Neonatal experience interacts with adult social stress to alter acute and chronic Theiler’s virus infection

Previous research has shown that neonatal handling has prolonged protective effects associated with stress resilience and aging, yet little is known about its effect on stress-induced modulation of infectious disease. We have previously demonstrated that social disruption stress exacerbates the acute and chronic phases of the disease when applied prior to Theiler’s virus infection (PRE-SDR) whereas it attenuates disease severity when applied concurrently with infection (CON-SDR). Here, we asked whether neonatal handling would protect adult mice from the detrimental effects of PRE-SDR and attenuate the protective effects of CON-SDR on Theiler’s virus infection. As expected, handling alone decreased IL-6 and corticosterone levels, protected the non-stressed adult mice from motor impairment throughout infection and reduced antibodies to myelin components (PLP, MBP) during the autoimmune phase of disease. In contrast, neonatal handling X PRE/CON-SDR elevated IL-6 and reduced corticosterone as well as increased motor impairment during the acute phase of the infection. Neonatal handling X PRE/CON-SDR continued to exacerbate motor impairment during the chronic phase, whereas only neonatal handling X PRE-SDR increased in antibodies to PLP, MOG, MBP and TMEV. Together, these results imply that while handling reduced the severity of later Theiler’s virus infection in non-stressed mice, brief handling may not be protective when paired with later social stress.     

大学生的压力知觉、情绪智力、心理弹性对生活满意度的影响

目的探讨大学生的压力知觉、情绪智力、心理弹性对生活满意度的关系和作用机制。方法采用压力知觉量表、情绪智力量表、成人心理弹性量表和生活满意度量表对485名大学生进行施测。结果①大学生压力知觉与情绪智力、心理弹性、生活满意度均呈显著负相关(r=-0.60,-0.50,-0.40;P0.01);情绪智力、心理弹性与生活满意度呈显著正相关(r=0.33,0.38;P0.01);②压力知觉不仅可以直接预测生活满意度,还可以通过情绪智力、心理弹性起间接预测作用。结论情绪智力、心理弹性分别在压力知觉与主观幸福感之间起部分中介作用。压力知觉→情绪智力→心理弹性→生活满意度的路径也显著。     

伤残接受度与心理弹性对喉癌永久性气管造瘘患者病耻感影响的路径分析

目的探讨伤残接受度与心理弹性对喉癌永久性气管造瘘患者病耻感影响,并分析其影响路径。方法采用便利抽样法,选取2016年6—2018年8月在广西医科大学附属肿瘤医院住院部及门诊部就诊的喉癌永久性气管造瘘患者264例为研究对象。采用社会影响量表(SIS)、伤残接受度量表(AODS)、心理弹性量表(CD-RISC10)对其进行调查,对三者进行相关性分析并建立结构方程模型进行路径分析。发放264份调查问卷,有效回收256份。结果256例永久性气管造瘘患者病耻感、伤残接受度、心理弹性总分分别为(61.50±9.27)、(76.88±9.34)、(26.49±4.05)分。相关性分析显示,伤残接受度、心理弹性得分与病耻感呈负相关(P<0.01)。结构方程模型分析表明,喉癌气管造瘘患者伤残接受度和心理弹性对病耻感具有直接效应(β值分别为-0.43、-0.28),伤残接受度通过心理弹性间对病耻感的间接效应为-0.06。结论喉癌永久性气管造瘘患者病耻感水平较高,伤残接受度与心理弹性对病耻感有显著预测作用。     

Systems biology of resilience and optimal health:integrating Chinese and Western medicine pe8rspectives

Western science has been strong in measuring details of biological systems such as gene expression levels and metabolite concentrations, and has generally followed a bottom up approach with regard to explaining biological phenomena. Chinese medicine in contrast has evolved as a top down approach in which body and mind is seen as a whole, a phenomenological approach based on the organization and dynamics of symptom patterns. Western and Chinese perspectives are developing towards a ‘middle out’ approach. Chinese medicine diagnosis, we will argue, allows bridging the gap between biologists and psychologists and offers new opportunities for the development of health monitoring tools and health promotion strategies. In this paper, health, resilience and stress concepts are explored from an integrated systems biology perspective. This is followed by a discussion about measuring aspects of health and resilience. Then the issue of how to integrate different types of data is discussed. Semi-quantitative modeling appears to be very suitable and looks promising for building integrated health models. The challenge for the future lies in applying those models in developing personalized health monitoring and advice systems that will tempt people to lead more healthy lives.     

From liability to challenge: Complex environments are associated with favorable psychosocial outcomes in adolescent sport participants

This study aimed to identify different groups of adolescents who have distinct profiles based upon their perceptions of interpersonal and activity-based dimensions of the sport environment. A sample of 310 adolescents from Eastern Canada (M_age = 14.69 ± 1.60 years; 54.8% girls) completed questionnaires assessing selected interpersonal, activity-based, demographic and sport-specific variables. Using TwoStep Cluster Analysis, we identified three groupings of adolescent sport participants. Consistent with the literature, we labeled these groups ‘negative context,’ ‘positive context,’ and ‘complex context,’ respectively. As expected, participants in the last two groups reported greater enjoyment, perceived competence, and commitment to sport. Further, participants in the ‘complex context’ group showed the highest levels of sport commitment. We draw on insights from Csikszentmihalyi's theory of complexity and relational conceptions of compensation and resilience to interpret the findings, and offer an alternative account of contextual conditions suitable for adolescents involved in competitive sport.     

Psychosocial Wellbeing of Children in Care: A Longitudinal Study of Outcomes

This paper will report research on outcomes of long term foster care from the first 4 years of a 7 year longitudinal study of foster care placements. The study uses a prospective, repeated measures design, incorporating quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Standardized measures, for which general population normative data are available, are used in the study, including the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist. The needs and achievements of 59 children and responses of caseworkers, carers and teachers to these were assessed at different stages of the placement. Data from personal interviews with children over 8 years and with respective foster carers and caseworkers of all children in the sample indicate that despite concerns related to placement stability, academic performance and emotional and social development, children in this sample progressed in domains such as family and social relationships and prosocial behaviours as they progressed over time in their care placements. The results at initial assessments reflected a high prevalence rate of internalising and externalising problems, and improved scores and adaptive functioning at later assessments as they progressed in permanent placements illustrating some positive effects from the care experience. Results from teachers’ comparative assessments of the children in care and a comparison group lend support to the resilience literature that views the school environment and educational process as affording structure, boundaries and security to children in care systems and enhancing their wellbeing. The voices of children add an important dimension to the study bringing into the research their lived experience. Strategies to promote resilient outcomes and facilitate children’s wellbeing in care are also discussed.     

Don't let the suffering make you fade away: An ethnographic study of resilience among survivors of genocide-rape in southern Rwanda

Rape has been used in contemporary armed conflicts to inflict physical, psychological, cultural and social damage. In endeavoring to address the psychological damage of collective violence, some researchers and global health practitioners are turning toward post-conflict mental health promotion approaches that centrally feature resilience. Though previous findings from resilience and coping research are robust, few studies have actually investigated resilience among genocide-rape survivors in cultural context in non-Western settings. This paper presents ethnographic data gathered over 14 months (September 2005 to November 2006) in southern Rwanda on resilience among genocide-rape survivors who were members of two women's genocide survivor associations. Study methods included a content analysis of a stratified purposive sample of 44 semi-structured interviews, as well as participant-, and non-participant-observation. Resilience among genocide-rape survivors in this context was found to be shaped by the cultural-linguistic specific concepts of kwihangana (withstanding), kwongera kubaho (living again), and gukomeza ubuzima (continuing life/health), and comprised of multiple sociocultural processes that enabled ongoing social connection with like others in order to make meaning, establish normalcy, and endure suffering in daily life. The results of this research show that the process of resilience among genocide-rape survivors was the same regardless of whether genocide survivor association membership was organized around the identity of genocide-rape survivorship or the identity of widowhood. However, the genocide-rape survivors' association members were more involved with directing resilience specifically toward addressing problems associated with genocide-rape compared to the members of the genocide widows' association. The findings from this research suggest that ethnographic methods can be employed to support resilience-based post-conflict mental health promotion efforts through facilitating collective sexual violence survivors to safely socially connect around their shared experiences of rape, neutralizing social threats of stigma and marginalization.