Suchergebnisse

Human values and value based judgments are not only based on rationality but are highly emotional by their nature. Like other emotional concepts, human values can not only be rated by their desirability or subjective evaluation, but also by their perceived power, effectiveness, or activity. This aspect has been omitted in previous research. We therefore employed the Semantic Differential to examine the factorial structure of the affective meanings of 15 German-language value terms. The demographically heterogeneous sample comprised N = 274 (N = 136 female; mean age 39.14 years, s = 18.35, range 16.88 years) Austrian and German respondents. In line with our expectations we found two affective dimensions, Valence and Efficacy, which predicted central aspects of value related moral or ethical judgments. We conclude that the previously neglected dimension of Efficacy should be considered in future research on human values. Possible implications for studying consumer decisions or political voting as well as ethical aspects are discussed.

Refugees have an increased risk of unemployment. We initially examined 83 unemployed refugees in Austria (mean age 34.01 years, s = 10.04), 42 of whom attended vocational training courses and 41 of whom did not. At the time of assessment some months later, 37 participants (44.6%)
were employed and 46 (55.4%) were unemployed. We used sociodemographic variables as well as collectivistic values, clinical symptoms, command of the German language, perceived social support, and self-efficacy as possible predictors of unemployment. Logistic regression revealed that attending
a training course, previous work experience, and a shorter time in Austria increased chances of employment. The logistic regression model we presented will enable practitioners to predict chances of employment in individual cases and to tailor refugees' vocational rehabilitation to their personal
needs. The results suggest that vocational rehabilitation for refugees should be provided as soon as possible after asylum has been granted.

Background: Internationally, a high number of refugees are in need of help as a consequence of post-traumatic stress or acculturation problems. Aims: The present study investigated the gender-specific requirements for such interventions taking clinical symptoms as well as coping strategies into account. Methods: Five psychometric instruments assessing anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, somatic symptoms, and social adaptation were administered and semi-structured interviews with n = 150 asylum seekers and refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan, and West Africa were conducted. Results: On the level of total test scores, women reported significantly more somatic symptoms than men but there were no further gender differences. On the item level of the questionnaires as well as with respect to the categories obtained from the interview data, marked gender differences were found. Women, as compared to men, reported more somatic symptoms, emotional outbursts, and loss of sexual interest, while men reported detachment. For women, typical coping strategies were concentrating on their children and various indoor activities, while men preferred looking for work and socializing. Conclusion: Social psychiatric interventions should take gender-specific symptoms and coping strategies into account. For asylum seekers and refugees, same gender client-therapist dyads and groups are highly recommended.

'Ein neu entwickeltes österreichisches Werteinventar, welches die Skalen Intellektualität, Harmonie, Religiosität, Materialismus sowie Konservatismus und 13 Subskalen umfasst, wurde in einer explorativen Studie von einem Umfrageinstitut einer hinsichtlich der wichtigsten soziodemographischen Variablen repräsentativen, österreichischen Stichprobe (N = 421) vorgegeben. In nahezu allen Teilstichproben wurden Harmonie, Materialismus und Intellektualität deutlich stärker bevorzugt als religiöse und politische Werte. Frauen erzielten gegenüber Männern höhere Ausprägungen für Intellektualität, Harmonie und Religiosität und niedrigere Werte auf der Materialismusskala. Die Ergebnisse zu verschiedenen Altersgruppen widersprechen Ronald Ingleharts Theorie des Materialismus vs. Postmaterialismus, weil jüngere Personen im Vergleich zu älteren signifikant materialistischere Werte vertreten. Bei multivariater Signifikanzprüfung zeigten sich mit dem Alter zunehmende Religiositätswerte, während für Konservatismus keine signifikanten Unterschiede nach Altersgruppen gefunden wurden. Während Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter gegenüber Angestellten Intellektualität niedriger bewerteten, unterschieden sich die beiden Gruppen nicht hinsichtlich Konservatismus, Beamtinnen und Beamte waren hingegen deutlich konservativer. Arbeiter, Angestellte und Selbständige orientierten sich im Vergleich zu Hausfrauen(-männern) und Pensionistinnen und Pensionisten stärker an materiellen Werten. Befürworter von ÖVP, SPÖ und FPÖ unterschieden sich nicht hinsichtlich Konservatismus. Wählerinnen und Wähler der ÖVP waren aber durch hohe Ausprägungen von Religiosität, Intellektualität und Materialismus gekennzeichnet, jene der Grünen durch hohe Intellektualität neben geringem Konservatismus, Materialismus sowie niedriger Religiosität. Wien und Tirol sind durch ein hohes Maß an intellektueller Aufgeschlossenheit gekennzeichnet, auffallend sind für Tirol auch hohe Ausprägungen von Religiosität und niedrige von Materialismus. Aus den Ergebnissen wird gefolgert, dass soziodemographische Variablen einen ausgeprägt moderierenden Einfluss auf Wertorientierungen haben. Es wird vorgeschlagen, den neu entwickelten Fragebogen als zusätzliches Instrument in der Werteforschung weiter zu erproben.' (Autorenreferat)

We tested group interventions for women with a Turkish migration background living in Austria and suffering from recurrent depression. Sixty-six participants were randomized to: (1) self-help groups (SHG), (2) cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) groups, or (3) a wait-list (WL) control
condition. Neither SHG nor CBT were superior to WL. On an individual basis, approximately one third of the participants showed significant improvements with respect to symptoms of depression. Younger women, women who had lived in Austria for longer, and those who had encountered a higher number
of traumatic experiences, showed increased improvement of depressive symptoms. The results suggest that individual treatment by ethnic, female psychotherapists should be used instead of group interventions.

Autochthon Europeans reacted inconsistently to rising numbers of asylum applications in 2015 and 2016. While some of them welcomed asylum seekers enthusiastically, others reacted with hostility. The objective of this study was to test a predictive model of these individual differences by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Both, in a German-speaking (N = 349 Austrians and Germans) and in a Slovak (N = 307) adult sample, the perception of "cultural threat" was a strong predictor of attitudes towards asylum seekers, whereas perceived "economic threat" and "modern racism" did not explain additional proportions of the variance.

Internal consistencies and convergent validities of (a) the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25; Mollica, Wyshak, deMarneffe, Khuon, & Lavelle, 1987), (b) the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ; Mollica et al., 1992), (c) the Impact of Event Scale (IES-R; Weiss & Marmar, 1997),
(d) the Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI; Mumford et al., 1991), (e) the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-1; Blake et al., 1990), and (f) the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation Scale (SASS; Bosc, Dubini, & Polin, 1997), were determined in 150 asylum seekers from Chechnya, Afghanistan,
and West Africa using diagnostic interviews as a criterion. For all the instruments, except the SASS, estimates of internal consistency were satisfactory. When used as a continuous measure of symptom frequency and intensity, the CAPS-1 had excellent convergent validity for all three ethnic
groups, while formal PTSD criteria yielded high numbers of false negative diagnoses. Among the questionnaires, for Chechnyans the HTQ, and for Afghans and West Africans the IES-R achieved best results with respect to convergent validity.

A representative Austrian sample (N= 421) received the Austrian Value Questionnaire (AVQ) as well as attitude scales measuring Patriotism, Nationalism, Authoritarianism, Religiosity and Sense of Coherence (SOC). By Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) sets of hypotheses were tested, predicting influences of values on attitudes in order to assess the validity of the AVQ. In line with the hypotheses, nationalistic values and low Open-Mindedness predicted nationalistic attitudes, and, combined with fundamentalistic Religiosity, also predicted Authoritarianism. Patriotism and Nationalism did not differ by the value orientations that predicted them. Hypotheses on Religiosity were only partly confirmed, those on SOC were not confirmed. The results pose some arguments for the construct validity of some of the AVQ-scales and their factorial validity was mostly confirmed, but more research toward the validation of the instrument is advocated.

A group of 63 refugees and asylum seekers, comprising 27 women and 36 men with a mean age of 33.08 years (SD = 10.3) from Chechnya and Afghanistan were granted sponsorship for 6 months and were randomized to an intervention or waiting-list control group. Only those participants
who had been traumatized benefited from the intervention. For the traumatized subsample, sponsorship led to a significant and stable decrease in anxiety, depression, and psychological problems as compared to the control group, with effect sizes comparable to those of psychotherapy. As the
effects were palliative rather than instrumental, sponsorship did not instigate improvements in acculturation, societal contact, or coping capability. Women benefited from the intervention more than men, and Afghans benefited more than Chechens.