STRESS

Volume 14(3); September 2006

Original Articles

Analyzing the Validity of Sexual Inventory for Adolescents -With Focus on the Reply Method-: Young Sook Park and So Yeun Park*; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):191-202. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the reply, "Not at all characteristic of me." which was one of the possible replies to the Sexuality Test for Middle School Students, was an honest response and to discuss if such reply should be included in the future inventories. The reply was originally intended as a valid answer for those students who lacked sexual experience. However, due to the unnaturally high percentage of this particular reply, a further analysis was called for. The subjects of the study were 499 middle school students. The results indicated that female students chose more of the "Not at all characteristic of me" reply than the male students. In addition, students attending co-ed schools chose more of this reply than those students attending boys/girls schools. For most of the questions on the survey, the study showed a strong relationship between the "Not at all characteristic of me" reply and the student's actual sexual behavior or impulses. To be more specific, those students who chose this reply showed low sexual interests, impulses and a lack of sexual knowledge. In conclusion, the reply, "Not at all characteristic of me" was strongly related to the student's sex, school environment, actual sexual behavior and sexual knowledge. The results suggest that this reply should continue to be included in the future inventory especially because a high percentage of female students chose this reply in the Sexual Impulsivity Test and the Sexual Coping Test. Since the environmental factors greatly influence the validity of the inventory, factors such as the students'school environment must be controlled in order to produce accurate results. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:191∼202)

The Effects of Therapeutic Writing on Mental Health and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Alcoholics' Families: A Pilot Study: Sun-Hee Cho, R.N., MN and Yang-Sook Hah, R.N., Ph.D.; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):203-210. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: This study was aimed to investigate the effects of therapeutic writing on mental health and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in alcoholics' families. Ten alcoholics' family members were recruited from a Counseling Center for Alcoholics in Seoul, and seven of those were completed the writing session. The participants were asked to write about their traumatic events for 20 minutes in series of 3 days. Symptom Check List-90-Revision (SCL-90-R) and PTSD Symptom Scale Interview-self report version (PSSI-R) were completed both before the initial session and after the last session. The data from six wives and a daughter who completed the three writing sessions were analysed. All of nine sub-dimensions of SCL-90-R was improved after writing, and five of those were statistically significant: Obsessive-compulsive (p=.012), Interpersonal sensitivity (p=.007), Depression (p=.026), Anxiety (p=.011), Paranoid Ideation (p=.009). Although participants had moderate PTSD symptoms (11.43⁑6.92), there was no statistically significant improvement in PTSD symptoms after writing. These results showed that the therapeutic writing can be beneficial to the alcoholics' families to improve mental health. Also, this suggests that alcoholics' families need to be considered in the aspects of traumatic stress. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:203∼210)

The Effect of Chronic Physical Stress on Bladder Stability: Jong Hyeon Jun, Woo Sik Chung and Hana Yoon; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):211-218. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: This study was designed to examine the effect of stress on the pathophysiology of bladder stability via Rho-kinase that are required for muscle contraction and relaxation within the bladder. In addition, through animal model using metabolic cage, it was proven that a stressful environment can induce urinary incontinence. The results also showed that levels of ROKՁ all significantly increased with continued application of stress. In this study the control group placed under normal conditions and the test group under stressful conditions were monitored in Metabolic cages for 27 days. The frequency of urination increased significantly in the stress group and the amount of urine that decreased on the contrary showed symptoms of overactive bladder. This study, therefore, provides evidence which support the hypothesis that stress plays an important patho-physiological role in bladder overactivity. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:211∼218)

The Effect of Self-efficacy and Social Support on Burnout of Clinical Nurses in Korea: So Young Kang and Young Sook Park; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):219-226. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of perceived social support and self-efficacy on nurses' burnout. Participants were 176 nurses working in university hospitals in Korea. Burnout was measured by the questionnaire developed by Pines (1981). Social support scale (Park, 1985), and self-efficacy scale (Kim, 1997) were used to measure each variables, perceived social support and self-efficacy. The results were summarized as follows; There were significant differences depending on age, scholarly attainments, marriage status, the length of service, and work-post. Also, there was a significant difference in the perceived social support depending on work-post, age, scholarly attainments, the marriage status, and the length of service in self-efficacy. The older they were, the longer their work-career was, and the lower degree of burnout they sensed. In the area of social support, ICU (Intensive care unit) nurse highly perceived the social support. Nurses who were older highly perceived self-efficacy. Burnout was predicted through the regression analysis. Self-efficacy was a better predictor of burnout than social support. Overall, the perceived social support and self-efficacy explained 22.6% of variance of burnout. The result of this study presented one of the methods to buffer the burnout of nurses by enhancing a cognition level of social support and by improving self-efficacy. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:219∼226)

Discussion on Bruxism while Sleeping: Sunghee Jeong, DMDc; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):227-236. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: Bruxism related to abnormal muscular movement is manifested as tooth grinding, tooth clenching, and muscular tension during sleep. It results in sleep disorder, tooth attrition, and oro-facial pain and eventually deteriorate the quality of life. Bruxism affects not only his or her own life but spouses and family's. It often makes individuals difficult to be involved in group activities, leading to social-phobia. It is widely accepted that sleeping disorder, headache and oro-facial pain can be resulted from bruxism. Although dental restorations are observed not to last long in patients with bruxism, it is unlikely that tooth attrition is an outcome of bruxism. Based on the observation that bruxism is often related to local oro-facial muscular tension, stabilization splint and tricyclic anti-depressant have been applied to treatment of bruxism. However, they do not always result in significant clinical improvement. While definition of bruxism is vague and controversial so has yet to be delineated, attempts to define causes of bruxism have been made by investigators from different views. For examples, it may be explained with respect to rhythmic masticatory muscle activity (RAMA), swallowing movement, gastroesophageal reflex (GER), response of autonomic nervous system, stress, and sleeping posture. Recently, local application of Botox-A and systemic administration of pharmaceuticals including L-DOPA, propranolol, clonazepam, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have shown to be effective for bruxism. However, since these pharmaceuticals may induce various systemic adverse effects, their use in treatment of bruxism needs to be reconsidered. Relaxation, biofeedback training programmes, and hypnosis may be employed as a psychiatric-behavioral therapy for bruxism and generally agreed that psycho-psychiatric approach for bruxism, particularly, in children appears to be effective. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:227∼235)

The Relation between Self-concept and Stress Observed in the Primary School Pupils Depending on the Existence/Non-existence of a Disabled Sibling: Ji Youn Kim and Young Sook Park; Korean J Str Res. 2006;14(3):237-245. Published online September 30, 2006

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Abstract PDF: Making primary school pupils object, this study intends to check the level of self-concept and level of stress depending on the existence/non-existence of a disabled sibling and to investigate the relation between them. Sample consisting of 131 developing children attending schools with disabled sibling versus 450 developing children without disabled sibling were recruited, this study performed using with questionnaire composed of children's self-concept and level of stress. The result of study is as follows. First, while child with disabled sibling likely to gains higher score in self-concept than child without disabled sibling, the difference is significant. In the subscales of self-concept such as physical appearance and relation with peers, child with disabled sibling gains higher score in self-concept than child without disabled sibling and the difference is significant. However, parental relation, the group with disabled sibling lower score in self-concept than the other group without disabled sibling and the difference is significant. Second, child's stress level among the child with disabled sibling gains higher marks in sum of each stress indicator scores, but the difference was not significant. Third, it turned out that both the existence/non-existence of disabled sibling and self-concept affected significantly the stress of child. According to the study, the primary school pupils who have disabled sibling could regulate their stress if they have a positive self-concept. If we expend the program that makes the primary school pupils improve their a positive self-concept from early grades, they can increase the ability of regulating stress, thus we can expect, prevent problems caused from stress. (Korean J Str Res 2006;14:237∼246)

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