Positive adaptation in new parents

Abstract : Objective: This study aimed to explore the lived experience of well-satisfied couples (as established by the short form of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale) through the transition to parenthood (TTP) to understand what they perceived has facilitated their relationship adaptation. Background: Most couples experience a decline in relationship satisfaction through the TTP. However, there is important variability in the couples’ experience, and few researchers have examined positive adaptation. Method: Semistructured individual interviews were conducted with both partners of seven firsttime parental couples (N = 14) and then were transcribed and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Result: The results showed two interrelated superordinate themes, each including four subordinate themes. Interviewed couples remained satisfied due to the strong foundations of their relationship, namely security, commitment, compassionate love, and intimacy, and due to their effective management of changes together by teaming up, balancing the different spheres of their lives, enjoying and valuing family life together, and communicating. Conclusion: Our findings support the relevance of studying positive couple processes for prevention efforts to ease the transition to parenthood. Implications: Professionals working with expectant and new parents could target relational processes related to strong foundations as well as the partners’ joint management of change to strengthen couple relationships and promote the positive adaptation to parenthood of partners

How should we measure psychological resilience in sport performers?

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high performance. To advance psychologists’ understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop a sport-specific measure of resilience. The purpose of this paper is to review psychometric issues in resilience research and to discuss the implications for sport psychology. Drawing on the wider general psychology literature to inform the discussion, the narrative is divided into three main sections relating to resilience and its assessment: adversity, positive adaptation, and protective factors. The first section reviews the different ways that adversity has been measured and considers the potential problems of using items with varying degrees of controllability and risk. The second section discusses the different approaches to assessing positive adaptation and examines the issue of circularity pervasive in resilience research. The final section explores the various issues related to the assessment of protective factors drawing directly from current measures of resilience in other psychology sub-disciplines. The commentary concludes with key recommendations for sport psychology researchers seeking to develop a measure of psychological resilience in athletes

Save now, save later? Linkages between saving behaviour in adolescence and adulthood

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique the variety of definitions, concepts, and theories of psychological resilience. To this end, the narrative is divided into three main sections. The first considers how resilience has been defined in the psychology research literature. Despite the construct being operationalized in a variety of ways, most definitions are based around two core concepts: adversity and positive adaptation. A substantial body of evidence suggests that resilience is required in response to different adversities, ranging from ongoing daily hassles to major life events, and that positive adaptation must be conceptually appropriate to the adversity examined in terms of the domains assessed and the stringency of criteria used. The second section examines the conceptualization of resilience as either a trait or a process, and explores how it is distinct from a number of related terms. Resilience is conceptualized as the interactive influence of psychological characteristics within the context of the stress process. The final section reviews the theories of resilience and critically examines one theory in particular that is commonly cited in the resilience literature. Future theories in this area should take into account the multiple demands individuals encounter, the meta-cognitive and -emotive processes that affect the resilience-stress relationship, and the conceptual distinction between resilience and coping. The review concludes with implications for policy, practice, and research including the need to carefully manage individuals’ immediate environment, and to develop the protective and promotive factors that individuals can proactively use to build resilience

Promoting Positive Adaptation in Adult Survivors of Natural Disasters

This article integrates the guidelines of American Red Cross and the Psychological First Aid: Field Operations Guide (Brymer et al., 2006) with adult development theories to demonstrate the promotion of adaptive functioning in adults after a disaster. Case examples and recommendations for counselors working in disaster situations are included

Hope as a Source of Resilience in Later Adulthood

This research provided a preliminary investigation of how variations in trait and state hope are associated with positive adaptation to stress in later adulthood. Trait hope and neuroticism were measured by questionnaires and state hope, stress, and negative emotions were assessed daily for 45 days. Results from multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses suggested that daily hope provides protective benefits by keeping negative emotions low, while also contributing to adaptive recovery from stress. The dynamic linkages between daily hope, stress, and emotion were further moderated by individual differences in trait hope. Compared with those low in trait hope, high-hope individuals showed diminished stress reactivity and more effective emotional recovery

The Ability of Positive Adaptation and Students’ Attitudes towards Economic Migrations

On the basis of the conducted analyses it can be stated that there are relations between trait resilience and attitude towards emigration, sense of behavioural control in this area and previous experience of temporary work abroad. Resilience is not significantly correlated with subjective norm, emigrant’s prototype, or patriotic attitude, although in all the cases one can notice a pattern of averages concurrent with the assumed tendency. The resilience-trait can be a significant factor in activity and mobility on the labour market

The Process of Resilience

Resilience is the overcoming of some risk factor resulting in positive adaptation. Respondents from a mental health center and a medical institution who are involved in individual and family therapies completed a quantitative survey identifying specific traits, relationships and experiences impacting an individual\u27s adaptation to adversity. The hypothesis was that if practitioners can identify these specifics they can help clients learn to recognize and seek out such traits, relationships, and experiences. The implication for practice is that through such teaching practitioners can increase the likelihood of client positive adaptation to adverse situations

Psychological and social factors that promote positive adaptation to stress and adversity in the adult life cycle

The author may only post his/her version provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be provided by inserting the DOI number of the article in the following sentence: “The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI]”."The phenomenon of resilience reflects positive adaptation despite contexts of risk, significant adversity, or trauma (Masten and Powell 2003; Luthar 2006). The purpose of this investigation was to propose a mediation model to explain the relation between stress and some psychological and social resources that enhance positive adaptation throughout the entire adult life cycle, and to explore the moderator role of age and country of origin. The indicator of positive adaptation was life satisfaction (LS). The sample comprised 171 Mexicans and 154 Spaniards (N = 325), aged between 18 and 87 years. Mediation was tested by means of various hierarchical regression analyses, which revealed that the positive adaptation process is enhanced by a group of psychological and social resources that mediate the effects of stress on LS. Self-esteem, optimism, internal control, coping aimed at acceptance, and coping aimed at seeking emotional support, as well as social contacts can mediate the negative effects of stress. Finally, it was found that age moderates the internal control but none of the remaining variables whereas the country does not moderate the relation of the variables.This investigation was partially funded by a grant from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología [National Council of Science and Technology] (Mexico) awarded to the first author for her doctoral studies, and partially as a research project funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [Ministry of Science and Innovation] (Spain) through the project PSI2008-02338/PSIC Emotional Information-Processing in Later Adulthood

Brain Resilience: Shedding Light into the Black Box of Adventure Processes

Understanding of the active beneficial processes of adventure learning remains elusive. Resilience may provide one foundation for understanding the positive adaptation derived from Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) and Adventure Therapy (AT) programming. From a neurological perspective, resilience may be explained by the brain’s innate capability to adapt its structure (growth of new cells) and function (re-wiring of existing cells) directly in response to environmental exposure. This paper explores the role of known brain responses to experiences analogous to adventure programming based on themes from a key literature review. The fundamental paradigm of ‘stress and recovery’ contends that a balance of neurobiological processes help realign psychosocial equilibrium in the short term and over time. Through progressive, repeated exposure to custom-built outdoor challenges, the concept of brain resilience may provide a scientific platform for understanding the mechanisms of achieving meaningful, authentic and healthy outcomes. It could also help to begin to illuminate a section of the black box of adventure processes