Cultural model of self-stigma among Chinese with substance use problems.

Background: Substance use is regarded as one of the most stigmatizing conditions worldwide. To achieve recovery, individuals with substance use problems must learn to cope with stigma. Despite the potential importance of cultural factors in the internalization process of stigma, few studies have incorporated culturally salient factors in understanding self-stigma.

Reducing HIV-related stigma among health-care professionals: a game-based experiential approach.

Stigmatizing attitudes from health professionals toward people living with HIV (PLHIV) constitute a key barrier to HIV care. Despite considerable progress in HIV stigma-reduction research, we are still searching for effective strategies that can be implemented on a larger scale. To narrow this research gap, the present study investigated a novel cost-effective approach to reducing HIV-related stigma among health professionals.

Facing a breakup: Electromyographic responses moderate self-concept recovery following a romantic separation.

Romantic breakups arouse fundamental questions about the self: This study examined self-concept reorganization and psychological well-being over an 8-week period in the months following a breakup. Multilevel analyses revealed that poorer self-concept recovery preceded poorer well-being and was associated with love for an ex-partner, suggesting that failure to redefine the self contributes to post-breakup distress. Psychophysiological data revealed that greater activity in the corrugator supercilia facial muscle while thinking about an ex-partner predicted poorer self-concept recovery and strengthened the negative association between love for an ex-partner and self-concept recovery.

Divorce and Death: A Meta-Analysis and Research Agenda for Clinical, Social, and Health Psychology.

Divorce is a relatively common stressful life event that is purported to increase risk for all-cause mortality. One problem in the literature on divorce and health is that it is fragmented and spread across many disciplines; most prospective studies of mortality are based in epidemiology and sociology, whereas most mechanistic studies are based in psychology. This review integrates research on divorce and death via meta-analysis and outlines a research agenda for better understanding the potential mechanisms linking marital dissolution and risk for all-cause mortality.

Attachment Anxiety, Verbal Immediacy, and Blood Pressure: Results from a Laboratory-Analogue Study Following Marital Separation.

Marital separation and divorce increase risk for all-cause morbidity and mortality. Using a laboratory analogue paradigm, the present study examined attachment anxiety, language use, and blood pressure (BP) reactivity among 119 (n = 43 men, 76 women) recently separated adults who were asked to mentally reflect on their relationship history and separation experience. We created a language use composite of verbal immediacy from participants' stream-of-consciousness recordings about their separation experience as a behavioral index of attachment-related hyperactivation.

Social support and psychological adjustment to SARS: the mediating role of self-care self-efficacy.

The study tested the model of perceived support from medical staff and family/friends on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) survivors' mental health as mediated by self-care self-efficacy. One hundred and forty-three SARS survivors recruited from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority following 18 months recovery were surveyed by trained interviewers using structured questionnaires. Based on structural equation modeling, findings showed that self-care self-efficacy completely mediated the effects of perceived medical staff support and perceived family/friends support on mental health status.

The effects of church attendance and marital status on the longitudinal trajectories of depressed mood among older adults.

Objective. The present study investigated the potential effects of church attendance and marital status on mood trajectories among older adults and whether these effects varied by gender. Method.

Marital dissolution and blood pressure reactivity: evidence for the specificity of emotional intrusion-hyperarousal and task-rated emotional difficulty.

Objective: To assess blood pressure (BP) reactivity as recently separated adults completed a laboratory task asking to mentally reflect on their relationship experiences. Marital separations and the experience of divorce are associated with increased risk for early mortality and poor health outcomes. Few studies, however, have investigated the potential psychophysiological mechanisms that may account for these broad-based associations.

Gender and ethnic diversity in NIMH-funded clinical trials: review of a decade of published research.

A total of 379 NIMH-funded clinical trials published between 1995 and 2004 in five major mental health journals were assessed on their inclusion of women and racial/ethnic groups in their study recruitment. Findings showed that whereas most of the studies reported gender information and gender representation was balanced across studies, less than half of the studies provided complete racial/ethnic information. All racial/ethnic groups except Whites and African Americans were underrepresented, a pattern that has not improved significantly over the last decade.

Examining attribution model of self-stigma on social support and psychological well-being among people with HIV+/AIDS.

Among various infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS is considered to be one of the most stigmatizing conditions. Using a prospective design, the present study attempted to test the attributional pathway from perceived control to responsibility to self-blame and finally to self-stigmatization, and to examine the social and psychological sequelae of stigma among a sample of 119 people with HIV/AIDS (PWHA) in Hong Kong. Structural equation modeling findings showed that the model had good fit to the data.