Marianna Szabo

• BA(Hons), MPsych(Clin), PhD
• Senior Lecturer at The University of Sydney

Today, many women are driven to subscribe to a more athletically oriented appearance ideal hallmarked by muscle tone (referred to as athletic- or fit-looking). However, the constellation of unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors that may accompany the pursuit of toned muscularity among women is not yet well characterized. To address this knowledge...

Our study aimed to develop and provide a preliminary psychometric validation of the Somatomorphic Matrix-Female (SM-F), a new bidimensional female figural rating scale which can be used to gauge actual and desired levels of both body fat and muscularity in a consolidated measure, as well as providing an index of actual-desired body discrepancy base...

Background: Anecdotal evidence and media reports suggest that actors and other performing artists experience high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. However, no empirical study has examined the psychological well-being of this professional group. Objective: The Australian Actors' Wellbeing Study (AWS) was conducted to examine the general...

Introduction Psychosocial treatments have been shown to benefit people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on various outcomes. Two evidence-based interventions are cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). However, these interventions have been compared only once. Results showed that CBT outperformed MBSR on som...

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995b) is a set of psychometrically sound scales that is widely used to assess negative emotional states in adults. In this project, we developed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales for Youth (DASS-Y) and tested its psychometric properties. Data were collected from 2,121 Australian...

Background Evidence shows small positive effects associated with psychological treatments for people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS). In a recent meta-analysis, the treatment with the largest effect size was a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI). Objectives We aimed to determine whether an Internet-delivered MBI was beneficial for PwMS. Furthermor...

Objectives This study sought to establish four aspects of feasibility for a mindful parenting program: demand for the program from parents with concerns regarding their child’s internalizing problems, acceptability of the program to those parents, preliminary efficacy, and the likelihood of successful expansion of the program to the intended popula...

Objective Toned muscularity continues to emerge as a salient aspect of women's body image. However, there is a dearth of research investigating the potentially maladaptive eating practices and related cognitions that accompany the drive for muscularity in women. This may be attributable to the limited empirical and clinical attention previously giv...

Our study aimed to develop and provide a preliminary psychometric validation of theSomatomorphic Matrix-Female (SM-F), a new bidimensional female figural rating scale which can be used to gauge actual and desired levels of both body fat and muscularity in a consolidated measure, as well as providing an index of actual–desired body discrepancy based...

Objectives: Mindful parenting, measured by the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting scale (IMP), is beneficial for parents and children. However, the IMP has not been validated in English-speaking parents. Further, little is known about whether mindful parenting is similar in parents of children vs. infants, or how it reduces child internalizing...

Prevailing conceptualizations of muscle dysmorphia (MD) have highlighted the role of adherence to stereotypical ideals of masculinity. In addition, the endorsement of masculine norms has been associated with dysfunctional emotional regulation, itself a correlate of body image psychopathology. Building on this, the present study sought to investigat...

Muscularity dissatisfaction is documented to be a pervasive phenomenon among men. While previous studies have examined theoretically relevant predictors of muscularity dissatisfaction, such as adherence to traditional masculine norms, to the best of our knowledge we are not aware of empirical research that has assessed how perceived discrepancies i...

Despite the negative emotional experiences that often accompany the pursuit of an idealized appearance, we know little about emotion regulation in the context of female drive for muscularity. To address this knowledge gap, we examined whether distress tolerance and difficulties in emotion regulation were significantly associated with the drive for...

Background: Anecdotal and media reports suggest that actors and performing artists are vulnerable to high levels of alcohol use. However, little empirical research is available to document the extent and correlates of alcohol use amongst these artists, particularly in an Australian context. Objective: This study investigated alcohol use in a sam...

BACKGROUND Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an efficacious treatment for people with chronic health problems but is highly intensive and time consuming which is a barrier for service provision. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to develop an online version of MBSR for people with MS (PwMS), to make the intervention more accessible. METHODS W...

Background Mindfulness-based stress reduction is an efficacious treatment for people with chronic health problems; however, it is highly intensive and time-consuming, which is a barrier for service provision. Objective This study aims to develop an internet-delivered adapted version of mindfulness-based stress reduction for people with multiple scl...

Aims: Anecdotal evidence suggests that actors and other performing artists are under great pressure to conform to idealized appearances and body types. The pursuit of such appearances may trigger eating disorder symptoms, such as unhealthy attitudes towards body weight and shape. Thus far, there has been no dedicated empirical study of the prevale...

Objective: There is increasing public and scientific focus on women's pursuit of a muscular and toned appearance. However, the psychological correlates of women's drive for muscularity are currently unclear. Therefore, we examined the associations of drive for muscularity with four important negative psychological indices among women: eating disor...

Objectives To assess the availability and efficacy of interventions open to adolescents and young adults (AYAs; 15-25 years) bereaved by a parent’s or sibling’s cancer. Methods A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature on interventions available to AYAs bereaved by a parent’s or sibling’s cancer was conducted through searches of six online d...

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease of the central nervous system and is associated with many psychosocial symptoms that are difficult to manage including low mood, anxiety, fatigue and pain, as well as low health-related quality of life. Internet-based psychosocial interventions that use mindfulness-based approaches are ga...

Background: The psychological well-being of parents and children is compromised in families characterized by greater parenting stress. As parental mindfulness is associated with lower parenting stress, a growing number of studies have investigated whether mindfulness interventions can improve outcomes for families. This systematic review and meta-a...

Extreme altruism is defined as prosocial behavior that violates social norms or the law. Little research has been done on this phenomenon, although research into related areas suggests that, surprisingly, extreme altruistic activities may be associated with traits traditionally associated with narcissism. This relationship was explored by comparing...

Background The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) is a widely used measurement tool to assess female sexual function along the six dimensions of desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. However, the structure of the questionnaire is not clear, and several studies have found high correlations among the dimensions, indicating th...

Transgenerational patterns of child rearing practices have been implicated in the maintenance of psychosocial problems across generations. Understanding such patterns has been an important aim of research in developmental psychology for decades. Recently, it has been suggested that individuals’ current parenting practices are strongly influenced by...

The Real Life Superhero (RLSH) subculture is a growing global community of individuals who adopt the superhero motif and are motivated by prosocial goals. Although the community has been the focus of documentaries, news articles and numerous internet forums, little academic research has been conducted on the composition of this subculture. Through...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent chronic neuropsychiatric disorders, severely affecting the emotional well-being of children as well as of adults. It has been suggested that individuals who experience symptoms of ADHD develop maladaptive schemata of failure, impaired self-discipline, social isolation, and...

Caregivers’ beliefs about their ability to parent successfully play an important role in parent and child adjustment. Yet the cognitive processes through which parental self-efficacy beliefs may influence parental well-being have been understudied to date. The first aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Hungari...

How actors are adequately prepared for their lifetime of work can be a vexed issue. However what is emerging in the field is data that suggests more can be done to prepare those entering the acting profession and to support actors throughout their career development. This article argues that teaching staff, support staff and industry partners might...

The aim of the present study was to examine the construct and cross-cultural validity of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS; Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974). Beck et al. applied exploratory Principal Components Analysis and argued that the scale measured three specific components (affective, motivational, and cognitive). Subsequent studies i...

Worry in adults has been conceptualized as a thinking process involving problem-solving attempts about anticipated negative outcomes. This process is related to, though distinct from, fear. Previous research suggested that compared to adults, children’s experience of worry is less strongly associated with thinking and more closely related to fear....

Background and purpose Chronic stress leads to deficits in executive functions; its effect on cognitive emotion regulation is yet to be investigated. The present study explored the possible role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in mediating the well-established association between perceived stress and anxiety. We assumed that stress leads...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the construct validity of the Hungarian language version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). A sample of 653 healthcare professionals (420 physicians and 233 nurses and nursing assistants) completed the MBI-HSS. A series of confirmatory factor analyses showed that a hiera...

Grazing, or the uncontrolled, repetitive eating of small amounts of food is being increasingly recognised as an important eating behaviour associated with obesity. In spite of the need for a better understanding of this eating behaviour for improved obesity treatment, currently there is no empirically validated self-report measure to assess grazing...

Among adults, both normal and pathological worrying has been found to be associated with a unique emotional syndrome involving irritability, restlessness, low frustration tolerance and difficulty relaxing. This emotional state is empirically distinguishable from anxiety and depression, and is reliably assessed by the Stress scale of the Depression...

Objective: To explore the role of cognitive emotion regulation (CER) in the association between parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and state anxiety in parents of children undergoing surgery. Method: In a prospective design, parents of 114 children admitted to hospital for planned surgical interventions completed self-report questionnaires assessing...

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; S. H. Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) is a widely used measure of negative affect in adults, both in normal and clinic-referred populations. It was originally developed to assess the full range of core symptoms of anxiety and depression while also providing maximal differentiation between these two affective s...

Avoidance theories propose that worrying results in a reduction of the physiological arousal symptoms of anxiety. However, relatively little is known about the emotional symptoms that remain associated with worrying. This study explored whether the emotional states of anxiety, depression, or stress are specifically associated with excessive and unc...

This study explored the relationships between individuals' ability to tolerate emotional distress to their tendency to worry excessively, the amount of imagery they experience during worrying, and the concreteness of their worrisome thought. A group of 119 university students completed a thought-listing task recording their most severe current worr...

This study explored the factor structure of the short form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995b) in a young adolescent sample. A group of 484 high school students (Mean age=13.62 years, Min=11.83, Max=15.67 years, 52 % boys) completed the DASS-21. Several models were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis....

This study investigated developmental differences in the relationship of probability and cost estimates to worrying. Adults, younger children (M age = 8.67years) and older children (M age = 11.06years) rated the extent to which they worry about a list of negative social and physical outcomes and provided subjective probability and cost estimates fo...

Worry has been defined as a primarily cognitive process closely related to fear or anxiety. This definition is widely accepted by clinicians and researchers investigating worry and is often provided to research participants, especially to children. The present study aimed to empirically test the proposition that both adults and children conceptuali...

This study explored whether the structure of negative affect in children is similar to that previously found in adults (S. H. Lovibond & P. F. Lovibond, 1995). A sample of 577 7–14-year-old children completed a 76-item questionnaire designed to measure anxiety, depression, and tension/stress, comprising both exploratory items and the full item cont...

Thirty-nine university students monitored their naturally occurring worry episodes for 7 days. They rated each episode in terms of six cognitive content categories, labeled Negative Outcome Anticipation, Problem-Solving Process, Solution Selection, Self-Blame, Rumination, and Palliative Thoughts. The results reinforced previous findings that a larg...

We investigated the cognitive content of worry in 8- to 13-year-old clinic-referred anxious (n = 38) and nonreferred (n = 51) children. The children were interviewed individually. They thought-listed their latest worry episodes, rated the uncontrollability of the episodes, and reported on the strategies they used to terminate worry. Content analyse...

Individuals with Social Phobia (SP) (n = 23) and Panic Disorder (n = 22), and a non-anxious comparison (NAC) group (n = 62) rated the probability and cost of negative outcomes in the physical and the social domains. Overall, participants rated physical events as less probable but more costly than social events. Compared to the non-anxious group, pa...

We were very interested to read the recent, thought-provoking editorial by Andrews et al ( [2002][1]) on the prevention of depression in young people. However, we are concerned that they have understated the important role of genetics in early-onset depression. Contrary to their assertion that the

Major depression was the fourth most important determinant of the burden of human disease in 1990 and is expected to rank second in the world by 2020. It is the principal cause of disability in developed countries and the central question is why the burden of depression is not receding at the same

Cumulative adverse experiences, including negative life events and early childhood adversity, together with parental depression and/or non-supportive school or familial environments, place young people at risk for developing depression. Enhanced life skills and supportive school and family environments can mediate the effect of stressful life event...

Fifty-seven participants were selected to represent a wide range on the dimension of worry proneness. They monitored and listed their worrisome thoughts in a diary for 7 days, and rated the uncontrollability of each recorded worry episode. Content analysis revealed that 48% of worrisome thoughts could be categorized as reflecting a problem-solving...

Eating patterns affect long-term health. Although dietary guidelines now recommend an increase in the consumption of fruit and vegetables and a reduction in daily energy intake derived from sugars and fats, evidence shows that in Australia, the UK and the USA children’s diets are widely discrepant from that which is thought to be desirable for good...