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Our aim in this comparison study was to describe the continuation of domestic violence and to assess changes in the association among family functioning, health, and social support for participants who have or have not experienced violence for the years 2012 and 2015. We collected the data using a family functioning, health, and social support (FAFHES) questionnaire. We collected the baseline questionnaires (N = 188) from patients who visited a Finnish central hospital and mailed the follow-up survey (N = 71). The prevalence of violence remained constant. However, the violence varied and changed. Our findings should encourage health care professionals to better identify and intervene in violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: First, to compare multilevel emotion processing (EP) of pregnancy between substance-abusing and non-using women, and, second, to analyse whether different types of interventions can increase positive and functional EP and decrease negative and dysfunctional EP among substance-abusing mothers. EP was conceptualised according to the multifocal theory of emotions proposed by Frijda in 1986, comprising feeling states, behavioural urges to act, cognitive appraisals, and meta-emotions. Method: Participants were 101 women, 51 with substance abuse disorder and 50 comparisons. The substance-abusing women were provided with either intensive psychodynamic mother–infant group therapy (PGT; n = 25) or individually tailored psychosocial support (PSS; n = 26). All women reported their EP once during pregnancy (T1; N = 94), and twice postpartum, when the child was four (T2; N = 84) and twelve (T3; N = 76) months. Results: As hypothesised, the results indicated that the pregnancy-related EP of substance-abusing women was characterised by more negative and fewer positive feeling states, by more intense behavioural urges to act and by lower levels of cognitive appraisals of agency and predictability than the EP of the comparison women. As far as the interventions' effects on EP, intense behavioural urges to act decreased only in the PGT group, while negative feeling states decreased and agency and predictability appraisals increased from pregnancy to postpartum in the PSS group alone. Conclusions: The importance of helping substance-abusing mothers enhance optimal emotional quality as they prepare for and enter motherhood should be emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study explored 12-month outcome and its associations to social adjustment-related variables in patients with first-episode non-affective psychosis in Finland and Spain. Methods: Forty-nine Finnish and 37 Spanish patients were evaluated at admission on various characteristics of social adjustment. Outcome was measured for 68 (79%) patients by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Global Assessment Scale, and Grip on Life. Results: One-fourth of the patients experienced psychotic symptoms at follow-up. Sixty per cent of the patients showed good global functioning and Grip on Life. In both patient groups, poor earlier global functioning, weak social network, poor Grip on Life, and psychological dependence on family of origin were associated with poor outcome. In the Finnish group, few social contacts, lack of social recreational activities, and lack of stability in couple relations were related to poor outcome. In the Spanish group, low parental criticism was associated with poor outcome. Conclusion: Our findings support the notion that the level of earlier social adjustment is important in recovery from first-episode psychosis. However, different aspects of social adjustment, i.e., peer relations in the Finnish group and family relations in the Spanish group, appear to have prognostic importance in these two social environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]