The Family System of the Paramaribo Creoles

Indonesi

The Family System of the Paramaribo Creoles

Indonesi

SOME STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC ANTHRO-SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

ABSTRACTAnalysis of this monograph, and the research project from which it stems offers the basis for a discussion of some strengths and weaknesses of traditional academic anthro-sociological research. Such strengths are to be found in (small scale) studies of community value systems. The weaknesses arise when such studies are conducted either in isolation from wider national frame works or -as in this case -inserted into them almost at random. The volume contains many conceptual and technical errors. These fall, especially, in three categories: 1. ethnicity taken as a unique determinant of social consciousness; 2. conceptual and technical confusion over the nature of health service development and utilization; and, 3. failure to recognize (much less analyze) the fact of the Ethiopian revolution and its likely effects on the people and issues under discussion. Most of the specific recommendations of the research project are found to be ill conceived and often in gross error. Finally, the monograph demonstrates the difficulty of understanding the processes of social change through analyses based primary on small communities divorced from -or improperly located within -their wider social context. This difficulty is especially clearly demonstrated in this study as it was carried out at a special moment of dynamic revolutionary history, which moment the monograph's authors appear not to have noticed

Wellbeing in long-term primary carers: biopsychosocial outcomes

Carers are vital to sustaining the independence and optimal functioning of some of the most vulnerable members of the community, yet carers themselves are at risk of poor health and wellbeing outcomes. Indeed, carers often subjugate their own needs in order to fulfill their caring role. This study examined wellbeing outcomes in long-term primary carers. The consequences of providing extended informal care were investigated using a mixed methodology, including questionnaires, saliva sampling and individual interviews. Carers and age and gender matched non-carers were compared across stress, distress, and subjective wellbeing as well as sleep variables and stress hormones. The findings are used to explore the biopsychosocial bases of carer wellbeing. This research has the potential to inform policy on the growing population of Australian carers and to add to the developing wellbeing literature

Circadian rhythmicity and subjective wellbeing of carers under chronic stress

While acute stress tends to be associated with release of cortisol which is adaptive and assists with the capacity to meet life's challenges, prolonged stress has been linked to negative effects. Indeed, chronic stress may be associated with maladaptive physiological changes. There is increasing evidence of a bodily cost from chronic stress, termed allostatic load, due to the wear and tear on body systems, such as the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis (HPA), from chronic adjustment in the face of ongoing demand. Such changes are considered likely to compromise the ongoing capacity for homeostasis and health. It appears that this physiological disturbance may be linked to corresponding disruption to both immune functioning and circadian, or daily, body rhythms. Circadian patterns within body systems allow synchronisation of behavioural needs and their physiological prerequisites. Circadian cortisol patterns allow predictive homeostasis with respect to regular daily challenges such as a morning peak to support the change from rest to meeting the challenges of a new day. Under chronic stress, however, the resetting of daily pattern of HPA activity may occur, with lowering of the typical morning rise a potential physiological strategy to down-regulate excessive cortisol levels. However, in the longer term such changes are considered to be likely to have negative consequences for health. While diurnal patterns of the stress hormone cortisol have been the focus of much research to date, the hormone melatonin is considered to be an excellent marker of circadian rhythmicity and is beginning to be taken into account in studies of chronic stress. While such indications tend to support the notion of stress as the perception of a threat to bodily homeostasis, an alternative view is that of Lazarus and Folkman, that stress results from the sense that one's wellbeing is at threat. Recent definitions of subjective wellbeing (SWB) describe it as a global assessment of psychological functioning which is made up of both an affective and cognitive assessment of satisfaction with one's life circumstances. The maintenance of SWB has been proposed to involve the protection of an underlying mood state within a narrow adaptive range. These efforts toward SWB homeostasis, however, are only thought to be effective up to an individual stress threshold, beyond which failure of SWB, and lack of resilience to external events, will likely result. SWB in the dissatisfied range has been described as indicative of homeostatic failure and high risk of depression. It has recently been proposed that this sense of personal wellbeing may, in fact, represent the reading of an underlying biological state, or core affect. Despite recent indications that SWB may represent the subjective experience of the underlying physiology necessary for adaptive mood and positive engagement with the world, the links between possible circadian dysregulation and SWB under conditions of chronic stress have not been explored. Unpaid family caregiving has been called a prototypical chronic stressor. Primary carers, who provide the bulk of the care required, are particularly likely to experience chronic adversity and subsequent health and wellbeing decrements. To date, studies of the circadian effects on carers' immunity and cortisol rhythmicity have produced mixed results. The diurnal patterns of melatonin and core body temperature have not been investigated among primary carers. The current study sought to examine the biopsychosocial effects of chronic stress among informal family carers by examining the links between circadian rhythmicity, immunity and SWB. It was predicted that primary carers would exhibit reduced levels of immunity as well as circadian dysregulation of melatonin, cortisol, and core body temperature in the form of reduced amplitude of the diurnal pattern. A sample of 31 carers who had been in their caring role for a minimum of two years (max 40 years) were compared with 35 age and gendermatched non-carers. Participants collected saliva samples in the morning and evening for two consecutive days and kept a 7-day sleep diary while maintaining their regular routine. From the saliva samples, determinations were made for morning and evening cortisol and melatonin and for morning sIgA antibody levels. Participants also completed psychological scales to measure stress, distress, hassles, uplifts, coping strategies, subjective wellbeing, social functioning and circadian preference. A subset of 20 participants also collected core body temperature data using a rectal temperature sensor for 24 hours. All data collection took place within one week of late spring. The results showed substantially poorer outcomes for carers across all psychological measures compared to non-carers. In particular, carers were differentiated by high levels of stress and low SWB and social functioning. However, they did not show reduced sIgA levels or indicate dysregulation of cortisol or core body temperature rhythms. However, the findings did provide evidence of disturbed melatonin patterns among carers, with higher morning values and blunted amplitude. Furthermore, treatment of the data according to SWB levels, showed that carers were more likely to report dissatisfaction with life and that individuals in the dissatisfied SWB range exhibited cortisol dysregulation in the form of lower morning values and blunted amplitude. The current study provides support for the view that poor quality sleep and circadian dysregulation of melatonin are likely consequences of chronic carer stress. Further, the current results also indicate that failure of SWB maintenance appears to be associated with disturbed cortisol rhythmicity. Taken together, the current findings point to sleep disturbance as a potentially critical component of chronic stress effects. This study also lends support to the notion that SWB may represent the subjective reading of a physiological state associated with cortisol synchrony and biological readiness to engage with the world. Further investigation of chronic stress effects may have the potential to suggest interventions, both short-term such as administration of melatonin or its agonists, and long-term, toward addressing chronic disadvantage and provision of adequate support to those experiencing chronic adversity. Moreover, better understanding of the links between SWB and circadian rhythmicity, as a possible physical underpinning, has the potential to improve knowledge of the physiological basis of quality of life

The Family system of the Paramaribo creoles

xv, 324 p.; 23 cm

The family system of the paramaribo creoles

xv+324hlm.;24c

Well-being under chronic stress: is morningness an advantage?

This study investigated whether morningness was associated with better quality of life in individuals experiencing chronic stress. Thirty-one informal primary carers and 35 non-carers completed self-report measures of time-of-day preference, stress and well-being. The data were collected as part of a broader study of circadian rhythmicity under conditions of prolonged stress. There was a significant interaction between diurnal preference and caregiving, with morningness associated with better well-being outcomes in those providing long-term home care. It appears that chronic arousal, but not perceived stress, plays a role in this morningness–carer interaction, with lower arousal levels also evident in carers with a greater preference for morningness. These results point to a possible role for circadian influences in the relationship between stress and subjective well-being