Working time arrangements and exhaustion: The role of recovery experiences and satisfaction with the schedule.

Working time arrangements may be a source of strain and entail negative consequences for workers, one of which can be exhaustion. Based on the job demands-resources and the conservation of resources theories, this study explores recovery experiences from work and satisfaction with the work schedule as possible resources that may prevent or minimize such negative consequences. With a sample of 386 workers (n = 287 women; 99 men) and using a cluster analysis, we identified five working time arrangements: fixed standardized, part-time, irregular standardized, flexible standardized, and nonstandard work schedule (NWS). A one-way ANOVA found that workers in the irregular standardized schedule report higher exhaustion compared to the fixed standardized and the part-time. Exhaustion of workers in NWS is higher compared to the part-time workers. A multiple linear regression analysis found that the link between recovery experiences and exhaustion varies according to the working time arrangement. Lastly, an interaction analysis confirmed the moderator effect of satisfaction with the work schedule in the relationship between recovery experiences and exhaustion for the whole sample. When this analysis was performed separately for each cluster, this effect was only significant for NWS and by disentangling this finding by recovery dimensions, only relaxation had a significant interaction effect. This study clarifies the links between different recovery experiences and exhaustion, and points to the importance of satisfaction with the work schedule in facilitating recovery under demanding working time arrangements. Results are discussed considering the complex nature of the work-family interface.

Stability and Change in Adolescents' Sense of Agency: Contributions of Sex, Multiple Risk, Pandemic Stress, and Attachment to Parents.

Although literature states that individual, relational, and contextual factors contribute to adolescents' sense of agency, more research is needed to clarify and understand how adolescents develop this belief over time. The current study examined the stability/change trajectories of the sense of agency during adolescence, specifically across high school, analyzing whether attachment to parents over time, adolescents' sex, cumulative risk in baseline, and pandemic-related stress explained these trajectories. The sample included 467 Portuguese adolescents (40.7% were males; Mage = 15.58 years, SD = 0.80), evaluated three times across 18 months. This work yielded three significant findings. First, adolescents' sense of agency significantly increased over time, with significant between-subject variance at the initial levels but not at the growth rate. Second, attachment to parents consistently links to adolescents' sense of agency across time, despite the differential contributions from attachment to mothers and fathers. Third, boys reported greater growth in the sense of agency than girls. Adolescents' cumulative risk at T1 predicted lower initial levels of sense of agency, whereas higher pandemic-related stress predicted less growth of the sense of agency. These findings emphasize the contributions of individual and family characteristics and the role of the broader social context in shaping the development of adolescents' sense of agency. The findings underline the need to consider further the differential influences of adolescents' relationships with mothers and fathers to understand changes in adolescents' sense of agency.

Adolescents' attachment, quality of relationships with residential caregivers, and emotion regulation.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents in residential care are more likely to report insecure and especially disorganized attachments, which lead to difficulties in emotion regulation and compromise the quality of their interpersonal relationships. In residential care, it is expected that sensitive and responsive caregivers are able to help adolescents regulate their feelings of distress, enabling them to experience a sense of emotional security. The present study sought to analyze the effects of the quality of attachment on emotion regulation and to test the moderating effect of quality of relationship (from adolescents' and caregivers' perspectives) on this association. METHODS: The sample involved 306 adolescents, 12-18 years of age, living in residential care and 70 caregivers. RESULTS: The findings underscored the importance of the quality of the relationship with residential caregivers on adolescents' emotion regulation competencies over time. The results also showed that the quality of relationship (emotional closeness) as perceived by the caregivers moderated the association between adolescents' attachment avoidance levels and their emotion regulation strategies. CONCLUSIONS: The results are discussed according to attachment theory, and underscore the role the relationship with caregivers plays in the affective reorganization of adolescents living in residential care.

"I have always lived with the disease in the family": family adaptation to hereditary cancer-risk.

BACKGROUND: Hereditary cancer syndromes have been conceptualized as a family level process. The present study explores the complexity and challenges of family adaptation to the hereditary cancer syndrome, in the context of genetic counseling and long-term cancer risk management and follow-up surveillance. METHODS: We performed semi-structured interviews with 13 participants with one of the following hereditary cancer syndromes: Lynch Syndrome, Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer Syndrome, Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome, or Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. The interview was developed through a participatory approach with the involvement of healthcare professionals and individuals with first-hand experience of living with the hereditary cancer syndromes. RESULTS: The family is the main source of information and emotional support to deal with hereditary cancer syndromes. Multiple individual adaptation processes and communal coping networks interact, influencing the emotional and health-related behavior of family members. This is affected and affects the family's communication and its' members reactions to disclosure, with consequent changes in relationships. CONCLUSIONS: The systemic interdependent dynamics of family adaptation calls for family-centered care of genetic cancer syndromes.

From Chaos to Normalization and Deconfinement: What did the Pandemic Unveil in Youth Residential Care.

The conditions imposed by the Covid-19 outbreaks forced residential care (RC) facilities to experience new challenges and to adopt new practices. The aim of the current study is to analyze how RC facilities have experienced and managed confinement during the 1st wave of the pandemic. A thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals responsible for managing crisis in RC facilities. The main implications of the confinement measures on RC dynamics and relations were organized in three major themes: Chaos, novelty and organization; reinventing normalization and deconfinement. The pandemic exposes the structural weaknesses of RC, namely mobility of human resources, scarcity of supportive networks, and fragilities in providing comprehensive and integrative care. These factors need to be considered when addressing risk/vulnerability and discussing best practices and policies on child/youth welfare domain. Future studies should explore representations of important key actors as youth, families and other professionals from youth care.

Experiences of breast cancer patients and helpful aspects of supportive-expressive group therapy: A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored the experiences and perceived changes of breast cancer (BC) patients after participating in 16-weekly sessions of Supportive-Expressive Group Therapy (SEGT). METHODS: A semi-structured interview adapted from Elliott's Client Change Interview was carried out with 12 women (aged 33-60 years) with BC, about 6 months after completing the treatment. RESULTS: Content analysis identified four main themes: expectations and motivations to participate in SEGT, group processes and experiences, perceived changes enhanced by SEGT and perceptions about the therapeutic relationship. The most helpful aspects of SEGT mentioned by participants were as follows: the expression/normalisation of feelings, thoughts and reactions; the improvement of social support; and the learning opportunities obtained through sharing of experiences among participants. Additionally, participants mentioned that SEGT contributed to improve personal and social skills, such as the capacity to express emotions and the ability to establish satisfactory interpersonal relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the participants' experiences, SEGT seems to be an effective intervention to support women facing BC during the initial phase of cancer. The use of SEGT by health care professionals is encouraged, but the specific needs/problems of each group member should be carefully attended.

Attachment and posttraumatic growth after breast cancer: A dyadic approach.

OBJECTIVE: Cancer poses unique challenges for the couple relationship. From a relational perspective, successful adaptation may be less dependent on the circumstances of being the "patient" or the "caregiver" than on how couples successfully integrate cancer into their relationship. In this article, we study posttraumatic growth through attachment theory, which provides a useful framework to explore the role of intimate processes dyadically. METHOD: The sample comprised 84 heterosexual married and cohabitating couples. Women were in adjuvant treatment for breast cancer or in the posttreatment phase. Both members of the couple completed measures of attachment and posttraumatic growth. Path models were used to examine associations between the constructs through the application of the actor-partner interdependent model. Moreover, time since diagnosis was examined within the actor-partner interdependent model as a possible moderator affecting the attachment-posttraumatic growth associations. RESULTS: Partners' attachment security was an important predictor of individual posttraumatic growth for both members of the couple, while individuals' own attachment security was not associated with their posttraumatic growth for either member of the couple. The partner's effects were equal across gender. Additionally, time since breast cancer diagnosis did not affect the pattern of results. CONCLUSION: Findings support the assessment of the couple dyadically and corroborate an attachment approach of the couple as an interdependent unit. Implications of the study for interventions assisting couples in oncological setting are discussed.

Attachment, emotion regulation and coping in Portuguese emerging adults: a test of a mediation hypothesis.

Although the quality of parent-adolescent emotional bonds has consistently been proposed as a major influence on young adult's psycho-emotional functioning, the precise means by which these bonds either facilitate or impede adaptive coping are not well-understood. In an effort to advance this inquiry, the present study examined interrelationships among measures of parental attachment, emotion regulation processes, and preferred coping strategies within a sample of 942 college freshmen. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test whether the link between attachment to parents and the use of particular coping strategies is mediated by differences in emotion regulation mechanisms. As hypothesized, differences in attachment to parents predicted differences in the use of emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. More specifically, having a close emotional bond, feeling supported in autonomy processes and having (moderately) low levels of separation anxiety toward parents predict more constructive emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. Additionally emotion regulation was found to (partly or totally) mediate the association between attachment and coping.

Attachment, emotion regulation and coping in Portuguese emerging adults: a test of a mediation hypothesis

Although the quality of parent-adolescent emotional bonds has consistently been proposed as a major influence on young adult’s psycho-emotional functioning, the precise means by which these bonds either facilitate or impede adaptive coping are not well-understood. In an effort to advance this inquiry, the present study examined interrelationships among measures of parental attachment, emotion regulation processes, and preferred coping strategies within a sample of 942 college freshmen. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test whether the link between attachment to parents and the use of particular coping strategies is mediated by differences in emotion regulation mechanisms. As hypothesized, differences in attachment to parents predicted differences in the use of emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. More specifically, having a close emotional bond, feeling supported in autonomy processes and having (moderately) low levels of separation anxiety toward parents predict more constructive emotion regulation mechanisms and coping strategies. Additionally emotion regulation was found to (partly or totally) mediate the association between attachment and coping (AU)

Aunque la calidad de los lazos emocionales entre padres y adolescentes siempre ha sido propuesta como una importante influencia en el funcionamiento psico-emocional del adulto joven, los mecanismos precisos por los cuales estos lazos facilitan o impiden el afrontamiento adaptativo no son bien conocidos. En un esfuerzo por avanzar en esta indagación, el presente estudio examinó las interrelaciones entre las medidas de apego parental, los procesos de regulación emocional, y las estrategias preferidas de afrontamiento en una muestra de 942 estudiantes de primer año de universidad. Para probar si la relación entre el apego a los padres y el uso de determinadas estrategias de afrontamiento está mediada por las diferencias en los mecanismos de regulación emocional, se utilizaran Modelos de Ecuaciones Estructurales. Como fue hipotetizado, las diferencias en el apego a los progenitores se demostraron predictivas de diferencias en el uso de los mecanismos de regulación emocional y estrategias de afrontamiento. Más específicamente, tener un vínculo afectivo cercano con los padres, sentir su apoyo en los procesos de autonomía y sentir niveles (moderadamente) bajos de ansiedad de separación hacia los progenitores, son condiciones predictivas de mecanismos de regulación emocional y estrategias de afrontamiento más constructivos. Además, se encontró en la regulación emocional un mediador (total o parcial) para la asociación entre el apego y el afrontamiento (AU)