Positive Adaptation (positive + adaptation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Adaptation of Sudanese Refugees in an Australian Context: Investigating Helps and Hindrances

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2010
Jane Shakespeare-Finch
The present study investigates the experiences of Sudanese refugees by exploring the themes that characterize participants' experiences in Sudan, en route, and at their Australian destination. In particular, the research identifies several factors that may be seen as ,helps' or ,hindrances' to Sudanese refugees' adaptation. Participants were 12 Sudanese refugees aged between 19 and 40 years old who had been residing in Australia for five years or less. A qualitative phenomenological approach to data collection and analysis was employed. Examination of the interview transcripts revealed that all participants identified both ,hindrances' and ,helps' toward adaptation and indicated that positive adaptation is not only possible, but probable for Sudanese refugees in spite of their past experiences of trauma and present resettlement difficulties. Several practical implications were elicited from the research including a need for programs that actively promote refugees' adaptation by encouraging the broadening of social networks. [source]


Aggressive behavior in response to violence exposure: is it adaptive for middle-school children?,

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 8 2008
Suzanne Salzinger
The role of aggression in adaptation to family and community violence was examined in a sample of 667 inner-city schoolchildren studied annually over three years in middle school. Regression analyses indicated that the association between Year 1 exposure to family and community violence and Year 2 aggression was mediated by aggression occurring contemporaneously with Year 1 exposure. Cognitive justification of aggression and friends' delinquency made small independent contributions to prediction of Year 2 aggression, delinquency, and externalizing behaviors. Year 2 aggression mediated the association between Year 1 community violence victimization and Year 3 negative adaptation (internalizing problems, anxiety, and depression). Year 2 aggression also mediated the negative association between Year 1 witnessing community violence and Year 3 positive adaptation (self-esteem). Cognitive justification of aggression and friends' delinquency made independent contributions to Year 3 negative adaptation. The pattern of relations among variables infrequently varied by gender. Implications for intervention are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Parkinson's disease and resistive exercise: Rationale, review, and recommendations

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 1 2008
Michael J. Falvo MS
Abstract Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) are not only burdened with disease-specific symptoms (i.e., bradykinesia, rigidity, and tremor), but are also confronted with age-associated progressive loss of physical function, perhaps to a greater extent than neurologically normal adults. Suggestions for the inclusion of resistive exercise into treatment to attenuate these symptoms were made over 10 years ago, yet very few well controlled investigations are available. The objective of this review is to establish a clear rationale for the efficacy of resistance training in individuals with PD. Specifically, we highlight musculoskeletal weakness and its relationship to function as well as potential training-induced adaptive alterations in the neuromuscular system. We also review the few resistance training interventions currently available, but limit this review to those investigations that provide a quantitative exercise prescription. Finally, we recommend future lines of inquiry warranting further attention and call to question the rationale behind current exercise prescriptions. The absence of reports contraindicating resistive exercise, the potential for positive adaptation, and the noted benefits of resistance training in other populations may provide support for its inclusion into a treatment approach to PD. © 2007 Movement Disorder Society [source]


Rural mobility as a response to land shortages: the case of Malawi

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 4 2006
Deborah Potts
Abstract Malawi is the most densely populated country in southern Africa, and its economy and the livelihoods of the vast majority of its people are dependent on agriculture. Rural land is, therefore, a critical resource. Malawi is divided into three Regions and during the colonial period, such economic development as did occur tended to be concentrated in the Southern Region. The Northern Region was often characterised, by contrast, as the ,dead North'. Levels of economic development in the Central Region fell between the other two regions. At independence in the 1960s, internal migration patterns reflected this, with net in-migration to the Southern Region and net out-migration from the Northern. In the 40 years since, there have been marked changes in these patterns, and in the last intercensal period, 1987,1998, the Northern Region was experiencing net in-migration from the Southern Region, and was the fastest growing region. This paper traces these changes over time through analysis of census data, and relates them to increasingly serious land shortages in the south and the geography of tobacco estate development since independence. This analysis is further supported by a range of other surveys and research which indicate the depth of land shortage and rural poverty in the south of the country. The paper concludes that rural,rural migration, although under-studied, particularly in southern Africa, is a vitally important aspect of rural livelihood change and positive adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa which deserves more attention. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Parental Adjustment, Family Functioning, and Posttraumatic Growth Among Norwegian Children and Adolescents Following a Natural Disaster

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 2 2010
Gertrud S. Hafstad
This study investigated the degree to which parental symptomatology and characteristics of the family environment related to posttraumatic growth (PTG) among children and adolescents who had been directly exposed to the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. One hundred five 6- to 17-year-olds (M = 11.9 years, SD = 3.3) and their parents (N = 67) were interviewed approximately 10 months and 2 years 5 months after the tsunami. The parents' self-reported PTG was a significant predictor of PTG in their children, suggesting that social processes play a role in the development of PTG in youth. Parental self-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms did not predict PTG in their children nor did youth's ratings of family cohesion, but parental tsunami-related sick leave related to lower levels of PTG reported by their children. Overall, these findings imply that elements of parents' functioning can affect children's positive adaptation after a disaster and highlight the need to assess potential parental influences and those of other sources of support in the child's environment after trauma. Attending to such factors holds salience for efforts to promote adaptation and facilitate PTG. [source]


Tsunami, War, and Cumulative Risk in the Lives of Sri Lankan Schoolchildren

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2010
Claudia Catani
This study examines the impact of children's exposure to natural disaster against the backdrop of exposure to other traumatic events and psychosocial risks. One thousand three hundred ninety-eight Sri Lankan children aged 9,15 years were interviewed in 4 cross-sectional studies about exposure to traumatic life events related to the war, the tsunami experience, and family violence. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, somatic complaints, psychosocial functioning, and teacher reports of school grades served as outcome measures. A global outcome variable of "positive adaptation" was created from a combination of these measures. Data showed extensive exposure to adversity and traumatic events among children in Sri Lanka. Findings of regression analyses indicated that all 3 event types,tsunami and disaster, war, and family violence,significantly contributed to poorer child adaptation. [source]