Ineffective Coping Strategies Research Articles

Understanding, Experiences, and Reactions to Bullying Experiences in Boys with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Most previous studies of bullying in young people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have relied on data from adults’ rather than the person with an ASD themselves, thus limiting our understanding of the bullying experience from the child’s perspective. To investigate this issue, 48 high-functioning boys with an ASD, and their mothers, completed an online questionnaire about various aspects of bullying. There were some minor discrepancies between mothers’ and their sons’ reported frequency of bullying. Boys demonstrated an understanding of the behaviour that constitutes bullying that was consistent with the wider literature, enhancing the validity of their responses about their experiences. Sources of bullying included friends, and bullying mostly occurred in the playground. These boys had ineffective coping strategies for bullying, and many reported significant physical and emotional negative reactions. Many boys found that telling adults made their bullying experiences worse, and most kept their bullying experiences to themselves until they reached home, then adopting a range of negative (tantrums) and positive (staying alone to calm down) behaviours. Unfortunately, over half of these boys sought to absent themselves from school as their preferred method for coping with their bullying experiences. These findings have major implications for interventions within schools to reduce bullying and to provide access to learning and social activities.

What are the factors that influence parental stress when caring for a child with an intellectual disability? A critical literature review

Objectives:This article critically reviewed empirical studies identifying factors that may influence parental stress when caring for a child with an intellectual disability. Understanding the factors influencing parental stress is important for several reasons, which include improving parental/child quality of life, supporting parental needs, and thus reducing potential economic burden in the long term. This review is also imperative for ensuring high quality research within this field.Methods:AMED, CINAHL Plus (EBSCOhost), EMBASE, Medline and PsycINFO were accessed to conduct a critical literature review. A total of 17 articles were reviewed. A bespoke quality assessment tool was developed to examine the susceptibility to bias for each of the included studies.Results:The review outlined a range of child, parent and socio-environmental factors that may influence parental stress. More specifically, factors associated with greater parental stress included child behavioral difficulties (e.g. challenging behavior), ineffective parental coping strategies (including avoidance and self-blame), and poor family environment (e.g. lack of cohesion amongst family members). These factors are critically discussed alongside contrasting evidence that was illuminated within this review.Conclusions:Parents of a child with an intellectual disability are not a homogenous group and are likely to show variability in the factors that affect their stress levels. Future clinical and research implications are proposed in light of the methodological limitations identified within the studies reviewed. For example, future research could investigate the bi-directional effects that occur between variables; how specific factors influence parental stress; and potential mediating/moderating factors of parenting stress.

Personality, coping, risky behavior, and mental disorders in the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: A comprehensive psychosocial assessment

ObjectivesIt has been proposed that the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder (OBD), through genetic mechanisms and early family interactions, develop a heightened sensitivity to stress, maladaptive coping, and dysregulated behavior, which ultimately increases the risk for affective disorders. The current study tested certain predictions of this model by assessing different psychosocial and health-related outcomes in the OBD, including personality, coping style, smoking, suicidality, high-risk sexual behaviors, criminality, and mental health. MethodThe sample was composed of 74 OBD and 75 control offspring, who were between 14 and 27 years of age (mean: 19.38±3.56). Participants underwent a diagnostic interview and a structured interview to assess high-risk behavior and other maladaptive outcomes, and they completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and Coping in Stressful Situations questionnaire. ResultsThe rates of affective (31.1%) and non-affective (56.8%) disorders were elevated in the OBD compared to controls (9.5% and 32.4%). Relative to controls, OBD endorsed fewer task-oriented and more distraction coping strategies [Wilk׳s λ=.83, F(1, 136) =6.92, p<.01], and were more likely to report engaging in high-risk sexual behavior (OR=2.37; Wald=4.13, 1 df, p<05). Importantly, OBD reported elevated high-risk sexual behavior relative to controls, irrespective of affective disorder diagnosis. ConclusionThe results highlight a potential risk profile for the OBD, consisting of ineffective coping strategies and risky sexual behavior and are discussed in the context of current knowledge of stress and coping in this population. LimitationsThe present findings were based on cross-sectional data and relied on offspring self-report. It would be useful to corroborate these findings with biobehavioural and longitudinal measures.

Arm ache.

Both patients and providers hope for better management strategies for nonspecific activity-related upper limb pain (herein referred to as "arm ache"). The next innovation in the care of arm ache may arise from the strong evidence that mood, coping strategies (e.g., catastrophic thinking), and heightened illness concern-all very responsive to treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy-account for a large percentage of the variation in symptom intensity and magnitude of disability. This focus on treatments to reduce symptoms and disability represents a change in culture for patients and providers, both of whom are accustomed to the biomedical framework that anticipates a direct correspondence between illness (the state of being unwell) and disease (pathophysiology). Not all patients are ready for such an approach, but as a first step health providers can prioritize empathy; remain mindful that words, illness concepts, and treatments can reinforce ineffective coping strategies; and encourage curiosity about the human illness experience.

Coping with Stress and Types of Burnout: Explanatory Power of Different Coping Strategies

BackgroundBurnout occurs when professionals use ineffective coping strategies to try to protect themselves from work-related stress. The dimensions of ‘overload’, ‘lack of development’ and ‘neglect’, belonging to the ‘frenetic’, ‘under-challenged’ and ‘worn-out’ subtypes, respectively, comprise a brief typological definition of burnout. The aim of the present study was to estimate the explanatory power of the different coping strategies on the development of burnout subtypes.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional survey with a random sample of university employees, stratified by occupation (n = 429). Multivariate linear regression models were constructed between the ‘Burnout Clinical Subtypes Questionnaire’, with its three dimensions –overload, lack of development and neglect– as dependent variables, and the ‘Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences’, with its fifteen dimensions, as independent variables. Adjusted multiple determination coefficients and beta coefficients were calculated to evaluate and compare the explanatory capacity of the different coping strategies.ResultsThe ‘Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences’ subscales together explained 15% of the ‘overload’ (p<0.001), 9% of the ‘lack of development’ (p<0.001), and 21% of the ‘neglect’ (p<0.001). ‘Overload’ was mainly explained by ‘venting of emotions’ (Beta = 0.34; p<0.001); ‘lack of development’ by ‘cognitive avoidance’ (Beta = 0.21; p<0.001); and ‘neglect’ by ‘behavioural disengagement’ (Beta = 0.40; p<0.001). Other interesting associations were observed.ConclusionsThese findings further our understanding of the way in which the effectiveness of interventions for burnout may be improved, by influencing new treatments and preventive programmes using features of the strategies for handling stress in the workplace.

The Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas and Coping Strategies in Substance Dependency

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the early maladaptive schemas and coping strategies of substance dependents. We hypothesized that substance dependents would have more maladaptive unhealthy schemas and would use less adaptive coping strategies than healthy controls. Methods: Thirty-two patients diagnosed with substance dependency and 31 control subjects without any psychiatric disorders were evaluated via Young Schema Questionnaire-SF, COPE, and SCID-I. Informed consent was obtained from the participants. The study was approved by the local ethical committee. Results: The substance dependents scored significantly higher than the control group in nine out of fourteen early maladaptive schemas. In terms of coping strategies, the substance dependents scored significantly lower than the control group in Positive Reinterpretation and Growth, Seeking Social Support for Instrumental Reasons, Active Coping, and Seeking Social Support for Emotional Reasons, and significantly higher in Behavioral Disengagement and Alcohol-drug Disengagement subscales. Moreover, Alcohol-drug disengagement type of coping style was significantly predicted by schemas of Emotional deprivation, Emotional inhibition, Enmeshment/dependence, Entitlement/ insufficient self-control, Abandonment/instability, Punitiveness, Defectiveness/shame, Vulnerability to harm or illness, and Unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness. Discussion: Current study showed that the substance dependents had more maladaptive unhealthy core beliefs and ineffective coping strategies than a non-clinical control group. These findings support the importance of early maladaptive schemas which might be the underlying factor for the dependency problem, and might prevent the person to deal with the problem with more active and problem focused coping strategies.

The Relationship between Stress and Addiction

ObjectivesThe purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between stress and addiction. Materials & MethodsA total of 150 male opium addicts randomly selected from different addiction treatment centers in addition to 150 normal subjects as control group participated in the present study. The control group was matched with the addict group for a ge, education, marital and socioeconomic status. The instruments used included Paykel Scale of Stressful Life Events for assessing the rate of life stressors and Cope Inventory for assessing the methods of coping. The data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney Test. ResultsThe findings of the study showed that first, over a two-year period before beginning substance use, the occurrence rate of various psychosocial stressors in opium addict patients was statistically higher than normal subjects in the last two-year period (P<.0001). Second, in comparison to normal subjects, the opium addict patients made significantly less use of Problem- Focused Coping Methods including active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping and seeking of instrumental social support (P<.01), while they made significantly more use of Less Useful Coping Strategies including focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement and mental disengagement (P<.0001). In regarding to the use of Emotion- Focused Coping Methods including seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial and turning to religion although, the drug addicts’ scores were higher than those of normal subjects, it wasn’t statistically significant. ConclusionIt seems that more stressful life events and more ineffective coping strategies in opium addicts may play a considerable role in their development of drug abuse or turning to relapse. Thus, to prevent the occurrence of severe stress and self treatment trough drug abuse, it's advisable to teach some skills such as stress prevention, alteration and toleration strategies to the at-risk groups.

Coping strategies in low-risk pregnant women: the influence of low and late fertility

Objective: Socio-demographic factors were strongly associated with coping styles in pregnant women. We studied fertility postponement, a new increasing phenomenon in industrialized countries.Method: We studied coping (The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, CISS) in 341 healthy pregnant women, with a median age of 34 years (IQR 31–36), in their third trimester, living in Veneto, region of Italy which emerges for its low and late fertility.Results: Task-oriented coping was the most frequently used coping styles (Median, IQR: 48, 44–53), followed by Emotion-oriented coping (Median, IQR: 44, 39–49). Avoidance-oriented coping with subscales Social Diversion and Distraction were used least frequently (Median, IQR: 44, 38–49; 21, 18–24, and 14, 12–16, respectively). Socio-demographic factors were not associated with coping styles, but maternal age was inversely correlated with task coping (Spearman coefficient rho = −0.13, p = 0.02).Conclusion: Fertility postponement leads to the selection and use of ineffective coping strategies in an effort to alleviate anxiety.

Stress coping strategies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and how they relate to trauma symptoms, alexithymia, anger and mood

PurposeThe purpose of the present study was to assess stress coping strategies employed by patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and determine whether these approaches were associated with other psychopathological features. Ineffective stress coping strategies can have a variety of unhealthy consequences fueling psychopathology just as psychopathology can also have an impact on stress coping. Because of this, the study of stress coping has the potential to inform our understanding of the PNES condition and underscore a potential target for psychological treatment. MethodsEighty-two consecutive patients with PNES were studied using the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). The CISS is a self-rating coping strategies scale that has three main subscales (Task-Oriented, Emotion-Focused, and Avoidance-Oriented). Other psychological variables that were thought to potentially influence the chosen coping mechanisms including alexithymia, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, anger expression and select scales from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2-RF (MMPI 2-RF) were also evaluated. ResultsFifty patients (60.9%) endorsed using at least one coping strategy that was 1.5 standard deviations or more away from the normal adult mean. Over 30% of the participants endorsed using elevated Emotion-Focused coping strategies (T score≥65), and just over 25% endorsed underusing Task-Oriented coping strategies (T score≤35). Elevations in avoidance strategies were endorsed by only 15.9% of the respondents. ANOVA comparing T scores between the coping strategies was significant (F=13.4, p=.0001) with a significantly lower Task-Oriented strategy than Emotion-Focused (p=.001) and Avoidance (p=.005) strategies.Patients with high scores of Emotion-Focused coping strategies also had significantly high scores on diverse psychopathology factors including elevations on depressive mood, intrusive experiences, anger state, and general anger scores. In contrast, those who used Task-Oriented strategies and who used Avoidance-Focused strategies had less psychopathology including low positive emotion scores (RC2). ConclusionNearly one-third of patients with PNES tended to use the less effective Emotion-Oriented coping strategies and one fourth reported underusing the more effective Task-focused strategies. Substantial differences were noted between coping strategies with a significantly lower Task-Oriented strategy than Emotion-Focused and Avoidance strategies. In addition, high Emotion-Focused coping was seen in patients with underlying psychological symptoms that were not observed in other coping strategies. This information supports the relevance of assessing stress coping in patients with PNES because it allows the identification of useful behavioral targets for the psychotherapist.

Fatigue, Stress and Coping in Mothers of Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be exhausting, which has the potential to impact on parental health and wellbeing. The current study investigated the influence of maternal fatigue and coping on the relationship between children's problematic behaviours and maternal stress for 65 mothers of young children (aged 2-5years) with ASDs. Results showed that maternal fatigue but not maladaptive coping mediated the relationship between problematic child behaviours and maternal stress. These findings suggest child behaviour difficulties may contribute to parental fatigue, which in turn may influence use of ineffective coping strategies and increased stress. The significance of fatigue on maternal wellbeing was highlighted as an important area for consideration in families of children with an ASD.

A framework for improving the quality of care for people with psoriasis

SummaryA lack of national guidelines in some countries and lack ofconsensus amongst those that do exist in others is problematic.Specifically, poor and inconsistent advice on initiating and opti-mising therapeutic interventions is a barrier to improving out-comes. While European guidelines can help to fill the gap incountries without national guidelines, their role should primar-ily be to strengthen and harmonise existing guidelines, and toprovide a framework for the development of new nationalguidelines. They therefore need to lead the provision of advicethat is not given in existing guidelines. Limited awareness ofguidelines and increasing pressures on patient consultation can Figure 5 The concept of cumulative life course impairment(CLCI) in psoriasis. 22 CLCI results from an interaction betweenthe burden of stigmatisation, physical and psychological co-mor-bidities; and coping strategies and external factors. Significantimpairment may occur in patients with ineffective coping strate-gies and limited social support, even if they have a small burden.This impairment may be less in patients with effective copingstrategies and strong social support networks, even if the bur-den is large. (Figure adapted from Kimball 2010.)

Instruction in Problem-Solving Skills Increases the Hedonic Balance of Highly Neurotic Individuals

Neuroticism is associated with ineffective coping strategies and experiencing substantial negative affect, but prior research has not examined whether teaching problem-solving skills can help neurotic individuals improve their emotional experience. 214 college students were screened for neuroticism and 30 participants who scored in the top two deciles of neuroticism were randomly assigned to a no-treatment control group or to an intervention group that received three lessons based on a problem-solving curriculum (Nezu et al. in Solving life’s problems: a 5-step guide to enhanced well-being. Springer, New York, 2007). Hedonic balance (i.e., positive minus negative affect) was measured before the intervention and again approximately 4 days and approximately 11 weeks after the intervention ended. Analyses revealed that the intervention group showed an increase in hedonic balance over time, whereas the control group showed no changes; improvements in hedonic balance were correlated with improvements in problem-solving strategies. Thus, it appears that teaching problem-solving can improve the emotional experience of neurotic individuals.

Correspondence of Patient Word Choice with Psychologic Factors in Patients With Upper Extremity Illness

Studies of patients with back pain, cancer, and in a general medical practice note that the use of certain phrases by a patient when communicating with their health provider can indicate greater disability and distress than expected for patients with a given disorder. However, it is unclear whether such phrases apply to patients with hand and arm disorders. We assessed whether specific patient phrases are associated with symptoms, disability, and psychologic factors in patients with hand and arm disorders. We recorded and coded 61 interviews of new patients. Specific expressions of patients were listed and categorized into six phrase categories: "I can't", "Find it and fix it", "Something is wrong", "It's serious", "Deemphasis (hoping)", and "Protective mindset". Patients completed questionnaires for arm-specific disability (DASH), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]), pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale [PCS]), and heightened illness concern (Whiteley Index). Patients who endorsed phrases in the category "I can't" had higher scores on the PCS, Whiteley, DASH, and pain; they also had longer visits. Patients expressing "Something is wrong" had higher scores for the PCS, pain, and duration of visit. Patients using "It's serious" had a higher score for pain. Finally, patients using "Protective mindset" had lower PHQ-9 scores and younger age. Patient word choice may indicate underlying distress or ineffective coping strategies that represent important opportunities for empathy and support, including evidence-based cognitive and behavioral interventions. Level III, diagnostic study. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

Effective and Ineffective Coping With Bullying Strategies as Assessed by Informed Professionals and Their Use by Victimised Students

What strategies do students use to cope with bullying and how effective are they? Answers to such questions will not only help students understand how they can cope, but also inform school-wide policies and practices to reduce the incidence of bullying. To do this, schools need evidence on what strategies to focus on to most effectively target their intervention and prevention programs. Students across Years 8, 9 and 10 in three South Australian high schools (n = 1223) completed a Coping with Bullying questionnaire, indicating strategies they used, and 82 informed professionals (IPs) rated each strategy's effectiveness, along with its applicability to different bullying types. IPs generally agreed on which strategies were effective and ineffective and that the same strategies were appropriate for all types of bullying. Seriously bullied students reported under-using some effective strategies. No significant difference between males and females in strategy use was found. Awareness of effective and ineffective coping strategies provides schools with a workable framework for targeting prevention and/or intervention programs that align with extant knowledge on coping with bullying. Disseminating such research evidence is important as this study shows that seriously bullied students are evidently under-using many strategies that IPs in this study regarded as effective.

Navigating Adolescence

Objective: The current study investigated the experience of girls growing up with cognitive and social disorders. Method: Eight adolescent girls participated in interviews that were transcribed and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: Four of the girls had a history of ADHD symptoms and conduct disorder problems (ADHD/CP), four did not. Three master themes emerged within the domain of “Coping Behaviors”: seeking social support, bravado, and avoidance. Three master themes emerged within the domain of “Barriers to Adaptive Functioning”: lack of support and guidance, poor negotiation of interpersonal conflict, and victimization. Although all participants experienced developmental barriers, the girls with ADHD/CP coped with these barriers in a less effective way. Conclusion: The study raises an important developmental concern, the seemingly ineffective coping strategies of ADHD/CP adolescents.

Development of the Coping Flexibility Scale: Evidence for the coping flexibility hypothesis.

Coping flexibility was defined as the ability to discontinue an ineffective coping strategy (i.e., evaluation coping) and produce and implement an alternative coping strategy (i.e., adaptive coping). The Coping Flexibility Scale (CFS) was developed on the basis of this definition. Five studies involving approximately 4,400 Japanese college students and employees were conducted to test the hypothesis that flexible coping produces more adaptive outcomes. Studies 1, 2, and 3 provided evidence of the reliability of the CFS scores as well as of its convergent and discriminant validity for Japanese samples. Study 4 further demonstrated that flexible coping was positively associated with improved psychological health, including reduced depression, anxiety, and distress. In Study 5, coping flexibility as measured by the CFS was associated with reduced future depression, even after controlling for the effects of other coping flexibility measures and popular coping strategies. Overall, these results suggest that a valid approach for assessing coping flexibility has been developed and that flexible coping can contribute to psychological health. The implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.

P.6.002 Comparative characteristics of neurocognitive functioning in patients with different types of abuse

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between stress and addiction.A total of 150 male opium addicts randomly selected from different addiction treatment centers in addition to 150 normal subjects as control group participated in the present study. The control group was matched with the addict group for a ge, education, marital and socioeconomic status. The instruments used included Paykel Scale of Stressful Life Events for assessing the rate of life stressors and Cope Inventory for assessing the methods of coping. The data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney Test.The findings of the study showed that first, over a two-year period before beginning substance use, the occurrence rate of various psychosocial stressors in opium addict patients was statistically higher than normal subjects in the last two-year period (P<.0001). Second, in comparison to normal subjects, the opium addict patients made significantly less use of Problem- Focused Coping Methods including active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping and seeking of instrumental social support (P<.01), while they made significantly more use of Less Useful Coping Strategies including focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement and mental disengagement (P<.0001). In regarding to the use of Emotion- Focused Coping Methods including seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial and turning to religion although, the drug addicts’ scores were higher than those of normal subjects, it wasn’t statistically significant.It seems that more stressful life events and more ineffective coping strategies in opium addicts may play a considerable role in their development of drug abuse or turning to relapse. Thus, to prevent the occurrence of severe stress and self treatment trough drug abuse, it's advisable to teach some skills such as stress prevention, alteration and toleration strategies to the at-risk groups.

Impact of Remembering Childhood Sexual Abuse on Addiction Recovery for Young Adult Lesbians

This article examines the impact of childhood sexual abuse on young adult lesbians' sexual identity and their recovery from chemical dependency. The authors recommend that counselors assess for sexual orientation (past and present), sexual abuse, and possible dual diagnosis. Implications for counselors are discussed. ********** Sexual assault, unfortunately, continues to occur in the United States for both men and women. Women are sexually assaulted more often than men, with an estimated 3% to 27% of women experiencing some form of sexual assault during their lifetime regardless of sexual orientation or identity (Eaton et al., 2008; Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis, & Smith, 1990; Kilpatrick, Saunders, & Smith, 2003; Patterson, 2009; Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006). Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is not uncommon for women, including women who self-identify as lesbian. An estimated one in 16 children were victimized by sexual abuse during 2007 (Finkelhor, Turner, Ormrod, Hamby, & Kracke, 2009). Approximately 28% of lesbians report CSA (Descamps, Rothblum, Bradford, & Ryan, 2000), and approximately 11% of women report having sex with other women (Mosher, Chandra, & Jones, 2005). In their study, Saewyc, Bearinger, Blum, and Resnick (1999) found that bisexual and lesbian respondents (22%) were more likely to report a history of sexual abuse compared with their heterosexual counterparts (13% to 15%). Women who experience CSA or sexual abuse as adolescents often suppress the experience. Instead of acknowledging the abuse, they ignore it, hoping it will not affect the rest of their life; however, many find that this is an ineffective coping strategy (van der Kolk & Fisler, 1995). Unconsciously, the experience and the trauma associated with sexual abuse bleeds into other areas of the individual's life and can often manifest in many ways, ranging from mental health disorders, including substance abuse, to relationship issues throughout adolescence and, if untreated, into adulthood. In the United States, the prevalence of serious psychological distress (SPD) is roughly 10% of the adult population, with young adults representing the highest percentage rate at 18%. Approximately 13% of the female population has experienced SPD. Moreover, 22% of adults reporting SPD also reported substance dependence or abuse, whereas the rate among adults without SPD is 7.6% (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2009). Furthermore, 85% of adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years and 43% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 years have reported using alcohol during their lifetime. In addition, approximately 7.7% of the total U.S. population and 5.1% of the female population will be diagnosed with alcohol dependence or abuse (age 12 years and older). Nearly 17% of young adults (between the ages of 18 and 25 years) will have received a diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence in the next 12 months. More specifically, approximately 12% of young adult women will receive an alcohol abuse or dependence diagnosis (SAMHSA, 2007). Surprisingly, approximately 54% of the population who need treatment do not receive treatment, and, of those who receive treatment, only 33% receive mental health treatment. Moreover, only 24% will receive substance abuse treatment, and only 10% will receive treatment for both mental illness and substance abuse simultaneously (SAMHSA, 2009). Furthermore, some therapists believe that sexual abuse that occurs in childhood or around puberty will manifest through a sexual orientation other than heterosexuality (i.e., homosexuality, bisexuality, or asexuality; Brannock & Chapman, 1997). This article examines (a) the impact of CSA on young adult lesbians' sexual identity, (b) their recovery from chemical dependency, and (c) the implications for counseling. IMPACT OF CSA ON YOUNG ADULT LESBIANS' SEXUAL IDENTITY The development of a sexual identity can begin early or later in life depending on an individual's experiences, place in the life span, and resources. …

The rate of various psychological stressors, perceived mental strain due to these stressors, and coping strategies in opium addicts compared to normal individuals

ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study was to determine the rate of stressful life events, the rate of perceived mental strain due to these stressors and various methods of coping with stress in opium addicts compared to normal subjects. Materials & Methods137 male addicts and 140 normal subjects matched for sex, age and education participated in present study. The instruments used included Paykel Scale of Stressful Life Events for assessing life stressors and the rate of perceived mental strain due to these stressors, and Billings and Moos Coping Checklist for assessing the methods of coping. The data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney Test. ResultsThe findings of the study showed that first, over a two-year period the occurrence rate of stressors related to illness and death of relatives, family problems, legal problems, occupational problems and other personal problems in opium addicts was statistically higher than normal subjects. Second, compared to normal subjects, the rate of perceived mental strain due to stressors of illness and death of relatives, family problems, legal problems and occupational problems was statistically significant in opium addicts. Third, in comparison to normal subjects, the opium addicts made significantly more use of avoidance and emotional-focused coping while they made significantly less use of active-behavioral and problem-focused coping. ConclusionMore stressful life events, more perceived mental strain of these events, and more inappropriate and ineffective coping strategies in opium addicts may play a considerable role in their drug abuse tendency and their turning to relapse.

Predicting Functional Outcome for Children on Admission After Burn Injury: Do Parents Hold the Key?

In this study, a predictive model about recovery postburn was developed for purposive case selection using explanatory case methodology. Seven cases (each comprising a child, caregiver, and teacher) participated. Children were aged 6 to 13 years with between 2% and 35% TBSA burned. Caregivers completed assessments of premorbid family and child-adaptive functioning, and family, parental, and child functioning during acute and postacute treatment periods. Teachers completed assessment of premorbid and postacute child-adaptive functioning. Children and their respective caregivers were interviewed to obtain further insights into outcomes. Assessments and interviews were completed before skin healing, on skin healing, and at 6 months postburn injury. Descriptive analysis of the quantitative data and content analysis of qualitative data was undertaken for individual cases and across all cases. In keeping with the explanatory case methodology, replication logic was applied to each case to determine the extent to which theoretical propositions based on the predictive model were supported. Findings suggest that children whose parents had high state anxiety in combination with ineffective coping strategies seemed most at risk of a nonadaptive outcome after a burn injury. There was little support for the rival explanations that child and family functioning or injury severity most consistently predicted outcome postburn injury.