Event-related Characteristics Research Articles

Post-traumatic growth in parents of long-term childhood cancer survivors compared to the general population: Areport from the Swiss childhood cancer survivor study-Parents.

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) describes perceived positive changes following a traumatic event. We describe (i) PTG in parents of long-term childhood cancer survivors (CCS-parents) compared to parents of similar-aged children of the general population (comparison-parents), (ii) normative data for the Swiss population, and (iii) psychological, socio-economic, and event-related characteristics associated with PTG. CCS-parents (aged ≤16years at diagnosis, ≥20years old at study, registered in the Childhood Cancer Registry Switzerland (ChCR), and the Swiss population responded to a paper-based survey, including the PTG-Inventory (total score 0-105). We carried out (i) t-tests, (ii) descriptive statistics, and (iii) multilevel regression models with survivor/household as the cluster variable. In total, 746 CCS-parents (41.7% fathers, response-rate=42.3%) of 494 survivors (median time since diagnosis 24 (7-40) years), 411 comparison-parents (42.8% fathers, 312 households), and 1069 individuals of the Swiss population (40.7% male, response-rate=20.1%) participated. Mean [M] total PTG was in CCS-parents M=52.3 versus comparison-parents M=50.4, p=0.078; and in the Swiss population M=44.5). CCS-parents showed higher 'relating-to-others' (18.4 vs. 17.3, p=0.010), 'spiritual-change' (3.3 vs. 3.0, p=0.038) and 'appreciation-of-life' (9.3 vs. 8.4, p=0.027) than comparison-parents, but not in 'new-possibilities' and 'personal-strength'. Female gender, older age, higher post-traumatic stress, and higher resilience were positively associated with PTG. Individuals reporting events not typically classified as traumatic also reported growth. Our findings highlight that mothers and fathers can experience heightened growth many years after their child's illness. Being able to sensitively foreshadow the potential for new-possibilities and personal development may help support parents in developing a sense of hope.

Unraveling the complex relationship between work transitions and self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Transitions in and out of work are common experiences with major repercussions for people's lives. The complex link between work transitions and psychological adjustment is not well understood, however. In this preregistered study, we analyzed 11 waves of longitudinal data from a representative sample of 13,671 Dutch participants to examine the transactional effects between repeated work transitions (employment and unemployment) and psychological adjustment (self-esteem and life satisfaction). We investigated change trajectories before and after the transitions and tested whether event-related characteristics moderated transition effects. Participants with higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction were less likely to experience unemployment and more likely to experience employment, indicating selection effects. Participants decreased in their self-esteem and life satisfaction before the beginning of unemployment indicating anticipatory effects, with larger decreases in self-esteem for participants who ended up experiencing longer unemployment. We found no effects of employment on changes in life satisfaction or self-esteem (except when accounting for unemployment), but participants entering more satisfying jobs showed larger increases in life satisfaction. Results were mostly robust when accounting for gender, age, socioeconomic status, and the Big Five traits, and when using propensity-score matching. Effects did not differ among multiple experiences of the same transition. Together, these findings point to dynamic transactions between employment/unemployment and self-esteem/life satisfaction. Findings highlight the importance of closely assessing the specific timing of pre- and posttransition changes and the existence of large individual differences in reactions to work transitions that seem to be partly explained by event-related characteristics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting event tourists’ gambling decision: the cross-level effect of brand equity

PurposeThe scant literature on MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourists’ gambling behavior calls for a need to explore how their decision to gamble (hereafter, “gambling decision”) may unfold. Consequently, several questions germane to the inter-relationships among event tourists’ characteristics, casinos attributes, and gambling behaviors remain largely unaddressed. This paper aims to address the void in the literature by investigating event participants’ gambling decision.Design/methodology/approachData were collected based on two samples, and a multilevel design was used to test the proposed model. Demographic and event-related participant characteristics were examined as antecedents of gambling decision at the individual level. Event goers’ accommodation characteristics such as brand equity and type of hotel were explored as cross-level effects on the individual-level factors and relationships.FindingsResults of the study illustrate a joint influence – in terms of both direct and moderating effects – of individual-level and organizational-level characteristics on gambling decision. In particular, brand equity moderates the relationships leading from demographic and event-related characteristics to gambling decision.Practical implicationsThe inter-relationships among events, accommodations and casinos present an opportunity for hospitality practitioners to better integrate these three services in a more coherent experiential offering for the ever-demanding MICE attendees. Findings also help practitioners to justify their targeting strategy.Originality/valueThe proposed framework presents the dynamic nature of the hospitality industry in which the event, hotel and casino sectors are interdependent, a picture hitherto prevented by the single-level oriented nature of gambling and hospitality research which largely focuses on the individual perspective. Given the dynamic nature of the hospitality industry, the findings elucidate a complex interdependency of customer needs.

Clinical Decision-Making Following Disasters: Efficient Identification of PTSD Risk in Adolescents.

The present study aimed to utilize a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) approach in order to improve clinical decision-making for adolescents at risk for the development of psychopathology in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Specifically we assessed theoretically-driven individual, interpersonal, and event-related vulnerability factors to determine which indices were most accurate in forecasting PTSD. Furthermore, we aimed to translate these etiological findings by identifying clinical cut-off recommendations for relevant vulnerability factors. Our study consisted of structured phone-based clinical interviews with 2000 adolescent-parent dyads living within a 5-mile radius of tornados that devastated Joplin, MO, and northern Alabama in Spring 2011. Demographics, tornado incident characteristics, prior trauma, mental health, and family support and conflict were assessed. A subset of youth completed two behavioral assessment tasks online to assess distress tolerance and risk-taking behavior. ROC analyses indicated four variables that significantly improved PTSD diagnostic efficiency: Lifetime depression (AUC=.90), trauma history (AUC=.76), social support (AUC=.70), and family conflict (AUC=.72). Youth were 2-3 times more likely to have PTSD if they had elevated scores on any of these variables. Of note, event-related characteristics (e.g., property damage) were not related to PTSD diagnostic status. The present study adds to the literature by making specific recommendations for empirically-based, efficient disaster-related PTSD assessment for adolescents following a natural disaster. Implications for practice and future trauma-related developmental psychopathology research are discussed.

Door to Intravenous Tissue Plasminogen Activator Time and Hospital Length of Stay in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients, Georgia, 2007-2013

Ischemic stroke patients benefit most from intravenous thrombolysis when they receive the treatment as quickly as possible after symptom onset. Hospitals participating in the Georgia Coverdell Acute Stroke Registry reduced the time from patient arrival to administration of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator. This study evaluates the benefit of reducing door-to-treatment (DTT) time as measured by hospital length of stay (LOS). Data from 3154 ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis from 2007 to 2013 were analyzed. The impact of door-to-treatment time on patients' length of hospital stay, discharge disposition, ambulatory status at discharge, and bleeding complications was assessed, controlling for patient-, hospital- and event-related characteristics. Patients who received intravenous thrombolysis within 30 minutes of hospital arrival had a 19% shorter (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2%-32%, P value = .04) hospital LOS than those treated for more than 120 minutes after arrival. Patients treated within 60 minutes of arrival were 27% more likely (odds ratio = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.06-1.56, P = .01) to have a better discharge disposition than patients treated after 60 minutes of arrival while having a similar rate of bleeding complications. Shortening the door-to-treatment time is associated with a decrease in patient LOS and better patient outcomes. Hospitals should be encouraged to measure, monitor, and reduce DTT time progressively for a better patient outcome.

Psychotic versus non-psychotic firesetters: similarities and differences in characteristics

Firesetters with psychotic disorders constitute a distinct and important offender group. However, little is known about how psychotic firesetters differ from non-psychotic firesetters. More knowledge is required in order to treat this particular population effectively. Psychotic (n = 30) and non-psychotic (n = 94) firesetters of both sexes referred for pre-trial forensic mental health assessment in the Netherlands were compared on socio-demographic, pathological, judicial and event-related characteristics using binary and multivariate statistical tests. Results showed that psychotic firesetters were older, single and unemployed. They had a more extensive history of mental health problems, associated drug use and impaired self-reliance. Opposed to non-psychotic offenders, physical abuse in childhood and alcohol abuse were less prevalent. They had a more extensive history of prior convictions, committed the arsons more often alone and were less often intoxicated. Treatment implications are discussed as focusing treatment on these differences may contribute to treatment efficacy and prevention of recidivism.

Event-Related Assessment of Hypermedia-Based E-Learning Materials With an HRVBased Method That Considers Individual Differences in Users

This paper reports results of an assessment of e-learning materials with the INTERFACE software evaluation methodology. On the one hand, this method of analysis allows us to identify ergonomics problems; on the other, to decide to what extent those problems and their severity concern all users in general and to what extent they depend on the users ‘ type and characteristics. This is the first publication to apply the new marking, export, and statistical features of INTERFACE used in a quantitative analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) curves instead of earlier time-based statistics and qualitative methods. It presents correlations between event-related characteristics of human-computer interaction and the currently required mental effort showed with HRV. The paper also discusses correlations between variables and cognitive-style test scores which indicate the role of individual differences in ergonomics.

Disaggregation Model of Daily Rainfall and Its Application in the Xiaolihe Watershed, Yellow River

In the continuous simulation of the whole sediment process in Coarse Sediment Area, one of the outstanding problems is getting rainfall data with high spatial and temporal resolution. For the calculation in Digital Watershed Model of Yellow River, one characteristic is huge calculation, as calculation is carried out on each river segment, with 797 river segments in a drainage area of 807km^2. A down-scaling method was proposed which could disaggregate daily rainfall data into one-hour timescale rapidly. This method was based on rain-cell conception and relationships between rainfall depth and duration time grouped by month. Secondly, several event-related characteristics, the distribution of event amount, event start time and the concurrency of number of even ts on a day of the generated hourly rainfall series, were compared with the observed data. Thirdly, this method was used in the hydrology simulation of water and sediment erosion in Xiaolihe Watershed. The analysis indicated that, the proposed method could be used to down-scale daily rainfall series to hourly, and then used in the simulation of sediment process with Digital Watershed Model of Yellow River.

Delayed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Prevalence estimates of delayed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have varied widely in the literature. This study is the first to establish the prevalence of delayed PTSD in prospective studies and to evaluate associated factors through meta-analytic techniques. Studies were located by an electronic search using the databases EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO. Search terms were posttraumatic stress disorder [include all subheadings] AND (delayed OR prospective OR longitudinal OR follow-up). Results were limited to journal articles published between 1980 and April 4, 2008. We included longitudinal, prospective studies of humans exposed to a potentially traumatic event that assessed participants at 1 to 6 months after the event, that included a follow-up of at least 12 months after the event, and that specified rates of new onset and remission between assessments in study completers. Data were extracted concerning the study design, demographic features, and event-related characteristics and the number of PTSD cases at first assessment, the number of PTSD cases among study dropouts, and the number of new event-related PTSD cases at each subsequent assessment among study completers. Data from 24 studies were included. Four of these provided additional data on initial subthreshold PTSD and subsequent risk of delayed PTSD. The proportion of PTSD cases with delayed PTSD was 24.8% (95% CI = 22.6% to 27.2%) after adjusting for differences in study methodology, demographic features, and event-related characteristics. Military combat exposure, Western cultural background, and lower cumulative PTSD incidence were associated with delayed PTSD. Participants with initial subthreshold PTSD were at increased risk of developing delayed PTSD. Delayed PTSD was found among about a quarter of PTSD cases and represents exacerbations of prior symptoms.

Domestic Homicide Followed by Parasuicide

Homicide-suicides are a rare yet very serious form of interpersonal violence that occur mainly in partnerships and families. As both perpetrator and victim die in a homicide- suicide, data sources in previous studies typically lack detailed information. This study overcomes this limitation by making use of homicides followed by a suicide attempt of the perpetrator (homicide-parasuicides). The authors examine to what extent these homicide-parasuicides can be understood as being primarily an expression of homicidal or of suicidal behavior. In total, 77 homicide-parasuicides are compared to 430 homicides and 161 parasuicides. The results show that homicide-parasuicides constitute a different category of lethal violence with regard to demographic, individual, and event-related characteristics. Subanalyses of homicide-parasuicides involving women and children reveal similar differences. The finding that a large majority of the perpetrators were mentally ill, dependent on the victim, and killed when faced with separation from the victim may suggest that increased monitoring of this group might have preventive value.

Population-Based Study of Determinants of Initial Secondary Care Costs of Acute Stroke in the United Kingdom

To determine the cost-effectiveness of specific interventions to prevent or treat acute stroke, it is necessary to know the costs of stroke according to patient characteristics and stroke subtype and etiology. However, very few such data are available and none from population-based studies. We determined the predictors of resource use and acute care costs of stroke using data from a population-based study. Data were obtained from the Oxford Vascular study, a population-based cohort of all individuals in nine general practices in Oxfordshire, UK, which identified 346 patients with a first or recurrent stroke during April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2004. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the main predictors of resource use and costs. Acute care costs ranged from 326 pounds sterling (lower decile) to 19,901 pounds sterling (upper decile). There were multiple important univariate interrelations of patient characteristics, stroke subtype, and stroke etiology with hospital admission, length of stay, and 30-day case-fatality. For example, patients with primary intracerebral hemorrhage were more likely to be admitted than patients with partial anterior circulation ischemic stroke and less likely to survive without disability, but length of stay was reduced as a result of high early case-fatality such that cost was substantially less. However, the majority of univariate predictors of resource use, cost, and outcome were confounded by initial stroke severity as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, which accounted for approximately half of the predicted variance in cost. Cost increased approximately linearly up to an National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 18 and then fell steeply at higher scores as a result of rising early case-fatality. Several patient and event-related characteristics explained the wide range of initial secondary care costs of acute stroke, but stroke severity was by far the most important independent predictor.

Predictors of subjective stress in a sample of new parents

On the basis of Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) cognitive-phenomenological theory of stress and coping, it was poposed that the level of strain (or subjective stress) associated with new parenthood is related to a person's generalised control beliefs, their appraisal of the event on several different dimensions (importance, anticipated difficulty, familiarity, and ambiguity), and a number of event-related characteristics (delivay complications. infant temperament, and the accumulation of recent and concurrent stressors). Langitudinal data collected from a sample of 123 couples during the transition to parenthood provided some support—even when the level of initial distress was controlled—for the proposed effects of these variables. Importance of the event, anticipated difficulty of the event, familiarity with the event, infant temperament, and the experience of recent and concurrent stressors emerged as distinctive predictors of at least one of the measures of strain (postnatal anxiety and appraisal of the event's stressfulness). There was also evidence to suggest the event was appraised as more stressful by females than males and that effects of control beliefs. anticipated difficulty of the event, accumulation of recent and concurrent stressors, and infant temperament an postnatal anxiety, differed for the two sexes.