The Relationship between Sexual Assault, Religiosity, and Mental Health among Male Veterans

2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bei-Hung Chang ◽  
Katherine M Skinner ◽  
Chunmei Zhou ◽  
Lewis E. Kazis

Objectives: We examine the association between sexual assault, religion and mental health among male veterans. Methods: We used longitudinal data collected from 2,427 male veterans who received VA outpatient care. Sexual assault was self-reported in the questionnaire. Two dimensions of religiosity were used: organizational (frequency of religious service attendance) and subjective religiosity (the extent that religious beliefs are a source of strength or comfort). Mental health was measured by the mental component summary from the Veterans SF-36 and depression was measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. A regression model that uses the generalized estimating equation approach for longitudinal repeated data analysis was used. Results: Based on the baseline data, 96 (4%) patients reported ever experiencing sexual assault. These patients have significantly lower levels of mental health status and higher levels of depression ( p < .001). The regression results show that this decrement in mental health and increment in depression associated with sexual assault are in lesser degrees for patients who attended religious service more frequently compared to those who never did ( p < .05). Similarly, there is a smaller magnitude of increment in depression associated with sexual assault for those who have a higher level of subjective religiosity ( p < .05). Conclusions: Although the prevalence of self reported sexual assault is low among male veterans, those who reported sexual assault experiences had lower levels of mental health status and higher levels of depression. Further, religion attenuates this association which highlights the important role religion might have in coping with this stressful life event.

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sumner ◽  
Jan R Böhnke ◽  
Patrick Doherty

Background The presence of mental health conditions in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients such as anxiety and depression can lead to reduced programme adherence, increased mortality and increased re-occurrence of cardiovascular events undermining the aims and benefit of CR. Earlier research has identified a relationship between delayed commencement of CR and poorer physical activity outcomes. This study wished to explore whether a similar relationship between CR wait time and mental health outcomes can be found and to what degree participation in CR varies by mental health status. Methods Data from the UK National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation, a dataset that captures information on routine CR practice and patient outcomes, was extracted between 2012 and 2016. Logistic and multinomial regression models were used to explore the relationship between timing of CR and mental health outcomes measured on the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Results The results of this study showed participation in CR varied by mental health status, particularly in relation to completion of CR, with a higher proportion of non-completers with symptoms of anxiety (5% higher) and symptoms of depression (8% higher). Regression analyses also revealed that delays to CR commencement significantly impact mental health outcomes post-CR. Conclusion In these analyses CR wait time has been shown to predict the outcome of anxiety and depression status to the extent that delays in starting CR are detrimental. Programmes falling outside the 4-week window for commencement of CR following referral must strive to reduce wait times to avoid negative impacts to patient outcome.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 280-290
Author(s):  
Tatiana Tairi

AbstractBackground:Cognitive models of psychopathology suggest that negatively biased thinking styles are involved in the development and maintenance of emotional disturbances.Aims:The present study examined the relationships between negative cognitive errors and indices of mental health status (i.e. anxiety and depression) in New Zealand adolescents.Method:A community sample of 490 youth aged 16–18 years completed an anonymous online survey consisting of the Children’s Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ), the Trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).Results:Negative cognitive errors correlated positively with greater levels of anxious and depressive symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that overall cognitive error score was a strong predictor of adolescents’ self-reported anxious symptoms and, to a lesser extent, depressive symptoms. Moreover, cognitive errors significantly differentiated between adolescents with high scores from adolescents with low scores on both the anxiety (STAI-T) and the depression (CES-D) scales.Conclusions:These findings lend support to the generalizability of Beck’s cognitive theory to a New Zealand adolescent population and highlight the importance of focusing on prevention and early intervention programmes that directly target these faulty or biased ways of thinking in adolescents with anxious and/or depressive symptoms before meeting diagnostic criteria.


2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bei-Hung Chang ◽  
Katherine M. Skinner ◽  
Ulrike Boehmer

Objective: Religion has been shown to have a positive impact on well-being and to play an important role in coping with stressful life events. However, the buffering effect of religiosity on mental health, after a particularly stressful life event such as sexual assault, has not been studied. In this study we examined the buffering effect of religion on mental health and depression for women who report experiencing sexual assault while in the military. Method: The sample includes a nationally representative sample of 3,543 women veterans who use VA ambulatory care. Two dimensions of religiosity were used: organizational (frequency of religious service attendance) and subjective (the extent religious beliefs are a source of strength/comfort). Mental health was measured by the mental component summary (MCS) from the SF36 and depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Results: Women veterans who reported experiencing sexual assault while in the military had lower mental health scores and higher levels of depression. Linear regression analysis indicated that these negative impacts diminished with increased frequency of religious service attendance, supporting the buffering effect of organizational religiosity on mental health and depression. Although the buffering effect of subjective religiosity was not evident, subjective religiosity was shown to be positively associated with better mental health in both groups of women with and without sexual assault experience in the military. Conclusions: Frequent religious service attendance buffers the negative impacts of sexual assault on mental health and depression of women veterans. The potential of integrating religiosity in designing interventions is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoqi Chen ◽  
Jiamian Zhuang ◽  
Qingzi Chen ◽  
Xuerui Tan

Abstract Background COVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019) outbreaks around the world and is highly infectious, which may cause people prone to anxiety and depression. Pregnant women, as a particular group, need more attention. The aim of this study is to investigate the mental health status of pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19, analyze factors affecting their mental health status, understand their cognition, behavioral responses and provide solution guidance for psychological problems. Methods Using a self-designed questionnaire, self-rated anxiety scale(SAS), self-rated depression scale (SDS), we conducted a web-based survey on 1160 pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19. Results Compared with general adults in some regions of China during the outbreak of COVID-19, the scores of SAS and SDS of pregnant women were both significantly higher (P<0.05). The results of multivariate regression analysis unveiled that age, levels of education, and duration of pregnancy were factors influencing pregnant women's psychological status. In terms of psychological problems, compared with pregnant women aged < 30 years old, the risk of psychological problems in pregnant women aged ≥ 30 years old was 0.646 times (95% CI:0.486-0.858). Besides, compared with women with a level of high school or below, those with a junior college degree or above had a poor mental health risk of 0.551 times (95%CI: 0.416-0.731). Compared with women in early pregnancy, women in middle pregnancy and in last pregnancy had a risk of 0.543 times (95% CI:0.398-0.739) and 0.636 times (95% CI: 0.466-0.867) in poor mental health.Conclusions During the outbreak of COVID-19, pregnant women are prone to anxiety or depression, highlighting the necessity of further attention to mental health. It is of great significance to provide on-time psychological counseling and intervention for pregnant women with poor mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.


Author(s):  
Shaoqi Chen ◽  
Jiamian Zhuang ◽  
Qingzi Chen ◽  
Xuerui Tan

Abstract Background COVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019) outbreaks around the world and is highly infectious, which may cause people prone to anxiety and depression. As a particular group, pregnant women need more attention. The aim of study is to investigate the mental health status of pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19, and analyze factors affecting the mental health status of pregnant women.Methods Using a self-designed questionnaire, self-rated anxiety scale(SAS), self-rated depression scale (SDS), we conducted a web-based survey on 1160 pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19.Results Compared with general adults in some regions of China, the scores of SAS and SDS were both significantly higher in pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19 (P < 0.05). The results of multivariate regression analysis unveiled that age, levels of education, and duration of pregnancy were all factors influencing pregnant women’s psychological status. In terms of psychological problems, compared with pregnant women aged < 30 years old, the risk of psychological problems in pregnant women aged ≥ 30 years old was 0.646 times (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.486–0.858). Moreover, compared with women with a level of high school or below, the risk of psychological abnormalities in women with a level of junior college degree or above was 0.551 times (95% CI: 0.416–0.731). Compared with women during the first trimester, the risk of psychological problems in women during the mid-trimester was 0.543 times (95% CI: 0.398–0.739). In addition, compared with women during the mid-trimester, the risk of psychological problems in women during the last trimester was 0.636 times (95% CI: 0.466–0.867).Conclusions During the outbreak of COVID-19, pregnant women are prone to anxiety or depression, highlighting the necessity of further attention on those subjects. It is of great significance to provide on-time psychological intervention and psychological counseling for pregnant women with poor mental health.


Author(s):  
Sumi Ninomiya ◽  
Keiji Tabuchi ◽  
Md Moshiur Rahman ◽  
Toshio Kobayashi

This study aimed to elucidate factors affecting the mental health status of older primary caregivers. Participants comprised 81 pairs of home care recipients aged ≥65 years and primary caregivers aged ≥65 years who were caring for the recipients. We used an individual interview method, which covered basic attributes, activities of daily living by Barthel Index, mental health status by Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), sense of coherence (SOC), and sense of care burden by Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview (J-ZBI). The score for the comprehensibility subscale of the SOC was significantly higher for the old-old caregivers compared with the young-old caregivers ( P < .01). A significant positive correlation between the number of years of caregiving and the score for the SOC meaningfulness subscale was seen for the young-old caregivers ( P < .05). For the old-old caregivers alone, negative correlations were seen between the CES-D score and the scores for all the SOC items. Multiple linear regression analysis using CES-D as the dependent variable showed a significant positive relationship to J-ZBI in all caregivers ( P < .01). In contrast, a significant negative relationship was seen with meaningfulness, an SOC subscale only for the old-old caregivers. Meaningfulness as well as J-ZBI was extracted as a factor affecting the mental health status of the old-old caregivers, suggesting that higher SOC relates to lower stress levels with a remarkable decline in physical condition. Meaningfulness, an SOC subscale, is an important factor for improving the mental health of old-old caregivers.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoqi Chen ◽  
Jiamian Zhuang ◽  
Qingzi Chen ◽  
Xuerui Tan

Abstract Background: COVID-19(Corona Virus Disease 2019) outbreaks around the world and is highly infectious, which may cause people prone to anxiety and depression. Pregnant women, as a particular group, need more attention. The aim of this study is to investigate the mental health status of pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19, to analyze factors affecting their mental health status, to get wise to their cognition, behavioral responses and to provide solution guidance for psychological problems.Methods: Using a self-designed questionnaire, self-rated anxiety scale(SAS), self-rated depression scale (SDS), we conducted a web-based survey on 1160 pregnant women during the outbreak of COVID-19.Results: Compared with general adults in some regions of China during the outbreak of COVID-19, the scores of SAS and SDS of pregnant women were both significantly higher (P<0.05). The results of multivariate regression analysis unveiled that age, levels of education, and duration of pregnancy were factors influencing pregnant women’s psychological status. In terms of psychological problems, compared with pregnant women aged < 30 years old, the risk of psychological problems in pregnant women aged ≥ 30 years old was 0.646 times (95% CI:0.486-0.858). Besides, compared with women with a level of high school or below, those with a junior college degree or above had a poor mental health risk of 0.551 times (95%CI: 0.416-0.731). Compared with women in early pregnancy, women in middle pregnancy and in last pregnancy had a risk of 0.543 times (95% CI:0.398-0.739) and 0.636 times (95% CI: 0.466-0.867) in poor mental health.Conclusions: During the outbreak of COVID-19, pregnant women are prone to anxiety or depression, highlighting the necessity of further attention to mental health. It is of great significance to provide timely psychological counseling and intervention for pregnant women with poor mental health during the COVID-19 outbreak.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Yongcong Shao ◽  
Mingdong Yun ◽  
Zhang Yan ◽  
Ke Yu ◽  
...  

We investigated the mental health status of Chinese medical peacekeepers in Lebanon. In total, 59 peacekeepers completed the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS; Zung, 1965), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS; Zung, 1971), and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90; Wang, 1984) 1 week after their arrival in Lebanon. These data were compared with those of 62 military personnel (control group 1) and 58 medical workers (control group 2). Significant differences were found between the peacekeeping group and control group 1 concerning sum scores on the SDS and SAS, and a number of SCL-90 factors. Although peacekeepers had good mental health status 1 week after arrival, this needs to be assessed longitudinally in future research.


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