Objectives The study aimed to investigate the psychosocial predictors of bruxism. The association of various psychosocial factors such as alexithymia, emotional processing, state and trait anxiety, and stress with awake bruxism was analysed. Methods The study involved 52 volunteers diagnosed with awake bruxism. The toolkit that was used included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Emotional Processing Scale (EPS), the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and the State- and Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI), with independent individual psychological diagnoses being made for every patient. The results were statistically analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 24. Results The obtained data clearly show that psychological traits—both permanent dispositions (e.g., state anxiety and alexithymia) and temporary states (e.g., trait anxiety, emotional processing deficits, and psychological stress)—are significant determinants of awake bruxism. The percentage of explained variance indicates the presence of other factors as well. Conclusions Psychosocial factors such as state anxiety and trait anxiety, alexithymia, and perceived stress are as important as somatic causes in the occurrence and maintenance of awake bruxism. The profile of the obtained data suggests the possibility of preventing or minimizing the symptoms of awake bruxism through properly constructed psychoprophylactic interactions.

The study was aimed at validating the Polish version of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF). Our findings confirm the reliability and validity of the scale. With respect to reliability, internal consistency coefficients of the TEIQue-SF were comparable to those obtained using the original English version. The evidence of the validity of the TEIQue-SF came from the pattern of relations with the other self-report measure of EI, personality measures, as well as affective and social correlates. We demonstrated that the TEIQue-SF score correlated positively with scores on the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (INTE) (Jaworowska & Matczak, 2001). The TEIQue- SF score correlated negatively with Neuroticism and positively with Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. In addition, scores on the TEIQue-SF were related to dispositional affect, i.e., correlated positively with positive affectivity and negatively with negative affectivity. The TEIQue-SF score correlated positively with social competencies as measured with the Social Competencies Questionnaire (Matczak, 2001). We also found that trait EI, as measured with the TEIQue-SF, was positively related to the richness of one’s supportive social network and this relationship remained statistically significant even after controlling for Big Five variance. We also demonstrated that scoring on the TEIQue-SF was positively related to satisfaction with life and negatively related to perceived stress and these relationships remained significant, even after controlling for positive and negative affectivity. Taken together, these findings suggest that the Polish version of the TEIQue-SF is a reliable and valid measure that inherits the network of associations both from the original version of the TEIQue-SF and the full form of the Polish TEIQue (Wytykowska & Petrides, 2007).

Analysis of health care workers’ stress levels during the COVID-19 virus pandemic, and whether there is a relationship between health care workers’ stress levels and mental health in the context of coping with stress. One hundred and seventy professionally active health care workers took part in the study: doctors (n=41), nurses (n=114) and paramedics (n = 15). On average, study subjects were 37 years old and had 14 years of work experience. The following were used in this questionnaire-based study: General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–28), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Mini-COPE – Coping Inventory. The research group experienced high levels of stress. Nurses experienced the most acute stress. Increasing stress levels are accompanied by an intensification of psychopathological symptoms (insomnia and depression). Older individuals and those with more years worked at work experienced less psychopathological symptoms. Non-adaptive stress coping methods (e.g. use of psychoactive substances) resulted in deteriorating mental health within the research group. Habitual use of non-adaptive strategies may bring relief in the short term in the form of reduced negative consequences of stress transactions and facilitate mobilisation or just sufficient performance at work. However, in the longer term, it may lead to deteriorating health. The obtained data shows that positive reinterpretation, age and length of work track record constitute protective factors against deteriorating health.

Objective: The cross-sectional study aimed to assess the stress outcomes in health care staff working during the Covid-19 pandemic and to explore the role of coping in the relationship between stress outcomes and mental health dimensions with Preacher & Hayes's mediation analysis. Subjects and methods: 170 participants including physicians (n=41; 24.1%), nurses (n=114, 67.1%) and paramedics (n = 15, 8.8%) with a mean age of 37.69 ± 12,23 years and an average seniority of 14.40 ±12.32 years. were administered The Toronto Alexithymia Scale– 20 (TAS – 20), Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Emotional Processing Scale (EPS) and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The data were analyzed by estimation of simple correlation coefficients and a Preacher and Hayes's mediation procedure. Results: Participants reported elevated levels of stress (7-8 sten on the sten scale developed for the PSS-10 questionnaire). Statistically significant differences in the stress levels between nurses, paramedics and physicians could not determined. In contrast, significant association between mental health outcomes and occupational category could not be found. Coping mediated the relationship between coping strategies and mental health outcomes. A positive and significant relationship was observed between stress, dysfunctional coping strategies and mental health. Conclusion: Our observations support the assumption about a controlling role of coping in the relationship between work-related stress and mental health outcomes in the medical staff working amid pandemic.

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An experimental study was conducted to examine whether simultaneous interpreters are affected by the speaker’s emotions. To this end, two measures of emotion were used: galvanic skin response (GSR) as a marker of emotional arousal, and SUPIN – the Polish adaptation of PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule). A group of interpreters with Polish as their A language and English as their B language (N = 20) took part in the experiment. They were asked to simultaneously interpret two speeches (recordings accompanied by video) from Polish into English: a neutral speech and an emotional speech. The results show that the interpreters are indeed affected by the speaker’s emotions, which is reflected in both a greater galvanic skin response and higher SUPIN scores for the emotional speech, when compared to the neutral speech and baseline values. The results may shed new light on the importance of emotion processing in simultaneous interpreting.

StreszczenieWstęp: Ratowników medycznych charakteryzuje podwyższone ryzyko wystąpienia zaburzeń po stresie traumatycznym. Celem zrealizowanego projektu badawczego było wskazanie specyficznych korelatów zespołu stresu pourazowego pojmowanych w kategoriach zasobów i deficytów emocjonalno-poznawczych pod postaciami aleksytymii, ruminacji i strategii radzenia sobie ze stresem w tej grupie zawodowej. Materiał i metody: W 3 niezależnych badaniach, przeprowadzonych w pierwszej połowie 2017 r. w województwie wielkopolskim, uczestniczyło 145 ratowników medycznych. W każdym badaniu oszacowano objawy zespołu stresu pourazowego (post-traumatic stress disorder -PTSD) przy pomocy Zrewidowanej skali wpływu zdarzeń (The Impact of Event Scale-Revised -IES-R). Dodatkowo w badaniu pierwszym zmierzono poziom aleksytymii za pomocą skali aleksytymii, czyli spolszczonej wersji skali Toronto Alexithymia , w badaniu drugim -ruminację, wykorzystując Kwestionariusz ruminacji, a w badaniu trzecimstrategie radzenia sobie ze stresem, posługując się Mini-COPE -Inwentarzem do pomiaru radzenia sobie ze stresem (Inventory for Measuring Coping with Stress Mini-COPE). Wyniki: Analizy wykazały związki pomiędzy natężeniem stresu potraumatycznego a aleksytymią oraz ruminacjami. Stosowane strategie radzenia sobie generalnie nie wiązały się ze stresem potraumatycznym. Wykonane badanie mediacji wykazało, że intruzjom można przypisać funkcję mediatora relacji łączącej pobudzenie z unikaniem. Cierpiących na PTSD charakteryzuje wysoki poziom unikania sytuacji przypominających zdarzenie traumatyczne, ponieważ wysokie pobudzenie nasila prawdopodobieństwo pojawienia się intruzji. Wnioski: Ponad połowa badanych ratowników medycznych deklarowała występowanie objawów stresu pourazowego, co prawdopodobnie jest czynnikiem prognostycznym pojawienia się w dalszej przyszłości klinicznych objawów PTSD u tej grupy zawodowej. Deficyty poznawczo-emocjonalne, aleksytymia i negatywne ruminacje współwystępują z objawami stresu potraumatycznego. Z kolei zasoby strategii radzenia sobie ze stresem są niewystarczającym mechanizmem zaradczym dla stresu traumatycznego. Zespół stresu pourazowego może być ujmowany jako dynamiczna sekwencja. Charakter pracy ratownika medycznego predysponuje go do doświadczania traumy złożonej i/lub wtórnej, które mogłyby być obszarem dalszych badań. Med. Pr. 2019;70(1):53-66 Słowa kluczowe: strategia radzenia sobie ze stresem, aleksytymia, ruminacja, ratownicy medyczni, stres traumatyczny, zespół stresu pourazowego Abstract Background: Due to the nature of their work, paramedics face an increased risk of developing a post-traumatic stress disorder. The main goal of this research project was to point out specific correlates of post-traumatic stress. The authors decided to approach that issue from the perspective of emotional-cognitive deficits and resources, such as alexithymia, rumination and coping with stress. Material and Methods: The authors conducted 3 independent research projects in the first half of the year 2017 in the Wielkopolskie voivodsh...

Aim: The main purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between alexithymia, stress at work, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in impact emergency call center operators working in Poland (province of Greater Poland). The risk of exposure to critical life events was also considered. Methods: Data were collected using self-report questionnaires administered after dispatchers’ shifts. The emergency call center operators (N = 66) completed the Impact of Event Scale—Revised, 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Workplace Perceived Stress Questionnaire, and a questionnaire measuring the frequency and intensity of potentially traumatic events faced by emergency operators (a questionnaire developed by the authors). Results: Twenty of the most frequent events (e.g., child sexual harassment, rape, etc.) were identified. Results indicated that post-traumatic stress positively correlated with (a) work-related stress and (b) one aspect of alexithymia: difficulty expressing feelings. Additionally, work-related stress was identified as a mediator for the relation between alexithymia and the intensity of post-traumatic stress. Conclusions: The results of this study confirm that emergency operators are a high-risk group for the development of PTSD. The study results suggest that performing the work of an emergency dispatcher is not only demanding but also inherently involves participation in potentially traumatic events (as encountered through emergency calls).