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With the growing popularity in video games, there has been increased concerns over the prolonged exposure to the entertainment medium. Problematic gaming is defined as a pattern of gaming behavior that causes significant impairment in personal, social, other important areas of functioning, often characterized by preoccupation and loss of interest in other areas. This study examined how problematic gaming behaviors may be influenced by insecure adult attachment and perceived social support from differing sources. It was hypothesized that avoidant attachment would have a significant direct and indirect effect (via perceived social support) on problematic gaming. In addition, perceived social support from online friends and from offline friends were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between attachment and problematic gaming, Participants were recruited from both SONA (n = 151) and Amazon's Mturk (n = 264) to complete an online research questionnaire that measured variables of interest. Results indicated that the direct and indirect effects of attachment avoidance on problematic gaming were supported in both subsamples but the moderator effects were not. Further exploratory analysis found that anxious attachment demonstrated a similar pattern as avoidant attachment, but with a significant moderator effect of perceived social support from online friends (enhance) on the attachment anxiety and problematic gaming relation. Additionally, anhedonia and depressive symptoms were found to be significantly correlated with problematic gaming. Limitations, future research directions, and clinical implications are discussed.

Familial bereavement is recognized as a considerable life crisis (Strobe & Hanson, 2001). Furthermore, bereaved parents are more likely to be at risk for having long lasting, and intense psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and even suicide (Darbyshire, 2013; Omerove et.al, 2013). Losing a child is a devastating experience, which dramatically changes the parents’ lives (Darbyshire, 2013; Oliver, 1999; Omerove et.al, 2013). Although much research has addressed the experiences of bereaved parents, and has come up with themes related to coping experiences, the research is still restricted to the western world, and has yet not intensely addressed the cross-cultural aspect. Although limiting this study to adherents of the three Abrahamic religions in the U.S. is still restricted in some way to the western world, in other ways it opens the door to understanding parental bereavement differences across three religions. Spirituality, religiosity, perceived social support, and marital relationship have been found to be buffers to grief; yet, it is not clear how essential these variables are to the bereaved parents across different religions. The current cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship among adjustment and other factors (spirituality, religiosity, perceived social support, and marital relationship) that might influence adjustment to bereavement among Christian, Jewish, and Muslim bereaved parents. A cross-sectional online survey was launched from January to February 2016 to measure participants’ baseline adjustment, spirituality, religiosity, perceived social support, and marital relationship. A diverse group of 145 bereaved parents participated in this study, including 65 religious Christians (44.83%), 41 religious Jews (28.28%), and 39 religious Muslims (26.90%) with an average age of 44 (SD = 12.80). The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the three religious groups in terms of their adjustment, religiosity spirituality, perceived social support, and marital relationship. Muslims were found to have higher baseline rates of all study constructs more than Jewish and Christian bereaved parents. The results indicated only perceived social support and spirituality significantly predicted the adjustment level among the bereaved parents when holding all other terms constant. Whereas only perceived social support and religious involvement significantly predicted the marital relationship level among the bereaved parents when holding all other terms constant. These results shed light on some important implications for counselor educators and particularly for practitioners working with the bereaved parents populations. Limitations and recommendations for further research are also suggested.

Strong social ties correspond with better health and well being, but the neural mechanisms linking social contact to health remain speculative. This study extends work on the social regulation of brain activity by supportive handholding in 110 participants (51 female) of diverse racial and socioeconomic origins. In addition to main effects of social regulation by handholding, we assessed the moderating effects of both perceived social support and relationship status (married, cohabiting, dating or platonic friends). Results suggest that, under threat of shock, handholding by familiar relational partners attenuates both subjective distress and activity in a network associated with salience, vigilance and regulatory self-control. Moreover, greater perceived social support corresponded with less brain activity in an extended network associated with similar processes, but only during partner handholding. In contrast, we did not observe any regulatory effects of handholding by strangers, and relationship status did not moderate the regulatory effects of partner handholding. These findings suggest that contact with a familiar relational partner is likely to attenuate subjective distress and a variety of neural responses associated with the presence of threat. This effect is likely enhanced by an individual's expectation of the availability of support from their wider social network.

English: The increase in grandparents who take on the role of raising their grandchild has incited a growth in research, specifically on how this population is able to accomplish such an important responsibility at the later years of their life. However, not much is known about grandparents who are raising grandchild with a congenital disability. Grandparents may take on this role as either a co-parent or as a sole parent out of obligation towards their grandchild and their family. Grandparents from low socio-economic settings with corresponding challenging family and environmental circumstances are a particularly vulnerable group. As a result, these grandparents may experience heightened levels of stress, lower levels of well-being and increased social isolation, which may have a negative influence on their grandchild’s developmental outcomes. This thesis will focus on a study undertaken that aimed to explore the relationships between stress, well-being and the perceived needs for and helpfulness of available social support of grandparents raising their grandchild with a congenital disability. A total of 50 sole-parenting and co-parenting grandparents from various areas in the Western Cape took part in this adapted survey design in the form of structured interviews. An expected inverse relationship was found between caregiving stress and well-being. A further expected positive relationship was found between the grandparents’ perceived needs for types of support and their well-being, and, as hypothesised, an inverse relationship was identified between the grandparents’ perceived need for types of support and their stress. With further analysis, perceived need for types of support positively mediated the stress and well-being. Together with its clinical implications, this study also provides understanding regarding the implications of applying measures devised on foreign populations to the current South African context. / Afrikaans: Die toename in grootouers wat hul kleinkinders grootmaak, het gelei tot ’n groei in navorsing, spesifiek oor die wyse waarop hierdie populasie in staat is om so ’n belangrike en verantwoordelike rol op hul ouderdom te vervul. Daar is egter nie veel bekend oor grootouers wat kleinkinders met ’n aangebore gestremdheid grootmaak nie. Grootouers vervul hierdie rol óf as ’n mede-ouer, óf as ’n alleenouer, uit verpligting teenoor hul kleinkind en hul familie. Grootouers uit lae sosio-ekonomiese agtergronde, met ooreenstemmende uitdagings ten opsigte van familie- en omgewingsomstandighede, is veral ’n weerlose groep. Die resultaat hiervan is dat sodanige grootouers verhoogde stresvlakke, laer welstandsvlakke en verhoogde sosiale isolasie mag ervaar, wat kan lei tot ’n negatiewe uitwerking op hul kleinkinders se ontwikkelingsuitkomste. Hierdie studie verken die verhoudings tussen stres, welstand en die waargenome behoeftes na beskikbare maatskaplike ondersteuning (en of hierdie ondersteuning van waarde is) vir die grootouers wat hul kleinkind met ’n aangebore gestremdheid grootmaak. ’n Totaal van 50 grootouers (alleen- of mede-ouers) vanuit verskeie gebiede in die Wes-Kaap het deelgeneem aan hierdie aangepaste meningsopname-ontwerp in die vorm van gestruktureerde onderhoude. ’n Verwagte inverse verhouding tussen versorgerstres en welstand is bevind. ’n Verdere verwagte positiewe verhouding is bevind tussen die grootouers se waargenome behoeftes na tipes ondersteuning en hul welstand en, soos veronderstel, is ’n inverse verhouding geïdentifiseer tussen die grootouer se waargenome behoeftes na tipes ondersteuning en hul stres. Met verdere analise, het waargenome behoeftes na tipes ondersteuning, die verhouding tussen stres en welstand, positief met bemiddeling. Tesame met die kliniese implikasies, verskaf hierdie studie ook begrip rakende die implikasies van die toepassing van maatreëls wat ontwerp is vir populasies wat nie met die huidige Suid-Afrikaanse konteks ooreenstem nie. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / PhD / Unrestricted

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Sexual victimization is an act of interpersonal violence that affects the lives of many college women. Such incidents are often characterized by women as traumatic experiences which also result forms of psychological distress, with the most common being posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The relationship between sexual victimization and PTSD is strengthened by revictimization. Although perceived social support has been shown to play a protective role in the sexual victimizationâ ³psychological distress relationship, there is also evidence that the moderating effect of perceived social support diminishes with chronic distress. Therefore, the current study assumed that there would be a changing role of perceived social support, from a moderator to a mediator, in the relationship between sexual victimization and PTSD. Three hundred college females (mean age 19) completed questionnaires related to sexual victimization experiences, perceived social support, and PTSD symptoms in addition to other personality and socio-demographic factors. The hypotheses were not supported. However, as with previous findings, the results showed that sexual victimization significantly predicted PTSD symptom severity. / Master of Science