A STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A MUTUAL EXCHANGE SUPPORT PROGRAM FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENT DISORDERS

"There is an urgent need to support families of children with developmental disorders, especially when it is necessary for such families to help each other. However, practice and research related to support systems for families have begun only recently in Japan. Considering these issues, the authors developed a program to support mutual exchanges among parents of children with developmental disorders. This study aimed to verify the program’s effectiveness and to examine the relationship between participants’ program experience and its effectiveness. Participants included 21 male and female parents of children with developmental disorders. The parents were in their 30s to 50s (4 in their 30s, 14 in their 40s, and 3 in their 50s) (1 male, 20 females). Effectiveness indicators included the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition-Adult Short (POMS2-A Short) (before and after implementation), Session Impact Scale (SIS), and Mutual Exchange Support Experience Rating Scale. t-tests were conducted on the pre- and post-program results of the POMS2-A short. Results showed that scores on Anger-Hostility (t=4.77, df=20, p<.01, d=1.04), Confusion-Bewilderment (t=4.31, df=20, p<.01, d=.94), Depression-Dejection (t=2.88, df=20, p<.01, d=.63), Fatigue-Inertia (t=3.63, df=20, p<.01, d=.79), and Tension-Anxiety (t=3.61, df=20, p<.01, d=.79) in the POMS2-A Short decreased significantly after the implementation of the program. These results evidence the effectiveness of the program in improving several mood states, especially anger-hostility, tension-anxiety, depression-depression, and fatigue."

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND THE BIG SIX VOCATIONAL INTERESTS

"A central theme in the present study is the assumption that the influence on the human behavior is mediated by different internal processes in the career choice. Emotional intelligence is defined as a variable which is a cause for the relationship between personality traits and the choice of a certain career. Three causal paths to the dependent variable were tracked – a path to the direct impact of the emotional intelligence on the career choice, a path to the influence of personality traits on the emotional intelligence as well as a path to the impact of personality traits on the career choice via the emotional intelligence. The aim of the study is to show the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between personality traits and career choice. A total of 100 Bulgarian secondary and university students (42 males and 58 females), aged 17-40 years, were included in the research. The following measures were used for the purpose of the study - Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire – Short Form (TEIQue-SF), The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices. The Bulgarian version of the emotional intelligence questionnaire was translated and adapted for Bulgarian sociocultural context by Antonina Kardasheva (Kardasheva, 2012). The Big five questionnaire and the Big six method for career choices were adapted for Bulgarian conditions by S. Karabelyova (Karabelyova, 2015). The results showed that there was a direct positive impact of the emotional intelligence on the relationship between the enterprising type and conscientiousness, the artistic type and neuroticism and a negative impact on the relationship between the conventional type and extraversion. The conclusions derived from the study could be used for further psychological research in the field, as well as for enhancing the knowledge of one’s personality."

EMOTIONAL IMPACT IN FRONTLINE AND SECONDLINE HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: COVID-19 AND II WAVE

"Introduction. The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created unprecedent global challenges for health systems. National Healthcare Systems Hospitals adopted protective measures and medical equipment resources, exposing healthcare workers at risk for stress syndromes, subclinical mental health symptoms, and long-term occupational burnout. Health workers have had to deal with the most severe clinical cases in intensive care specialized operative division. Since the first months of the epidemic spread, some studies have established shown that nurses have shown symptoms of severe anxiety associated with peritraumatic dissociative experiences. Most of the studies examined the emotional impact of COVID 19 on health professionals but did not focus on different consider professionals roles and hospital departments workload. Objective. The aim of our study was to analyze the emotional characteristics of health workers during the II wave of coronavirus (November-December 2020), comparing the frontline (COVID 19) and second line (chronic diseases) hospital divisions and analyzing the differences between the health roles. Methods. We conduct a pilot study among health-workers. A sample of 28 healthcare workers (aged 23-62 years) were recruited from frontline and secondline hospital departments (L’Aquila, IT). The administered psychological battery was composed of n. 4 self-reports evaluating emotional variables (depression, anxiety, and stress) (DASS-21), personality traits (BFI-10), burnout risk (MBI), and perceived stress (PSS). Results. The results highlighted significant differences: older health workers were found to be more vulnerable than those who younger health workers; another interesting point was that healthcare workers serving in frontline wards showed symptoms of depersonalization. No significant difference for the type of role held. Conclusions. A prevention program should be activated to preserve frontline and older workers mental health. Earlier support could mitigate the effect of the pandemic experience, reducing the risk for emotional health workers' fragility."

PARENTAL EDUCATIONAL STYLES AS PREDICTORS OF PERFECTIONISM AND QUALITY OF SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS AMONG STUDENTS

"The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between parental educational styles, perfectionism in children, and the quality of adult sibling relationships. Additionally, the goal is to determine whether parental educational styles represent a significant predictor of perfectionism and quality of relationship between adults. The research was conducted on a sample of 200 respondents, students of the Faculty of Philosophy, the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics in Niš. EMBU questionnaires were used to examine the parental educational styles, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS), and the KOBS Questionnaire on the quality of relationships with siblings in adulthood. The starting hypotheses have been partially confirmed and new questions have been raised about these constructs and their relationship. Statistically significant predictors of different aspects of perfectionism that were measured were a) significant predictors for the aspect of Parental Expectations were the following parental educational styles Overprotective mother (?=0.375, p=0.003) and Father’s Favoritism (?=-0.186, p=0.035), b) a significant predictor for the aspect of Organization was the following educational style Mother’s Emotional Warmth (?=0.335, p=0.031); c) significant predictors for Parental Criticism were the following educational styles Father’s Rejection (?=0.254, p=0.009) and Mother’s Emotional Warmth (?= -0.437, p=0.000), d) the significant predictor of Personal Standards was Overprotective mother (?= 0.307; p=0.042), e) significant predictors for Concern over Mistakes, were the following educational styles Parental Inconsistency (?=0.160; p=0.048) and Mother’s Emotional Warmth (?= -0.308, p=0.027), f) significant predictors of Doubts about Actions were the following educational styles, Parental Inconsistency (?=0.235, p=0.007), Overprotective mother (?= 0.304, p=0.035) and Mother’s Favoritism (?=0.222, p=0.028). When it comes to the quality of relationship between brothers and sisters, parental educational styles are also significant predictors of various aspects of those relationships. We are pointing out the most important results. Statistically significant predictors of the subscale Competition between siblings were the educational styles Father’s Rejection (?=0.469, p=0.000), Mother’s Favoritism (?=0.475, p=0.000), Father’s Favoritism (?=-0.196, p=0.029), and Mother’s Emotional Warmth (?=-0.313, p=0.019). Statistically significant predictors for the subscale Closeness or Warmth between siblings were the following educational styles Mother’s Rejection (?=-0.456, p=0.006) and Father’s Emotional Warmth (?=0.391, p=0.002). Statistically significant predictors for subscale the Conflict between siblings were the following educational styles Father’s Rejection (?=0.355, p=0.003) and Mother’s Favoritism (?=0.337, p=0.000). These results show that both rejection and favoritism by the parents contribute to the development of less desired relationships between siblings. Overprotective parents, inconsistency and favoritism of a child contribute to less desired aspects of perfectionism. Additional analysis of connection between perfectionism and relationship between siblings revealed that the less desired aspects of perfectionism are connected with bad relationships between siblings. The only exception is the aspect of Organization as it is connected with emotional and instrumental support, familiarity, closeness and admiration between siblings."

THE CONCEPT OF CUMULATIVE TRAUMA IN TIMES OF COVID-19: COULD KHANS THEORY BECOME USEFUL AGAIN?

"The paper discusses whether the psychoanalytic concept of Cumulative Trauma could be a valuable theoretical contribution in understanding possible traumatization’s of children in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, as they may quite often face a multiple stressed parent during a lockdown, who’s parental function is on the verge breaching. This concept of trauma as established by British Psychoanalyst Masud Khan in 1963 was hardly taken into account in recent trauma research and it has seen little discussion in psychodynamic literature; if at all, it has been used as a merely descriptive category, without considering the suspension of the parental care function, which was identified as the decisive traumatogenic factor for the child’s traumatization. The paper begins with a recapitulation of the original theory and then moves on to linking the Cumulative Trauma to current research contexts (attachment, mentalization, developmental trauma disorder). Finally, the relevance of the concept for parenting in times of the Covid-19 pandemic is explored on the basis of a short clinical case example."

SMART WORKING AND ONLINE PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: WORK-FAMILY BALANCE, WELL-BEING, AND PERFORMANCE

"During lockdown and the severe restrictions aimed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, in Italy great consideration has been given to “smart working” (SW). This term refers to a form of work characterized by the absence of time or space restrictions and an organization by phases, cycles, and objectives. The requirements for SW are: work must be carried out electronically; the tools must be adequate; performance must be measurable and focused on objectives; employees must have a suitable place to get their work done. These requirements ensure that the essential objectives of SW are attained: replacing the logic of performing tasks with that of achieving objectives; allowing everyone to manage work actively and autonomously; stimulating more decisive accountability in work, and better performance. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, action-research interventions have been conducted by private and public organizations. The private sector has endeavored to meet the requirements described above. This has not always been the case in the public sector, where largely widespread and indiscriminate use of SW has been made, not always complying with the protocols. However, even within the “emergency” limits of these experiences, SW has generally been accepted. The main advantages reported by employees are time and money saved on travel and food, in addition to improved family life. However, some problems have also emerged. These include the perception of social isolation; difficulty in disconnecting from technology; inadequacy of the tools; inadequate communication with managers. We also found that the health conditions of some “smart workers” have worsened in terms of anxiety, sleep disorders, and emotional symptoms. The data clearly show the complexity of analyses and interventions in relation to the SW phenomenon. The protection of employees’ health, especially in terms of recovery and work-family balance, appears to be particularly complex. In this context, the authors’ experience shows that online psychology has become more significant because it allows to support employees at any time. The literature highlights the growing use of online psychological support also through smartphone apps that provide effective interventions anywhere. Therefore, if, on the one hand, the requirements, objectives, and good practices of SW are to be pursued to limit the critical issues that have arisen, on the other, organizations should provide psychological support to employees even at a distance and by using appropriate technologies."

PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE SLOVAK VERSION OF THE POSTPARTUM BONDING QUESTIONNAIRE FOR NON-CLINICAL SAMPLE

"Bonding represents an emotional tie that one experiences towards one´s own child. There are several instruments to measure the level and quality of bonding. Among them we chose and translated the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire by Brockington et al. (2001) into Slovak language. The aim of this study was to analyse its psychometric qualities. Our non-clinical sample consisted of women (N= 372) 18 and 44 years (M= 29.74; SD= 5.25) who recently gave birth in Slovakian hospitals. Data collection was carried out from September 2015 until March 2018. Participants filled the Postpartum bonding questionnaire by Brockington et al. (2001) and some of them other three tools: Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale by Cox, Holgen and Sagovsky (1987), Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) and Parental Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995). The distributions of the items of the bonding were mostly skewed and leptokurtic. Internal consistency is high for the overall Lack of Bonding (?= .897) and varies in factors- ?= .820 for Impaired Bonding, ?= .779 for Rejection and Anger, ?= .506 for Anxiety about Care and ?= .321 for Risk of Abuse. In order to prove convergent validity, we correlated overall Lack of Bonding with depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, rs= .251, Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42 depression rs=.404; n=79), stress and anxiety (Depression Anxiety Stress scale-42, stress rs=.392; anxiety rs=.496; n=79) and parental stress (Parental Stress Scale score; rs= .674, n=99). We did not confirm original factor structure via confirmatory factor analysis using principal axis factoring with oblimine rotation. Then, we used principal component analysis with varimax rotation method to reduce the items. 6 components were extracted. Component 1 was comprised of 15 items that explained 35,6 % of the variance with loadings from .306 to .733. Hence, we proposed new item-structure for the Slovak PBQ. We concluded that the Slovak version of the PBQ proved to have good overall reliability. We found evidences for the convergent validity with parental stress, anxiety, stress, and partly depression, because there were two different results. We also suggest creating a shorter version based on the analysis. Among limits we can see tools used for validity evidence and sample without participants for clinical population. We advise to use the Slovak version of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire as a tool to measure bonding in a research context and to use overall summary index (Lack of Bonding) instead of factors."

PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES IN ADAPTING DIGITAL COGNITIVE TESTS IN PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT

"Recruiting today is no longer what it used to be. Digital transformation has deeply changed the company, and particularly the recruitment process. The challenges linked to this transformation are two-fold: practical and scientific. Indeed, the world of human resources needs new tools to detect potentials. Research must meet this need by adapting, modernizing and scientifically validating the tools. To predict job performance, cognitive and soft skills, often referred to as ""21st century skills"", are now central to recruitment, talent development and career management. The objective of our study was to create digital versions of cognitive tests, based on reliable and well-known theoretical foundations. We want to present in detail the conception and construct validity of two of our online tests: the first one inspired by the Stroop effect (Stroop, 1935), the second one based on corsi blocks (Corsi, 1972). We hypothesise that the tests we created are positively correlated to the original ones. 91 participants were interviewed, aged between 18 and 58 (average = 34.57 years old, SD = 10.91). The proportion of women was 76.6% (n = 69), compared to 24.4% of men (n = 22). They all answered the original tests first, face-to-face, and a few months later, the digital ones we had created. We observed positive correlations between the two series of results. These very encouraging results will be clarified and discussed. These two new versions shed light on the candidates' attention and memory abilities that should be enriched during an interview focused on soft skills. In fact, the highest predictability is guaranteed by a method which necessarily combines cognitive evaluations and with other types of assessments, such as personality tests (Güler, Bayrak & Ocaks, 2019). This is why it is important to continue research efforts on the adaptation of digital cognitive tests in a professional environment."

THE ASSIMILATION PROCESS OF PROBLEMATIC EXPERIENCES AND LONG-TERM OUTCOMES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR DEPRESSION: COMPARING A RELAPSED AND A NON-RELAPSED CASE

"Over the years, research has demonstrated that psychotherapy is an effective treatment in different psychopathological conditions. However, which are the mechanisms or processes involved in therapeutic change that could explain its efficacy are not yet clear. The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Model describes change in therapy as a process that occurs through the gradual assimilation of problematic experiences in the self – higher levels of assimilation seem to be associated with a better outcome at the end of therapy. However, little is known about the contribution of this process to the maintenance of therapeutic gains after the end of therapy. In the current study we aimed to explore how the level of assimilation achieved throughout therapy is associated with relapse prevention after treatment. We analyzed two good outcome cases of Emotion-Focused Therapy, previously diagnosed with depression: one case that remained asymptomatic and another that relapsed one year and a half after the end of therapy. The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences (APES) was used to assess the assimilation levels achieved and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was used to assess the intensity of depressive symptoms. Five therapeutic sessions and three follow-up sessions were rated using the APES. The results showed that higher APES levels were associated with lower intensity of symptoms at the end and after therapy termination, being associated with relapse prevention in depression. These results suggest that a complete assimilation of the problematic experiences may help clients to maintain therapeutic gains reducing the probability of relapsing in depression."

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL ADS TARGETING DRUNK DRIVING

"Social advertisements with threat appeals are widely used to reduce drunk driving. However, research on the effectiveness of such advertising is limited. This study aimed to evaluate, what emotions cause threat appeal ads targeting drunk driving and whether these ads change risky driving attitudes. 41 students (17.1 percent males; mean age 20.9 years; 53.7 percent had a driving license) voluntarily participated in the experimental study. Every participant was randomly assigned to one of three groups: two experimental (watched one of two TV ads with threat appeals) or control group (watched car wash ad with no threatening stimuli). After watching one of three ads, all participants were asked to evaluate seven emotions and to fill in Driving Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ). Results revealed that both road safety threat appeal ads targeting drunk driving did not arouse any stronger fear emotions or differences in driving attitudes compared to control group. Both experimental groups didn’t differ in emotions or attitudes as well. No difference in emotions and attitudes was found when comparing the reaction of participants who have seen the specific ad before the experiment and those who haven’t. The fact of being a licensed driver was also not related to the level of reported emotions or attitude differences in both experimental groups. The study results reveal that the possible effectiveness of threat appeal ads from ongoing social marketing campaigns on reducing drunk driving is questionable and further studies are needed."