Psycho-social predictors of acculturative stress and adjustment in Pakistani Institutions.

OBJECTIVES: The main objective of study was to investigate the effect of psycho-social predictors on acculturative stress and adjustment in Pakistani institutions. METHODS: The study was carried out from November 15, 2016 to January 18, 2019. For this purpose data was collected from 450 international students who were studying in public and private sector universities of Pakistan and who experienced acculturative stress. The instruments include Relationship Assessment Scale, Acculturative Stress Scale for International, Psychological Adaptation Scale, and Revised Socio Cultural Adaptation Scale. The proposed model was tested by using SPSS (Version-23) and AMOS (Version-9). RESULTS: Findings of the study revealed that relationship satisfaction (p<0.05), length of stay (p<0.05), and financial support (p<0.05) significantly negatively predicted acculturative stress. Financial support significantly positively predicted psychological adjustment (p<0.05). Employment status did not predict acculturative stress, psychological and socio-cultural adjustment (p>0.05). Moreover, all psycho-social predictors did not show effect on socio-cultural adjustment among international students (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that general relationship satisfaction, more length of stay in host country, and financial support are very important for international students to manage their acculturative stress and to adjust better in a new cultural environment.

Social support and health related quality of life among pregnant women.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between social support and health-related quality of life among pregnant women. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at City Hospital, Kashrote, and District Headquarters Hospital in the city of Gilgit, Pakistan, from January to March2017.Pregnant women presenting to the two hospitals were approached for data collection. The chronological age range of the sample was 15-35 years and age of pregnancy in months were included. Social support of pregnant women was measured through multidimensional scale of perceived social support and health-related quality of life was measured through medical outcomes study questionnaire.. RESULTS: Of the 120 participants, 66(55%) were from the City Hospital, Kashrote, and 54(45%) from the District Headquarters Hospital. Subjects who were in their first trimester of pregnancy were 72(60%), while 25(20.8%) were in their second trimester and 23 (19.2%) in the third. Of the total, 80(66.66%) were educated women and 40 (33.34%) were illiterate. Subjects with a history of physical illness were 76 (63.30%) while 60 (50%) suffered from psychological illness too. There was a significantly positive relationship between social support and health-related quality of life among the pregnant subjects (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: More social support, can increase the health-related quality of life of pregnant women.

Self-related factors and decision making styles among early adults.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of self-related factors, including self-regulation, self-esteem and self-efficacy, on decision-making styles of early adults. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from February to August, 2014 at four universities of Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised adult students of both Social and Natural sciences. Data was collected through Self-Regulation Questionnaire, Self-Esteem Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale and the General Decision Making Styles Questionnaire. Data was subjected to multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 300 participants, 160(53%) were men and 140(47%) were women. The overall mean age was 22.68±5.96 years. Besides, 170(56%) were studying Social sciences and 130(44%) Natural sciences. Self-regulation, self-esteem and self-efficacy positively predicted rational and intuitive style and negatively predicted avoidant and spontaneous style. Self-efficacy and self-regulation negatively predicted dependent style. CONCLUSIONS: Ensuring positive self-related factors affected adults' effective decision-making choices.

Paternal malparenting and offspring personality disorders: Mediating effect of early maladaptive schemas.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the mediating role of maladaptive schemas between permissive/authoritarian parenting by fathers and personality disorders, including histrionic, antisocial, narcissistic and depressive attitudes among adults. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan, and comprised university students. Data was collected by administering the parental authority questionnaire, the young schema questionnaire and the personality diagnostic questionnaire. SPSS 23 was used for data analysis. The study was completed in one year. It was started from June 2014 and ended in June 2015. RESULTS: Of the 200 participants who were handed the questionnaires, 100(50%) returned it fully filled up. Of them, 87(87%) were women and 13(13%) were men. All scales had greater than 0.70 alpha reliability coefficients. The values of skewness for all scales ranged from 0.10 to 0.86.Permissive parenting style had positive correlation with histrionic (p<0.05), narcissistic (p<0.05) and antisocial personality disorders (p<0.01). Authoritarian parenting had positive correlation with early maladaptive schemas (p<0.01) and depressive personality disorder (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both permissive and authoritarian parenting styles led to personality disorders among offspring in the adult phase of their lives.