Perceived Parenting Styles and Psycho-social Wellbeing of Nigerian Adolescents

The influence of parenting styles on the psychosocial wellbeing of Nigerian adolescents is yet to be given adequate research attention. This study bridges the gap in knowledge. Findings may be useful in planning appropriate interventions programme necessary to improve the psychosocial wellbeing of adolescents in Osun state, southwestern Nigeria and relation with similar social cultural background. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 332 (mean age = 14) in-school adolescents who responded to Mental Health Continuum – Short Form (MHS-SF) and Parenting Style Instrument (PSI). Descriptive and inferential statistics (Regression, Independent sample t test and One Way ANOVA) were used for data analysis. A low level of psychosocial wellbeing was observed among the adolescents. Prevalence of very low levels of emotional wellbeing (16.9%), social wellbeing (22%), and psychological wellbeing (19.3%) were reported. Patterns of observed parenting styles are authoritative parenting style (45.5%, 41.6%, and 12.9%), authoritarian parenting style (53%, 30.7% and 16.3%); permissive parenting style (64.2%, 20.7% and 15.1%) for low, high and very high levels respectively. No significant gender difference was observed in the psychosocial wellbeing scores of the adolescents; a significant religious affiliation difference was found in the social wellbeing of the participants. Adolescents from public schools manifested higher levels of social wellbeing than their counterparts from private schools. Parenting styles significantly predict level of psychosocial wellbeing of the adolescents. Neither family type nor family size had significant influence on level of psycho-social wellbeing of the adolescents

Further evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–II (AAQ-II) is a self-report measure designed to assess experiential avoidance as conceptualized in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The current study is the first to evaluate the psychometric properties of the AAQ-II in a large sample of adults (N = 376) with mild to moderate levels of depression and anxiety who participated in a study on the effects of an ACT intervention. The internal construct validity and local measurement precision were investigated by fitting the data to a unidimensional item response theory (IRT) model, and the incremental validity of the AAQ-II beyond mindfulness, as measured by the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, was assessed. Results of the IRT analyses suggest that the AAQ-II is a unidimensional measure of experiential avoidance and has satisfactory reliability for group comparisons in mild to moderately depressed and anxious populations. Item functioning was found to be independent of gender and slightly dependent on age in this sample. Furthermore, the AAQ-II showed incremental validity beyond 5 mindfulness facets in explaining depression, anxiety, and positive mental health. This study suggests the AAQ-II shows promise as a useful tool for the measurement of experiential avoidance in mild to moderately depressed and anxious population

Development of an Online Well-Being Intervention for Young People: An Evaluation Protocol

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be includedBackground: Research has shown that improving well-being using positive mental health interventions can be useful for predicting and preventing mental illness. Implementing online interventions may be an effective way to reach young people, given their familiarity with technology. Objective: This study will assess the effectiveness of a website called the “Online Wellbeing Centre (OWC),” designed for the support and improvement of mental health and well-being in young Australians aged between 16 and 25 years. As the active component of the study, the OWC will introduce a self-guided app recommendation service called “The Toolbox: The best apps for your brain and body” developed by ReachOut.com. The Toolbox is a responsive website that serves as a personalized, ongoing recommendation service for technology-based tools and apps to improve well-being. It allows users to personalize their experience according to their individual needs. Methods: This study will be a two-arm, randomized controlled trial following a wait-list control design. The primary outcome will be changes in psychological well-being measured by the Mental Health Continuum Short Form. The secondary outcomes will be drawn from a subsample of participants and will include depression scores measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and quality of life measured by the Assessment of Quality of Life-four dimensions (AQOL-4D) index. Cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted based on a primary outcome of cost per unique visit to the OWC. Utility-based outcomes will also be incorporated into the analysis allowing a secondary outcome to be cost per quality-adjusted life year gained (based on the AQOL-4D values). Resource use associated with both the intervention and control groups will be collected using a customized questionnaire. Online- and community-based recruitment strategies will be implemented, and the effectiveness of each approach will be analyzed. Participants will be recruited from the general Australian population and randomized online. The trial will last for 4 weeks. Results: Small but clinically significant increases in well-being symptoms are expected to be detected in the intervention group compared with the control group

Well-being and academic achievement in secondary school pupils: The unique effects of burnout and engagement

The main goal of this study was to examine the relationship among burnout, engagement, well-being, and academic performance in Portuguese secondary school pupils. The existence of gender related differences in these relationships was also investigated. The sample was composed of 489 pupils who attended an academic track at secondary school. Results of multi-group structural equation modelling indicated that higher levels of cynicism towards studies were associated with lower academic achievement. Exhaustion was not uniquely related to the adolescents' academic achievement or well-being. However, higher levels of engagement, namely dedication and vigour, were related to higher levels of wellbeing. Moreover, vigour was also uniquely associated with academic achievement. The results were similar for boys and girls. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed. (C) 2016 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This study was partially conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662/2013), University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through national funds, and co-financed by FEDER, through COMPETE2020, under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653). The first author is also supported by grant SFRH/BPD/102549/2014 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Nudging socially isolated people towards well-being with the ‘Happiness Route’: design of a randomized controlled trial for the evaluation of a happiness-based intervention

Background:\ud The Happiness Route is an innovative intervention that uses a happiness-based approach for people with an accumulation of risk factors for low well-being: socially isolated people with health impairments and a low socioeconomic status. The goal of this intervention is to improve well-being by engaging participants in intrinsically motivated activities with methods from positive psychology. We hypothesize that the primary outcome measure, emotional, social and psychological well-being of participants of the Happiness Route, will increase in comparison to the traditional and commonly-used problem-based approach. Secondary outcome measures are health-related quality of life, psychosocial functioning and health care consumption. \ud \ud Methods and desig:\ud Participants will be socially isolated people with health problems and a low socioeconomic status. Participants will be recruited in ten Dutch communities and candidates will be signed up by intermediaries, professionals from the health and social sector. Randomly assigned, half of the participants will follow the Happiness Route and half of the participants will follow the active, problem-focused control group ‘Customized Care’. In total, 256 participants will be included. In both conditions, participants will receive counseling sessions from trained counselors. In the control group, participants will talk about their problems and the care they get and counselors help to optimize their care. In the Happiness Route, the counselor ask questions such as “How do you want to live your life?”. The intervention helps people to find their ‘passion’, i.e., a positive goal-engaged and intrinsically motivated activity. It enables them to follow their passion through by a once-only personal happiness budget (maximal €500). We use well-validated and reliable questionnaires to measure primary and secondary outcome measures at baseline, directly after the intervention and at a nine-month follow-up. \ud \ud Discussion:\ud Shortcomings of earlier intervention studies in positive psychology will be tackled with this study, such as having a target group who is especially vulnerable for low well-being. The practice-based setting is especially interesting, as it can give valuable insights in how positive psychology interventions work in practice, but can also give rise to several challenges

Apoio social, saúde mental e bem-estar em idosos institucionalizados e não institucionalizados

Contexto: o envelhecimento bem-sucedido está associado a três grandes grupos de condições: baixa probabilidade de ter doenças; manutenção de um elevado nível funcional (físico e cognitivo); e, conservação do empenho social e bem-estar, o que reforça a ideia de que o apoio social e o bem-estar são variantes fundamentais na saúde mental, em particular, na população idosa (fontaine, 2000). Objetivo(s): o presente estudo tem como objetivo caraterizar a saúde mental, o bem-estar e o apoio social de idosos institucionalizados e não institucionalizados. metodologia: participaram 100 idosos (50 institucionalizados e 50 não institucionalizados) com idades iguais ou superiores a 65 anos, residentes no grande porto. Os dados foram recolhidos com recurso a um questionário sociodemográfico, à versão portuguesa da escala de bemestar mental de warwick-edinburgh (wemwbs), à escala continuum de saúde mental (mhc-sf) e à escala de rede de apoio social de lubben (lsns-6). O tratamento dos dados foi realizado com recurso ao programa estatístico spss, versão 24. Resultados: verificou-se uma relação positiva entre bem-estar, saúde mental e apoio social, sugerindo que globalmente os idosos que apresentam maior bemestar, apresentam também níveis mais elevados de saúde mental e têm perceção de apoio social mais elevado. Em termos do impacto da institucionalização constatou-se que são os idosos Institucionalizados, concretamente as mulheres, que apresentam níveis mais baixos de bem-Estar, saúde mental e apoio social. Ainda a destacar que níveis mais baixos de bemestar e saúde mental nos idosos solteiros ou divorciados, em comparação com os viúvos ou casados, sobretudo nos idosos institucionalizados. Nos idosos não institucionalizados o ter descendência representou um papel importante, uma vez que estes apresentaram níveis mais elevados de bem-estar, saúde mental e suporte social, em particular ao nível da família. Conclusões: em termos globais este estudo indica o impacto menos positivo que a institucionalização pode ter ao nível da saúde mental na população idosa. Os dados parecem também sublinhar a relevância do apoio social enquanto variável associada ao bem-estar e saúde mental dando assim importantes pistas para a intervenção biopsicossocial com esta população.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development and validation of the forms of self-criticizing / attacking and self-reassuring scale - Short form.

Studies investigating the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) are growing rapidly. As CFT is oriented toward helping people deal with internal processes of self-to-self-relating, having instruments to measure these processes is important. The 22-item Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FSCRS) has been found a useful measure. In the present study, a 14-item short form of the FSCRS (FSCRS-SF) suited to studies requiring brief measures was developed and tested in a Dutch community sample (N = 363), and cross-validated in a sample consisting of participants in a study on the effectiveness of a guided self-help compassion training (N = 243). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated acceptable to good fit of the FSCRS-SF items to a three-factor model. Findings regarding internal consistency were inconsistent, with Study 1 showing adequate internal consistency for all subscale scores and Study 2 demonstrating satisfactory internal consistency only for the reassured self (RS) subscale score. Furthermore, the results showed that the FSCRS-SF subscale scores had adequate test–retest reliability and satisfactory convergent validity estimates with theoretically related constructs. In addition, the FSCRS-SF subscale scores were found to be sensitive to changes in self-to-self relating over time. Despite mixed findings regarding its reliability requiring further investigation, the FSCRS-SF offers a valid and sensitive measure which shows promise as a complimentary shorter version to the original FSCRS suited to nonclinical populations. Given that the FSCRS is increasingly used as a process and outcome measure, further research on this short form in nonclinical and clinical populations is warranted.N/

Estudo da saúde mental positiva em jovens adultos: Relações entre psicopatologia e bem-estar

A investigação tem vindo a demonstrar que a saúde mental positiva e o bem-estar são mais do que a ausência de psicopatologia, desempenhando um importante papel na saúde em geral (Huppert, 2005). Este estudo teve como objetivo caraterizar a saúde mental positiva e a doença mental de uma amostra de 150 jovens adultos, com idades compreendidas entre os 18 e os 30 anos de idade. Para a recolha de dados utilizamos a Escala de Bem-Estar Mental de Warwic--Edinburgh (Tennant et al., 2007), a versão reduzida da Escala Continuum de Saúde Mental (Keyes, 2002) e a Escala de Ansiedade, Depressão e Stresse (Pais-Ribeiro, Honrado, & Leal, 2004). Os resultados indicaram que a maior parte dos participantes apresenta bons níveis de saúde mental positiva e níveis inferiores de psicopatologia, tendo sido encontradas correlações negativas entre ambas. Constatámos, ainda, que são os mais novos e os homens da amostra que apresentaram níveis mais elevados de saúde mental positiva. As mulheres e os desempregados foram os que apresentaram os níveis mais elevados de psicopatologia. Os resultados sublinham a necessidade de incluir medidas de avaliação da saúde mental positiva e bem estar no estudo da saúde em geral.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio