Psychosocial Threat Research Articles

Relationships between Individual and Social Resources, Anxiety and Depression in the Early Lockdown Stage by the COVID-19 in Chile.

The coronavirus disease has exposed the population to psychosocial threats that could increase mental health problems. This research analyzed the relationships between emotional states (negative [−EWB] and positive [+EWB] experienced well-being), personal resources (resilient coping [RC]), dispositional resources (control beliefs about stress [BAS]), and social resources (social support [SS]), and anxiety and depressive symptoms in a sample of the Chilean population (n = 592), who answered an online questionnaire. Multiple and moderated multiple regression analyses were carried out. Depressive symptoms showed a positive relationship with −EWB (β = 0.805; p < 0.001) and negative relationship with +EWB (β = −0.312; p < 0.001), RC (β = −0.089; p < 0.01), BAS (β = −0.183; p < 0.001) and SS (β = −0.082; p < 0.001). Anxiety symptoms showed a positive relationship with −EWB (β = 0.568; p < 0.001), and a negative relationship with +EWB (β = −0.101; p < 0.03) and BAS (β = −0.092; p < 0.001). BAS moderated the relationship between experienced well-being and depression symptoms, and RC moderated the relationship between experienced well-being with both depression and anxiety symptoms. Findings confirm the buffering effect of personal and dispositional resources when facing a sanitary and social crisis. Moreover, they help to understand the role of internal psychological processes during a crisis and how to cope with life-threatening events.

Analysis Students Psychosocial Problems During Distance Learning And Importance Role of Teacher's to Overcome

For more than two years corona pandemic has occured in our country and has caused learning process changed. Offline school activities can only be done in limited basis and even in some schools cannot be held and still have to do full online. Many problems have happened to students during distance learning that involved students psychosocial. This paper will research psychosocial threats that has occured to students during a pandemic and the important role of teachers in overcoming these threats. The research method used is qualitative research by analyzing and collaborative survey results from trusted organization and comission. From the the data reaserached obtained, it can be seen that there were some student psychosocial problems in distance learning, so that the role of the teacher in managing appropriate learning is very important where the teacher must be able to act as a designer that compile what content is taught, identify the student profile and to map the student's condition, as well as providing motivation and building communication with students. The teacher must in charges in the learning method implementation as a facilitator and provides digital literacy to students to counteract the negative impacts that can arise from prolonged use of gadgets

The Biopsychosocial Impact and Syndemic Effect of COVID-19 on Youth Living with HIV in Kenya.

COVID-19's rapid emergence as a biological and psychosocial threat has affected people globally. The purpose of this qualitative study, which was guided by syndemic theory and the biopsychosocial framework, was to examine the impact of COVID-19 on youth living with HIV (YLWH) in Kenya. Seven virtual focus groups and two in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 YLWH aged 18-24, 13 youth affected by HIV aged 18-24, and 12 HIV healthcare providers living in Nakuru and Eldoret, two of Kenya's largest cities. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, which was guided by a descriptive phenomenological approach. Findings provided information about the problems and needs of YLWH as well as potential solutions for mitigating COVID-19's biopsychosocial impact and syndemic effect on YLWH in Kenya. A variety of individual, community, healthcare, and government issues were identified including but not limited to concerns about psychosocial functioning; economic stability; access to medical treatment and medication; the availability of goods and services; patient education; and the dissemination of accurate information. These findings have important implications for addressing the ongoing and long-term impact of the pandemic on YLWH in resource-limited settings through research, policy, and practice.

Measurement matters: An individual differences examination of family socioeconomic factors, latent dimensions of children’s experiences, and resting state functional brain connectivity in the ABCD sample

The variation in experiences between high and low-socioeconomic status contexts are posited to play a crucial role in shaping the developing brain and may explain differences in child outcomes. Yet, examinations of SES and brain development have largely been limited to distal proxies of these experiences (e.g., income comparisons). The current study sought to disentangle the effects of multiple socioeconomic indices and dimensions of more proximal experiences on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in a sample of 7834 youth (aged 9–10 years) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We applied moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA) to establish measurement invariance among three latent environmental dimensions of experience (material/economic deprivation, caregiver social support, and psychosocial threat). Results revealed measurement biases as a function of child age, sex, racial group, family income, and parental education, which were statistically adjusted in the final MNLFA scores. Mixed-effects models demonstrated that socioeconomic indices and psychosocial threat differentially predicted variation in frontolimbic networks, and threat statistically moderated the association between income and connectivity between the dorsal and ventral attention networks. Findings illuminate the importance of reducing measurement biases to gain a more socioculturally-valid understanding of the complex and nuanced links between socioeconomic context, children’s experiences, and neurodevelopment.

ELEMENTS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO RESILIENCE IN YOUNG WOMEN FROM A HIGH-RISK COMMUNITY

This article reports on the elements contributing to the resilience of young women living in a high-risk urban community in the North-West province (NW) of South Africa who cope with various forms of adversity. Young Black Africans in South Africa face a myriad of, particularly in informal settlement communities. High-risk factors include psychosocial threats and structural adversity. A qualitative challenges descriptive approach using semi-structured interviews with 14 participants was utilized. Major findings indicated that religion is a protective factor fostering resilience. Strong altruistic tendencies, for instance, to serve as role models and peer mentors to other at-risk young women in the community were presented as internal assets. Maternal figures provide external social support. Communities and practitioners should monitor and make available opportunities for programmes and peer mentorship initiatives supporting the acquisition of personal and social assets, as well as for attaining goals that promote wellbeing of the young, particularly those who are disadvantaged. There should be more focus on cultural practices in research by social workers. This project contributes to South African research on indigenous studies.

Capturing Environmental Dimensions of Adversity and Resources in the Context of Poverty Across Infancy Through Early Adolescence: A Moderated Nonlinear Factor Model.

Income, education, and cumulative-risk indices likely obscure meaningful heterogeneity in the mechanisms through which poverty impacts child outcomes. This study draws from contemporary theory to specify multiple dimensions of poverty-related adversity and resources, with the aim of better capturing these nuances. Using data from the Family Life Project (N=1,292), we leveraged moderated nonlinear factor analysis (Bauer, 2017) to establish group- and longitudinally invariant environmental measures from infancy to early adolescence. Results indicated three latent factors-material deprivation, psychosocial threat, and sociocognitive resources-were distinct from each other and from family income. Each was largely invariant across site, racial group, and development and showed convergent and discriminant relations with age-twelve criterion measures. Implications for ensuring socioculturally valid measurements of poverty are discussed.

Developmental effects in physiological stress in early adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

IntroductionHumans place high value on how they are socially evaluated by others. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a well-established measure of social evaluative threat that promotes activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and release of cortisol. Higher cortisol responses in typically developing (TD) adolescents are influenced by age and pubertal development especially in later stages. Children with ASD have been shown to exhibit blunted cortisol in response to the TSST although adults with ASD show a more prototypical response. The current study examined physiological stress in early adolescents with ASD and TD. It was hypothesized that TD youth would show elevated cortisol in response to the TSST influenced by age and pubertal stage. In contrast, youth with ASD would show a more diminished stress response yet still show effects for age and pubertal development MethodsThe sample included 241 youth, 138 with ASD (median age=11.25) and 103 TD (median age=11.67). Standardized diagnostic and pubertal development (genital/breast (GB), and pubic hair (PH) stage) physical exams were performed. Salivary cortisol was collected before and after the TSST. Linear mixed effects models examined the effects of baseline cortisol, time, age, sex, pubertal stage, and diagnosis. ResultsWe did not find an effect of early pubertal development stage (GB or PH) on cortisol response. There was an interaction between age and TSST timepoint, showing stronger effects for older children across the timeline especially during the stressor. Finally, there was a significant diagnosis by TSST timepoint interaction characterized by a blunted cortisol stress response in youth with ASD compared to TD participants who showed higher cortisol. DiscussionWe found evidence that age contributes to an increase in cortisol in response to social evaluative threat during early adolescence. TD youth exhibit an adaptive elevated stress response to psychosocial threat whereas youth with ASD do not. There may exist a developmental lag in the perception of and stress responsivity to social evaluation which may emerge in older adolescents with ASD.

The Impetus for Resilience and Change in Business Education and Management Research

In the past hundred years, business schools in the United States have had to be resilient and undergo change in order to address various challenges. They have faced issues pertaining to their legitimacy, rigor, and relevance. This article suggests that business schools are once again in a period of change that requires resilience and that these age old issues have to be reconsidered in this new environment, and it describes some of the economic, reputational, technological, and psychosocial threats and opportunities that are currently creating an impetus for change. The other articles that comprise this dialog series on Resilience and Change in Business Education and Management Research are also introduced.

The protective impact of a mental skills training session and motivational priming on participants’ psychophysiological responses to performance stress

The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether a motivational priming session (i.e., educational lecture) and/or cognitive restructuring-based mental skills training session can elicit a protective physiological response to performance stress (i.e., an ego-involving climate). The stress hormones dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and cortisol were assessed. DHEA is a neurosteroid that counters many of the negative effects of cortisol (Morgan et al., 2004). As a secondary purpose, threat and challenge appraisals (Mendes, Gray, Mendoza-Denton, Major, & Epel, 2007), stress mindset (Crum, Salovey, & Achor, 2013a), and affect (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) were examined. Male college students (N = 59, Mage = 20.25) were screened for potential confounds and randomly assigned to a control group (n = 16), a mental skills training group (n = 27), or an achievement goal perspective theory-based (AGPT; Nicholls, 1984, 1989) educational lecture group (n = 16). The experimental manipulation (i.e., lecture/session) took place during the 15 min prior to exposure to the performance stressor. The mental skills training session that aimed to foster a stress-is-enhancing mindset and a more task-oriented approach toward achievement yielded more adaptive responses to stress including a significant spike in DHEA-sulfate (i.e., DHEA-S), a challenge appraisal of the performance stressor, and a stress-is-enhancing mindset, compared to the control and AGPT groups. The AGPT lecture prevented a rise in salivary cortisol (i.e., a potentially threatening stress hormone) in response to the performance stressor. These findings suggest individuals can better protect themselves against psychosocial threats in performance settings, for which they have little control over, through education and training.

The Psychosocial Risks in Workplace as a Category in Research. Comparative Diagnosis

Article presents the issue of psychosocial risks from perspective diversity on culture context. This context is socially appointed through the meanings by using and conceptualization notions, legitimizing these concepts of notion in the law and through studying phenomena through tools to adequately measure the scale of occurrence of a given psychosocial threat. The main idea of this article focuses on the social constructing concepts and definitions reproduced in the society through: using the notion of psychosocial hazards, different methods and research techniques in the social sciences themselves to explore these phenomena, the different scale of the declared occurrence of social threats to the culturally diverse dimensions of national cultures. Presented areas of psychosocial risks from European perspective, contain differentiated standards which are used in theory and research. Moreover the short article presents the diverse needs of measurement methods adequate for the broad frameworks of psychosocial risks such as mobbing, harcèlement moral, stress and presenteeism.

Repressors exhibit lower cortisol reactivity to group psychosocial stress

Repressors are well-known to monitor potential psychosocial threats to their self-esteem and self-concept. In research, repressors are traditionally categorised as those scoring low on trait anxiety and high on defensiveness (as measured by social desirability scales). Examining repressors’ cortisol reactivity to a group socio-evaluative laboratory stressor could be an important way to extend work on the classic ‘repressor dissociation’, which proposes that this group experience higher levels of physiological stress, but lower levels of subjective affect, during stressful situations. Research however has focused mainly on repressors’ higher, more risk-prone levels of autonomic, rather than hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), reactivity to stressful stimuli. We assessed cortisol reactivity using a group-based acute psychosocial stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test for groups (TSST-G), which required participants to individually perform public speaking and mental arithmetic tasks in front of up to six other group members, as well as an evaluative panel of judges. Seventy-seven healthy young females (mean age ± SD: 20.2 ± 3.2 years) took part, of which 64 met the conventional criterion for a response to the TSST-G (<15.5% increase from baseline sample). The Stress-Arousal Checklist was completed pre- and post-TSST-G. Participants also completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Marlow-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. The latter two measures were used to provide a categorisation of repressive coping style. Participants identified as repressive copers exhibited significantly lower cortisol reactivity during the TSST-G. Repressors also self-reported less subjective stress. These findings provide some evidence against the notion of the repressor dissociation and are discussed in terms of how cortisol hyporeactivity may be a pathway through which repressive coping adversely affects health.

Stres jako zagrożenie psychospołeczne w pracy policjanta

Stres jako zagrożenie psychospołeczne w pracy policjanta

Assessment of safety and health of storage workers - a psychosocial approach

Background: Although there is still a lot to do as far as prevention and elimination of traditional health and work safety hazards is concerned, the problem of psychosocial risk prevention is extremely important nowadays. It is crucial to take into consideration the health of workers and promotion of health in the workplace, as the occupational stress epidemics is getting more and more widespread. Methods: The article is based on the statistic analysis of accidents at work as well as the analysis of health problems resulting from the job itself. The latest work safety reports have been reviewed and special attention has been paid to psychosocial risk analysis. The author has tried to explicate the terms of new and emerging risks as regards storage work. Results: Various threat aspects of storage work have been evaluated. Deficits in psychosocial hazard identification have been indicated. What is more, no correlation between occupational tasks of storage workers and their knowledge about psychosocial risks has been emphasized. An exemplified approach to warehouse psychosocial threat identification has been presented. The approach is based on the diagnosis of the current situation. Conclusions: The psychosocial risk of storage work may lead to health deterioration, greater accident risk and worse performance at work. Such consequences mean that the psychosocial risks affect both an individual and the organization. Therefore, we should expect more intense efforts to increase psychosocial risk awareness of both employers and

Can promoting romantic relationship quality help gay and bisexual men better face HIV stigma?

Advancements in antiretroviral treatment and a greater access to medication have contributed to an increased life expectancy for people who live with HIV/AIDS. As a result, new psychosocial goals in the treatment of HIV, such as improving the quality of life and levels of well-being of those who are infected, have become increasingly relevant. Since men who have sex with men, particularly those who identify as gay and bisexual, continue to be a group of primary concern within the HIV-affected population, new interventions to help them reach the aforementioned goals must be developed. Considering HIV stigma represents a paramount psychosocial threat for individual’s psychological and physical well-being, the authors embrace a resilience-oriented perspective and propose a relational approach to helping gay and bisexual men living with HIV/AIDS better face social stigma. Through an integrative literature review that discusses scholarly works published in the past 15 years on the topics of HIV stigma, relationship quality, and interventions with couples dealing with chronic illness, the authors suggest several couple-oriented interventions as promising strategies to help gay and bisexual men living with HIV/AIDS cope with the social stigma. Future directions in research and plausible components for interventions with these HIV-affected male couples are also discussed.

Prevalence and risk factors of common mental disorders among teachers

This study aimed at identifying the prevalence of Common Mental Disorders (CMDs) in teachers and at analyzing associations between sociodemographic, occupational, and psychosocial factors and CMDs. This was a cross-sectional study with a random sample of 679 teachers, distributed in 37 elementary schools located in a city in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre (in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). The instruments used were the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20); the Battery of Psychosocial Risk Assessment to evaluate role ambiguity, social support, self-efficacy, autonomy, interpersonal conflicts, role conflict, and overload; and a questionnaire to assess sociodemographic and occupational variables. Results showed a 29.7% prevalence of CMDs. Three-stage hierarchical logistic regression was performed. Having role ambiguity, overload, low level of social support, and low perceived self-efficacy were associated with CMDs. Greater attention should be given to psychosocial threats in the school context, since these kinds of variables were associated with CMDs in teachers.

Level of occupational stress of court probation officers and style of coping with stress

&lt;b&gt;Background&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The relationship between a court probation officer and their ward is a specific one and is frequently connected with enormous individuals costs. This fact is connected with the character of the job, and with the conditions determining its character. Psychosocial threats may influence both mental and somatic health, directly or indirectly, by means of the influence exerted by stress.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;b&gt;Participants and procedure&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The main study was conducted at the offices of the teams of the Court Probation Service. The teams of the Court Probation Service are part of the structure of the following 9, randomly selected, district courts (DCs): DC Wrocław, DC Bydgoszcz, DC Szczecin, DC Poznań, DC Łódź, DC Lublin, DC Kraków, DC Katowice and DC Białystok. Participation in the research was voluntary and anonymous; the tools were arranged in sets, and the sequence of those sets was random. The sets of research tools were received by 1,000 individuals altogether.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The conducted research confirmed the need to verify the significance of the feeling of occupational stress of court probation officers at the workplace and the correlations between it and a number of variables. Below, I present statistical analyses concerning various aspects of occupational stress experienced in the studied group, including correlations between the general level of occupational stress and the dimensions of it, and organizational predictors. The objective of the research was to indicate the styles of coping with stress and the correlations of them with the stress felt by court probation officers.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt; The research confirms a significant influence exerted by organizational determinants upon the general level of felt occupational stress. Professional court probation officers experience a higher level of felt occupational stress; what is conducive to that is high encumbrance with occupational responsibilities, and also functioning directly in structures of the court of law. Court probation officers suffering from high and low levels of occupational stress differ from one another in terms of the selection of the style concentrated on emotions, which is relevant to the style typical of individuals manifesting the propensity for concentrating on themselves and their own emotional experiences. The individuals manifesting a high level of felt occupational stress select the style described in this paper much more frequently than individuals suffering from a low level of stress.

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Fact or Fiction?

Introduction Beginning with classic Hollywood melodramas of the1940s, cinema has maintained a prolific output of films with their own take on mental illnesses – none more so than the rare syndrome of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). The DSM-5 provides criteria to diagnose dissociative identity disorder, 'two or more distinct identities or personality states are present, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self”, is the main one. Objectives A brief description and discussion about the controversies surrounding the diagnosis and approaches to treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder are presented, followed by a reflection about the use of this disorder in cinema. Methods A non-systematic literature review was performed in PubMed, about Dissociative Identity Disorder. Only original articles in English language were included. An informal search about films contemplating DID and their plot was also conducted. Results Clinical findings suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility and role-playing. As patients tend to switch personality states when there is a perceived psychosocial threat, the treatment goal is the fusion of the personality states while retaining the entire range of experiences contained in all of the alters. DID representations in cinema correspond closely to contemporary thinking about its phenomenology and aetiology. Conclusion Art imitates Life, but sometimes Life can fake the Art…DID may have had its turn…

Electrical neuroimaging reveals content-specific effects of threat in primary visual cortex and fronto-parietal attentional networks

Whereas effects of anticipatory anxiety on attention are usually assumed to remain largely undifferentiated, discrepant findings in the literature suggest that, depending on its content and causes, different modulatory effects on attention control and early sensory processing may arise. Using electrical neuroimaging and psychophysiology in a cross-over design, we tested the hypothesis that different types of anticipatory anxiety (bodily vs. psychological), transiently induced in healthy participants, had dissociable effects on brain systems regulating attention control. Attention control corresponded to the ability to maintain efficient goal-directed processing (indexed by the P300 ERP component and by activations in the attentional networks), as well as the ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli in early sensory cortex (C1 component, indexing attentional gating in V1). Results showed that while psychosocial threat, very much like perceptual load, primarily led to a stronger gating in V1, bodily threat resulted in impaired goal-directed processing within the fronto-parietal attentional network, as well as decreased filtering in V1. These results suggest that anticipatory anxiety is multifaceted, exerting different effects on attention control and early visual processing depending on its sub-type.

Report on a clinical evaluation of the KerraPro Heel silicone heel pad

Heels are at increased risk of injury due to the posterior prominence and lack of padding over the calcaneus. Pressure injuries, once established, are extremely costly, both in terms of the detrimental effect on psychosocial wellbeing and threat to life, as well as financially due to length of hospital stay and resources used to heal the wounds. A new and inexpensive silicone heel pad has been designed to simplify the necessary decisions and to address the problems associated with pressure injuries to the heels. This article will describe an observational evaluation of the product. KerraPro Heel pads were evaluated in two separate cohorts of 17 participants over a 4-week period with the primary aim to evaluate the efficacy of the product in preventing and alleviating pressure injuries on the heels. All participants had been reported as 'at risk' or 'at high risk' of pressure injury to the heels and had a history of developing such lesions. The KerraPro heel pads were compared with the participant's standard protocol. The outcome of the evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of the KerraPro Heel pads in the prevention and treatment of heel pressure injuries.

Socio-demographic characteristics and public health status of child domestics: myths and reality for a safe community in Bangladesh

BackgroundDespite ‘child domestic’ remains the worst victims of child-labour, few reports are published on this virtual slavery. However, It is crucial that their health/psycho-social-state are normal. We report here findings...