Social support might buffer against the potentially traumatic effect of an emergency C-section. SOC appears to constitute a powerful dimension of post-natal resilience.

Elevated levels of depressive and somatic symptoms have been documented among college students. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the number of Bedouin Arab students studying at institutions of higher education in southern Israel. To date, research on coping and mental health problems among students who are members of this ethnic minority has been limited. This study examined the role of three aspects of perceived social support – availability, satisfaction, and the ability to get emotional support – in predicting depressive and somatic symptoms among Jewish Israeli and Bedouin Arab college students. A total of 89 Bedouin and 101 Jewish first-year students participated in this study, which involved two assessment waves 12 to 14 months apart. Participants completed questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, three aspects of perceived social support, and demographics. At Time 1, Bedouin students exhibited higher levels of depressive and somatic symptoms and lower levels of all three aspects of social support. Regression analyses showed that level of emotional support was a prospective predictor of somatization at Time 2. Moreover, when levels of emotional support were low, ethnic group predicted depression at Time 2; emotional support predicted depression only among Bedouin Arabs. The present study highlights the importance of the use of emotional support in predicting somatic complaints and depressive symptoms specifically among Bedouin Arab students. Clinical implications on intervention programs for ethnic minority students will be discussed.

Pain catastro-phizing and pain acceptance constitute risk and resilience factors. Both should be assessed and targeted in pain management.

No abstract

No abstract

Parental hesitancy to vaccinate their children derails the success of mass vaccination campaigns. We examined the effect of parents’ personification of the vaccinating agency on vaccine hesitancy (i.e. negative or positive mind change) in 555 parents in a mass wild poliovirus vaccination campaign. Parents were assessed before and after the campaign on attitudes toward vaccination and the vaccinating agency (“The Israeli MoH is caring” vs “hysteric”). Positive mind change was predicted by a gender and malevolent personification. A negative mind change was predicted by parental anxiety. We conclude that parental hesitancy is influenced by parents’ attachment to the vaccinating agency.

Media exposure to acute stress may render chronic pain patients more vulnerable to experiencing pain and depressive symptoms, depending on their use of pain-based catastrophizing. High catastrophizers may attend more to outside threats, amplifying the sensory and affective aspects of pain they experience. Perceived stress also plays a significant role in eliciting depressive symptoms in this population. (PsycINFO Database Record

No abstract