From Pregnancy to Lactation: When the Pathway is Complicated by Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Women with a cancer history report high distress during pregnancy and infant feeding. Despite the clear advantages of breastfeeding, little is known about factors influencing infant feeding behavior in women with cancer history. RESEARCH AIM: This three-time point longitudinal study aimed to explore the centrality of pregnancy and infant feeding experiences in 17 pregnant women with a cancer history (cases) compared to 17 pregnant women without cancer history (controls). METHODS: During pregnancy, participants filled out the Centrality of Events Scale and an ad hoc questionnaire about specific emotions, concerns, and expectations about infant feeding (T1), and their childbirth and infant feeding experiences during hospitalization (T2), and at 3-months postpartum (T3). RESULTS: Results at T1 demonstrated that participants with a history of cancer reported a higher perception of negative judgment and moral choice about breastfeeding than participants without a history of cancer. At T2 they reported a more positive childbirth experience than controls. From T2 to T3 participants with a history of cancer breastfed at a higher percentage than controls, and at T3 they reported higher levels of emotional and physical pleasure about the infant feeding experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Women with cancer history may experience a higher emotional and physical pleasure with infant feeding. Despite initial difficulties, a greater prevalence of breastfeeding was present for women with a history of cancer. Although this is a small sample, this research suggests that support and promotion of breastfeeding might be very effective after a serious medical diagnosis.

The Centrality of Events, Religion, Spirituality, and Subjective Well-Being in Latin American Jewish Immigrants in Israel.

This study aims to explore the impact of migration as a central event in personal identity, spirituality, and religiousness on subjective well-being (SWB). The sample was composed of 204 Latin American immigrants living in Israel, with ages ranging from 18 to 80 years (M = 48.76; SD = 15.36) across both sexes (Men = 34.8%; Women = 65.2%). The results show that, when analyzing the effects on SWB, Positive and Negative Affect, Centrality of Event, Religious Crisis, and Spiritual Transcendence present as the most relevant explanatory variables within the models. However, contrary to expectation, the present study identifies positive associations between the centrality of migration and SWB. Motivations for emigration should be explored in further studies as they could be mediating the relationship between centrality of events and SWB.

Pain centrality mediates pain self-efficacy and symptom severity among individuals reporting chronic pain.

Chronic pain is consistently associated with the presence of mental health disorders. Although previous research has shown relations between low levels of self-efficacy with chronic pain severity as well as comorbid mental health symptoms, the link between self-efficacy and mental health symptoms in chronic pain is not well understood. This study examined whether pain centrality, the extent to which pain is viewed as central to self-identity, may underlie these associations. Individuals with a diagnosis of chronic pain (N = 89) recruited through MTurkcompleted self-report measures including demographics, self-efficacy, pain centrality, pain severity, depression, and anxiety. Pain severity was associated with higher levels of pain centrality, depression, anxiety, and lower levels of self-efficacy. Path analysis demonstrated pain centrality significantly mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and pain severity, depression, and anxiety. Future studies would benefit from testing whether modifying pain centrality beliefs shift perceptions of control as well as pain and psychological outcomes.

Medindo o crescimento proveniente do enfrentamento de situações adversas: a influência da centralidade da memória autobiográfica / Measuring growth through adversity: the influence of the autobiographical memory centrality / Midiendo el crecimiento proveniente del enfrentamiento de situaciones adversas: influencia de la centralidad de la memoria autobiográfica

O crescimento pós-traumático (CPT) refere-se à mudança positiva em algum aspecto da experiência humana como resultado do enfrentamento de situações adversas. O presente trabalho investigou se as evidências de validade externa do Inventário de Crescimento PósTraumático (PTGI) são mais consistentes quando se compara os resultados de um subgrupo que pontuou alto na Escala de Centralidade de Eventos (ECE) com os de um subgrupo que pontuou baixo. A ECE avalia em que medida o evento de referência contribuiu na formação da identidade dos indivíduos. Participaram do estudo 317 indivíduos que passaram por situações adversas variadas. As correlações entre CPT e suporte social, sentido de vida, satisfação com a vida, religiosidade e desajuste psicológico apresentaram maior magnitude e coerência no subgrupo pontuou alto na ECE. Os resultados fortalecem a concepção de que apenas eventos que levam a uma reavaliação das crenças centrais dos indivíduos devem ser incluídos nos estudos de CPT.

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of facing highly challenging adverse situations. The present work investigated whether the external validity evidence of the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is more consistent when considering the events in which individuals scored high on the Centrality of Events Scale (CES) versus events in which individuals scored low. The CES assesses to what extent the reference event contributed to the formation of individuals' identity. Participated in the study 317 individuals who had been through a variety of adverse events. The correlations between PTGI scores and social support, meaning in life, life satisfaction, religiosity, and psychological distress became larger and more coherent in the subgroup that scored high in ECE. The results corroborate the conception that only events that lead to a reassessment of individuals' central beliefs should be included in the PTG studies.

Crecimiento postraumático (CPT) se refiere al cambio positivo en algún aspecto de la experiencia humana como resultado del enfrentamiento de situaciones adversas. Este trabajo investigó si las evidencias de validez externa del Inventario de Crecimiento PostTraumático (PTGI) son más consistentes cuando se compara los resultados de un subgrupo punteado alto en la Escala de Centralidad de Eventos (ECE) con los de un que punteaba bajo. La ECE evalúa en qué medida el evento de referencia contribuyó en la formación de la identidad de los individuos. Participaron del estudio 317 individuos que pasaron por situaciones adversas variadas. Las correlaciones entre CPT y las demás variables de interés presentaron mayor magnitud y coherencia en el subgrupo puntuó alto en la ECE. Los resultados fortalecen la concepción de que sólo los eventos que conducen a una reevaluación de las creencias centrales deben ser incluidos en los estudios de CPT.

Neuropsychological Predictors of Trauma Centrality in OIF/OEF Veterans.

This study examined whether reduced performance on two neuropsychological tasks, cognitive flexibility and working memory, were associated with higher levels of trauma centrality. A growing body of research has shown that trauma centrality, the extent to which a person believes a potentially traumatic event has become central to their self-identity and life story, is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Furthermore, PTSD is often associated with alterations in neuropsychological functioning. The relationship between neuropsychological processes and trauma centrality, however, has yet to be explored. OEF/OIF combat veterans (N = 41) completed the Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Centrality of Event Scale (CES), and on-line measures of cognitive flexibility and working memory assessed via WebNeuro. Bivariate Pearson correlations showed that CES scores were positively correlated with PDS and BDI scores, and negatively correlated with cognitive flexibility and working memory. Linear regressions revealed that working memory significantly predicted CES when controlling for depression and PTSD severity while cognitive flexibility approached significance when controlling for these same variables. This study employed a cross-sectional design, precluding causality. The small sample size, entirely male sample, and use of an online neuropsychological assessment warrant follow-up research. Although numerous studies have found an association between CES and PTSD, this is the first to suggest that neuropsychological processes underlie the construct of trauma centrality. Given the importance of maladaptive cognitive processes underlying the pathogenesis of PTSD, these data suggest that future studies aimed at examining the link between neuropsychological processes and maladaptive cognitive processes, such as trauma centrality, may help to characterize and treat PTSD.

Centrality of positive and negative deployment memories predicts posttraumatic growth in danish veterans.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to examine theoretically motivated predictors for the development of positive changes following potentially traumatic experiences (i.e., posttraumatic growth). Specifically, we wanted to examine the prediction that memories of highly negative and positive deployment events predict subsequent posttraumatic growth. METHOD: A total of 251 Danish soldiers (7% female, mean age 26.4) deployed to forward operating bases in Afghanistan filled out questionnaires before, during, and after deployment. This allowed us to perform prospective as well as cross-sectional analyses of the data. RESULTS: The main findings were that the centrality of highly emotional memories from deployment predicted growth alongside openness to experience, combat exposure, and social support. Importantly, the centrality of both positive and negative memories predicted growth equally well. CONCLUSION: The perceived importance of both negative and positive events may play an important part in the development of posttraumatic growth.