The present study examined dispositional hope as a potential mediator of the association between sexual assault and negative affective conditions, namely, depressive and anxious symptoms in a sample of 223 female college students. Results from conducting bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated that hope agency, but not hope pathways, mediated the link between sexual assault victimization and negative affective conditions in females. Importantly, the associations of sexual assault with both depressive and anxious symptoms remained highly significant independent of hope. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.

Fatigue is a debilitating symptom of chronic illness that is deleteriously affected by perceived stress, a process particularly relevant to inflammatory disease. Hopefulness, a goal-based motivational construct, may beneficially influence stress and fatigue, yet little research has examined these associations. We assessed the relation between hope and fatigue, and the mediating effect of stress, in individuals with fibromyalgia, arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Covarying age, sex, and pain, stress partially mediated the association between hope and fatigue; those with greater hope reported less stress and consequent fatigue. Therapeutically, bolstering hope may allow proactive management of stressors, resulting in less fatigue.

Aging is associated with an increase in need for assistance. Preparation for future care (PFC) is related to improved coping ability as well as better mental and physical health outcomes among older adults. We examined the association of optimism with components of PFC among older adults. We also explored race differences in the relationship between optimism and PFC. In Study 1, multiple regression showed that optimism was positively related to concrete planning. In Study 2, optimism was related to gathering information. An exploratory analysis combining the samples yielded a race interaction: For Whites higher optimism, but for Blacks lower optimism was associated with more planning. High optimism may be a barrier to future planning in certain social and cultural contexts.

Health behavior change may prevent many fatal diseases, and may be influenced by social and motivational constructs. We assessed the interaction effect of future time perspective and basic psychological need fulfillment on positive and negative health behaviors. Future time perspective was associated with more positive, and less negative, health behaviors. Need fulfillment was associated with only positive health behaviors. In moderation analyses, individuals reporting both high need fulfillment and future perspective reported greater positive health behaviors, and were especially unlikely to smoke. Enhancing future-mindedness and supporting need satisfaction in interventions targeting modifiable health behaviors is encouraged.

An integrative model involving optimism/pessimism and future orientation as predictors of suicide risk (viz., depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior) was tested in a sample of adult, primary care patients. Beyond the additive influence of the two predictors of suicide risk, optimism/pessimism and future orientation were also hypothesized to interact together to exacerbate suicide risk. Results indicated that optimism/pessimism was a robust predictor of suicide risk in adults. Future orientation was found to add significant incremental validity to the prediction of depressive symptoms, but not of suicidal behavior. Noteworthy, the optimism/pessimism × future orientation interaction was found to significantly augment the prediction of both depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior. Implications for therapeutic enhancement of future-oriented constructs in the treatment of suicidal individuals are discussed.

Book Summary: Positive psychology has become a vibrant, well-regarded field of study, and a powerful tool for clinicians. But, for many years, the research in areas relevant to positive psychology, such as happiness, subjective well-being, and emotional intelligence, has been based on findings from largely White samples and has rarely taken the concerns of the ethnic community into consideration. Now, for the first time, leaders in the field have come together to provide a comprehensive reference that focuses specifically on how a culturally-informed approach to positive psychology can help capitalize on the strengths of racial minority groups and have a greater potential to positively impact their psychological well-being. Acting as a bridge between positive psychology theory and research—largely based on an essentialist view of human behavior—and the realities of practice and assessment in diverse groups, Positive Psychology in Racial and Ethnic Groups focuses on four main ethnic groups: Asian Americans, Latin Americans, African Americans, and American Indians.

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The present study sought to examine how social problem solving and sexual assault are involved in suicidal risk in a sample of 221 female college students. Specifically, we were interested to examine whether sexual assault may play an additive as well as interactive role in the prediction of suicidal risk (viz., hopelessness and suicidal behaviors) above and beyond social problem solving. Results from regression analyses indicated that deficits in social problem solving, especially low positive problem orientation, and sexual assault were important and unique predictors of suicidal risk in female students. Moreover, we found support for a Social Problem Solving × Sexual Assault interaction in predicting hopelessness. Significant interactions emerged specifically for negative problem orientation and impulsivity/carelessness style. Some important implications of the present findings are discussed.

The objective of this study was to examine the combined moderating effects of life stress and loneliness on the association between social problem solving ability (SPS) and suicidal behaviors. We assessed SPS, suicidal behavior, loneliness, and stressful life events in a sample of 385 ethnically diverse college students. Overall, only loneliness moderated the association between SPS and suicidal behaviors. Across ethnic groups, loneliness moderated the association between SPS and suicidal behavior for Blacks, Whites, and Asians; life stress was a moderator for Hispanics. For most individuals, loneliness increases the strength of the association between poor problem-solving and suicidal behaviors. For Hispanics, life stress exacerbates this relationship. Ethnically-specific prevention strategies targeting loneliness and life stress may promote effective problem-solving, reducing suicide risk.

Death by suicide, and suicidal behaviors, are a significant public mental health problem, and individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ), may be at increased risk. Potential underlying mechanisms of this association are unknown, but may involve the impact of LGBTQ status on future orientation and mood. Our purpose was to determine the influence of sexual identity, sequentially, on cognitive and emotional functioning, and consequent relation to suicidal behavior. In a sample of 349 college students, we used serial mediation models to investigate the relation between self-identification as LGBTQ and suicidal behavior, with hope and hopelessness as first-order mediators and depression as a second order mediator. Supporting hypotheses, we found that LGBTQ status was related to less hope and greater hopelessness and, in serial fashion, to depressive symptoms and consequent suicidal behavior. Our findings may have clinical implications. Resolution of hopelessness and depression, and promotion of hopefulness, perhaps via Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy strategies, such as goal-setting, may reduce suicidal risk in LGBTQ young adults.