Title Participants "We all together carry the suffering now: Community supports after enforced disappearances" "Miryam Rivera Holguin, Jozef Corveleyn, Lucia De Haene" "God Representation Types Are Associated With Levels of Personality Organization and Christian Religious Orthodox Culture" "Jozef Corveleyn" "This exploratory study shows that God representation types are associated with levels of personality organization. Among two Dutch samples of psychiatric patients (n = 136) and nonpatients (n = 161), we found associations between the psychotic, borderline, and neurotic personality organizations, and passive-unemotional, negative-authoritarian, and positive-authoritative God representation types, respectively. Both patients and nonpatients reported positive God representations, but only nonpatients and higher-level functioning patients reported an integrated God-object relation. For persons with personality pathology, the relationship with God can be a struggle and might have a defensive and/or compensating function. In addition to personality organization, Christian religious orthodox culture is a statistical predictor of God representations, but not of anger toward God. We offer suggestions for how psychotherapeutic work with God representations might differ for patients with different levels of personality organization." "Prevalence of Exposure to Complex Trauma and Community Violence and Their Associations With Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms" "Karen Yearwood Travezan, Nicole Vliegen, Jozef Corveleyn, Patrick Luyten" "© 2017, The Author(s) 2017. Studies about trauma often tend to focus on abuse and neglect. However important, these studies may neglect the importance of the broader community context that is often associated with trauma, and complex trauma (CT) in particular. This study aimed to investigate the effects of CT (defined in terms of experiencing abuse and/or neglect occurring in the context of relationships with caregivers), and of broader environmental adversity (i.e., exposure to community violence), in a sample of adolescents (N = 218) from a severely disadvantaged district of Lima, Peru. The study had two aims: (a) to assess the prevalence of CT and its associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in these adolescents and (b) to investigate the associations between community violence and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms over and above the effects of CT. In total, 39.4% of the adolescents reported at least one type of moderate to severe trauma. There was a clear association between CT and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Ordinal logistic regressions showed that children who were exposed to one or more traumatic experiences were more likely to score within a higher range of internalizing and externalizing symptoms than children with no history of trauma. Finally, exposure to community violence was an important predictor of symptomatology beyond the effects of CT." "Psychosocial and community assessment of relatives of victims of extra-judicial killings" "Miryam Rivera Holguin, Jozef Corveleyn, Lucia De Haene" "During the Peruvian internal armed conflict, fifteen members of the Santa Barbara community were collectively executed by state agents, and their relatives were made victims of persecution, torture, and imprisonment. The case, known as the Santa Barbara massacre, was brought to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The documentation of individual, family and community impacts for the Court became a challenge due to the need to address cultural, geographical, political and community aspects. This paper aims to discuss the complexities of forensic documentation of human rights violations using a psychosocial and communitarian background. Method: The assessment included seven survivors from three different families. Both qualitative and quantitative instruments were used. A participative action research framework guided the design, documentation process, and discussion of outcomes with the survivors. Results/ discussion: The report included four levels of documentation embedded in the Istanbul Protocol framework: clinical impacts from a western perspective, emic formulations and cultural idioms of distres, communitarianperspectives, and a proposal of reparation measures for the Court. Individual analysis revealed chronic mental health sequelae of forced displacement, imprisonment and torture. Local idioms of distress (in Quechuan, “pinsamientuwan,” “llaki,” “ñakary,” “umananay” and “iquyay”) deepened the understanding of the damage faced by the survivors. The analysis of the community uncovered three main areas of collective damage: broken social and cultural identity, lack of political participation, and loss of perspective on the future. Regarding reparations, survivors highlighted the pursuit for justice, the dignified remembrance of their loved ones, social re-inclusion of displaced persons into the community, education for offspring, and measures for the preservation of their community’s identity and culture. Conclusions: Psycholegal accompaniment for victims through a participatory research approach is essential for the proper documentation of the consequences of violence in complex contexts. It is also essential in guaranteeing that the forensic documentation of the impact of political violence can be reparative for the survivors in itself. Keywords: Psycholegal assessment, mental health, enforced disappearance, torture, transitional justice" "When do peers matter? The moderating role of peer support in the relationship between environmental adversity, complex trauma, and adolescent psychopathology in socially disadvantaged adolescents" "Nicole Vliegen, Jozef Corveleyn" "Validation of the Quality of Relationships Inventory in a Peruvian Sample of Adolescents: Associations to Peer Attachment" "Karen Yearwood Travezan, Nicole Vliegen, Patrick Luyten, Jozef Corveleyn" "Research concerning adolescent peer relations and peer attachment is scarce, and more so in Spanish-speaking populations. The aims of this study were twofold: (a) to adapt the Quality of Relationships Inventory to Spanish and (b) to assess its psychometric properties in the context of peer relations in a sample of N = 269 Peruvian adolescents. Internal consistency was adequate (ranging from α = .733 to .826). The factor structure of the instrument was assessed by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), RMSEA = .06, CFI = .83, and multidimensional scaling (MDS), general non-metric stress (2D) =.33. Convergent validity was explored by analyzing the associations between the QRI subscales and the peer subscales of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (correlations ranged from r = .37, p < .01 to r = .61, p < .01) and discriminant validity by exploring the associations between the QRI subscales and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms (correlations ranged from r = .27, p < .01 to r = .35, p < .01). Results showed that the QRI on its Spanish version is a reliable tool for the assessment of the quality of peer relationships within a Peruvian context when taking some considerations into account regarding the conflict scale." "Improving community mental health services for people affected by political violence in Ayacucho, Peru" "Miryam Rivera Holguin, Jozef Corveleyn" "This study describes a model to intervene in communities affected by the political violence impacting the Ayacucho region of Peru since 1980s. Many community members still experience psychosocial consequences to this day due primarily to grief. Thirty-eight professionals from different sectors in the area received specialized training and implemented five community projects that were accompanied and monitored in the field by a team of community psychologists. This article is grounded on the principles of participation, building community capacity, and community strengthening. We present the analysis of five community action plans implemented over a period of 14 months. The results show a process of internal strengthening of community services and the identification of new social and community resources among the people involved in the action plans. The implications of capacity building for improving community mental health are discussed." "Psychometric properties of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) and its relationship with life-stress, anxiety and depression in a Hispanic Latin-American community sample" "Jozef Corveleyn" "Resilience is a multi-dimensional construct associated with health and well-being. At present, we do not yet have a valid, scientific instrument that is designed to evaluate adult resilience in Spanish-speaking countries and that accounts for family, social and individual components. This study aimed at investigating the construct and cross-cultural validity of the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) by combining Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Hierarchical Regression models in a Hispanic Latin-American group. A community sample of 805 adults answered the RSA, Spanish Language Stressful Life-Events checklist (SL-SLE), and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25). First-order CFA verified the six factors structure for the RSA (RMSEA = .037, SRMR = .047, CFI = .91, TLI = .90). Five RSA scales and total score have good internal consistency (scales α > .70; total score α = .90). Two second-order CFA verified the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of the protector factors of resilience, as well as their commonality and uniqueness with affective symptoms (anxiety and depression). An exploratory MDS reproduced the relations of RSA items and factors at first and second-order levels against random simulated data, thereby providing initial evidence of its cross-cultural validity in a Spanish-speaking group. The Four-steps hierarchical model showed that the RSA scales are the strongest predictors of anxiety and depression-greater than gender, age, education and stressful life-events. Three RSA scales are significant unique predictors of affective symptoms. In addition, similar to findings in diverse cultural settings, resilience is positively associated with age but not with education. Women report higher scores of Social Resources and Social Competence and lower scores of Perception of the Self. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the construct and criterion-related validity of the RSA in broad, diverse and Spanish speaking sample." "Types of God representations and mental health : A person-oriented approach" "H Schaap-Jonker, H van der Velde, E Eurelings-Bontekoe, Jozef Corveleyn" "© 2017 Taylor & Francis. As God representations are multi-facetted psychological processes regarding the personal meaning of God/the divine to the individual, this study examines how multiple aspects of God representations are configured within individuals belonging to a sample of psychiatric patients or a non-patient sample, and how these configurations are associated with mental health. By means of cluster analyses, three types of God representations were found: a Positive-Authoritative one, a Passive-Unemotional one, and, only among psychiatric patients, a Negative-Authoritarian one. Types of God representations were significantly related to affective state, as well as religious saliency and religious background. Patients with the negative type of God representation were more distressed and depressed, and Orthodox-Reformed patients reported significantly more negative types of God representations. This study demonstrates the value of a person-oriented approach, by showing that scale scores became especially meaningful in the context of the types, which enables more nuanced distinctions regarding subgroups." "Psychometric Properties of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children in a Peruvian Sample of Adolescents" "Karen Yearwood Travezan, Nicole Vliegen, Patrick Luyten, Jozef Corveleyn" "The concept of alexithymia refers to impairments in the ability to identify and communicate feelings. Alexithymia has repeatedly been linked to attachment impairments and different types of symptomatology, in particular, depression and somatic complaints. Very few studies have focused on children or adolescents when addressing this construct. Additionally, to date, there is no self-report questionnaire of alexithymia for such groups in the Spanish language. The main objectives of this study were therefore, (a) to translate and adapt the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children to Spanish; (b) to assess the factor structure of the adapted questionnaire; and (c) to describe its reliability and validity, in a sample of N = 265 Peruvian adolescents aged 11-18 years. Internal consistency was acceptable for the DIF subscale (α = .74), and low for the DDF and EOT subscales (α = .55, and α = .47 respectively). A composite scale based on previous studies that merges DIF and DDF into one scale had an α = .75. Regarding the factor structure, a two-factor solution showed to have the best fit with the data (RMSEA = .05, SMRM = .04, CFI = .94). Convergent validity analyses indicated significant associations between alexithymia and attachment measurements (that ranged from r = - .15, p < .05, to r = .31, p < .05), somatic complaints (r = .38, p < .05, to r = .41, p < .05), and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms (r = .37, p < .05, to r = .46, p < .05). Future assessment and modifications are recommended for the EOT scale."