This guide was designed to help individuals interested in developing caregiver support groups. It begins with an overview of the caregiving situation, identifying stresses associated with caregiving and factors which have been shown to moderate stress. Purposes of a support group are discussed; differences between support and therapy groups are…

This study examined four propositions by which social support may impact the physical and mental well-being of the bereaved: (1) social support has a direct effect on health; (2) social support reduces stress which, in turn, affects health; (3) social support stimulates the development of coping strategies and promotes mastery, thereby affecting…

Much has been written about the conflicts that women experience when they combine work and family roles into one life style. This study focused on how the issue of the marriage-career conflict played itself out in the lives of women who graduated from college in 1967. Data were obtained from a stratified random sample of female college graduates…

Women involved in multiple life roles comprise a large segment of society, yet little is known about how stressful and satisfying they find this lifestyle, or about what characteristics are related to feeling stressed or satisfied. The purpose of this study was to examine role and life satisfaction and stress in women involved in multiple life…

This guide for counselors describes the Critical Events Interview (CEI), a new counseling technique designed to be used with women in transition. The concept of critical events and their influence on adult development is described and the history and current status of the CEI are reviewed, along with current results of CEI evaluations and…

Citizen involvement in the public decision-making process can be facilitated if appropriate forms and functions of involvement are used. The issue cycle, which can help public officials to ensure that citizens have constructive and timely input into the decision-making process, involves awareness of some condition in the community; community…

Seven functional families with handicapped children were studied using a case study approach. Through the qualitative paradigm, the development of successful coping mechanisms was examined. The parents completed an instrument called "CHIP, Coping Health Inventory for Parents," and all family members were interviewed. Subject families were…

This report synthesizes the discussions which took place at an international conference on profound mental handicap held in Madrid, Spain (November, 1984). An overview of the issues involved in helping people with profound handicaps cites several positive trends, such as education for all, family support services, home visitations by direct care…

Little information exists on the coping patterns of parents of chronically ill children although there are 1,000,000 severely chronically ill children in the United States. To address the need for psychosocial services, Arizona is developing a program to serve its citizens. A study was conducted to examine the reliability of a major family coping…

This student workbook is intended for use in helping teenage and adult basic education (ABE) students reduce their anxiety over tests in general and over the General Educational Development (GED) test in particular. Exercises are provided to help students analyze and understand their feelings about and while taking tests, recall the childhood…

Urban and rural third graders were studied to test the hypothesis that children's self-reported views of their ability to cope with the environment and their teacher's views of their performance patterns in adaptation and intrapersonal growth would have correlations with academic test performance. Teacher appraisals of adaptation covered…

Job loss is a stressful event, partially because of the obvious stress of economic deprivation. However, research shows that job loss also has psychological effects. The impact of losing a job has been investigated in terms of personality (self esteem, mental health, and affective states) and in terms of the transitional stages of reactions to job…

The field of mental health has had difficulty in developing an adequate conceptualization of racism as a mental health problem. Based on conventional classifications of mental illness, racism might be described as a functional disorder. The racist, however, appears quite normal except for a paranoid disorder in the area of racial relations. The…

This paper evaluates models of positive mental health for their applicability to blacks and describes three studies that examined self-esteem, locus of control, and commitment to social change as critical dimensions of effective functioning and mental health among blacks. The first study examined racial differences in self-evaluation by subjecting…

Since vocational education normally deals with potential workers, it needs to include courses whose content focuses on developing effective coping strategies to deal with occupational stressors that affect job satisfaction. Occupational stress is defined as a dynamic reciprocal relationship between an individual and the work environment.…