Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is regularly threatened by the occurrence of weather shocks. We wonder whether the way farmers respond to shocks can affect land use and induce deforestation. Reviewing the existing literature, we found that this question has only been marginally studied. Drawing from the adaptation and land-use change literatures, we then expose the mechanisms through which weather shocks can push farmers to induce land-use change, or conversely to foster conservation. As farmers cope with shocks, their responses can cause degradations in ecosystems which could, in the long term, encourage deforestation and land-use change. To prepare for the next growing season, or adapt to climate variability and risk in the longer term, farmers also make structural adjustments in their farm and land-use decisions, which may lead to changes in land holding. They also resort to adaptation strategies that can indirectly affect land-use decisions by affecting households’ resources (labor, income).

The present study examined the developmental value of parsing different forms of children's risky involvement in interparental conflict as predictors of children's subsequent psychological adjustment. Participants included a diverse sample of 243 preschool children (Mage = 4.6 years) and their mothers across two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Three forms of risky involvement (i.e., cautious, caregiving, and coercive) were identified using maternal narratives describing children's emotional and behavioral reactivity during and immediately following interparental conflict. Utilizing a multimethod, multi-informant design, findings revealed that each form of involvement prospectively predicted unique configurations of children's developmental outcomes. Greater coercive involvement was associated with higher levels of externalizing problems, callous and unemotional traits, and extraversion. Higher levels of caregiving involvement were linked with greater separation anxiety. Finally, cautious involvement predicted more separation anxiety and social withdrawal.

Research is increasingly identifying the issues of ecological distress, eco-anxiety and climate grief. These painful experiences arise from heightened ecological knowledge and concern, which are commonly considered to be de facto aims of environmental education. Yet little research investigates the issues of climate change anxiety in educational spaces, nor how educators seek to respond to or prevent such emotional experiences. This study surveyed environmental educators in eastern Australia about their experiences and strategies for responding to their learners’ ecological distress. Educators reported that their students commonly experienced feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, anxious, angry, sad and frustrated when engaging with ecological crises. Educators’ strategies for responding to their learners’ needs included encouraging students to engage with their emotions, validating those emotions, supporting students to navigate and respond to those emotions and empowering them to take climate action. Educators felt that supporting their students to face and respond to ecological crises was an extremely challenging task, one which was hindered by time limitations, their own emotional distress, professional expectations, society-wide climate denial and a lack of guidance on what works.

High levels of stress are expected when crises affect people’s lives. Therefore, this Web-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among university students from Pakistan to investigate the psychological impairment and coping strategies during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Google Forms were used to disseminate the online questionnaire to assess anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and coping strategies (Brief-COPE). A total of 1134 responses (age, 21.7 ± 3.5 y) were included. The frequency of students having moderate-severe anxiety and depression (score ≥ 10) were ≈ 34% and 45%, respectively. The respondents’ aged ≥ 31 y had significantly lower depression score than those ≤ 20 y (P = 0.047). Males had significantly less anxiety (6.62 ± 5.70 vs 7.84 ± 5.60; P = 0.001) and depression (8.73 ± 6.84 vs 9.71 ± 7.06; P = 0.031) scores. Those having family members, friends, or acquaintances infected with disease had significantly higher anxiety scores (8.89 ± 5.74 vs 7.09 ± 5.56; P < 0.001). Regarding coping strategies, the majority of respondents were found to have adopted religious/spiritual coping (6.45 ± 1.68) followed by acceptance (5.58 ± 1.65), self-distraction (4.97 ± 1.61), and active coping (4.81 ± 1.57). In conclusion, COVID-19 caused significant impairment on mental health of the students. The most frequent coping strategies adopted by students were religious/spiritual and acceptance coping. During epidemics, mental health of students should not be neglected.

If performance goals (i.e., motivation to prove ability) increase children's vulnerability to depression (Dykman, 1998), why are they overlooked in the psychopathology literature? Evidence has relied on self-report or observational methods and has yet to articulate how this vulnerability unfolds across levels of analysis implicated in stress–depression linkages; for example, hypothalamic–pituitaryadrenal axis (HPA), sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Utilizing a multiple-levels-of-analysis approach (Cicchetti, 2010), this experimental study tested Dykman's goal orientation model of depression vulnerability in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 121, Mage = 10.60 years, Range = 9.08–12.00 years, 51.6% male). Self-reports of performance goals, attachment security, and subjective experience of internalizing difficulties were obtained in addition to objective behavioral (i.e., task persistence) and physiologic arousal (i.e., salivary cortisol, skin conductance level) responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and two randomly assigned coping conditions: avoidance, distraction. Children with performance goals reported greater internalizing difficulties and exhibited more dysregulated TSST physiologic responses (i.e., HPA hyperreactivity, SNS protracted recovery), yet unexpectedly displayed greater TSST task persistence and more efficient physiologic recovery during avoidance relative to distraction. These associations were stronger and nonsignificant in the context of insecure and secure attachment, respectively. Findings illustrate a complex matrix of in-the-moment, integrative psychobiological relationships linking performance goals to depression vulnerability.

New York City is in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health care centers are stretched beyond capacity. Daily death rates are staggering. The city’s population is hunkered down in fear. Our anxiety treatment center is treating patients via video appointments. We are helping anxious individuals adapt to tumultuous changes that we ourselves are experiencing. Our work in this time has reinforced our core beliefs about managing one’s emotions; that difficult times require more active coping and that we all draw heavily from social support and familiarity to create a feeling of well-being. These principles and the experiences of our patients are discussed.

L’objectif de notre étude comparative est d’isoler des facteurs de risque de passage à l’acte suicidaire en cas de troubles dépressifs. Des patients adultes déprimés sont inclus dans l’étude, après 48 heures d’hospitalisation dans le service de psychiatrie, en distinguant les patients déprimés admis suite à une Tentative de Suicide (groupe « TS ») et les patients déprimés sans TS (groupe « Control »). Le bilan clinique est effectué à l’aide d’auto-questionnaires et d’hétéro-évaluations (Hamilton, coping, insight, dépendance interpersonnelle…) [1–4].

Alors que les deux groupes possèdent des caractéristiques sociodémographiques ainsi que des dimensions dépressives comparables, cette étude montre que les patients « TS » sont plus isolés socialement et ont des ATCD familiaux de TS pour 67 % d’entre eux (contre 31 % chez les « Control »). Ces patients « TS » ont un pauvre insight comparé aux patients « Control » et ont une conscience partielle de leurs troubles psychiatriques. Aussi, les deux groupes se distinguent clairement selon les facteurs de coping, tout en ne montrant pas de différence au niveau de la dépendance interpersonnelle. À partir de ces données, nous proposons de nous interroger sur les modalités de sortie des patients déprimés et de discuter d’un programme spécifique de suivi ambulatoire post-crise.

Although there is now strong evidence confirming the efficacy of psychological therapies in schizophrenia, the therapeutic processes which they activate remain widely unknown. In order to effectively implement them in clinical practice, identification of these processes is essential. In a controlled study, the efficacy of a coping-oriented therapy approach for schizophrenia patients was tested. Furthermore, the study aimed at establishing preliminary hypotheses on the therapeutically relevant factors. Treatment effects were found in the prominence of psychopathology, the extent of cognizance of the disorder, and the level of social functioning. Moreover, a better psychopathological and social outcome as measured 12 and 18 months after completion of therapy was best predicted by the patients’ mastery of active, problem-focused coping strategies immediately after completion of therapy. The findings underscore the clinical relevance of specific coping styles and corroborate the appropriateness of focusing on aspects of coping behavior in psychological interventions for schizophrenia patients.

The most effective way of coping with a traumatic event is to develop a narrative, which can take many forms, e.g., talking to friends and family, formal treatment, written accounts. Autobiographical works and novels by ex-soldiers are good examples of texts, which can aid psychologists’ understanding of traumatic stress, providing powerful insights not normally obtained through traditional psychological methods. Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, illustrates the psychological problems experienced by men in battle. Psychologists have rarely used novels as sources of data, yet they provide a rich insight into the problems associated with traumatic events. The issues raised in the book include: an account of battle experience, civilian understanding, memory and coping. This approach can be used to extend our understanding of traumatic situations.

The study examined the effectiveness of a group- administered cognitive behavioral intervention (CBT) with depressed university students in Jordan. 84 university students were recruited and assigned randomly to control and intervention groups. Intervention impact was assessed on measures of depressive symptoms, perceived stress, and coping strategies at three times points; baseline, postintervention, 3- months postintervention. Overall, using CBT showed a significant improvement in the used measures. At postintervention, students had lower scores on perceived stress, depression, and avoidance coping and higher scores in approach coping. The findings are discussed in terms of treatment implications and recommendations for use at academic settings.

For the first time, the present study explores pre-episodic disturbances, i.e. self-experienced vulnerability and prodromal symptoms, and related coping strategies preceding schizophrenic and depressive relapses. After complete recovery from the acute episode, 27 patients with recurrent schizophrenic and 24 patients with recurrent depressive episodes were assessed retrospectively for pre-episodic disturbances and related coping strategies with the “Bonn scale for the assessment of basic symptoms—BSABS”. All (100%) of the schizophrenic and 23 (96%) of the depressive patients showed pre-episodic disturbances. Patients with schizophrenia showed significantly more often an increased emotional reactivity and certain perception and thought disturbances. Depressive patients reported significantly more often an impaired tolerance to certain stress and disorders of emotion and affect. Sixty-three percent of the schizophrenics and 87% of the depressives reacted to pre-episodic disturbances with coping strategies. The pre-episodic disturbances in patients with schizophrenia could be described in terms of mild psychotic productivity, those in depressives in terms of mild depressive syndrome. Future studies will have to show if these findings can be replicated in first episode or initial prodromal state samples and if the assessment of mild psychotic productivity and mild depressive syndrome can be used for early diagnosis and early intervention in schizophrenia and depression.