Attitudes Toward and Experience With Assisted-Death Services and Psychological Implications for Health Practitioners: A Narrative Systematic Review

A narrative systematic review was conducted to review studies that examine mental health implications of involvement in assisted-death services among health practitioners. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included to understand health practitioners’ attitudes and experiences with assisted dying services, as well as to identify the mental health consequences. We identified 18 articles from 1591 articles drawn from seven major scientific databases (i.e., PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus). Two raters independently evaluated the exclusion and inclusion decisions of the articles and examined methodological flaws in the selected articles. We found that engagement in assisted death services were not reliably associated with mental health outcomes such as anxiety and moral distress. Both positive and negative outcomes were reported, and psychological outcomes for practitioners were shown to vary based on factors including social support for health practitioners’ views; their perceived capacity to care for the patients; and legislation.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Attitudes Toward and Experience With Assisted-Death Services and Psychological Implications for Health Practitioners: A Narrative Systematic Review

A narrative systematic review was conducted to review studies that examine mental health implications of involvement in assisted-death services among health practitioners. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included to understand health practitioners’ attitudes and experiences with assisted dying services, as well as to identify the mental health consequences. We identified 18 articles from 1591 articles drawn from seven major scientific databases (i.e., PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus). Two raters independently evaluated the exclusion and inclusion decisions of the articles and examined methodological flaws in the selected articles. We found that engagement in assisted death services were not reliably associated with mental health outcomes such as anxiety and moral distress. Both positive and negative outcomes were reported, and psychological outcomes for practitioners were shown to vary based on factors including social support for health practitioners’ views; their perceived capacity to care for the patients; and legislation

Using Latent Profile Analysis to Understand Health Practitioners’ Attitudes Toward Voluntary Assisted Dying

Prior work has documented considerable diversity among health practitioners regarding their support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). We examined whether their attitudes are characterised by different combinations of personal support, normative support by other health practitioners, and whether they are predisposed to vicariously experience others’ emotions (i.e., empathy). We also examined whether these profiles experienced different mental health outcomes (i.e., burnout and posttraumatic stress) in relation to VAD. To test this, 104 Australian health practitioners were surveyed after VAD was legalised in Victoria, Australia in 2019. Results indicated that practitioners’ attitudes were characterised by three profiles: 1) strong personal and normative support (strong VAD supporters), 2) moderate personal and normative support (moderate VAD supporters), and 3) lower personal and normative support (apprehensive practitioners). However, each profile reported similar mental health outcomes. Findings suggest that the normative environments in which health practitioners operate may explain their diverse attitudes on VAD

Using Latent Profile Analysis to Understand Health Practitioners’ Attitudes Toward Voluntary Assisted Dying

Prior work has documented considerable diversity among health practitioners regarding their support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). We examined whether their attitudes are characterised by different combinations of personal support, normative support by other health practitioners, and whether they are predisposed to vicariously experience others’ emotions (i.e., empathy). We also examined whether these profiles experienced different mental health outcomes (i.e., burnout and posttraumatic stress) in relation to VAD. To test this, 104 Australian health practitioners were surveyed after VAD was legalised in Victoria, Australia in 2019. Results indicated that practitioners’ attitudes were characterised by three profiles: 1) strong personal and normative support (strong VAD supporters), 2) moderate personal and normative support (moderate VAD supporters), and 3) lower personal and normative support (apprehensive practitioners). However, each profile reported similar mental health outcomes. Findings suggest that the normative environments in which health practitioners operate may explain their diverse attitudes on VAD

Thank goodness I’ve got you: group membership as a buffer to the experience of rejection

People respond to rejection with a complex range of motives and behaviours. In particular, the experience of rejection can produce shifts in mood and elicit hostility and aggression, and increased antisocial behaviour. Establishing effective means of moderating the effects of rejection will contribute to both public health and interpersonal conflict resolution. Consistent with research that conceptualises rejection as a threat to belonging, the present study employed an experimental design to examine the buffering effect of people’s group memberships on their reactions to rejection. It was hypothesized that as a greater number of group memberships were made salient, the negative effects of rejection would correspondingly decrease, and the positive effects would increase. Participants were randomly allocated to one of four group memberships conditions, in which either zero (N=27), one (N=28), three (N=26) or five (N=26) social category group memberships were made salient utilizing a free-response task, which involved participants writing about ‘why each group was important to them’. An experience of rejection was then created by falsely informing participants that they weren’t sufficiently liked by others in the experiment to be chosen to work collaboratively on a task. Participants then completed self-report measures of mood and group identification, an attribution perception task and behavioural measures of aggression and executive functioning. Results indicate that when a greater number of group memberships were made salient, participants demonstrated increased loyalty, decreased hostile attributions and decreased aggressive responding toward the source of the rejection. Findings are interpreted as evidence for the buffering effect of cognitive representations of social category group memberships on the experience of rejection. Applications for the mitigation of the effects of bullying and the de-escalation of conflict are proposed

Data & Syntax: Longitudinal Effects of Misbeliefs in Times of Social Change (Study 3)

This component contains the data files and syntax underpinning the analyses for Study 3 in: "Conspiracy and Misinformation in a Post-Truth World: Longitudinal Effects of Misbeliefs on Criticism of Democracy and Progressive/Reactionary Social Movements in Times of Societal Change