BACKGROUND Experiencing potentially traumatic events is associated with psychological distress. However, some survivors also experience positive personal and psychological changes in the aftermath of trauma. METHODS The present study investigated perceived posttraumatic growth in 197 ministerial employees who were present at work during the 2011 Oslo bombing attack. The relationships between ...

BACKGROUND Adjustment disorders (also known as mental distress in response to a stressor) are among the most frequently diagnosed mental disorders in psychiatry and clinical psychology worldwide. They are also commonly diagnosed in clients engaging in deliberate self-harm and in those consulting general practitioners. However, their reputation in research-oriented mental health remains weak sin...

The present article describes the development and initial validation of the Inventory of Microaggressions Against Black Individuals (IMABI) using a sample of 385 undergraduates who self-identified as Black or African American. The IMABI is a 14-item, unidimensional measure of racial microaggressions that captures both microinsults and microinvalidations. The present findings support the IMABI a...

The study of social and emotional development is recognized for its complexity. To better understand developmental norms, and deviations thereof, researchers typically focus on individual (e.g., temperament), interactional (e.g., parenting behaviors), and relational (e.g., attachment, friendship) levels of analysis. Often forgotten, however, is the extent to which cultural beliefs and norms pla...

Popular media describe adverse effects of helicopter parents who provide intense support to grown children, but few studies have examined implications of such intense support. Grown children (N = 592, M age = 23.82 years, 53% female, 35% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) and their parents (n = 399, M age = 50.67 years, 52% female; 34% members of racial/ethnic minority groups) reported o...

Several theories of stress exposure, including the stress process and the family stress model for economically disadvantaged families, suggest that family processes work similarly across race/ethnic groups. Much of this research, however, treats African-Americans as a monolithic group and ignores potential differences in family stress processes within race that may emerge across ethnic groups. ...

Although public sector expatriates are becoming increasingly common, research on them is very limited. There is reason to believe that public sector expatriates cross-culturally adjust differently than private sector expatriates. This study investigated U.S. Department of Defense administrators assigned to U.S. embassies worldwide. Results showed that self efficacy, role clarity and role discre...

Robust and reliable covariance estimates play a decisive role in financial and many other applications. An important class of estimators is based on factor models. Here, we show by extensive Monte Carlo simulations that covariance matrices derived from the statistical Factor Analysis model exhibit a systematic error, which is similar to the well-known systematic error of the spectrum of the sam...