Sixty-two mothers of childhood cancer patients completed questionnaires on family demographics, parental stress, sense of parenting competence, self esteem, health locus of control, attitudes toward cancer, life events, social support, and psychological symptomatology. Correlation and regression procedures were used. Time since diagnosis and the severity rate of a child's illness did not predict the mother's sense of parenting competence, but a negative correlation at the $p<.01$ level between mothers' report of self esteem and their distress was revealed. Social support was negatively correlated at the $p<.01$ level with psychological distress, but life events were positively correlated at the $p<.01$ level. Internal locus of control was positively correlated with psychological distress, but attitudes toward cancer did not correlate with psychological distress.

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a public health emergency of international concern. In March 2020, the United States government imposed impactful safety and confinement measures issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) all over the country to prevent community transmission of COVID-19. Institutions of higher education rapidly transitioned to online learning and eliminated in-person engagements in the spring of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) followed a similar trajectory by shutting down all athletic activities due to the global pandemic. While college students in general notably experienced increased pandemic related distress and mental health concerns (e.g., depression, anxiety) during the early stages of the global pandemic, the disruption of collegiate sport competitions and seasons uniquely and significantly impacted collegiate student athletes and their overall well-being. In this qualitative study, I sought to document and understand the narrative of Black student athletes' experiences of stress and coping during the first two months of the COVID-19 global pandemic and cancellation of collegiate sports. Through reflexive thematic analysis, I found that psychosocial resources such as avoidance, acceptance, mindful self-compassion, health …

Disordered eating is a general term that describes a wide range of behaviors from diagnosable eating disorders to subclinical patterns of behavior that do not meet criteria for diagnosis (e.g., problematic weight loss behaviors, excessive dieting, bingeing, purging). Disordered eating is prevalent and has a wide range of physical and psychological consequences. Negative self-conscious emotions such as shame and guilt have been implicated in the development and maintenance of disordered eating. Positive attitudes toward the self (i.e., self-forgiveness, self-compassion, self-acceptance) may be helpful in reducing shame, guilt, and disordered eating symptoms. In this dissertation, I explored the associations between positive attitudes toward the self, negative self-conscious emotions, and disordered eating in a sample of college students and adults (N = 477). Positive attitudes toward the self were associated with lower levels of disordered eating symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by lower levels of negative self-conscious emotions. I concluded by discussing areas for future research and implications for clinical practice.

Today’s military encompasses a wide variety of families who are affected by deployments in multiple and complex ways. Following deployments, families must reconnect in their relationships and reestablish their way of life. Appropriate and effective communication during this time is critical, yet many military couples struggle with this process. Moreover, student service members/veterans and their families are in a unique position. In addition to coping with changes in their marital relationship, student veterans may feel isolated or unsupported on college campuses, often experiencing anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, or suicidality. The current study seeks to bridge the gap between the military family literature and the student service member/veteran literature by examining how deployment experiences, mental health issues, and communication patterns influence post-deployment relationship adjustment among student veterans. Analyses tested whether communication style and/or current mental health concerns mediate associations between combat experiences and couples’ relationship adjustment, as well as between experiences in the aftermath of battle and relationship adjustment. Results suggest that although posttraumatic stress is significantly related to deployment experiences among student veterans, participants report no significant negative effects of deployment on relationship adjustment. Communication style, however, was significantly associated with relationship adjustment, and a lack of positive communication was …

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between dogmatism, anxiety, and attitudes toward the Vietnam War, and, in the process of doing so, to test Rokeach's hypothesis of independence of belief structure and content in the contextual atmosphere of recent attitudes toward the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War Scale, Form E of the Dogmatism Scale, and a five-situation version of the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness were administered to 104 male students who were enrolled in introductory psychology classes at North Texas State University. It was hypothesized I. That there would be a significant positive relationship between dogmatism (as measured by the Dogmatism Scale) and anxiety (as measured by a five-situation version of the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness). II. That there would be a significant positive relationship between closed-mindedness (as measured by the Dogmatism Scale) and attitudes toward the Vietnam War (as measured by the Vietnam War Scale). III. That the Hawks would show a significantly higher level of dogmatism than the Doves. IV. That the Hawks would show a significantly higher level of anxiety than the Doves. Hypotheses one, two, and three were supported. Hypothesis number four was in the predicted direction, but was …

Sleep, emotions and pain are intimately connected, physiologically, by their location and utilization of the same brain centers and neurotransmitters. Sleep disturbances have been clinically observed in chronic pain populations; yet, no treatment program has formally addressed this aspect of patient care. It is hypothesized that a pain population (PN) will differ significantly from a non-injured workforce (WF) when reviewing quantitative and qualitative sleep data. This study strongly supports that sleep disturbances and socioeconomic decrements exist in chronic pain patients. Forty-seven variables were surveyed and 13 were found to show significant differences between the groups and seven were found to discriminate between the PN and WF groups at less than the .0001 level. A discriminant analysis was performed to determine the smallest model which could efficiently classify cases, according to successive root variables. The major discriminators are pain levels, medication, amount of sleep obtained and number of awakenings.

Fictional narratives of 68 female undergraduates classified as either high or low on sex-guilt were rated for libidinal content following subliminal exposure to either a sex-related or a neutral stimulus. Separate dependent measures were obtained for libidinal derivatives bearing either a transparently "close" or a symbolically "distant" relationship to the sex-related stimulus. Subjects in the sex-related stimulus condition expressed significantly fewer close libidinal derivatives than subjects in the neutral condition. High sex-guilt subjects' distant derivative production revealed a near-significant trend toward repression in the neutral condition, but the greatest amount of expression in the sex-related condition. Type of defenses employed are discussed as a function of subliminally perceived stimulus threat.

Empowerment, which has been described as both a means of effecting higher and more efficient quality work outputs and a means of facilitating greater freedom in the workplace combines elements of philosophy, psychology, and management theory. The perceptions of the present empowerment level of 3500 employees of a division of a major corporation were analyzed using data from an empowerment survey. The results were examined using correlational and factorial measures to test the structure of the survey. ANOVA and pair-wise comparisons were used to examine group differences on five subscales of the survey based on employee level in the organization. Significant differences were found in almost all categories. Rank order for the three levels differed from previous findings, perhaps due to empowerment thrusts.

This investigation evaluated the efficacy of relaxation training and cognitive therapy separately and in combination in enhancing the coping skills of patients during epidural steroid injections. Subjects consisted of 80 back pain patients. They were randomly assigned to four groups to receive either relaxation training, cognitive therapy, relaxation and cognitive therapy, or attention control treatment. All subjects were provided preparatory information describing the procedure for the epidural injection and typical physical sensations experienced by patients undergoing the procedure. Relaxation training consisted of Jacobsonian progressive relaxation instructions which were modelled by the trainer. Cognitive therapy consisted of instructions and a work sheet designed to assist subjects in designing positive (rational) self statements concerning the injection procedure. Attention control procedures involved instructions and written exercises of equal duration to the relaxation and cognitive treatments but containing no instructions for the control of anxiety and pain. The three experimental groups exhibited significantly fewer "ae1f-distress" verbalizations during the injection. On other dependent measures, namely, the remaining catagories of pain verbalizations, gross body movements, heart rate, and independent ratings of anxiety there were no significant differences among experimental and control groups. Results are discussed in terms of spontaneous use of coping skills, habituation, individual differences …

This controlled descriptive study was designed to investigate the psychological status of couples who are engaged in advanced fertility treatments. A battery of psychological test instruments, including the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI), the Health Attribution Test (HAT), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS), was used to measure psychological variables that have been shown in the infertility research literature to be associated with the psychological experiences of infertility patients. The scores from the four assessment instruments were compared with those of pregnant couples in childbirth education classes to differentiate the impact of stress associated with fertility treatment from the stress experienced by third trimester pregnant couples. Eighty-five subjects (42 male and 43 female) volunteered for the study and completed packets of questionnaires. The groups were designated Treatment (infertile couples) and Control (pregnant couples). The resulting data were collected and analyzed on the basis of group mean scores on the test instruments.

A preliminary investigation of the extent to which supportive services contribute to the effectiveness of a methadone treatment program was conducted.