Experiences of Men with Andropause

Balancing it out: the process by which midwifery students provide care to women following stillbirth in Papua New Guinea

現今，失業問題已成為全球性的議題，也成為一種普遍的社會經驗，而電視 媒體紛紛以「失業悲歌」為標題描寫失業家庭的崩解與破碎，亦道出個人的失業 問題不僅對其自身產生影響，也進一步造成家庭系統的變動和失衡。回顧國內歷 年來針對失業議題進行的研究，可發現較少探究失業此壓力事件對家庭產生的轉 變和家庭如何對此壓力做出因應，故本研究以負擔家計者失業的家庭為研究對 象，分析家庭因失業所面臨的問題與生活轉變，以及家庭的壓力因應經驗，期從 中瞭解失業家庭的深切需要和真實的生活樣貌。 本研究採取質化研究深度訪談法，透過立意抽樣的方式，訪談6 個家中有就 學或就托子女的失業家庭，除以失業者為必要受訪對象，並視其家庭結構及受訪 意願，納入其它家庭成員作為訪談對象。研究發現在後工業化和全球化的影響 下，就業躍升為一新社會風險，影響所及不再限於傳統弱勢人口群和底層階級， 各階級、年齡和性別間皆存在一定的就業風險。此外，失業為家庭帶來牽一髮而 動全身的轉變，影響層面不僅是家庭經濟的匱乏、成員生心理健康、家庭內部次 系統間的互動模式，更擴及家庭和其它外在系統的互動關係、社會參與以及社會 保險制度和政策方案的使用情形，家庭所經歷的生活轉變某種程度上為一種社會 排除經驗，彼此間交互影響，環環相扣。最後，研究發現相同的危機事件，家庭 的因應經驗各不相同，首先，家庭成員乃透過外在和內在因素共同建構對失業的 認知經驗，包括個人過往工作經驗、個人和公司互動經驗、人格特質、工作價值 觀以及性別；第二，家庭在面對失業危機時，乃採取認知、心理情緒、資源交錯 運用的因應作為，且因應乃一動態的歷程非恆常不變，另就家庭如何運用和管理 內外在資源以因應失業危機，可將失業家庭分為「資源匱乏型」、「資源自足型」、「善用外部資源型」3 種因應類型；第三，家庭的因應結果不盡相同，可能引發另一波危機，也可能化危機為轉機，若以「經濟狀況」和「自我落差」此兩向度呈現家庭的因應結果，可將失業家庭分為「經濟自立，自我落差明顯」、「依靠社會福利支撐，自我落差明顯」、「依靠社會福利支撐，自我不落差明顯」三種型態。 依據研究發現，本研究在政策制度面和社會工作實務面分別做出建議，在政 策制度面建議檢討勞動政策，包括保障從事非典型工作者和關廠工人的勞動權 益、再檢討就業服務和職業訓練，另放寬取得社會救助和福利服務的資格，以及 政策規畫應納入反社會排除理念。於社會工作實務方面，落實以家庭為中心的服 務思維並納入家庭生命週期的思考，並建立跨單位的合作與轉介機制，而基層服 務工作者應提供「套裝式」的服務資訊，以及關注失業者和其它家庭成員的情緒 壓力和心理狀態。

Objective In order to know the content and methods which can meet the needs of mental health education,and provide a scientific basis for the measures which can promote the development of higher vocational nursing students' mental health,it was investigated that the methods and characteristics about vocational male and female nursing students' psychological stress and coping types and characteristics in Internship.Methods In this study,521 nursing students in grade 2009 and 2010 were selected as the subjects.A own designed scale based on stressor scale by CAO Ying was used to collect the information.Results Source of stress of the nursing students comes mainly from exposure to infectious diseases 、the gap between school teaching and clinical、hospital factors such as the evaluation of patients and their families.When confronted with the stress,most of the students cope with positively and students of different gender cope with the pressures in different ways.Conclusions Source of stress and coping style of man and female vocational nursing students were in a single way and the basic way to solve problems with positive stress coping.There was difference between male and female nursing students' source of stress and stress coping.According to the study results,when carrying out students' mental health education and instruction,we should take care of the characteristics of the nursing students in different genders,and different measures should be taken to improve the ability of students in coping with the pressures. Key words: Nursing major; Students; Higher vocational; Intern; Stress; Coping

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases in childhood terms. Mothers that care for children with epilepsy are usually at a high risk of psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety than norms. Parental coping is an important area to focus on to enhance child condition. Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to assess depression and coping patterns in mothers caring for children with epilepsy. Research Design: A descriptive research design was used. Setting: The present study was fulfilled at Neurology outpatient clinic at El-Ahrar General Hospital at Zagazig City in Sharkia Governorate. Subjects: The sample comprised 140 mothers of children with epilepsy. Tools of Data Collection: Three tools were utilized including: Socio-demographic/medical data sheet, Beck's Depression Inventory and Coping Health Inventory for Parents. Results: Thirty percent of mothers suffered from depression. Majority of mothers were unable to have family integration coping, social support coping, medical situation coping and total coping. Moreover, depression was negatively and highly significantly correlated with total coping, family integration coping, medical situation coping, and social support coping. Conclusion: Nearly one third of mothers suffered from depression and majority of them were unable to cope with child disease. Depression in mothers was negatively and highly significantly correlated with their coping ability with child disease. Recommendations: It is recommended to provide mothers of epileptic children with nursing intervention programs about different coping strategies and how to manage psychological problems.

To study possible relationship between psychopathological symptoms, positive and negative coping styles in adolescents who experienced repeated serious childhood physical abuse (CPA), moderate CPA, and childhood emotional abuse (CEA). A total of 5453 students were recruited as subjects from 9 middle schools at grades 7, 8, 10, and 11. They provided informed consent and participated in the self-administered anonymous survey on their frequencies of serious or moderate physical abuse and emotional abuse by his/her parents or other caregivers about average times of experiencing maltreatment every year during primary school. The Symptoms Checklist 90 (SCL-90) was used to rate general mental problem and 9 special psychopathological symptoms. The trait positive and negative coping styles were assessed with the Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ). Totally 5141 respondents substantially completed surveys. It was defined as repeating childhood maltreatment that the adolescent reported he/she had suffered 3 or more episodes of one or more forms of serious CPA, moderate CPA, and CEA. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to analyze the effect of the types and quantities of repeating childhood experiences on mental health when the positive, negative coping styles, and both of them entered the statistics model, taking the demographic variables as covariates. Of respondents, 9.1 percent were rated as having general mental health problem. The rates of somatization, obsession, interpersonal susceptivity, depression, anxiety, phobia, paranoia, and psychotic symptoms were 1.3%, 3.6%, 3.6%, 2.8%, 2.2%, 4.0%, 2.1%, 2.8% and 1.6%, respectively. Dose-response trend existed between the number of items of repeating serious CPA, moderate CPA, CEA, and rates of general mental problems, 9 kinds of psychopathological symptoms, number of positive items of psychopathological symptoms. Compared with the respondents without serious CPA, moderate CPA or CEA, those with repeating childhood maltreatment had higher scores of negative coping styles. In the respondents with repeating childhood maltreatments, the prevalence of general mental problems and number of positive psychopathological symptoms increased with the rising of scores of negative coping styles. The results from multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that negative coping style decreased the odds ratio (OR) of repeating serious CPA, moderate CPA, and CEA with general mental health problems, but positive coping style did not. The experiences of repeating childhood physical or emotional maltreatment are associated with a wide variety of psychopathological symptoms and general mental health problems. Negative coping strategies may moderate the links of childhood abusive experiences and mental problems.

Introduction: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has major effects on various aspects of life in these patients. Moreover, the concept of ability to cope with illness could be important in the evaluation of patients’ quality of life. Therefore, understanding of the patient's adaptation seems to be necessary. The aim of the present study is to provide a deep understanding of the coping strategies used by patients with PCOS. Methods: This study is qualitative content analysis and in order to conduct the study, through an in-depth interview, twenty patients with PCOS were purposively selected. Results : The main themes derived from the data were centered thinking (religious beliefs, thoughts paradox), practical steps (positive steps such as information and treatment seeking and negative steps such as separation and hiding) and support seeking (family support, peer support, friend support). Conclusion: Patients in coping with PCOS were experiencing different conditions in various aspects of life: individual, family and social life. Some of these patients were not successful in effective coping and others were well adapted by support of others, religious and spiritual background and optimism. Given the high prevalence of physical, psychological and social problems in these patients, strengthening coping resources and identifying barriers can help to reconcile these patients to their disease and improve their quality of life.

Background and Aims: The barriers to accessing mental health services for UK members of the Armed Forces (MAF) and veterans experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have been well documented (Iversen, Van & Hughes, 2011; Murphy, Hunt, Luzon & Greenburg, 2013). However less is known about their recovery following treatment and this study sought to explore veterans’ perspectives on what they felt had aided or impeded their recovery. Methodology: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with nine male veterans who had recently completed treatment for PTSD at Combat Stress. The interview transcripts were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Results: Four master themes emerged from this analysis and are discussed within a narrative account: “Relief of receiving a PTSD diagnosis”, “From layman’s knowledge to the technical ins and outs”, “Recovery: A changing relationship with self, the world and others” and “The road to more recovery and less suffering”. Implications and conclusion: Most participants reported the concept of recovery felt inappropriate and preferred to consider their life post-treatment as a continual journey of coping with their PTSD. Nearly all participants found their diagnosis of PTSD useful, as it gave them a long sought for answer as to why they had been struggling and offered hope for treatment. All veterans identified meeting other veterans as integral to their coping with their problems, along with psychological techniques they learned to help manage their symptoms. The proactive approach taken by many participants suggests hegemonic masculinities could be a resource for coping even if they may make initially seeking help more challenging. This research echoes other literature by arguing for the complex nature of PTSD in veterans, due to stigma surrounding mental health difficulties within the armed forces and society as well as the identity shifts they have to navigate from MAF to veteran status.

The academic journey of the graduate students in every Higher Education Institution(HEI) can be fortified by allowing them experience quality services. This study assessed the students’ level of satisfaction on the services of the Graduate School of Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College along professional services,school facilities,and learning environment. It further determined the profile of the respondents in terms of age,sex,civil status, position, employment status, number of years in teaching and type of school employed in.The profile was correlated to their level of satisfaction.The weaknesses of the services were identified as basis in the development of an Improvement Plan.The study is a descriptive research employing correlational and developmental methods.A sample size of 120 graduate students were selected randomly with a questionnaire as an instrument in obtaining data that were treated using frequency count and percentage,simple bi-variate correlation, and Cronbach Alpha. The profile revealed that the respondents are of varying background.The respondents are highly satisfied with the three identified services. Years of teaching is a determinant of satisfaction on professional services while position show significant effect on their satisfaction on school facilities and learning environment.The accessibility of books and computers in the library and dormitories were identified as areas that require improvement.

Adaptation, which was mentioned within the domain of stress and coping research by Lazarus (1991), refers to the way in which people change according to the world that they live in. Within the context of stress, adaptation can be defined as the way a person reacts to and copes with stresses that change across the lifespan. Lazarus argued that it is not possible to examine constructs such as stress and coping without viewing how people adapt in their lives. As such, it was argued that understanding and considering human thought is crucial. This argument shaped Lazarus’ relational approach to measuring stress and coping. In this chapter, I outline the relational approach to stress and coping, which is the dominant theoretical framework in the sport literature (Nicholls, Perry, & Calmeiro, 2014). I also consider sport specific research in regards to stressors, appraisals, qualitative coping research, and quantitative research. The chapter is concluded with ideas regarding how the field of stress and coping can be advanced.

Despite an awareness of the inverse relationship between stress levels and job performance, researchers have not addressed the specific coping strategies used by salespeople in their efforts to cope with sales-related stress. A framework is developed that suggests dispositionally optimistic salespeople may employ different coping strategies than do pessimistic salespeople. Support for hypotheses that have been grounded in this broad proposition was developed in a study that employed a multi-firm sales sample. Optimists were found to employ more problem-focused coping tactics, while pessimists used more emotion-focused coping. Issues relating to why problem-focused coping tactics are preferable as well as how greater use of problem-focused coping may be promoted within a sales organization are discussed.

This paper examines the impact of climate variability and shocks on non-farm employment in rural areas of Northeast Thailand. The paper utilizes a large panel data set that includes detailed and retrospective information about shock experience and a corresponding twenty-year historical village-level monthly rainfall data set from rural Northeast Thailand. The paper finds that the labor market is heterogeneous in terms of adapting to climate variability and coping with shocks. Households use non-agricultural wage and self-employment as a means of adapting to rainfall variability while they use agricultural wage to cope with agricultural and demographic shocks. We also show that there is a concave relationship between rainfall variability and both non-agricultural wage and non-farm self-employment. Economic slowdown and idiosyncratic shocks, such as demographic shocks, lead to substantial non-agricultural wage employment reduction. Overall, our findings show that the labor market can be less effective as a means for adapting to severe rainfall variability, economic and demographic shocks. It is also observed that poorer households are less able to exploit the high returns of the labor market to cope with shocks because of a lack of start-up assets.

According to the 2003 report of the Presidential Commission on Mental Health, it is vital that all Americans obtain an equal share in the best available mental health services and outcomes, irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, or geographic location. The report suggests that services must be tailored to include culturally diverse populations and should also provide access to positive outcomes of care. While spirituality has been historically linked to Black Americans as a resource and buffer, the nature and role of its effectiveness still needs to be determined and explored. This study moves our understanding forward in terms of defining spirituality and its effect on healthy psychological functioning by exploring how spiritual beliefs can possibly bolster one's ability to cope with hardships. Understanding what factors in one's life can possibly improve psychological functioning is of particular significance at this time when so many challenges are disproportionately affecting the well-being of Black Americans. The search for resilience promoting factors must also be examined. Participants in this study were 362 Black individuals enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs in colleges and universities who completed the Black Racial Identity Scale (BRIAS; Helms & Parham, 1985), the Spirituality Scale (SS; Jagers, Boykin, & Smith, 1997), the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory (ACSI) (Utsey et al., 2000), the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18; Derogatis, 2000), the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB; Ryff, 1989), and a personal data form. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that spirituality partially mediates the relationship between racial identity and psychological functioning. Furthermore, results support the historical notion that spirituality is an important instrument by which Blacks are able to deal with negative experiences. Implications for clinical practice and future considerations are discussed.

Objective To explore the characteristics of the career development and mental health for the resident doctors who participating in the standardized training system of resident physicians in Shanghai. Methods 95 resident doctors have been as the experimental group to attend the study, who entered the general hospital or training system. Forty-eight clinical specialists were as the control group, having the longer time experience of medical work. The self-edited questionnaires and some scales were used to assess their vocational and psychological conditions including the career interests, self-efficacy, professional responsibility, psychological quality of occupation and coping styles. The comparison was conducted on the variables of factors of these questionnaires or scales between two groups. Results The scores of scales on the professional responsibility, self-efficacy and occupational psychological quality respectively in the control groups were significantly higher than those of the variables in the experimental group. The scores of scales in the controls were significantly lower than those of the experimental groups on the positive and negative coping styles. However, there is no significant difference on the scores of the scale on the career interests between the two groups. Conclusions Although the positive cope styles of the residents were better than those of clinical specialists, there are many weaker aspects for the resident doctors on the qualities of the professional responsibility, self-efficacy feeling and occupational psychology, which need to improve. These should arouse the attention and concern of related departments. Key words: Resident doctors; Standardized training; Psychological quality; Career development

Stress is seen as modem society's illness by professionals from different sectors. It has effects on people's behaviors, communications and efficiency. Stress was described as a relationship between individuals and their environment that is appraised as dangerous and evaluated as beyond their ability to deal with stress (Lazarus, 1966). Selye defined stress as a physiological non-specific reaction to external or internal demands (Selye, 1976).Stewart et al. (1997) suggest that students with an active coping style have lower levels of psychological distress. As a result, it is important that individuals develop different (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Strategies are in order to manage stressful situations (Chew-Graham, Rogers & Yassin, 2003; Fish et al., 1996). In Malaysia, handful studies conducted related to stress and coping styles were focused on stress among nursing students, international school students, school athletes, university students, medical students and among prescience students (Emilia et al., 2007; Jani, 2005; Sherina, 2004; Tharbe, 2006; Uguaket al., 2006).In terms of stress management, Lazarus and Folkman, (1984) defined eight separate coping strategies that they believed individuals employed in stressful situations. Stress could be defined simply as the rate of wear and tear on the body systems caused by life (Stranks, 2005). It occur when a person has difficulty dealing with life situations, problems and goals (Videbeck, 2007). Stress has physical, emotional, and cognitive effects. Although everybody has the capacity to adapt to stress, not everyone responds to similar stressors exactly the same (Timby, 2008). Nursing involves activities and interpersonal relationships that are often stressful. Caring for clients who are experiencing high levels of anxiety can be stress provoking for nurses (White, 2000).Objectives of the study* The first objective aimed to elucidate the psychometric adequacy of the behavioural measures of (a) Perception of Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983), and (b) Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS; Endler & Parker, 1999).* The second objective aimed to elucidate the relationship between the various subscale measures of the coping strategies and stress among nursing students.Hypotheses of the study* It was expected that the behavioural measures (as incorporated in the present study) would find their replicability in the project population,* The hypothesis with regards to the significant independent and interaction effects of 'gender1 (male and female), stress and various faces of coping strategies.This is exploratory analytical survey designed to collect information from nurses on the coping strategies used by them to maintain equilibrium from the stress.MethodParticipantsOne hundred eighty (180) nursing students belonging to the age group of 20 to 25 years served as subjects for the study. The sample was comprised of 180 nursing students in various hostels selected by a stratified random sampling.InstrumentsThe Hindi Adaptation of Perception of Stress Scale: (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983) by Singh and associates (2010), and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS; Endler & Parker, 1999) by Singh and associates, 2010, were employed for measurement purposes of the theoretical constructs. The CISS consists of 48 items measuring taskoriented, emotional-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping strategies with 16 items in each. The CISS has been successfully employed in a number of representative studies (Cosway et al., 2000; Slesnick et al., 2007).The PSS consists of 10 items. It has 10 items, and reported to show high reliability and validity of the theoretical construct.ProcedureThe Perception of Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1983) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS; Endler & Parker, 1999) were employed in hostels with two or three subj ects in each room. …

In the present era of positive psychology and occupational health psychology interest in promoting the mental health of employees has increased markedly during the last few years due to its direct and indirect important role in the productivity, job satisfaction, turnover, bum out, and so on. There may be a lot of key factors such as work environment, management support, work load and so on in determining how stressful the work can be and its effect on employee physical and mental health. Organizational stress and collective cultural are the factors that may play an important role in determining the mental health of employees basically the managers of the organizations. More recently, studies have targeted occupational stress in various professions, such as nurses, doctors, police officers, teachers and academics (Plattner & Mberengwa, 2010), but little research has been conducted on occupational stress among managers. In the pursuit for organizational excellence, managers need to work under highly stressful circumstances. Managers in the manufacturing sector have been found to be experiencing high stress (Jestin & Gampel, 2002). In addition to this, personal cultural orientation of managers may moderate the relationship of occupational stress and mental health through different social support and coping style. In highly heterogeneous societies cultural differences must not be ignored, especially in the workplace otherwise it may result in reduced organisational outcomes (Holtzhausen, 2005).Mental healthAccording to the WHO (2009), mental health can be conceptualized as a state of well-being in which the individual: realizes his or her own abilities; can cope with the normal stresses of life; can work productively and fruitfully; is able to make a contribution to his or her community.Organizational stressIn an organizational context, organizational stress is also known as job stress and/or work stress and/or occupational stress. These terms are often used interchangeably in organizations, but its meaning refers to the same thing (AbuAlRub, 2004; Larson, 2004). It is defined as the perception of a discrepancy between environmental demands (stressors) and individual capacities to fill these demands (Topper, 2007; Vermut & Steensma, 2005; Ornelas & Kleiner, 2003; Varea, 1999). Employees in an organization can face occupational stress through the role stress. Role stress means anything about an organizational role that produces adverse consequences for the individual (Kahn& Quinn, 1970). Bhagat etal. (2010)acknowledge role conflict, role overload and role ambiguity as the three frequent causes of occupational stress. Reilly (1982) and Jones et al. (2007) stated that role overload is the degree to which one found him/herself in a position of time pressure because of the number of tasks and responsibilities one has in life. Role ambiguity is defined as being uncertain about the task requirements of a certain job due to lack of information, unclear company directives and unclear goals and responsibilities (Rizzo etal., 1970; Walker etal., 1975; Schuler, 1979; Behrman & Perreault, 1984; Mengiuc, 1996; Karatepe et al., 2006; Jones et al., 2007). Role ambiguity can result from deficient information available (Conley W Chang & Lu, 2007). Role conflict can result from inconsistent information (Conley W LaMontagne et al., 2008). Research has established that job-related stress impacts on individual level outcomes that include depression decreased overall well-being and coronary heart disease (Beehr & Glazer, 2005; Gyllensten & Palmer, 2005). …