Association of Cancer Caregiver Stress and Negative Attribution Style With Depressive Symptoms and Cortisol: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose. We examined the effect of cancer caregiver stress and negative attribution style (NAS) on depressive symptoms and salivary cortisol. Method. The sample came from a hospital bone marrow unit and caregiver support organizations and included 60 informal cancer caregivers (51.7% partners) of cancer patients (provided care for a median of 27.5 hours per week for 12 months) and 46 non-caregiver participants. In this cross-sectional study, participants completed questionnaires assessing NAS and depressive symptoms and provided saliva samples to measure cortisol. Results. Linear regressions demonstrated that cancer caregiver stress (p=0.001) and the cancer caregiver stress by NAS interaction (p=0.017), but not NAS alone (p=0.152), predicted depressive symptoms. Caregivers independent of their NAS and non-caregivers high in NAS reported high depression while non-caregivers low in NAS reported low depression. Neither cancer caregiver stress (p=0.920) nor NAS alone (p=0.114), but their interaction, predicted cortisol (p=0.036). Higher NAS was associated with a higher cortisol in both groups while non-caregivers had higher cortisol than caregivers. Conclusions. If the findings can be replicated, the implementation of interventions to support informal caregivers in managing their chronic stress and modify their NAS appears warranted.

Multiple marketing plans: an analytical template

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a template to guide practitioners in the creation of multiple marketing plans that are intended to target different groups of stakeholders – some of whom are supportive, others adversarial, namely, the business-to-business (B2B) marketer’s agenda. Design/methodology/approach The methodology involved a combination of purposeful sampling, real-time participatory observation, action research and secondary data analysis. The main method of this research is analytical and conceptual with the objective of identifying the diverse groups of stakeholders with whom business marketers must interact. Findings In cases where multiple marketing plans were used for different stakeholder groups, B2B firms encountered lower levels of negative attribution from social network systems, mass media and subsequently public and governmental stakeholders. Originality/value This paper suggests the need for multiple marketing plans that target not only supportive customers but also neutral and adversarial stakeholders who represent a source of negative attribution because they have the potential to derail or even destroy the B2B firm’s marketing agenda. It is suggested that practitioners must also address those stakeholders who distrust or even dislike their firm and its marketing objectives.

Discourses of Roma Anti-Discrimination in Reports on Human Rights Violations

In an effort to understand the paradox between the expansion of inclusion projects for the Roma and their persisting exclusion, this article explores human rights practice in order to grasp the complexity of meanings of inclusion negotiated in this practice. In this way, we scrutinize whether there are limiting factors within the inclusionary discourse itself. Specifically, we analyze the discourse in transnational judicial, political and civil society actors’ reports on violations of human rights against Roma. A strong shared tendency to frame the violations in terms of discrimination can be discerned in the reports, demonstrating a dominant concept in the human rights discourse for Roma. However, a framing analysis of the underlying assumptions of this concept shows that not all three actors offer the same solutions for obtaining non-discrimination, which can partly explain the limited impact of the ostensibly strong and inclusive anti-discrimination discourse. In contrast, the actors do share a negative attribution of responsibility to the nation states, but the effectiveness of this shared discursive claim can be questioned. This article illustrates how inclusion discourses are actually quite complex to grasp and so it substantiates the need for greater critical understanding of such discourses in further research.

Configuring the caller in ambiguous encounters: Volunteer handling of calls to Samaritans emotional support services

This paper discusses volunteer strategies for handling and assessing calls to Samaritans emotional support services for the suicidal and despairing. It presents findings from the qualitative components of a two year mixed methods study based on an online caller survey, branch observations and interviews with volunteers and callers throughout the UK. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data analysis was undertaken using the principle of constant comparison. Many calls fell beyond the primary remit of a crisis service, and called for rapid attribution and assessment. Uncertainty about identifying ‘good’ calls and recognizing those which were not caused difficulty, frustration and negative attribution towards some callers. This paper presents our analysis of volunteers’ accounts of how they configure the caller in intrinsically uncertain and ambiguous encounters, and how such strategies relate to the formal principles of unconditional support and non-judgemental active listening espoused by the organization. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Depression in Adults With Mild Intellectual Disability: Role of Stress, Attributions, and Coping

The experience of stressful social interactions, negative causal attributions, and the use of maladaptive coping efforts help maintain depression over time in the general population. We investigated whether a similar experience occurs among adults with mild intellectual disability. We compared the frequency and stress impact of such interactions, identified causal attributions for these interactions, and determined the coping strategies of 47 depressed and 47 nondepressed adults with mild intellectual disability matched on subject characteristics. The depressed group reported a higher frequency and stress impact of stressful social interactions, more negative attribution style, and more avoidant and less active coping strategies did than the nondepressed group. Findings have implications for theory building and development of psychotherapies to treat depression.