Strengthening and stretching for rheumatoid arthritis of the hand (SARAH). A randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation

Study registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN 89936343.Background - The effectiveness of exercise for improving hand and wrist function in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is uncertain. Objectives - The study aims were (1) to estimate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of adding an optimised exercise programme for hands and upper limbs to standard care for patients with RA; and (2) to qualitatively describe the experience of participants in the trial with a particular emphasis on acceptability of the intervention, exercise behaviours and reasons for adherence/non-adherence.This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 19, No. 19. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. This report has been developed in association with the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Oxford and the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit Funding Scheme. This project benefited from facilities funded through Birmingham Science City Translational Medicine Clinical Research and Infrastructure Trials Platform, with support from Advantage West Midlands

Understanding the process of psychological development in youth athletes attending an intensive wrestling camp

This study used a grounded theory methodology to understand if and how psychological development in youth athletes was facilitated by an ‘intensive’ summer wrestling camp experience. The theoretical sampling approach involved 10 athlete participants of the camp, nine parents of athletes, the director of the camp, and four camp staff members, who took part in a series of interviews before, during, and after the camp. Two researchers were also embedded in the camp and attended all sessions, took detailed notes, collected camp materials, and conducted observations. Following a grounded theory analysis approach, a model is presented that outlines how youth participants’ developed psychological qualities from the coach created hallenges and adversity that were systematically designed to facilitate sport performance enhancement and life skills. Variations emerged in psychological antecedents and characteristics, how the challenging wrestling camp environment was interpreted and experienced, and how learning was transferred to sport and life domains outside of the wrestling camp. This study provided insight into a unique youth sport context that was able to simultaneously develop psychological qualities to be used as sport performance enhancement and life skills

Reducing conflict-related employee strain: The benefits of an internal locus of control and a problem-solving conflict management strategy

Workplace conflict is a potent stressor, but most previous research has focused on its effect on productivity and performance rather than on individual well-being. This paper examines the moderating roles of an individual's internal locus of control and a problem-solving conflict management strategy. In the cross-sectional study, among 774 health care workers in the Netherlands, employees' internal locus of control did moderate the relationship between experienced conflict at work and psychological strain, which was measured using a 13-item Dutch adaptation of the Occupational Stress Indicator. In addition, this moderation was mediated by the active conflict management strategy of problem solving; people with a more internal locus of control use a problem-solving conflict management strategy more often and, as a result, experience less psychological strain in cases of workplace conflict. Implications for conflict theory, for future research, and for practice are discussed

A person-centered perspective on working with people who have experienced psychological trauma and helping them move forward to posttraumatic growth

Over the past decade posttraumatic growth (PTG) has become a major topic for theory, research and practice in mainstream trauma psychology. The aim of this paper is to discuss the implications of PTG for the person-centered approach. It is argued that PTG provides a new non-medical language for understanding psychological trauma that is consistent with the person-centered approach. Person-centered personality theory provides an explanation for how PTG arises and leads to new testable predictions for research into how person-centered therapy may be able to facilitate PTG

Resilience training in the workplace from 2003 to 2014: a systematic review

Over a decade of research attests to the importance of resilience in the workplace for employee well-being and performance. Yet, surprisingly, there has been no attempt to synthesize the evidence for the efficacy of resilience training in this context. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to provide a systematic review of work-based resilience training interventions. Our review identified 14 studies that investigated the impact of resilience training on personal resilience and four broad categories of dependent variables: (a) mental health and subjective well-being outcomes, (b) psychosocial outcomes, (c) physical/biological outcomes, and (d) performance outcomes. Findings indicated that resilience training can improve personal resilience, and is a useful means of developing mental health and subjective well-being in employees. We also found that resilience training has a number of wider benefits that include enhanced psychosocial functioning and improved performance. Due to the lack of coherence in design and implementation, we cannot draw any firm conclusions about the most effective content and format of resilience training. Therefore, going forward, it is vital that future research uses comparative designs to assess the utility of different training regimes, explores whether some people might benefit more/less from resilience training, and demonstrates consistency in terms of how resilience is defined, conceptualized, developed, and assessed

Demographic differences in sport performers’ experiences of organizational stressors

Organizational stressors are particularly prevalent across sport performers’ experiences and can influence their performance, health, and well-being. Research has been conducted to identify which organizational stressors are encountered by sport performers but little is known about how these experiences vary from athlete to athlete. The purpose of this study was to examine if the frequency, intensity, and duration of the organizational stressors that sport performers encounter vary as a function of gender, sport type, and performance level. Participants (n = 1277) completed the Organizational Stressor Indicator for Sport Performers (OSI-SP; Arnold et al., 2013) and the resultant data was analyzed using multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVAs). The findings show that demographic differences are apparent in the dimensions of the goals and development, logistics and operations, team and culture, coaching, and selection organizational stressors that sport performers encounter. More specifically, significant differences were found between males and females, between team and individual based performers, and between performers competing at national or international, regional or university, and county or club levels. These findings have important implications for theory and research on organizational stress, and for the development of stress management interventions with sport performers

Assessment of cognitive self-statements during marital problem solving: A comparison of two methods

Twenty maritally distressed couples (DC) and 20 nondistressed couples (NDC) were recruited and asked to undertake 10 minutes of problem-solving discussions, which were videotaped. Each individual partner’s cognitive self-statements during the interaction were assessed using two methods: video-assisted recall (VR) and thought listing (TL). Reported cognitions from each method were content- analysed and classified into five categories: partner- referent positive, partner- referent negative, self-referent positive, self- referent negative, and other. Proportions of reported cognitions falling into each category were analysed in two separate two-way MANOVAs (marital distress/ nondistress x sex) for the VR and TL measures. Results of each MANOVA indicated a highly significant effect of marital distress on cognitions, and a significant effect of sex on the VR but not the TL measure. Discriminant analyses showed that the VR and TL methods both discriminated between DC and NDC groups. Post hoc univariate ANOVAs indicated that DC had significantly higher proportions of negative partner- referent cognitions, and lower proportions of positive partner- referent cognitions, than NDC while problem solving. The relative merits of each cognitive assessment method, and their potential use in increasing marital therapy effectiveness, are discussed

Effects of Career Choice Intervention on Components of Career Preparation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89533/1/j.2161-0045.2011.tb00074.x.pd

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for clinically distressed health care workers: Waitlist-controlled evaluation of an ACT workshop in a routine practice setting

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of a 1-day acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) workshop on the mental health of clinically distressed health care employees, and to explore ACT's processes of change in a routine practice setting. DESIGN: A quasi-controlled design, with participants block allocated to an ACT intervention or waiting list control group based on self-referral date. METHODS: Participants were 35 health care workers who had self-referred for the ACT workshop via a clinical support service for staff. Measures were completed by ACT and control group participants at pre-intervention and 3 months post-intervention. Participants allocated to the waitlist condition went on to receive the ACT intervention and were also assessed 3 months later. RESULTS: At 3 months post-intervention, participants in the ACT group reported a significantly lower level of psychological distress compared to the control group (d = 1.41). Across the 3-month evaluation period, clinically significant change was exhibited by 50% of ACT participants, compared to 0% in the control group. When the control group received the same ACT intervention, 69% went on to exhibit clinically significant change. The ACT intervention also resulted in significant improvements in psychological flexibility, defusion, and mindfulness skills, but did not significantly reduce the frequency of negative cognitions. Bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated that the reduction in distress in the ACT condition was primarily associated with an increase in mindfulness skills, especially observing and non-reactivity. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide preliminary support for providing brief ACT interventions as part of routine clinical support services for distressed workers. PRACTITIONER POINTS: - A 1-day ACT workshop delivered in the context of a routine staff support service was effective for reducing psychological distress among health care workers. - The brief nature of this group intervention means it may be particularly suitable for staff support and primary care mental health service settings. - The findings indicate that the beneficial effects of an ACT workshop on distressed employees' mental health were linked to improvements in specific mindfulness skills. - Study limitations include non-random allocation of participants to the ACT and control groups, and measurement of mediators and outcome at the same time point (3 months post-intervention)