The present study examined sexual assault victimization and loneliness as predictors of self-harm behaviors in a sample of 224 female college students. Results from conducting regression analysis indicated that both sexual assault victimization and loneliness were unique and significant predictors of self-harm behaviors. This pattern remained even after controlling for concomitant suicidal behaviors. Interestingly, in a post hoc analysis predicting suicidal behaviors, it was found that loneliness, but not sexual assault victimization, was the only unique and significant predictor after controlling for self-harm behaviors. Some implications of the present findings for understanding self-harm behaviors in female college students and the importance of controlling for suicidal behaviors in studies of self-harm behaviors (and vice versa) are discussed.

Objective: The authors examined trait hope and hopelessness as potential moderators of the association between depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior. Participants: A diverse sample of 372 college students. Methods: Depressive symptoms, hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), trait hope (Trait Hope Scale), and suicidal behaviors were assessed. Trait hope is defined as confidence in the ability to identify and attain goals, whereas hopelessness encompasses future attitudes and motivation loss. Results: In independent models, low hopelessness buffered the association between depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior for our whole sample, blacks, and whites, whereas trait hope buffered for Hispanics and whites. Examined simultaneously, hope remained a significant moderator only in whites and hopelessness only in blacks. These findings suggest that etiological and outcome correlates of hope and hopelessness may differ by ethnicity. Conclusions: These findings may have implications for development of culturally targeted interventions for college students that strive to simultaneously reduce hopelessness and bolster hopefulness.

Depression is a significant public health problem for young adults of college age, and negative life events exacerbate risk. Not all individuals who experience negative life events, however, report depressive symptoms, perhaps owing to protective characteristics. We examined one such characteristic, trait hope, a goal-oriented construct, as a potential moderator of the association between negative life events and depressive symptoms in an ethnically diverse sample of 386 college students. In support of our hypotheses, negative life events were significantly associated with greater levels of depressive symptoms, and higher levels of hope attenuated this relationship, such that those with greater hope reported fewer depressive symptoms related to potentially traumatic events. The moderating effect of hope did not differ across ethnic groups. Our findings have implications for managing the sequelae of negative life events, including depression. Cognitive–behavioural interventions tailored to help young adults identify and attain important life goals might help to overcome psychopathology associated with life stress. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book Summary: The present volume is a ground-breaking and agenda-setting investigation of the psychology of self-forgiveness. It brings together the work of expert clinicians and researchers working within the field, to address questions such as: Why is self-forgiveness so difficult? What contexts and psychological experiences give rise to the need for self-forgiveness? What approaches can therapists use to help people process difficult experiences that elicit guilt, shame and self-condemnation? How can people work through their own failures and transgressions? Assembling current theories and findings, this unique resource reviews and advances our understanding of self-forgiveness, and its potentially critical function in interpersonal relationships and individual emotional and physical health. The editors begin by exploring the nature of self-forgiveness. They consider its processes, causes, and effects, how it may be measured, and its potential benefits to theory and psychotherapy. Expert clinicians and researchers then examine self-forgiveness in its many facets; as a response to guilt and shame, a step toward processing transgressions, a means of reducing anxiety, and an essential component of, or, under some circumstances a barrier to, psychotherapeutic intervention. Contributors also address self-forgiveness as applied to diverse psychosocial contexts such as addiction and recovery, couples and families, healthy aging, the workplace, and the military. Among the topics in the Handbook: An evolutionary approach to shame-based self-criticism, self-forgiveness and compassion. Working through psychological needs following transgressions to arrive at self-forgiveness. Self-forgiveness and health: a stress-and-coping model. Self-forgiveness and personal and relational well-being. Self-directed intervention to promote self-forgiveness. Understanding the role of forgiving the self in the act of hurting oneself. The Handbook of the Psychology of Self-Forgiveness serves many healing professionals. It covers a wide range of problems for which individuals often seek help from counselors, clergy, social workers, psychologists and physicians. Research psychologists, philosophers, and sociologists studying self-forgiveness will also find it an essential handbook that draws together the advances made over the past several decades, and identifies important directions for the road ahead.

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In this study, authors examined basic psychological needs (namely, competence, autonomy, and relatedness) as potential mediators of the association between sexual assault and depressive symptoms in a sample of 342 college students. Results from conducting a multiple mediation test provided support for partial mediation involving the indirect effects of competence and autonomy. In contrast, no support for mediation was found involving relatedness. It is notable that sexual assault remained a significant predictor of depressive symptoms in students. Therefore, findings indicate how sexual assault may both directly and indirectly (through psychological needs) lead to greater depressive symptoms in students. Authors concluded the article with a discussion of the implications of their findings for expanding the study of basic psychological needs in college students and the need for greater efforts to prevent and treat sexual assault on campus.

Suicide risk is increased for previous suicide attempters, who may be vulnerable to exacerbating factors such as daily hassles; yet, individual-level, adaptive characteristics may ameliorate risk. We examined the influence of daily hassles on suicidal ideation and the moderating role of spiritual well-being and its subscales of religious and existential well-being. In our cross-sectional study, 148 African-American female suicide attempters were recruited from a large, urban hospital and completed the Survey of Recent Life Events, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation. Religious and existential well-being moderated the association between hassles and suicidal thoughts; this relationship was weaker for individuals with greater levels of spiritual well-being. Historically, spiritual beliefs have been important to the African-American community and their promotion may effectively prevent additional thoughts of suicide by attempters experiencing hassles of daily life.

Background: We assessed the association between medical illness burden and anxiety symptoms, hypothesizing that greater illness burden would be associated with symptoms of anxiety, and that optimism would buffer, while pessimism would exacerbate, this relationship. Methods: We recruited 109 older adults, aged 65 years and older, from primary care and geriatric clinics to participate in this cross-sectional, interview-based study. Participants completed the Snaith Clinical Anxiety Scale and the Life Orientation Test – Revised, a measure of optimism/pessimism. A physician-rated measure of illness burden, the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale, was also administered. Results: Supporting our hypotheses, greater levels of overall optimism weakened, and pessimism strengthened, the association between illness burden and anxiety symptoms, after accounting for the effects of demographic, cognitive, functional, and psychological covariates. Conclusions: Bolstering positive and reducing negative future expectancies may aid in the prevention of psychological distress in medically ill older adults. Therapeutic strategies to enhance optimism and reduce pessimism, which may be well-suited to primary care and other medical settings, and to which older adults may be particularly amenable, may contribute to reduced health-related anxiety.

A model involving optimism and hope as predictors of depressive symptoms was tested in a sample of 28 male and 67 female primary care patients. Beyond the distinct influence of the two predictors on depressive symptoms, optimism and hope were also hypothesized to interact together to predict depressive symptoms. Results of a regression analysis indicated that, independent of demographic variables (viz. age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, and educational level), optimism and hope were significant and unique predictors of depressive symptoms in adults. Noteworthy, beyond optimism and hope, the Optimism × Hope interaction term was found to significantly augment the prediction of depressive symptoms. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.

Objective: The nature of interpersonal relationships, whether supportive or critical, may affect the association between health status and mental health outcomes. We examined the potential moderating effects of social support, as a buffer, and family criticism, as an exacerbating factor, on the association between illness burden, functional impairment and depressive symptoms. Methods: Our sample of 735 older adults, 65 years and older, was recruited from internal and family medicine primary care offices. Trained interviewers administered the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Duke Social Support Inventory, and Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale. Physician-rated assessments of health, including the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale and Cumulative Illness Rating Scale, were also completed. Results: Linear multivariable hierarchical regression results indicate that social interaction was a significant buffer, weakening the association between illness burden and depressive symptoms, whereas perceived social support buffered the relationship between functional impairment and depressive symptoms. Family criticism and instrumental social support were not significant moderators. Conclusions: Type of medical dysfunction, whether illness or impairment, may require different therapeutic and supportive approaches. Enhancement of perceived social support, for those who are impaired, and encouragement of social interactions, for those who are ill, may be important intervention targets for treatment of depressive symptoms in older adult primary care patients.