Abstract The health effects of smoking are well known and, despite efforts to reduce smoking in adolescence, prevalence of smoking during the teenage years in the UK has remained stable over recent years. This thesis examines smoking uptake during adolescence and identifies the social, psychological and physical factors associated with this process using data from the longitudinal Health And Be...

BACKGROUND A substantial literature has reported that stress negatively impacts on cognitive processes. As dementia caregiving can be stressful, it has been hypothesized that the challenges of dementia care may increase caregivers' own vulnerability to cognitive decline. Prefrontal processes are thought to be most vulnerable to stress; however, few studies have examined whether greater caregive...

Background: According to the spread and popularity of social networks easy access them through smartphones, impact these networks’ long-term application consequences, including psychological vulnerability, could not be ignored. Objectives: The present study investigated mediating role using smartphone considering personality traits vulnerability. Methods: research population included all users ...

Psychological disorders characterised by intrusive memories are more prevalent in women than men. The biological, social and cognitive processes underlying this gender-difference have yet to be fully elucidated. Some evidence suggests that (fluctuations in) ovarian hormone levels are responsible for altered sensitivity to emotional stimuli during certain phases in the menstrual-cycle and this m...

example, should they first address a vulnerability with a severity of “5” or one with a severity of “high”? The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is a public initiative designed to address this issue by presenting a framework for assessing and quantifying the impact of software vulnerabilities. Organizations currently generating CVSS scores include Cisco, US National Institute of Stand...

Mothers of preterm infants experience significant psychological distress, with elevated levels of inter-correlated depressive, stress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. In a sample of racially and ethnically diverse mothers of preterm infants, we identified differing patterns of psychological distress during infant hospitalization and examined the effect of these psychological distres...

Up to one third of patients with cancer will develop an affective disorder (generalised anxiety disorder, major depressive illness or an adjustment disorder) [1–5] regardless of disease stage [6, 7]. Key psychological factors include the following: difficulties patients have in coming to terms with the inherent uncertainty of their prognosis; a lack of practical or psychological support from re...

Major earthquakes were followed by a large number of aftershocks and significant outbreaks of dizziness occurred over a large area. However it is unclear why major earthquake causes dizziness. We conducted an intergroup trial on equilibrium dysfunction and psychological states associated with equilibrium dysfunction in individuals exposed to repetitive aftershocks versus those who were rarely e...