Objective
Parents of young children with newly diagnosed food allergy (FA) are at risk for poor psychosocial outcomes due to FA’s life-threatening nature and demanding management routines. ...Presently, there are no interventions to support FA parents during this adjustment phase. This single-arm pilot study explores the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a novel intervention using peer mentorship to improve psychosocial functioning in parents of young children with newly diagnosed FA.
Methods
Parent mentors were trained in mentorship and ethics and then matched with a mentee for a 6-month intervention period. Mentees, parents of children (under age 5 years) diagnosed with FA within 1 year, completed baseline and follow-up questionnaires to assess demographic and medical characteristics, FA knowledge, quality of life, self-efficacy, and social support and a program evaluation. Follow-up focus groups with mentors and individual interviews with mentees were conducted.
Results
Participants were 8 mentors and 10 mentees (Mage = 36.60 years, 80% Caucasian) of children ages 0–3 years (Mage = 16.15 months; 60% male). Mentees reported high acceptability for the intervention in program evaluation and interviews, noting improvements in their social support, FA-related stress, confidence in FA management, and positive changes in FA parenting behaviors.
Conclusion
This study supports the use of a peer mentorship program to support parents of children with newly diagnosed FA. Future research is needed to determine how to scale this intervention to meet the needs of a large medical division.
Entrepreneurial resilience and venture failure Corner, Patricia Doyle; Singh, Smita; Pavlovich, Kathryn
International small business journal,
09/2017, Volume:
35, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This article explores the emotional and psychological functioning of entrepreneurs after venture failure. Accordingly, it investigates the extent to which entrepreneurs exhibit resilience, defined by ...psychologists as stability in functioning over time, despite experiencing a traumatic event. Entrepreneurial resilience is rarely investigated in the context of failure despite it being a debilitating experience. Our exploration is critical to venture creation as resilience plays a key role in re-entry into entrepreneurship. A qualitative, narrative research design reveals how 11 entrepreneurs functioned after failure. The majority of entrepreneurs show resilience; that is, they exhibit stable levels of functioning. This stability is different from the disruptions in functioning that psychologists label as ‘recovery’ from a severe event. Our findings, therefore, challenge the assumption that recovery is required after venture failure. Implications for re-entry into entrepreneurship and learning from, and coping with, failure are explored.
Full text
Available for:
NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objective
To inform efforts to better support caregivers of children with cancer during the transition from treatment to survivorship, this study sought to characterize caregiver mental ...health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and anxiety, and examine the influence of family psychosocial risk and caregiver problem-solving on these outcomes.
Method
Participants included 124 caregivers (child age M = 10.05 years; SD = 4.78), 12–19 months from the conclusion of cancer-directed treatment. Participants’ self-reported mental HRQOL, anxiety, and problem-solving were compared with community norms using t-tests. Correlations and hierarchical multiple regressions examined the influence of psychosocial risk and problem-solving on caregiver mental HRQOL and anxiety.
Results
Overall, caregivers reported HRQOL and anxiety within normal limits. Caregivers also reported more adaptive patterns of problem-solving than community norms. Subsets of caregivers reported clinical levels of psychosocial risk (11%) and at-risk levels of mental HRQOL (2.5%) and anxiety (5.7%). Females reported greater anxiety than males. Psychosocial risk and negative problem orientation (NPO) were both related to poorer mental HRQOL and greater anxiety (r = .40–.51, p’s < .001). Positive problem orientation related to better mental HRQOL and lower anxiety (r = .18–.21, p’s < .05). Impulsivity/carelessness and avoidance were associated with greater anxiety (r = .19–.25, p’s < .05). Only NPO accounted for additional variance in mental HRQOL and anxiety, over and above psychosocial risk and demographic characteristics.
Conclusions
The majority of caregivers appear to be resilient and experience limited distress during the off therapy period. Targeting negative cognitive appraisals (NPO) through cognitive-behavioral therapy or problem-solving skills training may further improve caregiver psychosocial functioning.
In the past decade there has been increased interest in research on color and psychological functioning. Important advances have been made in theoretical work and empirical work, but there are also ...important weaknesses in both areas that must be addressed for the literature to continue to develop apace. In this article, I provide brief theoretical and empirical reviews of research in this area, in each instance beginning with a historical background and recent advancements, and proceeding to an evaluation focused on weaknesses that provide guidelines for future research. I conclude by reiterating that the literature on color and psychological functioning is at a nascent stage of development, and by recommending patience and prudence regarding conclusions about theory, findings, and real-world application.
Exposure to adversity (e.g., poverty, bereavement) is a robust predictor of disruptions in psychological functioning. However, people vary greatly in their responses to adversity; some experience ...severe long-term disruptions, others experience minimal disruptions or even improvements. We refer to the latter outcomes-faring better than expected given adversity-as psychological resilience. Understanding what processes explain resilience has critical theoretical and practical implications. Yet, psychology's understanding of resilience is incomplete, for two reasons: (
a
) We lack conceptual clarity, and (
b
) two major approaches to resilience-the stress and coping approach and the emotion and emotion-regulation approach-have limitations and are relatively isolated from one another. To address these two obstacles,we first discuss conceptual questions about resilience. Next, we offer an integrative affect-regulation framework that capitalizes on complementary strengths of both approaches. This framework advances our understanding of resilience by integrating existing findings, highlighting gaps in knowledge, and guiding future research.
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CMK, FFLJ, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
Well-being is an essential outcome of engagement in entrepreneurship, but the pathway from self-employment to well-being is poorly understood. To address this, we develop a model in which ...psychological functioning—purposeful engagement with life, realization of personal talents and capabilities, and fulfillment of intrinsic needs such as autonomy and competence—mediates the relationship between entrepreneurship and subjective well-being. We test our model with data from the European Social Survey using structural equation modeling and a series of robustness tests (e.g., propensity score matching estimators and accounting for model uncertainty). Results suggest that entrepreneurship is associated with substantial benefits in terms of psychological functioning—both personal and social—which almost entirely mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship and subjective well-being. These findings highlight psychological functioning as a critical pathway between entrepreneurship and subjective well-being.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In recent decades, numerous studies have suggested a positive relationship between prosociality and well-being. What remains less clear are (a) what the magnitude of this relationship is, and (b) ...what the moderators that influence it are. To address these questions, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the strength of the prosociality to well-being link under different operationalizations, and how a set of theoretical, demographic, and methodological variables moderate the link. While the results revealed a modest overall mean effect size (r = .13, K = 201, N = 198,213) between prosociality and well-being, this masked the substantial variability in the effect as a function of numerous moderators. In particular, the effect of prosociality on eudaimonic well-being was stronger than that on hedonic well-being. Prosociality was most strongly related to psychological functioning-showing a more modest relationship with psychological malfunctioning and physical health. Using prosociality scales was more strongly associated with well-being than using measures of volunteering/helping frequency or status. In addition, informal helping (vs. formal helping) was linked to more well-being benefits. Demographically, younger givers exhibited higher levels of well-being other than physical health, while older and retired givers reported better physical health only. Female givers showed stronger relationships between prosociality and eudaimonic well-being, psychological malfunctioning, and physical health. Methodologically, the magnitude of the link was stronger in studies using primary (vs. secondary) data and with higher methodological rigor (i.e., measurement reliability and validity). We discussed all of these results and implications and suggested directions for future research.
Public Significance Statement
The present meta-analysis suggests a small and significant association between prosocial behavior and well-being. It also provides researchers with important insights into what theoretical (i.e., types of prosociality and well-being), demographical (i.e., age, gender, and retirement status), and methodological factors (i.e., primary vs. secondary data collection and methodological rigor) may strengthen or weaken the link between prosociality and well-being.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
On March 10, 2020, the Italian Government ordered a national lockdown to limit the viral transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 infections. This study investigated how these restrictive measures ...have impacted sleep quality, timing, and psychological difficulties in school-age children and their mothers during the lockdown.
In an online survey, 299 mothers reported their sleep habits, experience of time, and psychological difficulties as well as those of their children (6-10 years old) during and, retrospectively, before the lockdown.
During the lockdown, children showed a marked delay in sleep timing-that is, later bedtime and rise time-and a mild worsening in sleep quality. They were less prone to respect daily routines or to keep track of the passage of time. They showed increased emotional, conduct, and hyperactive symptoms, and the increase in these psychological difficulties was predicted by the change in sleep quality, boredom, and mothers' psychological difficulties. In addition, mothers showed a delayed sleep timing and worsening of sleep quality during the lockdown, in varying degrees depending on their working conditions. Mothers who kept working regularly outside their homes during lockdown reported more regular sleep patterns, whereas mothers who stopped working showed more emotional symptoms and relevant changes in their perception of time.
Overall, given the evidence of the adverse behavioral and psychological impact of home confinement and social restrictions, effective measures needed to be in place to mitigate long-term effects on children and their mothers, especially those who have had to stop working during lockdown.
Background:
Given the role of alexithymia—as the inability to identify, differentiate, and express emotions—in chronic and immune-mediated illness, this systematic review analyzed the prevalence of ...alexithymia in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), mainly represented by Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC).
Methods:
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed throughout this systematic review of the literature published between 2015 and 2020 in indexed sources from PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Search terms for eligible studies were: “Inflammatory bowel disease” AND “Alexithymia” Titles, Abstract, Keywords. Inclusion criteria were: articles written and published in English from 2015 and up to April 2020, reporting relevant and empirical data on alexithymia and IBD.
Results:
The initial search identified 34 indexed scientific publications. After screening, we found that five publications met the established scientific inclusion criteria. Overall, the mean value of alexithymia ranged from 39 to 53.2 Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) score, thus mostly falling in non-clinical range for alexithymia (≤51). Comparisons of alexithymia between patients with UC and CD highlighted that patients with CD showed externally oriented thinking and difficulties identifying feelings to a greater extent. Regarding comparisons with other samples or pathologies, patients with IBD were more alexithymic than healthy controls and less alexithymic than patients with major depressive disorder, but no difference was found when compared with patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Then, regarding correlations with other variables, alexithymia was positively associated with anxiety and depression, as well as with psychopathological symptoms and somatic complaints.
Conclusion:
This systematic review suggests that patients with IBD cannot be generally considered alexithymic at a clinically relevant extent. However, their greater alexithymic levels and its associations with psychological variables and somatic distress may suggest a reactivity hypothesis, in which living with IBD may progressively lead to impaired emotion recognition over time. Specifically, the relationship between IBD and IBS should be further explored, paying deeper attention to the clinical psychological functioning of CD, as IBD requires more emotional challenges to patients.
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