The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of resilience: cross cultural differences between Brazil, Italy, and the United States.

OBJECTIVE: Restrictive measures consequent to the COVID-19 pandemic have had a significant psychological impact on everyday life in the general population, even though differences between countries remain poorly investigated. The present study sought to examine the different psychological impacts and resilience of the pandemic among three of the most heavily hit countries: Brazil, Italy, and the United States. METHODS: This cross-sectional study separately involved three national community populations, namely the Brazilian, the Italian, and the American population. Participants aged 18 years or older were recruited through a shared online survey. Participants self-completed the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D); post-traumatic stress was additionally assessed using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R). Three separate Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA) were performed in order to investigate differences in the levels of resilience, post-traumatic stress, and depression among the three populations. RESULTS: The study included in total 734 participants (mean age = 27.60 ± 11.69 years; 77% of females). Results of ANCOVA comparisons showed significant differences between the three groups in the variable measuring resilience, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and depression. As for resilience, results of post-hoc tests showed significant differences between the groups from Brazil and Italy and between the groups from Brazil and USA. As for the post-traumatic stress symptoms, results showed significant differences between the USA and Brazil groups and between the USA and Italy groups. As for the depression symptoms, results showed significant differences between the USA and Brazil groups. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these findings may help to increase understanding of the psychological impact of COVID-19 in Brazil, Italy, and the USA. Interventions to prevent mental disorders among general populations should take into account these findings.

Short-term psychological adjustment of female prison inmates on a minimum security unit.

Although there has been increasing focus on female offenders in recent years, relatively little is known about the psychological pattern of prison adjustment. The present study examined the initial psychological reaction and subsequent pattern of adjustment over 3 weeks for 62 female inmates incarcerated on the minimum security unit of a state prison in the northwestern United States. Mean age was 32.96 years, and 82% of participants were European-American. Shortly following incarceration, women voluntarily completed a clinical and demographic interview and packet of questionnaires, including the Brief Symptoms Inventory. Results indicated female inmates show above-average endorsement of psychological symptoms at initial incarceration, which tend to significantly decline by the second week in prison, with the exception of hostility ratings, which remain relatively constant. Such findings have important implications for the development and implementation of programs to facilitate adjustment to prison.

Investigation of factors contributing to diabetes risk in american indian/alaska native youth.

This study investigated the relationship between family history, sedentary behaviors, and childhood risk for type 2 diabetes. Participants were 480 students attending schools on or near an American Indian reservation. Data were collected through survey and BMI measurement. Children who frequently watched television or played video games did not significantly differ in BMI compared to peers. However, children with a parental history of diabetes had significantly higher BMIs than children without.

Facial recognition performance of female inmates as a result of sexual assault history.

This study examined the effect of sexual assault history on facial recognition performance. Gender of facial stimuli and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms also were expected to influence performance. Fifty-six female inmates completed an interview and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition Faces I and Faces II subtests (Wechsler, 1997). Women with a sexual assault exhibited better immediate and delayed facial recognition skills than those with no assault history. There were no differences in performance based on the gender of faces or PTSD diagnosis. Immediate facial recognition was correlated with report of PTSD symptoms. Findings provide greater insight into women's reactions to, and the uniqueness of, the trauma of sexual victimization.

Revision of the Self-Administered Alcoholism Screening Test (SAAST-R): a pilot study.

The original Self-Administered Alcoholism Screening Test (SAAST; Swenson and Morse, 1975) is a self-report alcoholism screening measure intended for use with adult medical patients. However, the SAAST does not indicate the recency of alcohol use-related problems, not all items use the appropriate verb tense for assessing lifetime experience of alcohol use-related problems, many of the items contain out-dated language, and the diagnostic criteria for alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse are not fully represented. The SAAST was revised to address these issues. This paper describes the rationale for revision and the process through which the SAAST was revised. Preliminary information about comparability of the original SAAST and the revised version (SAAST-R) was obtained. Data are presented from two intervention trials for smokers in which both the SAAST and SAAST-R were administered. One sample was comprised of participants in recovery from alcoholism (N = 60; 82% male) and the other sample consisted of participants not meeting criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence within the previous year (N = 98; 45% male). The results suggest that the SAAST-R is highly correlated with the original SAAST, has a similar factor structure, good internal consistency, and correctly identifies those in recovery from alcoholism. Areas for refinement in the format and items of the SAAST-R were identified and suggestions for further validation studies are presented.