scholarly journals Prevalence and Co-Occurrence of Internalizing and Externalizing Depression Symptoms in a Community Sample of Australian Male Truck Drivers

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon M. Rice ◽  
Helen M. Aucote ◽  
Dina Eleftheriadis ◽  
Anne Maria Möller-Leimkühler

Trucking industry employees are known to be at risk of elevated levels of stress and a range of behaviors that may compromise their mental health. Clinical reports indicate that in response to negative emotional states, men tend to engage in a cluster of externalizing behaviors including irritability, anger and aggression, risk taking, and substance misuse. However, as such symptoms fall outside standard diagnostic depression criteria, the diagnosis and treatment of depression in men may be impeded. The present exploratory study reports retrospective symptom ratings of internalizing and externalizing depression symptoms from 91 Australian male truck drivers. Moderate correlation between externalizing and internalizing symptoms was reported across the sample, though internalizing symptoms were reported more frequently. However, consistent with prediction, those meeting probable depression caseness ( n = 20) reported three times the number of externalizing symptoms relative to those in the nonclinical group (Cohen’s d = 1.31). Externalizing symptoms may be a particular phenotypic feature of depression in men, and assessment of such symptoms may assist in the detection of those unwilling to disclose typical internalizing symptoms (i.e., sadness, hopelessness). Results also highlight the need for targeted research into stress-related and mental health outcomes of men in high health risk occupations such as truck driving.

Author(s):  
Ruth Speidel ◽  
Emma Galarneau ◽  
Danah Elsayed ◽  
Shahdah Mahhouk ◽  
Joanne Filippelli ◽  
...  

Refugee children who experience severe pre-migratory adversity often show varying levels of mental health upon resettlement. Thus, it is critical to identify the factors that explain which refugee children experience more vs. less healthy outcomes. The present study assessed child social–emotional capacities (i.e., emotion regulation, sympathy, optimism, and trust) as potential moderators of associations between child, parental, and familial pre-migratory adversities and child mental health (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) upon resettlement. Participants were N = 123 five- to 12-year-old Syrian refugee children and their mothers living in Canada. Children and mothers reported their pre-migratory adverse life experiences, and mothers reported their children’s current social–emotional capacities, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms. Greater familial (i.e., the sum of children’s and their mother’s) pre-migratory adversity was associated with higher child internalizing and externalizing symptoms upon resettlement. Higher emotion regulation and optimism were associated with lower internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and higher sympathy was associated with lower externalizing symptoms. In contrast, higher trust was associated with higher internalizing symptoms. Finally, higher child optimism buffered against the positive association between familial pre-migratory adversity and child internalizing symptoms. In sum, select social–emotional capacities may serve as potential protective factors that support mental health and buffer against the deleterious effects of pre-migratory adversity in refugee children.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Craig ◽  
Christina Lauren Robillard ◽  
Brianna Turner ◽  
Megan E. Ames

Purpose: This study examines the indirect effect of affect dysregulation and suppression on the associations between family stress from confinement, maltreatment, and adolescent mental health during COVID-19. We examined both adolescent and caregiver perspectives to yield a more well-rounded understanding of these associations. Methods: Using both adolescent (N = 809, Mage = 15.66) and caregiver (N = 578) samples, exposure to physical and psychological maltreatment, family stress from confinement, affect dysregulation, suppression, and youth externalizing and internalizing symptoms were measured in the summer of 2020, following three months of stay at home orders due to COVID-19. Results: We found that affect dysregulation partially accounted for the associations between family stress and psychological maltreatment on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms for youth and parent report. Suppression partially accounted for the associations between family stress and maltreatment on internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the youth sample, but only for internalizing symptoms in the caregiver sample. Conclusion: Understanding the family predictors of adolescents’ mental health concerns, and their underlying mechanisms, affect dysregulation and suppression, can help us target mental health interventions during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.


Assessment ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Mullin ◽  
Emmaly L. Perks ◽  
Dustin A. Haraden ◽  
Hannah R. Snyder ◽  
Benjamin L. Hankin

Adolescence is a period of high risk for the emergence of problems with anxiety and depression. Theory and research suggest that executive function deficits accompany internalizing and externalizing problems, although more evidence is required to understand these relationships. This study employed a commonly used rating scale of executive function, the Brief Rating Inventory of Executive Function, and examined relationships with self- and parent-reported internalizing and externalizing problems among a community sample of 299 adolescents. The sample was 56.2% female, with a mean age of 16.22 years ( SD = 2.36 years). Analyses revealed strong associations between poorer self- and parent-reported executive function skills and the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms. Problems with executive function were also associated with externalizing symptoms. These results indicate that subjective ratings of executive function capture important aspects of cognitive problems that are highly relevant to adolescent psychopathology in a transdiagnostic fashion.


Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Moreno-Manso ◽  
Mª. Elena García-Baamonde ◽  
Eloísa Guerrero-Barona ◽  
Mª. José Godoy-Merino ◽  
Mónica Guerrero-Molina ◽  
...  

AbstractThis research analyses the internalizing and externalizing symptoms and the coping strategies of young victims of abuse. These young people are in residential care under protective measures due to abuse. The participants were 61 youths (32 male and 29 female) between 12 and 17 years of age. Different works of research stress the need for an early identification of the psychopathological symptomatology that these adolescents may present in order to provide an adequate psycho-educational intervention. The relationship between the adolescents’ psychopathological symptomatology and the coping strategies and styles they use to resolve problems is studied. It is also analyzed whether internalizing and externalizing problems predict the style and coping strategies of adolescents. Two tests were used: 1. Child and Adolescent Evaluation System (SENA); 2. Adolescent Coping Scales (ACS). The results indicate that young victims of abuse have internalizing and externalizing symptoms. These adolescents are characterized by an unproductive coping style, as well as by the use of coping strategies that are not very functional and ineffective for resolving conflicts. The psychopathological symptomatology is related to and predicts an unproductive coping style, badly adapted to solving daily problems (worrying, blaming oneself, not coping, ignoring the problem, or keeping it to oneself). This research has allowed us to identify the presence of several areas of vulnerability in these young persons which could be playing an important role in their psychosocial maladjustment. The research suggests the design of intervention strategies, for both groups and individuals, aimed at mitigating and modifying the sources of the problems in victims of child abuse.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Ivar Snorrason ◽  
Courtney Beard ◽  
Andrew D. Peckham ◽  
Thröstur Björgvinsson

Abstract Background Hierarchical structural models of psychopathology rarely extend to obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. The current study sought to examine the higher-order structure of the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) in DSM-5: obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), hoarding disorder (HD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder; HPD) and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (SPD). Methods Adult patients in a partial hospital program (N = 532) completed a dimensional measure of the five OCRDs. We used confirmatory factor analysis to identify the optimal model of the comorbidity structure. We then examined the associations between the transdiagnostic factors and internalizing and externalizing symptoms (i.e. depression, generalized anxiety, neuroticism, and drug/alcohol cravings). Results The best fitting model included two correlated higher-order factors: an obsessions-compulsions (OC) factor (OCD, BDD, and HD), and a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) factor (HPD and SPD). The OC factor, not the BFRB factor, had unique associations with internalizing symptoms (standardized effects = 0.42–0.66) and the BFRB factor, not the OC factor, had small marginally significant unique association with drug/alcohol cravings (standardized effect = 0.22, p = 0.088). Conclusions The results mirror findings from twin research and indicate that OCD, BDD, and HD share liability that is significantly associated with internalizing symptoms, but this liability may be relatively less important for BFRBs. Further research is needed to better examine the associations between BFRBs and addictive disorders.


2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jane Hardes

The positive relationship between exercise and mental health is often taken for granted in today’s society, despite the lack of academic literature evidencing this symbiosis. Gender is considered a significant determinant in a number of mental health diagnoses. Indeed, women are considered twice as likely as men to experience the most pervasive mental health condition, depression. Exercise for women’s mental health is promoted through various macrolevel charity, as well as microlevel, campaigns that influence government healthcare policy and National Health Service guidelines. Indeed, ‘exercise prescriptions’ in the treatment of depression is not uncommon. Yet, this link between exercise as a treatment for women’s mental health has not always been so pervasive. In fact, an examination of asylum reports and medical journals from the late 19th century highlights a significant shift in attitude towards the role of exercise in the treatment of women’s emotional states and mental health. This paper specifically examines how this treatment of women’s mental health through exercise has moved from what might be regarded as a focus on exercise as a ‘cause’ of women’s mental ailments to exercise promoted as a ‘cure’. Unpacking the changing medical attitudes towards exercise for women in line with larger sociopolitical and historic contexts reveals that while this shift towards exercise promotion might prima facie appear as a less essentialist view of women and their mental and physical states, it inevitably remains tied to larger policy and governance agendas. New modes of exercise ‘treatment’ for women’s mental health are not politically neutral and, thus, what appear to emerge as forms of liberation are, in actuality, subtler forms of regulation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dzenana Kartal ◽  
Nathan Alkemade ◽  
Litza Kiropoulos

This study examined the relationship between traumatic exposure, host language acquisition and mental health (posttraumatic stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms) in long-term resettled refugees. Participants included a community sample of Bosnian refugees ( N = 138, 55% male, mean age of 40 years old) that had resettled in Australia and Austria on average 18 years prior. Two mediation models were tested based on two competing theories. Model A examined whether language acquisition mediates the relationship between traumatic exposure and mental health problems experienced by refugees. Model B examined whether mental health symptoms mediate the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and the acquisition of host language. Model A fit the data well (CFI = 1.00, SRMR = .017, RMSEA < .001, χ2 p = .526), while Model B was rejected as an acceptable model for the data (CFI = .556, SRMR = .136, RMSEA = .352). In Model A, the indirect pathway from trauma to mental health via language acquisition was significant for PTSD ( β = .067, p = .028) and anxiety symptoms ( β = .063, p = .026) but not depression symptoms ( β = .048, p = .071). Intervention strategies aimed at improving host language acquisition may be important not only in successful adaptation to daily living in the host country, but also to improve the mental health of traumatized refugees.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110653
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M Westrupp ◽  
Christopher J Greenwood ◽  
Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz ◽  
Craig A Olsson ◽  
Emma Sciberras ◽  
...  

Objective: To control a second-wave COVID-19 outbreak, the state of Victoria in Australia experienced one of the world’s first long and strict lockdowns over July–October 2020, while the rest of Australia experienced ‘COVID-normal’ with minimal restrictions. We (1) investigate trajectories of parent/child mental health outcomes in Victoria vs non-Victoria and (2) identify baseline demographic, individual and COVID-19-related factors associated with mental health trajectories. Methods: Online community sample of 2004 Australian parents with rapid repeated assessment over 14 time-points over April 2020 to May 2021. Measures assessed parent mental health (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-21), child depression symptoms (13-item Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and child anxiety symptoms (four items from Brief Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale). Results: Mental health trajectories shadowed COVID-19 infection rates. Victorians reported a peak in mental health symptoms at the time of the second-wave lockdown compared to other states. Key baseline predictors, including parent and child loneliness (standardized regression coefficient [β] = 0.09–0.46), parent/child diagnoses (β = 0.07–0.21), couple conflict (β = 0.07–0.18) and COVID-19 stressors, such as worry/concern about COVID-19, illness and loss of job (β = 0.12–0.15), predicted elevated trajectories. Effects of predictors on parent and child mental health trajectories are illustrated in an online interactive app for readers ( https://lingtax.shinyapps.io/CPAS_trend/ ). Conclusion: Our findings provide evidence of worse trajectories of parent and child mental health symptoms at a time coinciding with a second COVID-19 outbreak involving strict lockdown in Victoria, compared to non-locked states in Australia. We identified several baseline factors that may be useful in detecting high-risk families who are likely to require additional support early on in future lockdowns.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Koffel ◽  
M. D. Kramer ◽  
P. A. Arbisi ◽  
C. R. Erbes ◽  
M. Kaler ◽  
...  

Background.Research suggests that personality traits have both direct and indirect effects on the development of psychological symptoms, with indirect effects mediated by stressful or traumatic events. This study models the direct influence of personality traits on residualized changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms following a stressful and potentially traumatic deployment, as well as the indirect influence of personality on symptom levels mediated by combat exposure.Method.We utilized structural equation modeling with a longitudinal prospective study of 522 US National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq. Analyses were based on self-report measures of personality, combat exposure, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms.Results.Both pre-deployment Disconstraint and externalizing symptoms predicted combat exposure, which in turn predicted internalizing and externalizing symptoms. There was a significant indirect effect for pre-deployment externalizing symptoms on post-deployment externalizing via combat exposure (p< 0.01). Negative Emotionality and pre-deployment internalizing symptoms directly predicted post-deployment internalizing symptoms, but both were unrelated to combat exposure. No direct effects of personality on residualized changes in externalizing symptoms were found.Conclusions.Baseline symptom dimensions had significant direct and indirect effects on post-deployment symptoms. Controlling for both pre-exposure personality and symptoms, combat experiences remained positively related to both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Implications for diagnostic classification are discussed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Rosenfield ◽  
Mary Clare Lennon ◽  
Helene Raskin White

How do schemas about self-salience—the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations—affect mental health? We propose that self-salience shapes the likelihood of experiencing internalizing or externalizing problems. Schemas that privilege others over the self increase the risk of internalizing symptoms, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those that privilege the self over others predispose individuals to externalizing behaviors of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. Furthermore, we propose that these schemas contribute to the gender differences that exist in these problems. We test these predictions with data from adolescents, the stage at which these problems and the gender differences in them arise. Results show that self-salience underlies both internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, schemas about self-salience help explain the gender differences found in mental health problems.


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