Applied Psychology

Numerous studies suggest that symptoms of mental illness in parents become reflected in family and parent–child interactions, affecting the nature and quality of caregiving and, in turn, both short- and long-term child outcomes. Given the paucity of research in this area in Pakistan, present study aims to examine differences in parenting practices and behavioral problems among adolescent children of parents with psychopathology and without psychopathology. It also explores moderating role of adolescents’ coping on the relationship between parenting practices and behavioral problems. Sample included 348 parents and their adolescent children divided into two groups: Parents with Psychopathology and without Psychopathology. Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Youth Self Report, and Brief COPE were used for data collection. Results indicated that adolescent children having parents with psychopathology have elevated levels of behavioral problems as compared to adolescent children of parents...

Numerous studies suggest that symptoms of mental illness in parents become reflected in family and parent–child interactions, affecting the nature and quality of caregiving and, in turn, both short- and long-term child outcomes. Given the paucity of research in this area in Pakistan, present study aims to examine differences in parenting practices and behavioral problems among adolescent children of parents with psychopathology and without psychopathology. It also explores moderating role of adolescents’ coping on the relationship between parenting practices and behavioral problems. Sample included 348 parents and their adolescent children divided into two groups: Parents with Psychopathology and without Psychopathology. Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Youth Self Report, and Brief COPE were used for data collection. Results indicated that adolescent children having parents with psychopathology have elevated levels of behavioral problems as compared to adolescent children of parents...

OBJECTIVE To determine the predictive role of premenstrual symptoms in reproductive-aged women's quality of life. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted in Rawalakot, Azad Kashmir, from September 2017 to January 2018, and comprised married women aged 20-45 years. Urdu versions of Greene Climacteric Symptoms Scale and World Health Organisation Quality of Life scale were used. Data was analysed using SPSS 23. RESULTS Of the 300 women with a mean age of 32.59±7.12 years, 245(81.7%) had a regular menstrual cycle. There was significant negative relationship between premenstrual symptoms and all domains of quality of life (p<0.05). Somatic symptoms were predominantly affecting the quality of life in more negative manners compared to other symptoms (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Premenstrual symptoms disturb the daily activities of reproductive-aged women and adversely affect their educational, occupational and psychosocial functioning.

Aggression is a characteristic feature of many psychiatric disorders (e.g., conduct disorder, impulse control disorders and some personality disorders). Despite the tremendous work in evidence based practices for childhood behavior problems, and efficacy of the cognitive behavioral interventions for aggressive, disruptive and conduct problems in Western countries, there was an extreme scarcity in Pakistan for empirical support for such interventions. The present research aims to culturally adapt, implement and evaluate a cognitive behavioral intervention program (Coping Power Program) for

Piri-Muridi is a socio-psychological phenomenon that is deeply rooted in our region. The current study is an endeavor to explore the various reasons that compel people to visit Pirs (holy men) with special socio-psychological perspective within Pakistani society. To accomplish this objective, 431 participants were recruited from various areas of the country. Individuals belonged to different educational backgrounds and had diverse professional statuses. The participation of men was (n = 218) and that of women was (n = 195). Age of participants ranged from 18 to 73 years (M = 30.38, SD = 10.74). It was found by the study that participants visit Pirs for learning and acquiring guidance (33.41%), also for the clarification of everyday life problems (29.78%). In the category of learning and guidance, 42.13% participants stated that it is the attainment of religious education that people acquire from Pirs. 38.74% reported that people visit Pirs for getting spiritual education. While 14.77% participants reported that it is the need to gain worldly education and less than 2% people reported that it is not the attainment of education or guidance that people seek from Pirs, rather it is black magic that people learn to harm others. Among the category of clarification of problems, the highest frequency was reported for curing of spiritual problems (54.47%) followed by social problems (33.65%), economic problems (32.44%), psychological problems (29.78%) and health related problems (28.08%) respectively. Interview reporting by Murids (n =5), strong believers (n =5), situational believers (n = 5), and non-believers of Piri-Muridi (n =5) were also given. The present study is useful for making the theoretical foundations for future studies. Moreover, future researchers should utilize both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore the widespread roots of Piri-Muridi.

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-accessglobal survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later,we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of thepandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion byworking with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialectsacross 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a yearinto the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government andscientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Openaccessraw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESSdataset has ...

To explore the effect of social media burnout on loneliness and body image among university students in Pakistan. Current study was conducted in Riphah International University Islamabad, Pakistan and comprised of 306 university students including 152 male and 154 females with age range from 19-29 years. In-depth interviews were conducted with 20 students including 10 male and 10 females to explore the effect of social media usage on body image. Cross sectional research design was used in which quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. UCLA loneliness scale by Russell was used to assess loneliness. Multi-dimensional body self-relations scale by Cash was used to measure body image and social media burnout scale developed by Han was used to measure social media burnout. Findings indicate that there is a positive relationship between social media burnout and dissatisfaction with body image (r=0.175, p<0.01) and positive relationship exists between social media burnout and loneliness (r=0.187, p<0.01). There is also a positive relationship between loneliness and dissatisfaction with body image (r=0.314, p<0.01). Female students feel more exhausted by social media than male students (t=4.28, p<0.01). Loneliness and body dissatisfaction are found to be high in social media exhausted university students. Loneliness also leads to dissatisfaction with body image. Female university students got social media burnout more quickly than male students.

The current study sought to explore the provision and implications of the insanity defense in Pakistani laws. This research aims to find the lacunae in the law that aids mentally ill offenders. It also proposes to identify the role of lawyers and forensic psychologists and government institutions in the insanity defense. The study includes understanding and implementing the insanity defense in Pakistani laws and the law system. The study sample involved nine lawyers and four forensic psychologists whose interviews were conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. Participants were contacted through the snowball sampling technique. The current study concluded that more than one key factor hindered the law system&#39;s understanding of insanity defense and mental health. The absence of psychiatric or psychological assessments in the court system suggests a common knowledge of insanity defense and mental health. The case studies overall present the different sides of mental health ...

The outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2019 has progressed to the status of a global pandemic, with countries across the seven continents adversely affected and the number of human cases exceeding two million. With no available vaccine, the treatment is primarily symptomatic for those affected and preventative for those at risk. Most countries have taken action to curtail the spread of COVID-19 through measures such as lockdowns, social distancing and voluntary self-isolation. Whilst necessary, such measures and the disease itself, may have an adverse impact on mental health. In view of research from previous pandemic crises, it is known that such situations are likely to increase stress levels and have negative psychiatric effects. The impact is likely to be felt by the general public, sufferers of COVID-19, their families and friends, persons with pre-existing mental health conditions and healthcare workers. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.27...

Workaholism is employee’s unnecessary deep immersion into his/her work to the extent that it affects his/her health. Present day work environment and competition foster such traits that propel an employee to opt for such work style. Current study is about the predictive relationship of workaholism with work-family conflict and mental well-being of employees. Participants for present study are from different public and private sector organizations. The study meets its objectives in two phases; phase I is tryout and phase II is main study. WorkBat, Work and Family Conflict Scale, and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well Being Scale along demographic sheet and consent form are used for data collection. Besides determining psychometric properties of scales, t-test, correlation coefficient, and regression analysis are run. Findings of the study reveal significant positive relationship between workaholim and work-family conflict and significant negative correlation between workaholism and mental...

Objectives: To determine frequency of bleeding complications with Rivaroxaban for Atrial Fibrillation in patients of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methodology: This Descriptive study was conducted on 280 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria. After approval from Ethical Review Committee of Jinnah Hospital Lahore and informed consent, participants received tab. Rivaroxaban 20mg daily (Creatinine-Clearance &gt;50mL/Min). Participants were followed for 4-weeks for any major bleeding complications. All information was collected on a questionnaire and results were calculated. Results: In our study, Mean age of participants was 55±11 years with 59% males and 41% females. Mean duration of CKD calculated was 6±4 years. In this study major bleeding episodes occurred in 36 participants out of 280; 15 participants in age group up to 50 years and 21 participants in above 50 years developed it. It occurred in 20 males and 16 females; 5 cases in group with CHADS2VaSc score (annexure 2) up to...

To explore the effects of intrusive and deliberate rumination on the quality of life of cancer patients. Descriptive cross-sectional design. PIMS and NORI Hospital between July to September 2016. A sample of 100 cancer patients participated in the study. The patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were given a written consent form. Event related Rumination Inventory and WHO Quality of Life-Bref scale was used for data collection. There were 57 male and 43 female patients within the age range of 18 to 66 years (mean = 36.62 +13.77 years). A significant negative correlation was found between intrusive rumination and all domains of quality of life as physical (r = -0.28, p&lt;0.01), psychological (r = -0.19, p&lt;0.01), social (r = -0.20, p&lt;0.01), environmental (r = -0.17, p&lt;0.05), and global (r = -0.26, p&lt;0.01) functioning. Furthermore, results on regression analysis showed the significant prediction of the intrusive rumination on all domains of quality of life. The effect...

The present study was aimed at examining the role of verbal cognitive abilities in predicting emotional and behavioral problems among secondary school children. Sajjad Urdu Verbal Intelligence Test (Hussain, 2001) and School Children Problems Scale (Saleem & Mehmood, 2011) were administered on a sample of 300 (151 girls & 149 boys) secondary school children; aged 11-16 years (M =14.83, SD = 1.16) taken from model schools of Islamabad. Finding revealed that low level of verbal cognitive abilities showed greater levels of emotional and behavioral problems; particularly anxiousness, academic problems, and aggression were significantly higher among the students. All four types of verbal abilities (i.e., Word-Meaning, Verbal-Reasoning, Numerical-Abilities, and General-Knowledge) jointly accounted for up to 59% of variance in predicting emotional and behavioral problems. Gender differences were also significant indicating that girls demonstrated significantly greater degree of emotional problems (p<.001) than those of boys whereas boys elicited higher level of aggressive tendencies (p<.001) and all four types of verbal cognitive abilities (p<.001, .01) as compared to girls. No significant gender differences emerged on academic problems. Results have been discussed in the light of literature and cultural contexts.

Previous studies have suggested that three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting) and perfectionism of adolescents may be anticipated to elevate the risk for adolescent‘s personality disorders (PD). This present study was planned to investigate the moderating role of perfectionism on the relationship between parenting styles and personality disorders in adolescent students that had not been examined broadly with perspective of cross-sectional design. Purposive sampling technique was employed based on a cross-sectional design. Participants were recruited from different schools of twin cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Sample comprised of 200students (Male, n= 100; Female, n= 100) with age ranged from 12 to 18 years. Three scales were applied to measure perfectionism, authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting style and personality disorders in adolescence students. This study results revealed that permissive parenting style and p...

OBJECTIVE To identify the association among suicidal ideation, deliberate self-harm, and psychopathological distress in normal and deliberate self-harm adults. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Psychiatry, Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January to July 2017, and comprised deliberate self harm and normal adults aged 18-25 years. Psychiatric evaluation involved a semi-structured interview based on mental status examination. The self-harm tendency was assessed on the basis of self-harm inventory of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Beck scale for suicide ideation and he depression anxiety and stress scale were also used for data collection. Data was analysed using SPSS 22. RESULTS There were 200 subjects with a mean age of 20.89±9.06 years; 100(50%) each in deliberate self-harm and normal groups. Deliberate self-harm was significantly positively associated with suicidal ideation and mental h...

OBJECTIVE To examine the association of perception of osteoarthritis with adverse pain anxiety, symptoms of depression, positive and negative affects in patients with knee osteoarthritis, and to identify the prevalence of these parameters in male and female patients. Method The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan, from September 2017 to December 2018, and comprised osteoarthritis patients, aged 30-60 years. Psychiatric evaluation consisted of a semi-structured interview based on the Present Status Examination, and assessment was done using Beck Depression Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect Scale, Osteoarthritis Scale, and the Pain Anxiety Scale. Radiographic examination was done to evaluate knee osteoarthritis. Data was analysed using SPSS 20. RESULTS Of the 250 subjects 144(57.6%) were males and 106(42.4%) were females. The overall mean age was 55.09+/-10.60 years. The patient...