scholarly journals The impact of care-related factors on the language and communication needs of looked after and adopted children/young people

2021 ◽  
pp. 251610322110214
Author(s):  
Darren Maguire ◽  
David McCormack ◽  
Ciara Downes ◽  
Tom Teggart ◽  
Tim Fosker
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Language And Communication ◽  
The Impact

It is established that the development of psychological well-being and cognitive skills for Looked After and Adopted Children/Young People (LAACYP) is impacted by their experiences before and after entry into care. Language and communication skills are typically considered to have a reciprocal relationship with cognitive development, but the language skills of the LAACYP population are currently underspecified. The current study explores the severity and specificity of language and communication difficulty in a LAACYP population and the association between these difficulties and several care-related factors, including mental health and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Fifty-seven children aged 4–16 either in foster care or an adoptive placement were sampled via carer-report, using the Children’s Communication Checklist 2. Forty-two of these children’s mental health needs were also sampled using the Assessment Checklist for Children. The child’s social worker completed information regarding ACEs and care-related factors. Based on UK norms, the performance of 68% of the children sampled was consistent with the lowest 10% of the general population for language and communication ability. Similar levels of severity were found for both structural and pragmatic abilities. Language and communication difficulties were associated with older children, later age of entry into care and placement type (foster care vs. adoption) but not placement disruption. A significant relationship was found between mental health and language difficulty, but no link was established with ACEs. This study highlights the severity and pervasiveness of language and communication impairment among many of the LAACYP population and its association with psychological well-being.

scholarly journals The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being of Young People Living in Austria and Turkey: A Multicenter Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (23) ◽  
pp. 9111
Author(s):  
Türkan Akkaya-Kalayci ◽  
Oswald D. Kothgassner ◽  
Thomas Wenzel ◽  
Andreas Goreis ◽  
Anthony Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Young People ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Health Status ◽  
Health State ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
The Impact

Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and psychological well-being of young people. The aim of this study is to investigate the psychological well-being and changes in the mental-health state of young people living in Austria and Turkey. By using an anonymous online survey, we recruited 1240 people aged 15–25 years from these two countries. We used the “Psychological General Well-being” and a self-created questionnaire to capture individual experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine period. The native Turks indicated higher “anxiety” (ps < 0.010), lower “vitality” (ps < 0.011), and lower “general health” (ps < 0.011) than native Austrians or Austrian migrants and increased “depression” (p = 0.005) and lower “self-control” (p = 0.022), than Austrian migrants. Moreover, 50.9% of native Turks reported a decrease in their mental health status, compared to 31.1% of native Austrians and 23.7% of Austrian migrants. Participants with financial problems (OR = 1.68) and prior mental health problems (i.e., already in treatment by the time of COVID-19, OR = 5.83) reported a higher probability for a worsening in their mental health status. Our results show that the COVID-19 pandemic impaired the psychological well-being and mental health of young people. Especially people in Turkey were most affected, probably due to the stringent policies to fight COVID-19.

scholarly journals Psychological well-being in Italian families: An exploratory approach to the study of mental health across the adult life span in the blue zone

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kenneth Hitchcott ◽  
Maria Chiara Fastame ◽  
Jessica Ferrai ◽  
Maria Pietronilla Penna
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Satisfaction ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Blue Zone

Self-reported measures of psychological well-being and depressive symptoms were examined across differently aged family members, while controlling for the impact of marital status and personal satisfaction about family and non-family relations. Twenty-one grandchildren (i.e., ages 21-36 years) were recruited with their parents (i.e., 48-66 years old) and grandparents (i.e., 75-101 years of age) in the ‘blue zone’ of Ogliastra, an Italian area known for the longevity of its inhabitants. Each participant was individually presented a battery of questionnaires assessing their lifestyle and several perceived mental health indices, including the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS, Tennant et al., 2007), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (i.e., CES-D, Radloff, 1977). After assessing the level of concordance among adults sharing the same context, the Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) approach was used to assess the nested dataset. It was found that family membership (i.e., grandchildren versus parents and grandparents) predicted the WEMWBS score but not the CES-D when the impact of marital status and personal satisfaction about social (i.e., family and non-family) ties was controlled for. Moreover, two separate repeated-measure Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) documented similar level of personal satisfaction about social relationships across the three family groups. In conclusions, satisfying social ties with friends and family members together with an active socially oriented life style seems to contribute to the promotion of mental health in adult span.

scholarly journals The impact of the initial and 2nd national COVID-19 lockdown on mental health in young people with and without pre-existing depressive symptoms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Joensen ◽  
Stine Danielsen ◽  
Per Kragh Andersen ◽  
Jonathan Groot ◽  
Katrine Strandberg-Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Young People ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
Linear Regressions

Background The evidence on mental well-being and loneliness among young people during the initial lockdown is mixed, and little is known about the long-lasting impact of the sequential lockdowns. We examine changes in young peoples mental health from before to during the initial and second more prolonged lockdown, and whether women and those with pre-existing depressive symptoms were disproportionally impacted. Methods Participants reported on mental health indicators in an ongoing 18-year data collection in the Danish National Birth Cohort and in a COVID-19 survey, including 8 data points: 7 in the initial lockdown, and 1 year post. Changes in quality of life (QoL), mental well-being, and loneliness were estimated with random effect linear regressions on longitudinal data (N=32,985), and linear regressions on repeated cross-sections (N=28,579). Findings Interim deterioration in mental well-being and loneliness was observed during the initial lockdown, and only in those without pre-existing depressive symptoms. During the second lockdown, a modest deterioration was again observed for mental well-being and loneliness. QoL likewise only declined among those without pre-existing symptoms, where women showed a greater decline than men. QoL did not normalise during the initial lockdown and remained at lower levels during the second lockdown. These findings were not replicated in the repeated cross-sections. Interpretation Except for an interim decrease in mental health during lockdown, and only in those without pre-existing depressive symptoms, this studys findings do not suggest a substantial detrimental impact of the lockdowns. Potential methodological differences in-between studies are a possible explanation for the mixed evidence. Funding The Velux Foundation

scholarly journals Psychological Well-being, Age and Gender can Mediate Soundscapes Pleasantness and Eventfulness: A large sample study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercede Erfanian ◽  
Andrew Mitchell ◽  
Francesco Aletta ◽  
Jian Kang
Keyword(s):  
Sound Source ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
The Mean ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThere is a great deal of literature on contributing environmental factors of soundscape, the perception of the acoustic environment by humans in context. Yet the impact of some contextual and person-related factors is largely unknown. From the questionnaire, adapted from ISO12913-2 and the WHO-5 well-being index, three questions arose: are there differences in Pleasantness and Eventfulness of soundscape among different acoustic environments; are high levels of psychological well-being associated with increased Pleasantness and Eventfulness ratings; and is soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness consistent among different age and gender groups? The sample comprised 1180 individual questionnaires, 621 females (52.6%), 532 males (45.1%), mean age 34.95 years ± 15.62, collected from eleven urban locations. Hierarchical clustering analysis was done on the mean of each sound source question for each survey location resulting in three clusters of locations based on sound source composition: Natural-dominant, Traffic-dominant and Mixed-sources. A Kruskal-Wallis was conducted to compare the mean Pleasantness and Eventfulness scores of the three clusters, demonstrating that the soundscape assessment was significantly different depending on sound source composition. Multiple linear regression models were used to analyse the relationship between psychological well-being, age, and gender with soundscape Pleasantness and Eventfulness. Our results indicated first that the positive psychological state was associated with Pleasantness in the all-locations and mixed-sources clusters, and with Eventfulness in the traffic-dominant cluster. Secondly, while age was linked to Pleasantness in all clusters it was merely associated with the Eventfulness in the all-locations cluster. Lastly, gender was associated with Pleasantness only in the all-locations cluster. These findings offer empirical grounds for developing theories of the contextual factors on soundscape.

scholarly journals Effects of Economic Uncertainty on Mental Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic Context: Social Identity Disturbance, Job Uncertainty and Psychological Well-Being Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danijela Godinic ◽  
Bojan Obrenovic ◽  
Akmal Khudaykulov
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Identity Disturbance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Psychological well-being is a major global concern receiving more scholarly attention following the 2008 Great Recession, and it becomes even more relevant in the context of COVID-19 outbreak. In this study, we investigated the impact of economic uncertainty resulting from natural disasters, epidemics, and financial crisis on individuals’ mental health. As unemployment rate exponentially increases, individuals are faced with health and economic concerns. Not all society members are affected to the same extent, and marginalized groups, such as those suffering from chronic mental illnesses or low-income families cannot afford the downsizing, mass lay-offs and lack of access to public health services. Psychiatric profession is familiarized with the phenomenon of intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and we examine how this concept is associated with job uncertainty and social identity disturbance. Several studies have formally investigated the effects of IU, but to our knowledge, this is the first research integrating the psychological well-being, job uncertainty and identity disturbance caused by economic breakdown. Literature points to many reported cases of PTSD, anxiety, depression and suicidal tendencies following major social disasters. Yet, we have undertaken to analyze the subjective experiences underlying the self-harming behaviors in an attempt to fill the methodological gap by drawing insights from prominent psychological, sociological and economic theories. We find economic uncertainty to have a positive relation to job uncertainty and identity disturbance, and a negative relationship with psychological well-being. Psychological well-being depends on coherency between both abstract subjective and concrete objective identity, and when these perceptions are inconsistent, cognitive dissonance arises resulting in identity disturbance. We argue that stability is not associated with monetary advantage only, but also with a wide range of other benefits that are crucial for individuals’ growth, satisfaction and sense of identity. Therefore, we propose the implementation of social support and public welfare policies to mitigate health risks during the turbulent socio-economic changes.

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