abstract: Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) was used to study the role of child individual, parental, and environmental predictors of anxiety across childhood and adolescence. Longitudinal growth modeling was used to examine the influence of behavioral inhibition, parental control, parental anxiety and stressful life events on the developmental progression of anxiety from 4 to 15 years of age. Based on these data, it appears that there are significant developmental differences between the role of child individual, parental and environmental risk factors. These results highlight the importance of considering developmental factors when assessing and targeting risk for anxiety. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

Este trabalho investigou a manifestação de sintomas depressivos e eventos de vida estressantes em crianças e adolescentes, através de três estudos. No primeiro estudo, verificaram-se os sintomas depressivos, a freqüência e o impacto de eventos adversos de forma transversal, em 257 jovens, de ambos os sexos, de 7 a 16 anos, sendo que 130 residiam em abrigos de proteção governamentais e não governamentais e 127 moravam com suas famílias na região metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Foram utilizados o Inventário de Depressão Infantil (CDI) e o Inventário de Eventos Estressores na Infância e Adolescência (IEEIA) para avaliar depressão e eventos estressores, respectivamente. Os resultados apontaram médias mais altas de sintomas depressivos e de ocorrência de eventos estressores no grupo institucionalizado. No segundo estudo, foi explorada a estrutura fatorial de uma adaptação do CDI, a partir de um banco de dados composto por 951 crianças e adolescentes, de 7 a 17 anos. Os dados apontaram que o instrumento apresenta características psicométricas adequadas e foi possível estabelecer normas percentílicas por sexo e faixa etária. No último estudo, longitudinal, buscou-se identificar um modelo de preditores de sintomas depressivos em participantes institucionalizados (N=127), através de uma análise de regressão linear múltipla. O modelo preditivo englobou o escore inicial de sintomas, seguido pelos eventos “Ter problemas com professores”, “Sentir-se rejeitado pelos colegas e amigos” e “Um dos pais ter que morar longe”. Destaca-se a importância de prevenir a ocorrência de eventos estressores na escola e família, bem como promover intervenções junto às crianças e adolescentes institucionalizados. / The present study verified the depressive symptoms manifestation as well as the stressful events in children and adolescents through three studies. In the first study, the depressive symptoms and the frequency and impact of adverse events were verified. A total of 257 youths of both genders, age 7-16 took part in this study. Among those, 130 lived at government and non-government protection youth shelters and 127 lived with their families in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and the Stressful Events in Childhood and Adolescence Inventory (IEEIA) were used to assess depression and stressful events respectively. The results showed a significant higher mean score among institutionalized children and adolescents for both depressive symptoms and frequency of stressful events mentioned. In the second study, the factorial structure of the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) for 951 children and adolescents, between 7 and 17 years was explored. Data pointed out good psychometric properties and it was possible to present norms in percentiles by gender and age group. Finally, the last study aimed at identifying, with a longitudinal design, a model of predictors of depressive symptoms in the institutionalized sample (N=127) through the regression linear multiple analysis. The predictive model included the initial depressive score, followed by the stressful events “to have problem with teacher”, “feelings of peer rejection” and “one of parents ought to live so far”. It is highlighted the importance of preventing events related mainly to the school and familiar conflicts, as well as promoting interventions with vulnerable families.

Orientador: Anita Liberalesso Neri / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T03:56:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sommerhalder_Cinara_D.pdf: 4445908 bytes, checksum: 5131854f0309950ff91889b079ecf237 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Esse estudo objetivou investigar dois mecanismos reguladores utilizados por idosos para o ajustamento diante de eventos de vida estressantes: a religiosidade, avaliada em termos de freqüência de práticas intrínsecas e extrínsecas, e o suporte social percebido. Também avaliou como esses mecanismos interagiram com os sintomas depressivos. Os dados foram derivados do PENSA, um estudo sobre processos de envelhecimento saudável. Participaram 880 idosos de ambos os sexos, idade entre 60 e 99 anos, residentes na comunidade. Perder entes queridos ou vê-los doentes foi a maior fonte de estresse. Problemas pessoais de saúde, especialmente quedas também foi motivo de estresse intenso. Os idosos relataram praticar tanto religiosidade extrínseca como intrínseca, mas as práticas intrínsecas foram as mais citadas, entre elas, a oração. As mulheres foram mais assíduas em todas as práticas e os idosos de 80 anos e mais relataram menor freqüência a cultos. A maioria avaliou o suporte social como muito satisfatório. Sintomas depressivos estiveram presentes em um terço da amostra, com predomínio entre as mulheres e entre os idosos na faixa de 60-69 anos e acima dos 80anos. Os sintomas depressivos estiveram mais presentes no grupo com mais eventos de vida estressantes relatados. Os idosos que meditavam e faziam leituras religiosas tiveram escores mais baixos em depressão. O suporte social esteve inversamente associado à presença de eventos estressantes e a alta satisfação com o suporte social teve associação significativa com ausência de sintomas depressivos. Religiosidade e suporte social percebido foram confirmados como mediadores de sintomas depressivos na velhice, na presença de eventos de vida estressantes / Abstract: This research aimed at investigating two regulatory mechanisms older adults use to adjust to stressful life events: religiosity, with regard to frequency of intrinsic and extrinsic practices, and perceived social support. This study also assessed how such mechanisms interact with depressive symptoms. Our data come from PENSA, a study on successful aging processes. Participants included 880 community-dwelling older adults, stratified into gender and age (aged 60 to 99 years). Their main source of stress was the death or illness of a loved one. Personal health problems, especially falls, also caused severe stress. These older adults reported to practice both extrinsic and intrinsic religiosity, but intrinsic practices were mentioned more frequently and, among them, prayer. Women were more constant in both practices, and older adults aged 80 and above reported attending church less frequently. Most of the participants classified social support as very satisfactory. Depressive symptoms were present in one-third of the sample, prevailing among women and among older adults aged 60 to 69 and above 80. These symptoms were more frequent in the group that reported a larger number of stressful life events. Lower scores in depression were found among the older adults who used to meditate and read religious material. Social support was inversely associated with the presence of stressful events, and a high level of satisfaction with social support was significantly connected to the absence of depressive symptoms. Religiosity and perceived social support were confirmed as mediators of depressive symptoms in the old age in the presence of stressful life events / Doutorado / Psicologia, Desenvolvimento Humano e Educação / Doutor em Educação

The thesis deals with reactivity in response to a frustrating situation for convicted offenders. The main issue in the theoretical element is reactivity; or rather the behaviour and manifestation of reactions in the moment when an individual gets into stressful situations, is impeded or blocked in achieving their target. The definition of frustration is an equally important area, which, in the thesis is initially described from the perspective of classic theorists, and then the various ways how we examine and diagnose frustration. The last and equally important chapter consists of the offender's personality, which is defined in the context of the aforementioned frustration and reactivity. The aim of the empirical component is to obtain quantitative data on the most frequent reactions among criminal offenders in the moment before they face the obstacle that is blocking their achievement of goals or satisfaction. The research sample was composed of 69 convicted criminal offenders from remand prisons Pankrác, Hradec Kralové and prison Plzeň. The Picture Rosenzweig frustration method was used to examine the reactivity as a result of frustration. Four hypothesis was determined and only one hypothesis was confirmed. Extragression, outside oriented response, is the most frequently response in comparison...

There has been an abundance of studies that have adopted positivist approaches, employing quantitative methods, to research OCD 'symptoms' and their underlying neurobiology and neurochemistry. There appears to be a lack of research investigating how OCD is experienced by those living with the diagnosis, and in particular the experiences of young people diagnosed with OCD. Ten young people, aged 14-17 years old, with a diagnosis of OCD were recruited from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The young people were interviewed and a Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse data. Four themes were developed through the analysis. The first theme 'Traumatic and stressful life events' found that 9 out of the 10 participants experienced at least one of the following three life events just prior to the development of their OCD: 'Hostility in the family', 'Illness and death', 'Bullying and friendlessness'. Four subthemes, 'Lack of understanding of the behaviour', 'Being secretive', 'I thought I was going crazy', and 'Feeling different', provided a richer understanding to the theme 'Responses to signs of OCD'. The four subthemes 'Feeling "right"', 'I was taking on all the responsibility', 'It's ruined everything', 'Everyday life is now in my bedroom' explored the third theme 'The battle of living with OCD'. The last theme 'Ambivalent relationship to help' described the conflict that most participants had over exposure therapy and accommodation of their OCD. Lastly, most participants felt the long waiting time for help was frustrating. The theme is fully explored by the following three subthemes: 'Conflicts of exposure therapy', 'Conflicts about accommodation of the OCD', and 'Frustrations of long waiting lists'. The themes that emerged may provide important information for clinicians and the implications of the research findings are discussed. The strengths and limitations of the study are noted and there are suggestions for future research.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / 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). / South Africa

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / South Africans are exposed to many traumatic events and exposure to such events is associated with negative emotional and behavioural outcomes. However, there are those who are still able to remain psychologically well amidst their difficulties. Resilience is the motivation to be strong in the face of unwarranted demands and this study proposes that it could serve as a buffer against the harmful effects of traumatic events. It is assumed that traumatic events present with demanding circumstances and further that resilience plays a role in the relationship between trauma, the challenges these events present and one’s ability to function in these circumstances. Furthermore, ‘race’ may have a particular influence on this relationship as the level and severity of trauma among different ‘racial’ groups may vary. The link between resilience and trauma has been investigated, but little focus has been given to how ‘race’ may influence this relationship among students in the South African context. The aim of the current study was therefore to investigate the interaction between these three variables and add to existing knowledge related to resilience. Constructs related to resilience include sense of coherence, potency, hardiness, learned resourcefulness and fortitude. The two ‘racial’ groups included in the sample include ‘African’ and ‘Coloured’ students (categories created by the past apartheid government). Resilience was measured by the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA), trauma was measured by the Harvard Trauma Scale (HTS) and violence exposure was measured by the Childhood Exposure to Community Violence Scale (CECV). Participants included 249 students at the University of the Western Cape. Results indicate that ‘Coloured’ students report similar levels of violence exposure and trauma symptoms as ‘African’ students do. ‘Coloured’ students report higher scores on overall resilience and resilience sub-scales (except the structured style sub-scale) than ‘African’ students as measured on the RSA. With regard to the trauma versus no trauma groups, the results indicate that ‘African’ students who form part of the no trauma group score higher on resilience than those who form part of the trauma group and within the trauma group ‘Coloured’ students score higher on resilience than ‘African’ students. In analyses amongst the high and the low trauma groups, the results indicate that those who form part of the low trauma group score higher on resilience than those who are among the high trauma group; ‘African’ students who form part of the low trauma group score higher on resilience than those who form part of the high trauma group; and ‘Coloured’ students who form part of the low trauma group score higher on resilience than those who form part of the high trauma group. The results yielded in the current study are both similar to and differ from findings presented in previous studies and highlight the complexity of the construct of resilience. Limitations of the study are outlined and recommendations for future research are also provided.

Abstract Background: Football accounts for 43% of the sports market share, more than any other single sport. The pressure and stress associated with being a sports leader indicate that the football coaches encounter and work with occupational stress more regularly than corporate leaders. Hence, football coaches appear to be highly appropriate to acquire insights from. Although there is extensive literature on stress, the research on football coaches is lacking. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to deepen the understanding of leading in a stressful environment. The aim is to acquire useful insights into various existing stress coping methods that reduce the negative impact that stress may have on contemporary leaders. Method: The interpretivism paradigm is applied to this research as well as an abductive approach to grounded theory. The research is based on a single case study where primary data is acquired through semi-structured interviews with three football coaches and three players. Furthermore, the thematic analysis approach is applied when analyzing the data in order to draw applicable conclusions. Results: The empirical findings suggest that there is a relationship between football coaches and their players. Furthermore, leading in the football environment is vastly shaped by this, however: industry specific stressors also play a significant role, such as management turnover. Several stress coping methods are identified in this study. The most prominent propel mentality, focus on progress and love for the sport, referred to as mental disengagement. This study is useful since it contributes with valuable insights of how leaders can efficiently cope with stress and lead in stressful environments.

Background: Justice-involved populations report a higher than average number of pre-incarceration stressful life events. However, few studies have described stressful life events which occur during incarceration, explored gender differences in these events, or evaluated the effect of these events on well-being. Method: This study draws from a sample of male and female adults incarcerated in 6 prison facilities across two states (n = 160) to identify the number and type of stressful life events they experienced during incarceration, gender differences in stressful events, and the relationship between stressful life events and markers of well-being (i.e., depression, hopelessness, loneliness, suicidality). We also examined whether perceived social support would buffer the relationship between stressful events and well-being outcomes. Results: Participants on average reported experiencing 4 stressful life events during their current incarceration, the most common being relocation to another cell and being made fun of/insulted by someone in the prison. There were few gender differences in types of events experienced. Regression analyses showed that stressful life events were associated with more loneliness, as well as suicidality, but only when participants had low perceived social support. Conclusions: Stressful life events, and drawing on social support networks to cope with stress, should be addressed in the context of correctional treatments to reduce suicide risk during incarceration.

Some people are genetically more vulnerable to stress than others, leading them towards poorer outcomes following stressful events. Mothers' vulnerability to stress may, in turn, influence their children, leading their children towards poor outcomes as well. A biological marker of vulnerability to stress may indicate mothers who are at greater risk for experiencing parenting stress, depression, and less support of the infant's emotional development, and infants who are at greater risk for development of poor emotion regulation and behavior problems. Taste sensitivity to propylthiouracil (PROP) is proposed as a biological marker of stress vulnerability in mothers and children. This research used a bioecological approach to examine extant data from two previous longitudinal studies, both with child and mother data from maternal interviews and video-recorded observations of mother-child interaction. Participants included 121 low-income and 102 middle-income mother-child pairs who were studied for presence of the biological marker in relation to stressful life events, parenting stress, depression, and lower support of infants' emotions. Children were studied for presence of the biological marker in relation to their development of emotion regulation and their later behavior problems. Results revealed that PROP taste sensitivity, as tested in this study, is not likely to be a useful biological marker of higher vulnerability to stress. Although results flowed in the hypothesized direction, few reached statistical significance and most were of small effect size. For depression, results supported previous research, although with smaller effect sizes. In addition, results depended on the sample and source of stress. For low-income mothers the source of stress was stressful life events. For the middle-income sample the source of stress was parenting stress, specifically mother-child dysfunctional interaction. Among mothers with higher PROP taste sensitivity, those from the low-income sample reported more depression whether stressful events were higher or lower, whereas those from the middle-income sample reported more depression when parenting stress, particularly poor mother-child dyadic interaction, was higher. From both samples, mothers' parenting stress or depression at 14 months predicted children's later behavior problems when they were school-age. Children with lower PROP taste sensitivity were more emotionally regulated with their mothers. Because the results were consistent and suggestive, although not conclusive enough to warrant the use of PROP as a biological marker, future research should examine individual situational factors under which PROP taste sensitivity is related to stress vulnerability.