No abstract

Little is known about intergeneration effects on mental health in the families of survivors of political oppression of communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe. We aimed to explore post-traumatic stress in the second generation of the Lithuanian survivors of political violence, and analyze links between parental and adult offsprings’ sense of coherence in the families exposed to political violence during the oppressive communist regime in Lithuania. A total of 110 matched pairs of communist regime political violence survivors (mean age = 73.22 years) and their adult offspring (mean age = 44.65 years) participated in this study. Life-time traumatic experiences and sense of coherence were measured in both parents and their offspring. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed in the second generation of survivors. We found a high vulnerability in the second generation of the Lithuanian families of political violence survivors, with a 29% of probable PTSD in the second generation based on self-report measures. A significant positive correlation between parental and adult offsprings’ sense of coherence was found. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were associated negatively with a sense of coherence in the second generation. Our study indicates the links between parental and the second generation’s sense of coherence in the families of survivors of political violence. The study raises broader questions about the intergenerational aspects of resilience. Further studies are needed to explore the links between parental and child sense of coherence in other samples.

Straipsnyje analizuojama mokymosi negalią turinčių paauglių savęs vertinimas, suvoktos socialinės paramos kiekis ir svarba, siekiama nustatyti, ar savęs vertinimo ir socialinės paramos sąveikos pobūdis šioje grupėje yra savitas, palyginti su vidutiniškai besimokančių bendraamžių grupe. Tyrime dalyvavo 188 paaugliai (tiriamoji grupė – 95 paaugliai, kuriems nustatyta mokymosi negalia, palyginamoji – 93 vidutiniškai besimokantys bendraamžiai) iš Vilniaus mokyklų šeštų–septintų klasių. Mokiniai pildė Vaikų savęs suvokimo skalę (Self Perception Profile for Children; Harter, 1985) bei Vaikų ir paauglių socialinės paramos skalę (Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale; Malecki et al., 2000). Mokymosi negalią turintys paaugliai blogiau save vertino visose matuotose savęs vertinimo srityse – akademinės kompetencijos, socialinio priėmimo, elgesio ir bendrojo savęs vertinimo – palyginti su neturinčiais mokymosi negalios bendraamžiais, tačiau gaunamos socialinės paramos kiekio ir svarbos vertinimai grupėse nesiskyrė. Grupės išsiskyrė savęs vertinimo ir socialinei paramai teikiamos svarbos sąsajų pobūdžiu: tiriamojoje grupėje nustatytos tiesinės sąsajos tarp tėvų, mokytojų, bendraklasių socialinei paramai teikiamos svarbos ir savęs vertinimo, o palyginamojoje grupėje tokių sąsajų neaptikta. Mokymosi negalią turintys paaugliai, kurie gaunamai socialinei paramai teikė mažai svarbos, statistiškai reikšmingai blogiau save vertino, palyginti su mokymosi negalių neturinčiais bendraamžiais, taip pat teikiančiais mažai svarbos gaunamai socialinei paramai.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: mokymosi negalia, socialinė parama, savęs vertinimas, paaugliai.Adolescents with learning disabilities: Self-evaluation and social supportMonika Skerytė-Kazlauskienė, Rasa Barkauskienė SummaryAlthough learning disability (LD) has a primary impact on academic achievement, its relation to problematic social and emotional life of children and adolescents has been well recognised. In addition, attention has been paid to self-evaluation of schoolchildren with LD; however, the results of studies are contradictory and can be attributed to various factors. This paper seeks to shed light on the association between self-evaluation and perceived social support in adolescents with LD. We used the multidimensional model of Susan Harter (1999) for understanding and measuring the global and domain-specific self-evaluations. The goals of the current study were to assess relations of self-evaluation to the perceived frequency and importance of social support received from various significant sources – parents, teachers, classmates and close friends in two groups of adolescents, those with LD and their classmates with average academic achievements.The participants were 188 Lithuanian-speaking adolescents from sixth-seventh grades of Vilnius schools, mean age 12.5 years (SD = 0.7). Ninety-five schoolchildren (64 boys and 31 girls) diagnosed as learning-disabled and 93 schoolchildren (58 boys and 35 girls) comprised an age- and sex-matched comparison group from the same schools with average academic achievements. The participants were assessed on Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985) and Child and Adolescent Social Support scales (Malecki et al., 2000).The results revealed that the LD group rated themselves worse than average-achieving students on all domain-specific self-evaluations scales: scholastic competence (t = –5.88, p < 0.001), social acceptance (t = –3.08, p < 0.01) , behavioural conduct competence (t = –2.36, p < 0.05) and global self-evaluation (t = –2.30, p < 0.05). Both groups equally perceived social support, its frequency and importance. There were significant associations between self-evaluations and the perception of social support in both groups. However, there were more significant relationships in the LD group, the perceived importance of social support being significantly related to various self-evaluations among adolescents with LD only (correlations for the LD group ranged from 0.24 to 0.40). The further ANCOVA analysis revealed that the self-evaluation of adolescents with LD, who perceived social support as unimportant, tended to be lower than the self-evaluations of adolescents without LD who disvalued the importance of social support.Key words: learning disability, social support, self-evaluation, adolescents.

Epidemiologiniai tyrimai rodo, kad nuo 70 iki 90 % žmonių per savo gyvenimą patiria bent vieną potencialiai traumuojantį įvykį. Potrauminio streso sutrikimas (PTSS) pasireiškia tik nedidelei daliai jų – įvairių tyrimų duomenimis, nuo 1 iki 4,7 %. Tyrimuose ieškoma atsakymų, kas lemia, kad vieni asmenys yra atsparesni traumuojantiems įvykiams nei kiti. Šiame tyrime siekėme atskleisti ryšius tarp potencialiai traumuojančių įvykių patyrimo, psichologinio atsparumo ir optimizmo.Metodika. Tyrime dalyvavo 300 tiriamųjų. Jie buvo atrinkti taip, kad atspindėtų tris Lietuvos gyventojų kartas (po 100 iš kiekvienos kartos: jauniausios – g. 1983–1995, vidurinės – g. 1960–1972, vyriausios – g. 1940–1953 m.) pagal lytį, išsilavinimą ir gyvenamąją vietą. Tyrime naudojome į lietuvių kalbą išverstas skales: Life Events Checklist (LEC) – gyvenimo įvykių klausimyną, Resilience Scale trumpąją versiją (RS-14) atsparumui matuoti, Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) optimizmui matuoti, Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ) PTSS simptomams įvertinti.Rezultatai. Statistinė duomenų analizė atskleidė, kad dauguma (94,6 %) tiriamųjų per savo gyvenimą yra patyrę bent vieną potencialiai traumuojantį įvykį. Kliniškai reikšmingų PTSS simptomų paplitimas tyrimo imtyje yra 6,7 %. Tai atitinka kitų tyrimų duomenis. Gautas statistiškai reikšmingas teigiamas ryšys tarp optimizmo ir psichologinio atsparumo bei neigiamas tarp optimizmo ir PTSS simptomų. Tačiau, kitaip nei tikėtasi, psichologinis atsparumas nebuvo statistiškai reikšmingai susijęs su PTSS simptomais.Optimistinis požiūris į gyvenimą susijęs su potrauminėmis reakcijomis ir psichologiniu atsparumu. Lieka neaišku, koks yra atsparumo kaip bruožo poveikis asmens reakcijoms po trauminio įvykio.

Parenting is reported to be a crucial factor for children's resilience; however, it is still unknown whether the effect of parental bonding in childhood persists on resilience later on in adulthood. The aim of our research is to evaluate the effect of retrospectively perceived parental bonding on adult resilience and its change in adulthood; we aim to study parental care, authoritarianism and behavioral control as the dimensions of parental bonding. A total of 745 adults from 18 to 81 years of age (M=44.54, SD=17.96) completed Lithuanian versions of the abbreviated Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the 14-Item Resilience Scale (RS-14). Results show that there is a small though significant effect of parental bonding on resilience: the importance of parental care persists even into older age, but the significance of authoritarianism diminishes with age.