Research into the lived experience of dementia, which has tended to focus on people with dementia and their spouses (carers) separately, has identified that that spousal relationships play a crucial role in this experience. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how the dyadic interactions in spousal relationships affect the experience of dementia for couples. This thesis aimed to address this gap by exploring how couples in which one partner had mild dementia described the impact of dementia and their attempts to cope with it. It was a qualitative study which followed the theoretical and methodological stance of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve couples, with each partner interviewed separately. Results illustrated that couples’ reported their experience as a chronological process and were motivated to get on with their lives by maintaining a sense of normality. This study contributed to the literature by revealing how both partners experienced and coped with dementia, and the impact that their actions had on their spouse. Couples maintained normality through developing positive cognitions, keeping active, lessening the load and direct discussion and support. It was clear that couples’ (particularly carers’) awareness of dementia and its implications, combined with their knowledge of their spouse, affected how they experienced and coped with dementia. It was also clear that couples had different expectations about what constituted an acceptable level of communication, which thereby affected choice of coping strategy. The idea of a Relationship Continuum as a way to consider the impact of pre-morbid relationship styles on couples’ responses to dementia was explored. Results were discussed in terms of existing knowledge and ways in which this thesis has added to the literature were highlighted. Professional and practice implications, limitations and future research were discussed.

acase@tulane.edu / Alcohol and drug use to cope is a common phenomenon that is found in those who are of college age. Drinking and drug use to cope has negative short- and long-term outcomes including chronic disease and possibly death. Alcohol and drug use to cope may be more common when individuals are not able allocate other resources in order to cope with their strong uncomfortable feelings (specifically depression, anger, and anxiety) and stress. Women and people of color may be particularly vulnerable to these patterns of maladaptive coping. I hypothesize that increased negative affect, stress, and avoidant coping will be associated with more alcohol and drug use. I also predict that there will be increased alcohol and drug use behavior for women and people of color in the context of negative affect, stress, and avoidant coping. The AUDIT, Brief COPE, DASS, PROMIS Anger, PSS, Race-Related Stress Item, and AAQ-II were used in data collected cross-sectionally from 360 participants. Pearson’s correlations and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. Men and women did not differ in their alcohol and drug use, though people of color did consume less alcohol then their white counterparts. Alcohol and drug use was highly correlated with negative affect and general stress. It also was found that men displayed more substance use behavior when faced with race-stress/perceived discrimination. Predicted relationships between race-related stress and alcohol and drug use and between avoidant coping and alcohol and drug use were not supported. In addition, none of the other hypothesized interactions were statistically significant predictors of alcohol and drug use. Implications for supporting college aged individuals are discussed. / 1 / Chinwendu Duru

acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Xzania W Lee

This study investigated the relationship between intensity of grief and coping patterns of parents of individuals affected by psychotic disorders. The study investigated the intensity of grief in a sample of parents of individuals with psychotic disorders in Western Australia to determine if the results replicate international studies. It further examined if the characteristics of the psychotic disorders of children, had an impact on the grief reactions of parents and if the disorder had a measurable impact on the nature of the relationship between parents and children. The study also identified specific coping strategies that parents consider as being most helpful to them in dealing with their grief, the relationship between intensity of grief and coping patterns of respondents and gender differences in grieving and coping strategies. The research findings suggest that there is measurable grief in a cross section of parents of individuals with psychotic disorders in Western Australia with many similarities to studies done internationally. The findings also suggest that this grief increases in intensity from the time of first diagnosis and peaks at 1-2 years after diagnosis and again 20 years after diagnosis. There was a strong association between past behaviours related to grief reactions and present feelings related to grief. To the best of my knowledge, these findings have not been reported before. IV Certain characteristics of the disorder of children had an impact on the grief reactions of the parents. Higher levels of grief were reported in parents whose children needed frequent assistance with personal care and children with a late onset of the disorder. / There was a positive correlation in parents who had a close relationship with the child before the onset of the disorder and following onset of the disorder suggesting that the disorder did not affect the relationship. To the best of my knowledge, these findings have not been reported before. While this research has replicated other studies, it has also researched coping strategies that have not been identified before. Although cognitive coping strategies were most frequently used by parents and subjectively found to be more helpful, parents using predominantly behavioural methods of coping showed less intensity in their grief. Parents oscillated between approaching the feelings of grief and distracting themselves from them, which highlighted the idiosyncratic nature of coping. Although there were no gender differences in the intensity of grief, there were distinct differences in coping strategies used by fathers and mothers. These findings have important implications for social work practice and policy development within the mental health settings of Western Australia.

<p>Omlokalisering av statlig verksamhet innebär att statliga organisationer flyttar från en ort till en annan. Under 2008 slutförs den största statliga omlokaliseringen i Sverige sedan 1970-talet och detta innebär ett unikt tillfälle att studera en typ av organisationsförändring som är relativt outforskad. Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva hur personalen som valde att inte flytta med organisationen upplevde omlokaliseringen, samt hur de använde coping för att hantera denna organisationsförändring. Induktiv tematisk analys av fyra intervjuer resulterade i fem huvudsakliga teman med underteman. Dessa visade att personalen upplevde omlokaliseringen som påfrestande eftersom den ledde till utanförskap och oro över egen anställningsbarhet. De känslofokuserade copingreaktionerna upplevdes som viktiga för förmågan att hantera förändringen, vilket enligt tidigare forskning kan ha sin orsak i att personalen upplevde bristande kontroll över situationen. Studien identifierade även olikheter i personalens syn på myndighetsledningens roll i förändringsprocessen.</p>

<p>The aim of this study was to study how Swedish youth national football players handle stressful events in sports. A longitudinal questionnaire diary was constructed from a revised version of Nicholls and Polmans (2007) design with the intention of recording in-sport and psychosocial stress, choice of coping strategy and coping effectiveness. The participants were 59 Swedish youth national football players born 1992 observed during a four day national training camp held by the Swedish Football Association. Data were drawn from a quantifying analyzing method. The main result showed that the most common stressors reported were, physical injury or pain, experiencing teammates or opponents to perform better and </p><p>feeling generally insecure during training camp. The results also shows that 60 % of the coping strategies used were approach-behavioral coping which possibly could be a result of some trained coping skills, conscious or unconscious. In line with previous studies the results also shows that blocking is a frequent used coping strategy in sports, wich provides some support for Ashell and colleagues (2001) acute and specific stress theory concerning sport environment. To address coping with stress in competitive sport situations as well as studies of personal trait and coping responses, the discussion suggests further research, preferably based on modern theories.</p><p>Keywords: Coping, coping effectiveness, stress.</p>

<p>Reumatoid artrit är en kronisk sjukdom som påverkar många</p><p>områden i livet hos den som insjuknar. För att kunna</p><p>bemästra sjukdomen används olika emotionella och</p><p>probleminriktade copingstrategier. Syftet med litteraturstudien</p><p>var att belysa hur patienten med reumatoid artrit</p><p>utvecklar copingstrategier för att anpassa sig till sjukdomssituationen.</p><p>Resultatet bygger på en analys av 14 vetenskapliga</p><p>artiklar samt en doktorsavhandling. Resultatet visar</p><p>att utvecklandet av copingstrategier sker kontinuerligt.</p><p>Sjukdomen kräver att individen anpassar sig inom livets alla</p><p>områden. Familje-, arbets- och det sociala livets roller</p><p>påverkas och anpassas för att individen ska kunna återta</p><p>kontroll över livet och finna en mening med tillvaron. I</p><p>copingprocessen är stödets närvaro av stor betydelse. Stödet</p><p>kan komma från familj, vänner och andra med reumatoid</p><p>artrit. Resultatet visar också att många finner styrka i en tro</p><p>på en högre makt eller ett genombrott inom forskningen. De</p><p>strategier som tydligast framkommer är att individen</p><p>anpassar sig genom en noggrann planering och organisering</p><p>av arbete och fritid. En positiv inställning gör det lättare för</p><p>individen att ta kontroll över situationen och att acceptera</p><p>sjukdomen. Vidare forskning om utvecklandet av</p><p>copingstrategier hos män med reumatoid artrit samt</p><p>forskning som belyser kulturella skillnader behövs, för att</p><p>möjliggöra en bättre vård och planering för patienter med</p><p>reumatoid artrit.</p>

<p>Idrottsskador har konstaterats vara både fysiskt och psykiskt fenomen, och under de senaste åren har ett ökat intresse för den psykologiska faktorn visat sig. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det finns något samband mellan upplevd stress och frekvensen idrottsskador hos elithandbollsspelare samt att undersöka om det finns något samband mellan grundanspänning (trait anxiety) och situationsspecifik anspänning (state anxiety). Ett tredje syfte är att undersöka huruvida en idrottares stressnivå varierar över tid och jämföra detta med de aktuella spelarnas skadefrekvens. Informanterna var 20 manliga elithandbollsspelare (19-32 år) i elitserien i Sverige, under säsongen 06/07, fördelat på två klubbar. Urvalet som gjordes var ett strategiskt urval, baserat på klubbarnas geografiska lokalisering. Mätinstrumenten som användes var SCAT och CSAI-2 som analyserades genom korrelationstest samt F-test. Vid CSAI-2 användes en ”test-retest” design för att öka studiens reliabilitet. Resultaten visade inget signifikant samband mellan stress och idrottsskador. Ingen signifikans visades heller mellan grundanspänning samt situationsspecifik anspänning och idrottsskador. I diskussionen kopplades resultaten samman med studiens teoretiska ramverk. Förslag ges för framtida forskning att undersöka spelarnas copingresurser samt kontextuella faktorer kring klubbarna.</p><p>Nyckelord: Anspänning, coping, idrottsskada, stress.</p>

<p>Studien undersöker fem manliga gymnasieelevers upplevelse av stress och coping genom intervjuer. Respondenterna upplever att flera delar av skolan är stressande men mest så på examinationer. Respondenterna avänder olika former av coping och de som klarar skolan bäst använder en intern locus of control och problemfokuserad coping. Studenterna som misslyckas i skolan trivs inte där och använder extern locus of control och undvikande coping med betoning på socialt stöd.</p>

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