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This study aimed to address gaps in the literature by taking a qualitative approach to better understand both facilitators and barriers to acquiring positive social support for first-time parent couples. An interpretative phenomenological approach was utilized to explore the lived experience of first-time parent couples as they navigated the first few months of parenthood. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify potential sources of social support within and outside the couple relationship, and to better understand the role these supports played in their adaptation to the parenting role. The study revealed three super-ordinate themes central to our understanding of social support and its critical role in the positive adaptation of first-time parents: 1) predicting social support needs; preparing for the unknown, 2) assessing capacity to meet the demands of early parenthood, and 3) feeling supported as a first-time parent.

Spirituality is a multifaceted construct, and often studied as a one- or two-dimensional variable. Recent work has resulted in the development of the RiTE model of spirituality. While preliminarily supported as a useful approach to measuring spirituality, little is known regarding its associations with other outcomes. Past studies have shown inverse associations between spirituality and psychological distress, which appears to be partially a function of social support derived from spiritual beliefs or practices. As such, the present study tested the relationship between the RiTE dimensions and psychache as mediated by multiple types of social support. Parallel mediation results from an undergraduate sample (N = 1994) showed that all three RiTE dimensions were indirectly associated with psychache via multiple forms of social support. Ritualistic and existential spirituality also displayed direct associations with psychache. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of past literature, applicable theoretical constructs, and treatment considerations.

No description available.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research on contemporary sexism suggests that sexism has many different forms and they influence women differently. Evidence shows that women who experience subtle forms of sexism (e.g., modern and benevolent sexism) feel anxious and less competent, yet are less likely to identify these forms of sexism as prejudice against women. Because research suggests that social support is related to better psychological outcomes, we hypothesized that higher levels of perceived social support would be associated with better psychological outcomes among female participants who experienced sexism. In addition, receiving a supportive message after experiencing sexism would buffer the negative psychological effects of sexism, and thus the participants would perform better on a problem-solving task. However, the results only partially supported the hypotheses. Higher levels of perceived social support were indeed associated with better psychological outcomes, but participants who experienced sexism did not differ significantly from those who did not experience sexism regarding psychological outcomes. Further, receiving social support after experiencing sexism did not produce significant improvements on the problem-solving task, though participants who experienced modern sexism did report an increase in hostile affect if they did not receive social support. Possible reasons for the findings are discussed.

The minority stress theory suggests LGBs experience greater stress levels due to their sexual minority identities; thus, they are more prone to psychological distress. Poor mental health is linked to internalized homophobia and heterosexism. However, affirmative social support may mitigate the stress response via the buffering hypothesis. My model posits that LGBs are more likely to report perceived stress; however, affirmative social support can mitigate stress. I investigated the relationship between perceived stress and sexual minority identity. I explored the relationship between heterosexism, emotional support and perceived stress and the moderating role of social support in my LGB sample. I conducted a hierarchical linear regression to test my model, which accounted for 29% of the variance in perceived stress. Heterosexism and emotional support were significantly associated with perceived stress. I failed to find a moderating role of emotional support. Limitations, strengths, future research and implications are discussed.

Objectives: The current study aimed to profile the personality styles, expectations and psychological adaptation of Clinical Psychology Trainees. It also aimed to look at the relationship between these variables. Design: A cross-sectional postal questionnaire study, employing between group and correlational analyses. Methods: A sample of 364 psychologists in clinical training (57% response rate) from 15 UK clinical psychology training courses participated in the study. They completed questionnaires of personality, psychological adaptation, social support and an expectations measure specifically designed for the study. Results: The majority of psychologists in clinical training who participated in the study were well adjusted in terms of personality, did not experience extensive problems with psychological adaptation, and had the majority of their expectations met. A significant sub group reported personality adjustment problems and problems with self esteem, anxiety, depression and work adjustment. Low self esteem was present in just under a quarter of the sample. Personality adjustment was found to be related to expectations and psychological adaptation. Trainee psychologists with poorer personality adjustment were less likely to have their expectations met, especially with regard to the impact of training on their life, and were more likely to suffer from poor psychological adaptation, particularly in terms of low self esteem, anxiety, depression and work adjustment problems. Self esteem was related to discrepancies in actual and ideal social support. Some differences were found between year groups. Gender and age were not related to personality adjustment, psychological adaptation or expectations. Conclusions and Implications: The findings were discussed in terms of the interpretation of personality style. Implications for clinical psychology training and the profession of clinical psychology were considered.

To gain an understanding of children’s social milieu, this study explored international children’s phenomenology about their social networks, stressors, and supports using the ecomap, a graphic tool that maps children’s social relationships and their appraisals of them. Specifically, it addressed the following two research questions using archival ecomap data collected from 816 school-aged children (ages four – 19 years) from 14 cities in 12 countries (Brazil – Manaus, Estonia – Tallinn, Greece – Athens, India – Mumbai, Italy – Padua, Mexico – Xalapa, Romania – Bucharest, Russia – Samara, Slovak Republic – Košice, Sri Lanka – Negombo, Tanzania – Arusha, and the United States – Boston, Massachusetts; Mayagüez, Puerto Rico; New Orleans, Louisiana): (a) What are the characteristics of international children’s social networks, and what cross-cultural patterns exist; and (b) Who and what do children consider their social supports and social stressors, and what cross-cultural patterns emerge? The nature of the ecomap drawings and their associated narratives allowed for a concurrent mixed methods approach to be used to identify cross-cultural phenomenological patterns about the structures (network size, embeddedness, and network composition), functions (stressor and support types), and evaluations (relationship appraisals) of children’s social worlds. Considerable diversity was found in the data, but a number of notable cross-site, cross-gender, and cross-age patterns were identified. In general, children in this sample reported a trimmed mean network size of 7.87 (SD = 3.61), with middle school students reporting the largest (M = 8.78). Embeddedness, measured as the balance of perceived stress and supports (Nastasi & Borja, 2015; Summerville, 2013), also was generally positive, suggesting that children generally perceive themselves to be connected to their social networks. Most commonly reported members included home parent/caregivers, friends/peers, extended family members, and siblings; and across grade levels, sites, and gender, network members were generally appraised positively. When asked about the ways that network members support or trigger distress, youth in this sample described over 50 stress and support themes, most of which related to interpersonal relationships and interactions. The results of the current study not only contributes to the literature on children’s stressors and supports, but also build on Nastasi and colleagues’ Promoting Psychological Well-Being Globally project (PPWBG; Nastasi & Borja, 2015), whose international team collected the ecomap data to understand children’s well-being and the culturally- and developmentally-unique factors that influence them. / 1 / Amanda P Borja