Related Posts

• Understanding Stress in America

  

  This is part of PAR’s Mental Health Awareness Month series, in which we will be focusing on the multifaceted issue of mental health in the U.S. Come back each week for more insight.  The last few years have seen a global pandemic, international conflicts, civil unrest, increased inflation, and many natural disasters. The American Psychological Association (APA) Stress in America survey takes a closer look at what Americans have been experiencing and provides insight into recent trends. This data provides better understanding of how Americans are handling a multitude of stressors and helps to show us what is going on in the minds of Americans of different ages.  Collective trauma and post-pandemic effects  The survey starts with the idea of collective trauma, understanding that everyone has been deeply affected by difficult events collectively. Even though COVID-19 may not be a national emergency anymore, it has left mental and emotional effects on most Americans.  Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD, Chief Executive Officer of the APA, points out that although many people seem to be moving on from the pandemic, we are still dealing with ...

• False confession: Study shows that memories of fabricated crimes are easily planted

  Wrongful conviction stories abound in the news these days as DNA evidence is being used more frequently to reopen cases, some of them decades-old. Groups like The Innocence Project are drawing attention to those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and helping to exonerate them. In many of these stories, those falsely accused of crimes maintained their innocence, filing appeals and talking to anyone who would listen in an effort to have their cases heard. But what about convictions in which the accused has confessed to the crime and believes in his or her own guilt? How could an innocent person be persuaded to confess to a crime he or she didn’t commit? Quite easily, according to a new study by Julia Shaw, a lecturer in forensic psychology from the University of Bedfordshire, and Stephen Porter, a forensic psychologist at the University of British Columbia. In an article in the January 2015 issue of the journal Psychological Science, Shaw and Porter describe the method by which they were able to implant false memories of committing a crime into the minds ...

• Handling Holiday Stress

  

  With the holidays in full swing, many Americans are stressed out—but that stress is coming from different sources this year. According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, this year, funding the festivities is causing many individuals anxiety this holiday.  The top three areas people reported causing them stress were all economic: Affording holiday gifts was cited by more than half of participants Finding and securing those gifts is causing stress for 40% of individuals Affording holiday meals is causing anxiety for 39% of respondents  Additionally, 37% of individuals said challenging family dynamics were causing them holiday worry, with 1 in 4 respondents saying they were worried about discussing politics or current events with family members around the dinner table. On the positive side, 44% of those surveyed reported they are looking forward to seeing family and friends over the holidays. Eating good food (20%) and taking time off (9%) were also giving people things to look forward to this holiday season. Stressed about the holidays?  If you or someone you know are stressed about the holidays, here are a few tips that may ...

• APA takes on workplace stress

  

  The changing landscape of workplaces has drawn heightened attention to the needs and expectations of employees nationwide regarding the issues of work–life balance and mental health support.  The recent survey by the American Psychological Association (APA) sheds light on the prevalence of toxic workplaces and their detrimental impact on mental health. Of the data coming out of this survey, most startling was the revelation that 19% of workers reported their workplace as somewhat or very toxic. Even more alarming, those in such environments are three times more likely to suffer mental health harm at work than those individuals who are in nontoxic settings.  This blog discusses the importance of these findings, what employers can do in light of this data, and the role mental health providers can play in supporting individuals facing toxic work situations. Understanding the impact of a toxic work environment  The APA survey brought to light the destructive toll a workplace can have on an individual’s mental well-being.  According to the survey, more than one in five workers revealed they've suffered mental health harm at work. Even worse, reported cases of ...

• Football Fans Eat More High-Fat Food after their Team Loses, Study Says

  It goes without saying that typical game-day snacks are not the healthiest fare. But a recent study suggests that football fans who root for a losing team are more likely to eat unhealthful, high-calorie foods—even the day after the game. On the flip side, fans of a winning team are likely to make better food choices than they normally do. “Backing a losing team isn’t just bad for your pride,” says National Public Radio’s science correspondent Shankar Vedantam in a recent broadcast called Diet of Defeat. “It’s bad for your waistline.” The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, was conducted by marketing researchers at the international business school INSEAD. Authors Yann Cornil and Pierre Chandon explain, “Using archival and experimental data, we showed that vicarious defeats experienced by fans when their favorite football team loses lead them to consume less healthy food. On the Mondays following a Sunday National Football League (NFL) game, saturated-fat and food-calorie intake increase significantly in cities with losing teams, decrease in cities with winning teams, and remain at their usual levels in comparable cities ...

• New Release – The Parenting Stress Index™, 4th Edition (PSI™-4)

  PAR is proud to announce the release of the newly revised Parenting Stress Index. Designed to evaluate the magnitude of stress in the parent-child sys­tem, the fourth edition of the popular PSI is a 120-item inventory that focuses on three major domains of stressor source: child characteris­tics, parent characteristics, and situational/demographic life stress. The PSI-4 is commonly used as a screening and triage measure for evaluating the parenting system and identifying issues that may lead to problems in the child’s or parent’s behavior. This information may be used for designing a treatment plan, for setting priorities for intervention, and/or for follow-up evaluation. What’s new in the PSI-4 Revised to improve the psychometric limitations of individual items and to update item wording to more clearly tap into the target construct or behavioral pattern or to be more understandable. The original structure has been retained. Validation studies conducted within a variety of foreign populations, including Chinese, Portuguese, French Canadian, Finnish, and Dutch, suggest that the PSI is a robust measure that maintains its ...