Effects of co-worker and supervisor support on nurses’ energy and motivation through role ambiguity and psychological flexibility

One of the job resources most strongly associated with nurses' well-being and motivation is social support. However, the psychosocial mechanisms that would explain this relationship have not been sufficiently researched. Thus, the main aim of this study was analyze whether this relationship could be mediated by two variables: Role ambiguity and psychological flexibility. A total of 196 nurses from various Spanish hospitals and primary health care centers participated in this cross-sectional study. A multiple mediation analysis was run using the PROCESS macro script in SPSS 23.0. The results showed that co-worker support was related to higher levels of vigor and vitality through role ambiguity (Estimate =.158, 95% CI [.050,.298], and Estimate =.212, 95% CI [.076,.390], respectively). The same applied to supervisor support, (Estimate =.197, 95% CI [.059,.378], and Estimate =.212, 95% CI [.076,.390], respectively). Co-worker support was also related to higher levels of vigor and vitality through psychological flexibility, (Estimate =.132, 95% CI [.048,.271], and Estimate =.216, 95% CI [.086,.394], respectively). The same applied to supervisor support (Estimate =.092, 95% CI [.024,.208], and Estimate =.157, 95% CI [.035,.333], respectively). However, in the relationships between co-worker, supervisor support and exhaustion, only psychological flexibility played a mediating role. In conclusion, social support in nursing is a job resource that is associated with high levels of energy and motivation among nurses through the mediating role of certain job demands and personal resources.This research was supported by a project from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI2015-68011-R

A functional approach to borderline personality disorder

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can be considered the most effective treatment when attending to problem behaviors that define borderline personality disorder (BPD). This therapy employs chain analysis as the tool for accounting of contextual variables that maintain these behaviors. However, these detected variables are descriptive and temporal rather than strictly functional. That is, the role of contextual variables is analyzed regarding temporal relations with problem behavior but not in terms of contingency relations that allow showing their function. Thus, a functional approach to hypothesize these contingency relations between responses and the variables that control them was carried out. Behavior functional analysis was employed as a tool and functional hypotheses of the DSM-5-TR criteria for BPD were conducted. The conclusion is that the proposed approach can be combined with DBT chain analysis to elaborate more accurate functional hypotheses about cases displaying the behaviors defined in the diagnosi