This state-of-the-art book examines the effect of social relationships on physical health. It surveys and assesses the research that shows not only that supportive relationships protect us from a ...multitude of mental health problems but also that the absence of supportive relationships increases the risk of dying from various diseases.Bert N. Uchino discusses the links between social support and mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. He investigates whether social support is more effective for some individuals and within certain cultures. After evaluating existing conceptual models linking social support to health outcomes, he offers his own broader perspective on the issue. And he suggests the implications for intervention and for future research in this area.
Social Capital and Health Kawachi, Ichiro; Subramanian, S. V; Kim, Daniel
2007, 2008, 2007-11-15, 20080401
eBook
This text discusses social capital, a concept that originated in the social sciences, & its application to the field of public health. The editors take care to define the concept of social capital, ...describe its theoretical origins, & discuss the controversies & debates surrounding the use of the concept in public health research.
Beyond PTSD Gerson, Ruth; Heppell, Patrick; Perry, Bruce D
2018, 2019-01-01
eBook
Impulsivity, poor judgment, moodiness, risky behavior. "You don't understand." "I don't care." "Whatever, bro." Engaging and working with teenagers is tough. Typically, we attribute this to the ...storms of adolescence. But what if some of the particularly problematic behaviors we see in teens - self-destructive behaviors, academic issues, substance abuse, reluctance to engage in therapy or treatment - point to unspoken trauma? Teens nationwide struggle with traumatic stress related to poverty, abuse, neglect, bullying, traumatic loss, and interpersonal or community violence. But youth are also generally reluctant to disclose or discuss experiences of traumatic stress, and adults working with these youth may not immediately perceive the connection between prior trauma and the teen's current risky or concerning behavior. Beyond PTSD: Helping and Healing Teens Exposed to Trauma helps adults recognize and understand traumatized youth, and provides concrete strategies for talking to and engaging the teen, overcoming resistance, and finding the most appropriate evidence-based treatment approach for them. Nearly twenty contributors pull from their extensive and varied experience working in schools and hospitals to child welfare programs, juvenile justice facilities, pediatric offices, and with families to provide concrete tips to manage the challenges and opportunities of working with trauma-exposed adolescents. Chapters present trauma-informed approaches to youth with aggression, suicide and self-injury, psychosis, and school refusal; youth with physical or developmental disabilities or medical comorbidities, those in juvenile justice or child welfare; teen parents; and LGBTQ youth, among others. Throughout the text, tables compare different types of trauma therapies and provide information about how treatments might be adapted to fit a specific teen or setting. Readers will also find "real life" case vignettes and concrete, specific clinical pearls-even examples of language to use-to demonstrate how to work effectively with difficult-to-engage teens with complex symptoms and behaviors. Written to be practical and accessible for clinicians, social workers, pediatricians, school counselors, and even parents, with the information, context, and strategies they need to help the teen in front of them.
The relationship between social support and work-family conflict is well-established, but the notion that different forms, sources, and types of social support as well as contextual factors can alter ...this relationship has been relatively neglected. To address this limitation, the current study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth examination of the relationship between social support and work-family conflict to date. We conduct a meta-analysis based on 1021 effect sizes and 46 countries to dissect the social support and work-family conflict relationship. Using social support theory as a theoretical framework, we challenge the assumption that social support measures are interchangeable by comparing work/family support relationships with work-family conflict across different support forms (behavior, perceptions), sources (e.g., supervisor, coworker, spouse), types (instrumental, emotional), and national contexts (cultural values, economic factors). National context hypotheses use a strong inferences paradigm in which utility and value congruence theoretical perspectives are pitted against one another. Significant results concerning support source are in line with social support theory, indicating that broad sources of support are more strongly related to work-family conflict than are specific sources of support. In line with utility perspective from social support theory, culture and economic national context significantly moderate some of the relationships between work/family support and work interference with family, indicating that social support is most beneficial in contexts in which it is needed or perceived as useful. The results suggest that organizational support may be the most important source of support overall.
Public Significance Statement
This study shows that social support is associated with less conflict between work and family (work-family conflict). The results suggest that support from work may be more helpful for reducing work-family conflict than family support, particularly employee perceptions that their organization is supportive. Support may be most important for reducing work-to-family conflict in collectivist or assertive cultures, or countries that have high unemployment rates; however, support may be universally helpful for reducing family to-work conflict.
This book provides the most detailed analysis yet of the failure of U.S. nation-building in the Vietnam War. In doing so, it demolishes the “better war” school of writing on the topic, which argues ...that the U.S. was successful in building a legitimate and viable non-Communist state in South Vietnam in the latter years of the war. Drawing on fresh archival collections and previously unseen oral histories with dozens of U.S. nation-builders, the book demonstrates that the U.S. never came close to achieving victory. The book’s narrative stretches from the offices in Washington in which policy was designed down into the villages in which it was implemented, providing the most comprehensive analysis yet of the largest and best-resourced nation-building program in U.S. history. Only by understanding and facing the reasons for this failure can we avoid repeating the tragic mistake of the Vietnam War again in the future.
In times of crisis, when institutions of power are laid bare, people turn to one another. Pandemic Solidarity collects firsthand experiences from around the world of people creating their own ...narratives of solidarity and mutual aid in the time of the global crisis of Covid-19. The world’s media was quick to weave a narrative of selfish individualism, full of empty supermarket shelves and con-men. However, if you scratch the surface, you find a different story of community and self-sacrifice. Looking at eighteen countries and regions, including India, Rojava, Taiwan, South Africa, Iraq and North America, the personal accounts in the book weave together to create a larger picture, revealing a universality of experience. Moving beyond the present, these stories reveal what an alternative society could look like, and reflect the skills and relationships we already have to create that society, challenging institutions of power that have already shown their fragility.
This study provided a description of types and dimensions of informal and formal social support among aging parental caregivers of adult children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ...Parents participated in a web-based survey regarding use of and satisfaction with social support services for parents or their adult children. Results indicated that many parents participated in autism support groups (27.5%), with psychiatric services (48.8%), counseling (40.6%), and financial assistance (39.7%) the most commonly used formal social supports. Emotional support (88.8%) and informational support (67.5%) were the most common informal social supports used. Professionals who are working with parental caregivers and their adult children diagnosed with ASD should be aware of available social support services to help them find needed services.
Two complementary studies were conducted to compare emotional support and instrumental support in the workplace. Study 1 included meta-analyses with 142 independent samples containing 68,354 ...participants and tested the moderation effects of source of support (supervisor vs. coworker) and support scale type (received vs. availability). Study 2 incorporated a two-wave survey design and objective ratings of participant job demands. Overall, emotional support and instrumental support were strongly correlated and demonstrated a similar pattern of effects with work criteria. However, the emotional support-instrumental support relationship is stronger within occupations higher in emotional labor demands. Moderation effects of support on stressor-criteria relationships were also reviewed among the primary studies in the meta-analysis. For both emotional support and instrumental support, buffering effects and reverse buffering effects were commonly found, which indicates that contextual factors need to be considered to determine when support mitigates or exacerbates the effect of stressors on work criteria. Moderation effects of source of support (supervisor vs. coworker) and support scale type (received vs. availability) were also tested. In general, support was more strongly correlated with criteria when the source of support was the supervisor and the scale included items about the availability of support. The findings from the two studies provide researchers and practitioners a guide for when emotional support and instrumental support converge or diverge.
Background: Social and environmental factors and their interactions are important to changing lifestyle behaviors, yet are understudied when compared to individual level factors. Behaviors typically ...occur within the family behavioral context, and gaining insight into how this context and family interactions influence behaviors is important in designing family-centered weight loss intervention. Methods: We measured changes in dietary adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern from baseline to 4 months in the Delicious Eating for Life in Southern Homes (DELISH) study. Using validated surveys, we assessed baseline family functioning constructs (cohesion, emotional involvement, perceived criticism, and communication), and social support. Multiple linear regression was performed to assess the association between the change in Mediterranean dietary adherence from baseline to 4 months and the selected family functioning variables. Gender and age were covariates. Significance was set a priori at 0.05 level (2-tailed). Results: Participant (n = 113) were majority male (53%), and on average 56.0 years old. Male gender was predictive of lower adherence to Mediterranean in models adjusting for social support for eating encouragement (/У = -2.1, p = 0.01), social support for eating discouragement (/T = -2.0, p = 0.02), social support quality and quantity (/? = -2.0, p = 0.02), family cohesion (/? = -2.0, p = 0.02), emotional involvement (ß = -2.0, p = 0.02), perceived criticism (ß = -2.0, p = 0.02), and communication (ß = 1.9, p = 0.02). Conclusions: These results suggest that the selected family functioning constructs alone do not improve adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern among men. Further research is needed to understand these interactions and combination of interactions among men as potential targets for family centered weight loss interventions.
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