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Studies examining medical teams indicate that exposure to the terminally ill often has detrimental effects on their physical and emotional well-being. However, recent theoretical developments suggest that this exposure might also have positive implications. The current study sought to examine 2 positive outcomes, meaning in life and personal growth, among physicians and nurses working with hospitalized children and exposed to different levels of patient mortality. In addition, the contribution of level of secondary traumatization and the personal resources of professional self-esteem and optimism were examined. The sample consisted of 58 physicians and 66 nurses working in pediatric hemato-oncology, pediatric intensive care units, and pediatric internal medicine wards in Israel. The findings indicate that a higher level of exposure to patient death, higher optimism, and professional self-esteem, and lower secondary traumatization predicted the sense of meaning in life, whereas occupation, as well as higher professional self-esteem and higher level of secondary traumatization, especially among lower professional self-esteem individuals, predicted a higher experience of personal growth. In addition, nurses reported higher levels of professional self-esteem, secondary traumatization, and personal growth than physicians. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

This longitudinal study examined the contribution of infants' temperament, mother's attachment style, and perceived grandmother's support following delivery, to the psychological mental health and marital adaptation of first time and non-first time Israeli mothers of pre-term (n = 70) and full-term (n = 78) twins, a year later. We collected data for the current study over 2 years (2003-2004). The findings suggested that the extent of mothers' personal and familial stress and their internal resource of attachment style played a crucial role in their mental health and marital adaptation. The external resource of grandmother's support contributed directly to the mothers' marital adaptation, whereas it contributed to their mental health only when infant's temperament was perceived to be difficult. Interestingly, the association between stress and adaptation was stronger among mothers of full-term twins than mothers of pre-term twins. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

The current series of studies was conducted to explore the interplay between death awareness, fear of intimacy, and unsafe sex. In Study 1 (n = 73), making mortality salient led to higher willingness to engage in risky sexual behaviors, in comparison to a control condition. In addition, only in the mortality salience condition, lower fear of intimacy was associated with higher sexual risk taking. Moreover, higher accessibility of death-related thoughts was found either following induction of thoughts about risky sex in Study 2 (n = 68), or upon the induction of thoughts about fear of intimacy in Study 3 (n = 74), in comparison to the induction of thoughts about a neutral theme. The findings extended Terror Management Theory to the realm of risky sexual behavior and are discussed in view of the terror management function of close relationships.

Two studies were conducted in order to develop a multidimensional instrument of driving style. In Study 1, we developed a self-report scale assessing four broad domains of driving style-the multidimensional driving style inventory (MDSI). A factor analysis revealed eight main factors, each one representing a specific driving style--dissociative, anxious, risky, angry, high-velocity, distress reduction, patient, and careful. In addition, significant associations were found between the eight factors, on the one hand, and gender, age, driving history, and personality measures of self-esteem, need for control, impulsive sensation seeking, and extraversion, on the other. In Study 2, further associations were found between the eight driving style factors and measures of trait anxiety and neuroticism. The discussion focused on the validity and utility of a multidimensional conceptualization of driving style.

A study, based on Terror Management Theory, examined the effects of mortality salience on young men's and women's behavioral intentions to drive recklessly. Participants (N = 206) reported on the relevance of driving to their self-esteem. Half of them were exposed to a mortality salience induction and the remaining to a control condition. Then they were asked about their willingness to drive recklessly in various scenarios. Findings showed that mortality salience led to higher intentions to drive recklessly than the control condition only among men who perceived driving as relevant to their self-esteem. No such differences were found among women. Results are discussed in light of the self-enhancing and cultural-world views-validating mechanisms proposed by the Terror Management Theory.