In particular, it was investigated whether differences in the mental health of unaccompanied and accompanied refugees and immigrant peers were related to differences in the perception of post-migration stress, and whether this association changed with different acculturation orientations.MethodIn a cross-sectional study, 193 adolescents (M_age = 18.1 years, SD = 1.74 years; n_refugees = 74, n_migrants = 59, n_natives = 60) completed self-report measures of mental health, trauma, acculturation styles, and post-migration stress.ResultsAnalyses of variance revealed that unaccompanied refugees suffered most from internalizing and trauma symptoms, while accompanied peers, first- and second-generation immigrant and native adolescents did not differ significantly in internalizing symptoms. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that more integrated adolescents were generally associated with lower internalizing symptoms and integration also buffered against detrimental effects of post-migration stressors. Marginalized adolescents showed more internalizing symptoms, especially in the lights of more post-migration stress. Both assimilation and separation had no direct effects on internalizing symptoms. However, assimilation buffered against detrimental effects of post-migration stress on internalizing symptoms, whereas separation amplified these effects.ConclusionAn involvement in host society and an orientation towards the host culture fosters mental health of acculturating Middle Eastern adolescents in Germany when post-migration stress is perceived, particularly for unaccompanied refugee adolescents. Moreover, additionally maintaining the culture of origin seems to be in general most beneficial.