Mental health

About: Mental health is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 183794 publications have been published within this topic receiving 4340463 citations. The topic is also known as: mental wellbeing.

Social support measurement and intervention: A guide for health and social scientists.

Abstract: Surgery and pharmaceuticals are not the only effective procedures we have to improve our health The natural human tendency to care for fellow humans, to support them with social networks, has proven to be a powerful treatment as well This book, will provide the most up to date research on the effects of social support interventions on physical and mental health

The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new theoretically based measure that would assess the full range of religious coping methods, including potentially helpful and harmful religious expressions. The RCOPE was tested on a large sample of college students who were coping with a significant negative life event. Factor analysis of the RCOPE in the college sample yielded factors largely consistent with the conceptualization and construction of the subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis of the RCOPE in a large sample of hospitalized elderly patients was moderately supportive of the initial factor structure. Results of regression analyses showed that religious coping accounted for significant unique variance in measures of adjustment (stress-related growth, religious outcome, physical health, mental health, and emotional distress) after controlling for the effects of demographics and global religious measures (frequency of prayer, church attendance, and religious salience). Better adjustment was related to a number of coping methods, such as benevolent religious reappraisals, religious forgiveness/purification, and seeking religious support. Poorer adjustment was associated with reappraisals of God's powers, spiritual discontent, and punishing God reappraisals. The results suggest that the RCOPE may be useful to researchers and practitioners interested in a comprehensive assessment of religious coping and in a more complete integration of religious and spiritual dimensions in the process of counseling.

Psychological and physical well-being during unemployment: a meta-analytic study.

Abstract: The authors used theoretical models to organize the diverse unemployment literature, and meta-analytic techniques were used to examine the impact of unemployment on worker well-being across 104 empirical studies with 437 effect sizes. Unemployed individuals had lower psychological and physical well-being than did their employed counterparts. Unemployment duration and sample type (school leaver vs. mature unemployed) moderated the relationship between mental health and unemployment, but the current unemployment rate and the amount of unemployment benefits did not. Within unemployed samples, work-role centrality, coping resources (personal, social, financial, and time structure), cognitive appraisals, and coping strategies displayed stronger relationships with mental health than did human capital or demographic variables. The authors identify gaps in the literature and propose directions for future unemployment research.

The strategy of preventive medicine

Abstract: Part 1 The Objectives of Preventive Medicine: The scope for prevention. Why seek to prevent?: the economic and humanitarian arguments. Priorities: a matter of choice Part 2 What needs to be prevented?: Sick individuals: a continuum of disease severity case definitions. A continuum of risk: the prevention paradox mass and individual measures. A unified approach Part 3 The Relation of Risk to Exposure: The dose-effect relationship. The limitations of research methods. Small but widespread risks: a public health disaster? Part 4 Prevention for Individuals and the "High-risk" Strategy Prevention and clinical care The high-risk strategy. Identifying risk-screening. Strengths and weaknesses of the high-risk strategy Part 5 Individuals and Populations: Individual variation: genetic, social and behavioural determinants of diversity. Variation between populations. Sick and healthy populations Part 6 Some Implications of Population change: Effects of the population average on the occurrence of deviance examples from mental health. Health implications for the population as a whole: cardiovascular disease body weight birth weight early development and adult health Down's Syndrome alcohol osteoporosis and fractures occupational and environmental health other fields of application. Safety Part 7 The Population Strategy of Prevention: Principles: the sociological, moral and medical arguments scope proximal and underlying causes. Strengths. Limitations and problems 8. In Search of Health: How do populations change?: the alcohol example. Scientific justification for change. Social engineering versus individual freedom. Freedom of choice. Role of governments. Who takes the decisions? The largest threat to public health: war. Social and economic deprivation. Responsibility for health.