Background: People who experienced a mental crisis are involved in providing care for others who face psychiatric hospitalization. The idea of peer workforce has been developed mostly in American and European behavioral health systems. Similar program is implemented to Polish mental health care. The purpose of the study was to find out if candidates for peer support workers with different levels of subjective well-being differed also in terms of general self-efficacy and in the ways of coping with stress. Methods: As the problem has not been studied before exploratory study was conducted. The study covered a group of 72 subjects, 46 women and 26 men, aged 21-62 years (M = 41.43; SD = 10.37), former psychiatric patients, preparing for a peer worker role. We used the following questionnaires: Ryff's Psychological Well-Being (PWB) ScalesResults: The results of cluster analysis pointed to the existence of two groups of individuals with significantly different levels of subjective well-being. Then MANOVA was used. It was determined that individuals with a higher level of well-being were characterized by a higher level of self-efficacy, a higher tendency to use positive reframing strategy and propensity towards active behavior when coping with stress, as well as by a lower propensity towards self-blaming and behavioral disengagement. Conclusions: The study demonstrates that further empirical explorations are justified. The results also encourage a search for some more possible conditions of well-being. It would be advisable to train candidates for mental health peer workers by focusing on the strengthening of their subjective well being and developing active forms of coping with stress.

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The present study was focused on a preliminary analysis of the level of sexual satisfaction in individuals with social phobia as an aspect of the quality of functioning in close relationships. The relation between selected social anxiety correlates and specific sexual satisfaction dimensions was also verified. Selected aspects of sexual activity were controlled. Method: Twenty-six adults with diagnosed social phobia and 35 healthy adults filled out the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire [EPQ-R(S)], Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (CBSS), Public Speaking Anxiety Questionnaire (GFER), Sexual Satisfaction Scale (SSS). Results: Individuals with social phobia experienced a lower level of emotional sexual satisfaction than individuals from the comparative sample, but the groups did not differ with respect to their general and physical sexual satisfaction or sexual satisfaction associated with the sense of control. The strongest correlate for emotional sexual satisfaction was found to be shyness. There were no significant associations between this aspect of satisfaction and symptoms of anxiety in the situation of social exposure. Conclusions: The preliminary findings warrant further exploration of the topic, as they suggest the predominance of the emotional aspect among the factors determining sexual satisfaction in adults with social phobia.

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