Perceived social support, perceived stress, and quality of sleep among COVID-19 patients in Iran: assessing measurement invariance of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support across gender and age.

Background: Perceived social support (PSS) plays a considerable role in mental health. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is one of the most widely used scales, leading to much research evidence. The present study investigated its measurement model, equivalence across gender (male and female) and age groups (older patients= above 60 and non-older patients= below 60), and concurrent validity. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between March and October 2020, on patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Tehran, Iran. The scales were administered to 328 COVID-19 patients (54.6% male, aged 21 to 92) from two general hospitals; participants completed MSPSS (including friends, family, and significant others subscales), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, include sleep latency, subjective sleep quality, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep duration, use of sleep medication, daytime dysfunction, and sleep disturbances subscales), and the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10, to assess patients' appraisal of stressful conditions). Results: The MSPSS three-factor structure was confirmed among COVID-19 patients by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results support the MSPSS internal consistency and configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender and age groups. Nevertheless, small but significant differences were found across ages based on the latent factor mean of the MSPSS from friends, with a lower mean level in older patients. The coefficients of Cronbach's alpha (ranging from.92 to.96), the ordinal theta (ranging from.95 to.98), and Omega (ranging from.93 to.97) suggested high internal consistency of MSPSS. The concurrent validity of MSPSS was evidenced by its significant negative correlation with PSS-10 (τb = -.13, p <.01) and also subjective sleep quality (τb = -.22, p <.01), sleep disturbances (τb = -.26, p <.001), and daytime dysfunction (τb = -.26, p <.001). Conclusions: The MSPSS was valid and reliable for measuring individuals' perception of social support between males and females and older and non-older COVID-19 patients.

Effectiveness of mindful self-compassion therapy on psychopathology symptoms, psychological distress and life expectancy in infertile women treated with in vitro fertilization: a two-arm double-blind parallel randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: Infertility is a prominent problem affecting millions of couples worldwide. Recently, there has been a hightened emphasis on elucidating the subtle linkages between infertility treatment leveraging assisted reproductive technology and the complex realm of psychological challenges, as well as efforts in implementation of psychological interventions.The Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program seeks to improve self-compassion, compassion for others, mindfulness, and life satisfaction while reducing depression, anxiety, and stress. In the current study, an MSC intervention was performed on infertile women (IW) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to assess the effectiveness of this intervention in reducing psychological distress and psychopathological symptoms and enhancing life expectancy. METHODS: Fifty-seven IW undergoing IVF were randomly allocated to two groups: MSC (n = 29) or treatment as usual (TAU; n = 28). Participants in MSC met once a week for two hours for eight weeks and attended a half-day meditation retreat. The Synder's Hope questionnaire and the Revised 90-Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R) were used as the primary outcome measures. Data were obtained before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and two months post-intervention. Repeated measures of ANCOVA and paired t-tests in all assessment points were used to compare the MSC and the TAU groups in outcomes. RESULTS: In the MSC group, hopelessness, anger-hostility, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity difficulties, and depression were significantly reduced compared with the TAU group, and those improvements persisted at the two-month follow-up. Reliable change index revealed that the MSC group's gains were both clinically significant and durable. CONCLUSIONS: MSC can facilitate higher life satisfaction and mental well-being for IW undergoing IVF by reducing psychological distress, psychopathological symptoms, and hopelessness. These encouraging findings call for more research into the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies in addressing psychological problems among IW undergoing IVF.

Validation of Chinese Multidimensional Depression Assessment Scale (MDAS) in Inner Mongolia pregnant women and risk factors of antenatal depression in Inner Mongolia in the era of one-child policy.

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy involves physiological changes in reproductive and endocrine systems, and social role changes that can increase the risk of mental health problems. In China, greater emphasis has been given to postpartum depression and its negative impact on infant development. This study examined depression in pregnant women in Inner Mongolia, who are under the influence of cultural values of collectivism and social factors specific to China. Chinese society adheres firmly to traditional values, while market reform, birth-control policy, together with high parental investment in childcare and rearing construct a unique and sometimes unfavorable environment for Chinese women that may influence their depression expression. THE AIMS OF THIS STUDY ARE TWOFOLD: First, it validated the Chinese Multidimensional Depression Assessment Scale (MDAS), a holistic self-report questionnaire measuring depression severity in four domains of depression-emotional, somatic, cognitive and interpersonal in pregnant women in Inner Mongolia; second, it examined the influences of demographic characteristics (including age, education and employment), pregnancy characteristics (week of gestation, first pregnancy), self-esteem, social support, social activity, work stress, and work-family balance on depression. METHODS: A total of 234 pregnant women, mostly in their third trimester, were recruited in an antenatal hospital in Inner Mongolia and self-reported questionnaires were completed. RESULTS: Using Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), MDAS gave rise to a best-fit four-factor model corresponding to each subscale when it was first developed. MDAS also reported high Cronbach's alpha (0.96) and good convergent validity. Using hierarchical multiple linear regressions with significant demographic variables controlled for, self-esteem, work-family conflict, and social support were found to be significant predictors for depression. CONCLUSIONS: MDAS is a valid scale to be used with Chinese pregnant women, especially in more collectivistic geographical areas. Risk factors specific to the Chinese context add insights to the experience of antenatal depression in China and contribute to understanding depression in from a global mental health perspective.

Mixed diversity of shifting IOD and El Niño dominates the location of Maritime Continent autumn drought.

The Maritime Continent is a huge heat source region over the Indo-Pacific warm pool and it plays a key role in global weather/climate variations. The locations of Maritime Continent autumn droughts, linked to frequent rampant forest wildfires, are closely related to the mixed diversity of El Niño and Indian Ocean Dipole events.

The development of a new multidimensional depression assessment scale: preliminary results.

Depression is a major problem for mental health. Empirical studies and clinical observations have shown that the symptoms of depression occur across four main domains-emotional, cognitive, somatic and interpersonal. However, commonly used depression assessment scales fail to address the evaluation of interpersonal symptoms, as summarized in this paper. Therefore, a new depression assessment scale, which aimed to evaluate all four domains of depressive symptomatology, was developed. In an initial analysis, a pilot 85-item questionnaire containing possible depressive symptoms was distributed for evaluation to experts from different mental health professions, from which 52 items were subsequently selected for the new multidimensional depression assessment scale. One hundred community participants completed the questionnaire along with the Beck Depression Inventory-II. The results indicated that the new depression scale had good psychometric properties. It was found to be reliable and valid for the assessment of depression severity and symptomatology, though it is emphasized that these data are only preliminary and based on a relatively healthy sample.