BMC Psychology最新文献

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to the emergence of various forms of mutual aid. While prior research has demonstrated that mutual aid can contribute to participants' subjective well-being, the majority of these studies are qualitative and lack clear understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Using a questionnaire survey and structural equation modeling, this study finds that mutual aid significantly enhances the subjective well-being of participants in China. Bootstrap chained mediation analysis shows that this is mainly because mutual aid not only provides material resources to participants but also helps to expand their social networks, thereby enhancing their self-esteem and self-efficacy, and ultimately improving their subjective well-being. In the chain mediation mechanism, the total effect of social network is significantly higher than that of material resources. Our study identifies social psychological mechanisms by which mutual aid acts on participant's subjective well-being, and it has important implications for community governance.

Background: Mental disorders represent a significant global health concern, accounting for a substantial proportion of disabilities worldwide. Given its significance, it has consistently been a priority for health policy makers. The aim was to provide a comprehensive assessment of mental disorder-related policy events and related interventions in Iran.

Methods: A content analysis of the literature and published and unpublished official documents and local media as well as a comprehensive network analysis of the text taken from the main databases of laws and regulations and the official websites of ministries and institutions related to mental health in Iran from 1907 to 2024 were carried out. A co-occurrence network analysis and degree centrality measures were performed on the collected corpus.

Results: A total of 196 documents were identified. Following the removal of duplicate documents and content irrelevant to the topic of mental disorders, 131 documents were extracted. A substantial number of documents pertained to the years 1930-1978, which were concerned primarily with the admission and dispatch of patients to the mental health clinic and psychiatric hospitals and the financial aspects of the care and treatment of patients with mental disorders by the trustee organizations. Following the 1979 revolution, the focus shifted to the expansion of social and insurance support for these patients and their families.

Conclusions: The advancements related to severe mental disorders in Iran highlight the critical importance of public interventions in this field. Nevertheless, over the past century, no discernible pattern or coherence has been identified in this area between responsible agencies and ministries. Future policies related to mental disorders should be based on the principles of increasing community-based care, sustainable financing and economic and social support for mental disorders.

This study explores the impact of music therapy on emotional resilience, well-being, and employability. Through an 8-week music therapy intervention involving 256 participants, the results demonstrated that music therapy significantly enhanced participants' emotional resilience, which in turn improved their well-being and employability. A significant positive correlation was found between emotional resilience, well-being, and employability, with well-being mediating the relationship between emotional resilience and employability. Additionally, the study identified moderating effects of age and education level, revealing that younger individuals and those with higher education levels benefit more from emotional resilience in terms of well-being and employability. These findings suggest that music therapy is an effective intervention for enhancing emotional resilience and career development, with well-being playing a crucial role in this process. Future research should continue to investigate the long-term benefits of music therapy, explore its effects across diverse populations, and incorporate objective measures and longitudinal designs to validate and expand upon these findings.

Background: Breast cancer, a potential traumatic stressor, may be accompanied by positive changes, such as post-traumatic growth (PTG), which may allow patients to overcome this stressful event more easily. Our aim was to identify factors associated with PTG in breast cancer survivors (BCSs).

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in Seintinelles volunteers who answered online questionnaires. PTG was measured using the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). Data on sociodemographic, health-related factors and lifestyle habits, fear of cancer recurrence, health locus of control, coping strategies, and time perspective were collected.

Results: The study included 821 BCSs aged 26 to 79 years, one to 16 years after cancer diagnosis. Mean of PTG scores were: relating to others 20.27 ± 6.61; new possibilities 14.00 ± 5.44; personal strength 12.24 ± 4.32; spiritual change 2.95 ± 2.54; appreciation of life 10.59 ± 3.00 and total PTG 60.05 ± 18.11. Several factors were associated with PTG: health-related factors (satisfaction with one's own health, longer time since diagnosis), lifestyle habits (increasing physical activity level and stopping or reducing alcohol consumption after diagnosis), elements of locus of control (powerful others), coping strategies (positive thinking, seeking social support) and time perspective (present hedonistic), which were significantly positively associated with PTG. Chance locus of control and coping avoidance were inversely related to several PTG domains, even several years after diagnosis.

Conclusions: PTG may be increased in BCSs by acting on its modifiable factors. This includes adopting healthy behaviours, such as increasing physical activity and stopping/reducing alcohol consumption, and developing locus of control elements, such as powerful others, and coping strategies, such as positive thinking and seeking social support, through targeted interventions. Further studies, especially longitudinal studies, are needed to confirm the observed associations between health behaviours, health locus of control, time perspective, and PTG scores. Other measures, such as post-traumatic stress, should be considered because of possible inferences with PTG.

This study examines the interplay between humble teacher leadership and student creative process engagement, grounded in Social Exchange Theory and Self-Determination Theory. Additionally, it analyzes the sequential mediating roles of student trust and psychological empowerment, as well as the moderating effect of proactive personality. Data were collected at three time points from 384 participants across Chinese universities and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smart PLS 4.0 software. The findings reveal that humble teacher leadership significantly enhances students' participation in creative processes. Student trust and psychological empowerment serve as sequential mediators in the relationship between humble leadership and creative engagement. Moreover, the presence of a proactive personality notably strengthens the positive influence of humble teacher leadership on students' creative process engagement. By exploring the psychological states and individual differences, this research elucidates the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions between humble teacher leadership and students' creative engagement, providing theoretical foundations and practical guidelines for implementing humble leadership in educational settings.

Background: Students' psychological wellness is one of the key elements that improve their well-being and shape their academic progress in the realm of language learning. Among various strategies, physical exercise emerges as an effective approach, allowing learners to manage their emotions considerably.

Methods: Employing a quasi-experimental research design, this study examines the impact of a three-month physical running exercise intervention on emotional regulation behaviors among L1 (Arabic language) and L2 (English as a foreign language learning) students. Data was collected at three (pre-test, mid-test, and post-test) intervals, focusing cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) the key constructs of emotional regulation.

Findings: The results showed that the emotional regulation abilities of both groups were considerably impacted by the physical running exertion and differed significantly, with students' CR skills significantly improving and their ES decreasing over time. However, no significant interaction effect between time and (L1 and L2) groups' CR was observed, suggesting that physical exercise universally benefits cognitive reappraisal regardless of the language learning context. Conversely, a significant interaction effect was observed in students' ES, with L2 students experiencing more reduction compared to their L1 counterparts, highlighting the unique emotional challenges faced by L2 learners and the effectiveness of physical activity in mitigating these challenges.

Conclusion: The results highlight the importance of physical exercise in enhancing emotional regulation abilities among students, particularly in a second language learning context. Given this, regular physical activity programs should be incorporated into educational curricula to support students' emotional well-being and academic success. It further offers insightful recommendations for teachers, students, administrators, and policymakers to optimize physical exercise integration in higher education.

Background: Improving mental health within correctional facilities, specifically to address self-harm behaviors, is a crucial endeavor. However, significant challenges arise when implementing evidence-based programs within this complex setting. Despite these hurdles, the Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) program has garnered recognition, notably in the United States, for its efficacy in tackling such issues. This study aimed to examine inmate profiles in prisons located in Catalonia, Spain, and to investigate the STEPPS program's effectiveness and implementation process.

Method: Forty-one inmates participated in the study and completed measures covering self-harm behaviors, emotion regulation, impulsivity, mental health symptoms, and satisfaction with the intervention. Twenty-four professionals who implemented the STEPPS program completed satisfaction, normalization process, burnout, acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility measures.

Results: The results suggest that the STEPPS program significantly reduced symptoms of emotional dysregulation, motor impulsivity, and compulsive symptomatology among inmates. The intervention was well-received by professionals, and perceived as appropriate and feasible. The perception of feasibility decreased after implementation, likely due to contextual factors such as inmate and organization characteristics. Additionally, professionals remained committed to the implementation, dedicating time and effort to the process and engaging in thorough evaluations, without increasing their levels of burnout.

Conclusions: These findings deepen the understanding of self-harm behaviors in prisons, highlighting the program STEPPS as promising approach for addressing self-harm. However, improvements in the STEPPS program are still necessary to enhance its implementation in this setting.

Trial registration: NCT06297460 (ClinicalTrials.gov, retrospectively registered, 2022/01/01).

Background: Reduced well-being and depressive episodes frequently complicate pregnancy and can result in serious adverse outcomes for both mother and infant if left untreated. This study aimed to assess the psychometric validity of the 5-item World Health Organization index (WHO-5), and to evaluate if the WHO-5 index can serve as a proxy for two items of core depressive symptoms from the Major Depression Inventory (MDI), identified as MDI-2. Additionally, the paper aimed to assess well-being and detect risk factors of reduced well-being using the WHO-5 index.

Methods: Using the WHO-5 index, this study analyzed the psychological well-being of a population of 37,129 women in their first trimester of pregnancy. The psychometric validity of the WHO-5 index was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. Furthermore, cut-off scores of the WHO-5 index previously associated with mental distress, ≤ 50 and ≤ 28, were evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive- and negative predictive values compared to the MDI-2 in a subsample of n = 1001 women.

Results: Lower mean score on the WHO-5 index was seen among pregnant women ≤ 25 years old, with lower educational level, who were unemployed, nulliparous, did not understand Danish language, were not cohabitating, were smokers, and women who did not exercise prior to pregnancy. The WHO-5 index was found to be a valid psychometric instrument, however, scores could not be pooled or compared across women who understood Danish and women who did not understand Danish. The sensitivity and specificity of cut-off score of ≤ 50 on the WHO-5 index with a for predicting the presence of one core symptom from the MDI-2 was 0.81 and 0.82, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity using a cut-off of ≤ 28 was 0.32 and 0.98, respectively.

Conclusions: The WHO-5 index had high degree of acceptability and identified well-known risk factors of mental distress in a pregnant population. The WHO-5 index was found to be a valid psychometric instrument in pregnancy, however, our analysis indicated low predictive value of the investigated cut-off scores on the WHO-5 index in identification of MDI-2 core symptoms.

Background: Enhancing and maintaining well-being is of great importance for university students to improve their future lives. Therefore, determining the factors that promote well-being is essential. This study aimed to examine the mediating roles of optimism and pessimism in the association between future anxiety and well-being after controlling gender, age, faculty, and department.

Methods: 1024 undergraduate students participated in the study. The mean age of students was 20.27 years (SD = 2.02). Preliminary analyses were conducted to determine descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, normality, and correlation coefficients between study variables. Mediation analyses were performed to investigate the mediating roles of optimism and pessimism in the association between future anxiety and well-being.

Results: The results of the study showed that future anxiety was positively associated with pessimism, and negatively associated with optimism, positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Optimism had a positive relationship with the constructs of well-being model, and pessimism had a negative relationship with the pillars of well-being. Optimism and pessimism served as mediators in the link between future anxiety and well-being.

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that students who are anxious about the future are less optimistic and more pessimistic, which in turn leads to lower well-being. The current study suggests that future-oriented thinking and individual strengths, including optimism, should be incorporated into the mental health management of university administrations to promote the well-being of university students.

Children are expected to outlive and live longer than their parents. However, the traumatic death of a child challenges parents' understanding of life and death. If parents are unable to form their own perceptions of death after such a loss, it can hinder their ability to cope and adjust. This study aims to explore parents' perceptions of death following the traumatic death of a child. To recruit participants, an online advertisement was posted on the websites of Finnish bereavement organizations, their member mailing lists, and closed discussion groups. The study consisted of two phases. In the initial phase, 66 parents responded to open-ended questions via the LimeSurvey platform. Subsequently, 17 parents were interviewed in-depth over the phone. The findings were analyzed using thematic analysis. The perceptions of parents who had experienced the traumatic death of a child included death is universal, awakening or preparing for their own death, reunion in death, death and spiritual growth, and death is unjustified. These findings highlight the importance of providing support to parents following the traumatic death of a child, which can help them reconstruct perceptions of death and better adapt to their loss.