Lisa Rudolfsson

Predicting alcohol consumption and binge drinking in company employees: An application of planned behaviour and self-determination theories

OBJECTIVES This study tested an integrated model of the psychosocial determinants of alcohol-related behaviour among company employees from four nations. A motivational sequence was proposed in which motivational orientations from self-determination theory influenced intentions to consume alcohol within guideline limits and alcohol-related behaviour via the mediation of the theory of planned behaviour variables of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (PBC). DESIGN A three-wave prospective design using self-reported psychological and behavioural measures. METHODS Company employees (N= 486, males = 225, females = 261; M age = 30.41, SD= 8.31) from four nations (Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and UK) completed measures of autonomous and controlled motivation from self-determination theory, attitudes, subjective norms, PBC, intentions from the theory of planned behaviour, and self-reported measures of past alcohol consumption and binge-drinking occasions at the first time point (time 1). Follow-up psychological and behavioural measures were taken one month later (time 2) and follow-up behavioural measures taken a further 2 months later (time 3). RESULTS Path analyses supported the motivational sequence with identified regulation (time 1), predicting intentions (time 1), and alcohol units consumed (time 2). The effects were indirect via the mediation of attitudes and PBC (time 1). A similar pattern of effects was found for the effect of time 2 psychological variables on time 3 units of alcohol consumed. There was little support for the effects of the psychological variables on binge-drinking behaviour. CONCLUSIONS Findings provide new information on the psychosocial determinants of alcohol behaviour in company employees and the processes involved. Results may provide impetus for the development of interventions to reduce alcohol consumption.

I Stay and I Follow: Clerical Reflections on Pastoral Care for Victims of Sexual Abuse

In this focus group study with clerics from the Church of Sweden, the Catholic Church, and the Free Church Movement, experiences of pastoral care for victims of sexual abuse were explored. The material was analyzed using thematic analysis. The participants expressed a wish to offer the best care possible. However, insecurity, a perceived lack of psychological competences, and restrictions imposed by the vow of silence provoked self-protective strategies that may affect both clerics and confidants.

A qualitative evaluation of professionals’ experiences of conducting Beardslee’s family intervention in families with parental psychosis

Abstract After Sweden passed new health care legislation in 2010, Beardslee’s preventive family intervention (FI) was implemented to meet children’s rights to information and support. No studies have yet evaluated perceived effectiveness of FI in families with parental psychosis or its reception by families or professionals. This study focused on professionals’ experiences of offering FI to parents with psychosis, their partners, and their children. We conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with FI-educated professionals at open care psychosis service units. Both authors applied thematic analysis to the interview data. The main reported benefit of FI was more open communication in the family; discussing the parent’s illness was thought to be helpful for all family members. Psychoeducation was described as particularly useful because family members generally seemed to lack sufficient information about psychosis. The FI manual also made professionals more confident about asking about patients’ parenting capacity and their children’s wellbeing. Despite positive descriptions, participants had conducted few FI interventions because of heavy workloads, organizational problems, and patients’ resistance to talking about their children. These barriers need to be addressed because children of parents with psychosis are a vulnerable group in great need of information and support.

I have cried to Him a thousand times, but it makes no difference: sexual abuse, faith, and images of God

Experiences of sexual abuse may lead to religious struggles and affect a persons faith. This study focused on how victims of sexual abuse describe their relationships with God and with other parishioners. Our interest was in sexual abuse that had occurred outside the religious congregation, not abuse perpetrated by a minister or any other representative of the church. Interviews conducted with seven women and one man were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The informants described a wavering relationship with God and with the congregation. They felt that God had betrayed and abandoned them, and they struggled with different aspects of anger. These emotions made the informants feel different from, and sometimes excluded from, the Christian community. Along with these feelings, however, the informants expressed a strong longing for God and a need to feel protected by the congregation. All informants described the effect the abuse had on their faith as essential to their trauma, and as an issue they needed to work through to learn how to live with their experiences.