Resilience and attitudes toward help-seeking as correlates of psychological well-being among a sample of New Zealand Defence Force personnel

A preliminary 'shortlist' of individual, family, and social-community assets to promote resilience in pediatric ADHD

BACKGROUND

Understanding factors that promote resilience in pediatric ADHD is important though highly understudied.

AIMS

The current study sought to provide a preliminary 'shortlist' of key individual, family, and social-community assets among children with ADHD.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

The study included well-characterized, clinically-evaluated samples of children with (n=108) and without ADHD (n=98) ages 8-13 years (M=10.31; 41.3% girls; 66.5% White/Non-Hispanic). All subsets regression and dominance analysis identified the subset of predictors that accounted for the most variance in broad-based resilience for children with ADHD and their relative importance. Findings were compared for children with versus without ADHD as preliminary evidence regarding the extent to which identified assets are promotive, protective, or conditionally helpful.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Higher levels of peer acceptance, social skills, and academic performance were top predictors of resilience among children with ADHD. Better child working memory, attention, higher levels of hyperactivity, older age, and fewer parent self-reported mental health concerns were also identified as predictors of resilience in ADHD. Both overlapping and unique factors were associated with resilience for children with versus without ADHD. Conclusions and Results: These results, if replicated, provide a strong preliminary basis for strength-based basic/applied research on key assets that promote resilience in ADHD.

Narratives of holistic mental health recovery in New Zealand Defence Force personnel

Research on military mental health recovery has tended to focus on therapy outcomes while backgrounding the role of diverse healing influences. The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is a bicultural military integrated with Māori customs and cultural perspectives on holistic health and wellbeing. This study used narrative analysis to examine the semi-structured interviews of 21 active duty NZDF personnel who had accessed mental healthcare to understand what factors contributed to their return to wellness. Narratives described an orientation toward recovery as a process, where many interrelated wellbeing and social factors together supported the return to health. Culturally available Māori wellbeing metaphors were adopted as heuristics by service members in their storying of growth and healing. Findings are considered in terms of how wellbeing and recovery are conceptualized and promoted within militaries with diverse cultures. Discussion focuses on how narratives within military institutions can promote resilience and support service member recovery from mental distress.

A preliminary study investigating the neglected domain of mental health in Australian lifesavers and lifeguards

BACKGROUND

Surf lifesavers and lifeguards have provided essential education, preventative, and rescue services to the Australian community for over 110 years. In this first responder role, surf lifesavers and lifeguards are inadvertently exposed to high risk and trauma related experiences, which may negatively impact mental well-being. To date however, there has been limited research into the mental health of surf lifesavers and lifeguards, and no studies at all on the mental health of adolescent surf lifesavers. The preliminary study aimed to measure the exposure of potentially traumatic events (PTEs), post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), self-efficacy, social support, and attitudes towards mental health problems in Surf Life Saving (SLS) members.

METHODS

An anonymous, online survey was developed (adolescent and adult versions) and created to measure the domain of mental health in surf lifesavers and lifeguards. Pearson's correlations investigated relationships between PTEs, PTSS, self-efficacy, social support, attitudes towards mental health problems, age, years as a SLS member, and years patrolling. Spearman's Rank was used for violations of normality.

RESULTS

A total of 57 surf lifesavers/lifeguards aged 13-59 years were included in the final analysis. There was a significant positive relationship between exposure to direct trauma and PTSS, which in turn, were associated with greater negative attitudes towards mental health problems towards the mental health of others, and lower levels of self-efficacy. Male and female adults with PTSS reported lower social support, whereas for adolescent males, a positive relationship between direct trauma and PTSS was observed.

CONCLUSION

This research is the first to explore the mental health of Australian surf lifesavers and lifeguards. The results highlight the potential risks to mental health and well-being associated with this first responder role. More research to protect the vulnerability of this population is warranted.

Understanding the Mental Health Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Railway Workers: Risks and Protective Factors

OBJECTIVE

Railway workers have provided an essential service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the effects of COVID-19 on the mental well-being of railway workers (N = 906) in the United Kingdom during the third lockdown period.

METHOD

The online survey included measures of COVID-19-related risk factors (perceived risk, stress, burnout, trauma) and protective factors (resilience coping, team resilience, general help seeking) associated with mental well-being. Responses were analyzed using multiple regression and content analysis.

RESULTS

COVID-19-related risk factors negatively predicted well-being. Higher scores on adaptive resilience, intentions to seek help, and team resilience significantly predicted higher mental well-being scores. Mental health decline throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns for the future were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Building a resilient railway workforce requires attention to staff mental well-being and to ensuring that support systems are robust and accessible.

Pathways to mental health care in active military populations across the Five-Eyes nations: An integrated perspective

Military service is associated with increased risk of mental health problems. Previous reviews have pointed to under-utilization of mental health services in military populations. Building on the most recent systematic review, our narrative, critical review takes a complementary approach and considers research across the Five-Eyes nations from the past six years to update and broaden the discussion on pathways to mental healthcare in military populations. We find that at a broad population level, there is improvement in several indicators of mental health care access, with greater gains in initial engagement, time to first treatment contact, and subjective satisfaction with care, and smaller gains in objective indicators of adequacy of care. Among individual-level barriers to care-seeking, there is progress in improving recognition of need for care and reducing stigma concerns. Among organizational-level barriers, there are advances in availability of services and cultural acceptance of care-seeking. Other barriers, such as concerns around confidentiality, career impact, and deployability persist, however, and may account for some remaining unmet need. To address these barriers, new initiatives that are more evidence-based, theoretically-driven, and culturally-sensitive, are therefore needed, and must be rigorously evaluated to ensure they bring about additional improvements in pathways to care.

Received Social Support and Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in New Zealand and Philippine Emergency Responders

Introduction: Emergency responders are at risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). This study investigates the relationship between the different components of received social support (RSS) and PTSS in these occupations.

Method: This cross-sectional study involved emergency responders from New Zealand and the Philippines (n=223). Participants answered an online questionnaire measuring social support and PTSS.

Results: High amount of total received support was significantly associated with lower levels of PTSS. Analyses of RSS components revealed that co-worker, emotional, and tangible support exhibited salutary main effects on PTSS. Furthermore, high amounts of RSS from supervisors were found to be associated with low levels of PTSS only among participants who reported low trauma exposure.

Discussion: Findings were congruent with the main effects model of RSS. Results also underscored the importance of investigating varied manifestations of social support as they may differentially influence the strength of effects of receiving social support by emergency responders.