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This is a Preconference workshop presentation on resilience scales for adults and adolescents by Odin Hjemdal from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He did this presentation the “Pathways to Resilience II” event held in Halifax, Canada, June 7 – 10, 2010.
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This pilot study investigated the relationship between childhood trauma exposure and cognitive function in 47 healthy adults, who were identified as part of a larger study from the general population in Wichita, Kansas. The results suggest that physical neglect and emotional abuse might be associated with memory deficits in adulthood, which in turn might pose a risk factor for the development of psychopathology.
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The authors review the extant literature examining the functional impact of crime victimization on indices of quality of life. They present findings within a conceptual framework comprised of role functioning, life satisfaction, and well-being, and social–material conditions, including crime-related medical, mental health, and employer costs, and health care utilization. The review indicates that crime victimization impacts multiple domains, including parenting skills, impaired occupational functioning, higher rates of unemployment, and problematic intimate relationships. However, data on relationships between crime victimization and overall life satisfaction were mixed, suggesting the need for further investigation.
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The current study explored the prevalence of depressed mood among Chinese undergraduate students and examined the coping patterns and degree of flexibility of such patterns associated with such mood. Findings indicate that Chinese university students with depressive symptoms reported experiencing a greater number of negative events than did non-depressed university students. In addition, undergraduates with depressive symptoms were more likely than other undergraduates to utilize maladaptive coping methods. Such findings highlight the potential importance of interventions aimed at helping undergraduate students with a lower coping flexibility develop skills to cope with stressful life events.
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The present article examines the construct of self-compassion from the standpoint of research on coping in an effort to understand the ways in which people who are high in self-compassion cope with stressful events. Self-compassionate people tend to rely heavily on positive cognitive restructuring but do not appear to differ from less self-compassionate people in the degree to which they cope through problem-solving and distraction. Existing evidence does not show clear differences in the degree to which people who are low vs. high in self-compassion seek support as a coping strategy, but more research is needed.
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Despite the increasing US Latino population, few studies have examined the role of culture within pediatric oncology, including how mothers cope with their child’s cancer. This study used qualitative analysis of 24 sessions from 3 Latina and 3 European-American mothers of children recently diagnosed with cancer. This study shows that it is important that more attention and help is given to undergraduate students with a lower coping flexibility, to empower them with the skills to cope with stressful life events. With flexible coping, positive adjustments can arise, and positive emotion can occur even when depression and distress are frequent.
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This study examined data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a nationally representative longitudinal study of youth referred to child welfare authorities for alleged maltreatment and assessed during the sampling period of October 1999 to December 2000. Interviews with families and child welfare workers were conducted by trained professionals and occurred for the first time between three and six months after the investigation had been completed. This study examined children ages eight to 14 (N = 1,848). All potential predictors of PTS were entered into the final hierarchical logistic regression model. Blocks of variables were entered into the multivariate model, beginning with demographics and followed by maltreatment characteristics, level of violence exposure, and depression symptoms.
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Evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for children with severe behavioral and emotional problems have received a great deal of attention in children’s mental health. Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC), a residential intervention for youth with emotional or behavioral problems, is one of the few community-based programs that is considered to be evidence-based. However, as for most treatment approaches, the vast majority of existing programs do not deliver the evidence-based version. In an attempt to fill this gap and improve practice across a wide range of TFC agencies, researchers developed an enhanced model of TFC based on input from both practice and research. The current manuscript describes this “hybrid” intervention - Together Facing the Challenge - and discusses key issues in implementation.
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The moderating effects of kinship social support on the association of mother–adolescent problematic relations and mothers’ report of adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed among 204 African American mothers of adolescents who were between the ages of 14 and 18 years. Kinship support was negatively associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems. Mother–adolescent communication problems and mothers’ psychological control were positively associated with internalizing problems. Mother–adolescent communication problems were positively related to externalizing problems. The interaction of kinship support and mothers’ psychological control on internalizing problems was significant. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for more information on factors that moderate families’ access to social support.
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This study examined the degree to which children with and without a history of stable peer victimization differentially endorse strategies for dealing with school bullies. Children with a history of stable peer victimization differed from comparison children in how they rated various strategies, but the findings were gender specific. Chronically bullied girls were less inclined to endorse any strategy (coercive or noncoercive), whereas chronically bullied boys generally endorsed adult-recommended strategies. However, strategy endorsement for boys was associated with greater levels of peer victimization in the following grade. Discussed is the complex role of interpersonal strategies in affecting change in bullied children’s victimization experiences and the implications for intervening on behalf of chronically bullied children.
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The present study explores the link between the father–child relationship and outcomes following child sexual abuse disclosure cases. Results indicated that perceived attachment security to the father figure is not correlated with perceived attachment security to the mother. A series of hierarchical multiple regression revealed that perception of paternal attachment security added to the prediction of internalised and externalised (marginal) behaviours over and above perceived attachment security to the mother. Results are discussed in terms of implications for intervention with sexually abused children.
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The primary goal of this study was to explore the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and parenting practices among non-offending mothers of sexually abused girls. Guided by a developmental-ecological perspective of parenting, several models with different potential pathways starting from the mothers’ childhood experiences of sexual abuse and culminating in their parenting practices (e.g., direct, spurious, indirect effect) were hypothesized and explored in the context of the mothers’ past and current psychosocial risks and resources. Two dimensions of parenting were considered: providing positive structure (i.e., ratings of how consistent, fair, easygoing), and using punitive discipline.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the power of self-reported peritraumatic distress and dissociation to predict the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in school-aged children. The authors observed that as has been found in adults, peritraumatic distress is a robust predictor of who will develop PTSD symptoms among school-aged children.
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Adults aging with HIV/AIDS can experience resilience in spite of the deleterious affects of the disease. This study seeks to examine the lived experiences of older adults with HIV/AIDS as it relates to strengths and resilience in dealing with this devastating disease. The majority of informants expressed experiences of resilience and strengths as related to living with HIV/AIDS. Seven major themes emerged from the analysis including self-acceptance, optimism, will to live, generativity, self-management, relational living, and independence.
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The enduring impact of exposure to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on mental health and sociopolitical attitudes was examined in a sample of 427 adolescents (M = 16.20 years) and their mothers residing in New York City. Direct exposure to the terrorist attack was associated with youth depression symptoms and with mothers’ posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. There was no evidence of reciprocal effects of mother exposure on youth or of youth exposure on mothers. Although mothers reported engaging in more emotional processing coping assistance with their children, coping assistance was not associated with youth’s symptomatology. Media exposure was found to be a strong predictor of youth’s and mothers’ sociopolitical attitudes about issues such as prejudice toward immigrants, social mistrust, and current events.
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The treatment of cancer is a stressful and threatening experience, particularly for children. Knowing how children cope with cancer is a crucial step toward designing appropriate psychological interventions that help them ease the burden of cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine the coping strategies used by Chinese children hospitalized with cancer, an area of research that is under-represented in the existing literature. Findings from this study indicated that children use different coping strategies at different developmental stages. The study also revealed that Chinese children used more emotion-focused than problem-focused coping strategies than their Western counterparts.