Assessment of socio-relational self-efficacy in breast cancer patients: Italian validation of the social relationship coping efficacy scale (SRCE-I)

BACKGROUND

Social relationship coping efficacy (SRCE) represents the ability to maintain or enhance social relationships in the context of serious illness. The purpose of the current study was to confirm the factor structure, psychometric properties, and utility of the Italian version of the SRCE scale.

METHODS

181 breast cancer patients completed the SRCE-Italian (SRCE-I), the Cancer Behavior Inventory-Brief/Italian (CBI-B/I), quality of life (QOL) measures (EORTC QLQ-C30; EORTC QLQ-BR23), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

RESULTS

The SRCE-I was internally consistent (Cronbach alpha = .95) and factor analysis confirmed that the SRCE-I was a unidimensional construct. In terms of validity, the SRCE-I was correlated with QOL (EORTC QLQ-30, Social Functioning, r = .33, Emotional Functioning, r = .57, and Global Health/Quality of Life; r = .54) and scales of the EORTC QLQ-BR23 (e.g., Future Perspective, r = .38; Breast Symptoms, -.31). SRCE-I was also correlated negatively with the HADS (r = -.72) and positively with the CBI-B/I (r = .79), a measure of coping efficacy (all ps < .001). Mediation analyses confirmed the utility of the SRCE-I scale as a mediating mechanism in enhancing social functioning and QOL.

CONCLUSIONS

The SRCE-I is a structurally sound, reliable, and valid measure that assesses the ability to maintain or enhance social support and mitigate the loss of social support. The SRCE-I can be used as a screening measure to assess low efficacy for maintaining social support or as a measure to detect the change in efficacy for enhancing social support in interventions to improve the QOL of patients.

Coping efficacy is associated with the domain specificity in risk-taking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic

The current study is to explore the associations between the threat to life and risk-taking behaviors across different domains during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and the role of the perceived threat and coping efficacy in these associations based on protection motivation theory. This study conducted an online survey on 2983 participants from 30 provinces in China. It found that people's risk-taking behaviors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic could be divided into stimulating risk-taking (SRT) behaviors and instrumental risk-taking (IRT) behaviors. The exposure level to the COVID-19 pandemic was negatively related to SRT behaviors in natural/physical, gambling, safety, moral, and reproductive domains, but not related to IRT behaviors in financial and corporation/competition domains. Two parallel routes were found in domain-specific risk-taking behaviors when people were faced with a life-threatening epidemic. Specifically, perceived threat consistently mediated the positive relationship between exposure level and risk-taking behaviors across domains. In contrast, coping efficacy mediated the negative relationship between exposure level and SRT behaviors but positive associations with IRT behaviors. These findings indicated that coping efficacy, rather than perceived threat is the factor that explains the people's domain-specific risk-taking behaviors in the context of the epidemic. The study holds implications for emergency policy-making that targets disaster risk reduction by increasing the public coping efficacy, which could prevent unnecessary SRT behaviors and improve necessary IRT behaviors in business and investment for economic recoveries.

Social interaction anxiety and perceived coping efficacy: Mechanisms of the association between minority stress and drinking consequences among sexual minority women

Sexual minority women (SMW; individuals who identify as women and as lesbian, bisexual, or with another sexual minority identity) are at increased risk for problematic alcohol use compared to their heterosexual counterparts. This increased risk has been attributed to minority stress. However, longitudinal research examining associations between minority stress and alcohol use outcomes is extremely limited and examinations of these associations at the daily level are nearly non-existent. Further, few longitudinal studies have examined mechanisms through which minority stress may impact alcohol use. We utilized data from a 14-day daily diary study of 98 SMW to examine daily-level associations between experiences of minority stress, alcohol consumption and consequences, and two proposed mediators of these associations (perceived coping efficacy, social interaction anxiety). Results indicated that on days when participants experienced minority stress events, they experienced lower coping efficacy, higher social interaction anxiety, and more drinking consequences than usual. Minority stress was not associated with same-day alcohol consumption. Perceived coping efficacy and social interaction anxiety mediated the same-day association between minority stress and drinking consequences. No prospective associations were significant, suggesting that studies with multiple assessments per day may be necessary to detect immediate effects of minority stress. Findings highlight the potential impact of daily experiences of minority stress on alcohol consequences and provide evidence that two general psychological processes may be mechanisms through which minority stress impacts alcohol consequences. These results provide evidence of a need for interventions that teach SMW skills for coping with minority stress and its psychological consequences.

The psychological typhoon eye effect during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: the role of coping efficacy and perceived threat

Background

The influence of COVID-19 on mental health problems has received considerable attention. However, only a few studies have examined the relationship between exposure to COVID-19 and mental health problems, and no empirical study has tested the mechanisms between them.

Methods

We conducted a survey in 31 provinces of China during 3–13 March 2020 to test the effect of the exposure level on mental health problems. Our sample comprised 2987 participants who reported their perceived threat, coping efficacy, mental health problems and other demographic variables. Multiple mediators path analysis was used in the data analysis.

Results

The results showed that the level of exposure to COVID-19 in China was negatively associated with mental health problems, which confirmed the “Psychological Typhoon Eye” effect. Further analyses indicated that both perceived threat and coping efficacy partially mediated the relationship between them. However, coping efficacy explained the “Psychological Typhoon Eye” effect. Perceived threat mediated the positive relationship between exposure level and mental health problems.

Conclusion

This study detected the psychological typhoon eye effect and demonstrated the mediating role of coping efficacy and perceived threat between exposure to COVID-19 and mental health problems. Our findings suggest that policy makers and psychological workers should provide enough psychological services to low-risk areas as the high-risk areas. An important means of alleviating mental health problems is to improve coping efficacy.

Mentoring as a Mediator or Moderator of the Association between Racial Discrimination and Coping Efficacy in Urban, Low-Income Latina/o Youth

The aim of this study was to examine the associations among mentoring relationship quality (i.e., relational and instrumental quality), racial discrimination and coping efficacy with racial discrimination. Three social support models were tested, including the stress buffering, support mobilization, and support deterioration models. Participants were 257 urban, low-income Latina/o high school students, who completed surveys in both 9th and 10th grades. While controlling for gender and coping efficacy with discrimination in 9th grade, results supported the social support deterioration model. Specifically, there was a significant indirect effect of racial discrimination in 9th grade on coping efficacy in 10th grade through instrumental mentoring quality. As racial discrimination increased, mentoring quality decreased and then coping efficacy decreased. We also found that more racial discrimination in 9th grade was significantly associated with lower coping efficacy in 10th grade, and higher instrumental mentoring quality in 9th grade was significantly associated with higher coping efficacy in 10th grade, while controlling for gender and coping efficacy in 9th grade. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Factors Associated with Parental Adaptation to Children with an Undiagnosed Medical Condition

Little is known about the adaptive process and experiences of parents raising a child with an undiagnosed medical condition. The present study aims to assess how uncertainty, hope, social support, and coping efficacy contributes to adaptation among parents of children with an undiagnosed medical condition. Sixty-two parents of child affected by an undiagnosed medical condition for at least two years completed an electronically self-administered survey. Descriptive analysis suggested parents in this population had significantly lower adaptation scores when compared to other parents of children with undiagnosed medical conditions, and parents of children with a diagnosed intellectual and/or physical disability. Similarly, parents in this population had significantly lower hope, perceived social support and coping efficacy when compared to parents of children with a diagnosed medical condition. Multiple linear regression was used to identify relationships between independent variables and domains of adaptation. Positive stress response was negatively associated with emotional support (B = -0.045, p ≤ 0.05), and positively associated with coping efficacy (B = 0.009, p ≤ 0.05). Adaptive self-esteem was negatively associated with uncertainty towards one's social support (B = -0.248, p ≤ 0.05), and positively associated with coping efficacy (B = 0.007, p ≤ 0.05). Adaptive social integration was negatively associated with uncertainty towards one's social support (B-0.273, p ≤ 0.05), and positively associated with uncertainty towards child's health (B = 0.323, p ≤ 0.001), and affectionate support (B = 0.110, p ≤ 0.001). Finally, adaptive spiritual wellbeing was negatively associated with uncertainty towards one's family (B = -0.221, p ≤ 0.05). Findings from this study have highlighted the areas where parents believed additional support was required, and provided insight into factors that contribute to parental adaptation.

[Relationships among emotional intelligence, ego-resilience, coping efficacy, and academic stress in medical students]

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to identify the causal relationship between emotional intelligence, ego-resilience, coping efficacy, and academic stress.

METHODS

Participants were 424 medical students from four medical schools in Korea. We examined their emotional intelligence, ego-resilience, coping efficacy, and academic stress using a t-test, an analysis of variance, correlational analysis, and path analysis.

RESULTS

First- and second-year students scored higher on academic stress than did those from third- and fourth-year students. Further, coping efficacy mediated the relationships between emotional intelligence, ego-resilience, and academic stress. Academic stress was directly influenced by coping efficacy, and indirectly by emotional intelligence and ego-resilience. This showed that coping efficacy play an important role in academic stress.

CONCLUSION

Our findings may help medical schools design educational programs to improve coping efficacy in students, and to reduce their academic stress.

Associations of psychological thriving with coping efficacy, expectations for future growth, and depressive symptoms over time in people with arthritis

OBJECTIVE

Psychological thriving reflects a trajectory of growth over time as opposed to scaling back expectations. Whether thriving is a product, precursor, or process of coping with arthritis-related limitations is unclear. We examined associations between thriving, coping efficacy, and expectations for future growth in individuals with arthritis, and the relations of thriving to depressive symptoms and retrospective perceptions of personal growth over a six-month period.

METHODS

A sample of 423 people with arthritis completed measures of thriving, coping efficacy, depressive symptoms, and expectations for future growth; 168 individuals completed a six-month follow-up survey. Structural equation modeling analyses compared three possible models of psychological thriving, controlling for disease-related variables. Hierarchical regression analyses of the cross-lagged associations of thriving with retrospective perceptions of positive personal change and depressive symptoms were also conducted.

RESULTS

Structural equation analyses suggest that the process model in which thriving and coping efficacy jointly predicted expectations for future growth best fit the data. Baseline thriving was also associated with retrospective perceptions of personal growth at follow-up and fewer depressive symptoms at baseline and follow-up, after controlling for disease-related variables.

CONCLUSION

Overall, these findings suggest that psychological thriving is synergistically related to coping efficacy, and to expectations for future growth and less depression, in people with arthritis. Importantly, our findings support the notion that psychological thriving is more than scaling back expectations, and that thriving may be an important quality to cultivate to address the burden of depression in people with arthritis.