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This investigation examined whether trait variables (empathy, global social responsibility) and perceived human responsibility predict and interact to predict people's helping of natural-disaster victims. In Study 1, participants completed a questionnaire and read one of two bogus earthquake reports which portrayed victims as either prepared or unprepared for a foreseeable earthquake. In Study 2, participants completed a questionnaire about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Across studies, helping was best elicited from high-empathy individuals who attributed responsibility for disasters to human actions (e.g., government), not natural phenomena (e.g., hurricane). Trait variables correlated with helping when assessed individually, but accounted for little unique variance in helping in multiple regression analyses. Judgment of human responsibility predicted helping when participants were familiar with the target disaster (Study 2) but did not predict helping when the disaster was unfamiliar (Study 1). Theoretical implications for researchers and practical implications for aid agencies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within the issue including one by Wilmar B. Schaufeli on teacher burnout and another by Marisa Salanova on antecedents of self-efficacy in college teachers and students.

The author offers a commentary on the article "Money Matters: Recommendations for Financial Stress Research in Occupation Health Psychology," by R. R. Sinclair and J. H. Cheung which appeared in a previous issue. Topics include how research which is both cross-national and interdisciplinary can enhance knowledge about financial stress, subgroups that are affected by financial stress, and the need to consider the psychological resources that the individual has to cope with.

In this paper we present the Hindi adaptation of Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI). All the 55 items were translated into Hindi by independent translators. A consensus version (moderation) of these translations was developed looking at the language and cultural suitability of the words. Thereafter, backward translations of the moderated version were performed to check semantic discrepancies. After measuring item equivalence, we standardized the Hindi version of PCI on a representative sample of senior citizens. Contrary to the proposition of the original scale, a fourteen factor solution emerged out of the factor analysis. The factor structure and reliability coefficients were compared between the original PCI and the Hindi version of PCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, two universities in Toronto, Canada experienced simultaneous labor strikes. As much as possible, one institution proceeded as normal, whereas the other canceled academic activities. A mixed-methods approach (focus group and online survey) was adopted to explore and compare how students were affected at each university and how to better shield students from these effects. Results identified negative effects of the strike at both institutions but indicated that students whose activities were canceled experienced a more negative impact including greater psychological distress, apathy toward their studies, and financial concern. Recommendations for the handling of future work stoppages are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Social support moderated the association between financial threat-mental health. • Social support moderated the association between economic hardship-mental health. • Social support did not moderate the relation between well-being and mental health. Abstract The economic crisis had a detrimental impact on the economies of several European countries, namely in Portugal. The literature emphasizes that periods of economic turmoil potentiate the appearance of mental health issues, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, and decrease populations’ well-being. The present study, conducted in Portugal, was performed with a sample of 729 individuals, 33.9% males and 66.1% females, with an average age of 36.99 years old. Its’ aim was to assess the relationship between economic stress factors (economic hardship, financial threat, and financial well-being) and stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as to test the moderating effect of social support on this relationship. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships defined. When comparing the results obtained in the models without and with social support as a moderator, statistically significant differences were observed on the relationships between financial threat and depression and between economic hardship and stress, anxiety, and depression. Regarding the association between financial threat and stress and anxiety, the effect of the economic stressor decreased in the presence of social support, but the differences were not statistically significant. The implications of these results are discussed and strategies to foster social support are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although random responding is prevalent and increases Type II errors, most psychologists avoid trying to identify it because the means to do so are extremely limited. We propose the inter-item standard deviation (ISD), a statistical index of response variance, is suited for this task. We hypothesized that random responders produce large ISDs because they respond to items all over a measure’s response range, whereas conscientious responders produce small ISDs because they respond to items more consistently. We administered a questionnaire containing the NEO-FFI-3 and an embedded validity scale to 134 university students. Another 134 responders were created using a random number generator. For all 268 responders, the ISD was calculated for each of the NEO-FFI-3′s five subscales and an aggregated ISD was calculated by averaging the five ISD indexes. Results showed that (1) random responders produce significantly larger ISDs than conscientious responders, (2) the ISDs were strongly correlated with the embedded validity scale and with one another, and (3) the ISDs correctly identified responders with greater than 80% classification accuracy. The mean ISD yielded greater than 95% classification accuracy. This study shows that responders can be identified by quantifying inter-item response variance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to adapt the Proactive Coping Inventory to a Hungarian language context, and to evaluate its psychometric properties. The psychometric characteristics of the Hungarian version of the Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI-H) were examined, based on the data of 452 individuals (mean age= 25.84). Self-report questionnaires were filled out: Proactive Coping Inventory and the short version of the Beck Depression Inventory. In this paper we will present results referring to the reliability of the PCI-H subscales (Cronbach’s alpha= .71 to .86), the construct validity of the inventory and the item analysis. We will also present the results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), which was conducted to test the fit of the original theoretically derived seven-factor structure of the PCI-H. The result of the factor analysis identified seven scales of the inventory (χ2/df= 1.870; CFI= .855; TLI=.845 RMSEA=.045; SRMR=.0678). Overall, the results of this validation study are highly promising. The subscales of the PCI have good reliability and construct validity, moreover the results of the CFA verify that the seven-factor model represents the original factor structure of PCI in an appropriate way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper brings the preliminary results of the study (N = 87), the goal of which was to describe the psychological factors applying in the contexts of contemporary economic recession. The economic recession was operationalized by the data of unemployment rate at the time of study. Its impact was assessed by methods designated for capturing the financial strain. These economic variables show the closest relations to mental states. The strongest relation was found between perceived economic threat and the rate of fatigue, hostility and anxiety (POMS). Cognitive factors or personality characteristics applied in the context of economic variables only marginally and social (transactional) characteristics (social support) did not apply at all. The cognitive factors (ruminative thoughts), personality characteristics (self-esteem, proactive coping) and social characteristics (social support) however applied in the relation to job variables (job satisfaction and employability). The possibility of generalization of the results of the study is limited by the scope and heterogeneity of the research sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the positive value of women's interpersonal way of coping by examining coping benefits on distress depending on gender socialization in the Spanish cultural context. The participants were 332 men and 129 women employed by financial companies. Preliminary results showed that women used social support coping more frequently than men, whereas there were no gender differences in the use of direct action coping. Interactive effects of gender in the relationship between coping strategies and distress and psychosomatic complaints were found; social support coping was only beneficial for women, whereas direct action coping was more beneficial for men than for women. Implications of these results and their significance within the framework of national and sector cultures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media coverage of large-scale violence can result in interfering thoughts and depression. This research investigates the relationship between interfering thoughts and depression when watching the Russo-Ukrainian war. In the theoretical model, the more the war is watched, the more it is related to interfering thoughts, which are related to depression. With the ongoing pandemic, depression, when watching the war, was related to coronavirus threat. Data was collected online from April to June, 2022, with university students in Germany, Finland, and Canada ( N = 865). Path analysis results in each sample showed that the model fit the data with sample-specific modification indices. There was full mediation of watching the war by interference on depression, indicating that it is not watching the war, per se, but rather its relationship to cognitive interference, that is associated with depression. Denial and coronavirus threat were positively related to depression. Implications for research and student support are considered., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

On 24 February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. Millions of people tuned into social media to watch the war. Media exposure to disasters and large-scale violence can precipitate anxiety resulting in intrusive thoughts. This research investigates factors related to anxiety while watching the war. Since the war began during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, threat from COVID-19 is seen as a predictor of anxiety when watching the war. A theoretical model is put forward where the outcome was anxiety when watching the war, and predictors were self-reported interference of watching the war with one's studies or work, gender, worry about the war, self-efficacy and coronavirus threat. Data were collected online with independent samples of university students from two European countries close to Ukraine, Germany (n = 348) and Finland (n = 228), who filled out an anonymous questionnaire. Path analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings showed that the model was an acceptable fit to the data in each sample, and standardised regression coefficients indicated that anxiety, when watching the war, increased with interference, war worry and coronavirus threat, and decreased with self-efficacy. Women reported more anxiety when watching the war than men. Implications of the results are discussed., (© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Union of Psychological Science.)

The purpose of this online empirical study was to examine the relationship between COVID-19 stress, coping including substance use and behavioural disengagement, and avoidance behaviour early on in the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants, recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk, N = 730), were adults from Canada, the United States, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. Results of path analysis showed that feeling threatened by the virus, predicted greater COVID-19 anxiety, which was related to greater substance use to cope with the virus, as well as more behavioural disengagement, which predicted less avoidance behaviour. Implications of the results are discussed, particularly the relationship between coping and avoidance behaviour during the pandemic., (© 2021 The Authors. International Journal of Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Union of Psychological Science.)

The relationship between proactive coping, mood, and psychological and functional outcomes was examined in a sample of 228 older adults undergoing rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery. Proactive coping is a coping style that is goal oriented and involves approaching stressors as challenges rather than threats. It was hypothesized that older adults who use proactive coping strategies would experience improved psychological and functional outcomes following rehabilitation. Further, it was expected that this relation would be mediated by the experience of positive mood. Support for the proposed mediation model was found, whereby the experience of vigor was found to mediate the effect of proactive coping on outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed in the context of interventions to foster proactive coping in older adults.

Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between psychosocial variables and working conditions, and nurses' coping methods and distress in response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in Canada. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The sample consisted of 333 nurses (315 women, 18 men) who completed an Internet-mediated questionnaire that was posted on the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) website between March and May 2004. The questionnaire was restricted to respondents who had to authenticate their RNAO membership with a valid username and password before accessing the questionnaire. This served a dual purpose: to ensure that only RNAO nurses completed the questionnaire and thereby safeguarding the generalizability of the findings; and second, to prevent any one nurse from contributing more than once to the overall sample., Results: Correlational analysis yielded several significant relationships between psychosocial variables and working conditions, and the traditional correlates of burnout and stress. Three multiple regression analysis revealed that the model we evolved--including higher levels of vigor, organizational support, and trust in equipment/infection control initiative; and lower levels of contact with SARS patients, and time spent in quarantine--predicted to lower levels of avoidance behavior, emotional exhaustion, and state anger., Conclusions: By employing models of stress and burnout that combine psychosocial variables and working conditions, researchers can account for significant amounts of variance in outcomes related to burnout. These findings highlight the importance of vigor and perceived organizational support in predicting nurses' symptoms of burnout. For healthcare administrators, this means that a likely strategy for assuaging the negative outcomes of stress should address nurses' psychosocial concerns and the working conditions that they face during novel times of crisis.

Increasingly, organizations are experiencing changes as a result of extensive downsizing, restructuring, and merging. In Canada, government-sponsored medicine has been affected as hospitals have merged or closed, reducing essential medical services and resulting in extensive job loss for hospital workers, particularly nurses. Hospital restructuring has also resulted in greater stress and job insecurity in nurses. The escalation of stressors has created burnout in nurses. This study examines predictors of burnout in nurses experiencing hospital restructuring using the MBI-General Survey which yields scores on three scales: Emotional exhaustion, Cynicism, and Professional efficacy. Multiple regressions were conducted where each burnout scale was the criterion and stressors (e.g., amount of work, use of generic workers to do nurses' work), restructuring effects, social support, and individual resources (e.g., control coping, self-efficacy, prior organizational commitment) were predictors. There were differences in the amount of variance accounted for in the burnout components by stressors and resources. Stressors contributed most to emotional exhaustion and least to professional efficacy. Individual resources were more likely to contribute to professional efficacy and least to emotional exhaustion. Stressors and resources accounted for approximately equal amounts of variance in cynicism. Three conclusions were drawn. First, present findings parallel others by showing that individual coping patterns contribute to professional efficacy. Second, emotional exhaustion was found to be the prototype of stress. Third, prior organizational commitment, self-efficacy, and control coping resulted in lower burnout.