Relationship Satisfaction,Sexual Satisfaction,and Sexual Problems in Sexsomnia

ABSTRACT

Relationship and sexual satisfaction, sexual functioning, and sexual desire were examined in an Internet sample of 32 individuals reporting engagement of sexual behavior during sleep (i.e., sexsomnia). Individuals with sexsomnia reported lower levels of sexual satisfaction, lower levels of relationship satisfaction, and similar levels of sexual desire compared with controls. More frequent incidence of sexsomnia resulted in lower sexual satisfaction; however, frequency was not found to impact relationship satisfaction or level of sexual desire. Individuals with sexsomnia reported high instances of sexual problems with 81% reporting at least one problem.     

Health,wellness, and workplace experiences of lesbian,gay, and bisexual social workers

Abstract

Using data from an online survey of 6,112 licensed social workers in 13?U.S. states, rates of reported behavioral health problems and service utilization, physical health problems, adverse childhood experiences, workplace stress, and compassion satisfaction were compared between heterosexual male, heterosexual female, gay/bisexual male, and lesbian/bisexual female respondents. Sexual minority workers reported far higher rates of mental health problems and service utilization, higher rates of physical problems, more frequent reporting of adverse childhood experiences, with no differences found between groups regarding workplace stress and compassion satisfaction. Minority stress theory and historical trauma are used as frameworks to conceptualize the findings.     

Job Satisfaction,Leisure Satisfaction,and Psychological Health

Job satisfaction, leisure satisfaction, and psychological health were measured for 189 adult men who were employed full time. Job satisfaction and leisure satisfaction were found to be significant positive predictors of psychological health. Stepwise regression analyses indicated that job satisfaction was the better predictor of psychological health, but leisure satisfaction added significantly to the prediction. Although job satisfaction was significantly higher for white-collar (professional) workers than for blue-collar workers, the prediction of psychological health by the independent variables was not affected by occupational status. Theoretical and counseling implications are discussed.     

Past Present: Discordant Gay Male Couples,HIV Infection History,and Relationship Dynamics

Discordant couples are unique because partners do not share the same serostatus. Yet research overlooks how they became discordant, mistakenly assuming that they have always been that way and, by extension, that being discordant impacts the relationship in a similar manner. This study examines HIV infection history and its impact on relationship dynamics using qualitative data from 35 discordant gay male couples. Most couples were discordant when they met (69%); however, many were not (31%). Those couples that met discordant felt being discordant had a lesser impact on their sexual and relational satisfaction, while those that did not meet discordant felt it had a greater impact, reporting sexual frustration and anxiety over seroconverting. This suggests that relationship dynamics may differ for discordant couples depending on HIV infection history. HIV prevention and counseling services for discordant couples can be better tailored and more effective when differences in HIV infection history are recognized.     

Career Counseling From the Counselee Perspective: Analysis of Feedback Questionnaires

The effectiveness of career counseling as perceived by counselees was measured using evaluation questionnaires. The results showed that 75% of the respondents rated the career counseling they received as satisfactory. A systematic difference was found between satisfaction with counseling as a result of the enhancement of the counselees' personal understanding and satisfaction as a result of the assistance they perceived in decision making. Respondents were more positive concerning their gains in self-understanding than about the help they felt they were given in arriving at a career decision. On the average, counselees rated discussions with the counselor as more important in counseling than were objective tests, interest inventories or vocational information. Respondents who reported that counseling helped them in both their personal and career problems were more satisfied than those who reported being helped solely in either their personal problems or their career decisions. The theoretical and practical implications of these results for career counseling are discussed.     

Social connectedness and life satisfaction: Comparing mean levels for 2 undergraduate samples and testing for improvement based on brief counseling

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Comparing the mean levels of social connectedness and life satisfaction, and analyzing their relationship for 2 undergraduate samples, and testing for an increase in their means for a brief counseling sample. Participants: Between October 2013 and May 2015, 3 samples were collected: not-in-counseling (NIC; n = 941), initial counseling session (ICS; ie, triage session only; n = 168), and brief counseling (BC; ie, median of 4 additional counseling sessions; n = 28). Methods: Online surveys measuring demographic and background control variables, social connectedness, and life satisfaction. Results: NIC students exhibited higher social connectedness and life satisfaction than ICS students. Social connectedness significantly explained life satisfaction beyond controlled-for variables for both samples. There was a significant increase in social connectedness and life satisfaction for the BC sample. Conclusions: Social connectedness is an important antecedent of life satisfaction for undergraduates. Brief counseling can increase transition students' social connectedness and life satisfaction.     

Predictors of Job Satisfaction and Burnout in Child Abuse Professionals: Coping,Cognition, and Victimization History

ABSTRACT

This study investigated coping style, work-related cognition, and victimization history as predictors of job satisfaction and burnout in child abuse professionals. Subjects were 215 participants in a conference on sexual abuse victim treatment. We developed a questionnaire assessing a variety of cognitions related to work with human services clients. One of the findings was that job satisfaction showed no relation to items portraying simple optimism or pessimism about helping clients, but satisfaction was related to a number of cognitions that combined realism and hope in a distinctive fashion. The coping strategies of Planful Problem Solving, Positive Reappraisal, and Seeking Social Support were associated with positive work experience, and the coping mechanisms of Confrontive Coping, Escape/Avoidance, and Accepting Responsibility were associated with negative work experience. Job satisfaction was higher in subjects reporting a childhood history of sexual abuse or neglect.     

Mental health services: use and disparity among diverse college students

OBJECTIVE: In this empirical study, the authors examined (1) actual use of counseling for emotional problems and (2) the assumptions that ethnicity, sex, social class, and psychological distress are associated with disparities in use of counseling. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 1,773 diverse undergraduate students at an urban university. METHODS: The authors collected data via self-administered questionnaires between 1999 and 2005; they used a cross-sectional correlational research design, including analysis of variance statistical procedures. RESULTS: Students' level of counseling use (10%) was similar to that estimated for a national college sample. Students reporting higher levels of distress were more likely to use counseling; however, more than three-fourths of students who reported clinically significant levels of distress had not received counseling. CONCLUSIONS: The authors observed no disparities in use of mental health services in terms of sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.     

Life satisfaction in midlife childless and empty-nest men and women

The primary purpose of this study was to contrast the life satisfaction of midlife empty-nest and childless individuals. Seventy-two men and women reported on their satisfaction with 11 areas of life as well as with regard to children. Empty-nest individuals were more satisfied than childless persons with regard to their decisions regarding children; however, the childless individuals were not unhappy with their decisions. Empty-nest individuals were also more positive than childless individuals about contact with children. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to areas of life satisfaction not related to children; nor were there significant gender differences in life satisfaction. The results were discussed in relation to both theory and data concerning midlife satisfaction and adjustment.SMS AssociatesThe research was completed by James E. Bell in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the masters of counseling degree at Arizona State University.     

Expectations of Career Counseling and Their Effect on Client Satisfaction

Although there has been growing attention to clients' expectations of career counseling, more research is necessary to clarify the role of these expectations in shaping client satisfaction at the end of the intervention. On the basis of expectation confirmation theory, this study examined the indirect effect of clients' initial expectations on overall satisfaction through the perceived performance and final confirmation of expectations. We also explored whether this indirect effect is dependent on counselors' initial expectations. Longitudinal data were collected on 83 counselor-client dyads involved in a career counseling intervention in northeast Italy. Results confirmed that clients' initial expectations predicted overall satisfaction with the intervention through the subsequent mediation of perceived performance and confirmation of clients' expectations. The moderating role of the counselors' initial expectations was not confirmed. These findings imply that career counselors should invest their efforts in managing clients' expectations.     

A Simulation Game to Systematically Improve Relationship Communication*

The present study investigated a simulation game designed to improve relationship communication. Eight couples were treated for relationship difficulties by the use of the game. Before and after the game's use, the couples' communication behavior in the counseling sessions was sampled by audio recordings that were later rated by independent blind raters. The couples' out-of-session communication behavior was sampled by daily independent charting for a month before and after the game's use. A three-month follow-up of self-reported general relationship happiness and relationship communication satisfaction was included. Results indicated that in the counseling session sample, from pre- to post-game treatment, the couples' communication improved. The couples also recorded significant out-of-session communication improvements. Three-month follow-up indicated that the increases in general relationship happiness and relationship communication satisfaction were maintained.     

Attachment,Affective Responsiveness,and Cohesion in Adoptive Families: Child and Parent Perspectives

Some adoptive families are at risk for problems in family functioning. This study investigated the extent to which attachment to parents and affective responsiveness of the family predicted family cohesion and satisfaction with the adoptive family from both the child's and the parent's perspectives. Using a sample of 50 adopted children and their parents, our findings indicated that attachment to mother was salient in predicting children's perceptions of family cohesion and satisfaction with their adoptive family. Parental ratings of affective responsiveness of the family predicted parents' evaluation of family cohesion and their satisfaction with the adoption. As hypothesized, children and parents differed in their ratings of the cohesion and affective responsiveness of their family, with children reporting lower levels of these constructs than parents. Implications for practitioners and directions for future research are discussed.     

The role of client satisfaction in evaluating university counseling services

Though ubiquitously used for evaluating university counseling services, client satisfaction assessment has been hampered by inadequate instrumentation. Systematic use of a short form of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) in one such center over the past 5 years is described, together with strategies to ensure maximal accuracy and utilization of results. Several method factors were investigated. Optional respondent identification was not found to reduce response rate or increase reported satisfaction compared to anonymity, while a substudy obtaining very high response suggested bias from nonresponse to the routine survey (response rate = 40%) was not great. The CSQ was found to have excellent psychometric properties and many advantages for use in student service settings. Relationships between satisfaction and a number of other variables such as demographics, precounseling expectancies, problem type and severity, counselor differences, and duration of counseling are reported. Ways such findings were incorporated in service planning are briefly discussed.     

The Use of the Computer in Counseling College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a computer program in helping clients clarify their concerns and identify goals for behavior change, prior to their first session counselor. A counseling treatment consisting of three initial computer-interaction sessions, followed by two sessions with a counselor, was compared to a treatment consisting of five sessions with a counselor and no computer interaction, and to a no-contact control group. Participants were 46 college students. The two treatment groups achieved their self-determined goals, as measured by the Goal Attainment Scale (Kiresuk & Sherman, 1968), and reported similar levels of satisfaction with counseling than students working with the computer-based counseling system. It was concluded that computers may be effectively used as part of the counseling process, allowing for a more efficient use of the counselor's time. However, more research is needed to identify the type of counselor intervention needed to facilitate the acceptance of these systems by students.     

A Preliminary Study on the Effectiveness of the Chinese Career Key Online

The Chinese Career Key (CCK) Online was studied for its effectiveness and user satisfaction. Study participants were 92 students at a public high school in Hong Kong. The research findings provide preliminary evidence of reliability, validity, and user satisfaction for the CCK Online. Limitations and implications for future studies and counseling practice across cultures are discussed.     

Depressed Mood and Sexual Functioning

Abstract

Although some studies have reported substantial correlations between clinical depression and hypoactive sexual desire, thus far only a few studies have addressed the association between depressed mood and different facets of sexuality (such as sexual satisfaction, sexual activity and level of sexual problems) in close relationships. This study sought to fill this gap by examining 198 couples recruited through advertisement. The associations between depressed mood measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and sexuality within one person (actor effects) and between partners (partner effects) were analyzed using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model by Kenny and Cook (1999). Our findings show that actor effects of the BDI score on sexual experiences are somewhat higher than partner effects, and that depressed mood is mainly associated with one's own hyposexual desire, sexual aversion and sexual arousal problems. However, there were no substantial partner effects between depressed mood and sexual arousal problems.     

Unfair treatment, neighborhood effects, and mental health in the Detroit metropolitan area

Why do racial differences in many indicators of mental and emotional well-being show inconsistent patterns? We propose that mental and emotional well-being are influenced by aspects of the social context, including experiences of unfair treatment and the concentration of households with incomes below the poverty level, and that differential exposure to these factors influences racial differences in mental well-being. We analyze the reporting of psychological distress and life satisfaction in a multistage area probability sample of 1,139 African American and white residents of the Detroit metropolitan area aged 18 and older. Both psychological distress and life satisfaction are significantly associated with exposure to unfair treatment and with the proportion of households in the census block group that were below the poverty level. Racial differences in psychological distress and life satisfaction were eliminated or reversed once differentials in the percent of households living below the poverty line and exposure to unfair treatment were accounted for. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence that "race" effects operate through multiple pathways that include race-based residential segregation and its attendant economic disinvestment at the community level, and interpersonal experiences of unfair treatment.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Husbands' and Wives' Depressive Symptoms

Although concordance between husbands' and wives' mental health problems is often reported, questions remain about the nature of these relations. Extending research in this area, this study examined dynamic-longitudinal pathways among husbands' and wives' depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction as a moderator of associations. Participants were 296 heterosexual couples. Husbands and wives reported on their depressive symptoms and marital satisfaction. Results from dynamic bivariate latent difference score analyses indicated unidirectional longitudinal coupling such that higher levels of husbands' depressive symptoms predicted subsequent elevations in wives' depressive symptoms over time. This relation was stronger among couples reporting marital distress as compared to couples reporting higher marital satisfaction. The findings underscore the importance of considering one's spouses' depressive symptoms in treatment efforts.     

The Process of Problem Pregnancy Counseling

Abstract

Effective counseling for women experiencing an unwanted pregnancy can facilitate quality decision making and personal growth. Supportive counseling minimizes the trauma and the potential for emotional deterioration. Timely counseling augments a woman's coping ability with this current life crisis and provides her with a positive, growth-producing experience. A counseling process to accomplish these objectives is described. The concepts of crisis theory and active decision making are applied to the pertinent social, emotional, and medical ramifications of pregnancy, parenthood, and abortion. Subjective reporting and clinical experience indicate that women receiving such counseling are better able to deal with and resolve the crisis of unwanted pregnancy.     

Readiness to change, partner violence subtypes, and treatment outcomes among men in treatment for partner assault

Men court-mandated to attend a batterer's intervention program (BIP) were evaluated to determine whether pre-BIP readiness to change and the presence of partner violence subtypes predicted BIP completion, criminal recidivism, and postadjudication partner violence 6 months post-BIP. Of the 199 subject sample, 40% did not complete BIP. Four readiness-to-change clusters were found, with most men (76%) reporting change-resistant stages-of-change profiles. The partner violence typology reported by Holtzworth-Munroe et al. (2000) was supported with clustering into four subtypes: family only (FO), low-level antisocial (LLA), borderline/dysphoric (BD), and generally violent/antisocial (GVA). BIP completion was predicted by violence subtype (with BD and GVA more likely to drop out) but not by pre-BIP readiness to change. Men rearrested scored higher on the precontemplative stage of change and were more likely to be in the BD and GVA subtypes. Implications for counseling strategies are discussed.