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Background: Increasingly researchers are recognising the importance of including the perspectives of children and young people in research and in the development of interventions and innovations, in order to understand children's lives on their own terms. Purpose: This article reflects on the potential risks posed to children and young people in research and the role of gatekeepers in granting access and, in direct field activities, especially where the research could be deemed as 'sensitive'. Research Design: Using a combined descriptive and autoethnographic research design, questionnaires and reflections were gathered from the field experiences of researchers in four countries (India, Jamaica, Uganda and the UK) conducting research on children's experiences of violence victimisation as part of a gender-based violence prevention project. Data was collected retrospectively and analysed thematically with the aid of QSR NVivo. Results: Based on the five themes that emerged: accessing schools; approach to access; accessing participants; lessons learnt; and advice for other researchers, the overall findings indicate that researching sensitive topics with children and young people is necessarily problematic in order to safeguard them. This is especially the case in contexts where discrimination and stigma relating to certain topics may be a significant barrier to children's participation. Conclusion: Research planning requires attention to gatekeeper power, safeguarding children and young people, and understanding how processes and attitudes concerning the status and rights of children at national and institutional levels might influence the research process.

Policing is considered a high-stress occupation due to the demanding nature of the job. Addressing police stress requires a detailed understanding of how psychosocial risk factors influence various aspects of their well-being. Moreover, an analysis of the direct effects of work conditions and the mediating effects of cognitive appraisals is also warranted. Using the Demands–Resources–Individual Effects (DRIVE) model of work-related stress this study investigated the direct effects of work conditions on well-being and also examined the intermediate role of perceived job stress and job satisfaction in the relationship between work conditions and well-being. Five hundred and seventy-eight police officers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (J.C.F.) completed the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regressions and the Hayes Process tool for mediation analysis. Both perceived job stress and satisfaction mediated the relationship between work conditions and general physical health. Perceived job stress was an indirect pathway through which work conditions influenced psychological distress, whereas job satisfaction was not a significant mediator. In contrast, job satisfaction mediated the relationship between work conditions and positive well-being, but perceived job stress did not. These findings provide significant evidence for periodically monitoring and auditing perceptions of stress and job satisfaction, as they are likely precursors to subsequent health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic raised many challenges for university staff and students, including the need to work from home, which resulted in a greater reliance on technology. We collected questionnaire data from university students (N = 894) in three European countries: Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Data were collected between 7th April 2020 and 19th June 2020, representing a period covering the first lockdown and university closures in these countries and across Europe generally. We tested the hypotheses that technology-related stressors (techno-overload, work-home conflict, techno-ease, techno-reliability, techno-sociality, and pace of change) would be associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and that coping styles (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance) would mediate these relationships. Results showed significant positive associations between techno-overload, work-home conflict and anxiety and depressive symptoms, and significant negative associations between techno-reliability, techno-ease and anxiety and depressive symptoms. A significant negative association was found between techno-sociality and depressive symptoms but not anxiety symptoms. No evidence was found for an association between pace of change and anxiety or depressive symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses revealed significant direct effects of techno-overload, work-home conflict and techno-ease on anxiety symptoms, and of work-home conflict and techno-ease on depressive symptoms. Work-home conflict had significant indirect effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms through avoidance coping. Techno-overload and techno-ease both had significant indirect effects on anxiety symptoms through problem- and emotion-focused coping. Techno-ease also had a significant indirect effect on depressive symptoms through problem-focused coping. The findings add to the body of evidence on technostress amongst university students and provide knowledge on how technostress translates through coping strategies into anxious and depressive symptoms during the disruption caused by the outbreak of a pandemic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate infertility-coping patterns and pregnancy outcome among IVF participants who face stressful life events in addition to their infertility. Background: Many studies on stress and IVF-assisted pregnancy focus specifically on infertility-related stress without considering the role of other stressful events. Additionally, these studies seldom include the mediating influence of coping patterns. Methods: In a retrospective study, we reviewed the clinical records of 430 men and women who attended the sole fertility centre in Jamaica over a 10-year period. Using cross-sectional analyses, we examined exposure to past significant losses (death, intimate relationship, income) and current stressors (health, work, financial, personal relationships), as well as different coping patterns that emerged (problem-focused, emotion-focused, congruence between partner) with pregnancy outcome. Results: Univariate analyses and logistic regression revealed that participants exposed to multiple stressors were not at increased risk for a negative pregnancy outcome, but women who used problem-focused strategies to cope with their infertility were more likely to become pregnant than those who used emotion-focused strategies. Regardless of coping strategies, however, age was the only independent predictor of pregnancy outcome. Conclusions: Determinants of pregnancy outcome are identified, and the experience of general stress for IVF couples is discussed within the context of a developing country. Areas of future research are highlighted along with implications for psychosocial interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the prevalence of children's exposure to adult perpetrated domestic violence (DV) in Jamaica and investigated the contextual factors of the affected families and the wellbeing of exposed children. The study was a cross-sectional survey of 7,182 children aged 9--17 years, drawn from 20 primary and secondary schools. Girls comprised 60.8% of the sample, with 69% of the full sample living in rural communities. The surveys were completed in classroom settings. Questions from the IPSCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool (ICASR-C, Runyan et al., 2015) were used to assess respondents' lifetime experiences of witnessing three forms of adult-perpetrated DV: shouting and screaming that frightened the child; physical violence (e.g., hitting, slapping); and serious violent threat (e.g., use of weapons to threaten or harm). The findings indicated that 41.6% of the children had been exposed to at least one type of DV (22.5% had experienced one, 11.8% had experienced two, and 7.3% had experienced three forms of violence). There was a statistically significant difference in the children's sense of safety in their homes, depending on whether or not they had been exposed to DV. Those exposed to DV had a lower sense of safety than those not exposed and the more forms of DV experienced, the lower their sense of safety. Of those not exposed, 85.8% reported always feeling safe at home, compared with 37.2% for those exposed to three forms of DV. Study limitations and implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]