Christy A. Denckla

Social Support and Mental Health in Middle-Aged Men and Women: A Multidimensional Approach

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the association between various aspects of social support and depressive symptoms separately among men and women. Method: Using a sample of 6,767 middle-aged adults from one wave of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (1992-1993), the authors performed a series of ANCOVAs predicting depressive symptoms and controlling for background variables. Results: The authors found that the receipt of emotional support was associated with mental health in women only, whereas the provision of emotional and instrumental support was associated with mental health among men and women, but with varying patterns. For example, men who provided instrumental support to nonkin only had the highest levels of depressive symptoms, whereas women who provided instrumental support to kin only had the highest levels of symptoms. Discussion: This study helps to clarify if and what types of social support are related to mental health in men and women.

Development of the Crying Proneness Scale: associations among crying proneness, empathy, attachment, and age.

Crying is a unique form of human emotional expression that is associated with both positive and negative evocative antecedents. This article investigates the psychometric properties of a newly developed Crying Proneness Scale by examining the factor structure, test–retest reliability, and theoretically hypothesized relationships with empathy, attachment, age, and gender. Based on an analysis of data provided by a Dutch panel (Time 1: N = 4,916, Time 2: N = 4,874), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that crying proneness is a multidimensional construct best characterized by four factors called attachment tears, societal tears, sentimental/moral tears, and compassionate tears. Test–retest reliability of the scale was adequate and associations with age, gender, empathy, and attachment demonstrated expected relations. Results suggest that this scale can be used to measure crying proneness, and that it will be useful in future studies that aim to gain a better understanding of normal and pathological socioemotional development.

Friendship and Happiness Among Middle-Aged Adults

Mid-life is a developmental stage characterized by changing social, health, and intrapersonal factors that influence the relationship between friendship and happiness. However, research in this area is sparse because prior studies have tended to focus on young and/or older adults. The purpose of this review is to summarize the more recent theoretical and empirical investigations on friendship and happiness among middle-aged adults. Taken together, findings suggest that the relative benefit of friendship and its relationship to happiness during this particular developmental stage is sensitive to the context in which these exchanges take place, gender, and even the specific age range within the broader mid-life distinction. Future research is needed to identify both the moderators of the association between friendship and happiness, in addition to the mediators that can illuminate the specific mechanisms through which friendships are related to well-being.

Extending the Construct Validity of Dependency Among Conjugally Bereaved Adults

The Relationship Profile Test is a widely used measure of dependency, detachment, and healthy dependency that has been examined in both clinical and nonclinical settings, though researchers have yet to validate this measure among conjugally bereaved adults. The present study examines the construct validity of a three-facet model of dependency–detachment by comparing relationships among self-report, semistructured interview–rated, and knowledgeable informant–rated functioning among conjugally bereaved adults. Participants (N = 112) included bereaved adults (M = 51.1 years; SD = 9.7) who had experienced the loss of a spouse 1.5 to 3 years prior to taking part in this study. Findings indicate adequate psychometric properties and theoretically expected associations with various measures of wellness and health including satisfaction with life, coping flexibility, somatic complaints, and ego resiliency. Results draw attention to adaptive correlates of dependency, suggesting potentially beneficial mental health interventions.

Self-compassion mediates the link between dependency and depressive symptomatology in college students

Abstract Depression is highly prevalent among college students and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Dependency is among the known personality traits that predict an elevated risk for depression. Prior research has focused on the depressogenic role of self-critical thoughts among destructive overdependent (DO) individuals but has not considered other internal processes (such as self-compassion) that might influence mental health. The current report examined whether self-compassion had either moderating or mediating effects on the links between dependency and depression in college students. In a cross-sectional study, 85 college students completed measures of dependency, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms. Analyses suggested that self-compassion mediated both the effect of DO on depressive symptoms and the effect of healthy dependency (HD) on lower depressive symptoms; self-compassion did not moderate links between dependency and depressive symptoms. Our exploratory findings suggest that positive self-schema (in the form of self-compassion) may contribute to the downstream mental health effects of both adaptive HD and maladaptive DO.

The empirically derived Violence and Aggression Risk Index from the Personality Assessment Inventory: Development, validation, and application in general psychiatric settings

The current study developed a new index of violence risk from scales within the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Clinical patients from inpatient and outpatient settings completed the PAI along with reports of violence history and arrest record. A forward-selection hierarchical logistic regression was employed (N = 388) to identify the PAI scales (AGG-P, AGG-A, NON, PAR-H, and ANT-A) that could effectively distinguish patients with and without a history of violence. These indicators were then aggregated into a single index, labeled the Violence and Aggression Risk Index (VARI). The VARI modestly incremented other PAI subscales and indices in an independent clinical sample (N = 387). The authors discuss how the VARI can be incorporated with the other PAI scales to assess violence risk.

Psychometric properties of the Ndetei-Othieno-Kathuku (NOK) scale: a mental health assessment tool for an African setting.

Background: Research suggests that psychiatric conditions in children and adolescents are highly debilitating, with sparse resources for assessment and treatment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and latent factor structure of an ethnographically-grounded assessment instrument for detecting common mental health complaints among rural Kenyan children and adolescents. Methods: The Ndetei–Othieno–Kathuku Scale (NOK) was delivered to 2 282 children aged 10 to 18 years old. Exploratory factor analysis identified four latent factors. This structure was confirmed in subsequent confirmatory factor analyses. External validity was explored by investigating associations among NOK factors and Youth Self-Report DSM-oriented scales. Results: Findings suggest the NOK possesses good internal reliability and a four-factor latent structure corresponding to depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, and a mixed factor. Significant associations ranging from small to medium effect sizes were noted between NOK factors and YSR DSM-oriented scales. Conclusions: Exploratory findings suggest that the NOK possesses adequate psychometric properties among this population. This ethnographically-grounded instrument may be uniquely suited to screening for mental health complaints among Kenyan children and adolescents.

Associations between neurocognitive functioning and social and occupational resilience among South African women exposed to childhood trauma

ABSTRACT Background: Prior research on adaptation after early trauma among black South African women typically assessed resilience in ways that lacked contextual specificity. In addition, the neurocognitive correlates of social and occupational resilience have not been investigated. Objective: The primary aim of this exploratory study was to identify domains of neurocognitive functioning associated with social and occupational resilience, defined as functioning at a level beyond what would be expected given exposure to childhood trauma. Methods: A sample of black South African women, N = 314, completed a neuropsychological battery, a questionnaire assessing exposure to childhood trauma, and self-report measures of functional status. We generated indices of social and occupational resilience by regressing childhood trauma exposure on social and occupational functioning, saving the residuals as indices of social and occupational functioning beyond what would be expected given exposure to childhood trauma. Results: Women with lower non-verbal memory evidenced greater social and occupational resilience above and beyond the effects attributable to age, education, HIV status, and depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms. In addition, women with greater occupational resilience exhibited lower semantic language fluency and processing speed. Conclusion: Results are somewhat consistent with prior studies implicating memory effects in impairment following trauma, though our findings suggest that reduced abilities in these domains may be associated with greater resilience. Studies that use prospective designs and objective assessment of functional status are needed to determine whether non-verbal memory, semantic fluency, and processing speed are implicated in the neural circuitry of post-traumatic exposure resilience.

Toward a more nuanced conceptualization of interpersonal distancing: Differential relationships of adaptive and dysfunctional detachment to stress-based anxiety in college students

This study investigates the utility of a model for disambiguating the risk vs. protective features associated with detachment in moderating stress-based anxiety. The model distinguishes adaptive detachment (the ability to engage in flexible, goal-directed cognitive distancing accompanied by the capacity to moderate affective arousal and maintain functional levels of interpersonal connectedness) from dysfunctional detachment (a more generalized detached interpersonal style characterized by pervasive social isolation and negative emotionality). College students (N = 104, 71.4% female, mean age = 19.20 (SD = 3.54)) completed measures of detachment, mental health symptoms, and daily hassles; moderator hypotheses were tested by conducting a series of regression analyses. Findings indicate that individuals who report higher levels of adaptive detachment-but not dysfunctional detachment-experienced reduced anxiety in the context of elevated daily stressors. Results suggest that certain aspects of detachment may serve protective functions by reducing anxiety in the context of stressful events.

Extending the Use of the SCORS–G Composite Ratings in Assessing Level of Personality Organization

ABSTRACT The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method (SCORS–G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford, & Pinsker, 2011; Westen, 1995b) reliably measures the quality of object relations in narrative material. It assesses 8 dimensions (on a continuum from maladaptive to adaptive) that mediate interpersonal functioning. The 8 dimensions can be averaged to create a global or composite score to represent a persons overall object relational functioning. This study aimed to create levels of personality organization using the SCORS–G global score ratings of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) narratives and to explore the construct validity of these levels using a multimethod approach (i.e., psychopathology, normal personality, and life-event data). Meaningful relationships were found between the SCORS–G level of personality organization and aspects of psychopathology (Personality Assessment Inventory; Morey, 1991), regulation and control (NEO Five-Factor Inventory; Costa & McCrae, 1989, 1992b), and number of psychiatric hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and educational level. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential value of creating levels of personality organization (LPO) using the SCORS–G composite or global ratings as a supplement to the psychological assessment process and further highlights the utility of this measure in the field of personality assessment. Clinical and research-related implications as well as limitations are discussed.