Expression and ambivalence over expression of negative emotion:psychometric analysis in the Women's Health Initiative

Inhibition of emotional expression has been associated with the incidence and progression of breast cancer and other chronic illnesses. Others have theorized that it may not be repression itself, but rather ambivalence over the expression of emotions that is the important health-related factor. The Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a long-term, national study focusing on disease prevention among postmenopausal women, is unique in its assessment of expression and ambivalence of negative emotion in a large study sample of multiethnic, older women. Psychological factors such as expression of negative emotion and ambivalence about expression of emotion are also determined by social patterning. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the instruments used to measure each construct and variation across race/ethnicity and age. The analysis suggests that the scales can be used with confidence in diverse ethnic and age groups. Examining ambivalence about expression of negative emotion in future longitudinal research will further elucidate its role in predicting disease incidence and recovery, both important in reducing the public health burden of chronic disease.     

代际支持对老年人主观幸福感的影响--基于年龄组的差异性分析

本文从年龄组差异的角度分析了代际支持对老年人心理健康的影响。研究发现,在控制了客观健康状况等变量后,老年人的心理健康水平并非随着年龄增长呈现出下降趋势。其次,接受代际支持和给予代际支持都对老年人心理健康有着显著的促进作用。第三,对于不同年龄组来说,代际支持对老年人心理健康产生的效果既有共同点也存在着差异。相似之处在于充足的经济支持对65－74岁、75－84岁和85岁及以上这三个年龄组老人的心理健康都是有利的。然而,更突出的是这三个年龄组之间的相异点：对于65－74岁这一组别而言,老人与子女之间的经济交换最为频繁。这种经济上的互惠提升了老人的积极情绪、抑制了消极情绪的产生。就75－84岁的老年人来说,子女在日常照料的作用表现的十分显著。和子女共同居住、在生病时由子女照料的老人表现出更少的消极情绪。至于85岁以上的高龄老人,得到充足的情感支持对于提升主观幸福感的作用更为显著;最先和子女分享想法的老人有着更高的心理健康水平。因此就现实状况来看,当父母逐渐衰老,作为子女,应当更加关注对父母的日常照护和情感关怀。尤其是对于这些高龄老人,他们对子女的情感态度更为敏感;子女提供的充足的情感支持对其心理健康有着十分显著的促进作用。     

Correlates of wellbeing among African American lesbians

Although there is a growing body of knowledge about health among African American women in general, there is a dearth of information on African American lesbians. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the correlates of health-related quality of life among African American lesbians using a cross-sectional anonymous survey with topics and measures developed by members of the African American lesbian community. Surveys were completed by 123 English speaking adult women who identified as African American lesbians and were attending the Zuna Institute's National Black Lesbian Conference. Overall, we found a very high health-related quality of life, in spite of a high frequency of health impairments. The average body mass index (BMI) for this sample was 32.2 (SD?=?8.0); 13% were morbidly obese, having a BMI of 40 or more and only 15% of the women were in a healthy weight range; advancing age was associated with poorer physical functioning, decreased physical role functioning, and more pain. Health-related quality of life was associated with depression and spirituality, but not religion. This study highlights the need for subjective measures of health-related quality of life as well as checklists of diseases and disorders.     

Child Health-Related Quality of Life and Parental Social Capital in Greece: An Exploratory Study

In this paper, we examined dimensions of child health-related quality of life in Greece in relation to parental assessments of neighbourhood social capital and social support networks. For the analysis, two main measures were used: (1) child self-reported health-related quality of life in ten dimensions, as measured by the KIDSCREEN questionnaire; (2) subjective measures of parental neighbourhood social capital and social support. Parental assessments of neighbourhood social capital and social support were both independently and positively associated with child self-reported health-related quality of life. However, they were not associated with the same dimensions of child well being, nor were they associated with all dimensions of child well being. These results suggest that greater attention in future research needs to be paid to the differential associations between the various dimensions of social capital and child health-related quality of life, with clear focus implications for social and health policies.     

Health related quality of life of women at the sixth week and sixth month postpartum by mode of birth

Background

Health-related quality of life of women in the postpartum period may depend on the mode of birth. However, previous findings are contradictory.

Subjective Health-Related Quality of Life in Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Individuals and Its Relationship with Self-Reported Physical and Mental Health Status

Although the association between homelessness and objective indicators of poor health is well-established, little research has focused on the subjective health-related quality of life of homeless and vulnerably housed (HVH) individuals. This study examined the subjective health-related quality of life of HVH individuals, using the Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT) Scale for Health of the Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory, and its association with self-reported functional health status, as measured by the SF-12, and self-reported physical and mental health conditions in a sample of 100 HVH individuals recruited in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Our findings indicate that physical and mental health conditions are highly prevalent among HVH individuals and that the SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Summary scores are substantially lower compared to US population norms. The MDT Health items were not statistically significantly associated with physical or mental health conditions and only showed correlations of small to moderate magnitude with the SF-12 Component Summary Scales. These findings suggest that the QoLHHI MDT Scale for Health can provide information about HVH individuals’ subjective health experiences that is different from, and can serve as a valuable complement to, health status information for use in research and evaluation studies, as well as for policy purposes to make informed decisions based on subjective health-related quality of life data from HVH individuals.     

Is Subjective Status Influenced by Psychosocial Factors?

Objective Associations between subjective status and health are still relatively unexplored. This study aimed at testing whether subjective status is uniquely confounded by psychosocial factors compared to objective status, and what factors that may predict subjective status. Design A cross-sectional analysis of a population-based, random sample of 795 middle-aged men and women from the southeast of Sweden. Questionnaires included subjective status, objective measures of socioeconomic status, life satisfaction, and a battery of psychosocial factors. Associations were controlled for effects of age and sex. Results Both subjective status and occupation were significantly associated with self-rated health also after control for psychosocial factors. Stepwise regression showed that subjective status was significantly influenced by self-rated economy, education, life satisfaction, self-esteem, trust, perceived control, and mastery. Conclusion The association between subjective status and self-rated health does not seem to be uniquely confounded by psychosocial factors. Both resource-based measures and psychological dimensions seem to influence subjective status ratings. Comparative studies are required to study whether predictors of subjective status vary between countries with different socio-political profiles.     

Measuring and Analysing the Wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous Population

According to most standard socioeconomic indicators (for example employment, income and education), Indigenous Australians tend to have worse outcomes than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Most objective health indicators including life expectancy also tend to be worse. Traditionally, these two domains and associated objective indicators have been the focus of research, government policy and evaluation. There has been less research, however, on differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in subjective measures of wellbeing. In this paper, I attempt to answer three related research questions on Indigenous wellbeing—What is the average level of emotional wellbeing and satisfaction with life for the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population of Australia? How do the differences between the two populations change once other characteristics have been controlled for? What are the factors associated with emotional wellbeing within the Indigenous population? With regards to the first two questions, Indigenous Australians are less likely to report frequent periods of happiness and more likely to report periods of extreme sadness than the non-Indigenous population. Surprisingly, given these results for emotional wellbeing, a major finding from the analysis was that Indigenous Australians were significantly more likely to report above-average satisfaction with their life. The main finding with regards to the third question is that using retrospective measures, those in remote areas report higher levels of happiness than those in non-remote areas. This is different to the results for socioeconomic status and objective measures of health found elsewhere and has important implications for government policy in Australia.     

Religious domains and general well-being

With only a few notable exceptions, studies on quality of life or general well-being have failed to deal with religiosity in general, and the development of more refined measures of religious meaning and belonging in particular. Data measuring subjective perceptions of well-being for various domains of life, including neighborhood, employment, work at home, education, friends, household members, marital status, standard of living, health and religion were used to form a number of domain scales. Relationships between the multidimensional concepts of well-being and religiosity are explored and the importance of religiosity in defining well-being is tested. Religious satisfaction was found to be important for general life satisfaction and existential well-being. Among the eight indicators and scales of religiosity, various combinations of religious satisfaction, frequency of prayer, prayer experience, and relationship with God, were important predictors of general life satisfaction, existential well-being, and overall happiness. Under no circumstance did any measure of religosity contribute to negative affect.     

Quality of Life in College Students with and without Social Phobia

Prior studies demonstrating quality of life impairment in phobia and anxiety disorders have relied upon epidemiological samples or clinical data. Using the same quality of life scale, the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), in Iranian college students allowed us to study the impact of social phobia (SP) on quality of life among the college students. This report summarizes findings from a cross sectional study on Iranian students with social phobia studying at Shahed University. Quality of life was measured using the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) which is a widely used and valid questionnaire to measure quality of life in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Three standard instruments were used to measure social phobia severity, namely Social Phobia Inventory, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and Brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. The sample consisted of 202 college students, 72 with SP and 130 without SP. The main finding of this study was that students with social phobia reported significantly lower quality of life, particularly in general health (P = 0.02), vitality (P < 0.0001), social functioning (P < 0.0001), role functioning—emotional (P < 0.0001), and Mental health (P = 0.001) dimensions. Standardized summed scores for mental health components of the SF-36 showed that 36.2% of all the s with SP were severely impaired while 16.0% of the students in control croup were severely impaired. Findings demonstrated that Iranian socially anxious college students reported extensive functional disability, and lower well-being compared to those without SP. These findings should encourage education officers to implement systematic efforts to prevent and treat social anxiety among students.     

Economic disadvantage,perceived family life quality,and emotional well-being in Chinese adolescents: A longitudinal study

Over three consecutive years, Chinese secondary school students experiencing and not experiencing economic disadvantage (n = 280 and 2,187, respectively) responded to measures of perceived family life quality (parenting attributes and parent-child relational quality) and emotional well-being (hopelessness, mastery, life satisfaction and self-esteem). While participants experiencing economic disadvantage generally had more negative perceptions of parenting quality and parent-child relational quality than did adolescents not experiencing economic disadvantage, the differences were more pronounced for the father-adolescent dyad than for the mother-adolescent dyad. Emotional well-being was also different in adolescents with and without economic disadvantage. Although adolescents experiencing different intensity of economic disadvantage differed on some paternal parenting processes, no related differences were observed for other measures of family life quality and emotional well-being. The present study fills the research gap pertinent to the relationship between economic disadvantage and family as well as emotional quality of life in early adolescence in the Chinese culture. This work was financially supported by the Research Grants Council of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong (Grant CUHK4293/03H) and Wofoo Foundation. The author wishes to thank Britta Lee and Joyce Chow for their assistance in collecting the data.     

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Impact of Mindfulness on Life Satisfaction and Mental Distress

The present study tested the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the impact of mindfulness on life satisfaction and mental distress in a sample of Chinese adults and the widespread or limited mediators between the different groups in demographic factors, e.g., gender, students and non-students. Three hundred and twenty-one participants completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the General Health Questionnaire. Path analysis showed that emotional intelligence mediated partially the impact of mindfulness on life satisfaction and mental distress. Moreover, multi-group analyses indicated that no significant path in the final model differed by gender, but non-students with high levels of mindfulness are more likely to perceive greater life satisfaction than students. The findings corroborate an important role for emotional intelligence in mindfulness exerting its beneficial effects.     

The Importance of General Self-Efficacy for the Quality of Life of Adolescents with Chronic Conditions

We investigated the influence of general self-efficacy perceived by adolescents with chronic conditions and parents on quality of life. This cross-sectional study used the general self-efficacy scale and DISABKIDS condition-generic module to survey adolescents (92/293; 31 %) with type I diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, cystic fibrosis, kidney/urological conditions, and neuromuscular disorders; and parents (121/293; 41 %). Self perceived and parents’ perceived general self-efficacy of adolescents was compared using paired t-tests, and adolescents’ quality of life and general self-efficacy were compared among conditions using analysis of variance. Bivariate correlations between general self-efficacy and quality of life were identified, and multiple regression sought predictors of quality of life after controlling for background variables. Social quality of life was lowest among those with neuromuscular disorders. General self-efficacy was highest among adolescents with cystic fibrosis and lowest among those with urological conditions. Parents’ perceptions of general self-efficacy were higher than adolescents’ (p ≤ 0.05), although absolute differences were small. General self-efficacy perceived by parents and adolescents was related to emotional, physical, and social quality of life. Adolescents’ perceived self-efficacy predicted all quality of life domains. Parents’ perceptions of the adolescents self-efficacy predicted the adolescents’ social quality of life (β = 0.19; p ≤ 0.01). General self-efficacy of adolescents with chronic conditions as perceived by themselves and their parents is important for adolescents’ quality of life. Interventions to improve general self-efficacy should benefit quality of life among these adolescents.     

Emergency Workers’ Quality of Life: The Protective Role of Sense of Community, Efficacy Beliefs and Coping Strategies

This study, involving a sample of 764 emergency workers, investigates dimensions of quality of life at work (Compassion fatigue, Burnout and Compassion satisfaction), and their relationships with Coping strategies and some psychosocial variables (Sense of Community, Collective Efficacy and Self-efficacy). Results indicate the usefulness of distinguishing between positive and negative indicators of emergency workers’ quality of life. Compassion satisfaction is positively correlated with efficacy beliefs, Sense of Community and the use of Active coping strategies. Burnout and Compassion fatigue are especially correlated with the use of dysfunctional coping strategies like distraction and self-criticism. Volunteer emergency workers enjoy a higher well being than full-time professional workers. Results and their implications for interventions aimed at increasing rescue workers’ quality of life by enhancing psychosocial competences are discussed.     

Mental health differences between men and women caregivers,BRFSS 2009

This study uses data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS) to examine differences between male and female caregivers by demographics, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and the effect of social support on HRQOL. Roughly two-thirds of caregivers were women, and demographic characteristics differed among men and women caregivers. Women caregivers reported significantly more mentally and physically unhealthy days than men, but there were no differences between men and women in general health or life satisfaction. Men were significantly more likely to report that they rarely or never received social support. Despite this, the effect of social support on HRQOL was stronger in men than in women. Implications of these findings for caregiver support programs are discussed.     

A conceptualization and research strategy for the study of ecological aspects of the quality of life

The centerpiece of this paper is a proposed model identifying the various factors that ought to be brought into a thorough study of ecological aspects of quality of life. The model suggests that in addition to studying the physical, economic and social situation of an individual it also is important to study his beliefs about how the world works, his personal lifestyle, and his values, goals, aspirations and needs if one is to make adequate inferences about what produces the level of quality of life that he experiences. The model also shows that it is important to look at similar variables for a community or a society in order to arrive at inferences about quality of life for that community or society. Personal and societal learning is a dynamic factor in the model. The paper concludes with a discussion of strategies for operationalizing these factors in empirical studies.     

Social Exclusion and Quality of Life: An Empirical Study from Turkey

We examine the perception of social exclusion and quality of life and their interactions among a group of Turkish citizens. For this purpose we used the social exclusion scale developed by Jehoel-Gijsbers and Vrooman and the WHOQOL-BREF scale. The study group consists of 2,493 participants who are residents of a city in Turkey. Our study was based on self reporting and voluntary participation. We used SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) for the analysis. We observed significant paths among several dimensions of quality of life and social exclusion. We found that the material deprivation dimension of social exclusion has a direct and negative impact on the environment and social relationships domains of quality of life. The material deprivation dimension explains 36% of the variation in the environment and 16% of the variation in social relationship domains of quality of life. This finding indicates that the material deprivation and social participation play an important role in the perception of environmental and psychological life quality. Physical health, social relationships, and environmental domains of life quality are important in the social participation dimension of perceived social exclusion.     

Contextual Determinants of Hopelessness: Investigating Socioeconomic Factors and Emotional Climates

Perceptions of the future are crucial components of individual well-being. Hopelessness, which is the sense that the future is a dead end, begins with the occurrence of negative life events and develops through the perception of consistent and pervasive negative outcomes. This study investigated the role of the socioeconomic aspects of the context and shared emotions (emotional climates) within a region in reducing or exacerbating hopelessness. Emotional climates have been defined as the emotional relationships constructed among members of a society, and they describe the environmental quality of a particular community. Multilevel modeling with individuals nested into regions (i.e., Swiss cantons) was used to explore the relationship between context and hopelessness. Data from the project “Vulnerability and Growth,” the Swiss Household Panel and official socioeconomic indicators were used. Spatial-weighting methods were applied to estimate depressive and optimistic emotional climates at the canton level. The results show that hopelessness is primarily affected by individual factors such as personality and life events. However, the analyses revealed that socioeconomic conditions and the optimistic and depressive climates that prevail in cantons also affected individuals’ perceptions of hopelessness. Individuals were more likely to feel hopeless in cantons with high unemployment rates and high levels of shared negative emotions. In contrast, positive emotional climates played a protective role against hopelessness. Acknowledgment of the influence of context on individuals’ perceptions of the future and the correlation of their states of anxiety and depression is pivotal for planning effective interventions to prevent depression.     

The impact of men's and women's retirement on marital relations: a comparative analysis

The study examined whether men's and women's retirement have a differential impact on several aspects of marital life: Power relations (as reflected in decision-making), spousal resources, division of household tasks, and quality of marriage. Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 519 pre-retired and retired Israelis. The findings indicate that in general, both men's and women's retirement have a similar impact on marital relations in all of the areas examined. No appreciable change in spousal resources was found after retirement, but there was evidence of change in decision-making patterns about spending time and carrying out feminine and general tasks. Retired respondents of both sexes reported fewer marital complaints than the pre-retired respondents, but also expressed less marital enjoyment. It was also found that men's retirement has a different impact than women's retirement on decisions about house-hold affairs and performance of feminine tasks. In addition, gender-based differences were found in several areas, irrespective of employment status. The women reported higher quality of marriage than did the men, and more resources for strengthening the family, whereas the men perceived themselves as making more decisions in the important areas of life, as more hardy, and as controlling the family's financial resources.