Sándor Rózsa

The Structure of Children's Perceived Self-Efficacy: A Cross-National Study

Summary: The present study investigated the replicability of the factor structure of the Children’s Perceived Self-Efficacy scales (CPSE; Bandura, 1990) in Italy, Hungary, and Poland. The findings of this cross-national study support the generalizability of the factor structure of children’s social and academic efficacy. Perceived efficacy to resist peer pressure to engage transgressive conduct had a somewhat different factor structure for Hungarian children. Gender and national differences in the pattern of efficacy beliefs underscore the value of treating perceived self-efficacy as a multifaceted attribute. There were no overall gender differences in perceived social efficacy, but girls in all three societies have a higher sense of efficacy for academic activities and to resist peer pressure for transgressive activities. Italian children judge themselves more academically efficacious than do Hungarian children and more socially efficacious than their counterparts in both of the other two countries. An analysis of the facets of academic efficacy revealed that Hungarian children have a high sense of efficacy to master academic subjects but a lower efficacy than their Italian and Polish counterparts to take charge of their own learning. Polish children surpassed their counterparts in academic self-regulatory efficacy. Perceived self-efficacy concerns people’s beliefs in their capabilities to produce given attainments. This construct was developed by Bandura (1977) within a social-cognitive theory of human functioning. According to this perspective, sense of personal efficacy is a key factor in the exercise of human agency within a causal structure involving triadic reciprocal causation between the person, the environment, and behavior (Bandura, 1986). People

The three-factor model of Internet addiction: The development of the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire

Despite the fact that more and more clinical case studies and research reports have been published on the increasing problem of Internet addiction, no generally accepted standardized tool is available to measure problematic Internet use or Internet addiction. The aim of our study was to create such a questionnaire. On the basis of earlier studies and our previous experience with Young’s (1998a) Internet Addiction Test, initially, we created a 30-item questionnaire, which was assessed together with other questions regarding participants’ Internet use. Data were collected online from 1,037 persons (54.1% of them male; mean age, 23.3 years; SD, 9.1). As a result of reliability analysis and factor analysis, we reduced the number of items to 18 and created the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) containing three subscales: obsession, neglect, and control disorder. Cronbach’s α of the PIUQ is .87 (Cronbach’s α of the subscales is .85, .74, and .76, respectively). The test-retest correlation of the PIUQ is .90. The PIUQ proved to be a reliable measurement for assessing the extent of problems caused by the “misuse” of the Internet; however, further analysis is needed. nt]mis|This research was supported by Grant KAB-KT-02-13 from the Ministry of Children, Youth, and Sport in Hungary.

Affective temperaments, as measured by TEMPS-A, among nonviolent suicide attempters.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the role of affective temperaments in suicidal behavior. METHOD Using the standardized Hungarian version of the full-scale 110-item version of the TEMPS-A autoquestionnaire we compared the affective temperament-profiles of 150 consecutively investigated nonviolent suicide attempters (106 females and 44 males) and 302 age, sex and education matched normal controls (216 females and 86 males). RESULTS Compared to controls, both female and male suicide attempters scored significantly higher in the four of the five affective temperaments, containing more or less depressive component (depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious). On the other hand, however, no significant difference between the suicide attempters and controls was found for the hyperthymic temperament. Significantly higher rate of suicide attempters (90.0%) than controls (21.5%) have had some kind of dominant (mean score+2SD or above) affective temperament. Compared to controls, depressive, cyclothymic, irritable and anxious temperaments were significantly more frequent and hyperthymic temperament was nonsignificantly less common among suicide attempters. CONCLUSIONS The findings support the strong relationship between depression and suicidal behavior even on temperamental level, and suggest that hyperthymic temperament does not have predisposing role for suicidal behavior at least in the case of nonviolent suicide attempters. LIMITATION As only nonviolent suicide attempters were studied, our findings should pertain only for this patient-population.

Animal-assisted therapy for middle-aged schizophrenic patients living in a social institution. A pilot study

Objectives: To determine whether animal-assisted therapy is effective in the rehabilitation of middle-aged schizophrenic patients living in a social institution. Design: A before and after study with nine-month treatment period. Setting: Social institute for psychiatric patients. Subjects: Seven schizophrenic patients living in the social institute. Interventions: Weekly sessions of animal-assisted therapy for a nine-month period, each therapeutic session lasting for 50 minutes. Measures used: The Independent Living Skills Survey assessed by an independent rater. Results: After the completion of the therapy significant improvement in the domestic and health activities occurred. Conclusions: Animal-assisted therapy seems to be helpful in the rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients living in a social institution.

Measures of stress in epidemiological research

A comprehensive assessment of psychosocial stress often poses significant challenges due to diversity in conceptualization of stress. Consequently, a number of instruments that measure psychosocial stress, its stressors, and its impact at the individual, organizational, and societal levels have been developed. This article aims to provide a brief review of such instruments, focusing on established questionnaire and interview measures in line with the environmentalist and psychological conceptualizations of stress. This includes measures of major life events; work, marital, and social stress; the individuals coping abilities; and psychological and somatic outcomes of stress. We provide a general description of selected instruments and discuss their administration, scoring, and psychometric properties. Appropriate application of these instruments in epidemiological and clinical research, as well as in inpatient care, can aid the detection of psychosocial stress, support thorough assessment and management of the individuals illness, and ensure accurate identification of individuals who would benefit from specific behavioral (psychotherapeutic) interventions.

Measuring emotional instability, prosocial behavior and aggression in pre-adolescents: A cross-national study.

Abstract Three scales measuring emotional instability, prosocial behavior and aggression were analyzed in a new study involving subjects between the ages of 11 and 15 from three different countries: Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Principal component analysis (PCA), simultaneous component analysis (SCA) and congruence coefficients were used to evaluate and compare the factorial structure of the scales in the three different countries. Results clearly show a substantial equivalence of the components in the three countries, attesting to the generalizability of these measures in different cultural contexts. Country comparisons on the mean level of the scales show that Italian boys and girls score significantly higher on emotional instability and the prosocial behavior scale than Hungarian and Czech boys and girls. In the case of aggression only for self report, Italian boys score significantly higher than Hungarian and Czech boys. Construct validity was also explored for the three countries through the multitrait-multimethod analysis (D. T. Campbell & D. W. Fiske, 1959, Psychological Bulletin , 56, 81–101). For the Italian and the Hungarian sample, although results clearly support the convergent validity of the three scales in different informants, some problems arise regarding discriminant validity between emotional instability and aggression. In the case of the Czech Republic sample, results generally show lower convergent and discriminant validity.

How to decrease suicide rates in both genders? An effectiveness study of a community-based intervention (EAAD).

Background The suicide rate in Hungary is high in international comparison. The two-year community-based four-level intervention programme of the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD) is designed to improve the care of depression and to prevent suicidal behaviour. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of a regional community-based four-level suicide prevention programme on suicide rates. Method The EAAD programme was implemented in Szolnok (population 76,311), a town in a region of Hungary with an exceptionally high suicide rate. Effectiveness was assessed by comparing changes in suicide rates in the intervention region after the intervention started with changes in national suicide rates and those in a control region (Szeged) in the corresponding period. Results For the duration of the programme and the follow-up year, suicide rates in Szolnok were significantly lower than the average of the previous three years (p = .0076). The suicide rate thus went down from 30.1 per 100,000 in 2004 to 13.2 in 2005 (−56.1 %), 14.6 in 2006 (−51.4 %) and 12.0 in 2007 (−60.1 %). This decrease of annual suicide rates in Szolnok after the onset of the intervention was significantly stronger than that observed in the whole country (p = .017) and in the control region (p = .0015). Men had the same decrease in suicide rates as women. As secondary outcome, an increase of emergency calls to the hotline service (200%) and outpatient visits at the local psychiatry clinic (76%) was found. Conclusions These results seem to provide further support for the effectiveness of the EAAD concept. Whilst the majority of suicide prevention programs mainly affect female suicidal behaviour, this programme seems to be beneficial for both sexes. The sustainability and the role of the mediating factors (social service and health care utilization, community attitudes about suicide) should be key points in future research.

Reliability and Validity of the Hungarian Version of the European Addiction Severity Index

We attempted a Hungarian adaptation of the European version (EuropASI) of the widely used Addiction Severity Index (ASI) within the frame of a multi-stage quality development programme. The ASI is characterised by good reliability and validity indicators. The empirical background for our research was the data obtained from ASI ratings for 266 alcohol- and drug-using patients presenting for treatment in addiction medicine clinics in different regions of the country. The reliability indicators for measurement tool rating (interrater) and time (test-retest) were high, with the exception of the correlation value for employment and support. The internal consistency of the test was good. The degree of correlation between the individual items did not exceed that found internationally. The psychometric results corresponded to the results obtained in foreign investigations. The Hungarian version of the ASI can be regarded as a useful and reliable measuring tool that can be used to identify the problems of addiction patients and to assess treatment efficacy.

Adjustment and coping in epilepsy

Our study investigated interrelationships between problems in psychosocial adjustment, coping and epilepsy variables. Establishing the cross-cultural applicability of the Washington Psychosocial Seizure Inventory (WPSI) was an additional objective. The WPSI, Ways of Coping Scale, Modified Version, as well as scales measuring depression and anxiety were administered to 310 outpatients with epilepsy. When the scores of patients with high Lie scores were eliminated, the WPSI profiles were found to be similar to former studies, with some score elevations in emotional adjustment and interpersonal adjustment. When relationships between adjustment variables and coping were modelled, coping was found to be a mediator between the effects of interpersonal and emotional adjustment and integration to the broader social context (vocational adjustment). Family background was found to be a significant predictor of the emotional well-being and interpersonal adjustment scores of the patients. Results support the central role of coping and emotional well-being and emphasize the importance of family factors in adjustment to epilepsy. Psychotherapy and psychological interventions could support coping with illness, primarily through elimination of negative family and social effects and treatment of emotional problems.

Family- and school-related stresses in depressed Hungarian children.

The aim of the study was 1) to identify recent and past life stresses as having a significant differential risk of childhood depression versus other childhood psychiatric illnesses, and 2) to establish if life stresses shared with other family members had a greater impact on the depression of the child than events of only personal relevance. Using a recently developed semi-structured interview (Diagnostic Evaluation Schedule for Children and Adolescents - Hungarian version, DESCA-H ), 68 life events of a total sample of 526 children were investigated. Two hundred and fifteen depressed preadolescents (mean age 12.73 years, SD 2.58) were compared with identical variables of 311 nondepressed mixed clinical controls (mean age: 10.91 years, SD 2.46) referred to child psychiatry care with other psychiatric symptomatology than depression. The life event questionnaire part of the DESCA-H was administered separately by means of lists of recent (within 1 year) and past stresses (events prior to 1 year before the assessment). With the two series of life stresses, two separate logistic regression analyses were performed. Of past stressors, physical punishment of the child by teachers, serious financial problems of the family and mental health problems of family members were found to be significant predictors of depression. From the series of recent stresses, moving to a new school, somatic illness, death of relatives and mental health disorders of family members were proved to be independent risk factors of depression for the children. The findings suggest that significant stresses of the child shared with other family members dominate in demarcating depressed children from nondepressed ones. School-related stresses are critically discussed.