A coping self-insight scale for adults: development and preliminary psychometric properties.

BACKGROUND: Self-insights focused on the coping process are implicated in the refinement of capacities for resilience. To advance this research, we must identify key coping self-insights and develop a concise measurement tool. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to develop evidence for the construct dimensionality and validity of a measure of coping self-insight. METHODS: Items measuring 13 coping self-insight dimensions were generated via consultation with theoretical work, subject matter experts, and pre-testing items for clarity. Thereafter, the dimensionality of items was assessed with undergraduate students (N = 232) and an online sample (N = 800) via exploratory and confirmatory analyses. Finally, a multi-trait, multi-method approach was used to test discriminant validity in a further sample of students (N = 228). RESULTS: The initial item list was reduced to five key dimensions that balanced data-driven and conceptual considerations. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed moderate-to-strong correlations (r = .47-.80) among dimensions. We also demonstrated evidence of internal reliability, convergent, criterion, and discriminant validity. Invariance tests for sub-groups of interest (e.g., sex, sample type) frequently demonstrated metric or scalar invariance, except for age sub-groups. CONCLUSIONS: Findings offer a starting point regarding the types of coping self-insights important for the emergence of resilience and a validated tool for future research.

An exploratory domain analysis of deployment risks and protective features and their association to mental health, cognitive functioning and job performance in military personnel.

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of military deployment involve the exploration of focused associations between predictors and peri and post-deployment outcomes. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to provide a large-scale and high-level perspective of deployment-related predictors across eight peri and post-deployment outcomes. DESIGN: Articles reporting effect sizes for associations between deployment-related features and indices of peri and post-deployment outcomes were selected. Three-hundred and fourteen studies (N = 2,045,067) and 1,893 relevant effects were retained. Deployment features were categorized into themes, mapped across outcomes, and integrated into a big-data visualization. METHODS: Studies of military personnel with deployment experience were included. Extracted studies investigated eight possible outcomes reflecting functioning (e.g., post-traumatic stress, burnout). To allow comparability, effects were transformed into a Fisher's Z. Moderation analyses investigating methodological features were performed. RESULTS: The strongest correlates across outcomes were emotional (e.g., guilt/shame: Z = 0.59 to 1.21) and cognitive processes (e.g., negative appraisals: Z = -0.54 to 0.26), adequate sleep on deployment (Z = -0.28 to - 0.61), motivation (Z = -0.33 to - 0.71), and use of various coping strategies/recovery strategies (Z = -0.25 to - 0.59). CONCLUSIONS: Findings pointed to interventions that target coping and recovery strategies, and the monitoring of emotional states and cognitive processes post-deployment that may indicate early risk.

How resilience is strengthened by exposure to stressors: the systematic self-reflection model of resilience strengthening.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to demands is normally considered to drain resources and threaten wellbeing. However, studies have indicated a resilience-strengthening role for stressors. OBJECTIVES: This paper introduces a unifying model, including five testable hypotheses regarding how resilience can be strengthened progressively via exposure to life-stressors. METHODS: We review and synthesize relevant scholarship that underpins the Systematic Self-Reflection model of resilience-strengthening. RESULTS: The model highlights the importance of a specific meta-cognitive skill (self-reflection on one's initial stressor response) as a mechanism for strengthening resilience. The Systematic Self-Reflection model uniquely proposes five self-reflective practices critical in the on-going adaptation of three resilient capacities: (1) coping resources, (2) usage of coping and emotional regulatory repertoire, and (3) resilient beliefs. The self-reflective process is proposed to strengthen a person's resilience by developing insight into their already-present capacities, the limitations of these capacities, and by stimulating the search for person-driven alternative approaches. CONCLUSION: This model extends the existing scholarship by proposing how the experience of stressors and adversity may have resilience-strengthening opportunities. The implication of this model is that engaging with stressors can have positive consequences for longer-term healthy emotional development if scaffolded in adaptive reflective practices.

Trait perfectionism strengthens the negative effects of moral stressors occurring in veterinary practice.

OBJECTIVE: Moral challenges are a unique class of workplace stressor where behaviours violate one's personal moral beliefs regarding how things should be done or one's perceived obligations. Morally challenging stressors exist in many workplaces and at times can transform into marked emotional distress, referred to as moral distress. In this study we investigated the degree to which morally significant stressors are related to psychological distress and resilience in a sample of Australian veterinarians. Further, we explored the role of trait perfectionism in strengthening the relationship between exposure to morally significant stressors and psychological distress. Trait perfectionism is the tendency to have very high and rigid standards for the self and/or others and is often implicated in the experience of psychological distress. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey sampled 540 Australian-registered veterinarians (64.2% female), ranging in age from 23 to 74 years. RESULTS: Although morally significant stressors were related to increases in milder expressions of distress, they did not appear to be associated with more severe decrements in psychological wellbeing. Rather, it was the combination of these triggering stressor events and trait perfectionism that appeared to create the vulnerability to moral stressors. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that trait perfectionism is an individual difference that enhances vulnerability to the risk of greater distress in response to morally challenging events in veterinary practice. The implications of these findings and directions for further research are discussed.