Denise Beesley

Relational Health, Attachment, and Psychological Distress in College Women and Men.

This study examines relational health, parental attachment, and psychological distress in college men and women from the perspective of the relational-cultural model (Jordan, Kaplan, Miller, Stiver, & Surrey, 1991; Miller, 1984). Peer, mentor, and community relationships, as well as secure parental attachment and year in school, were hypothesized to predict psychological distress, although predictive patterns were expected to differ in women and men. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Secure parental attachment predicted decreased distress for both women and men. Authentic, empowered, and engaged community relationships significantly predicted decreased distress for women and men. However, for women, peer relational quality was also a significant predictor. The relational-cultural model, which suggests that differentiation and the “felt sense of self” (Jordan, 1997, p. 15) evolve through meaningful connections with others rather than as a result of the separation-individuation process, is applied as a framework for interpreting the findings.

The Relational Health Indices: Reanalysis of a Measure of Relational Quality.

Abstract The study examined the component structure of the Relational Health Indices (B. Liang et al., 2002) with a mixed-sex sample of students seeking services at a university counseling center. In contrast to previous findings, results suggested a unidimensional structure for the peer and mentor composites and a 2-component structure for the community composite.

Vicarious resilience in sexual assault and domestic violence advocates

Objective: There is little research related to sexual assault and domestic violence advocates’ experiences, with the bulk of the literature focused on stressors and systemic barriers that negatively impact efforts to assist survivors. However, advocates participating in these studies have also emphasized the positive impact they experience consequent to their work. This study explores the positive impact. Method: Vicarious resilience, personal trauma experiences, peer relational quality, and perceived organizational support in advocates (n = 222) are examined. Also, overlap among the conceptual components of vicarious resilience is explored. Results: The first set of multiple regressions showed that personal trauma experiences and peer relational health predicted compassion satisfaction and vicarious posttraumatic growth, with organizational support predicting only compassion satisfaction. The second set of multiple regressions showed that (a) there was significant shared variance between vicarious posttraumatic growth and compassion satisfaction; (b) after accounting for vicarious posttraumatic growth, organizational support accounted for significant variance in compassion satisfaction; and (c) after accounting for compassion satisfaction, peer relational health accounted for significant variance in vicarious posttraumatic growth. Conclusions: Results suggest that it may be more meaningful to conceptualize advocates’ personal growth related to their work through the lens of a multidimensional construct such as vicarious resilience. Organizational strategies promoting vicarious resilience (e.g., shared organizational power, training components) are offered, and the value to trauma-informed care of fostering advocates’ vicarious resilience is discussed.

Perceived stress, illness invalidation, and symptom severity in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

ABSTRACT Background: Qualitative studies indicate that individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) commonly experience illness invalidation from medical professionals that is often experienced as stressful and may contribute to strained patient–provider relationships, transfers of care, and/or decreased treatment adherence. Purpose: To examine the impact of perceived stress and illness invalidation from medical professionals on ME/CFS symptom severity. Methods: Adults with ME/CFS (N = 266) participated in an online survey, where they completed the Illness Invalidation Inventory (I*3) [Kool MB, van Middendorp H, Lumley MA, et al. Lack of understanding in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis: the Illness Invalidation Inventory (3*I). Ann Rheum Dis. 2010;69:1990–1995.], the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) [Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav. 1983;24:385–396.], and the CDC Symptom Inventory for Assessment of CFS. Results were evaluated via hierarchical regression. Results: Neither perceived stress nor illness invalidation from medical professionals were significant predictors of ME/CFS symptom severity. Illness invalidation from medical professionals was positively correlated with illness invalidation from family, work colleagues, and social service workers. Conclusions: Results called into question the influence of psychological stress in ME/CFS symptom exacerbation, thus contributing additional information to the body of literature exploring the underlying mechanisms of ME/CFS. Additionally, this study suggested the particular importance of medical providers striving to create a validating relationship with patients who have ME/CFS.