Exploring positive adjustment in people with spinal cord injury.

This study explored adjustment in people with spinal cord injury; data from four focus groups are presented. Thematic analysis revealed four themes, managing goals and expectations, comparison with others, feeling useful and acceptance, showing participants positively engaged in life, positively interpreted social comparison information and set realistic goals and expectations. These positive strategies show support for adjustment theories, such as the Cognitive Adaptation Theory, the Control Process Theory and Response Shift Theory. These results also provide insight into the adjustment process of a person with spinal cord injury and may be useful in tailoring support during rehabilitation

Stress - its effects on health and behavior: a guide for practitioners

KEY POINTS � Stress may affect the physical, mental, and social health of an animal. � The effect of stressors is individual to the animal concerned and results from the appraisal of the stressor by the animal. � Emotional states are not mutually exclusive and emotional conflict can also have serious behavioral consequences. � Treatment of animals presenting with problems deemed to be stress-related should focus on the amelioration of background stress as well as specific stress-related triggers. � Providing animals with certain coping mechanisms as well as teaching them some key life skills may be beneficial for the prevention of stress-related problems

Criterion-Related Validity of the Children\u27s Occupational Performance Questionnaire

This study examined concurrent, criterion-related validity of a new measure of occupational performance for children, the Children’s Occupational Performance Questionnaire (COP-Q). The COP-Q is completed by caregivers of children to measure performance in five areas of occupation: Activities of Daily Living, Instrumental Activities of Daily Living, Social Participation, Play/Leisure, and Education/Work. Scores from a sample of children ranging in age from birth to 18 years were correlated with scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-II (VABS), a well-established assessment tool of adaptive behavior that measures similar functional areas as the COP-Q. The results indicated that the COP-Q correlates highly and significantly with the constructs measured by the VABS including social interaction, communication, daily living skills, and to a lesser extent, motor skills. The strong relations between these measures suggest that adaptive behavior and occupational performance address similar constructs, and the results supported the validity of the COP-Q as a measure of occupational performance

Screening for coping style increases the power of gene expression studies

Background: Individuals of many vertebrate species show different stress coping styles and these have a striking influence on how gene expression shifts in response to a variety of challenges. Principal Findings: This is clearly illustrated by a study in which common carp displaying behavioural predictors of different coping styles (characterised by a proactive, adrenaline-based or a reactive, cortisol-based response) were subjected to inflammatory challenge and specific gene transcripts measured in individual brains. Proactive and reactive fish differed in baseline gene expression and also showed diametrically opposite responses to the challenge for 80% of the genes investigated. Significance: Incorporating coping style as an explanatory variable can account for some the unexplained variation that is common in gene expression studies, can uncover important effects that would otherwise have passed unnoticed and greatly enhances the interpretive value of gene expression data

Children\u27s experiences of companion animal maltreatment in households characterized by intimate partner violence

Cruelty toward companion animals is a well-documented, coercive tactic used by abusive partners to intimidate and control their intimate partners. Experiences of co-occurring violence are common for children living in families with intimate partner violence (IPV) and surveys show that more than half are also exposed to abuse of their pets. Given children\u27s relationships with their pets, witnessing such abuse may be traumatic for them. Yet little is known about the prevalence and significance of this issue for children. The present study examines the experiences of children in families with co-occurring pet abuse and IPV. Using qualitative methods, 58 children ages 7–12 who were exposed to IPV were asked to describe their experiences of threats to and harm of their companion animals. Following the interviews, template analysis was employed to systematically develop codes and themes. Coding reliability was assessed using Randolph\u27s free-marginal multirater kappa (kfree = .90). Five themes emerged from the qualitative data, the most common being children\u27s exposure to pet abuse as a power and control tactic against their mother in the context of IPV. Other themes were animal maltreatment to discipline or punish the pet, animal cruelty by a sibling, children intervening to prevent pet abuse, and children intervening to protect the pet during a violent episode. Results indicate that children\u27s experiences of pet abuse are multifaceted, potentially traumatic, and may involve multiple family members with diverse motives

What are the factors which contribute to level one social work students failing to progress or achieving low grades?

This article was first published in the Wolverhampton Intellectual Repository and E-Theses (WIRE). There is no printed version.This study is a preliminary review of the possible reasons for low achievement among some level one social work undergraduates. These may be viewed as challenges to the individual, attempting to study in a particular social context, or as challenges to the institution in raising achievement and accommodating differing needs. Much of the literature is concerned with the experiences of students from particular social groups. In some studies, these concerns are integrated with the identification of individual strategies for success and/or institutional practices which foster or inhibit achievement

The Relational Impact of Multiple Sclerosis: An Integrative Review of the Literature Using a Cognitive Analytic Framework

This integrative literature review uses cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) theory to examine the impact of a chronic illness, multiple sclerosis (MS), on relationships and mental health. Electronic searches were conducted in six medical and social science databases. Thirty-eight articles met inclusion criteria, and also satisfied quality criteria. Articles revealed that MS-related demands change care needs and alter relationships. Using a CAT framework, the MS literature was analysed, and five key patterns of relating to oneself and to others were identified. A diagrammatic formulation is proposed that interconnects these patterns with wellbeing and suggests potential “exits” to improve mental health, for example, assisting families to minimise overprotection. Application of CAT analysis to the literature clarifies relational processes that may affect mental health among individuals with MS, which hopefully will inform how services assist in reducing unhelpful patterns and improve coping. Further investigation of the identified patterns is needed

Cognitive Analytic Therapy in People with Learning Disability: An investigation into the common reciprocal roles found within this client group

Developments over the last twenty years have shown that, contrary to previous opinion, people with learning disabilities can benefit from psychotherapy (Sinason 1992; Kroese, Dagnan & Loumidia, 1997). Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) has been adapted for use with a learning disability population (Ryle 2002). CAT collaboratively examines the Reciprocal Roles (RRs) a client plays in relationships. These are impacted by clients’ experiences of the world. The aim of this research is to identify which RRs may become apparent in working with people with learning disabilities. The therapy notes of participants (n=16) who had undergone CAT were examined and analysed using content analysis. Twenty-two different RRs were found. Four common Reciprocal Roles and two common idealised Reciprocal Roles were identified. Other observations about the data are presented. The limitations and clinical implications of the study are discussed

Individual differences and health in chronic pain: are sex-differences relevant?

Background: Because psychological variables are known to intercorrelate, the goal of this investigation was to compare the unique association between several well-established psychological constructs in pain research and pain-related outcomes. Sex differences are considered because pain is experienced differently across sex groups. Methods: Participants were 456 consecutive chronic pain patients attending a tertiary pain clinic (mean age = 58.4 years, SD = 14.8, 63.6% women). The study design was cross-sectional. Psychological constructs included personality (NEO-Five Factor Inventory), irrational thinking (General Attitudes and Beliefs Scale), and coping (Social Problem Solving Inventory). Outcomes were pain severity and interference (Brief Pain Inventory) and physical, general, and mental health status (Short Form-36). To decide whether the bivariate analyses and the two-block, multivariate linear regressions for each study outcome (block 1 = age, sex, and pain severity; block 2 = psychological variables) should be conducted with the whole sample or split by sex, we first explored whether sex moderated the relationship between psychological variables and outcomes. An alpha level of 0.001 was set to reduce the risk of type I errors due to multiple comparisons. Results: The moderation analyses indicated no sex differences in the association between psychological variables and study outcomes (all interaction terms p > .05). Thus, further analyses were calculated with the whole sample. Specifically, the bivariate analyses revealed that psychological constructs were intercorrelated in the expected direction and mostly correlated with mental health and overall perceived health status. In the regressions, when controlling for age, sex, and pain severity, psychological factors as a block significantly increased the explained variance of physical functioning (ΔR2 = .037, p < .001), general health (ΔR2 = .138, p < .001), and mental health (ΔR2 = .362, p < .001). However, unique associations were only obtained for mental health and neuroticism (β = − 0.30, p < .001) and a negative problem orientation (β = − 0.26, p < .001). Conclusions: There is redundancy in the relationship between psychological variables and pain-related outcomes and the strength of this association is highest for mental health status. The association between psychological characteristics and health outcomes was comparable for men and women, which suggests that the same therapeutic targets could be selected in psychological interventions of pain patients irrespective of sex

Positive change with Ménière’s disease

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright © 2009 The British Psychological Society.Objective - The aims of this study were twofold: to determine in what way people with a non-fatal chronic illness experience positive change after the onset of their illness, and to determine whether comparing with other people with Ménière's disease influenced perceiving this change. Design - Using a longitudinal method, questionnaires were administered at baseline and at ten-month follow-up. Method - At both time points 301 people with Ménière's disease completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and at baseline they also completed questionnaires measuring, demographic variables, disease severity, psychological variables (self-esteem, perceived control, and optimism), and social comparison variables. Results - People with Ménière's disease in this study perceived positive change. Greater positive change was perceived on the domain of ‘appreciation of life,’ followed by ‘relating to others,’ ‘personal strength,’ ‘new possibilities,’ and ‘spiritual change’. In addition, more change was perceived at follow-up than at baseline. Social comparison was associated with perceiving change at both time points. Conclusions - People with Ménière's disease do perceive positive change. Perceiving change is an on-going process for people with Ménière's disease, as they perceived more change over time. Social comparison was related to the perception of change, in particular, to the perception of growth in personal strength.Economic and Social Research Council, UK and the Ménière's Society, U