An effective measure of childhood adversity that is valid with older adults

Childhood adversity (CA) has life-long effects that we are just beginning to understand. The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) data is a rich resource that could contribute to the knowledge of the impact of CA in the later years but, while a number of CA items are included in MIDUS, a cumulative CA scale based on those items has not been created. Development of a CA scale would create numerous research opportunities within MIDUS and overcome some of the challenges of using a secondary dataset. The present study aimed to demonstrate that a cumulative measure of CA that is valid with older adults could be created using retrospective MIDUS Refresher study data (Ryff et al., 2016); analysis included data collected from 2011 to 2014 from 2542 adults ages 23–76 (1017 adults 55–76). The present study provided a rationale for which measures of CA to include in a cumulative scale. The distribution of eight types of CA and the cumulative CA scale were consistent with findings from past studies of CA. The factor structure of the cumulative CA scale was similar to the original ACE study and included two factors: household dynamics and child abuse/neglect. Consistent with past studies, the CA scale predicted a negative association with life satisfaction and a positive association with number of chronic conditions. This study demonstrated that an effective cumulative measure of CA could be created that would be of value to other studies using MIDUS data to explore outcomes with older adults.     

A longitudinal investigation of protective factors for bereaved maltreated youth

BackgroundMaltreated youth are at an elevated risk for the development of problem behaviors. Coping with the death of a family member or close friend during adolescence, referred to as bereavement, is a stressful event that could potentiate risk linked to maltreatment. However, developmental research suggests that youth adjustment is a product of multiple risk and protective factors. Although maltreated youth who experience loss may be particularly vulnerable to behavior problems, personal and contextual factors may attenuate or exacerbate youths’ risk for internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.ObjectiveThe overarching goal of this study is to examine individual, family, and community-level protective factors for maltreated youth who experience bereavement. Specifically, we aim to examine the effect of age 12 bereavement on age 16 internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, and to investigate the moderating role of multi-level protective factors at ages 14 and 16.MethodsThe study consisted of a sample of 800 youth (52.4% female, 45.1% African-American) drawn from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), collected from 1998 to 2011.ResultsMaltreated youth who experienced significant loss were at increased risk for externalizing symptoms, compared to non-bereaved maltreated youth (β = 0.085, p < .05). Individual future orientation (β = 0.103, p < .05) family future orientation (β = −0.120, p < .05), parental monitoring (β = −0.123, p< .01), and neighborhood collective efficacy (β = −0.126, p < .01) each significantly moderated the association between bereavement and externalizing symptoms.ConclusionsThese results have implications for future interventions aimed towards reducing problem behaviors in adolescents with a history of child maltreatment and who experience bereavement.     

体育学院学生压力感受和应对方式的研究

以461名学生为研究对象,以10项自我陈述测验和生活满意感量表为研究工具,采用描述性统计和多因素方差分析的统计方法,调查了体育学院学生的压力感受和应对方式.研究目的是为学生管理和心理健康教育提供心理依据,维护他们的身心健康.研究结果显示,体育学院学生感受的主要压力有学习、学校环境适应、人际交往和就业.面对压力,他们的应对方式主要有解决问题、退避、转移注意力、自我激励、宣泄和求助.     

珠三角中小企业发展存在的问题和对策

珠江三角洲地区的中小企业比较发达，但在发展过程中仍存在不少问题，应引起高度重视，要采取相应的对策措施来促进其进一步发展，因为中小企业能否得到切实的发展，是该地区能否在全国率先实现现代化的关键因素之一。     

Investigating married adults’ communal coping with genetic health risk and perceived discrimination

Increased genetic testing in personalized medicine presents unique challenges for couples, including managing disease risk and potential discrimination as a couple. This study investigated couples’ conflicts and support gaps as they coped with perceived genetic discrimination. We also explored the degree to which communal coping was beneficial in reducing support gaps and ultimately stress. Dyadic analysis of married adults (N?=?266, 133 couples), in which one person had the genetic risk for serious illness, showed that perceived discrimination predicted more frequent conflicts about alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-related treatment, privacy boundaries, and finances, which, in turn, predicted wider gaps in emotion and esteem support, and greater stress for both spouses. Communal coping predicted lower support gaps for both partners and marginally lower stress.     

Stress,Adaptive Coping,and Life Satisfaction

The authors examined the relationship between stress, adaptive coping, and life satisfaction among college students who reported having a friend or family member with eating disorder symptomatology. A hierarchical regression confirmed the study's hypotheses. Higher stress was linked with less life satisfaction. After stress was controlled, plan coping had a beneficial influence on life satisfaction. College counselors can use these findings when choosing interventions for clients who are close to someone with an eating disorder.     

Becoming Fathers: Initial Exploration of a Support Program for New Fathers

Emerging fathers experience a variety of stressors, including identity and role transitions, changes in their relationships, and challenges in developing caregiving skills. Increasing expectations for father involvement in childcare are emphasizing the importance of the father role, but social supports for new fathers remain scarce. Nineteen expectant and new fathers participated in a pilot 5-week group intervention aimed at improving stress coping and involvement attitudes using a combination of mindfulness practices and skill-building for parenting and partner communication. We administered surveys pre- and postintervention to assess efficacy in the areas of stress, depressive symptoms, father involvement attitudes, and mindfulness. Within-participant differences were compared across participants as well as examining individual reliable change. Results indicated initial reductions in stress and depressive symptoms and increases in the mindfulness constructs of nonjudgment and nonreactivity. No significant changes were found in father involvement attitudes. Perinatal intervention specific to fathers holds promise as an underexplored avenue for supporting families across the transition to parenthood.     

‘Fractured communities’: uncertainty,stress, and (a lack of) communal coping in Palestinian refugee camps

This study examined how communal coping reveals itself in Palestinian refugee camps and the conditions that promote or prevent its occurrence. Individual and dyadic interviews were conducted with 40 mothers and one of their adolescent children living in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The results revealed that communal coping existed within the mother–adolescent dyad to a certain extent, but was rare within the larger context of the refugee camps. While families and neighbors did not typically verbalize their hardships and actively cope with them as a group, there was often an implicit recognition that they were all experiencing the same uncertainty and stress. Acting upon their uncertainty as a collective, however, was greatly hampered by mistrust within and outside the camps, due to widespread violence, privacy violations, vying for scarce resources, and disloyalty. Parents and adolescents also engaged in protective buffering whereby they attempted to reduce the stress of the family by keeping stress and fears to themselves rather than communicating about them. Even though protective buffering helped the refugees cope with chronic uncertainty and maintain a sense of normalcy, it prevented them from acting upon the problem as a group. Finally, parents emphasized that the child’s education provided hope for the future. Practical implications are discussed.     

逆境中的生存智慧——解读元散曲的另一视角

文学是供人阅读、欣赏、感悟的，从文学阅读学的角度来说，当我们走进作品的情感世界，便会获得一种现实意义。元散曲作家仕途受阻，生存状态艰难，但其作品却体现着一种幽默旷达的情怀。他们在对历史的反思与对现实的观照中。感悟到人生价值并不在于功名富贵的占有，而是身心的自由与安宁，于是重新设计生存方式。他们更加关爱生命本身，在山水、田园、情爱中享受世俗生活的真趣，化解了不良情绪，体现出一种逆境中的生存智慧，给遭遇挫折的人们以启迪。     

Social Work Intervention with White Collared Employees and Their Families

This investigation presents a framework for understanding and also to test the efficacy of Social Work intervention on the well being of the white collared employee (industrial employee) and his/her family. A comprehensive and intensive personal- family exploration was done to uncover the relatedness of seemingly disparate areas of the clients lives. A total of 80 executives (industrial employees) served as subjects. A baseline assessment was done using structured, standardized interview-schedules/questionnaires. The results of the study can be enumerated as follows: After the Social Work intervention, the executives in occupational profile, there were significant changes in Role perception, overload, role conflict, low status and poor peer relations. In coping strategies there was significant improvement in sub-scales like problem solving and unproductive coping. Significant reduction was noticed in their proneness to heart disease, depression, inadequate mental mastery, and perceived ill health. There was significant improvement in their family group support, and in their expressiveness, achievement, orientation, active-recreational and organizational characteristics.