Browsing by Subject "psyykkinen oireilu"

Objectives. There is a lack of knowledge concerning the contribution of the character traits to the association of work stress and over-commitment with common mental health problems. Primary school teachers are a large, homogenous occupational group that has been related to higher work stress levels and common mental health problems, although to a lesser amount of actual mental disorders. The aim of the study is to examine the extent to which the association between work stress, over-commitment and their interaction with common mental health problems can be attributed to the character traits among primary school teachers. Methods. The data consists of 76 (87% females) primary school teachers from 34 schools randomly selected to a study taking part in the capital area of Finland in 2013-14. There were 1-6 teachers who responded from each school (participation rate 4-33%). Common mental health problems were measured by GHQ-12 (psychological distress) and cognitive anxiety from a state anxiety scale of EMAS (highest tertile vs. two lowest). Work stress and over-commitment (the upper tertile vs. the rest) were measured according to original Siegrist's Effort-Reward-Imbalance Questionnaire. Character traits Self-directness, Cooperativeness, and Self-Transcendence were measured by Cloninger's TCI-questionnaire and each character was dichotomized at median to indicate a higher and lower category of the trait. The control variables were age, working hours and job contract type. The data were analyzed by means of Poisson regression (prevalence ratios, PR, and 90% confidence intervals) and relative rates. Results. Of teachers 30% had common mental health problems. The teachers with high over-commitment in comparison with those with low over-commitment had more often psychological distress (PR=2.5, p=0.018) and cognitive anxiety (PR=2.8, p=0.004). Although work stress was not independently associated with common mental health problems, it was related to the increased psychological distress among those with high over-commitment. Controlling for self-directedness attenuated the association of over-commitment with psychological distress and cognitive anxiety by 29% and 47%, respectively. After all adjustments, an independent association of Self-Directness with cognitive anxiety remained (PR=0.3, p=0.024). The other two character traits didn't have an independent impact on common mental health problems among the primary school teachers, but with the concurrent low self-directedness, low cooperativeness and low Self-Transcendence were related to over-commitment and increased level of cognitive anxiety. Both low cooperativeness and low self-transcendence were related to psychological symptoms. Conclusions: The primary school teachers had higher prevalence of common mental health problems, if they had low self-directedness and were over-committed to their work. Enhancing self-directedness may help in decreasing common mental health problems among overcommitted teachers. In the future the associations of the trait profiles with over-commitment and mental health symptoms should be studied with the larger longitudinal data.

Aims of the Study. Psychotic like experiences (PLEs) have been identified as risk factors for psychotic and other mental disorders. It has been suggested that PLEs are a sign of a broader psychological vulnerability and may indicate an individual’s susceptibility to mental disorders in general. The role of PLEs as predictors of mental disorders have been studied, but the research has limitations and knowledge of possible mediating factors is still inadequate. The aim of this study is to examine whether PLEs reported in young adulthood predict psychotic or any mental disorders in the general population. In addition, it is examined whether these associations are affected or mediated by general psychological distress. Methods. The data used in the study is from the Mental Health in Early Adulthood in Finland (MEAF) study which is a follow-up study of the Health 2000 young adult sample. The sample (n=1243) included 18–29-year-old Finnish people, selected from the general population, of whom 45.5 % were men. Subjects' PLEs were evaluated with the G-section of the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) questionnaire, and general psychological distress with the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Data on diagnoses of mental disorders given in hospital care and specialized health care and inpatient care were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge register until the end of the year 2015, and hence, the follow-up period was 10–12 years. The associations, including the steps of mediation analysis, were examined with Cox regression and logistic regression models. Results and conclusions. This study showed that PLEs of young adults predict subsequent psychotic disorders (HR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.11–1.36) as well as any mental disorders (HR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.03–1.17), when the effects of age, gender, education, and marital status were adjusted for. This supports the previous view that PLEs may be a sign of broader psychological vulnerability and indicate an individual’s susceptibility to psychotic and any mental disorders. General psychological distress did not have a significant effect on the associations and did not mediate them. The PLEs of young adults appear to be a risk factor for subsequent psychotic and other mental disorders, independent from general psychological distress.