Showing papers by "Daniel Shepherd published in 2012"

Stress and quality of life in international and domestic university students: cultural differences in the use of religious coping

Abstract: Studying overseas entails a number of transitions and challenges, and the present study investigated the strategies international university students use to cope with stressors. Previous research suggests that international students may be more likely than domestic students to draw on religion/spirituality as a source of dealing with stress, but the direct links between stress, religious coping and quality of life are yet to be documented explicitly. A sample of 679 university students in New Zealand completed the quality of life scale WHOQOL-BREF with an additional WHOQOL module used to assess spiritual, religious, and personal beliefs (SRPB). The students also completed the Perceived Stress Scale and the Brief COPE inventory. Irrespective of stress levels encountered or whether participants were international or domestic students, Asian students were more likely to use religious coping strategies than European students. Unlike European students, Asian students’ use of religious coping was effective in i...

How Religious Coping is Used Relative to Other Coping Strategies Depends on the Individual’s Level of Religiosity and Spirituality

Abstract: Results from empirical studies on the role of religiosity and spirituality in dealing with stress are frequently at odds, and the present study investigated whether level of religiosity and spirituality is related to the way in which religious coping is used relative to other coping strategies. A sample of 616 university undergraduate students completed the Brief COPE (Carver in Int J Behav Med 4:92-100, 1997) questionnaire and was classified into groups of participants with lower and higher levels of religiosity and spirituality, as measured by the WHOQOL-SRPB (WHOQOL-SRPB Group in Soc Sci Med 62:1486-1497, 2006) instrument. For participants with lower levels, religious coping tended to be associated with maladaptive or avoidant coping strategies, compared to participants with higher levels, where religious coping was more closely related to problem-focused coping, which was also supported by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results of the present study thus illustrate that investigating the role of religious coping requires more complex approaches than attempting to assign it to one higher order factor, such as problem- or emotion-focused coping, and that the variability of findings reported by previous studies on the function of religious coping may partly be due to variability in religiosity and spirituality across samples.

Hearing every footstep: Noise sensitivity in individuals following traumatic brain injury

Abstract: Noise sensitivity is an important and under-researched symptom that can result from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the experiences of noise sensitivity of six individuals with TBI. The results revealed four major themes through which participants described a process of having to find information for themselves to understand what they were experiencing and their changed relationship with sounds. The participants also described feeling overwhelmed as they struggled to cope with the changes to their lives and being able to plan and take some control over their lives. The findings are of importance for both health professionals involved in rehabilitation and individuals recovering from TBI.

Perceptions of neighborhood problems and health‐related quality of life

Abstract: This article examines the association between perceptions of neighborhood problems and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a sample of New Zealand residents (n = 692). A modified version of the Neighborhood Problems Scale (originally developed by Steptoe and Feldman, 2001) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) were used to assess perceptions of neighborhood problems and HRQOL, respectively. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the association between perceptions of neighborhood problems and each of the WHOQOL-BREF domains: physical, psychological, social, and environmental HRQOL. Perceptions of neighborhood problems and gender interacted in the physical HRQOL regression; the negative association between perceived neighborhood problems and physical HRQOL was stronger for males compared with females. Neighborhood problems were also negatively predictive of psychological, social, and environmental HRQOL. Overall, our results suggest that the various aspects of well-being may be influenced by perceptions of neighborhood problems.

Neural Correlates of Noise Annoyance and Sensitivity

Abstract: At the psychological level of description, noise can be broadly defined as unwanted and intrusive sounds that one would prefer not to hear [1]. Noise interferes with daily activities and these disturbances often elicit feelings of annoyance or irritations in the listener [2]. People who are extremely annoyed by noise may experience maladaptive, negative emotions such as anger or fear towards the source of noise [3]. These emotions are usually accompanied by physiological arousal, which could further reinforce the initial affective reactions. Noise annoyance describes a multifaceted response that covers both affective dimensions and the immediate behavioural effect of noise [4]. An increasing body of literature supporting the role of noise sensitivity in noise perception is emerging [5]. Noise sensitivity is defined as a mediating factor between noiseinduced annoyance and noise exposure [6]. Weinstein [7] postulated that noise sensitivity could be understood as a general tendency of the individual to express negative judgments of their immediate environment. Stansfeld [1] further refined this definition to consider noise sensitivity as a stable personality trait composed of two key characteristics. First, noise sensitive individuals have a predisposition to attend to sounds and to perceive them negatively. Second, these individuals display stronger emotional reactions to noise [1]. Unfortunately, most investigations into noise impacts mainly focus on annoyance generated by noise from transport infrastructures and industrial complexes. Comparatively, other noises such as the rustling of papers, snoring or a baby’s cry have often been neglected [8]. To date, the effects of these everyday sounds remained inconclusive. Accordingly, a broader approach in measuring noise annoyance is needed. In the past decade, a neural-based model has been developed by Ando [9] to assess subjective preferences for sounds. According to this model, subjective preference is mirrored in changes in alpha activity when exposed to noise [10]. This model takes advantage of the physical properties of sound waves to calculate how the brain processes acoustic information at each stage of the auditory system. Numerous studies by Ando [10] calculated the persistence of alpha activity in the electroencephalogram (EEG) using autocorrelate functions (ACF). The ACF is a procedure for identifying the similarity within a monaural signal as a function of time-lag [11]; that is to find repeating patterns within the signal itself across time. Therefore, the continuity of alpha activity describes how self-similar the signal is within a set period of time. Interestingly, it has been found that the effective duration of temporal and spatial factors of sounds are processed differently in the brain. The effective duration is the time over which the sound is acoustically self-similar and less degraded by other factors before it enters the ears [10]. Hence, this represents the short period of time where the properties of sounds remain the same. A study by Mouri, Akiyama and Ando [12] found a correlation between the effective duration of sounds and that of alpha wave activity with different subjective preferences. Participants were asked to listen to 10 seconds of music inside an anechoic chamber while having electrical activity recorded from their scalps [10]. Both the neural activity and the sound stimuli were analysed using the ACF. The effective duration of alpha waves in the left hemisphere persistently correlated with the effective Abstract

Psychological Well-Being, Self-Reported Physical Activity Levels, and Attitudes to Physical Activity in a Sample of New Zealand Adolescent Females

Abstract: Physical activity (PA) is a key component of healthy development, not only physically but also psychologically. The aim of the present study was to measure PA levels and psychological well-being in adolescent females using a cross-sectional design, and to investigate the relationship between the two. Psychological well-being (self esteem and lack of depression, anxiety, and stress), PA, and established predictors of PA from the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Madden, Ellen, & Ajzen, 1992; health consciousness, significant others, priority, perceived barriers, and attitudes) were measured using 148 adolescent females aged 16 to 18 years. Results show a link between depression and level of PA, and between anxiety and PA. Attitudes towards PA, priority of PA, and perceived barriers to PA were also related to levels of PA. However, there were no significant associations between psychological well-being and attitudes towards PA, even though psychological well-being may influence the actual level of activity. Positive associations between PA and psychological well-being in adolescent females encourage future studies into causal relationships between the two. The most effective strategies for increasing PA in middle to late adolescent females may be targeting perceived barriers to PA rather than attitudes.

Wind farms and health: who is fomenting community anxieties?

Abstract: TO THE EDITOR: By his deployment of ad hominem arguments, outdated or industry-sponsored research, comparison to an unrelated phenomenon, and a biased selection of case studies and research reports, I fear the pro-wind-industry opinions expressed by Chapman1 will only serve to exacerbate the psychogenic and sociogenic processes he laments. Wind turbine noise must be treated like any other source of community noise, and its association with renewable energy must not excuse it from public health guidelines. The emergence of large wind turbines clustered close together in “wind farms” can produce modulated noise exceeding 100 decibels in their immediate vicinity.2 Such exposure will seriously impact health through sleep disturbance and noise-induced stress. The issue, then, is to determine reasonable distances from human habitation and noise guidelines, such as those for airports, drinking establishments and motorways. There are no current data indicating that wind-turbine noise is privileged in relation to health impacts. Rather, data not acknowledged by Chapman suggest the opposite.2-5 Indeed, the only mass hysteria I see comes from wind-farm activists who have an aversion to data and a love of conspiracy theories and voodoo. As a public health researcher, I appeal for more data and less opinion.