Evidências científicas trazem importantes associações entre a vivência de eventos estressores por gestantes e prejuízos a saúde mental materna. Identifica ainda que tal exposição possa estar relacionada ao aumento de consumo de álcool e tabaco por mulheres. Visto os prejuízos para a saúde materna relacionada a esta vivência, este estudo teve por objetivo analisar a relação entre a ocorrência de eventos estressores, morbidade psiquiátrica e consumo de álcool e tabaco em mulheres no terceiro trimestre gestacional. Trata-se de um estudo epidemiológico clínico, observacional, transversal, sobre amostra de 449 gestantes de uma maternidade pública na cidade de Ribeirão Preto-SP. Os instrumentos de coleta foram: um questionário para obtenção de dados sócio-demográficos, relato de uso de tabaco, Questionário de Morbidade Psiquiátrica de Adultos (QMPA) e entrevista para eventos recentes de vida (IRLE). Para avaliação do consumo de álcool foi utilizado o instrumento T-ACE (Tolerance, Annoyed, Cut-down, Eye-Opener) e um questionário para avaliação segundo critérios de pesquisa da CID-10 para uso nocivo ou síndrome de dependência. Os eventos estressores receberam três tipos de análises: isolados, agrupados em categorias e através da somatória total. Os resultados demonstraram que todas as participantes reportaram ter vivenciado algum evento estressor durante o período avaliado (µ = 5; dp = 2,2; min = 1, máx = 14) com destaque para a categoria saúde (99,1%). Quanto aos eventos estressores específicos, a gravidez indesejada (60,5%; n = 272) e dificuldade financeira média (31,8%; n = 143) foram os mais freqüentes. O primeiro evento estressor recebeu elevado impacto de estresse, 97 gestantes referiram estresse alto ou acentuado, 128 estresse baixo ou moderado e apenas 47 nenhum estresse. A somatória total de eventos estressores (p< 0,001) e as categorias Educação, Finanças, Aspectos legais, Migração e Trabalho apresentaram correlação estatística significante em relação à morbidade psiquiátrica (p< 0,001). Os eventos dificuldade financeira média ou grande e brigas com familiares foram cerca de 3,5 vezes maior em gestantes com suspeição de transtorno psiquiátrico (p< 0,001; 95%IC:2,16-3,84). Em relação ao consumo de álcool, o número total de eventos e a categoria Finanças apresentaram correlação estatística significante com o consumo de risco e uso nocivo ou dependência. O uso de tabaco foi associado à categoria finanças (p< 0,05) e aos eventos gravidez indesejada (p< 0,001; 95%IC:1,4-4,9) e brigas com o marido (p< 0,05; 95%IC:0,8-3,1). Os dados apontam alta vivência materna de eventos estressores durante o período gestacional e associação entre eventos estressores (isolados ou em categorias), sintomas psiquiátricos, consumo de álcool e tabaco. A avaliação dos eventos estressores por profissionais de saúde torna-se, portanto útil para o tratamento, educação e promoção da saúde pública visto que pode ajudar as mulheres a reforçar os seus estilos de enfrentamento ao estresse e prevenir o consumo de substâncias lícitas e danos à saúde mental materna. / Scientific evidences provide important associations between the experience of stressful events by pregnant women and harm to mental health. It identifies that such exposure may be related to increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco by women. Considering the damage to maternal health related to this experience, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between the occurrence of stressful events, psychiatric morbidity and alcohol and smoking consumption in pregnant women. This is a clinical epidemiological study, observational, cross-sectional sample of 449 pregnant women at a public maternity hospital in Ribeirão Preto. The instruments used to collect the data were a questionnaire to obtain socio-demographic data, history of tobacco use, Psychiatric Morbidity Questionnaire for Adults (QMPA) and interview for recent life events (IRLE). To assess alcohol consumption it was used the instrument T-ACE (Tolerance, Annoyed, Cut down, Eye-Opener) and a second questionnaire to evaluate the search criteria of CID-10 criteria for harmful use or dependence syndrome. The stressful events were three types of analysis: individual, grouped into categories and through the total sum. The results showed that all participants reported having experienced some stressful event during the period study ( = 5, SD = 2.2, min = 1, max = 14) with emphasis on the category \"health\" (99.1%). Considering the specific stressful events, the \"unwanted pregnancy\" (60.5%, n = 272) and \"average financial difficulty\" (31.8%, n = 143) were the most frequent. The first stressor received high impact stress, 97 pregnant women reported high stress or severe, 128 moderate stress and only low or no stress 47. The total sum of stressful events (p < 0.001) and the categories of \"education\", \"finance\", \"legal aspects\", \"migration\" and \"work\" showed statistically significant correlation in relation to psychiatric morbidity of patients (p < 0.001) . The events \"mean and great financial difficulty\" and \"fights with family members\" were about 3.5 times higher in women with suspected psychiatric disorder (p < 0.001, 95% IC : 2,16-3, 84 ). In relation to alcohol consumption, the total number of events and the category \"Finances\" showed statistically significant correlation with the risk and consumption of alcohol abuse or dependence. Tobacco use was associated with the category \"Finances\" (p < 0.05) and events \"unwanted pregnancy\" (p <0.001, 95% IC :1,4-4, 9) and \"fights with her husband\" ( p < 0.05, 95% IC :0,8-3, 1). The data indicate high maternal experiences of stressful events during pregnancy and association between stressful events (singly or in categories), psychiatric symptoms, alcohol and tobacco. The evaluation of stressful events by health professionals it is therefore useful for treatment, education and promotion of public health, because it can help women strengthen their coping styles with stress and prevent the consumption of licit and damage to mental health.

Hope, optimism, and several markers of religiosity and spirituality were examined as potential moderators of the association between negative life events and depressive symptoms in a secondary data analysis of an ethnically diverse sample. Participants (267 female, 119 male) were college students enrolled at an urban Northeastern university. It was hypothesized that negative life events would be associated with increased depressive symptoms and that higher levels of hope, optimism, and religious and spiritual variables would attenuate this relationship. Ethnically-stratified moderation analyses were conducted to assess for differences in moderation between Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, and Asians. Hypotheses were generally supported, with some ethnic variation in findings. Although hope and optimism predicted decreased depressive symptoms in Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites, optimism was a significant moderator in Whites only. Measures of religiosity were significant moderators among Blacks as well as Whites. Clinical and research implications are explored based on the extant literature.

The experience of trauma is prevalent among young adult college students and is often associated with poor mental health outcomes such as symptoms of anxiety. Not all individuals who have experienced trauma, however, develop anxiety, perhaps due to individual-level adaptive characteristics, such as use of adaptive rather than maladaptive coping strategies. Yet, little research has examined the interrelationships between the experience of trauma, specific types of coping strategies, and subclinical anxiety symptoms. A sample of 915 undergraduate students completed self-report measures of trauma, coping strategies, and anxiety symptoms. We hypothesized that traumatic life events would be associated with anxiety symptoms, and that this relation would be moderated by adaptive and maladaptive coping, such that adaptive coping will weaken, whereas maladaptive coping will exacerbate, the trauma-anxiety relationship. Results demonstrated maladaptive coping, but not adaptive coping, was a moderator of the association between the experience of trauma and symptoms of anxiety.

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.

U.S. doctoral program completion rates have remained persistently low in the humanities and biomedical sciences despite educators' efforts. A variety of factors, including stress and dissitation advisor-related issues, were associated with high attrition rates and extended time-to-degree for PhD candidates. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine relationships among life stressors, advisor-related factors, and time-to-degree for a convenience sample of 74 online social sciences doctoral degree holders. Holmes and Rahe's work on stress and Tinto's framework for education program attrition provided the framework for the study. Linear regression and Pearson's correlation statistics were used to examine the relationships between Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) scores, Advisor-Related Factor scores, and time-to-degree after controlling for covariates of age, ethnicity, and gender. Key findings included: a) SRRS significantly (p < .01) predicted time-to-degree after controlling for age, ethnicity, and gender; and b) no significant relationship was found between advisor-related factors. By identifying at-risk students, early intervention could reduce the time need to complete a PhD program and reduce financial and university resources required to finish. Doctoral program administrators could provide closer supervision with PhD candidates and make adjustments based on an accumulation of extraordinary stressors to help PhD candidiates adjust and finish their programs.

The current dissertation sought to examine stress in three different, but overlapping, ways. The first study examined how self-reported negative life events, in the aggregate and individually, are associated with cognitive performance. The results suggested that there was no significant relationship between the aggregate measures of self-reported negative life events and cognitive performance. On the other hand, several individual negative life events were associated with cognitive functioning. The findings support previous research indicating that using estimates of individual stressors rather than aggregate measures of stressors increases the predictive validity of stress measurement. The second study assessed the cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of bereavement on cognitive functioning. The cross-sectional results revealed that bereavement status alone was not associated with cognitive performance. On the other hand, there were several significant interactions between bereavement status and the background characteristics. The longitudinal results revealed that the bereaved individuals declined on the delayed naming recall task and there was a significant interaction between gender and bereavement on the delayed story recall task. Our results support the finding that bereavement is associated with poorer cognitive performance within certain subgroups (i.e., males and the young-old participants). The third and final study examined the effects of allostatic load (AL) on cognitive performance in bereaved and non-bereaved individuals over a twelve-month period post-bereavement. The cross-sectional findings suggested that the overall AL measure, the syndrome X (a collection of cardiovascular risk factors) and non-syndrome X measures (stress hormones), and the individual AL markers were associated with cognitive performance. Longitudinally, we were unable to find an association between the overall AL measure and cognitive performance. Taken together, the current findings suggest that there is an association between the multiple stress factors under investigation and cognitive performance. The cross-sectional results revealed that the individual negative life events (i.e., having less money to live on), bereavement, and the AL markers were associated with poorer cognitive performance. Furthermore, the results suggest that utilizing the individual life events and AL markers may be more informative when assessing cognitive functioning in the current samples compared to using the sum scores.

<p>The main aim of the current study is to examine the relationship between community violence exposure and the development of psychopathology and examine the relationship between community violence exposure and other types of trauma, that is, childhood trauma and stressful life events. It was hypothesised that exposure to community violence will have a high correlation with development of psychological disorders such as mood and anxiety and psychotic disorders. The main study employed a quantitative research design in order to determine the relationship between PTSD in children and adolescents. The current study used secondary data to measure the correlation between exposure to community violence and the development of psychopathology. The data for this study was collected from 132 consecutive referrals between the ages of 13 to 19 (mean age = 15.4, SD = 1.6) from a youth stress clinic at a university in the Western Cape. Findings indicated that community violence prevalence was higher than previous South African studies but lower compared to American studies. There was generally a high prevalence of PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) in this sample compared to previous South African studies. An unexpected outcome was that even though there was a high prevalence of PTSD, there was no relationship between community violence exposure and PTSD in this sample, rather, community violence exposure was related to MDD. Furthermore, MDD and not PTSD was related to experiences of childhood trauma. Stressful life events were related to acute stress disorder (ASD).</p>

This study examined the frequency of university students with self-esteem level at first. Moreover, the difference between male and female and the difference between achiever and non-achiever students were examined with respect to self-esteem. Also the relationship between self-esteem score of university students and stressful life events was examined. Three hundred thirty one university students from different grades and departments of Middle East Technical University have been participated in this study. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Life Events Inventory for University Students (LEIU) and four-question demographic information form were used for this study. Factor analysis for LEIU was made for this study. At the end of the factor-analysis, three factors were identified. These were called as self-related anxiety/problems / environmental, adjustment, family events/problems / and academic events/problems. To examine the percentage of students with high and low self-esteem, frequency of the participant was calculated. In addition, independent samples t-test was applied to investigate the difference between male-female and achiever-non-achiever students on self-esteem, while Pearson product moment correlation was applied to examine the relationship between self-esteem and stressful life events. It was found that there were 302 students (88.6 %) with high self-esteem level, while there were 39 students (11.4 %) with low self-esteem level. According to independent samples t-test results, it was found that achiever students&amp / #8217 / self-esteem score was higher than non-achiever students whereas there is no significant difference between male and female on the self-esteem score. Finally, it was found that there is a significant relationship between self-related anxiety/problems, environmental, adjustment, family problems and academic events/problems and self-esteem.

En förutsättning för att undvika depression och istället uppleva posttraumatiskt växande (PTG), efter att ha upplevt belastande livshändelser, kan vara känslan av sammanhang (KASAM). Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om det finns en skillnad mellan belastande livshändelser avseende negativa utfallet depression samt undersöka om en stark KASAM kan vara avgörande för att individen istället utvecklar PTG. I studien undersöks 150 studerande vid Örebro universitet. Av resultatet framgår det att studenterna med högt värde av belastande livshändelser är mer deprimerade än studenterna med lågt värde, oberoende av KASAM. Dock hittades ingen signifikant skillnad mellan belastande livshändelser och KASAM avseende PTG.Huruvida belastande händelser utvecklar en positiv eller negativ förändring hos individen kan istället avgöras av personens tolkning, hantering av situationen. / A basis to avoid depression and instead experience posttraumatic growth (PTG), after stressful life events, may be a sense of coherence (SOC). This study investigates whether there is a difference between stressful life events regarding the negative outcome depression and to examine whether a strong sense of coherence can be essential to develop PTG instead. 150 students at Örebro University were examined. The result showed that students with high value of stressful life events are more depressed than students with low value, independent of SOC. However, no significant difference was found between stressful life events and SOC regarding to PTG.Whether a stressful event develops a positive or negative change in the individual may instead be determined by how the person interprets and handles the situation.

Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders and may be considered as one of the most prevalent forms of emotional/psychological illness among children. The prevalence of depressive disorders tends to rise dramatically during adolescence. Cognitive diathesis-stress models maintain that depression is produced through an interaction between cognitive vulnerability and negative life events. According to Beck, core beliefs are at the core of cognitive vulnerability. After the occurrence of a negative life event, the core belief is activated and influences how the individual interprets the negative life event. Beck maintains that three core beliefs are central to the development and maintenance of depressive disorders: the belief that one is helpless, unlovable, and/or worthless. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a coding system for a storytelling task could reliably assess Beck’s core beliefs. In doing so, this study sought to build upon previous research on the relations between negative life events, core beliefs, and depressive symptomatology among pre- and early adolescent females. Participants were 130 girls ranging in age from 9 to 14. All girls completed a self-report measure of life events and a projective story-telling measure that was used to assess their core beliefs. Participants also completed a semi-structured diagnostic interview, which served as the primary measure of depressive symptom severity. In support of previous research, both negative life events and negative core beliefs uniquely predicted the severity of depressive symptoms. Consistent with Beck’s cognitive model, the helpless and unlovable core beliefs uniquely predicted severity of depressive symptoms, although the worthless core belief did not. Further examination indicated that the helpless core belief was a more powerful influence on depressive symptoms than were the unlovable and worthless core beliefs. Contrary to Beck’s diathesis-stress model, however, negative core beliefs did not moderate the effects of negative life events on depressive symptomatology. For girls aged 9-11, however, a helpless core belief moderated the effects of negative life events on depressive symptom severity. Implications of these results, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed. / text