Measuring general social support in alcoholic patients: Short forms for perceived social support.

Previous studies identify a positive association between social support and favorable posttreatment functioning. The next step for this line of inquiry is to identify the mechanisms through which social relationships affect alcohol treatment outcome by discrimination of the types and sources of social support. This article presents versions of the Perceived Social Support instrument (M. Procidano & K. Heller, 1983), which measures support from both family and friends. The item sets are reduced from 20 to 7 and ask identical questions from these two support sources. The internal consistency for the Family scale (α?=?.84) and for the Friends scale (α?=?.81) is acceptable. Test-retest reliability is also good for both the Family (r?=?.94) and the Friends (r?=?.88) scales. Correlations with social functioning and alcohol involvement are similar between the short scales and the original 20 items. Normative levels of family and friends support by gender are presented. These scales expand the ability to include a multifaceted social support construct in comprehensive assessments of alcohol treatment populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Thanks for sharing that": Ruminators and their social support networks.

Receiving positive social support after a trauma generally is related to better adjustment to the trauma. The personality of trauma survivors may affect the extent to which they seek social support, their perceived receipt of social support, and the extent to which they benefit from social support. The authors hypothesized that people with a ruminative coping style, who tended to focus excessively on their own emotional reactions to a trauma, compared to those without a ruminative coping style, would seek more social support, and would benefit more from social support, but would report receiving less social support. These hypotheses were confirmed in a longitudinal study of people who lost a loved one to a terminal illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culture and social support.

Social support is one of the most effective means by which people can cope with stressful events. Yet little research has examined whether there are cultural differences in how people utilize their social support networks. A review of studies on culture and social support presents evidence that Asians and Asian Americans are more reluctant to explicitly ask for support from close others than are European Americans because they are more concerned about the potentially negative relational consequences of such behaviors. Asians and Asian Americans are more likely to use and benefit from forms of support that do not involve explicit disclosure of personal stressful events and feelings of distress. Discussion centers on the potential implications of these findings for intercultural interactions and for the use of mental health services by Asians and Asian Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children with brain seizures: impact on their families. A clinical and social study

INTRODUCTION AND MATERIAL: Over a two-year period, a total of 23 children (13 males and 11 females) entered in the Unit of Infantile Neurology of our hospital affections of diverse types of cerebral seizures, were subjected to follow-up study prospective from the point of view medical and social, analyzing the characteristic and situation of their family environment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Between the outputs, they have met important differences between the attitude in front of the problem of the several family groups, according to it's valued for the doctor or for the Unit of Social Work. At the beginning he is not frequent the acceptance of the illness, contrarily to the one which the denial happens to. Have been detected a tall index of anxiety-anguish between the relatives setting in connection with the correct acceptance diagnostic. They have not met differences between the attitude in front of the problem and the economical status associate referred to the profession, the instruction or the housing of the parents. The severity of the illness has not been the only factor in the integration psychosocial of the children with seizures, existing other factors of environmental character that rebound same on the medium. The disorders of the psychotic sphere was those that were affected with an old intensity.     

Working mothers and their families.

The topic of maternal employment and its effects on the family is receiving considerable attention as more and more mothers enter the work force when their children are very young. This article reviews the effects of mothers' employment on marital relations, on the development of their children, and on mothers themselves. Research shows that maternal employment per se is not the major issue in either marital relations or child development. Rather, the circumstances of the family, the attitudes and expectations of fathers and mothers, and the distribution of time available have important effects. The needs of working mothers for social supports, such as parental leave, spouse support, child care, and better wages are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Formulating treatment partnerships with patients and their families. A case study

1. A care environment, per se, can foster patient recovery and confidence that things will work out as well as can be expected when staff practices and explicit processes are patient-centered and adapted to developmental and individual needs. 2. Separating more cognitively impaired from higher functioning patients and developing more specialized nursing teams affords a healing and restorative care environment, individualized care routines and specialty groups along with finely-tuned patient/family education. 3. Organized staff education and mentoring programs combined with master scheduling enhances the continuity of patient-centered practices and risk management protocols.     

Assessment of methods for measuring social support.

Reviewed 23 instruments for assessing social support; evaluated their reliability, validity, and specificity; and simulated correlations between 4 instruments and 4 criterion measures. 13 instruments had acceptable validity data for this study, and major conceptual differences in the definition and measurement of social support were found. Results indicate that discriminant validity between the measures may be low and that similarities and differences must be assessed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimentally provided social support.

Investigated the interactive effects of a supportive intervention in conjunction with performance on a problem-solving task (anagrams). 80 undergraduates differing in assessed social support were given experimentally provided support or were in a control condition. For measures of both performance and cognitive interference, significant interactions were obtained between assessed and experimentally provided social support. Findings are consistent with the idea that a low level of social support in a person's life is a vulnerability factor. However, they also suggest that it is possible to devise supportive interventions that facilitate task-relevant thinking and performance for those low in social support. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational support in families with adolescents.

To better understand what determines the support that family members perceive in dyadic family relationships, this study tested to what extent the perceiver, the partner, their specific relationship, and the family determine perceived support, and whether these effects differ for horizontal (i.e., marital and sibling) versus vertical (i.e., parent-child) relationships, or for different types of perceivers (i.e., parents versus adolescents). Two parents and two adolescents in 288 Dutch families judged the support perceived from each other. Social relations model analysis showed support perceptions to be more determined by the perceiver than by the partner, partly relationship specific, partly generation specific, and partly family specific. Relationship-specific support and reciprocity are more important in horizontal relationships than in vertical ones. Adolescents' support perceptions were more perceiver determined than were parents' perceptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family cohesion, family adaptability, social support, and adolescent depressive symptoms in outpatient clinic families.

The relationships among adolescent depressive symptoms and self-reported family cohesion, adaptability, satisfaction with family functioning, family structure, and social support received from family and friends were investigated in a sample of 93 families attending family therapy at an outpatient clinic. Results were in keeping with previous studies of nonclinical samples, in that family cohesion and family social support were inversely related to depression. In contrast to nonclinical samples, family characteristics were more strongly associated with depression among boys than among girls, and social support from friends did not act as a buffer against depression. The strongest predictor of depressive symptoms was adolescents' levels of satisfaction with the cohesiveness and adaptability in their families, suggesting the importance of subjective cognitive appraisal in the link between family functioning and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence-based practices for parentally bereaved children and their families.

Parental death is 1 of the most traumatic events that can occur in childhood, and several reviews of the literature have found that the death of a parent places children at risk for a number of negative outcomes. This article describes the knowledge base regarding both empirically supported, malleable factors that have been shown to contribute to or protect children from mental health problems following the death of a parent and evidence-based practices to change these factors. In addition, nonmealleable factors clinicians should consider when providing services for children who have experienced the death of a parent are reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Research on families and social policy in Canada.

Discusses the development of the Family/Socialization of Children Strategic Grants program in Canada for the purpose of generating factual knowledge for government decision makers about the incidence of family problems and the effects of certain policies such as paid leave for mothers or fathers and infant daycare. It is suggested that the Council could set up a study commission on the family to generate knowledge that could be incorporated in social policy decisions. (2 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spiritual needs of pediatric patients and their families

Holistic perioperative nursing care of children and their families includes assessing their spiritual needs and identifying interventions that help them achieve spiritual comfort. This is achieved by therapeutic listening and by facilitating children's and family members' access to clergy members of their practice of religious rites and rituals. Perioperative nurses have a unique opportunity and responsibility to assess children's or family members' spiritual needs and to intervene on their behalf. This article describes the opportunities a surgical liaison nurse may have to intervene on the behalf of family members during children's perioperative experiences.     

The relations of maternal social support and family structure with maternal responsiveness and child outcomes among African American families.

The social support networks and family structure of 62 low-income African American mothers were related to proximal and distal measures of the mother's parenting style and to the children's social and cognitive development. Women with larger support networks tended to be more responsive in interactions with their infants and to provide more stimulating home environments than mothers with smaller social networks. Activity level was the only infant outcome significantly related to social support. Family structure was not associated with either maternal or child outcomes in these analyses. These results support a systems model of parenting behavior and child development by indicating that maternal caregiving may be positively influenced by supportive social networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correlates of social support receipt.

Psychological correlates of social support receipt were examined in an investigation of stress and coping among 150 middle-aged community residents. Subjects were interviewed monthly for 6 months, each time concerning a specific stressful situation in the previous month. Social support received and methods of coping were assessed each time, as well as other variables. Factors hypothesized to be associated with support receipt were person predispositions, appraisal patterns with regard to specific stressful encounters, and coping strategies used. Each was most strongly associated with a particular type of social support. Person predispositions related most strongly to emotional support received, appraisal factors related most strongly to aid, and coping strategies related most to informational support received. Furthermore, of the three sets of variables, the individual's ways of coping appeared to be most strongly associated with all types of social support received. Two implications are explored. First, we suggest that the three types of social support studied represent different constructs with different antecedents and consequences. Second, we argue that coping behavior provides interpersonal cues regarding what is wanted or needed in a stressful situation and that the members of the social environment respond accordingly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further thoughts on social construction in families.

Comments on a study by S. S. Feldman et al (see record 1990-04366-001) concerning the extent of family members' (FMRs) agreement in perceptions of family cohesion and power. Comments explore the implications of dealing with the same dependent measure from different FMRs and of using a nonverbal measure rather than interviews for assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ferrochelatase activities in patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria and their families

Ferrochelatase, estimated as zinc chelatase, was measured in the lymphocytes of 30 patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), in 35 first- or second-degree relatives of patients with EPP, and in 50 healthy controls. In 30 EPP patients the zinc chelatase level (mean +/- standard deviation, SD) was 0.45 +/- 0.10 nmol of zinc protoporphyrin per hour per milligram of protein, in 14 EPP carriers the zinc chelatase level (mean +/- SD) was 0.42 +/- 0.09 and in 50 healthy controls the zinc chelatase level (mean +/- SD) was 0.84 +/- 0.27. All patients with EPP were also demonstrated to have an elevated protoporphyrin level in their red blood cells: the erythrocyte protoporphyrin levels were as follows EPP patients (mean +/- SD) 1300 +/- 758 nmol protoporphyrin/dl, EPP carriers (mean +/- SD) 60 +/- 24, and healthy controls (mean +/- SD) 50 +/- 25 (P < 0.001 for EPP patients compared to controls and EPP carriers). The families of 12 out of 15 EPP patients were examined with respect to the mode of inheritance of the disorder. Of 35 relatives, 14 were carriers of EPP, as characterized by reduced zinc chelatase activity in lymphocytes and by a normal protoporphyrin level in red blood cells. None of the 14 EPP carriers had presented with clinical symptoms of EPP. The mod of inheritance was autosomal dominant in seven of the 12 examined families, and autosomal recessive in two. In two families only one parent could be investigated, but we nevertheless concluded that the inheritance was autosomal dominant. Inheritance in one EPP family could not be elucidated as both parents showed normal zinc chelatase levels and did not demonstrate abnormal erythrocyte protoporphyrin levels.     

Professional courtesy--ethics and the law in the medical treatment of physicians and their families

Children's toothpastes with fluoride help to prevent decay, but parents should ask their dentist before giving fluoride supplements to children. Overdosage is harmful. Sugars eaten as part of a meal do less harm to teeth than those eaten frequently as snacks. Sugar-free infant drinks and children's confectionery are now on the market and are more "tooth friendly". Look out for the "happy tooth" symbol. Babies can be registered with NHS dentists as soon as the first teeth start to come through, and should be taken regularly to the dentist throughout childhood. Under the NHS scheme, dentists are paid a capitation fee to provide continuing preventive care and treatment for children free of charge.     

How to influence social policy affecting children and families.

Discusses recent legislative trends in child and family policy, sociopolitical forces behind those trends, and ways in which pro-children's groups can affect ongoing or future legislation. The effects of budget cuts in federal funding for daycare, child nutrition, and child support programs are described. It is asserted that, to make significant progress affecting children and families, a broader coalition of children's groups, encompassing members of both political parties and the interests of children whose mothers work at home and whose mothers are part of the work force, must be formed. Strong and effective federal agencies are needed to provide the focal point for developing and implementing policy. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)