Cocktail of chemicals: The health impact of additives in processed foods

Burke, KJ ORCiD: 0000-0002-3754-076XA growing body of evidence is focusing attention on the dangers posed by the myriad chemicals in our food. Although certainty around the precise impact of these chemicals is some way off, what we do know indicates a chemical cocktail of colourings, preservatives, and flavour enhancers, among other things, may be having a negative impact on our minds and bodies

Multiple child food hypersensitivity impacts positive adjustment in parents

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media New York. The physical impacts of food hypersensitivities (e.g. food allergy, food intolerance) encompass wide ranging but individually specific reactions. In contrast, the psychological impact of such illnesses extends beyond the individual who suffers the sensitivity. No Australian studies have examined the psychosocial impact of parenting a child with food hypersensitivities. The aim of this study was to ascertain differences in the psychosocial profile of parents raising a food hypersensitive child. Australian parents were targeted through three national support organisations and answered questions regarding their psychological health. Of a total of 990 respondents, 599 had children. These families comprised 1316 children aged 0–18 (M = 7.63 years) and more than half (n = 393) of these families were managing a child with a food hypersensitivity. Parents showed no differences in measured distress. In contrast, positive adjustment was higher for parents of food intolerant children and children with both food allergy and food intolerance, compared to those with non-food hypersensitive children. Moreover parents of children with combined food hypersensitivities reported a greater degree of positive change. The finding that parents of food hypersensitive children were not reporting higher levels of stress than parents without a food hypersensitive child is in stark contradiction to international studies examining both food hypersensitivity and parents of children with a chronic disease more generally. However, it appears that the complexity of the food hypersensitivity had a positive impact on adjustment with parents of children with multiple types of food hypersensitivity reporting greater positive adjustment outcomes

Markers of resilience in new police officers : appraisal of potentially traumatizing events

This article presents data from a longitudinal study of adjustment to policing, specifically examining the role played by exposure to traumatic events prior to entry to the profession. This study aims to explore the impact of a prior traumatic experience on the appraisal of potentially traumatizing events experienced within the policing context. Seventy-eight police constables were followed from point of entry until the completion of 12 months of operational duties. The results suggest the experience of a traumatic event prior to joining the police may facilitate positive emotional outcomes from exposure to adverse events on the job. This article is the first to examine the impact of prior traumatic events on adjustment to the demands of policing in a longitudinal context and suggests that the experience of prior traumatic events can have a positive impact on officer’s capacity to adapt to the challenges of the police role

Benefit-finding process development in families raising children with chronic food hypersensitivity

ObjectiveTo examine benefit-finding processes in families raising children with chronic food hypersensitivity and provide practical advice for practitioners and families.BackgroundThe existing literature primarily describes benefits individuals identify from adversity. This study addresses a literature gap by examining processes facilitating benefit-finding within families.MethodThis was a multicenter classical grounded theory study comparing benefit-finding processes through analysis of semistructured interviews with 11 families (48 nuclear family members).ResultsThree main benefit-finding processes were identified, forming a hierarchical benefit-finding process model: It Could Be Worse (benefit-finding); Silver Lining (benefit-reminding generating positive affect); Action Advantage (benefit-reminding generating advantageous behavior change). Enhanced family functioning and well-being was observed with Action Advantage. Parental training facilitated Action Advantage. Parental role-modeling and reinforcement transferred benefit-finding processes among family members, producing a shared family process.ConclusionsTraining parents to model Action Advantage benefit-finding and implementing Family Management Plans addressing biopsychosocial well-being of all family members is recommended. Evidence suggests such actions may enhance family functioning, cohesive relationships, and well-being.ImplicationsTranslatable findings advance theory and may facilitate benefit-finding process assessment instruments, interventions, and teachable strategies for practitioners and researchers supporting families raising children with chronic food hypersensitivity

A prisoner of the past? How empathy for others is dependent on self-reflection and insight into one’s own experiences

Burke, KJ ORCiD: 0000-0002-3754-076X; Gerace, A ORCiD: 0000-0001-8272-8799Satisfying and meaningful relationships depend on the ability to take the perspectives of others. Empathy, the process of considering the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of another person from their point of view, results in other-oriented emotions and behaviours, such as compassion, forgiveness, and altruism. A central way in which we take others’ perspectives is through imagining ourselves in their place, a process made easier by having experienced similar situations in our own past. As such, understanding our similar past experiences influences the ability to connect with another’s misfortunes and traumas. In this poster, we examine the relationship between self-reflection and empathy. From this examination, we argue that when reflection on our own experiences involves a ruminative focus on past events, perspective taking is inhibited, as personal distress, inaccurate perceptions, and negative emotions predominate. By contrast, when individuals work towards developing insight and take a self-compassionate approach to their experiences, understanding of one’s own experiences and those of others, as well as compassion for others, is improved. Ways in which insightful processing of experiences may be increased are discussed, as well as how this approach is useful for understanding important positive psychology concepts such as subjective wellbeing and posttraumatic growth

Positive psychology students as well-being bloggers: Opportunities for graduate student learning

Burke, KJ ORCiD: 0000-0002-3754-076X; Gerace, A ORCiD: 0000-0001-8272-8799Student learning benefits from exposure to core course content with opportunities for applying learning through innovative and practical assessment approaches. At the same time, within the positive psychology space, increasingly the public obtains wellbeing and mental health information through online blogs written by experts and non-experts alike. In this presentation, we will discuss a staged assessment utilised in one new unit of Master of Applied Positive Psychology course at CQUniversity to develop students’ ability to communicate and "teach" positive psychology principles and produce evidence-based resources. In a smaller, initial assessment piece, students (n = 15) were required to choose 10 wellbeing topics and to collect and critique resources (e.g. peer-reviewed research articles, websites, videos) pertaining to those topics. Utilising these resources, the major assessment piece required students to develop a series of posts on a blog platform for the public, detailing evidence-based wellbeing interventions and teaching tips for building wellbeing and resilience. Throughout this presentation, examples of student blogs will be showcased, with student feedback and reflections from teaching staff on supports provided to students used to highlights the opportunities and challenges such an innovative approach provides for student learning

What makes a happy cop? : longitudinal predictors of police officer well-being

There is a predominant belief within both scientific and lay populations that policing is a stressful occupation, by virtue of officers’ exposure to stressful and traumatic events. However, much of the research conducted with police personnel fails to consider the role of the organisation in facilitating and maintaining employee well-being. Furthermore, it is now widely argued that individual factors (e.g., personality) have a differential impact on responses to stressful and traumatising events. This paper presents an overview of changes in stress and coping as officers move from recruits to the completion of their probation (a period of 20 months), and is a small portion of data from a multi-method longitudinal study of police officer well-being. In the larger study changes in stress and satisfaction were charted and the implications of prior traumatic experience/s, personalityand coping in response to occupational experiences were examined

Striving for the thin ideal post-pregnancy: a cross-sectional study of intuitive eating in postpartum women

Objective: To conduct a cross-sectional study of women in the postpartum period to identify relationships between intuitive eating, body image satisfaction, eating attitudes and depressive symptomology. Methods: Women with at least one child born in the previous 6–48 months were recruited via Facebook to complete an online survey which included: sociodemographic and health questions, the Intuitive Eating Scale, the Body Shape Questionnaire, the Multi-dimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, the Eating Attitudes Test-26 and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables and hierarchical regressions used to examine associations between intuitive eating styles, body image satisfaction, eating attitudes and depressive symptomology. Results: Of the 419 women (mean age 32 ± 5.3 years), 32% were classified with intuitive eating styles and were more likely to have higher body image satisfaction (F = 476.80, p \u3c .001), less disordered eating attitudes (F = 30.74, p \u3c .001) and lower depressive symptomology (F = 4.14, p = .042). Conclusions: The postpartum period is a time of high risk for developing/maintaining eating styles that may negatively impact psychological health and well-being. Providing education to new mothers about the benefits of intuitive eating could positively influence their health and well-being

Bouncing back with bliss: nurturing body image and embracing intuitive eating in the postpartum: a cross-sectional replication study

Aims/Background: Social pressure to ‘bounce back’ and unrealistic body expectations place postpartum women at risk of body image dissatisfaction, depressive symptomology, and disordered eating. Prior research suggests that intuitive eating may reduce these risks. This study replicated a previous 2016 study between intuitive eating, postpartum depression, disordered eating, and body image satisfaction. Design/Method: Women over 18 who had given birth in the last four years were recruited through social media to complete an online survey. The final sample comprised 163 women aged between 21 and 42 years (M = 33.61, SD = 4.59) who were between one and 208 weeks postpartum (M = 78.27, SD = 53.40). Results: Correlation analyses revealed significant negative associations between intuitive eating and body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, depression, and BMI. A hierarchical multiple linear regression demonstrated that body image dissatisfaction significantly predicted 29% of the variance in intuitive eating scores after controlling for BMI, disordered eating, and postpartum depression F(4, 133) = 68.71, p \u3c.001. Body image dissatisfaction fully mediated the relationships between intuitive eating and disordered eating (c’ = -0.01, p =.359), and depression (c’ = 0.01, p =.427). There was a significant reduction in body dissatisfaction scores in the present sample compared to the 2016 cohort t(292.87) = 3.38, p \u3c.001. Conclusion: These findings highlight the central role of body image and intuitive eating in postpartum wellbeing and emphasise the need for tailored interventions promoting realistic postpartum body expectations and adaptive eating behaviours