The flashbulb-like nature of memory for the first COVID-19 case and the impact of the emergency. A cross-national survey.

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) refer to vivid and long-lasting autobiographical memories for the circumstances in which people learned of a shocking and consequential public event. A cross-national study across eleven countries aimed to investigate FBM formation following the first COVID-19 case news in each country and test the effect of pandemic-related variables on FBM. Participants had detailed memories of the date and others present when they heard the news, and had partially detailed memories of the place, activity, and news source. China had the highest FBM specificity. All countries considered the COVID-19 emergency as highly significant at both the individual and global level. The Classification and Regression Tree Analysis revealed that FBM specificity might be influenced by participants' age, subjective severity (assessment of COVID-19 impact in each country and relative to others), residing in an area with stringent COVID-19 protection measures, and expecting the pandemic effects. Hierarchical regression models demonstrated that age and subjective severity negatively predicted FBM specificity, whereas sex, pandemic impact expectedness, and rehearsal showed positive associations in the total sample. Subjective severity negatively affected FBM specificity in Turkey, whereas pandemic impact expectedness positively influenced FBM specificity in China and negatively in Denmark.

A Systematic Review of Public Stigmatization Toward Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Public stigmatization of women victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) has begun to be studied because of its negative impact on recovery from violence. This systematic review aimed to analyze such stigmatization in low- and middle-income countries (LAMIC) by identifying social norms and perceptions linked to public stigmatizing responses, such responses, negative consequences of those responses on victims, and other factors associated with public stigma. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, five databases were searched using "stigma" and multiple synonyms of IPV as keywords. Selected articles were empirical, written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and reported findings on public stigma toward women victims of IPV that had occurred in LAMIC. Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Patriarchal gender roles, normalization of IPV and the consideration of violence as a private matter were the most prevalent social norms among the studies. These led to blaming, isolating, and discriminating against the victim, making her feel ashamed, considering her less valuable than before suffering IPV, and dismissing or denying the abuse. Many negative consequences were identified. Anticipated public stigma, associated with not disclosing the abuse and not seeking help, was the most popular. Public stigmatization was stronger when other public stigmas intersected and in the case of disadvantaged social circumstances. Consequences were diminished by protective factors such as informal support and gender-based violence support services. This review provides a global vision for future research in each specific sociocultural context and is a first step in the design of anti-stigma programs in LAMIC.

Quality of life and psychiatric distress in people with serious mental illness, the role of personal recovery.

OBJECTIVES: When considering the personal recovery of people with serious mental illness (SMI), it is essential to examine their reported psychiatric distress and quality of life (QoL). However, there is no consolidated model in the literature that clearly relates these variables. In this study we first analysed the relationships between QoL, psychiatric distress and recovery, and several sociodemographic variables. Second, we analysed the linear effects of psychiatric distress and recovery on QoL. Third, and most important, we tested two hypotheses that considered personal recovery as a moderator or mediator of the relationship between psychiatric distress and QoL. DESIGN AND METHODS: 234 volunteers with a diagnosis of SMI completed three self-report questionnaires, The Recovery Assessment Scale-24, The World Health Organization QoL and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure, which showed very good levels of validity and reliability. The PROCESS macro for SPSS developed by Hayes (Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, The Guilford Press, 2022) was applied using the Bootstrap method to verify our moderation and mediation hypotheses. RESULTS: We found a negative linear effect of psychiatric distress on QoL, as well as a positive effect of recovery on said variable. Our results do not confirm the moderating effect of recovery on the relationship between distress and QoL. However, we do confirm the second hypothesis; recovery functioned as a mediating variable between psychiatric distress and QoL. CONCLUSIONS: These findings allow us to reflect on how personal recovery affect the relationship between psychiatric distress and QoL and discuss its theoretical and practical implications as public policies.

Collective remembering and future forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic: How the impact of COVID-19 affected the themes and phenomenology of global and national memories across 15 countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a unique set of circumstances in which to investigate collective memory and future simulations of events reported during the onset of a potentially historic event. Between early April and late June 2020, we asked over 4,000 individuals from 15 countries across four continents to report on remarkable (a) national and (b) global events that (i) had happened since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, and (ii) they expected to happen in the future. Whereas themes of infections, lockdown, and politics dominated global and national past events in most countries, themes of economy, a second wave, and lockdown dominated future events. The themes and phenomenological characteristics of the events differed based on contextual group factors. First, across all conditions, the event themes differed to a small yet significant degree depending on the severity of the pandemic and stringency of governmental response at the national level. Second, participants reported national events as less negative and more vivid than global events, and group differences in emotional valence were largest for future events. This research demonstrates that even during the early stages of the pandemic, themes relating to its onset and course were shared across many countries, thus providing preliminary evidence for the emergence of collective memories of this event as it was occurring. Current findings provide a profile of past and future collective events from the early stages of the ongoing pandemic, and factors accounting for the consistencies and differences in event representations across 15 countries are discussed.

"I don't believe I'm going to recover from anything." Understanding recovery amongst people with severe mental illness attending community health services in Spain.

PURPOSE: The concept of recovery has become the backbone of mental health services and professional practices. However, research aimed at analysing the conceptualisation of recovery of people diagnosed with severe mental illness (SMI) has an obvious Anglo-Saxon bias. Our objective was to analyse what a sample of 51 users of mental health services diagnosed with SMI in Spain understand by recovery. METHOD: The participants were interviewed in depth about their concept of recovery, and their responses were thematically analysed by three observers. RESULTS: Four categories of definitions of the concept of recovery were found in the analysis: Socio-Behavioural, Biomedical, Resistance, and Wellbeing-Growth. Inter-rater reliability scores ranged from 0.7 to 0.84 according to Krippendorff's alpha. While the Biomedical category essentially corresponded to the idea of clinical recovery, the Wellbeing-Growth category reproduced the concept of personal recovery (PR) that is dominant in the literature. The most frequent categories were Socio-Behavioural and Biomedical. Assimilation of the PR concept by participants was quite limited. The markedly relational character of the most frequent categories challenges the individualistic core of the classic definition of PR. CONCLUSIONS: We advocate the need to make alternative recovery concepts and narratives visible to the mental health services' users and practitioners.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONThe concept of personal recovery is not common amongst mental health services' users as recovery is mainly understood in social and biomedical terms.Different conceptualizations of recovery can coexist in participants.Mental health services should consider alternative narratives to personal recovery.Mental health services should provide resources for creating community and sense of belonging as first strategies for promoting recovery.

Social Positioning Analysis as a Qualitative Methodology to Study Identity Construction in People Diagnosed With Severe Mental Illnesses.

Severe mental illnesses (SMI) in general, and schizophrenia in particular, have been characterized as alterations of the experience of self and identity. When first diagnosed with SMI, the subjective experiences and specific narrative challenges faced by this population are particularly important. Therefore, qualitative approaches which allow to analyze these subjective experiences should be developed. This article presents in detail a specific method, called Social Positioning Analysis, which makes the complexity of narratives and life stories with multiple turning points understandable. To develop this methodological proposal, it has been taken into account the performative aspects of social interaction in which narratives are constructed. The methodology has previously been used in other health contexts and is innovative in the field of mental health. Linguistic criteria, definitions, and multiple examples are included to facilitate its application, as well as some reflections about its potential and possible benefits.