scholarly journals Concordance within parent couples’ perception of parental stress symptoms among parents to 1-18-year-olds with physical or mental health problems

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0244212
Author(s):  
Signe Boe Rayce ◽  
Maiken Pontoppidan ◽  
Tine Nielsen

Parents of children with physical or mental health problems are at higher risk for experiencing parental stress. However, mothers and fathers may experience parental stress differently. The aim was to examine whether mothers and fathers of children with physical and/or mental health problems are equally inclined within the couples to experience different aspects of parental stress when considering child and parent couple characteristics. Single aspects of Parental stress were assessed with nine items from the Parental Stress Scale in 197 parent couples of children aged 1–18 years with physical and/or mental health problems. Agreement within parent couples for each item was tested using two tests of marginal homogeneity for dependent data: a nominal G2-test and an ordinal γ-test. Analyses were conditioned on child gender, child age, couple educational level, and overall parental stress. For seven aspects of parental stress, differences in agreement within the couples were found with at least one of the conditioning variables. For five aspects (item 3, 4, 9, 10, 13) addressing specific personal experience of daily stressors related to having children and feeling inadequate as a parent, the differences were systematic. Mothers were more inclined to experience these aspect of parental stress than fathers, specially mothers of boys, a younger child, in couples with an education above high school or with a higher stress level. Agreement was found for two aspects (item 14 and 16) of parental stress. This study suggests that mothers’ and fathers’ experience of most aspects of parental stress vary within the couples. Knowledge on systematic difference between parents’ experience of parental stress may inform future interventions. For aspects where mothers generally experience the highest degree of stress, fathers may be involved as support. Future studies may explore the role of diagnoses, coping strategies and examine concordance in parental stress symptoms in other subgroups.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Maenhout ◽  
Carmen Peuters ◽  
Greet Cardon ◽  
Geert Crombez ◽  
Ann DeSmet

Abstract Background Healthy lifestyles may contribute to better mental health, which is particularly important in adolescence, an age at which half of all mental health problems first occur. This association may be even more relevant in adolescents of low family affluence, who show more mental health problems, as well as more unhealthy lifestyles. This study investigated the healthy lifestyle behaviors, namely sufficient sleep and physical activity, daily breakfast intake, low levels of alcohol use or smoking, in relation to mental health and mental health problems (feelings of depression, anxiety, stress and self-esteem) among adolescents from different family affluence. Furthermore, the moderating role of family affluence was examined in those relations.Methods Adolescents aged 12-18y were recruited via a random sample of schools. A total of 1037 adolescents participated (M age=15.2, 49.8% female). Multiple linear regression analyses assessed the association between healthy lifestyles and mental health outcomes and the moderating role of family affluence.Results All healthy lifestyle behaviors were associated with at least one mental health outcome. Adolescents from low-medium family affluence had lower levels of physical activity, less often took breakfast, and reported lower self-esteem than adolescents from high family affluence. The results only showed a moderating effect of family affluence for smoking in relation to stress: at low levels of smoking, high family affluence youngsters experienced more stress symptoms than low-medium family affluence youth. At high levels of smoking, low-medium family affluence youth, however, experienced more stress symptoms than high family affluence youth.Conclusion These findings support the value of integrating healthy lifestyle behaviors in interventions for mental health promotion, for both youth of low-medium and high family affluence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1231
Author(s):  
Gaia Sampogna ◽  
Valeria Del Del Vecchio ◽  
Vincenzo Giallonardo ◽  
Mario Luciano ◽  
Umberto Albert ◽  
...  

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health are now well documented, however, few studies have been focused on the role of coping strategies and resilience in counterbalancing these detrimental effects. Data are derived from the COvid Mental hEalth Trial (COMET), a national multicentric trial carried out in the Italian general population. The final sample consisted of 20,720 participants, 53.1% (n = 11,000) of the sample reported low levels of resilience. Adaptive coping strategies and resilience levels did not have any significant protective impact on the levels of depressive, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Only self-distraction was a risk factor for poor mental health (Beta Coefficient, B = 0.1, 95% Confidence Interval, CI: 0.003 to 0.267 for stress symptoms; B = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.077 to 0.324 for anxiety symptoms and B = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.105 to 0.382 for depressive symptoms). High levels of resilience were predicted by adaptive coping strategies, such as acceptance (B = 1.8, CI 95% = 1.4–2.7). Exposure to the different weeks of lockdown, being infected by COVID-19, and being a healthcare professional did not influence the levels of resilience. Our findings should be carefully considered, since the low levels of resilience may represent the missing link between the pandemic and the current increase in mental health problems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona McEwen ◽  
Cassandra Popham ◽  
Patricia Moghames ◽  
Demelza Smeeth ◽  
Bernadette de Villiers ◽  
...  

The BIOPATH cohort was established to explore the interplay of psychosocial and biological factors in the development of resilience and mental health problems in Syrian refugee children. Based in Lebanon, a middle-income country significantly impacted by the refugee crisis, it is the first such cohort of refugees in the Middle East. Families were recruited from informal tented settlements in the Beqaa region using purposive cluster sampling. At baseline (October 2017–January 2018), N=3,190 individuals participated (n=1,595 child-caregiver dyads; child gender, 52.7% female; mean [SD] age=11.44 [2.44] years, range=6-19]). Re-participation rate at one year follow up was 63%. Individual interviews were conducted with children and primary caregivers and biological samples collected from children. Measures include: (i) children’s well-being and mental health problems (using tools validated against clinical interviews in a subsample of the cohort); (ii) psychosocial risk and protective factors at the level of the individual (e.g., coping strategies), family (e.g., parent-child relationship), community (e.g., collective efficacy), and wider context (e.g., services); (iv) saliva samples for genetic and epigenetic (methylation) analyses; (v) hair samples to measure cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA] and testosterone. This cohort profile provides details about sampling and recruitment, data collection and measures, demographic data, attrition and potential bias, key findings on resilience and mental health problems in children, and strengths and limitations of the cohort. Researchers interested in accessing data should contact Professor Michael Pluess at Queen Mary University of London, UK (e-mail: [email protected]).


Author(s):  
Corinna Reichl ◽  
Michael Kaess

This text outlines the role of risk-taking and self-harming behaviours in the development and detection of suicidal behaviour and mental health problems among adolescents. Risk-taking and self-harming behaviours are observable symptoms for underlying problems of emotion regulation, impulse control or interpersonal relationships and are sensitive risk markers for early detection of developmental trajectories of suicidal behaviour and mental health problems. Due to their easy accessibility and their sensitive prediction of mental health problems, risk-taking and self-harming behaviours have been included into programmes screening for adolescents at risk of suicidal behaviour in the general population. The principles and findings of those screening programmes are discussed. Professional screenings are time consuming for participants and create costs for the healthcare system, thus, longitudinal studies are needed to test whether screening programmes are effective in reducing suicidal behaviour among adolescents.


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