The burnout syndrome is an important psychosocial risk in the job context, especially in professions with a strong social interaction, as in the case of teaching. High levels of burnout have been related to negative psychological indicators and hormonal alterations. This study compares job satisfaction and the cortisol awakening response (CAR) in teachers scoring high (HB) and low (LB) on burnout. HB teachers showed lower job satisfaction and no significant differences in the CAR when compared with the LB group. The results of the study suggest a general dissatisfaction with work along with a different functioning of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in HB teachers. Although non significantly, they showed a lower magnitude of the CAR than LB teachers. When considering the whole sample, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization correlated negatively and personal accomplishment positively with each subscale of the job satisfaction questionnaire whereas cortisol levels or CAR did not correlate significantly with both burnout subscales and job satisfaction. These results should be taken into account when working to prevent burnout in teachers, as the modified parameters could be considered indicators of the onset or development of the syndrome.

Research on adjustment of internationally adopted children indicates that, although they have adequate development, more emotional and behavioral problems are detected compared with nonadopted children. In this research, emotional and behavioral characteristics of a sample of 52 internationally adopted minors were examined with the BASC (Parent Rating Scales and Self-Report of Personality), comparing the outcomes with 44 nonadopted minors, all of them of ages between 6 and 11 years (mean age = 8.01 years). Results indicate differences between adopted and nonadopted children related to somatization, adopted minors are those that obtain lower scores in the scale, and in the adaptability scale, where nonadopted minors obtain higher scores. Significant differences were found in the adaptive abilities scales, suggesting that nonadopted boys show better abilities than adopted ones, and no differences were found among girls. In general, boys present higher scores in externalizing symptomatology and depression than girls. Among adopted children, time spent in an institution is a variable that has negative impact on the onset of externalizing and internalizing problems. Minors coming from Eastern Europe display more attentional problems, poorer adaptive abilities and poorer interpersonal relations than the rest of the minors. According to the age at placement, attentional problems appear in minors adopted after the age of 3 years.

Tonic immobility is a basic defense strategy which has not been studied in depth in humans. Data suggest that it may be a relatively frequent phenomenon in victims of rape and sexual abuse, but its occurrence has not been systematically explored in other types of trauma. We carried out a retrospective study in a sample of 100 university students to establish whether tonic immobility varies depending on the nature of the worst trauma experienced, defined subjectively by each participant. Immobility was assessed using the Tonic Immobility Scale and traumas were assessed using the modified Traumatic Events Questionnaire. Seventy percent of the sample had experienced trauma of some kind. There were no significant differences in tonic immobility between different types of trauma (e.g., physical abuse, assault or aggression, serious accident), except that the mean tonic immobility score was significantly higher in the group with trauma due to physical/psychological or sexual abuse than in the group with trauma due to receiving news of the mutilation, serious injury, or violent or sudden death of a loved one. We conclude tentatively that tonic immobility may be typical not only of sexual traumas, but of other kinds of directly experienced traumas as well.

Even though the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) is one of the most popular instruments to assess anxiety today, only limited data is available about its psychometric characteristics and normative values in clinical Spanish populations. A study was conducted to test the psychometric characteristics of a Spanish adaptation of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) in a sample of 918 outpatients being treated at a community mental health center in Spain. Results confirmed the adaptation’s high internal consistency (∝ = .91), substantial test-retest reliability at 8–10 weeks (r = .84, p < .01), and satisfactory convergent validity with the Anxiety (r = .86, p < .01), Somatization (r = .81, p < .01), Obsessive-compulsive (r = .60, p < .01), and Phobic Anxiety (r = .63, p < .01) dimensions of the SCL-90-R, and with the Anxious Thoughts Inventory (r = .57, p < .01). Gender differences in BAI scores did occur, so normative values appear separately for each gender.

There is a series of conventions governing how Confirmatory Factor Analysis gets applied, from minimum sample size to the number of items representing each factor, to estimation of factor loadings so they may be interpreted. In their implementation, these rules sometimes lead to unjustified decisions, because they sideline important questions about a model’s practical significance and validity. Conducting a Monte Carlo simulation study, the present research shows the compensatory effects of sample size, number of items, and strength of factor loadings on the stability of parameter estimation when Confirmatory Factor Analysis is conducted. The results point to various scenarios in which bad decisions are easy to make and not detectable through goodness of fit evaluation. In light of the findings, these authors alert researchers to the possible consequences of arbitrary rule following while validating factor models. Before applying the rules, we recommend that the applied researcher conduct their own simulation studies, to determine what conditions would guarantee a stable solution for the particular factor model in question.

Previous research has revealed a persistent association between social structure and mental health. However, most researchers have focused only on the psychological and psychosocial aspects of that relationship. The present paper indicates the need to include the social and structural bases of distress in our theoretical models. Starting from a general social and psychological model, our research considered the role of several social, environmental, and structural variables (social position, social stressors, and social integration), psychological factors (self-esteem), and psychosocial variables (perceived social support). The theoretical model was tested working with a group of Spanish participants (N = 401) that covered a range of social positions. The results obtained using structural equation modeling support our model, showing the relevant role played by psychosocial, psychological and social, and structural factors. Implications for theory and intervention are discussed.

Prime pictures portraying pleasant or unpleasant scenes were briefly presented (150-ms display; SOAs of 300 or 800 ms), followed by probe pictures either congruent or incongruent in emotional valence. In an evaluative decision task, participants responded whether the probe was emotionally positive or negative. Affective priming was reflected in shorter response latencies for congruent than for incongruent prime-probe pairs. Although this effect was enhanced by perceptual similarity between the prime and the probe, it also occurred for probes that were physically different, and the effect generalized across semantic categories (animals vs. people). It is concluded that affective priming is a genuine phenomenon, in that it occurs as a function of stimulus emotional content, in the absence of both perceptual similarity and semantic category relatedness between the prime and the probe.

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between body image and prevalence of underweight, normal weight, and overweight in adolescents. The study included 1702 girls and 1547 boys, aged 14–16 years, who completed questionnaire assessing body satisfaction. The participants’ BMI status: underweight, normal weight or overweight was determined on the basis of BMI cut-off values. Results revealed that more girls (p < .001) showed low body satisfaction (44.8%) and fewer girls (p < .001) had high body satisfaction (17.6%) compared to boys (28.5% and 29.0%, respectively). A two-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between BMI status and gender on body satisfaction F(2, 3243) = 4.10, p = .017, η2 = .003. In boys, body satisfaction was higher in normal weight and underweight in comparison to overweight individuals (p < .001). Underweight girls presented higher body satisfaction than those who were normal weight and overweight (p < .001). Our findings indicated that, in relation to gender, BMI status can be associated with different body satisfaction in adolescents. This should be taken into consideration when designing programs aimed at obesity and disordered eating prevention and body image improvement. Due to the fact that underweight girls and boys have high body satisfaction, this can lead to behaviors that maintain low body weight in adolescents and in turn this may have negative health consequences.

Speech is an attribute of the human species. Central speech disorders following stroke are unique models for the investigation of the organization of speech. Achievements in neurobiology suggest that there are possible neuroendocrine mechanisms involved in the organization of speech. It is known that the neuropeptide vasotocin, analogous of vasopressin in mammals, modulates various components of vocalization in animals. Furthermore, the positive influence of vasopressin on memory, which plays an important role in the formation of speech, has been described. In this study, speech organization processes and their recovery with the administration of vasopressin (1-desamino-8-D-arginin-vasopressin) to 26 patients with chronic aphasias after stroke were investigated. Results showed that sub-endocrine doses of the neuropeptide with intranasal administration had positive influence primarily on simple forms of speech and secondarily on composite forms. There were no statistically significant differences between the sensory and integrative components of the organization of speech processes with vasopressin. In all cases, the positive effect of the neuropeptide was demonstrated. As a result of the effects, speech regulated by both brain hemispheres improved. It is suggested that the neuropeptide optimizes the activity both in the left and right hemispheres, with primary influence on the right hemisphere. The persistence of the acquired effects is explained by an induction of compensatory processes resulting in the reorganization of the intra-central connections by vasopressin.

Priming of affective word evaluation by pictures of faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions was investigated in two experiments that used a double task procedure where participants were asked to respond to the prime or to the target on different trials. The experiments varied between-subjects the prime task assignment and the prime-target interval (SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony). Significant congruency effects (that is, faster word evaluation when prime and target had the same valence than when they were of opposite valence) were observed in both experiments. When the prime task oriented the subjects to an affectively irrelevant property of the faces (their gender), priming was observed at SOA 300 ms but not at SOA 1000 ms (Experiment 1). However, when the prime task assignment explicitly oriented the subjects to the valence of the face, priming was observed at both SOA durations (Experiment 2). These results show, first, that affective priming by pictures of facial emotion can be obtained even when the subject has an explicit goal to process a non-affective property of the prime. Second, sensitivity of the priming effect to SOA duration seems to depend on whether it is mediated by intentional or unintentional activation of the valence of the face prime.

People in homeless situation are one of the major embodiments of the phenomenon of social exclusion, and women living homeless are considered a particularly vulnerable group. This paper examines different variables that may affect the situation of vulnerability experienced by women living homeless in Madrid (Spain). The study was carried out using data obtained from a representative sample of homeless men in Madrid (n = 158) and a sample of homeless women in Madrid of a similar size (n = 138). The information was gathered using a structured interview in shelters or other facilities for people in a homeless situation, on the street and in other places not initially designed for sleeping. The results show that woman living homeless are highly vulnerable compared to the domiciled population and, in some respects, to homeless men as well, especially in the number of times homeless (χ2 = 10.314; p < .01), in the time working with a contract and/or self-employed (t = 5.754; p < .001), and in the use of sedatives (χ2= 14.741; p < .001). It is however noted that homeless women show in some aspects greater strengths than homeless men. Such strengths could serve as a supporting point for their social inclusion processes. The analysis of issues that differentiate women in a homeless situation from their male counterparts could be useful for developing public policies and care resources adapted to the specific characteristics and needs of women living homeless.

The present study concerns the relation of mental and bodily characteristics to one another during ageing. The ‘common cause’ theory of ageing proposes that declines are shared across multiple, seemingly-disparate functions, including both physical and intellectual abilities. The concept of ‘reserve’ suggests that healthier cognitive (and perhaps bodily) functions from early in life are protective against the effects of senescence across multiple domains. In three waves of physical and cognitive testing data from the longitudinal Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (n = 1,091 at age 70 years; n = 866 at 73; n = 697 at 76), we used multivariate growth curve modeling to test the ‘common cause’ and ‘reserve’ hypotheses. Support for both concepts was mixed: although levels of physical functions and cognitive functions were correlated with one another, physical functions did not decline together, and there was little evidence for shared declines in physical and mental functions. Early-life intelligence, a potential marker of system integrity, made a significant prediction of the levels, but not the slopes, of later life physical functions. These data suggest that common causes, which are likely present within cognitive functions, are not as far-reaching beyond the cognitive arena as has previously been suggested. They also imply that bodily reserve may be similar to cognitive reserve in that it affects the level, but not the slope, of ageing-related declines.

Although in the last years several studies comparing male and female pathological gamblers have been published, most of them have been carried out using only samples of males. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in a sample of subjects diagnosed with pathological gambling (PG) attending three specialized outpatient units. Retrospective study was carried out of 96 patients (49% female and 51% male), comparing the main socio-demographic, clinical, and behavioral data. Most subjects (94%) met the criteria for pathological gambling. No significant differences between sexes were found in the severity of gambling behavior or the socio-demographic variables studied. Whereas slot machines were the main type of game for most subjects, a higher percentage of women were addicted to bingo (χ2(1, 4) = 5.19, p = .029 Cohen’s d = 0.48) and had more than one type of game as a secondary addiction χ2(1, 4) = 7.63, p = .006; Cohen’s d = 0.59) . Women started gambling at a later age than men (t (94) = 2.95, p = .004; Cohen’s d = 0.60), but developed a pattern of addiction faster ( t (94) = 2.95, p = .004; Cohen’s d = –0.61) . Women also had higher comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders (χ2(1) = 7.28, p = .007; Cohen’s d = 0.57), specifically with affective (χ2(1) = 11.31, p = .001; Cohen’s d = 0.73) and personality disorders (χ2(1) = 4.71, p = .030; Cohen’s d = 0.45). Our results indicate the existence of differences between women and men in the pattern of gambling behavior and in psychiatric comorbidity. These aspects should be considered in the design of treatment programs for pathological gamblers.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the latent structure of executive functions (EFs) in Spanish-speaking children and to test measurement invariance across socioeconomic status (SES). We sampled 248 children, aged 8 to 12, who were divided into two groups: 124 children from a medium socioeconomic status (MSS) and 124 children from a low socioeconomic status (LSS). We applied a neuropsychological battery consisting of various EF tasks and performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and multi-group CFA (MGCFA). CFA showed best fit for the three factor solution: (a) Working memory, (b) Cognitive flexibility, and (c) Inhibition. Moreover, the MGCFA revealed that the three-factor solution was invariant (configural, metric, and structural) across SES, allowing valid comparison between the groups (MSS and LSS) of factors. Finally, bifactorial MANOVA revealed a significant effect of SES and group age but not for the interaction between the two in the three EF dimensions indicative of quantitative group differences. Results are discussed in terms of the dimensional nature of the EF construct and the effects of SES on executive functioning.

In this paper we present the adaptation of the Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS), developed by Kanter, Mulick, Busch, Berlin, and Martell (2007), in a Spanish sample. The psychometric properties were tested in a sample of 263 participants (124 clinical and 139 non-clinical). The results show that, just as in the original English version, the Spanish BADS is a valid and internally consistent scale. Construct validity was examined by correlation with the BDI-II, AAQ, ATQ, MCQ-30, STAI and EROS. Factor analysis justified the four-dimensions of the original instrument (Activation, Avoidance/Rumination, Work/School Impairment and Social Impairment), although with some differences in the factor loadings of the items. Further considerations about the usefulness of the BADS in the clinical treatment of depressed patients are also suggested.

The Memory Failures of Everyday Questionnaire (MFE) is one of the most widely-used instruments to assess memory failures in daily life. The original scale has nine response options, making it difficult to apply; we created a three-point scale (0-1-2) with response choices that make it easier to administer. We examined the two versions' equivalence in a sample of 193 participants between 19 and 64 years of age. The test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the version we propose were also computed in a sample of 113 people. Several indicators attest to the two forms' equivalence: the correlation between the items' means (r = .94; p < .001) and the order of the items' frequencies (r = .92; p < .001). However, the correlation between global scores on the two forms was not very high (r = .67; p < .001). The results indicate this new version has adequate reliability and internal consistency (rxx' = .83; p < .001; α = .83; p < .001) equivalent to those of the MFE 1-9. The MFE 0-2 provides a brief, simple evaluation, so we recommend it for use in clinical practice as well as research.

The present research deals with two forms of dehumanization: 1) denying uniquely human attributes to others (seeing them as animals); 2) denying human nature to others (seeing them as machines or automata). Studies 1 and 2 explored these two forms of dehumanization, analyzing whether people associated their ingroup more with human-related words (vs. animal- vs. machine-related words) than two different outgroups. A paper and pencil procedure was used to find out which words were associated with the surnames of the ingroup (Spaniards) or the outgroup (Germans, Gypsies). Results showed that participants were more ready to link ingroup than outgroup surnames to human words. They also linked more Gypsy surnames to animal-related words and German surnames with machine-related words. Studies 3 and 4 used the Implicit Association Test to analyze the same ideas and replicated the results of Studies 1 and 2.

This paper deals with the influence of the therapeutic context in batterer intervention programs. We conducted 2 complementary studies: a descriptive analysis (Study 1) and a qualitative study (Study 2) analyzing the aspects that may help to improve the operation and effectiveness of treatment in a group of men (N = 27) who participated in a program for convicted perpetrators of intimate partner violence. The results show a statistically significant relationship between the therapeutic alliance and the assessment of the usefulness of the program attended by offenders (r = .69, p < .01), and between the therapeutic alliance and the assessment of the usefulness of the program content (r = .43, p < .05). Furthermore, the results of the qualitative analysis show that aspects of the therapeutic context may play an important role for the adhesion of offenders to treatment, increasing their motivation and improving results. It is proposed that future research should provide more in-depth analysis of the elements related to the context of the intervention and therapists’ skills as facilitators of change.

Understanding how risk is perceived by workers is necessary for effective risk communication and risk management. This study adapts key elements of the psychometric perspective to characterize occupational risk perception at a worker level. A total of 313 Spanish healthcare workers evaluated relevant hazards in their workplaces related to biological, ergonomic and organizational factors. A questionnaire elicited workers' ratings of 3 occupational hazards on 9 risk attributes along with perceived risk. Factor and regression analyses reveal regularities in how different risks are perceived, while, at the same time, the procedure helps to summarize specificities in the perception of each hazard. The main regularity is the weight of feeling of dread/severity in order to characterize the risk perceived (β ranges from .22 to .41; p < .001). Data also suggest an underestimation of expert knowledge in relation to the personal knowledge of risk. Thus, participants consider their knowledge of the risk related to biological, ergonomic, and organizational hazards to be higher than the knowledge attributed to the occupational experts (mean differences 95% CIs [.10, .30], [.54, .94], and [0.52, 1.05]). We demonstrate the application of a feasible and systematic procedure to capture how workers perceive hazards in their immediate work environment.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Spanish version of Motl and Conroy’s model of the Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS–7). To achieve this goal, a sample of 398 secondary school students was used, and the psychometric properties of the SPAS–7 were examined through different analyses. The results supported the seven-item model, although the item 5 did not show any significant correlation with two items from this model and had a lower factor loading than the rest of items. The structure of the model was invariant across gender and Body Mass Index (BMI). Alpha value over .70 and suitable levels of temporal stability were obtained. Girls and students classified according to the BMI as overweight and obese had higher scores in social physique anxiety than boys and the group classified as underweight and normal range. The findings of this study provided reliability and validity for the SPAS–7 in a Spanish adolescent sample.