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Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 12911

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesca Giorgia Paleari

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Guest Editor

Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy
Interests: family relationships; forgiveness; interpersonal conflict and violence; psychological well-being; gratitude

Dr. Daniela Barni

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Guest Editor

Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy
Interests: intergenerational relationships; family; adolescence; values; sense of coherence; ethnic prejudice

Dr. Francesca Danioni

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Guest Editor

Family Studies and Research University Centre, Catholic University of Milan, Largo Gemelli, 1, 20123 Milan, Italy
Interests: human values; gratitude; family relationships; psychological well-being

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

throughout their life, families and their members have to face and adapt to many challenging and distressing situations. Some of them are due to changes in the family structure such as divorce, adoption, birth of a child or death of a family member, some others involve changes in family’s or social circumstances, such as financial problems, migration, illness, addiction, extreme events and disasters including the current Covid-19 pandemic and Ukrainian crisis. All these changes can seriously undermine psychological health and family relationship quality. However, the family can also provide its members relevant resources, in terms of supportive relationships, shared beliefs and practices, to positively cope and become resilient in face of adversities.

This Special Issue aims to improve knowledge on family factors and dynamics protecting or promoting family members’ psychological health during challenging times. Original research articles, meta-analyses, research literature reviews on recent developments in this field, proposals for innovative methodological approaches to analyzing family data are welcome.

Dr. Francesca Giorgia Paleari
Dr. Daniela Barni
Dr. Francesca Danioni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

psychological health
family relations
challenging situations
stress
risk factors
protective factors
coping
resilience

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 843 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Positivity on Depressive Symptoms in Women Seeking Help for Intimate Partner Violence

by Eleonora Crapolicchio, Vincenza Cinquegrana and Camillo Regalia

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(22), 7078; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20227078 - 18 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1551

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a complex and pervasive global phenomenon. Despite extensive research on physical and sexual violence, there has been a relative lack of investigation into the detrimental and distinctive consequences of psychological violence against women. This is surprising given the profound impact it has on the psychological well-being of victims, notably in the form of depression, which is commonly observed as an outcome in cases of psychological IPV victimization. The present study analyzes the impact of psychological IPV on depressive symptoms, considering the moderating influence of personal positivity, defined as positive self-perceptions, optimistic life perspectives, and a hopeful view of the future in a sample of 171 Italian women seeking assistance from anti-violence centers in different localities of Italy. The findings show that in line with the hypothesis, the association between psychological violence and depressive symptoms is moderated by the levels of perceived positivity, even when controlling for instances of physical violence. These results and implications for interventions are discussed within the framework of existing literature on positive psychology and psychological well-being in the context of IPV. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times)

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25 pages, 469 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Family Resilience and Dyadic Coping during the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy: Their Protective Role in Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being

by Francesca Giorgia Paleari, Irem Ertan, Lucrezia Cavagnis and Silvia Donato

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(18), 6719; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20186719 - 6 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1246

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has dramatically worsened people’s psychological well-being. Our aim was to examine for the first time the concurrent and longitudinal relations of family resilience with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, and the moderating role of socio-demographics. For people having a romantic partner, we also explored whether family resilience and dyadic coping were uniquely related to well-being. One cross-sectional study (N = 325) and one 10-week follow-up study (N = 112) were carried out during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (April–May 2020) in Northern Italy. Adult participants completed an online questionnaire in both studies. Correlation, multivariate regression, and moderation analyses were carried out with IBM SPSS version 28 and its PROCESS macro. Significance of differences in correlation and regression coefficients was tested through Steiger’s procedure, Wald test, and SUEST method. Family resilience was found to relate more strongly to eudaimonic (versus hedonic) well-being concurrently and to hedonic (versus eudaimonic) well-being longitudinally. The concurrent or longitudinal relations with hedonic well-being were generally stronger for females, part-time workers, and people undergoing multiple stressors. For people having a romantic partner, family resilience was concurrently associated with well-being independently of dyadic coping, whereas dyadic coping was longitudinally related to well-being independently of family resilience. Family resilience was found to protect, in the short term, the psychological well-being of people facing the pandemic outbreak. Its protective role mainly concerned hedonic well-being and was more pronounced for more vulnerable people. For persons having a romantic partner, however, dyadic coping seemed to have equal, if not greater, positive short-term effects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times)

16 pages, 1832 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring the Role of Birth Environment on Italian Mothers’ Emotional Experience during Childbirth

by Laura Migliorini, Nicoletta Setola, Eletta Naldi, Maria Chiara Rompianesi, Laura Iannuzzi and Paola Cardinali

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(15), 6529; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156529 - 5 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2095

Abstract

The physical environment is one of the factors that affect mother’s experience of childbirth and psychological health. A woman’s childbirth experience has been found to influence not only the mother’s own health and future births but also the well-being of her child and family. The present study’s objective was to investigate mothers’ perceptions of spatial-physical humanization, affective quality of place, and emotions during childbirth. To achieve this goal, the first part of our work was dedicated to selecting two birth environments (hospital and birth center) with different degrees of humanization. The methods include observations and field survey which mainly concerned the environmental quality of the spaces and the layout of the birth unit, and self-report questionnaire about perceived environment, affective quality attributed to place, and delivery experience. Participants are 66 low-risk women, choosing hospital or birth center. The findings indicate an enhanced perception of both the spatial-physical aspects and the social and functional aspects of the care unit among mothers who give birth at the birth center. These same mothers also report a more positive perception of the childbirth experience. In conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of birth environments in shaping mothers’ emotional experiences during childbirth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times)

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12 pages, 343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Running Away from the War in Ukraine: The Impact on Mental Health of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and Refugees in Transit in Poland

by Damiano Rizzi, Giulia Ciuffo, Giulia Sandoli, Matteo Mangiagalli, Pietro de Angelis, Gioele Scavuzzo, Mariana Nych, Marta Landoni and Chiara Ionio

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(24), 16439; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416439 - 8 Dec 2022

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 4178

Abstract

A growing body of research highlights how communities traumatized by conflict and displacement suffer from long-term mental and psychosocial illnesses. The Russian army’s attack on Ukraine has resulted in an estimated 10 million people being internally or externally displaced from Ukraine, of whom more than 3.8 million have left Ukraine to seek refuge elsewhere in Europe. Soleterre has decided to launch an intervention to provide psychological support to Ukrainian refugees and IDPs, aimed at containing war trauma, assessing the severity of symptoms, and enabling those affected to receive psychological support. The intervention model envisioned the administration of an intake form to provide a rapid collection of qualitative and quantitative information for those arriving in Poland or Lviv from Ukraine. Our results showed how most of the samples reported high or very high levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. Moreover, results highlighted how being close to families or being able to keep in touch with them work as a protective factor in enhancing resilience, as well as a support network. These findings underscored the importance of re-thinking our perception of “family” in a broader sense, considering the new facets it can take on in post-conflict situations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times)

Other

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25 pages, 572 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Sleep Is a Family Affair: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies on the Interplay between Adolescents’ Sleep and Family Factors

by Fabio Maratia, Valeria Bacaro and Elisabetta Crocetti

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 4572; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054572 - 4 Mar 2023

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2539

Abstract

Family is one of the primary socialization contexts influencing adolescents’ psychological health. In this regard, a crucial indicator of adolescents’ health is their sleep quality. Nevertheless, it is still unclear how multiple family factors (i.e., demographic and relational) are intertwined with adolescents’ sleep quality. For this reason, this systematic review with meta-analysis aims to comprehensively summarize and integrate previous longitudinal research investigating the reciprocal relation between demographics (e.g., family structure) and positive (e.g., family support) and negative (e.g., family chaos) relational family factors and adolescents’ sleep quality. Several search strategies were applied, and a final set of 23 longitudinal studies that matched the eligibility criteria were included in this review. The total number of participants was 38,010, with an average age at baseline of 14.7 years (SD = 1.6, range: 11–18 years). On the one hand, the meta-analytic results showed that demographic factors (e.g., low socio-economic status) were not related to adolescents’ sleep quality at a later time point. On the other hand, positive and negative family relational factors were positively and negatively related to adolescents’ sleep, respectively. Furthermore, the results suggested that this association could be bidirectional. Practical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protecting and Promoting Family Members’ Psychological Health in Challenging Times)

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