Young generations' hopelessness perpetuates long-term conflicts

Transforming long-term conflicts into peaceful intergroup relations is one of the most difficult challenges for humanity. Such meaningful social changes are often driven by young people. But do young people living in contexts of long-term conflicts believe that change is even possible? In a series of six studies (N_total = 119,671) over two decades and across two unrelated intractable conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Cyprus, we found that younger (compared to older) generations from both respective rival groups have less hope for peace, and consequently less conciliatory attitudes. We also show that this gradual improvement of peace-promoting emotions and attitudes with increasing age can be experimentally accelerated in young people through a virtual reality-based aging simulation. These findings provide a new perspective on the fundamental question of why long-term conflicts are so difficult to resolve and highlight the importance of instilling hope in young generations to advance peace processes.

Medición de indicadores de salud mental de población en contexto de conflicto armado en Colombia: revisión de alcance

El conflicto armado ha marcado las diferentes dimensiones de vida de la población colombiana por lo que ha sido objeto de diversos estudios, generando la necesidad de evaluar el abordaje e instrumentos utilizados para medir indicadores de salud mental de población en contexto de conflicto armado. Esta investigación pretende analizar artículos científicos que aborden dichos indicadores y que utilicen instrumentos psicométricos para tal fin. Se realizó una revisión de alcance siguiendo la metodología PRISMA y utilizando el software CADIMA. La búsqueda bibliográfica se hizo en las bases de datos Web of Science, Scielo y Scopus, usando términos claves en inglés y español. Se analizaron 21 artículos en los que se identifica el uso de 53 instrumentos, siendo los más aplicados el AUDIT y la CIDI-CAPI. La mayoría de los artículos reportaron afectaciones relacionadas con estrés postraumático, ansiedad, depresión y consumo de sustancias. Se encontraron pocos estudios de validación o construcción de instrumentos. Es necesario fortalecer el trabajo en el desarrollo y validación de pruebas para evaluar indicadores de salud mental en poblaciones víctimas del conflicto armado colombiano, con las que se posibilite una mejor valoración de las afectaciones.

Mental health and intentions to quit among nurses in Iran during COVID-19 Pandemic: A social identity approach

The positive effects of social identification on mental health are well documented in the literature. However, most of this research has been conducted among small groups in WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 61) settings. Understanding how social identity as a psychological source can improve resilience and welfare among frontline healthcare workers in non-WEIRD contexts can help to alleviate the negative impact of large-scale epidemics overall, especially in resource-poor settings and contribute towards improved welfare of key healthcare workers. The present research investigates whether identifying as a nurse could influence mental health and intentions to quit directly and indirectly via positive and negative emotions among a unique sample of Iranian nurses (N = 462) during a risky period, the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple regression results showed that identifying as a nurse was negatively associated with negative emotions which in turn were positively related to depressive symptoms. In a similar vein, identifying as a nurse was positively associated with positive emotions which, in turn, were negatively related to intentions to quit. Results also confirmed that risk perceptions related to COVID-19 positively moderated the effect of social identification on negative emotions only. That is, identification as a nurse was associated with reduced negative emotions only when perceived risk was low. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

‘To participate or not participate, that’s the question’: The role of moral obligation and different risk perceptions on collective action

The current research investigates whether moral obligation and perceived close vs. distant risks of high vs. moderate risk collective actions are associated with willingness to participate in collective action in the case of Turkey. Two studies were conducted: one with re-placed university students after the July 15, 2016 coup d'état attempt (high-risk context; N₁ = 258) and one with climate strikes (moderate risk context; N₂ = 162). The findings showed that moral obligation predicts collective action in both studies, however, the strength of this relationship is contingent on the level of subjective likelihood of protest risk in the high-risk collective action (Study 1), but not in the moderate-risk collective action (Study 2). Study 2 extended the findings of Study 1 by showing that higher perceived climate crisis risks (e.g., extinction of many species, destroying the vast majority of vital resources; distant risk), but not risks of protest (e.g., being arrested, blacklisted; close risk) predicts higher willingness to participate in collective action. We discussed the role of moral obligation and different risk perceptions (e.g., distant, close, moderate, high) on climate movements and collective action of marginalized groups in repressive political contexts.

Workplace violence and turnover intentions among nurses: The moderating roles of invulnerability and organisational Support - A cross-sectional study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To investigate whether internal and external violence are associated with turnover intentions among nurses during demanding periods of work.

BACKGROUND

Workplace violence can negatively impact upon mental and physical health and turnover intentions. Research focusing on how dimensions of workplace violence, internal versus external, influence turnover intentions and the factors that mitigate these effect is lacking.

METHODS

An online cross-sectional survey of multi-item measures was used to collect data from 462 Iranian nurses. We employed path modelling and analysed the data using SPSS and PROCESS macro. A STROBE checklist was used to report findings.

RESULTS

Both dimensions, internal and external, of violence were positively associated with turnover intentions. Moreover, perceived invulnerability and organisational support moderates this association. When individuals perceived invulnerability and perceived organisational support are high, internal violence is no longer indirectly related to turnover intentions via job satisfaction. In a similar vein, when perceived invulnerability and perceived organisational support are low, external violence is not related to intentions to quit. When perceived invulnerability and perceived organisational support are high, however, external violence is indirectly and negatively related to intentions to quit.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses who regard themselves as invulnerable might be motivated to quit when they experience workplace violence. However, they are motivated to stay on the job when they both perceive themselves as invulnerable and the organisation as supporting.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Organisations should reconsider their policies and approach towards workplace violence especially during periods of intensive work.

Stress and worry in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: relationships to trust and compliance with preventive measures across 48 countries in the COVIDiSTRESS global survey

The COVIDiSTRESS global survey collects data on early human responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic from 173 429 respondents in 48 countries. The open science study was co-designed by an international consortium of researchers to investigate how psychological responses differ across countries and cultures, and how this has impacted behaviour, coping and trust in government efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Starting in March 2020, COVIDiSTRESS leveraged the convenience of unpaid online recruitment to generate public data. The objective of the present analysis is to understand relationships between psychological responses in the early months of global coronavirus restrictions and help understand how different government measures succeed or fail in changing public behaviour. There were variations between and within countries. Although Western Europeans registered as more concerned over COVID-19, more stressed, and having slightly more trust in the governments' efforts, there was no clear geographical pattern in compliance with behavioural measures. Detailed plots illustrating between-countries differences are provided. Using both traditional and Bayesian analyses, we found that individuals who worried about getting sick worked harder to protect themselves and others. However, concern about the coronavirus itself did not account for all of the variances in experienced stress during the early months of COVID-19 restrictions. More alarmingly, such stress was associated with less compliance. Further, those most concerned over the coronavirus trusted in government measures primarily where policies were strict. While concern over a disease is a source of mental distress, other factors including strictness of protective measures, social support and personal lockdown conditions must also be taken into consideration to fully appreciate the psychological impact of COVID-19 and to understand why some people fail to follow behavioural guidelines intended to protect themselves and others from infection. The Stage 1 manuscript associated with this submission received in-principle acceptance (IPA) on 18 May 2020. Following IPA, the accepted Stage 1 version of the manuscript was preregistered on the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g2t3b. This preregistration was performed prior to data analysis.

Collective Effervescence, Self-Transcendence, and Gender Differences in Social Well-Being During 8 March Demonstrations

8 March (8M), now known as International Women's Day, is a day for feminist claims where demonstrations are organized in over 150 countries, with the participation of millions of women all around the world. These demonstrations can be viewed as collective rituals and thus focus attention on the processes that facilitate different psychosocial effects. This work aims to explore the mechanisms (i.e., behavioral and attentional synchrony, perceived emotional synchrony, and positive and transcendent emotions) involved in participation in the demonstrations of 8 March 2020, collective and ritualized feminist actions, and their correlates associated with personal well-being (i.e., affective well-being and beliefs of personal growth) and collective well-being (i.e., social integration variables: situated identity, solidarity and fusion), collective efficacy and collective growth, and behavioral intention to support the fight for women's rights. To this end, a cross-cultural study was conducted with the participation of 2,854 people (age 18-79; M = 30.55; SD = 11.66) from countries in Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador) and Europe (Spain and Portugal), with a retrospective correlational cross-sectional design and a convenience sample. Participants were divided between demonstration participants (n = 1,271; 94.0% female) and non-demonstrators or followers who monitored participants through the media and social networks (n = 1,583; 75.87% female). Compared with non-demonstrators and with males, female and non-binary gender respondents had greater scores in mechanisms and criterion variables. Further random-effects model meta-analyses revealed that the perceived emotional synchrony was consistently associated with more proximal mechanisms, as well as with criterion variables. Finally, sequential moderation analyses showed that proposed mechanisms successfully mediated the effects of participation on every criterion variable. These results indicate that participation in 8M marches and demonstrations can be analyzed through the literature on collective rituals. As such, collective participation implies positive outcomes both individually and collectively, which are further reinforced through key psychological mechanisms, in line with a Durkheimian approach to collective rituals.

An investigation of the social identity model of collective action and the 'sedative' effect of intergroup contact among Black and White students in South Africa

Two studies investigated the role of intergroup contact in predicting collective action tendencies along with three key predictors proposed by the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA; Van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008). Study 1 (N= 488 Black South African students) tested whether social identity would positively, whereas intergroup contact would negatively predict collective action and support for policies benefiting the ingroup. Study 2 (N= 244 White South African students) predicted whether social identity would positively predict collective action benefiting the ingroup, and intergroup contact would positively predict support for policies to benefit the Black outgroup. Both studies yielded evidence in support of the predictive power of social identity and contact on collective action and policy support. Additionally, Study 1 confirmed that intergroup contact moderated the effects of social identity on relative deprivation, and relative deprivation on collective action. Overall findings support an integration of SIMCA and intergroup contact theory, and provide a fuller understanding of the social psychological processes leading to collective action.

INTERGROUP CONTACT AND INGROUP IDENTIFICATION AS PREDICTORS INTERGROUP ATTITUDES AND FORGIVENESS IN THE SERBIAN CONTEXT: THE MODERATING ROLE OF EXPOSURE TO POSITIVE INFORMATION

Intergroup contact reduces prejudice and improves outgroup attitudes, while a salient social identity might have the opposite effects. Recent research has shown that exposure to positive information about the outgroup could influence such effects of the contact and social identity on the outgroup attitudes. Here we investigate the effects of the contact and social identity on the outgroup attitudes, and forgiveness toward the outgroup of Bosniak Muslims among Serbs (N = 400), by randomly allocating them into control and experimental groups. In the experimental condition, the students were presented with brief biographies of three eminent Bosniak Muslims, in the positive context, after which they collected the survey. In the control group, students were only presented with the survey without the biographies. Subsequent independent samples t-tests showed that the mean values for ingroup identification and intergroup trust were significantly different in the two groups. Specifically, participants who were in the experimental condition, being exposed to the positive information about Bosniak Muslims, reported a higher level of intergroup trust and a lower level of ingroup identification as Serbian. We then performed a multi-group structural equation modeling through which we tested a predictive role of the past contact and in-the group identification on trust and collective guilt in both control and experimental conditions. Across both groups, past contact positively and ingroup identification negatively predicted both intergroup attitudes and forgiveness via trust and collective guilt. Exposure to the positive information about the outgroup moderated the indirect effects of the ingroup identification on the intergroup attitudes via collective guilt.