Community Magazine December 2013

SHOPPING DOES NOT HELP RELIEVE STRESS Some people go shopping as a means of coping with the stress of traumatic events, but it actually could exacerbate the condition, according to a new study. Researchers found that people who are drawn to material objects tend to suffer more stress than others from traumatic events, and are more likely to spend compulsively as a result. Ayalla Ruvio, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University, said in a university press release that such people tend to have lower self-esteem than other people, and that “when the going gets tough, the materialistic go shopping.” She added, “And this compulsive and impulsive spending is likely to produce even greater stress and lower well-being. Essentially, materialism appears to make bad events even worse.” When faced with a serious threat, highly materialistic people reported higher levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms and impulsive and compulsive shopping than those who were less materialistic. The study was recently published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences. “The relationship between materialism and stress may be more harmful than commonly thought,” Ruvio said. Post-traumatic stress can be triggered by a wide range of events, including traffic crashes, natural disasters and criminal attacks, the researchers noted. The investigators also surveyed 855 Americans about their levels of materialism and fear of death. The findings revealed that materialistic people are more likely to try to relieve the fear of death through impulsive and out-of-control spending. The study results suggest that low self-esteem and fear of death may drive materialism’s intensifying effect on extreme stress, according to the release. OVER-CRITICAL PARENTS LINKED TO DAUGHTERS’ EATING DISORDERS Young women with critical, over-involved parents are more likely to have disordered eating attitudes and poor social skills, according to a new study. Disordered eating attitudes involve “body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control beliefs and practice,” the researchers explained. These attitudes are common among women in the United States, but do not always cause eating disorders. The study included 286 female university students, average age 21, their mothers, and an adult sibling, all of whom individually filled out online questionnaires. While family dynamics, such as conflict and control, can affect children’s emotional and social wellbeing, neither of these factors predicted poor social skills and disordered eating attitudes. But having a mother who was overly involved and highly critical was directly related to such problems in daughters, according to the study published in the journal Communication Monographs. “It appears that this corrosive form of family communication is particularly damaging to individuals’ sense of self and well-being, as it seems to promote a struggle for control and self-enhancement,” said the study’s lead author, Analisa Arroyo, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Georgia inAthens, in a journal news release. “We believe that disordered eating can develop as a compensatory technique for dealingwith social incompetence and negative emotions,” she added. Parents are the main influences in the development of their children’s self-concept and social skills, the researchers noted. If parents focus on “healthy parent-child relationships and teaching their children effective communication skills, such social competence may serve as a protective factor in the development of psychological distress and disordered eating attitudes,” they concluded. STUDY SHOWS THAT PEOPLE FEEL HAPPY WHEN GIVING CHARITY Offering workers a bonus that they can give to charities or their coworkers may increase job satisfaction and team sales, according to a new study. In one experiment, some employees at a bank were given a $25 or $50 voucher to donate to the charity of their choice on behalf of the company. Those who donated the larger amount reported higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction than those who donated the smaller amount or did not donate. In other experiments, the researchers measured the performance of 11 sports teams in Canada and 14 drug-sales teams in Belgium after a third of the people on each team were given $20 to spend either on themselves or on their teammates. When participants spent their bonuses on teammates, the whole team performed significantly better than when participants spent their bonuses on themselves, according to Lalin Anik of the School of Business at Duke University, and her colleagues. The researchers noted that the boost in team performance might increase earnings as a whole. For example, every $10 given to a person on a drug-sales team to spend on their colleagues led to a $52 increase in sales. Although the study found associations between giving away bonus money and increased worker satisfaction or better team performance, it did not establish cause-and- effect relationships. “[The findings] suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shifting the focus from the self to others – can create a more altruistic, satisfying and productive workplace,” Anik said in a journal news release. To • • Health 88 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE