Indicators Of Psychological Adaptation Research Articles

Determinants of Psychological Adaptation Among Brazilian International Students in Portugal

ABSTRACT This research aimed to detect the determinants of psychological adaptation (in terms of satisfaction with life and loneliness) among Brazilian international students living in Portugal. We used a sample of 174 Brazilian international students. The integration and contact hypotheses were supported. Academic achievement and social support scores were significantly and positively associated with psychological adaptation. Acculturation factors accounted for a larger proportion of the explained variance in satisfaction with life and loneliness than socio-demographic characteristics. In addition, sociocultural adaptation difficulty mediated the relationships of perceived discrimination and both indicators of psychological adaptation. Suggestions for future investigation are highlighted.

A Systematic Review of Community-Level Protective Factors in Children Exposed to Maltreatment

Childhood maltreatment and neglect are associated with a host of negative outcomes. Yet, some children show resilience despite their exposure to these traumatic events. Several protective factors have been documented in the literature, but few studies focus on protective factors in the child’s community that can promote resilience. The purpose of this review was to provide a comprehensive portrait of the impact of community protective factors on the resilience of abused and neglected children. The databases PsycNet and PubMed were used to screen the literature relying on the following inclusion criteria: (1) published in English or in French; (2) report empirical and quantitative data; (3) include a minimum sample size of 30 participants; (4) rely on a sample of maltreated children or adolescents under the age of 24; (5) examine the associations between community protective factors and indicators of psychological adaptation; and (6) include outcome measures that assessed either positive adaptation or the absence of symptomatology in participants. Of the 9,553 articles identified, 44 studies met the eligibility criteria for inclusion in this review. Although many protective factors show significant results, several methodological limitations remain to be examined to affirm that these community variables have a significant impact on the level of resilience of maltreated children. Since child maltreatment is a systemic issue, it remains important to fully understand how community protective factors operate on the resilience of these children as it can greatly inform practitioners and community institutions on how to intervene with populations at risk of maltreatment.

Loneliness among African international students in Portugal

International students constitute an important sojourner group. This study examined the levels and predictors of loneliness among international students. The sample included 188 Angolan and 210 Cape Verdean college students who attended Portuguese institutions of higher education and a control group of 221 domestic students. The relative strengths of background and acculturation factors in loneliness, as indicators of psychological adaptation, were explored. Results showed that international students reported greater levels of loneliness than native-born students. As expected, results showed that students who reported poorer financial situation, greater perceived discrimination, lower home culture and host culture acculturation orientation scores reported higher loneliness. In addition, using hierarchical regression analyses, current findings suggest that the most significant predictors of loneliness for international students were financial situation, perceived discrimination and orientation to heritage culture. Implications of these results for reducing loneliness of international students are discussed.

Home environment as a factor in maintaining the mental health of the individual in the family

IntroductionThe relevance of studying the characteristics of the home environment of a person with mental health problems is determined by the need to identify the resources of the individual and the family to form multilevel adaptive competencies aimed at maintaining mental health.ObjectivesThe present study was conducted to obtain standardized assessments of attitudes towards the home environment, towards the home as a place of functioning of the family with mental patients.MethodsThe study involved 12 patients aged 21-60 years diagnosed according to ICD-10 F2 with the disease duration of more than 1 year and readmission. Methods used were experimental psychological questionnaire “My home” (Reznichenko, Nartova-Bochaver, Kuznetsova, 2016), mathematical statisticsResultsThe test results showed that the average score for the “strength of significance of the home for its inhabitants” across the data set was 4.14, which differed from the average value of 3.73.ConclusionsThe psychological foundations of attachment can be associated with a variety of facts, including the frequent absence of patients outside the home environment during readmission periods. The home environment can be a complex of positive feelings and experiences in relation to the home as a personally significant place. The study revealed some of the psychological traits of the subjective attitude to home, which can become indicators of psychological adaptation in persons with mental disorders in the future. Reznichenko S.I., Nartova-Bochaver S.K., Kuznetsova V.B. (2016) Home Attachment Assessment Method. Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics. 13(3): 498-518.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Cross-Cultural Transition and Psychological Adaptation of International Students: The Mediating Role of Host National Connectedness

Cross-cultural transitions are challenging and often have detrimental consequences for psychological well-being. This is particularly true for international students at tertiary institutions who are not only transitioning between school and higher education, but also between vastly different educational systems. This study tests a predictive model of psychological adaptation with international students whereby host national connectedness mediates the effects of personal resources and contextual factors on adaptive outcomes. A sample (N = 1527) of international tertiary students in New Zealand completed a survey that measured self-reported English language proficiency, perceived cultural distance, perceived cultural inclusiveness in the classroom, host national connectedness (defined by frequency of contact, number of friends, social support, and general belongingness), and positive (life satisfaction) and negative (psychological symptoms) indicators of psychological adaptation. Path analysis indicated that host national connectedness fully mediated the effects of English language proficiency on psychological symptoms and partially mediated the effects of language proficiency, cultural distance and cultural inclusion in the classroom on life satisfaction and psychological symptoms. The findings highlight the importance of international students’ relationships with host nationals, and the results are discussed in relation to strategies that could enhance student-host connectedness during cross-cultural transitions.

The interplay between self-construal, social support, and psychological adaptation of Indian immigrants’ in Greece

In the present study, the interplay between self-construal, social support and psychological adaptation of first generation Indian immigrants residing in Crete (N = 114) was examined. The first aim of the study was to analyze the association of self-construal with anxiety, depression, and self-esteem as indicators of psychological adaptation. It was hypothesized that Indian immigrants would maintain a more interdependent than independent self-construal and that Indians with high interdependent self-construal would receive more social support and have less adaptation problems compared to immigrants’ with a more independent self-construal. Furthermore, the second aim was to examine the relation of social support to self-construal, and psychological adaptation. It was hypothesized that interdependent self-construal would have positive effects on psychological adaptation through social support (mediation). A moderation effect was also hypothesized, in that social support was expected to act protectively for Indians with high interdependence, regarding psychological adaptation. The results verified some of the hypotheses but there were unexpected findings as well. Interdependence was not related to any indices of psychological adaptation, while a negative relationship was found between independent self-construal and self-esteem. Although, social support was not related either to self-construal or to adaptation, it acted as mediator in the relationship between interdependent self-construal and depression. Furthermore, a moderation effect was found on the relationship between independent self-construal and self-esteem. There are certain implications of these findings, regarding the impact of cultural values in counseling and the role of social support in immigrants’ psychological adaptation.

Role of leisure-generated meanings in adaptation to acculturation stress of Korean immigrants in Canada

This study tests the hypothesis that leisure-generated meanings would buffer acculturation stress on the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of Korean immigrants (n = 120) in a western Canadian city. Analyses of survey data show that acculturation stress is significantly associated with lower life satisfaction and self-esteem, poorer mental health, and sociocultural adaptation. The study only supports the main effects of leisure-generated meanings on life satisfaction and self-esteem (as indicators of psychological adaptation), but not the leisure buffer model. All of the leisure adaptation meanings (i.e., leisure companionship, leisure mood enhancement, leisure palliative coping, leisure rejuvenation, and leisure adjustment) and most of the global leisure meanings (i.e., group harmony, leisure friendship, self-development, and ethnic identity) predict higher life satisfaction and self-esteem. The findings suggest that meaning-making through leisure appears to be culturally contextualized and seems to be a significant predictor of effective psychological adaptation to acculturation stress. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

Psychological adaptation to spousal bereavement in old age: The role of trait resilience, marital history, and context of death

ABSTRACTThis research examined the effect of marital status and gender on various indicators of psychological adaptation, namely depressive symptoms, loneliness, and life satisfaction. It further explores the role of trait resilience, marital history, and context of death for predicting these outcomes in bereaved individuals. Four hundred eighty widowed individuals aged between 60 and 89 were compared with 759 married peers. Main effects were found for marital status and gender for all indicators. The regression analyses illustrate the multifaceted structure of psychological adaptation. Trait resilience is a key factor in adapting to spousal bereavement, whereas marital history and the context are secondary.

THE CORRELATION ANALYSIS OF INDICATORS OF SANOGENIC REFLECTION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF THE PERSONALITY IN MULTIETHNIC ENVIRONMENT

The topicality of the study presented in the article is determined by the importance of studying this aspect due to the fact that representatives of different ethnic groups may experience difficulties in the adaptation process if they fail to act in a relevant way, if there is mismatch between the expected and the actual behaviour of the subjects. The aim of the article is to consider the possibility of sanogenic reflection as a condition for psychological adaptation of students in multiethnic environment of the university. The article presents a correlation analysis of indicators of psychological adaptation of students in multi-ethnic educational environment with specific features of ethnic stereotypes and discusses the possibilities of sanogenic reflection to understand their own actions based on specific ethnic stereotypes and their abilities to change their own views, attitudes and behaviors adequately to situations in the new environment. The obtained data show a correlation of indicators of volumes of protective reflection from shame, resentment, guilt with aggression against others, and the inclusion of protective reflection from feeling guilt and aggression against themselves. Scientific novelty of the study is that psychological adaptation of representatives of different ethnic groups is considered from the point of view of the affectivebehavioral approach, taking into account the fact that manifestation of protective reflection as a factor reducing the degree of adaptation is associated with manifestations of ethnic stereotypes, transformation of which is ensured by the development of sanogenic reflection. It is experimentally proved that the development of sanogenic reflection has an impact on adaptation, what allows to consider sanogenic reflection as a condition for development of a personality. The data presented in the article orient representatives of different ethnic groups to effective communication in multi-ethnic environment.

Psychological Adaptation of Adolescent Immigrants From the Former Soviet Union in Germany

Stress-and-coping frameworks predict increasing psychological adaptation of immigrants over time, but although previous studies found evidence for this assumption in adult samples, this temporal pattern was hardly found among adolescent immigrants. The authors argue that in adolescent immigrants an acculturation-related increase in psychological adaptation over time might be counterbalanced by an age-typical decrease in indicators of psychological adaptation. This longitudinal study, covering a 3-year period in mid-adolescence, compared change in depressed mood as an indicator of psychological adaptation in three matched samples of 101 newcomer adolescent immigrants, 101 more experienced adolescent immigrants, and 101 native adolescents. Results showed that native adolescents and experienced adolescent immigrants increased in depressed mood, as is typical for this age group, over the 3-year period. Newcomer adolescent immigrants, however, remained stable, reporting more depressed mood initially than the more experienced immigrants. Moreover, the extent of depressed mood reported by newcomer and more experienced adolescent immigrants converged over time. This pattern of results indicates that both age-typical development and acculturation need to be considered when drawing conclusions on change in psychological adaptation over time in immigrant populations.

Personality style, psychological adaptation and expectations of trainee clinical psychologists

AbstractThe literature suggests that personality affects how individuals experience stress, cope, utilize social support and psychologically adapt. This study examined the personality style, psychological adaptation and expectations of 364 UK trainee clinical psychologists. Personality traits characterizing the sample were: enhancing, modifying, extraversing, outgoing, and agreeing. Mean overall personality adjustment was significantly better than the normal population. The sample scored significantly poorer on self‐esteem, anxiety and depression, but well outside the defined range for poor adaptation. A small percentage (8%, n = 31) had ‘poor’ personality adjustment scores, scored worse on indicators of psychological adaptation and reported greater shortfall of course aspects compared with expectations. However, 41% scored as having a significant problem on one or more of: anxiety, depression, low self‐esteem and work adjustment. About one‐third had a probable substance use problem. In regression analyses, poor personality adjustment, and different areas of expectation‐shortfall, especially impact of training on life variously predicted anxiety, depression, and poor work adjustment. Satisfaction with social support was not predictive of adaptation after personality adjustment was accounted for. Implications for clinical psychology training include the need for enhanced expectation‐management through pre‐course marketing, and better attention to trainees' personal and professional development throughout training. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.