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- All Subjects: Resilience
Description
Cognitive reappraisal, or redefining the meaning of a stressful circumstance, is useful in regulating emotional responses to acute stressors and may be mobilized to up- or down- regulate the stressors’ emotional salience. A conceptually-related but more targeted emotion regulation strategy to that offered by cognitive reappraisal, termed positive cognitive shift, was examined in the current study. Positive cognitive shift (“PCS”) is defined as a point of cognitive transformation during a chronic, stressful situation that alters the meaning and emotional salience of the situation for the individual. Key aspects of the PCS that differentiate it from the broader reappraisal construct are that it 1) is relevant to responses to chronic (versus acute) aversive events, 2) is deployed when there is a mismatch between coping and stressors, and 3) involves insight together with redefinition in meaning of the situation generating stress. The current study used qualitative and quantitative analyses to 1) examine whether PCS is an observable, reliable, and valid experience in response to a stressful event that occurred in the past year, and 2) test whether PCS moderates the relations between the number of past-year stressful life circumstances and subsequent emotional well-being and functional health. A community sample of 175 middle-aged individuals were interviewed regarded a past chronic stressor and completed questionnaires regarding number of past year stressors and health outcomes. Theory-based coding of interviews was conducted to derive reliable scores for PCS, and findings indicated that PCS was evident in 37.7 % of participant responses. Furthermore, PCS scores were related positively to openness, personal growth from one’s most difficult lifetime event, and affect intensity-calm, in line with predictions. Also in line with prediction, PCS moderated the relations between number of past-year life events and health outcomes, such that the deleterious relations between past year stressful events and cognitive functioning, wellbeing, positive affect, and negative affect were weaker among individuals higher versus lower in PCS. Of note, PCS moderation effects diminished as the number of stressful events increased.
ContributorsRivers, Crystal (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Robinson Kurpius, Sharon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Current models of pain coping typically focus on how pain contributes to poor physical and psychological functioning. Researchers have argued that this focus on the negative consequences is too narrow and does not account for times when individuals are able to maintain meaningful functioning despite their pain. Thus, the current study sought to investigate the day-to-day processes that both help and hinder recovery from pain and persistence towards daily goals. Specifically, the present study tested: a) a two-factor model of risk and resilience “factors” that capture key processes across affective, cognitive and social dimensions of functioning, and b) whether the relation between morning pain and end-of-day physical disability is mediated by increases in these afternoon risk and resilience factors. Within-day study measures were collected for 21 days via an automated phone system from 220 participants with Fibromyalgia. The results of multi-level confirmatory factor analysis indicated that, consistent with prediction, risk and resilience do constitute two factors. Findings from multilevel structural equation models also showed resilience factor mediated the link between late morning increases in pain and end-of-day disability, in line with hypotheses. Although the vulnerability factor as a whole did not mediate the within-day link between pain and disability, pain-catastrophizing individually did serve as a significant mediator of this relation. This study was the first to empirically test a within-day latent factor model of resilience and vulnerability and the first to capture the multidimensional nature of the pain experience by examining mechanisms across affective, cognitive and social domains of functioning. The findings of the current study suggest that in addition to studying the processes by which pain has a negative influence on the lives of pain sufferers, our understanding of the pain adaptation process can be further improved by concurrently examining mechanisms that motivate individuals to overcome the urge to avoid pain and to function meaningfully despite it.
ContributorsThummala, Kirti (Author) / Davis, Mary C. (Thesis advisor) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Over 35% of multiracial college students fail to earn a degree, which can have significant economic and health costs over their lifespan. This study aimed to better understand college and psychological adjustment among multiracial college students of Hispanic/Latinx and White non-Hispanic descent by examining students’ racial identities and use of resilience resources. Latent profiles of identity were identified to better understand how different aspects of racial identity are clustered in this population. Multiracial college students (N=221) reported on racial identity as measured on multiple dimensions: Hispanic/Latinx identity, Hispanic/Latinx cultural orientation, White identity, identity integration, shifting expressions of identity, and identity malleability. Students also reported on their use of multiple resilience resources (personal mastery, social competence, perspective taking, coping flexibility, familism support values) and both college and psychological adjustment. Through regression and SEM analyses, results indicated that, of the resilience resources, only personal mastery was positively related to both college and psychological adjustment, while social competence was positively related to college adjustment. More shifting expressions of identity was related to poorer college and psychological adjustment, which was partially mediated via personal mastery. Stronger Hispanic/Latinx identity was related to higher perspective taking and coping flexibility, while stronger White identity was related to higher familism support values. Latent profiles of identity indicated a four-class solution, consisting of 1) “low identity”, 2) “integrated, low shifting”, 3) “integrated, shifting”, and 4) “high shifting, low integration”. Findings highlight the need for person-centered and ecological approaches to understanding identity development and resilience among multiracial college students, and can inform prevention and intervention efforts for multiracial college students of Hispanic/Latinx and White non-Hispanic descent. Results also demonstrate the importance of assessing multiracial identity via multiple dimensions including factors such as identity integration, shifting expressions of identity, and identity malleability.
ContributorsJewell, Shannon (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Jackson, Kelly (Committee member) / Doane, Leah (Committee member) / Edwards, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020