Background: The construct sense of coherence (SOC) is proposed to explain the variation in the way people cope and it has been linked with positive mental health. Evidence suggests that level of SOC may be able to predict therapeutic outcome. There is a lack of evidence regarding individual predictors for treatment response of guided self-help services. Therefore, SOC is an important construct to consider. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a client’s sense of coherence at the start of a guided self-help intervention could predict their therapeutic outcome. The possibility that coping style mediated this relationship was also examined. Method: The study employed a longitudinal survey design. Participants were patients aged 30-64 years attending a guided self-help service for mild-moderate psychological difficulties. Participant data was collected pre and post intervention (3 weeks to 3 months after initial appointment). Results: A significant negative association was found between SOC and pre intervention anxiety and depression scores. No significant relationship was found between SOC and post intervention anxiety and depression scores (therapeutic outcome). Multiple regression analysis found that sense of coherence and coping style were not significant predictors of therapeutic outcome. Conclusions: It is important to determine the causality of SOC’s relationship with mental health because if SOC can be influenced via psychological intervention this may promote positive mental health and effective coping. Therefore, further research is required to determine if SOC has clinical application.

Background: Previous studies on anthroposophic lifestyle and allergy show that the children have less risk of developing allergies. All studies so far have been retrospective and have included children in school age. In view of the facts that this lifestyle seems to protect children from allergies and that different symptoms of atopy have increased dramatically during the last decades it is of general interest to study this group of children more in detail. The earlier findings have now been followed up in a prospective research program ALADDIN (Assessment of Life style and Allergic Disease During Infancy), applying different approaches. One of these is to focus on stress (as measured by cortisol) as a factor that may underlie the decreased risk of allergy in children from anthroposophic families.   Aim: This thesis is based on data from the ALADDIN study focusing on influence of family lifestyle on allergy sensitization early in children’s life in relation to psychosocial factors and salivary cortisol as an indicator of stress. Methods: A total of 552 families were recruited during pregnancy or during the first month of the child´s life in two recruitment waves, 330 families between September 2004 and November 2007 and another 222 families between March 2008 and January 2011. They were recruited at anthroposophic maternal and child health care centers (MCHC) and from conventional MCHCs.  Data on demographics and exposures were obtained by questionnaires and interviews. Parental capacity to adapt to stressors was evaluated by means of the questionnaire “Sense of Coherence” (SOC; Antonovsky). Salivary samples were collected at home from the infants and both parents for analyzes of cortisol. Blood samples were obtained from the parents and from the children for analyzes of IgE. Results: Many family related characteristics differed markedly between the groups before and during pregnancy, during delivery and the first 12 months of age. Children from anthroposophic families had lower levels of salivary cortisol compared to peers from families with a more conventional lifestyle on all sampling occasions at 6 months of age and on some of the occasions at 12 and 24 months of age. There were no differences concerning cortisol between parents with different lifestyle and no significant differences concerning SOC-scores between the three lifestyle groups. An anthroposophic lifestyle was associated with a lower risk of allergic sensitization up to five years of age. This risk was partially explained by lower cortisol levels during infancy. Children in families with a partly anthroposophic lifestyle also had substantially lower risk of sensitization. Conclusion: An anthroposophic lifestyle protects from development of allergy during childhood, at least up to five years of age. This protective capacity is partly mediated by low cortisol levels during infancy but is also dependent on unknown characteristics of this lifestyle.  These results call for further studies on health related effects of an anthroposophic lifestyle.

<p>The licentiate thesis explored the relationship between working conditions and wage income, and the relationship between working conditions and sense of coherence in relation to ill health, focusing on cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal pain, and psychological distress among the working population in Sweden. The studies were based on cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data (ULF and LNU), and on the Swedish census (FoB90) linked to the national cause of death registry. The samples included employed men and women residing in Sweden, aged 18-64.</p><p>The main results show that working conditions contributed to income differences in CVD prevalence as well as CVD mortality irrespective of study design or way of assessing working conditions. Further, sense of coherence moderated, yet not consistently, the impact of working conditions on musculoskeletal pain and psychological distress. The moderating role seemed to vary by work exposure, gender and health outcome. Hence, the results do not support the hypothesis that sense of coherence is a global health-protective factor.</p><p>The findings stress that future research into working conditions and employees’ health would benefit from including income in the analyses since wages are closely related to working conditions and to people’s position on the labour market. In addition, focusing on individual resources such as sense of coherence increases our undertanding of how individual differences in coping with adverse working conditions may affect health. Since the results also revealed considerable gender differences, suggesting that the factors that determine future work-related health are different for men and women, it is important to study men and women separately.</p>

<p>Mental illness is seen as a public health problem around the world, especially among adolescents. Cambodia is one of Asia's poorest countries, and has one of the lowest health statuses. Only one in four children are able to go to school in Cambodia for economic reasons however in Sweden all children have the right to education but mental health is still a major problem. The aim of the present study is to make a comparison between the mental health of children in English schools in Sweden and in Cambodia, using a target group of fifteen-year-olds, and also to see if there are differences in the school staff's work in promoting children's mental health. This study used both a qualitative and a quantitative method involving sixty-six fifteen-year-old students. A questionnaire adapted from Antonovsky‟s Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory was used. Five qualitative interviews with teachers working with health were also carried out.The results showed that the Swedish students were satisfied with their life situation, and also had a higher SOC than the Cambodian participants. The students in Cambodia enjoyed school more than the Swedish students, but still, anxiety and worries were more common among students in Cambodia. The teachers in Cambodia and in Sweden had different ways of defining what health is.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2007.

Mental illness is seen as a public health problem around the world, especially among adolescents. Cambodia is one of Asia's poorest countries, and has one of the lowest health statuses. Only one in four children are able to go to school in Cambodia for economic reasons however in Sweden all children have the right to education but mental health is still a major problem. The aim of the present study is to make a comparison between the mental health of children in English schools in Sweden and in Cambodia, using a target group of fifteen-year-olds, and also to see if there are differences in the school staff's work in promoting children's mental health. This study used both a qualitative and a quantitative method involving sixty-six fifteen-year-old students. A questionnaire adapted from Antonovsky‟s Sense of Coherence (SOC) theory was used. Five qualitative interviews with teachers working with health were also carried out.The results showed that the Swedish students were satisfied with their life situation, and also had a higher SOC than the Cambodian participants. The students in Cambodia enjoyed school more than the Swedish students, but still, anxiety and worries were more common among students in Cambodia. The teachers in Cambodia and in Sweden had different ways of defining what health is.

The licentiate thesis explored the relationship between working conditions and wage income, and the relationship between working conditions and sense of coherence in relation to ill health, focusing on cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal pain, and psychological distress among the working population in Sweden. The studies were based on cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data (ULF and LNU), and on the Swedish census (FoB90) linked to the national cause of death registry. The samples included employed men and women residing in Sweden, aged 18-64. The main results show that working conditions contributed to income differences in CVD prevalence as well as CVD mortality irrespective of study design or way of assessing working conditions. Further, sense of coherence moderated, yet not consistently, the impact of working conditions on musculoskeletal pain and psychological distress. The moderating role seemed to vary by work exposure, gender and health outcome. Hence, the results do not support the hypothesis that sense of coherence is a global health-protective factor. The findings stress that future research into working conditions and employees’ health would benefit from including income in the analyses since wages are closely related to working conditions and to people’s position on the labour market. In addition, focusing on individual resources such as sense of coherence increases our undertanding of how individual differences in coping with adverse working conditions may affect health. Since the results also revealed considerable gender differences, suggesting that the factors that determine future work-related health are different for men and women, it is important to study men and women separately.

The aim of the study was to investigate the sense of coherence among students in Zambia. Sense of coherence was assessed with the questionnaire SOC-29. The respondents were 102 students, aged 15 to 20 years, in three schools in Livingstone. A secondary aim was to examine the relationship between sense of coherence, gender and age. The mean score on SOC-29 was 131 for the Zambian students, which is lower than SOC measured for Swedish adolescents (m=138,5) as well as the Swedish population (m=146). There were no significant correlations between sense of coherence and gender, nor between sense of coherence and age.