Predicting the impact of child sexual abuse on women: The role of abuse severity, parental support, and coping strategies.

Female Navy recruits (N=5,226) completed surveys assessing history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), childhood strategies for coping with CSA, childhood parental support, and current psychological adjustment. Both CSA and parental support independently predicted later adjustment. In analyses examining whether CSA victims' functioning was associated with CSA severity (indexed by 5 variables), parental support (indexed by 3 variables), and coping (constructive, self-destructive, and avoidant), the negative coping variables were the strongest predictors. A structural equation model revealed that the effect of abuse severity on later functioning was partially mediated by coping strategies. However, contrary to predictions, the model revealed that childhood parental support had little direct or indirect impact on adult adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support and coping strategies as mediators of adult adjustment following childhood maltreatment

Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine whether coping efforts and social support mediate the long-term sequelae of child maltreatment. The hypothesized SEM fit the data well and indicated that the association between previous childhood sexual and physical maltreatment and current psychological adjustment appeared to be strongly mediated by social support and coping strategies. In this sample of 302 female and male university students, most of whom reported at least one episode of childhood maltreatment, perceived social support and ways of coping with earlier maltreatment appeared essential to an understanding of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and later adjustment.     

Chronic childhood illness and maternal mental health--why should we care?

This study evaluated which factors most influenced the impact of childhood asthma on the child's family. Seventy children/families seen at a tertiary-care hospital for asthma were evaluated. Stepwise multiple regression examined the effects of illness severity; family socioeconomic status (SES); family structure; social support; child's emotional characteristics; parent's health; family functioning; and maternal psychological distress on the Family Impact of Illness Scale. Analysis indicated that only the parent's Psychiatric Symptom Index significantly predicted impact scores. The most important predictors of how much impact a child's asthma has on the family are parental emotional distress and amount of social support.     

Adulthood functioning: the joint effects of parental alcoholism, gender and childhood socio-economic stress

The popular literature has publicized the adjustment difficulties of adult children of an alcohol-dependent parent (ACOAs); however, empirical studies do not provide consistent support. We examined the impact of parental alcoholism, degree of childhood socio-economic stress and gender on three broad categories of adulthood functioning (psychopathology, socio-economic attainment and marital stability). These effects were investigated with a heterogeneous sample of 400 men and 226 women participating in studies at the University of Michigan Alcohol Research Center. Parental alcoholism and childhood socio-economic stress exerted significant independent effects on most adulthood functioning measures. Men and women differed substantially only on socio-economic attainment measures, and effects of parental alcoholism and childhood economic stress on men and women were generally similar. For marital stability, parental alcoholism and childhood socio-economic stress interacted. These results suggest that researchers who study the impact of family history for alcoholism on psychological functioning should consider other aspects of the family of origin that promote wellbeing. In addition, results of this study point to the need for more research on gender differences, protective factors that promote good adjustment and outcome measures reflecting general life adaptation.     

Interpersonal expectations, social support, and adjustment to chronic illness.

Chronic illness places considerable burdens on patients and their interpersonal relations with families. In this study, patients' perceptions of family and medical staff expectations regarding responsibility for care and routine functions were examined. The authors hypothesized that a patient's perceived inability to meet others' expectations about coping with illness would lead to poorer adjustment. Forty-two chronically ill patients were assessed prospectively for perceptions of others' expectations, social support, and psychological adjustment. Findings confirmed that expectations predicted subsequent decreases in psychological adjustment over a 3-month period, even when social support was controlled. A test of the reverse hypothesis showed that poorly adjusted patients did not misperceive others' expectations. Theoretical interpretations of the findings and their relation to social support research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support, self-efficacy, and adjustment to abortion.

Prior to their having a 1st trimester abortion, women's perceptions of social support from their partner, family, and friends and self-efficacy for coping were assessed. Depression, mood, physical complaints, and anticipation of negative consequences were measured after the 30-min recovery period. As predicted, perceived social support enhanced adjustment indirectly through its effects on self-efficacy. Women who perceived high support from their family, friends, and partners had higher self-efficacy for coping. Higher self-efficacy, in turn, predicted better adjustment on the psychological measures but not on the physical complaint measure. No direct path between social support and adjustment was observed. In addition, women who told close others of their abortion but perceived them as less than completely supportive had poorer postabortion psychological adjustment than either women who did not tell or women who told and perceived complete support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, coping, and psychological adjustment of adults with sickle cell disease.

Examined a transactional model of psychological adjustment to chronic illness with 109 African-American adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). Good psychological adjustment was associated with lower levels of perceived daily stress and stress regarding SCD illness tasks, higher efficacy expectations, less use of palliative coping methods, less use of negative thinking/passive adherence pain-coping strategies, and family functioning characterized by high levels of support and low levels of conflict and control. Overall, the underlying stress and coping conceptual model accounted for 44–50% of the variance in psychological adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social support, psychological adjustment, and functional ability in youths with physical disabilities.

Objective: To examine the relationship between perceived social support and psychological adjustment and functional ability in youths with physical disabilities. Participants: Thirty-seven youths with neuromuscular disease and 33 with spina bifida. Measures: Demographic and disability-related questions, Child Health Questionnaire, Functional Disability Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Results: Social support from family, but not from friends, was significantly associated with better psychological adjustment. Significant interactions emerged between family support and age, as well as between friend support and gross motor functioning, in the prediction of functional ability. Conclusions: Social support appears to play an important role in psychological adjustment and functional ability in this population, and the nature of this role may be moderated, to some extent, by age and gross motor functioning. Future research and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of gender-related personality traits, problem-solving appraisal, and perceived social support in developing a mediational model of psychological adjustment.

This study examined the relation between gender-related personality traits and psychological adjustment. The study used structural equation modeling with latent variables to assess how gender-related personality traits influence aspects of psychological adjustment. Participants included 306 undergraduate and graduate students. Results indicated that the different gender-related personality traits influence corresponding aspects of psychological adjustment through 2 mediational components: problem-solving appraisal and perceived social support. The relation between gender-related personality traits and psychological adjustment is not simply a linear one as conceptualized previously. Rather, gender-related personality traits have an indirect effect through mediating factors. Implications for counseling interventions and for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clarifying the effects of parental substance abuse, child sexual abuse, and parental caregiving on adult adjustment.

Parental alcoholism, childhood sexual abuse, and other forms of child maltreatment are generally viewed as contributing to adult adjustment problems. The long-term effects of these various factors, however, are actually not well understood. The present study found that the largest amount of variance in 255 college students' psychological distress was explained by parental emotional abuse and neglect, with child sexual abuse, parental substance abuse, and other factors explaining additional but smaller amounts of variance in distress. This suggests that comprehensive conceptualizations of family influences on development will result in a more complete understanding of long-term adjustment outcomes than merely focusing on particular childhood risk factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support and adjustment in gifted adolescents.

We investigated the role of perceived social support in facilitating adjustment to a residential high school for the gifted in science and math. The relation between social support and adjustment appeared to depend on the sex of the student and the source of support, and the specific type of adjustment examined. Successful overall adjustment to the school environment was related to perceived support from family, whereas psychological adjustment showed a clear relation to perceived support in general. Perceived support from peers related to psychological adjustment only for male adolescents. Female adolescents appeared to seek other sources of support when they perceived support from a particular source to be low. Thus, adjustment problems for female adolescents appeared to result only when they were unable to locate other sources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial characteristics of inner-city children with asthma: a description of the NCICAS psychosocial protocol. National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study

Previous research has demonstrated a significant reciprocal relationship between psychosocial factors and asthma morbidity in children. The National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study investigated both asthma-specific and non-specific psychosocial variables, including asthma knowledge beliefs and management behavior, caregiver and child adjustment, life stress, and social support. This article presents these psychosocial characteristics in 1,528 4-9-year-old asthmatic urban children and their caretakers. Caretakers demonstrated considerable asthma knowledge, averaging 84% correct responses on the Asthma Information Quiz. However, respondents provided less than one helpful response for each hypothetical problem situation involving asthma care, and most respondents had more than one undesirable response, indicating a potentially dangerous or maladaptive action. Both adults and children reported multiple caretakers responsible for asthma management (adult report: average 3.4, including the child); in addition, children rated their responsibility for self-care significantly higher than did adults. Scores on the Child Behavior Checklist indicated increased problems compared to normative samples (57.3 vs. 50, respectively), and 35% of children met the criteria for problems of clinical severity. On the Brief Symptom Inventory, adults reported elevated levels of psychological distress (56.02 vs norm of 50); 50% of caretakers had symptoms of clinical severity. Caretakers also experienced an average of 8.13 undesirable life events in the 12 months preceding the baseline interview. These findings suggest that limited asthma problem-solving skills, multiple asthma managers, child and adult adjustment problems, and high levels of life stress are significant concerns for this group and may place the inner-city children in this study population at increased risk for problems related to adherence to asthma management regimens and for asthma morbidity.     

Religiosity, coping, and psychological well-being among Latter-Day Saint Polynesians in the U.S.

There is limited knowledge about coping and psychological adjustment in Latter-Day Saint (LDS) Polynesians. This study examined religiosity, collectivistic coping, and psychological well-being among 94 LDS Polynesians residing in the Midwest. As hypothesized, religiously committed LDS Polynesians were more likely to have a healthy psychological well-being and were also likely to use collectivistic coping styles, such that high helpfulness ratings on family support and religion-spirituality coping styles were significantly correlated with a positive psychological well-being. Family support also moderated the relationship between LDS Polynesians' religious commitment and psychological well-being. Implications are discussed in terms of religiosity, culture, coping, and psychological well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, asthma, and persistent wheeze in Philadelphia schoolchildren

OBJECTIVES: Many studies show asthma to be more common in Black than in White children. This study assessed how much of this difference remains after adjustment for other potentially race-associated predictors of asthma. METHODS: We assessed the predictors of active diagnosed asthma and persistent wheeze in 1416 Black and White Philadelphia children aged 9 to 11 years, as reported by parents. RESULTS: Black race remained a significant predictor of active diagnosed asthma (odds ratio [OR] = 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3, 4.1) but not of persistent wheeze (OR = 1.0; 95% CI = 0.6, 1.8). The excess risk of asthma in Black children was not appreciably altered by adjustment for other demographic and environmental factors. CONCLUSIONS: Black race is an important risk factor for active diagnosed asthma in these urban children, a relationship not explained by social factors. This finding and the lack of an association of race with persistent wheeze after adjustment for social factors suggest that race may be more important to the acquisition of an asthma diagnosis than to the prevalence of the symptoms.     

Social support, appraisals of event controllability, and coping: An integrative model.

An integrative model of mediating and moderating mechanisms in the coping process was examined in a 2-yr prospective framework with 175 college students using both single-group and multigroup LISREL analyses. Consistent with the hypothesized model, initial parental support was associated with subsequent changes in psychological adjustment both directly and indirectly through adaptive coping strategies. Moreover, as predicted, appraisals of event controllability moderated both the degree to which parental support influenced coping and the effectiveness of coping responses. With controllable events, family support predicted adaptive coping, and coping predicted changes in adjustment. With uncontrollable events, family support related directly to changes in adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality, coping, and family resources in stress resistance: A longitudinal analysis.

A longitudinal analysis was conducted in which stress-resistance factors in the areas of personality, coping, and family support assessed at an initial testing were used to predict psychological and physical adjustment 1 yr later, controlling for initial adjustment. 245 men (mean age 46.8 yrs) and 248 women (mean age 44 yrs) in randomly selected families in the San Francisco Bay area were surveyed on psychosomatic symptoms and depression, negative life changes, personality characteristics, avoidance coping, and family support. Findings show that feelings of self-confidence, an easy-going disposition, a disinclination to use avoidance coping, and the availability of family support operated jointly to protect Ss from negative psychological consequences of life stress. For women, stress resistance was related to emotional and physical distress; for men, resistance was associated with emotional distress. Negative life changes predicted depression and psychosomatic complaints in both sexes even when initial distress was considered. Results support previous research on the causal role of stress resistance in emotional and physical health. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life stressors, personal and social resources, and depression: A 4-year structural model.

By extending earlier stress-resistance research with a 1-yr time lag, findings with 254 adults show that adaptive personality characteristics and positive family support operate prospectively over 4 yrs in predicting reduced depression even when prior depression is controlled. By strengthening knowledge about the determinants and mediational role of coping, the results demonstrate in a 2-group LISREL analysis that the pattern of predictive relations differs under high and low stressors. Under high stressors, personal and social resources relate to future psychological health indirectly, through more adaptive coping strategies. Under low stressors, these resources relate directly to psychological health. The results support the idea that such resources play a causal role in maintaining psychological health, and they suggest the potential for a general, adaptively oriented framework applicable to adjustment under both high and low stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent mothers' relationship with their children's biological fathers: Social support, social strain and relationship continuity.

Two-hundred and eighteen low-income, minority, adolescent mothers were interviewed during the perinatal period and 3 years later about their social networks, including their relationships with their children's fathers. Few adolescents were involved with fathers at both time points. Relationships with fathers were, in general, less supportive and less problematic over time. Moreover, although father support was not associated with adolescent mothers' psychological adjustment, father absence and father strain had negative associations with psychological adjustment. Maternal grandmother support buffered the negative effects of strain in the adolescents' relationships with biological fathers. Perceptions of less social support from maternal grandmothers and more social support from fathers during the perinatal period as well as less social support from a new male partner at 3 years postpartum predicted relationship continuity between adolescent mothers and fathers at 3 years postpartum. Implications for intervention and policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood epilepsy and asthma: comparison of quality of life

We report results from the first data collection on an ongoing longitudinal study aimed at describing the natural history of adaptation to childhood epilepsy and asthma in children and their families. We studied 136 children with epilepsy and 134 children with asthma aged 8-12 years. Data were collected from the children, their mothers, and their school teachers through interviews, school records, and questionnaires. The two samples were compared on four domains of quality of life: physical, psychological, social, and school. Data were analyzed by a 2 x 2 between-subjects multivariate analysis of covariance with type of illness (epilepsy or asthma) as the independent variable and length of time since onset of illness as a covariate. A significant main effect was noted for illness [multivariate F (15, 236) = 11.36, p < 0.001]. Our major finding was that children with epilepsy had a relatively more compromised quality of life in the psychological, social, and school domains. In contrast, children with asthma had a more compromised quality of life in the physical domain. Our findings suggest that attention simply to seizure control in the clinical setting will not address the full range of quality-of-life problems of children with epilepsy.