Effects of illness perception on negative emotions and fatigue in chronic rheumatic diseases: Rumination as a possible mediator

BACKGROUND

Illness perception has long been hypothesized to be linked to psychological well-b eing in patients with rheumatic diseases, although substantial evidence is lacking, and the contribution of ruminative coping style to this relationship is unclear.

AIM

To investigate the roles of illness perception and rumination in predicting fatigue and negative emotions in patients with chronic rheumatic diseases.

METHODS

Illness perception, rumination, fatigue and negative emotions (i.e. depression, anxiety and stress) were assessed by the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised, Stress Reactive Rumination Scale, Multidimensional Assessment of Fatigue, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale respectively. Multivariate regression analysis, the Sobel test, and the bootstrap were used to identify the mediating effect of rumination.

RESULTS

All five subscales of illness perception, including perceived illness identity, chronicity, cyclical nature, consequences and coherence of illness, were significantly associated with fatigue and negative emotions. In mediational analysis, rumination was found to mediate three components of illness perception (the identity, cyclical nature and consequences of illness) and negative emotions/fatigue.

CONCLUSION

Perceived identity, cyclical nature, and consequences of illness are significantly associated with fatigue and negative emotions in patients with chronic rheumatic diseases and these associations are mediated by rumination. Our findings suggest that psychological intervention should target rumination to improve physical and emotional well-being of patients with chronic rheumatic diseases.

Explaining the negative impact of workplace incivility on work and non-work outcomes: The roles of negative rumination and organizational support

Research studies have shown that workplace incivility is associated with numerous negative work and non-work outcomes. The underlying mechanisms explaining why workplace incivility is associated with these outcomes, as well as contextual buffers of these relationships, have received less attention. This study extends workplace incivility research by examining the mediating role of negative rumination as a potential factor undergirding the relationship between experiences of incivility from colleagues at work and detrimental outcomes. We also investigated perceived organizational support and family supportive work environment as potential mitigators of the indirect relationship between incivility and negative outcomes. Data were collecfrom 154 university faculty members on two occasions. The results showed that negative rumination mediated the relationships between workplace incivility and both work (job satisfaction, burnout) and non-work (work-to-family conflict, life satisfaction) outcomes. Furthermore, results from the moderated mediation analyses revealed that perceived organizational support buffered the mediated effect of negative rumination and job satisfaction and a family-supportive work environment buffered the mediated effect of negative rumination on work-to-family conflict. Overall, the results demonstrate that negative rumination helps explain why workplace incivility negatively affects both work and non-work outcomes and underscores the important role of organizational context as buffers for these relationships.

Adjusting to Chronic Health Conditions

Research on adjustment to chronic disease is critical in today's world, in which people are living longer lives, but lives are increasingly likely to be characterized by one or more chronic illnesses. Chronic illnesses may deteriorate, enter remission, or fluctuate, but their defining characteristic is that they persist. In this review, we first examine the effects of chronic disease on one's sense of self. Then we review categories of factors that influence how one adjusts to chronic illness, with particular emphasis on the impact of these factors on functional status and psychosocial adjustment. We begin with contextual factors, including demographic variables such as sex and race, as well as illness dimensions such as stigma and illness identity. We then examine a set of dispositional factors that influence chronic illness adjustment, organizing these into resilience and vulnerability factors. Resilience factors include cognitive adaptation indicators, personality variables, and benefit-finding. Vulnerability factors include a pessimistic attributional style, negative gender-related traits, and rumination. We then turn to social environmental variables, including both supportive and unsupportive interactions. Finally, we review chronic illness adjustment within the context of dyadic coping. We conclude by examining potential interactions among these classes of variables and outlining a set of directions for future research.

Rumination in migraine: Mediating effects of brooding and reflection between migraine and psychological distress

OBJECTIVE

The relationship between migraine and psychological distress has been consistently reported in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. We hypothesised that a stable tendency to perseverative thoughts such as rumination would mediate the relationship between migraine and psychological distress. Design and Main Outcomes Measures: Self-report questionnaires measuring depressive rumination, current psychological distress and migraine symptoms in two independent European population cohorts, recruited from Budapest (N = 1139) and Manchester (N = 2004), were used. Structural regression analysis within structural equation modelling was applied to test the mediational role of brooding and reflection, the components of rumination, between migraine and psychological distress. Sex, age and lifetime depression were controlled for in the analysis.

RESULTS

Migraine predicted higher brooding and reflection scores, and brooding proved to be a mediator between migraine and psychological distress in both samples, while reflection mediated the relationship significantly only in the Budapest sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated psychological distress in migraine is partially attributed to ruminative response style. Further studies are needed to expand our findings to clinical samples and to examine how rumination links to the adjustment to migraine.

Factors Associated with Anger among Male Adolescents in Western Iran: An Application of Social Cognitive Theory

INTRODUCTION

Anger can be defined a natural emotional response that is gradually formed to protect us in dealing with threats, damages, assaults, and failures; while hatred is a change of attitude which is built following the persistence of anger towards a subject or an individual. One of the main reasons of adolescents' reference to the counseling centers is their anger accompanied by violence.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to determine the social cognitive factors associated with anger among a population of adolescents in the west of Iran based on the social cognitive theory.

METHODOLOGY

Samples were selected based on multi-stage cluster sampling. Method including the first and the second-grade male high school students from Ilam town (N=360). The Spielberger's anger questionnaire (STAXI 2) and a self-designed questionnaire based on Bandura's social cognitive theory were employed as the data collection instruments in the present study.

RESULTS

Of the selected population, 200 students were the first-grade and 160 students were the second-grade students. 135 students were the first child of the family, 150 students were the second or the third birth, and 75 students were the fifth or above in their families. Descriptive tests and correlation analysis were used to conduct the statistical analysis. Although there was a significant and inverse relationship between all the components of the theory and anger, the strongest relationship was seen in self-efficacy (-0.585) and the weakest relationship was seen in modeling (-0.297).

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

If was concluded that helping people to know their abilities and have a better personal judgment in this case, can influence their anger control. In addition, the process of stress management can effectively increase an individual's emotional coping.

In Sickness and in Health: a Literature Review about Function of Social Support within Anxiety and Heart Disease Association

A narrative review of the major evidence concerning the relationship between anxiety, social support and cardiac disease was conducted. Literature demonstrates that a strict relationship between anxiety, social support and cardiac disease outcomes subsists. However, the function of social support within anxiety and heart disease association remains unclear and needs to further researches to be established. Moreover evidence suggests that it's the quality of close relationships to play an important role in affecting psychological and physiological health status. The main components that the literature suggests for a better quality of social support and close relationship, and the main assessment measure are presented. Evidence about cardiac rehabilitation programs and the need to assess and intervene on psychological and psychosocial factors is discussed.

Cardiac threat appraisal and depression after first myocardial infarction

The present study investigated cardiac threat appraisal and its association with depression after first myocardial infarction (MI). A semi-structured interview allowing for DSM-IV-axis I diagnoses was administered to 36 patients after first MI. Patients completed self-reports 5–15 days after the MI (time 1), 6–8 weeks later (time 2), and again 6 months later (time 3). Assessments at time 1 included indices of cardiac threat appraisal, locus of control, coping, and depression while at time 2 and time 3 only measures of depression were obtained. Cardiac threat appraisal was significantly correlated with depression at time 1, but was unrelated to depression scores at time 2 and time 3. Furthermore, there was a significant inverse association between cardiac threat appraisal and the subscales “search for affiliation” and “threat minimization” of the coping questionnaire. Additionally, “search for affiliation” correlated negatively with depression scores at time 1 and time 3, and “threat minimization” negatively with depression scores at time 1 and time 2. These results suggest a significant association between cardiac threat appraisal and depressive symptoms shortly after MI. Practical implications for treatment are discussed.