Life change, the sensation seeking motive, and psychological distress

Risk-Taking Propensity and Sensation Seeking in Survivors of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Risk-taking propensity and sensation seeking are developmentally meaningful traits for emerging adults, individuals ages 18 to 25 years. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of childhood abuse and neglect, exposure to domestic violence, residing with a substance abusing or mentally ill caregiver, and growing up with an incarcerated family member negatively impact the well-being of emerging adults. However, the specific association between ACEs and risk-taking propensity and sensation seeking has not been previously examined in this age group. This study aims to determine whether ACEs are individually or cumulatively related to risk-taking propensity (assessed by the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale) and sensation seeking (assessed by the Behavior Inhibition System/Behavior Approach System Scales) in a diverse sample of undergraduates, n = 436; M_age = 19.73 years (SD = 1.83 years); 67% female; 22% Hispanic. Multivariate ordinary least squares regressions were run to examine the association between ACEs and risk-taking propensity and sensation seeking. Individually, emotional abuse predicted greater inhibition (B = .28, p < .001), growing up with a mentally ill family member (B = -.12, p < .05) and emotional neglect (B = -.13, p < .05) predicted reduced motivation to pursue rewarding cues, and emotional neglect (B = -.12, p < .05) and witnessing domestic violence (B = -.10, p < .05) predicted less reward responsiveness. No cumulative effects were found. ACEs related to environmental instability may have a unique impact on sensation seeking domains in emerging adults. Clarifying the role of sensation seeking in emerging adults can contribute to better understanding of risk and resilience factors in this vulnerable population.

Stress, Coping, and Mexican American Mental Health: A Systematic Review

While there has been a rapid growth in mental health research which focuses on the Mexican American population, differences in theoretical formulations and consequent research methodologies have led to a host of conflicting findings. These conflicting findings are then often difficult to translate into useful clinical applications which would make clinical services more relevant and acceptable to this growing population. One suggested solution to the problem has been to develop more systematic theoretical frameworks for guiding Mexican American mental health research. In this vein a new theoretical model was presented. The model is based upon recent concepts regarding the relationship between psychological stress and consequent physical and/or psychological illnesses. This model includes some important intervening or mediating variables which may serve to aggravate or buffer the aversive impact of exposure to potential stressors. Examination of these intervening variables is of clinical importance in promoting a better understanding of the experience of stress and its relationship to various forms of psychopathology. The model allows for critical examination of those intervening variables which are particularly relevant to Mexican Americans. In addition to presenting this stress-mediation-out-come model, an attempt was made to synthesize extant Mexican American mental health research within the framework of the proposed model. This synthesis served as a basis for identifying conceptual and methodological problems in past research, as well as for identifying current gaps in this large body of research. Finally, an attempt was made to delineate new lines of mental health research which are more consistent with the postulated stress-mediation-outcome model.

Assessing the effect of the Queensland "Summer of Disasters" on perceptions of collective efficacy

The collective efficacy literature suggests that neighborhoods with higher collective efficacy have fewer problems of disorder, increased volunteerism, and higher levels of life satisfaction and wellbeing, along with the increased potential for resilience in the face of a disaster. Although perceptions of collective efficacy typically remain stable over time, rapid or sudden social change, such as experiencing a natural disaster, has the potential to disrupt the neighborhood and the individuals within - including their perceptions of the regulatory mechanisms of collective efficacy. Still, the effect of a major disaster on perceptions of collective efficacy remains relatively unexamined. Longitudinal survey data collected before and after the Queensland flood and cyclone disasters permit a unique investigation of the impact of the disaster on perceptions of social control and social cohesion before and after the disaster. Results show that after this major natural disaster, respondents who were proximately affected reported decreased levels of collective efficacy. Also, persons who experienced the biggest decrease in perceived collective efficacy were those that had lower levels of collective efficacy prior to the disaster. We discuss the mechanisms surrounding disaster preparedness, response, and recovery that may contribute to changing perceptions of collective efficacy.

Initial development of an inventory to assess stress and health risk

Abstract In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the role of individual variables in the stress-illness relationship. Of particular value at this point are measurement tools and studies that evaluate the possible effects of two or more individual variables on health status. This study summarizes the initial development, psychometric properties, and validation of a brief, rationally derived, and reliable stress and health risk factor instrument. The 123-item instrument has shown criterion-related validity with both physical and psychological health outcomes in a study with 194 employees working in several large companies in the Los Angeles area. Implications for future development, application, and research are discussed.

Sensation seeking and the aversive motivational system

Sensation seeking (SS) has traditionally been viewed as a phenomenon of the appetitive motivational system. The limited SS research exploring contributions from the aversive motivational system reveals greater anxious reactivity to dangerous activities among low sensation seekers. The present study extends this line of work by comparing levels of fear and anxiety during anticipation of predictable and unpredictable aversive stimuli across high- and low-SS groups. Low sensation seekers displayed greater fear-potentiated startle (FPS) to predictable aversive stimuli, and only those low on SS showed FPS and skin conductance response effects during experimental contexts in which aversive stimuli were delivered unpredictably. Findings implicate enhanced apprehensive anticipation among those low on SS as a potential deterrent for their participation in intense and threatening stimulus events.

Coping sense of humor reduces effects of stereotype threat on women's math performance

Two studies demonstrated that coping sense of humor buffered women against the effects of stereotype threat on math performance. Using a correlational design, Study 1 demonstrated that women low in coping sense of humor assessed their performance on standardized math tests lower than did men and lower than did women high in coping sense of humor. Using an experimental design, Study 2 showed that coping sense of humor was positively related to women's performance on a math test taken under conditions of stereotype threat but not under conditions of no stereotype threat. Mediation analyses suggest that in the stereotype-threat condition, state anxiety mediated the relationship between coping sense of humor and test performance. Women higher in coping sense of humor performed better because they felt less anxiety while taking the test.

Hardiness, work support and psychological distress among nursing assistants and registered nurses in Quebec

BACKGROUND

Although nursing assistants (NAs) represent a large segment of Canadian health care providers, little is known about psychosocial factors related to their physical and psychological well-being and how these compare with their registered nurse (RN) counterparts.

AIM

Guided by Maddi and Kobasa's theoretical framework of Factors Affecting Health-Illness Status, the purpose of the present study was to examine relationships among hardiness, psychological distress and work support in NAs, and to compare results with those from a sample of RNs.

METHOD

A random sample of 171 NAs in Quebec completed self-report questionnaires. The study instruments included validated French-Canadian versions of Kobasa's Hardiness Scale, Ilfeld's Psychiatric Symptom Index, and Moos' Work Relationship Index.

RESULTS

As theoretically predicted, statistically significant correlations were found between hardiness and psychological distress (r = -0.42; P < 0.001), hardiness and work support (r = 0.27; P < 0.001), and between work support and psychological distress (r = -0.21; P < 0.001). Using a mediational model and multiple regression analyses, hardiness among NAs was found to be a significant mediator between work support and psychological distress. Comparative analyses revealed that whereas NAs and RNs reported similar levels of psychological distress (P = 0.25) and work support (P = 0.13), NAs reported significantly less hardiness (t = -5.58; P < 0.01). In addition, NAs and RNs reported significantly more psychological distress than the general population of Quebec, Canada (t = 9.07 and 22.84, P < 0.01, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Results add support to Maddi and Kobasa's theoretical propositions linking personal and contextual resources to health-related outcomes and offer insights into specific factors that may affect the health and well-being of both NAs and RNs as well as their work climate.

Psychosocial influences on central and peripheral vision and reaction time during demanding tasks

We examined perceptual deficits hypothesized in a model of stress and injury relationships. An ophthalmologic perimeter was used to measure peripheral and central vision during baseline and demanding task situations for 201 intercollegiate athletes from 10 sports. We conducted analyses of covariance with the stress measures as dependent variables and their appropriate baseline measures as covariates. Performance under demanding tasks deteriorated significantly on all the perceptual variables. Individuals with high negative life events scores experienced greater peripheral narrowing and slower central vision reaction time during stress than did those with life events scores that were low. Men with low social support had more failures to detect cues, and men with high negative life events, low social support, and low coping skills had the lowest perceptual sensitivity. Women with high negative life events and low coping skills had more failures to detect cues. We discuss the findings in terms of how stress responsivity may influence injury risk through changes in perception and attention.

Prevalence of depression among middle-school Kuwaiti students following the Iraqi invasion

The prevalence of depression among 1981 middle-school students (995 boys and 986 girls) in Kuwait was estimated using the Arabic Children's Depression Inventory. Cronbach coefficients alpha for their scores were .86, .88, and .87, for boys, girls, and the combined group, respectively. There were 3.7% of boys and 4.8% of girls who attained total scores greater than 2 SDs above the mean. It was noted that subjects who have a martyr or a POW in the family exhibited a significant difference on depressive symptoms. The boys obtained a mean of 44.2 whereas the girls obtained a mean of 42.5. Further, there was a significant correlation between scores on depression and report of stressful experience. An interpretation of this finding was provided.

Stereotypic beliefs about women as moderators of stress-distress relationships

Health psychologists have begun to examine the mediating effect of gender roles in stress-distress relationships. One particular area in which attention has been focused concerns the impact of "stereotypic" beliefs about women on the distress that individuals experience in response to stressful life experiences. The present investigation examined the extent to which the gender stereotypes measured by the Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS; Belk & Snell, 1986) intensify the impact of stressful life experiences. The results indicated that among individuals with a recent history of stressful experiences in their lives, a personal adherence to the gender stereotypes assessed by the BAWS was associated with elevated distress.

Type A, hardiness, and psychological distress

This study examined the effects of hardiness and Type A behavior to burnout and psychological distress in the face of daily life hassles. Measures of hassles, hardiness, Type A behavior, and psychological distress were collected for 193 employees in the human services over 4 months. Analyses of covariance revealed that cognitively hardly Type A individuals experienced significantly less burnout and psychological distress than their less hardy Type B counterparts. The conceptual overlap and inherent confound between the hassles and the psychological distress measures are discussed in light of the research findings.

An exploratory study of the relationship between type A and sensation-seeking behavior

The focus of the study was the relationship between Type A behavior and sensation-seeking behavior for individuals who had had a first myocardial infarction. Impulsivity, time compulsion, and sensation-seeking behavior were assumed to be risk taking. From 50 subjects with documented first myocardial infarctions were obtained scores on Type A behavior and sensation seeking. Pearson correlations were nonsignificant. Analysis of variance of Type A behavior scores for men aged 38 to 49 yr., 50 to 57 yr., and 58 to 69 yr. showed no significant effects. The group aged 38 to 49 yr. had the highest mean Type A score but these were not extreme. Subjects scored low to moderate on sensation seeking. Being a low sensation seeker apparently had more impact than Type A behavior.

Social networks and social support: an overview of research, practice, and policy implications

Following a brief overview of the stressful life events-illness model and its implications for intervention, this article highlights the role of social support as a resource for resisting stress-induced illness and disability. It identifies three different connotative meanings that have been assigned to the social support construct, and describes their empirical operationalizations in several recent studies. Specifically, the social integration/participation formulation, the social network approach, and the social intimacy measurement strategy are described and contrasted. Within the latter approach, one study that illuminated types of informal helping behaviors is discussed in greater detail. A review of possible mechanisms whereby social support accomplishes its health-protective impact is also offered, and two types of planned interventions involving the mobilization or optimization of social support are spotlighted. The article concludes with ideas about ways that professionals can safeguard the natural helping skills of citizens and achieve an appropriate balance between formal and informal systems of service delivery in the health and human services fields.

Control, desirability, and anticipation as moderating variables between life change and illness

A growing body of literature supports a relationship between life change events and illness. The present study is an investigation of cognitive processes which moderate the life change-illness relationship. The moderator variables chosen for this study were perceived control, desirability, and anticipation of life change events. One hundred and twenty-six subjects (65 males, 61 females) reported illness using the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale, and life change events using the Schedule of Recent Experiences, adapted to collect data on the moderator variables. Correlation coefficients were computed for all conditions reflecting the presence of positive and negative moderator variables. Each of the negative moderator variables was related to significant changes (p less than .05 and p less than .01) in the strength of the life change-illness relationship, with perceived control emerging as a variable with the greatest impact in all cases. Two unexpected findings emerged: (1) The relationship between life change and illness was much stronger for females than for males in all comparisons, and (2) for females only, desirable events were positively related to illness. The evidence of this study supports the contention that stress management strategies should include considerations of cognitive variables which moderate the life change-illness relationship.

Life stress and chronic yeast infections

This study investigated the relationships of positive and negative life change to yeast infections in women having a gynecological examination at a university health center. Subjects completed the Life Experiences Survey and a questionnaire about experiences with yeast infections and received, as a routine part of their visitation of the gynecology service, a standard gynecological examination, including a laboratory test for yeast infections. Positive life change was unrelated to any of the variables regarding yeast infections and was only minimally correlated with negative life change. Negative life change, while not related to the presence of current yeast infections, was positively correlated with the reported number of yeast infections during the past year, concern about these infections, and a number of physician visits for yeast infections. Negative life change was also negatively correlated with grade point average. Neither antibiotics nor contraceptive pill use interacted with negative life change to influence experiences with yeast infections.

Personality and exercise as buffers in the stress-illness relationship

This study examined exercise and personality-based hardiness as independent buffers of the stressful event-illness relationship. Self-report measures of exercise, hardiness, stressful events and illness were obtained from 137 male business executives. Hardiness and exercise each interact with stressful events in decreasing illness. Further, subjects high in both hardiness and exercise remain more healthy than those high in one or the other only. These additive effects are consistent with the view that hardiness buffers by transforming the events themselves so as to decrease their stressfulness, whereas exercise buffers by decreasing the organismic strain resulting from experiencing stressful events.

Personality Factors as Moderators of the Psychological Impact of Life Stress

Six personality dimensions, derived by factor analysis from the 16 PF, were examined as possible moderators of the impact of recent life changes on psychological strain in a student sample. The results indicated a significant interaction effect for only one of these dimensions, extraversion, with high scorers (extraverts) appearing to be significantly more tolerant of recent life change than low scorers (introverts). This finding, which appears to be consistent with reports from other retrospective studies indicating that measures of arousal-seeking status moderate the psychological impact of life stress, is discussed in terms of Eysenck's theory of extraversion.

Locus of control as a stress moderator: the role of control perceptions and social support

The study investigated the effects of locus of control beliefs as an individual difference variable on (a) the relationship between negative life events and psychological disorder, (b) perceptions of control over negative life events, and (c) the receipt and impact of social support. Ninety-three college undergraduates (52 internals, 41 externals) reported the negative events which occurred to them in the past year, their perceived control over these events, the amount of socially supportive transactions they received, and their psychological symptomatology (anxiety and depression). The correlation between negative events and anxiety was greater for externals than for internals. However, locus of control did not effect ratings of control over negative events or the correlations between high and low control negative events and psychological disorder. Locus of control did effect the receipt and impact of social support. Externality was positively related to the quantity of support received (r(90) = .21, p less than .05) but the stress-buffering effect of support was obtained for internals and not externals. Implications of the results from understanding the process by which locus of control moderates the effects of stress are discussed.

The effectiveness of attention and rejection as coping styles: a meta-analysis of temporal differences

The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis [16] of research comparing the effects on physical adaptation of two cognitive strategies for coping with stressors: attention and rejection. Attention refers to focusing attention on the stressor and/or on one's rejection to it; rejection refers to focusing attention away from the stressor and/or one's reaction to it. For studies examining the immediate effects of attention and rejection, rejection produced better physical adaptation (i.e. fewer symptoms, reduced physiological responses) than attention. For studies looking at the long term effects of attention and rejection, attention produced better physical adaptation than rejection. Mechanisms which could produce these effects, and their implications, are discussed.

Moderator variables in life stress and illness relationship

The relationship between life stress and physical illness was examined for the effects of potential moderator variables: The Sensation-Seeking Scale, health Locus of Control Scale, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The Sensation-Seeking Scale proved to be a moderator with high sensation seekers (highest quartile) showing no significant correlations between life change and illness, while low sensation seekers (lowest quartile) showed a significant correlation. The Health Locus of Control Scale failed to differentiate between correlation levels for Internals and Externals. The Myers-Briggs provided several moderator variables. Introverts, Thinking and Sensing types showed larger correlations than their Extrovert, Feeling and Intuitive counterparts. The magnitudes and significance levels of these correlations suggest that the Myers-Briggs may have further usefulness in exploring the relationship between life change and illness.

Moderator variables for the relationship between life change and disorders

The correlation between life change events and occurrence of disorders was investigated with the use of moderator variable measures of Jungian types, health locus of control, and optimal stimulation level. One hundred and twenty-four graduate and undergraduate men and women at Oregon College of Education were Ss. The following levels of moderator variables produced significant correlations: Introvert, Thinking, Feeling, Judgment, rational functions, and external health locus of control. The suggested rationale for integrating these findings is that high correlations between life change events and occurrence of disorders result from low levels of awareness and limited choices, accompanied by high degrees of conditionability.

Life events as predictors of academic performance

As part of a larger study, information was obtained about the life events which had occurred in the one-and-ten-year periods prior to entrance into a study of 169 students at a large midwestern university. Different methods of calculating life change were utilized, and these measures were correlated with the students' subsequent grade point averages over the next three years. Results demonstrated a significant negative association between life change and academic performance for the first-and second-but not for the third-year grades. Further analysis suggested a threshold effect since the detrimental impact of life change appeared evident only after the occurrence of about 12 events in the one-year time period. Life change also was implicated as a factor in severe academic difficulty resulting in the initiation of formal academic sanctions. Specific events which occurred in excess among the poorer performing students also were reported.

Social support resources, stress, and maladjustment of poor children

The effects of the presence of social support resources as moderators of the relationship between stress and maladjustment was investigated. The sample consisted of 71 kindergarten through third-grade inner-city children referred by their teachers as experiencing adjustment problems. Stress was assessed using a 32-item recent life event scale, and maladjustment was assessed using parent ratings of children's adjustment problems. The sample was subdivided to reflect the presence versus absence of three social support resources: older sibling vs. no older sibling, one- vs. two-parent family, and ethnically congruent vs. incongruent with the community. Correlations between stress measures and maladjustment measures were computed within each subsample. The results indicate that older siblings and two parents in the family both reduce the negative effects of stress on children. The results are interpreted to be consistent with social support literature and implications for preventive interventions are discussed.

Arousal seeking as a moderator of life stress

This study investigated the relationship between life stress and measures of anxiety, depression, and hostility as a function of subjects' arousal-seeking status. Results indicated significant relationships between negative life change and measures of both anxiety and hostility. These relationships, however, held only for subjects who were low on the arousal-seeking dimension. The results suggest that arousal-seeking status may serve as a moderator variable in determining the relationship between life stress and other variables.