Family structure, family functioning and adolescent well-being: the transcendent influence of parental style.

This study assessed the association between parental style, family functioning and adolescent well being, contrasting intact families with those of changed configuration. Eight hundred and one grade 10 general level teenagers in 11 high schools of a single educational system were the subjects. Results indicated that the configuration of the family was not the key determinant of effectiveness of family functioning. Instead the style of parenting turned out to be the main determinant of both family functioning and well being of the adolescents. While both "parents" were judged to have contributed to these outcomes cross gender effects were found.

The role of family and peers in social self-efficacy: links to depression in adolescence.

The roles of family, peers, and selected social factors in the origins of depression were assessed in a school-based study of adolescents. Social self-efficacy and social support from family and peers were found to be interrelated in their links with depression. Risk factors are delineated and suggestions for preventive intervention are offered.

The treatment of monodelusional psychosis associated with depression.

This is a report of the treatment of four patients suffering from a syndrome consisting of a single delusion in association with depression. The tendency of monodelusional syndromes to respond to a pimozide provides a rationale for nosological organisation.

Patterns of illness among individuals reporting high and low stress.

This paper reports the results of a prospective study of 428 adults, which was designed to explore the relationship between social stress and health. Individuals in the study were grouped into cohorts based on the number of stressful events experienced in a 12 month period, and the differences in the quantity and quality of health measures among the cohorts in the same time period explored. Individuals under stress experienced considerably more illness (assessed by symptoms reported on health diary and physician visits) than those not under stress. However the quality of these illness episodes were similar in both groups, as measured by the distribution of problems in organ system/body region and diagnostic categories. A second analysis, examining a subgroup of individuals who went from periods of low to high stress came to similar conclusions. The results suggest that the onset of stressful events is associated with a deterioration of health of a general nature, not associated with particular diseases of body systems.

Characteristics and correlates of effective and ineffective social supports.

The paper examines cohorts of individuals with helpful and unhelpful social supports identified in a longitudinal study of stressful events, social supports and health. Specific features of the quantity and quality of social relationships leading to help and support are examined. Individuals with helpful social supports describe their social networks as smaller and appear to derive support primarily from spouse and close family relationships. No significant differences in the number of multiplex and reciprocal relationships were found. Subjects reporting the least helpful social supports also reported significantly more stressful events in the past five years and significantly more childhood events.

Health diaries: strategies for compliance and relation to other measures.

This article described experience with the use of health diaries in a two-year prospective study of the influence of the psychosocial environment on the health status of 500 subjects in the Hamilton area. Three strategies were used to maintain compliance: 1) random sampling of three days within each two-week interval; 2) a lottery ticket incentive; and 3) telephone follow-up. The results of an initial telephone and lottery ticket study demonstrated a significant effect on compliance. The data from the two-year study were analyzed to characterize health change based on diary reports over successive six-month intervals and to determine the relationship of reported health to medical utilization data. The results indicated that subjects reported symptoms on about one third of the days surveyed but took no action on about one third of these symptom days. Only one quarter of the symptom days resulted in a change in usual activity, and fewer than one tenth of the symptom days resulted in time off from work or physician visits. The diary variable showed a low, positive correlation with health utilization.

Sore throats in adults: who sees a doctor?

In a study looking at the relationship of life stress events to health status, 500 individuals randomly selected from family practices in Hamilton, Ontario were asked to keep a health diary for three days every two weeks over a two year period. The compliance with diary keeping was remarkably high (85%), partly due to a novel method of reinforcing compliance. The present study involved reviewing these health diaries for symptoms of sore throat during the three month period January to March 1979. Over 2,700 diaries representing 8,148 person/days were reviewed; 48% recorded at least one symptom and 5.2% of all diaries recorded sore throat on at least one day. Eight to 16% of those individuals recording sore throat as a symptom contacted a health professional and/or took prescribed drugs.Although the group under study included only adults, the low medical contact rate of patients with sore throats raises questions about the effectiveness of any approach to sore throat/pharyngitis adopted in office practice.

Quality of life events and their relationship to strain.

The traditional view of life events is that the crucial factor is the number which occur within a defined time period. This was examined as part of a 2-year, prospective, longitudinal study of prospective, longitudinal study of 518 people, each of whom was interviewed every 6 months with Holmes and Rahe's Recent LIfe Change Questionnaire (RLCQ). The subject was asked if each event was anticipated or unanticipated, desirable or undesirable, and controllable or uncontrollable. Desirable, controlled, or anticipated ("positive") events did not correlate with strain, as measured by Langner's scale; whereas undesirable, uncontrolled, and unanticipated ("negative") events did. Subjects whose RLCQ scores comprised at least 75 percent positive events had significantly lower Langner scores than subjects with equivalent RLCQ totals, primarily negative ones.

Methodological issues in developing a scale to measure social support.

In recent years there has been considerable research and clinical interest in developing instruments to assess social supports available to individuals. There is, however, a notable deficiency of attempts to evaluate the psychometric properties of these questionnaires. The present article describes efforts made to evaluate the properties of a Social Relationship Scale (SRS) that was developed as part of a prospective study of the psychosocial influences on the health status of a population. Some descriptive scale statistics are also presented.