Stress and Health最新文献

Stressors arising from the current COVID-19 pandemic have pernicious effects on relational functioning. However, the systemic transactional model (STM) addresses the buffering role of dyadic coping in couples' relationships. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the possible buffering role of dyadic coping and investigate the negative consequences of external stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and internal stressors on relationship satisfaction and intimacy on within- and between-person levels. Data were collected from 100 couples through daily diary questions over 14 consecutive days. The mean age for females was 32.45 years (SD = 8.11), and for males, it was 34.79 years (SD = 8.79). The findings showed several significant within-person moderation effects. Specifically, simple slope analysis revealed that the associations between internal stress and relationship satisfaction, and intimacy were positive for both partners who reported particularly more dyadic coping on a given day. Conversely, interaction effect of dyadic coping with external stress has not been found significant on within-person level. Between-person effects revealed that dyadic coping buffers the negative association between external stress and relational outcomes and the negative effect of internal stress. The current study expanded the literature of the STM of dyadic coping within the context of an acute external crisis. In line with STM predictions, couples may benefit from interventions focused on enhancing coping strategies to navigate major and minor stressors, especially during significant life challenges, thereby maintaining high relationship quality.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is a prolonged stress and anxiety response that occurs after exposure to a traumatic event. Research shows that both parental and child posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are correlated but parental executive functions (EFs) could buffer this link. EFs refers to a group of high-level cognitive processes that enable self-regulation of thoughts and actions to achieve goal-directed behaviours and can be of importance for both positive parenting interactions and effective coping skills for PTSS. Our study aimed to (1) examine the link between maternal and child PTSS and the moderating role of varying degrees of exposure to severe security threats context, and (2) to identify the moderating role of maternal EFs in this interaction, among families living in southern Israel. Our sample included 131 mothers in their second pregnancy and their firstborn children. Mothers performed computerised tasks to assess their EFs and they reported on their own and their child's PTSS. Results revealed a positive correlation between maternal PTSS and child PTSS. However, the link between maternal and child PTSS was moderated by maternal working memory updating abilities and threat context severity. Among mothers with lower updating capacities, the association between maternal and child symptoms was stronger under higher threat contexts; conversely, among mothers with higher maternal updating abilities, threat context did not modulate the link between maternal and child PTSS, suggesting a stress-buffering effect. Our study contributes to the growing literature on the significant role of parental EFs in the context of parent-child interactions.

Military personnel are often exposed to high levels of both physical and psychological challenges in their work environment and therefore it is important to be trained on how to handle stressful situations. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether military-specific virtual battle space (VBS) scenarios could elicit a physiological and subjective stress response in healthy military personnel, as compared to that of a virtual reality height exposure (VR-HE) stress task that has shown to reliably increase stress levels. Twenty participants engaged in two VBS scenarios and the VR-HE during separate sessions, while measurements of heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), respiration rate, and subjective stress levels were collected. Contrary to our initial expectations, analysis revealed that neither of the VBS scenarios induced a significant stress response, as indicated by stable HR, HRV, and low subjective stress levels. However, the VR-HE task did elicit a significant physiological stress response, evidenced by increased HR and HRV changes, aligning with previous research findings. Moreover, no discernible alterations were detected in cognitive performance subsequent to these stressors. These results suggest that the current VBS scenarios, despite their potential, may not be effective for stress-related training activities within military settings. The absence of a significant stress response in the VBS conditions points to the need for more immersive and engaging scenarios. By integrating interactive and demanding elements, as well as physical feedback systems and real-time communication, VBS training might better mimic real-world stressors and improve stress resilience in military personnel. The findings of this study have broader implications for stress research and training, suggesting the need for scenario design improvements in virtual training environments to effectively induce stress and improve stress management across various high-stress professions.

Research has demonstrated that encounters of potentially moral injurious events (PMIEs) may result in longstanding psychological trauma that impact healthcare workers' mental health and well-being. In this paper, we explore strategies to alleviate PMIEs for medical social workers. In-depth semi-structured interviews (30-60 min) were conducted with medical social workers (n = 75) across the state of Texas. Supported by directed content analysis, textual data were coded and categorised to finalize emerging themes. Findings demonstrate that multilevel strategies ought to be implemented into daily healthcare practice. PMIEs that impact frontline healthcare delivery can be alleviated by having formal and informal support systems (e.g., mentorship, supervision, counselling) as well as honest and transparent interprofessional collaborative care to facilitate psychological team safety. PMIEs across the healthcare organisation, perhaps due to internal policies and practices, may be reduced by implementing educational initiatives and building ethical workplace cultures that serve to explicitly reduce stigma associated with mental health and enhance worker well-being. PMIEs that derive from macro-level social policies (e.g., insurance, health disparities) may be alleviated by instituting patient advocacy initiatives and dismantling systems of oppression to lessen psychological stress and trauma. Hospital leadership ought to understand how the United States healthcare industry triggers PMIEs across the healthcare workforce. Multi-tiered practices and policies that addresses frontline delivery care, leadership and administrative responsibilities, and the healthcare industry can enhance psychologically safe workplaces and elicit macro-level institutional reform in how health systems function. These findings have important implications for healthcare policy makers, practitioners, educators, and researchers to inform future research and practice development.

Parental stress can affect the ability of parents to cope with the challenges of raising children. The result can be a negative cycle within the family dynamic, which in turn can interfere with children's development and emotional regulation. Among the many instruments available to assess parental stress, the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) deserves particular mention. To our knowledge, there are currently no systematic reviews evaluating the psychometric properties of the PSS. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the psychometric properties of the PSS using the COSMIN (COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments) methodology and to conduct a meta-analysis. A thorough literature search was conducted from different databases. A meta-analysis to test the generalisability of PSS internal consistency across its component factors was performed. A total of 20 validation studies of the PSS were identified. Based on the COSMIN methodology, this instrument receives an 'A' rating, meaning that it is considered to be a cross-sectional instrument with the necessary scientific evidence for the assessment of the construct of parental stress. The meta-analysis testing the generalisability of its internal consistency yielded satisfactory results across the different factors. Future research should focus on those psychometric properties of the PSS that have not been studied as extensively, such as reproducibility, responsiveness, measurement error, and measurement invariance.

There is increasing interest in identifying how posttraumatic growth (PTG) impacts emotional processing following traumatic events (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Previous research suggests that high PTG levels may lead to enduring changes in positive emotional processing. Despite this fact, little is known regarding brain activation and responses to stressful emotional stimuli. The present study utilised event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether individual differences in emotional responses toward neutral and negative emotional stimuli related to COVID-19 are related to self-reported PTG levels. A total of 77 participants were analysed: 21 in the high PTG group and 56 in the control group. The amplitude of the N2 was smaller in the high PTG group compared to the control group under both negative and neutral conditions. When viewing the negative emotion pictures (vs. neutral pictures), the N2 amplitude significantly decreased for the high PTG group in the right occipital and frontal-parietal areas, whereas no significant change was observed among the control group. In the time window Late Positive Potential (LPP) 600-1000 ms, emotional stimuli and the group interaction were significant. Viewing negative pictures (vs. neutral pictures) decreased the LPP 600-1000 ms amplitudes for the control group, mainly originating from the brain's frontal regions. However, there were no such significant differences for the PTG group. Due to the limited sample size and cultural differences, the applicability of these results to other regions or countries needs to be verified. The presented findings suggest that the impact of PTG during emotional response is reflected in both bottom-up (evidenced by the early ERP components) and top-down (evidenced by the later ERP components) processes. Individuals with high PTG may use a meditation-related emotional regulation strategy of acceptance at the basic stage and non-judgement at a later stage.

The associations of suicidality with stress are poorly studied in schizophrenia. The study aimed to determine whether suicidality was correlated with perceived chronic stress and the cortisol fluctuations under stress tasks in schizophrenia. High suicidality was defined as a lifetime history of suicide attempts or suicidal ideation in the past 2 weeks. Individuals with schizophrenia and high suicidality (SZ-HS, n = 59), with low suicidality (SZ-LS, n = 207), and healthy controls (HC, n = 196) finished the Perceived Stress Scale. Then, they participated in an experiment that induced stress using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task and the Mirror Tracing Persistence Task. Negative affect was measured at baseline and after finishing each task. The salivary cortisol was collected before-, after 20 min, and after 40 min of the tasks. SZ-HS had elevated perceived stress than SZ-LS and HC. Mixed effect models showed that stress tasks induced cortisol changes in all groups; cortisol of SZ-LS was reduced more than HC, but SZ-HS and SZ-LS did not differ in cortisol fluctuations. SZ-HS and SZ-LS experienced similar negative affect changes during tasks and the difference in withdrawal rates was nonsignificant. SZ-HS had an increased error rate than SZ-LS. In conclusion, suicidality was correlated with high-level perceived stress but did not result in differences in cortisol reactivities under stress tasks. It suggests the inconsistency between appraisal of stress and biological stress system disturbance among SZ-HS compared to SZ-LS.

Perceived control (PC) is associated with lower perceived stress, but the mechanisms of this relationship have not yet been established. The current study examined whether moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) mediated the relationship between PC and daily stress in a sample of US adults. Participants (N = 264, M_age = 34.08, 61.4% female) completed a baseline measure of two dimensions of PC (i.e., mastery and constraints), followed by 11 days of daily surveys that assessed daily MVPA and perceived stress. We employed linear mixed effects modelling to estimate the within-and between-person indirect effects (IE) of MVPA on the relationships between each dimension of PC and daily perceived stress. Greater PC (i.e., higher mastery and lower constraints) was associated with a higher frequency of MVPA engagement, and participants reported lower levels of end-of-day perceived stress on the days in which they had engaged in MVPA. We observed within-person mediating effects of MVPA on the relationship between both PC dimensions and daily stress (mastery: within-person IE = -0.03, 95% CI: [-0.06, -0.01]; constraints: within-person IE = 0.03, 95% CI: [0.01, 0.06]). These findings suggest that MVPA is a potential mechanism through which US adults with greater PC experience reduced levels of daily stress. The current study illuminates a key pathway for the stress-reducing impact of PC to inform future research and interventions targeting stress and its associated sequelae.

Compared to research about the effects of work-related interpersonal experiences on employee behaviours at home, research on whether and how home-related interpersonal experiences can affect employee behaviours at work has received less attention. This study aimed to contribute to this literature by examining whether interpersonal conflict at home can predict employee silence through exhaustion at work. The moderating effect of affective commitment on the relationship between interpersonal conflict at home and exhaustion was also explored. Using a two-wave design with data from 246 full-time employees, the current study found that interpersonal conflict at home positively predicted employee silence through exhaustion at work. Further, affective commitment exacerbated the relationship between interpersonal conflict at home and exhaustion at work. Our findings extend the understanding of mediating and moderating mechanisms for the effect of negative experiences at home on work behaviours.