Lifelines |
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| Volume 6 | Fall 2001 | |
"Holistic Perspectives on Quality of Life" |
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What Studies and Experts Say A look at what studies show us about areas that affect and are affected by our Quality of Life. Self-esteem. A self-report questionnaire was given to 818 male and 904 female Australians aged 17- 40 years, examining the correlation between self-esteem, depression, locus of control, trait anger, religiosity, psychological reactance, age, and life satisfaction. Results of independent regression analysis showed that all but psychological reactance were significant predictors of life satisfaction. The strongest correlation however was between self-esteem and life satisfaction. In the step-wise analysis, self-esteem, depression, trait anger, locus of control, and religiosity were significant and accounted for 26% of the total variance of life satisfaction. In both the step-wise and independent analyses, self-esteem and depression affected levels of satisfaction more than any other variables. Hong, S.M., Giannakopoulos, E. (1994). The relationship of satisfaction with life to personality characteristics. Journal of Psychology. Vol. 128(5), 547-558. Self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is proposed as a mediating factor underlying positive outcome as observed in lifestyle and exercise programs. Studies are reviewed which indicate that lifestyle education and exercise programs improve quality of life, health, and wellness. However, improved physiological fitness is equivocally related to ability to cope with stressors and psychological well-being. The mixed results seem to indicate that something other than physical fitness is significantly contributing to the improved psychosocial functioning observed subsequent to lifestyle counseling and exercise training. It is postulated in accordance with social learning theory that cognitive factors such as improved self-confidence and self-efficacy may be mediating the effect of fitness on stress. Baydala, A.M., Hiebert, B., Malec, C. (2000). Lifestyle interventions: Reasons for therapeutic outcome. In Canadian Journal of Counseling Vol. 34(2) Apr 75-84. Age. The purposes of this study were to identify differences in women’s stressors, personality mediating traits and symptoms of health problems by age groups. A convenience sample of 299 women between 18 and 66 years who resided in the southwest completed a lengthy questionnaire. ANOVAs were used to compare women by three age groups. Results showed that young women (18-29 years) reported high stressors, less healthy personality traits, and significantly more physical and emotional symptoms of health problems than middle-age and older women. Middle-age women (30-45 years) had significantly more stressors than other women, but their healthy personality traits may have contributed to fewer health problems. Older women (46-66 years) had the fewest stressors, highest healthy personality traits, and fewest symptoms of health problems. Kenney, J.W. (2000). Women’s ‘inner-balance’: a comparison of stressors, personality traits and health problems by age groups Journal of Advanced Nursing. Mar-Apr. 31(3): 639-50 (50). Religiosity. The relationship between religious involvement and subjective assessments of the quality of family life among African Americans of 18 years and up, were reviewed. After briefly outlining several theoretical links between aspects of public and private religious involvement and the perceived quality of family life, this study used data from the National Survey of Black Americans (1979-1980). Three indicators were used of the subjective quality of family life: (a) positive evaluations of performance in family roles such as provider, spouse, parent; (b) perceptions of family closeness; and (c) satisfaction with family life. Findings indicate that church participation and perceived importance of religious socialization are significantly associated with family role performance, subjective family closeness, and satisfaction with family life. Ellison, C.G. (1997). Religious involvement and the subjective quality of family life among African Americans. In Taylor, Robert Joseph, Jackson, James Sidney (eds.) Family life in Black America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 117-131. Personal control. A note from the 70’s... new insights into potentially harmful consequences of modern technology have increased efforts to use the methods of the social, behavioral, and biological sciences to search the psychosocial environment for aversive factors and identify high-risk individuals and groups. Examples are given from an ongoing project concerned with the impact of technology on workers’ health and satisfaction; in particular with adjustment to underload and overload associated with industrial automation and mechanization. Furthermore, the stress involved in urban commuting is illustrated with psychophysiological data. Results obtained in these and related studies suggest that a moderately varied flow of stimuli and events, and opportunities to engage in psychologically meaningful activities and to exercise personal control over external conditions may be considered key components in the quality of life concept. Frankenhaeuser, M. (1976). Quality of life: Criteria for behavioral adjustment. Sweden Reports from the Department of Psychology, No. 475, Sep (1976) Sweden: University of Stockholm. 1-11. Conflict negotiation. Quality of life assessments were made by looking at the quality of conflict negotiation with 39 females of 16-19 years old and their parents. It was found that adolescents’, not parents’ ego level predicted family negotiation scores. Negotiating skill was high when there was cognitive complementarity between parents and daughters such that the father was cognitively enabling toward the daughter and the daughter was cognitively enabling toward the mother, and there was affective symmetry between parents and daughters. Daughters contributed to negotiation skill in the family by being more attentive to the mother than to the father. Affective factors were more predictive of the negotiation climate in the family than cognitive factors. Von Der Lippe, A.L., Moller, I.U. (2000). Negotiation of conflict, communication patterns, and ego development in the family of adolescent daughters. International Journal of Behavioral Development. March. Vol. 24(1), 59-67. United Kingdom: Psychology Press. Satisfaction. Respondents were 118 employed women who were providing care to an impaired parent or parent-in-law. As predicted, greater time involvement in work was found to buffer women from the negative effects of caregiving stress. Satisfaction with caregiving and satisfaction with work were directly associated with better well-being, beyond the effects of stress in both roles. However, women who experienced high levels of caregiving stress and who were highly satisfied with work were especially vulnerable to depression. Martire, L.M., Stephens, M.A., Atienza, A.A. (1997). The interplay of work and caregiving: relationships between role satisfaction, role involvement, and caregivers’ well-being. Journal of Gerontology. Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. Sep; 52B(5): S279-89 (58 ref). Self image. 568 female and 504 male high school students completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and modified versions of the Health Behavior Index and Schedule of Recent Experiences. Data showed lower life satisfaction, higher stress, and perceived unattractiveness as major discriminating variables for subjects who were at-risk versus low-risk for depressive symptomatology (DPS). Only 2 problem behaviors were related to DPS: smoking for girls and hard drug use for boys. Hawkins, W.E., Hawkins, M., Seeley, J. (1992). Stress, health- related behavior and quality of life on depressive symptomatology in a sample of adolescents. Psychological Reports. Vol. 71(1), Aug (1992). 183-186. Personal growth. This paper explores the concept that the experience of personal growth may be structurally similar to the emotional experience of religion and hope. It develops this view by focusing on two studies that involve a series of coping and outcome variables on stress related to personal growth. One study involved parents who lost a child of their own due to an accident or incurable illness, and the second, involved a questionnaire study with spinal cord injured persons. The findings strongly support the view that non-normative life-events may lead to a more coherent world view, a view that might be more tolerant, more human, and more open to new thoughts. Evidence was found linking the experience of personal growth with involvement in social activity and it also found positive relationships with the variables of distress. It concludes that persons whose lives seem to be meaningful might have a good capacity to link together even detrimental events and still hold a strong sense of coherence. Znoj, H.J. (1999). European and American Perspectives on Posttraumatic Growth: A Model of Personal Growth. Life Challenges and Transformation Following Loss and Physical Handicap. (APA 107th Annual Convention, August 20-24). ERIC Reports-Research, 143, 1-15). Attributions. The objective of these studies has been to identify the characteristics that enabled many survivors to cope with past traumas and adjust to new environments. Optimism is one quality proposed to account for the resiliency found among this group. Optimism may enable a person to cope more effectively with stress. In this study, the investigator examined a related concept, called explanatory style: the way individuals habitually explain negative events. Those who explain negative events using external, unstable, and specific attributions will exhibit an optimistic explanatory style, while those using internal, stable, and pervasive attributions exhibit a pessimistic explanatory style. The goals of this study were to identify the explanatory style of survivors and determine which variables could predict this construct. Dyadic social relationships may have provided emotional support and resources during times of extreme duress, which helped the Holocaust survivors preserve an optimistic explanatory style and prevent them from demonstrating learned helplessness. Orenstein, S.W. (1999). Predictors of explanatory style among Holocaust survivors. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences & Engineering. Vol 59(10-B), May (5583). Univ. Microfilms International. Spirituality. A theoretically based causal model was tested to examine the role of spiritual activities as a moderator of the impact of HIV-related stressors (functional impairment, work impairment, and HIV-related symptoms) on two stress-related adaptational outcomes (emotional distress and quality of life), using a clinic-based sample of 184 HIV-positive women. Findings indicated that as spiritual activities increased, emotional distress decreased even when adjustments were made for HIV-related stressors. A positive relationship between spiritual activities and quality of life was found. Sowell, R., Moneyham, L. Hennessey, M., Guillory, J., Demi, A., Seals, B. (2000) Spiritual activities as a resistance resource for women with human immunodeficiency virus. Nursing Research. Mar-Apr; 49(2): 73-82 (53). Health. About 1/3 of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women younger than 50. This group of women is already more likely to have other sources of life stress, including being married, having dependent children, and being employed. First, the authors compared quality of life of younger women (50 or younger at diagnosis) with breast cancer with published norms for other groups. Second, they examined general and specific measures of quality of life for this group during the early month following diagnosis. Specifically, the authors assessed the sensitivity of general versus specific measures of health-related quality of life for 336 women aged 50 or younger who were treated for breast cancer. General quality of life measures are sufficiently sensitive to differentiate between women with cancer and depressed or healthy women. Generic health-related quality of life measures were equally sensitive to specific measures on predicting intrusiveness of breast cancer on quality of life. Bloom, J.R., Stewart, S.L., Johnston, M., Banks, P. (2001) Psychosocial interventions for cancer. In Baum, Andrew, Andersen, Barbara L. (eds.) 37-56. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association). Religiosity, Spirituality. Of the few published studies of religiosity and spirituality in cancer patients, most have found these variables positively related to quality of life and psychological well-being. This study was the first to measure religiosity, spirituality and quality of life in prostate cancer patients and to use several measures of each construct. The 150 men participating in the study endorsed levels of religiosity and spirituality comparable to other cancer patients and higher than healthy laypersons. A factor analysis of religiosity and spirituality items revealed two factors: (1) Beliefs and Practices and (2) Meaning and Peace. Consistent with prior research, married men reported more Meaning and Peace than unmarried men and African-American and Christian men reported higher levels of beliefs and practices than Caucasian or non-Christian men. Relationships between the Meaning and Peace and Beliefs and Practices sub-scales indicate that these factors overlap, but measure separate aspects of religiosity and spirituality. Sub-scales related to beliefs and practices were consistently associated with social and relational well-being, whereas most quality of life components, including physical well-being, were associated with the Meaning and Peace factor. In addition, Meaning and Peace contributed unique variance to global quality of life across three quality of life measures after controlling for demographic variables and quality of life sub-scales. These findings support prior research demonstrating a relationship between religiosity, spirituality and quality of life in cancer patients and suggest the need for future studies clarifying this complex relationship. Mytko, Johanna Jacoba. (2000). Associations between quality of life and the spiritual and religious beliefs and practices of men with prostate cancer. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: the Sciences & Engineering. Vol. 60(12-B), 6376: Univ Microfilms International. |
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