SAMMANFATTNING Bakgrund På grund av prestationskrav kan elitidrottare utsätta sig för att träna trots hög smärtintensitet. Flertalet kvantitativa studier har undersökt vilka copingstrategier som används av idrottare med smärta. Däremot är elitidrottares egna upplevelser av smärta ännu ett outforskat område.   Syfte Att undersöka en grupp elitidrottares upplevelser av smärta och deras strategier för att träna i närvaro av smärta.    Metod Fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer med elitidrottare har utförts. Databearbetningen har skett med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys.   Resultat Det framkom tio kategorier. Smärta beskrevs som uppmärksamhetskrävande och något som kunde ge negativa konsekvenser. Yttre faktorer såsom omgivningens utformning samt inre faktorer såsom förväntningar och fokus tycktes påverka smärtupplevelsen under träning. Hanteringen av smärta skedde genom sätt att tänka och agera, såsom positivt självprat och uppvärmning.   Konklusion Smärta upplevdes som ett hinder som kunde påverkas av yttre och inre faktorer. Inom träning kunde smärta hanteras genom olika sätt att tänka och agera. Vidare forskning kan leda till klinisk nytta för fysioterapeuter i kontakt med elitidrottare. / ABSTRACT   Background Because of demands of performance elite athletes can expose themselves to train regardless of pain intensity. Several quantitative studies have examined coping strategies used by athletes with pain. However, the elite athlete's own experiences of pain is still an unexplored area.   Aim To investigate a group of elite athletes' experiences of pain and their strategies for training in the presence of pain.   Methods Four semi-structured interviews with elite athletes have been conducted. Data processing has been done by using qualitative content analysis.   Results Ten categories emerged. Pain was described as attention-consuming and something that could have negative consequences. External factors such as environment and internal factors such as expectations and focus seemed to affect the pain experience during training. The pain was managed through ways of thinking and acting, like positive self talk and warming up.   Conclusion Pain was perceived as an obstacle that may be affected by factors in the environment and within themselves. Within training pain could be managed through different ways of thinking and acting. Further research can lead to clinical benefit for professionals in contact with elite athletes.

Class of 2010 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To determine the perceived level of stress pharmacy students experience related to academics and the methods they use to relieve that stress. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross-­‐sectional study. Questionnaires were administered to first, second, and third year University of Arizona College of Pharmacy students during regularly scheduled class time. Data on perceived level of stress, sources of stress, and methods of relieving stress were collected and analyzed. Data on average hours worked per week, marital status, number of children, age, gender, and number of professional organizations involved in were also collected. RESULTS: The stress survey was completed by a total of 182 students at the College of Pharmacy. The overall stress score was highest in the second year students, although the total score was relatively low (total score 18.7; p=0.04). The four items that resulted in the highest stress scores were exams and/or grades (stress score ≥ 2.1), amount of class material (stress score ≥ 1.8), financial responsibilities (stress score ≥ 1.8) and lack of free time (stress score ≥ 1.6). Stressful situations that the students felt the most during the semester were thinking about the things that they had to accomplish (score ≥ 3.2) and having to control the way they spend their time (score ≥ 2.6). Common stress relievers were spending time with family, friends and pets ( ≥ 27%), watching television or movies ( ≥ 22%) and exercising ( ≥ 17%). Of those students who exercised, >44% felt it helped relieve stress very much. CONCLUSIONS: Little difference in levels of stress was observed between the classes. Based on the results, pharmacy students at the University of Arizona do not appear to be excessively stressed. Spending time with family/friends/pets, watching TV/DVDs, and exercising were the most common ways of relieving stress.

Stress is well known to go hand in hand with registered nurses and the nursing field. The aim was to examine stress related coping strategies experienced and used by registered nurses from different countries all over the world. This qualitative study was done by analyzing the results from 10 different articles. The findings showed that there was multiple coping strategies that is being used by nurses to cope with the stress they experience at work. Some of the coping strategies were done after work; For instance, different physical activities including yoga and sports. Other coping strategies that were found are more work related. For example, the importance of knowing yourself in your nursing role, knowing your limits, and the importance of having a good relationship with your colleagues. Employers can use these strategies on a daily basis both and registered nurses to cope with work related stress.

Abstract A well-known problem in the social services is that the professional role as a social worker is comprised of stress and poor working environment. Research has examined these problems and have described by different models how psychosocial work factors can lead to sickness and stress related illness (Göransson, Lindfors, Ishäll, Nylén, Kylin, & Sverke, 2013). This study is going to present seven interviews from five social workers who work within child protection and two that previously worked within child protection from two different counties. In the study, we have chosen to focus on the field of child and family because it is one of the most stress related fields of social work (Tham & Meagher 2009). In summary, our results show that social workers are pleased with the collegial support and meaningfulness that entails. However, it appears to be a lack of participation in organizational issues and thereby reduced control. The high workload involves high standards, for both new recruits and experienced social workers in social services. The professional field has a need for increased financial resources, which would allow for higher salaries, more staff and a solid and developed induction training. The documentation should be streamlined to improve the psychosocial working environment of social workers and to create more space for client contact.

Salivary IgA is the primary antibody of mucosal immunity. It has been suggested that chronic stress may lower levels of IgA and lead to an increased susceptibility to respiratory illness. It is also suggested that acute stress increases IgA during active coping (that involves mental effort or controllability, such as time-based mathematics or memory tests) and decreases it during passive coping tasks (with no mental effort required or uncontrollable, such as the passive viewing of disgust images). However, tasks often classed as stressors have produced consistent IgA effects in areas of passive coping and chronic stress. These inconsistencies might be a consequence of methodological issues, such as sampling procedures, or may reflect individual differences, for example how a task is appraised. This thesis examined appraisal effects with focus on control over a stressful event and a potential relationship with salivary IgA. Three different study designs were used to examine stress, appraised control and salivary IgA. To alter appraisal during passive coping, disgust images were presented as either real pictures or as fake effects from fictional films to change the participant's perception of control during the image presentations. The role of appraised control during a chronic stress situation was explored in caregivers, and finally, appraised control and subjective stress were investigated in relation to IgA daily for a week in undergraduates, alongside perceived stress and hassles from the prior month. Viewing disgusting images increased perceived stress, irrespective of whether the images were presented as real or fake. Crucially, control was lower and salivary IgA increased only in the group that were told the images were real. Appraised control over a chronic stressor of caregiving did not affect IgA, but neither did perceived stress. Finally, in undergraduates, stress measured at the same time as sampling showed a lower level of IgA on days rated the highest compared to lowest on stress, and appraised control had a negative correlation with IgA when averages were used over the week, but only in a sub-group of participants. Perceived stress or hassles from the prior month did not relate to IgA. The main conclusions are that a participant's appraisal of passive coping tasks can be altered and that this may lead to a change in their IgA response. The overall results challenge the view that IgA is a stress marker, as the only consistent effect of stress on IgA was its consistency. Yet inconsistent IgA responses are likely to be a recurring issue in research due to the sensitivity of IgA to a number of different methodological practices that may cause a direct effect, or may alter appraisals.

Bakgrund: Cancer är ett hälsoproblem som är stort över hela världen och mer än var tredje person riskerar att bli drabbad under sin livstid. Varje år ökar antalet människor som drabbas av cancer, men även överlevnaden ökar. Syfte: Att beskriva hur vuxna personer med obotlig cancersjukdom hanterar sin livssituation med hjälp av coping strategier vid livets slutskede samt metodologiskt granska hur undersökningsgrupp och urvalsmetod är beskrivet i granskade artiklar. Metod: En litteraturstudie med deskriptiv design som baserades på 10 artiklar med både kvalitativ och kvantitativ ansats. Artiklarna hittades i databasen Pubmed. Huvudresultat: Familj, vänner och trosuppfattning var viktiga källor för att personer med obotlig cancer sjukdom skulle kunna hantera faktumet att livets slut var nära. Socialt stöd och religiös tro var nyckelkomponenterna för att personer som levde sin sista tid i livet skulle klara av att hantera sin livssituation, antingen genom att finna en mening i den pågående situationen eller genom stöd från sina nära och kära. Resultatet baserades på fyra kvantitativa artiklar och sex kvalitativa artiklar. I granskningen av de ingående artiklarnas datainsamlingsmetod framkom både urvalsmetod och undersökningsgrupp. I studierna förekommer semistrukturerade intervjuer, strukturerade intervjuer och enkäter. Slutsats: Coping strategier i form av socialt stöd och religiöst stöd var nyckelkomponenter för att personer med obotlig cancersjukdom skulle klara av att hantera sin sista tid i livet. Personerna såg olika på komponenterna, vilka coping strategier de använde och vilka som fungerade, men även vilket stöd som var av betydelse. De flesta personerna upplevde att stöd från familj och anhöriga var viktigt för att kunna hantera livets slutskede, men likaså stödet från en religiös bakgrund. / Background: Cancer is a major health problem worldwide and more than every third person has got the risk to get cancer during their lifetime. The number of people getting diagnosed with cancer is increasing, but the survival rate is increasing as well. Aim: To describe how adults with incurable cancer manage their lives with the help of coping strategies at the end of life as well as methodologically review how the selection of the study group and the selection method in the reviewed articles were described. Method: A literature study with a descriptive design based on ten articles with both qualitative and quantitative approach. The articles were found in the database PubMed. Findings: Family, friends and religious beliefs were important sources for people with terminally ill cancer to cope with the fact that life was about to come to an end. Social support and religious beliefs were the main important facts for the people who were facing end of life to be able to cope with their situation, either trying to find meaning in the current situation or through support from loved ones. The findings were based on four quantitave articles and six qualitative articles. The selection of the study group and the selection method in the reviewed articles were described in each article. The data collection methods that the included articles used were semistructed interwievs, unstructed interwievs and surveys. Conclusion: Coping strategies as in social support and religious support were the main facts for people to cope with end of life. People had different views on both of the facts, which coping strategies they used and which ones that worked, but also what kind of support that was more important. Most of the people felt that support from family and friends were important to have so that they could cope with the end of life, but religious support was just as much important.

This study examined associations among romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance, positive and negative religious coping, and marital adjustment in a community sample of 81 heterosexual couples. Both spouses completed the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), a brief measure of religious coping (Brief RCOPE), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), and a demographic questionnaire as part of a larger study. Multilevel modeling (MLM) for the actor-partner interdependence model (APIM) was used. Attachment avoidance was inversely related to positive religious coping. In contrast, attachment anxiety was directly related to negative religious coping. Positive religious coping buffered the relationship between attachment avoidance and marital adjustment. In contrast, attachment anxiety was detrimental to marital adjustment regardless of positive religious coping, and positive religious coping was related to higher marital adjustment only in the context of low attachment anxiety. Surprisingly, the spouse's attachment anxiety was inversely related to the respondent's marital adjustment only when the respondent reported low levels of negative religious coping, whereas in the context of high negative religious coping, the partner's attachment anxiety was related to higher marital adjustment. Results support using attachment theory to conceptualize religious coping and the consideration of both attachment and religious coping constructs in counseling.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The demand for study places in Honours courses in Psychology far exceeds the available places in courses at government-funded universities. Private institutions are increasingly offering such courses to address the need for enrolment and to capitalize on a market niche. Students who are unsuccessful at mainstream universities might apply for courses at private institutions, even those offered at faith-based universities regardless of their personal spiritual beliefs and values. There is a clear gap in the literature exploring the experiences of students enrolled at faith-based private institutions. The study attempted to gain insight into the subjective experiences of students enrolled in a Psychology Honours programme at a faith-based institution in the Western Cape. The proposed study incorporated an exploratory research design and employed qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to collect data from a purposively selected sample and transcripts were subjected to a content analysis. Data collection and analysis occurred in parallel until reaching the threshold number. Ethics clearance and project registration was obtained from the UWC Senate Research committee and all relevant ethics principles were upheld. The findings indicated that faith based institutions are not homogenous and that students enrolled at faith based institutions are respectively not homogenous. Findings further indicate that alignment does exist between the core values of participants and their discipline choice, and not that participants‘ faith beliefs were necessarily aligned with that of the institution.

Abstract This dissertation explores four key questions within the HIV/AIDS paradigm1 and the impact it is having on orphans and vulnerable children in the district of Quthing, Lesotho. These questions are: What is the status of social safety nets? How are communities surviving with the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children? What might be the early warning signs of community breaking points as a new category of child-headed household emerges? What are the human drivers of the pandemic in terms of behaviour and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, and sex; and in terms of reasons why people are not heeding the warning signs and adopting behaviour change? The findings of the dissertation reveal that communities are overwhelmed with the demands placed on them to support orphans and vulnerable children to the point where culture, traditions, and society at large are showing early warning signs of irreversible strain. Despite the efforts of government, donors, the humanitarian sector and the communities themselves, awareness of HIV/AIDS is not translating into behavioural change and as such the spread of the virus continues unabated among the youngest and most vulnerable groups. 1 The set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline. ii

Adolescent substance use is associated with a number of pressing problems on the public health agenda, including an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, violence-related injuries, depression, homicide, sexual assault, and accidental death. Teenage substance use remains high in South Africa, with a prevalence of smoking and alcohol binge-drinking estimated at 18.5% and 23% respectively. A previous quantitative cross-sectional analysis of data from a study cohort from which this study’s sample was drawn, demonstrated an association between adolescents’ sense of coherence (SOC) – a measure of coping ability – and smoking. The current study, using a qualitative approach, thus sought to gain more insight into adolescent substance use, particularly smoking, and to better understand how it may relate to coping. A mixed method sampling strategy was used in selecting 22 research participants between the ages of 16 and 19 in two high schools in Pretoria. They were then interviewed individually by an interviewer blinded to their SOC level and substance use status as documented in the quantitative survey in which this study builds on. The interviews were transcribed in full and a content analysis strategy was used in the analysis of the data. The results obtained were then merged with participants’ substance use status and SOC levels. Of the 22 participants, 6 had strong SOC and had never used substances; 8 had weak SOC and were current substance users. The other 8 also had weak SOC but were not current substance users. Further analysis of the results showed that adolescents’ substance use is associated with stress and coping as they (substance users) reported using substances in attempting to manage stressful life events. Of the 8 current substance users, 7 reported avoidance-oriented (disengagement) coping styles. Five of the 7 reported load imbalance such as academic and social pressures and distress (e.g. schoolwork overload, peer demands, and family problems) as a reason for using substances. The non-substance using adolescents with weak SOC reported strong social support, especially family and peer support in coping with life stressors. Hence, substances were more likely to make up for compromised coping where contextuallevel risk factors (demands/stressors) exceeded coping resources such as social support. Also, of the 8 substance users- in addition to stress related reasons for using substances- 4 reported sensation seeking, whilst 2 reported curiosity/experimentation- which are all non-stress related. Furthermore, although family and peer support were observed to be complementary in most cases, the reliance on peers for support was stronger amongst those whom family support was considered weak, which presented the context for social/peer pressure and vulnerability to substance use. The study findings suggest family support as a moderator of the influence of the adolescents’ inability to cope with stress (or have low SOC) on smoking behaviour. On the other hand, a close relationship was observed between strong SOC and using engagement coping responses and reporting family and school support as sources of support. Notably, all the participants with strong SOC reported that they had never used substances despite being equally affected by life stressors. The implications of the findings are also discussed, especially as related to enhancing SOC. More practically, in addition to providing life skills training to educate adolescents about substance use, school-based programmes could incorporate the notion of stress and coping in helping adolescents to develop desirable and effective coping strategies to deal with social demands as well as adopting advantageous lifestyles to meet their needs for stimulation and adventure (sensation seeking and experimentation). On the whole, the enhancement of social support and adolescents’ connectedness to various social systems may be the key to substance use prevention among South African adolescents.