How does day-to-day stress appraisal relate to coping among office workers in academia? An ecological momentary assessment study

Existing literature indicates that academic staff experience increasing levels of work stress. This study investigated associations between day-to-day threat and challenge appraisal and day-to-day problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and seeking social support among academic office workers. This study is based on an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) design with a 15-working day data collection period utilising our self-developed STRAW smartphone application. A total of 55 office workers from academic institutions in Belgium (n = 29) and Slovenia (n = 26) were included and 3665 item measurements were analysed. Participants were asked approximately every 90 min about their appraisal of stressful events (experienced during the working day) and their coping styles. For data analysis, we used an unstructured covariance matrix in our linear mixed models. Challenge appraisal predicted problem-focused coping and threat appraisal predicted emotion-focused coping. Our findings suggest an association between threat appraisal as well as challenge appraisal and seeking social support. Younger and female workers chose social support more often as a coping style. While working from home, participants were less likely to seek social support. The findings of our EMA study confirm previous research on the relationship between stress appraisal and coping with stress. Participants reported seeking social support less while working from home compared to working at the office, making the work location an aspect that deserves further research.

Mindfulness-Based Programs Improve Psychological Flexibility, Mental Health, Well-Being, and Time Management in Academics

(1) Background: Occupational stress is high in academia, and is partly related to time pressure. Mindfulness-based programs are known to be effective in reducing stress and increasing well-being. Recent work suggested that these programs may also improve time management. This study tested the effects of a mindfulness-based program on academics' psychological flexibility, mental health, well-being, and time management. (2) Methods: The study was conducted in a French research department. Participants were offered to join a mindfulness-based program (n = 21) or to be on a wait-list control group (n = 22). Self-reported measures of psychological flexibility, mental health (stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms), well-being, and time use were collected before and after the eight week program. (3) Results: Results showed that psychological flexibility, mental health, well-being, and efficient time use significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control condition. (4) Conclusions: The results suggested that the mindfulness-based programs were effective in improving adaptive functioning, well-being, and optimal time use in academia, thus underlining potential useful perspectives to help academics improve mental health and time management.

Coping Dynamics of Consulting Psychology Doctoral Students Transitioning a Professional Role Identity: A Systems Psychodynamic Perspective

To remain relevant and valuable, the psychology profession in South Africa continues to transform and evolve in response to the changing needs of society. Some psychologists embark on development opportunities to advance their professional qualifications and skills. In doing so, they experience identity tensions inherent to professional identity development and transformation. Understanding how psychologists cope with professional identity transition will enable them to develop a self-efficacious service offering and broaden the reach of psychology in the South African context. The aim of this study was to explore the identity work of a group of eight consulting psychology doctoral students to develop a system psychodynamic understanding of their coping dynamics while transitioning to a professional role identity. Students’ self-reflective essays about becoming a consulting psychologist constituted the data protocols for the study and were analysed through hermeneutic phenomenological analysis. Findings describe how students cope with performance and survival anxieties through anti-task behaviour and immature as well as sophisticated psychodynamic defences. The study contributes to the exploration of the coping concept and its manifestation, by proposing defensive coping as a natural dynamic phenomenon in the process of adapting to a transforming professional identity.