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Loneliness significantly impacts the mental well-being of older adults, prompting an examination of psychological predictors and buffering factors associated with it in this demographic. A cross-sectional study involving 246 community-dwelling older adults was conducted. The UCLA Loneliness Scale identified predictors of loneliness, including negative mood, hopelessness (negative future expectations and loss of motivation), and despair. Buffering factors included ego-integrity, personal growth, and purpose in life. Regression analysis revealed that negative mood, negative future expectations, and despair increased loneliness, with negative mood showing a strong association. Conversely, ego-integrity, personal growth, and purpose in life reduced loneliness. The study underscores the complex interplay of psychological factors shaping loneliness in older adults, highlighting the importance of addressing both risk and protective factors. Social work practitioners in healthcare settings can play a pivotal role in addressing loneliness among older adults by leveraging these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience refers to the process by which individuals use the ability to cope with challenges to successfully adapt to adverse situations, inclining towards the future and hope. The main aim of this study was to analyze the relation between resilience, personality traits, and hopelessness. Furthermore, we conducted comparisons between two age groups: young and older adults. The sample comprised 439 Spanish participants (66.7% women; M = 43.73, SD = 26.41; age range = 18–98 years). The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, NEO‐Five Factor Inventory, and Beck Hopelessness Scale were used to measure the main study variables. The results revealed a negative relation between resilience and neuroticism, and a positive association with the other personality traits. Additionally, levels of resilience were found to be negatively related to hopelessness. The group of older adults showed significantly lower resilience levels than the young adults, although age was not a significant predictor of resilience. Neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and hopelessness were the only predictors of resilience for the current study. This work contributes to the study of resilience and related factors, by attempting to understand the role of resilience and resistance to risk and how individuals tackle challenges over time, with important implications for mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Suicide risk assessment remains a handicap for public health policies. Suicide is a major global public health problem. The most predictive behavior of completed suicide is prior suicide attempt. However, studies focused on risk factors have to date proved unsuccessful in reducing death by suicide rates. Aim. To adapt the Herth Hope Index and the Beck Hopelessness Scale as assessment tools for assessing hope and hopelessness to a Spanish clinical population having carried out a suicide attempt, and assess its structural validity and divergent validity. Methods. The sample comprised 682 people (62.4% female) aged between 18 and 77 years (M=39; SD=19.1) with previous suicide attempts who were administered the Herth Hope Index (HHI), the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the CDRISC- 10 Resilience Scale. Results. The findings showed that the HHI had a two-dimensional structure that explains 71.2% of the variance, a high internal consistency (a=.97), and adequate divergent validity with hopelessness of -.77. And there are also important differences in hope according to the resilience level of the participants. Conclusion. The suicide risk should be assessed by preventive and clinical approaches. Hope modulates resilience to suicide attempts and a new short scale adapted to the Spanish clinical population is offered. This short tool is easy to use in emergency department settings and predicts the level of potential vulnerability to more serious future repeated attempts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Hopelessness is a key element of suicidal intent. It can instill a pessimistic outlook on the future, leading an individual to believe that suicide is the only answer to their problems. Hopelessness operates as a modulating variable between depression and suicidal behavior. The aim of this study was to confirm the factor structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) in a non-clinical sample. Method: Three hundred and sixty-two Spanish individuals, aged over 60, free of cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms, completed the BHS scale. Participants were tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using one-, two- and three-factor models. Results: The one- and two-factor models presented adequate fit indices. Specifically, the indices of the two-factor models were better than those of the one-factor model. The two-factor model, without items 4, 9 and 14, provided the best fit, given that the indices obtained in the CFA and their internal consistency were better than those of the other models. Conclusion: The validation of the BHS for a population of Spanish older adults provides a reliable and valid measure of hopelessness and could be useful in clinical practice and research as an effective tool for the early detection of suicidal behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Child abuse affects people’s ways of thinking, feeling, and observing the world, resulting in dysfunctional beliefs and maladaptive schemas. Thus, consequences of child abuse may persist during adulthood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the psychological consequences (anxiety, phobic anxiety, depression, and hopelessness) of different types of maltreatment (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and physical and emotional neglect) and to study the role of early maladaptive schemas in the onset of symptomatology in adult female victims of child abuse. The sample consisted of 75 women referred by associations for treatment of abuse and maltreatment in childhood. Sexual abuse was the type of maltreatment that was most strongly related to most dysfunctional symptomatology, followed by emotional abuse and physical abuse, whereas physical neglect was the least related. Also, early maladaptive schemas were found to correlate with child abuse and dysfunctional symptomatology. Finally, early maladaptive schemas mediated the relationship between sexual abuse and dysfunctional symptomatology when the effect of other types of abuse was controlled. These results may provide important guidance for clinical intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This work aims to investigate the factors associated with psychological distress in advanced cancer patients under palliative treatment. We comprehensively assessed the demographic, psychosocial and health factors of 158 advanced cancer patients. Patients with high and low distress, according to the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, were compared. A regression analysis was built to identify the best predictors of distress. Patients with high psychological distress (81%) were more likely to have lung cancer, suicidal ideation, hopelessness, low quality of life and poor body image than those without. In the multivariate model, only poor emotional functioning ( OR = .89; 95% CI = .83-.95; p ≤ .001), hopelessness ( OR = .86; 95% CI = .78-.94; p ≤ .001) and body image distortions ( OR = .77; 95% CI = .68-.85; p = .005) were retained. High levels of hopelessness, impaired emotional functioning and body image distortions are the main factors associated with psychological distress in patients with advanced cancer. Potential interventions to modify these factors in palliative units are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oncologic patients are exposed to a higher risk of suicidal behaviors than the general population. In this study, we aim to examine the severity of suicidal ideation in a sample of oncologic patients considering different psychological and clinical features. We interviewed 202 inpatients receiving curative or palliative treatment in a medical oncology ward of a Spanish hospital during the period 2012–2014. A complete assessment of psychosocial factors, cancer diagnoses (lung, colon rectum, and genitourinary system), and suicidal behaviors were made during admission, including validated questionnaires about depression, anxiety, personality, quality of life, body image, life threatening events, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. The characteristics of inpatients with high and low suicidal ideation were retrospectively compared. A logistic regression model was constructed to examine the relationship between the significant factors retained after the univariate analyses. One of every four patients (n = 51; 25.24%) presented high scores of suicidal ideation. Logistic regression analyses retained depression (OR = 3.55; 95% CI = 1.25–11.68;p = .016), hopelessness (OR = 8.78; 95% CI = 3.44–25.88;p ≤ .001), personality (OR = .44; 95% CI = .2–.96;p = .038), and advanced age (OR = 2.60; 95% CI = 1.18–5.98;p = .016) as the main risk factors for high suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation was frequent among oncologic patients. These patients should receive closer monitoring, especially, when old, retired, or severely depressed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between purpose in life and hopelessness in a sample of 302 subjects. Hypothesis declare that booth variables are significant, negative, associated. Purpose In Life Test (PIL; Crumbaugh & Maholick, 1969) and Hopelessness Scale (HS; Beck, Weissman, Lester & Trexler, 1974) are used. Statistical used are Pearson's correlation coefficient and Spearman's rho coefficient. Results (r= -0.550, p= 0.000; rs= -0.502, p= 0.000) support hypothesis: purpose in life is negatively associated to hopelessness. High level of purpose in life involve less hopelessness, and existential vacuum is associated to high level of hopelessness, statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]