Experiencing financial hardship has many detrimental effects on mental health and often leads to avoidance coping, which only exacerbates the financial difficulties. As educational programs have...Show moreExperiencing financial hardship has many detrimental effects on mental health and often leads to avoidance coping, which only exacerbates the financial difficulties. As educational programs have not effectively addressed avoidance coping, this study examines the effectivity of a self-compassion intervention on avoidance coping through reducing financial shame and financial stigma. Furthermore, we explored the effects of the intervention on problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and financial stress. We surveyed N = 199 U.K. participants using the participant recruitment website Prolific. We performed a randomized, controlled two-group experiment where the effect of a self-compassion intervention on coping-styles was tested against no intervention. Results showed no significant effect of the self-compassion intervention, neither on avoidance coping nor on other forms of coping and financial stress. However, financial shame and financial stigma positively correlated with avoidance coping. Future research could investigate effective interventions addressing shame and stigma to reduce avoidant coping when experiencing financial hardships. Keywords: self-compassion, coping-styles, financial hardship, shame, stigma, avoidance-coping.Show less
Shame and guilt are moral emotions that arise when people evaluate their behaviour as morally right or wrong. These emotions are critical for the display of prosocial behaviours, or else, social...Show moreShame and guilt are moral emotions that arise when people evaluate their behaviour as morally right or wrong. These emotions are critical for the display of prosocial behaviours, or else, social competence. However, the relation between moral emotions and social competence in preschool children has not been studied extensively in typically hearing (TH) populations, let alone in deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The present study investigated whether TH and DHH preschoolers differ in their levels of shame, guilt, and social competence. Furthermore, the association between moral emotions and social competence, for these two groups, was examined. This study is a part of a larger longitudinal cross-cultural project, which aims at understanding the (early) social-emotional developments of children with hearing loss and autism in China and the Netherlands, while also exploring cultural and societal factors. A total of 282 TH and DHH Chinese preschoolers, between the ages of 1.5-6.5 years old, participated in the study. The data were collected via parent-report questionnaires, where parents reported online or on paper the levels of the studied variables in their children. The results showed that DHH preschoolers expressed less shame and guilt, while also displaying lower levels of social competence than the TH group. For both groups, no relation was found between shame and social competence, while guilt was found to be positively related with social competence. Notably, this positive relation was stronger in DHH than in TH preschoolers, revealing the potentially crucial role of guilt for the promotion of social competence in DHH children. This study serves as a preliminary step toward understanding the relations between moral emotions and social competence for TH and DHH preschoolers, while also providing recommendations for future research.Show less
When faced with financial struggles, people often find themselves unable to seek help in terms of financial advice, even when it is provided free of charge. One of the major reasons for this is the...Show moreWhen faced with financial struggles, people often find themselves unable to seek help in terms of financial advice, even when it is provided free of charge. One of the major reasons for this is the presence of shame and its related component - stigma. We conducted an experiment to test the effect of reducing shame and stigma on willingness to contact an organization and on coping styles. For this purpose, we created an intervention website with elements that reduce shame and stigma. The results showed that while participants in the intervention group were not more willing to contact the organization than the participants in the control group, the former engaged in active coping style more than the latter. Additionally, since perception of the organization is an important factor for people who might seek help from it, we measured the perceptions of competence, warmth, and morality of the organization in each condition. We found that the participants in the intervention condition viewed the organization presented on the website as more warm and moral than those in the control condition.Show less
This study aimed to explore possible implications to tackle obstacles that prevent people from contacting their creditors when facing financial hardship. It is found that people living in poverty...Show moreThis study aimed to explore possible implications to tackle obstacles that prevent people from contacting their creditors when facing financial hardship. It is found that people living in poverty often do not use the available help, leaving them with social withdrawal. We identified two possible reasons for the problem. The first is the experienced shame, the second is the perceived control. This study, therefore, examined the effect of experienced shame and perceived control on behavioral tendencies. Specifically, it investigated whether addressing shame and inducing control in a negative financial situation has an impact on willingness to contact one’s creditor. To test our hypothesis, an online study was distributed to people who experience or have experienced financial hardship. Results showed no increase in willingness to contact when shame was addressed. An increase in willingness to contact was found when control was induced. Exploratively, it was found that addressing shame and inducing control combined increased a person’s willingness to contact. The results indicated that control had a positive effect on the relation between shame and avoidant tendencies. Finally, this study discusses the theoretical and practical implications, along with its limitations and directions for future research.Show less
Negative financial situations such as debt or poverty affect the individual on the material level, as well as on the perceptions of the self, inducing social and mental health struggles....Show moreNegative financial situations such as debt or poverty affect the individual on the material level, as well as on the perceptions of the self, inducing social and mental health struggles. Financially dire situations can result in feelings of shame, impacting the chances of the individual reaching our for help. We investigate whether inducing shame resilience in people facing debt can increase the willingness to contact a creditor for financial help. Hypothesizing that shame resilience and a sense of belongingness can increase this willingness to contact, we conducted an online survey and measured recall in two conditions: the manipulation condition where a creditor email primes shame resilience, and a control condition consisting of a standard email, then we measured the willingness to contact the creditor company in each group. The results showed that after reading the manipulation condition email which gave reassurance about feeling shameful for one’s financial situation, participants were more likely to contact the company for financial help compared to the control condition. These significant results suggest that working towards building shame resilience can be a great tool to utilize in future research where the relationship between shame and seeking out financial help is measured.Show less
Research on financial help-seeking behaviour has found shame to be one of the underlying components in help avoidance. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether increasing shame...Show moreResearch on financial help-seeking behaviour has found shame to be one of the underlying components in help avoidance. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether increasing shame-resilience leads to an increased willingness to contact a creditor and to a reduced use of avoidant action tendencies. Additionally, the study examined whether men and women differ in their experience of financial shame. Participants (N = 133) were assigned to two conditions (shame-resilience and control condition) and they were asked to recall a negative financial situation. After this, the participants were shown an email from an imagined creditor, which asked them to be in contact with the creditor as soon as possible. In the control condition the communication style of the email was neutral whereas in the shame resilience condition the communication style aimed to induce a sense of connectedness with other people, who also share experiences of financial hardship. After the email, the participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire that assessed their behavioural action tendencies regarding their situation. The intervention was found to significantly increase the participants’ willingness to contact the creditor and to significantly reduce a tendency to ignore a severity of the situation. However, no significant effects were found on a tendency to refuse to believe the situation or on a tendency to distract oneself with other activities. Also, no gender differences were found. The study provides valuable information on how to encourage people in financial hardship to take action to improve their financial situation.Show less
Cigarette packages are prominent exemplars of placing visuals on packages in an effort to influence consumer behaviour. While such intervention methods and the effects on consumer behaviour are...Show moreCigarette packages are prominent exemplars of placing visuals on packages in an effort to influence consumer behaviour. While such intervention methods and the effects on consumer behaviour are widely studied in the health domain, there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of visuals on consumer behaviour in the environmental domain. Plastic pollution is a pressing environmental problem, therefore, this research investigates whether placing positive or negative framed messages with visuals on plastic packages, have an impact on a consumer’s intention to not purchase a plastic product. Previous studies have shown that negative framed messages have a general stronger effect than positive framed messages on achieving a desired behaviour in other domains however, little is known about which messages valence is best when encouraging pro-environmental behaviours. Contributing to research on encouraging pro-environmental behaviours regarding plastic consumption, data from 98 respondents, who were randomly assigned to either a ‘positive no efficacy’ condition or a ‘negative no efficacy’ condition, was analysed. The independent samples t-test showed no significant evidence for believing that a positive framed message would have a stronger effect in reducing plastic consumption than a negative framed message. In addition, the mediation analysis showed that the message valence had a significant effect on shame despite the absence for a direct effect of the message valence on the intention to not purchase a plastic product. The moderated mediation showed no evidence that the need for social approval has a moderating effect on the relationship between the message valence and shame.Show less
