For this research project, nine grade 8 girls were asked specific questions during focus group interviews to illuminate their stressors and methods of coping. The results revealed that stress is a significant factor in three main areas of their lives: school (especially the transition to high school), family and peers. The girls utilized mostly active coping strategies. They sought assistance from family, friends or other adults in their environment. A small group format was mentioned as affording an opportunity to practice coping skills. These findings imply that young adolescent girls elicit most of their support through connection with others. Therefore, a stress management group intervention is presented to assist young adolescent girls in managing the transition to secondary school and beyond. The program attempts to help the students learn skills that will increase their ability to cope actively with their stressors. This project concludes with recommendations and practical applications for future endeavors.--Page ii.
The major hypothesis addressed in this research was that the experience of stress is attributable to the quality or clarity of one's identity rather than to age grouping. Two hundred and seventy-five men of three age groups (earlyadulthood, n = 1 00; middle-adulthood, n = 1 00; late-adulthood, n = 75) completed self-report measures of identity (Identity Style Inventory Sixth Grade), distress (Life Distress Inventory), perceived stress of middle age (Mid-life Crisis Scale), and self-concept (global subscale of the Adult Self-Concept Questionnaire). Based on scores on the identity questionnaire, participants were assigned to one of three identity styles (information, normative, diffused/avoidant). Results indicated that middle age is not particularly salient as a period of heightened psychosocial distress. Specifically, young adults had higher levels of distress compared to middle age and older adults, and middle-age adults had more distress than did late adults. Those men with an information or diffused/avoidant identity style had higher levels of distress than those with a normative identity style (irrespective of age grouping), and those with a diffused/avoidant identity style had greater perceived stress of middle age scores than did those with a normative identity style. Additionally, older adults had the lowest levels of selfworth of any age group, whereas middle-age adults had the highest levels of selfworth, and young adults fell in-between. Those with a normative identity style had the highest levels of self-worth, those with a diffused identity style had the lowest self-worth, and those with the information identity style fell in-between. These results are discussed in terms of a lifespan perspective on identity development.
This study investigated respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart rate as functions of social competence. It was hypothesized that during an anxiety provoking social task, the group rated as high social competence would exhibit greater vagal tone than the low social competence group. Consistent with expectations, the high social competence group exhibited significantly higher vagal tone than the low social competence group during the task. Further, the high social competence group reacted with higher mean heart rate while anticipating the task but recovered more rapidly than the low social competence group. Styles of humor were explored as a mediating variable between social competence and cardiovascular activity. This study found, for the males, significant negative relationships between heart rate and positive styles of humor and a significant positive relationship between heart rate and self-deprecating humor. Overall, the findings were in support of existing theories on social stress as a determinant of health. --P.ii.
Stress and anxiety can play a role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Differences in peoples' behavioral, cardiovascular, and self-reported emotional reactions to an interpersonally challenging task were measured. Two groups, highly anxious people (n = 17) and less anxious people (n = 15) were defined by scores on the trait form of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. They then underwent two interview conditions. One condition was a non-challenging control interview (CI) and the other condition was the socially challenging favorable impressions interview (FI) (Borkovec et al., 1974). Analyses attempted to describe difference between highly anxious and less anxious participants' facial expressions, cardiovascular activity and self-reported experience of emotion. Self-reported emotional responses differed between high and low anxiety groups. There were also cardiovascular differences between high and low anxiety participants in their reactions to stressful tasks. Findings show that highlyanxious people tended to increase the intensity of their facial expressions during the stressful condition, whereas low anxious people did not change the intensity of their facial expressions between the interviews. These findings suggest that differences between high and low anxious people may provide useful information for identifying these individuals, which may be helpful in preventing later health problems.
Professional burnout is a circumstance that can result from accumulated occupational stress among those who do caregiving work. The effects of burnout tend to be physiological, behavioral, psychological, spiritual and clinical in nature thus impacting individuals and human service systems. The term burnout was first coined by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger in the early 1970's and since that time burnout has been discussed extensively. The goal of this project was to develop my understanding of professional burnout, using my own experience as a social worker as the foundation for my inquiry. This project presents a conceptual model of burnout, resulting from the integration of the available literature on this topic, with my own professional experience. This model conceptualized the individual factors, including organizational and client variables, that can contribute to the risk for burnout among social workers, or other helping professionals. This project highlighted the interplay between individual and systemic variables pertinent to burnout and it suggested that there are both risk factors and protective factors that can be explored when assessing burnout. The conceptual model and the assessment tool illustrated in this project, provides social workers with a framework for discussing, preventing, assessing, and/or treating professional burnout.--Page ii.
