Disease status in African American single mothers with HIV: The role of depressive symptoms.

The association between depressive symptoms and 2 measures of HIV disease status in 73 African American single mothers was examined. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that clinician-rated depressive symptoms predicted subjective, but not objective, parameters of disease status 12 to 14 months later. More symptoms of depression at the first assessment predicted an increase in physical complaints over the course of the study. Results suggest that researchers and clinicians interested in enhancing quality of life among African American single mothers with HIV infection, an understudied population within the HIV–AIDS literature, should consider both subjective and objective measures of the disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male and female body image and dieting in the context of intimate relationships.

The influence of family and peers on dieting and body image is well known, but, despite the centrality of romantic partnerships in the lives of adults, little research has investigated dieting and body image in the context of intimate relationships. This study investigated unhealthy dieting (e.g., skipping meals, vomiting), healthy dieting (e.g., reducing calories, reducing or eliminating snacks), and body satisfaction in intimate relationships in 57 predominantly unmarried couples, who were recruited in a college setting. The within-participant findings replicated prior research showing that women with higher self-esteem and lower depressive symptoms were more satisfied with their own bodies and dieted less. Controlling for body mass index and the relevant self-perceptions of each partner, the across-partner associations showed that men who had more depressive symptoms and were less satisfied with their relationships had female partners who dieted more and were less satisfied with their bodies. In contrast, men dieted more when their female partners had higher self-esteem and fewer depressive symptoms. These results suggest that psychological processes in intimate relationships are linked with dieting and body satisfaction but that these links are different for men and for women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of body image dissatisfaction in obese women: Specificity, severity, and clinical significance.

This study assessed the specificity, severity, and clinical significance of body image dissatisfaction in 79 obese women using the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Examination—Self-Report (J. C. Rosen & J. Reiter, 1996). The vast majority of obese women demonstrated body image dissatisfaction related to their obesity, with almost half reporting the greatest dissatisfaction with their waist or abdomen. On average, they reported significantly more body image dissatisfaction than did 43 nonobese controls. The 2 groups did not differ on self-reported symptoms of depression or self-esteem. Body image dissatisfaction correlated significantly with reports of depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem but was not correlated with body mass index. Results are discussed in terms of the role of body image dissatisfaction in understanding and treating obese individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chronic pain in a community-based sample of men with spinal cord injury: prevalence, severity, and relationship with impairment, disability, handicap, and subjective well-being

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence, severity, and correlates of chronic pain in a community-based sample of men with spinal cord injury (SCI). DESIGN: Survey. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-seven men with SCI randomly selected from a sampling frame solicited from the community. METHOD: Participants completed standardized questionnaires assessing many areas of life, were interviewed in their homes, and underwent a physical examination at a hospital. There they were interviewed by an anesthesiologist regarding chronic pain, and a nurse administered objective pain measures. RESULTS: Seventy-five percent of the men reported chronic pain. Chronic pain was associated with more depressive symptoms, more perceived stress, and poorer self-assessed health. Greater intensity of pain was related to less paralytic impairment, violent etiology, and more perceived stress. Area of the body affected by pain was related to independence and mobility. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the high prevalence of chronic pain in the population with SCI and its relation to disability, handicap, and quality of life, health care providers need to give this issue the same priority given to other SCI health issues. Analysis of individual pain components provides better information than assessing overall pain. It is futile to treat SCI pain without giving full attention to subjective factors.     

Socioeconomic Variation in Attitudes to Eating and Weight in Female Adolescents.

This study was stimulated by J. Sobal and A. J. Stunkard's (1989) theory that differences in deliberate weight control could underlie the socioeconomic gradient in adult weight. Female adolescents (N=1,248) completed measures of socioeconomic status, social norms for weight, weight ideals, attitudes to weight, and weight control behaviors. Higher socioeconomic status adolescents had greater awareness of the social ideals of slimness and had more family and friends who were trying to lose weight. They also defined a lower body mass index as "fat" and were more likely to have used healthy weight control methods. The results support the idea that socioeconomic differences in weight-related attitudes and behaviors may mediate the development of a gradient in weight. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms in individuals with idiopathic subjective dry mouth

It has been known for many centuries that there is a relationship between saliva flow rate and emotional status. The significance of psychological processes in the subjective sensation of a dry mouth has been discussed earlier, and this study deals with the presence of depressive symptoms in individuals with idiopathic subjective sensation of a dry mouth. Depressive symptoms in 94 healthy subjects with normal flow rates for unstimulated and stimulated whole saliva but with a subjective sensation of a dry mouth were assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and compared with healthy age- and gender-matched controls. The subjects with a subjective dry mouth condition were significantly more depressive and also had a significantly higher frequency of depressive symptoms. Depression was found in 21.3% of the individuals with a subjective dry mouth sensation and in 3.2% of the controls. The results of this study indicate that, in some cases, subjective dry mouth may be of psychological origin.     

Cognition and life stress in depression: Cognitive factors and the definition, rating, and generation of negative life events.

The relationship between cognitive factors and different conceptualizations and measures of life stress poses important questions for contemporary theories of depression. The authors examined whether cognitive factors (dysfunctional attitudes and attributional style) are related to the definition, rating, and generation of negative life events. Life events were assessed with both subjective self-report and more objective interview-based methods in endogenously depressed outpatients. The results partially support the hypothesis that cognitive factors are related to definition and severity ratings of self-report measures of particular types of life events. These relationships held primarily for achievement, as compared with interpersonal, events. The results also support the hypothesis that elevated scores on measures of cognition are associated with the number of objectively defined events occurring prior to the onset of depression, suggesting that some patients may generate the life events that in turn may initiate a depressive episode. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support as a mediator in the relation between functional status and quality of life in older adults.

The relations among physical functioning, social support, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction were examined in a national sample of 4,734 adults age 65 and older. Regression analyses were used to examine the relative importance of objective and subjective support measures in understanding the relation between physical impairment and quality of life. Impairment was associated with fewer friendship contacts, fewer family contacts, less perceived belonging support, and less perceived tangible aid, but only measures of perceived support predicted depressive symptomatology. A structural equation modeling approach was then used to explore the mediational role of perceived social support in the relation between impairment and quality of life variables. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that lower reported social support is an important reason for decreases in life satisfaction and increases in depressive symptoms found among older adult populations. Implications for understanding the role of social support in attenuating the effects of physical disability in older adults are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Everyday life memory deficits in pregnant women.

Converging evidence indicates that pregnant women report experiencing problems with memory, but the results of studies using objective measures are ambiguous. The present study investigated potential reason(s) for the discrepancy between findings of subjective and objective memory deficits, as well as potential source(s) of pregnant women's problems with memory. Sixty-one pregnant and 24 nonpregnant women completed a series of memory tests which included field and laboratory measures of prospective memory. Three standardized questionnaires were used to assess subjective aspects of memory. The influence of cortisol, depressed mood, anxiety, physical symptoms, sleep/fatigue, and busyness on pregnancy-related deficits was also examined. The findings revealed objective pregnancy-related deficits on two of the field measures of prospective memory. Pregnancy-related subjective deficits were also detected on all of the questionnaires. In contrast, no objective pregnancy-related deficits were found on the laboratory measures of memory. Increased physical symptoms accounted for one of the objective deficits in memory, while depressed mood and physical symptoms accounted for two of the subjective memory deficits. Collectively, these findings suggest that pregnant women experience everyday life problems with memory that are not readily detected in the laboratory environment. The predominant use of laboratory tests may explain the myriad of previous failures to detect objective deficits in pregnant women's memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life stress, current problems, problem solving, and depressive symptoms: An integrative model.

Hypothesized that a strong association would exist between level of current problems and depressive symptoms in a direct fashion (i.e., the more problems an S had, the higher the likelihood that he/she would experience depressive symptomatology). The model was tested by administering the Beck Depression Inventory, the Life Experiences Survey, and measures of problem-solving behavior and attitudes and current problems to 205 undergraduates. Results from a path analysis generally support the model. Negative life stress was associated with depressive symptoms in both a direct and an indirect manner via level of current problems. Current problems had a significant direct impact on depressive symptoms and an indirect influence via problem solving. The model accounted for 42% of the variance associated with the prediction of depressive symptoms. It is suggested, however, that because the measures were self-report, social desirability factors cannot be ruled out. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obesity as a prospective predictor of depression in adolescent females.

Objective: Both obesity and depression are prominent during adolescence, and it is possible that obesity is a trigger for adolescent depression. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether overweight or obese status contributes to the development of depression in adolescent girls. Design: Participants were 496 adolescent girls who completed interview based measures of depression and had their height and weight measured at four yearly assessments. Repeated measures logistic regressions with generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate whether overweight or obese status were associated with major depression or an increase in depressive symptoms the following year. Main Outcome Measures: Major depression and depressive symptoms were evaluating using a modified version of the K-SADS interview. Overweight and obese status was determined by using standardized protocols to measure height and weight. Results: Results showed that obese status, not overweight status, was associated with future depressive symptoms, but not major depression. This study demonstrated that obesity is a risk factor for depressive symptoms, but not for clinical depression. Conclusions: As depressive symptoms are considered along the spectrum of depression with clinical depression at the high end, these results suggest that weight status could be considered a factor along the pathway of development of depression in some adolescent females. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent girls' and boys' weight-related health behaviors and cognitions: Associations with reputation- and preference-based peer status.

In this study, the authors examined associations between preference- and reputation-based peer status and weight-related behaviors and cognitions for both adolescent boys and girls. Sociometric measures of peer likability and peer-perceived popularity, as well as self-reported measures of body size, dieting behavior, and weight-related cognitions were collected from a sample of 441 adolescents in Grades 11 and 12. Results revealed weight-related cognitions for girls (concerning obesity) and boys (concerning musculature/fitness). Peer-perceived popularity, but not likability, was significantly associated with both boys' and girls' body size and dieting. Lower levels of popularity were associated with heavier body shapes for girls and with both thin and heavier body shapes for boys. Findings suggest that peer status is an important source of social reinforcement associated with weight-related behaviors and cognitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mindfulness is associated with fewer PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems in urban firefighters.

Objective: This study investigated the association between mindfulness, other resilience resources, and several measures of health in 124 urban firefighters. Method: Participants completed health measures of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems and measures of resilience resources including mindfulness, optimism, personal mastery, and social support. The Mindful Awareness and Attention Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003) was used to assess mindfulness. Participants also completed measures of firefighter stress, number of calls, and years as a firefighter as control variables. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with the health measures as the dependent variables with 3 levels of independent variables: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) firefighter variables, and (c) resilience resources. Results: The results showed that mindfulness was associated with fewer PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and alcohol problems when controlling for the other study variables. Personal mastery and social support were also related to fewer depressive symptoms, firefighter stress was related to more PTSD symptoms and alcohol problems, and years as a firefighter were related to fewer alcohol problems. Conclusions: Mindfulness may be important to consider and include in models of stress, coping, and resilience in firefighters. Future studies should examine the prospective relationship between mindfulness and health in firefighters and others in high-stress occupations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences and adolescent depression.

This study investigates the role of certain psychosocial variables—sex, age, body image/self-esteem, self-consciousness, stressful life events, and the degree to which an individual identifies with the cultural stereotype of masculinity—as correlates and antecedents to depression in adolescents and explores possible intraindividual mediators of the stress–depression relationship in adolescents. A battery of self-report measures was administered to public high school students in Grades 9–12 in their classrooms at two different times 1 month apart. Female adolescents reported more depressive symptoms, self-consciousness, stressful recent events, feminine attributes, and negative body image and self-esteem; no age effects were obtained. Results suggest a model of adolescent depression in which body image/self-esteem and stressful recent events are significant contributors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms, stress, and weight concerns among African American and European American low-income female smokers.

The relationships between perceived stress, depressive symptoms, concern about weight gain and smoking dependence were examined among 83 European American and 175 African American female smokers bringing children to pediatric clinics serving a low-income population. Among African American women, but not European American women, greater stress and more depressive symptoms predicted greater smoking dependence, and less concern about weight gain predicted greater smoking dependence. Multivariate analyses confirmed the bivariate relationships among stress, depressive symptoms, and smoking dependence among African American women but reduced the relationship between weight concern and smoking dependence. The stronger relationships among stress, depressive symptoms, and smoking dependence among African American women may be indicative of smoking patterns more associated with affect regulation than are the smoking patterns of European American women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shame, guilt, and depressive symptoms: A meta-analytic review.

Recent theoretical and empirical work has facilitated the drawing of sharp conceptual distinctions between shame and guilt. A clear view of these distinctions has permitted development of a research literature aimed at evaluating the differential associations of shame and guilt with depressive symptoms. This study quantitatively summarized the magnitude of associations of shame and guilt with depressive symptoms. Two hundred forty-two effect sizes were obtained from 108 studies employing 22,411 participants. Shame showed significantly stronger associations with depressive symptoms (r = .43) than guilt (r = .28). However, the association of shame and depressive symptoms was statistically indistinguishable from the associations of 2 maladaptive variants of guilt and depressive symptoms (contextual-maladaptive guilt, involving exaggerated responsibility for uncontrollable events, r = .39; generalized guilt, involving “free-floating” guilt divorced from specific contexts, r = .42). Other factors also moderated the effects. External shame, which involves negative views of self as seen through the eyes of others, was associated with larger effect sizes (r = .56) than internal shame (r = .42), which involves negative views of self as seen through one's own eyes. Depressive symptom measures that invoked the term guilt yielded stronger associations between guilt and depressive symptoms (r = .33) than depressive symptom measures that did not (r = .21). Age, sex, and ethnicity (proportion of Whites to Asians) did not moderate the effects. Although these correlational data are ambiguous with respect to their causal interpretation, results suggest that shame should figure more prominently in understandings of the emotional underpinnings of depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in mapping genes for eating disorders

The purpose of this study was to obtain information about the prevalence of depressive symptoms in a representative sample of elderly subjects aged 85 years and over. The study was carried out as a population-based interview study in the City of Vantaa in Finland. The Zung Depression Status Inventory (DSI) was used to evaluate various depressive symptoms in this study population. The DSI scores range from 20 to 80; the higher the score, the more severe the disturbance. In subjects interviewed (n = 467, 362 women, 105 men), the prevalence estimates of depression with cutoff scores used in earlier studies (40 and 48) were very low: 5.2% and 1.1%. Also, the mean DSI score (SD) was very low, 27.9 (6.4). The scores tended to decrease with age, although the differences were not statistically significant. The DSI means were 28.0 (6.1) for women and 27.3 (7.2) for men (p = .0349). Women had a greater risk of being classified as depressed on the DSI (odds ratio: 1.60, 95% confidence interval: 1.00-2.57, p = .049). Feelings of emptiness, personal devaluation, and depressive mood were the most common depressive symptoms. In conclusion, the present population-based study shows that subjective experience of depression is very rare in Finnish people aged 85+. Our results suggest that optimistic mood might give some protection against death.     

Smoking, body weight, and their effects on smoking behavior: A comprehensive review of the literature.

This article provides a comprehensive review of the research on smoking and body weight. The relationships between smoking and body weight are evaluated in 70 cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations. The mechanisms responsible for differences in body weight are discussed, the weight-related issues that promote smoking behavior are reviewed, methods for reducing postcessation weight gain are summarized, and future research directions are proposed. A proposed working research model for studying the relationship between smoking, energy balance, and weight gain is offered. It is concluded that smoking and body weight relationships are closely related and pose significant challenges for smoking researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality, negative social interactions, and depressive symptoms.

Examined the associations among the frequency of negative social interactions, personality traits, and depressive symptoms in university students. 176 Ss completed measures of negative social interactions, sociotropy, autonomy, perfectionism, and depressive symptoms. It was found in the total sample that higher depression symptoms scores were correlated significantly with the frequency of negative social interactions, sociotropy, autonomy, and socially prescribed perfectionism. Additional results indicate that the frequency of negative social interactions accounted for unique variance in depressive symptoms over and above the variance predicted by personality traits, but it did not interact with these personality traits to predict unique variance in depressive symptoms. It was also found that the reported frequency of negative social interactions was correlated positively with socially prescribed perfectionism, sociotropy, and autonomy, especially among women. The current findings are discussed in terms of their implications for specific vulnerability and stress generation models of personality, life events, and depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived income inadequacy as a predictor of psychological distress in Alzheimer's caregivers.

The authors examined perceived income inadequacy as a predictor of self-reported depressive symptomatology and anxiety in the original sites of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health I project. Perceived income inadequacy, self-reported household income, and control factors (e.g., subjective health) were entered into hierarchical regression analyses predicting psychological distress. Findings suggest that perceived income inadequacy and not household income significantly predicted more self-reported depressive symptomatology and greater self-reported anxiety. This supports previous findings that objective income measures alone are not adequate indicators of socioeconomic status in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)