Psychological Network of Stress, Coping and Social Support in an Aboriginal Population

Abstract

Over the past decades, increasing research interest has been directed towards the psychosocial factors that impact Aboriginal health, including stress, coping and social support. However, there has been no study that examined whether the behaviours, cognitions and emotions related to stress, coping and social support constitute a psychological network in an Aboriginal population and that examined its properties. To address this gap, the current study employed a new methodology, network psychometrics, to evaluate stress, coping and social support in an Aboriginal Australian population. This study conducted a secondary analysis of the South Australian Aboriginal Birth Cohort (SAABC) study, a randomised controlled trial in South Australia, which included 367 pregnant Aboriginal women at study baseline. The Gaussian Graphical Model was estimated with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Node centrality was evaluated with eigencentrality, strength and bridge centrality. Network communities were investigated with the walktrap algorithm. The findings indicated that stress, coping and social support constituted a connected psychological network in an Aboriginal population. Furthermore, at the centre of the network were the troubles experienced by the Aboriginal pregnant women, bridging their perceptions of stress and coping and constituting a potential target for future interventions.

Family characteristics in adolescents with overweight or obesity: a network analysis

“…Another noteworthy finding is that family eating behavior was related to the family APGAR index and negatively to family food rules. This finding was consistent with a previous report on parents in the United States, which showed parent report of frequent family meals was associated with higher levels of family functioning and was unrelated to other indicators of parent body size ( 32 ). Besides, research has demonstrated a link between the frequency of family meals and greater fruit and vegetable consumption (family food accessibility) ( 34 ), which is inconsistent with results from this study among Chinese parents of adolescents who are overweight or obese.…”

“…Findings suggested that family-related variables constituted a connected network in adolescents with overweight or obesity. The presence of at least one path between every node of the network indicated that family features variables in the adolescent with overweight or obesity form a connected network ( 32 ). The communities of the family food environment, parental rearing styles, family APGAR index, and parental educational attainment could have been completely isolated from one another.…”