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Mothers who have children diagnosed with cancer now have a better approach to address and cope with stresses associated with their child’s disease. A new certified intervention has proven to be more effective long term compared to other psychological methods, as reported at the 42nd Congress of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology. In a joint oral presentation, researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital and Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center of Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach reported that mothers of newly diagnosed patients were able to decrease their stress level sooner and sustain that level longer with an intervention known as Problem-Solving Skills Training (PSST).
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Experiences with violence cause teens growing up in dangerous neighborhoods to adopt a range of coping strategies, with notable impact whether the violence takes place at home, among friends or during police incidents, a University of Chicago study shows. The responses to violence include seeking out non–violent friends, avoiding trouble, becoming resigned to the situation, striving to do well in school, or for some, retaliating physically, the authors said. The results were published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.
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Exposure to death and dying does not negatively affect palliative and hospice care professionals and can actually have positive benefits, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). A study of palliative and hospice care professionals in five centres across Canada over was conducted to explore how death affects their personal lives and practices. Since these professionals are constantly around death and dying, it was thought that their insight could benefit others. Participants reported that being around dying people has allowed them to have a better understanding of the meaning of life, has helped them become more spiritual and has helped them come to terms with their own mortality.
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Children who are spanked frequently at age 3 are more likely to be aggressive when they’re 5, even when you account for possible confounding factors and the child’s level of aggression at age 3. The study appears in the May issue of Pediatrics (published online April 12). Researchers state that this study suggests that even minor forms of corporal punishment increase the risk for child aggressive behavior.
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Teens with hard-to-treat depression who reach remission after 24 weeks of treatment are still at a significant risk for relapse, according to long-term, follow-up data from a U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded study published online ahead of print November 16, 2010, in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The long-term data reiterate the need for aggressive treatment decisions for teens with stubborn depression.
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The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2008 (CIS‑2008) is the third nation-wide study to examine the incidence of reported child maltreatment and the characteristics of the children and families investigated by child welfare. The CIS‑2008 tracked 15,980 child maltreatment investigations conducted in a representative sample of 112 Child Welfare Service organizations across Canada in the fall of 2008.
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The clinical relevance of resilience has received considerable attention in recent years. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Resilience Scale (RS) and short version of the RS (RS-14). This study demonstrates that the Japanese version of RS has psychometric properties with high degrees of internal consistency, high test-retest reliability, and relatively low concurrent validity. RS-14 was equivalent to the RS in internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. Results suggest that validity of the Japanese version of the RS might be relatively low compared with the original English version.
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This report proposes a green thread through policy and practice, where the impact of the environment is considered alongside social and economic factors – the building blocks of sustainable development. It demonstrates how taking this broader approach can improve outcomes for young people, whilst supporting the Government’s aims for a Big Society and being the ’greenest Government ever’.
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On June 10, 2010, was held a student interdisciplinary research symposium on family violence and violence against women at Université Laval, Quebec City. This day allowed students to share their research projects. This document brings together slideshows presentations of the event and the posters communication text.
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The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the timing of parents’ relationship instability on adolescent sexual and mental health. Results suggest that experiencing parents’ relationship instability in early childhood is associated with sexual behavior and major depression in adolescence, but these associations are not explained by the parenting and family variables included in these analyses. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research are discussed.
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This study examined the relationship between changes in coping and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology among recent female rape and physical assault victims as a function of assault type and perpetrator status. Participants were assessed within 1 month after trauma and again at 3 months after trauma. Results indicate that changes in coping strategies over time are associated with the severity of the PTSD symptoms. Assault type was not a significant factor in the association between changes in coping and PTSD, but perpetrator status was. The importance of examining the dynamic nature of coping in the development of PTSD is discussed.
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This White Paper outlines the British government’s commitment to protecting the population from serious health threats; helping people live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives; and improving the health of the poorest, fastest. Tackling the wider social determinants of health, the new approach will aim to build people’s self-esteem, confidence and resilience right from infancy – with stronger support for early years. The goal is a public health service that achieves excellent results, unleashing innovation and liberating professional leadership. A health impact assessment of this strategy has been completed.
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There are two lines of research examining the role of cognition in depression. One line of research focuses on risk for depression, and shows that a negative cognitive style interacts with stressful life events to create depression. The second line of research focuses on recovery, and shows that an enhancing cognitive style interacts with positive life events to reduce depression. The goal of this study was to integrate these two areas and provide a more comprehensive test of the cognitive model of depression. The results provide some of the first evidence for the protective role of enhancing cognitive style and positive live events among vulnerable individuals. These findings underscore the importance of examining a broader environmental context when investigating risk and resiliency to depression.
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This integrative review summarizes current research on resilience in adult family members who have a relative with a diagnosed mental disorder that is considered serious. Within the context of resilience theory, studies identifying risk/vulnerability and positive/protective factors in family members are summarized, and studies examining seven indicators of resilience, including acceptance, hardiness, hope, mastery, self-efficacy, sense of coherence, and resourcefulness, are described. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are presented.
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The present study describes the findings from a quantitative examination of personal and street-related demographics, psychological distress, self-esteem, resilience, and suicidality among 47 homeless and street-involved youth. Key findings indicate that the apparent erosion of mental health variables, including resilience, occurs as a function of how long the youths have been without stable housing. Finally, those youths’ perceived resilience was associated with less suicidal ideation whereas higher psychological distress was associated with higher suicidal ideation, even when accounting for resiliency.
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Families exposed to urban poverty face a disproportionate risk of exposure to repeated trauma. Interventions for distressed families residing in traumatic contexts, such as low-income, urban settings are desperately needed. This report presents preliminary data in support of Strengthening Family Coping Resources, a trauma-focused, multifamily, skill-building intervention. Strengthening Family Coping Resources is designed for families living in traumatic contexts with the goal of reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and other trauma-related disorders in children and caregivers. Results from open trials suggest Strengthening Family Coping Resources is a feasible intervention with positive effects on children’s symptoms of trauma-related distress.
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This study investigated the interrelationship between trauma exposure characteristics, past traumatic life events, coping strategies, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and psychiatric comorbidity among people after anaphylactic shock experience. The authors observed that people could develop PTSD and psychiatric comorbidity symptoms after their experience of anaphylactic shock. The way they coped with anaphylactic shock was affected by the severity of these symptoms. Past traumatic life events had a limited role to play in influencing outcomes.