This article describes the development of a measure of dispositional authenticity and tests whether authenticity is related to well-being, as predicted by several counseling psychology perspectives. Scales were designed to measure a tripartite conception of authenticity, comprising self-alienation, authentic living, and accepting external influence, which was supported with exploratory factor analysis. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed that the factor loadings were invariant across sample, ethnicity, and gender. The scale showed substantial discriminant validity from the Big Five personality traits, nonsignificant correlations with social desirability, and 2-and 4-week test-retest correlations ranging from r ϭ .78 to .91. Each subscale was strongly related to self-esteem and aspects of both subjective and psychological well-being. This article provides the first direct test of several theoretical models that view authenticity as integral to well-being.

ObjectivesTo investigate the characteristics, methodology, quality, and efficacy of psychological interventions for distress in adult patients undergoing haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). MethodsA systematic review of relevant studies was conducted using six databases with supplementary hand searching. Included studies employed an experimental or quasiexperimental design, interventions included at least one psychological component, and outcomes involved psychological distress in affective terms. Data were abstracted and study quality was assessed using Cochrane Foundation criteria amended to include confounder and common factors control. Data were examined and synthesised using a narrative approach and meta-analysis. ResultsEleven articles for nine interventions met the inclusion criteria out of 11741 abstracts.The studies varied in quality, general, intervention, and methodological characteristics while findings were mixed. Interventions tended to show better efficacy when incorporating a major psychological component involving cognitive behavioural or emotional processing methods with substantial interventionist input. However, this was also associated with methodological limitations and threats to internal validity such as poor confounder and common factors control. A meta-analysis yielded a small but significant pooled effect size estimate in favour of interventions with inconsequential heterogeneity. Risk of bias remained a concern. ConclusionsPsychological interventions may provide some benefit in alleviating distress in HSCT but conclusions remain tentative in light of methodological limitations and risk of bias.Further research is needed to evidence the individual contribution of intervention components and mechanism of change together with improving intervention efficiency and methodological quality. Psychological distress in HSCT and its sequelaeIn light of the physical burden, it is not surprising that patients experience considerable psychological distress. Patients report a consuming effort to prepare and an ongoing struggle, describing the procedure as "walk to hell and back" or "really, really hard" [8, p. 404]. Studies in adult HSCT have observed considerable psychological distress, particularly during hospitalisation, with up to a quarter of patients meeting clinical criteria for anxiety and/or depression [3,[9][10][11][12][13]. Following transplantation, psychological distress improves but can persist with up to 40% of patients experiencing depression and up to 30% anxiety even one year later [14].Apart from psychological well-being, distress also appears to affect physical wellbeing and recovery although research remains limited and correlational. Studies have observed associations between psychological distress and worse treatment adherence, reduced pain and symptom tolerance, longer hospital stay, and higher mortality [11,12,15].In addition, stress has been associated with greater subsequent incidence of illness, harmful physiological changes, greater pain perceptio...

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Purpose/objectives: To test whether a widely used model of adjustment to illness, the self-regulatory model, explains the patterns of distress during acute haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). According to the model, perceptions of HSCT, coping, and coping appraisals are associated with distress.Design: Longitudinal, correlational. Knowledge translation: Patients are more distressed when they perceive HSCT negatively, and risk becoming stuck in a vicious cycle, because distress appears worse if patients attribute it to undergoing HSCT. Avoidant coping is associated with worse distress, but positive approach coping that is helpful in other populations seem to be ineffective during HSCT. Discussing patients' negative perceptions of HSCT and identifying effective coping approaches for patients undergoing HSCT is important.