"Psychosocial outcomes of breast-conserving surgery versus mastectomy: A meta-analytic review": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by A. Moyer (Health Psychology, 1997, 16[3], 284–298). On page 288, Table 1 contained an error which has implications for some of the data in Table 3 on page 291. Specifically, the study by P. A. Ganz et al (1992), was incorrectly described as a study that randomized patients to treatment, when in fact this study should have been described as not randomized. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1997-06152-012). Effective breast-conserving surgical techniques for early-stage disease were developed to improve breast cancer patients' quality of life. The literature comparing the psychosocial sequelae of these newer treatments with mastectomy is ambiguous and shows an unexpected lack of substantial benefits. To clarify these inconsistencies, meta-analytic methods were used to summarize the findings of 40 investigations. Mean weighted effect sizes were calculated for 6 psychosocial outcomes. Modest advantages for breast-conserving surgery were identified for psychological, marital-sexual, and social adjustment; body/self-image; and cancer-related fears and concerns. Method of assignment to treatment and timing of assessment were relevant for some outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child adjustment in joint-custody versus sole-custody arrangements: A meta-analytic review.

The author meta-analyzed studies comparing child adjustment in joint physical or joint legal custody with sole-custody settings, including comparisons with paternal custody and intact families where possible. Children in joint physical or legal custody were better adjusted than children in sole-custody settings, but no different from those in intact families. More positive adjustment of joint-custody children held for separate comparisons of general adjustment, family relationships, self-esteem, emotional and behavioral adjustment, and divorce-specific adjustment. Joint-custody parents reported less current and past conflict than did sole-custody parents, but this did not explain the better adjustment of joint-custody children. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that joint custody can be advantageous for children in some cases, possibly by facilitating ongoing positive involvement with both parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial outcomes of sex reassignment surgery.

Reviews research on sex-reassignment surgery. Investigations, all but a handful of which are preexperimental, are classified as prequantitative or quantitative. Data are evaluated in relation to methodological rigor, with special attention paid to the controversial Hopkins study reported by J. K. Meyer and D. J. Reter (see record 1981-01871-001), which found that sex reassignment conferred no advantage in terms of social rehabilitation. Approximately two-thirds of those undergoing sex-change procedures were improved at follow-up. Females-to-males enjoyed somewhat greater success than males-to-females, almost 10% of whom suffered a serious complication. The lack of control groups frustrates the effort to attribute either the improvement or the possible casualties to the surgical intervention. These conclusions are integrated with the findings of previous reviews based on the disproportionately case historical pre-1980 data. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's friendship relations: A meta-analytic review.

Children's friendships represent mutual dyadic relationships that differ from peer relations, which have lesser affective ties. This meta-analytic review fit categorical models (L. V. Hedges, 1982) to examine the behavioral and affective manifestations of children's friendships as evinced by comparisons of friends and nonfriends. Analysis of our broadband categories revealed that friendships, compared with nonfriend relations, are characterized by more intense social activity, more frequent conflict resolution, and more effective task performance. Also, relationships between friends are marked by reciprocal and intimate properties of affiliation. At the level of narrowband categories, friendship relations afford a context for social and emotional growth. These behavioral and affective manifestations of friendship are moderated by the age level of participants, the strength of the relationship, and the methodology of the study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and immunity: A meta-analytic review.

A meta-analysis indicated that clinical depression was associated with several large alterations in cellular immunity. Analyzing only methodologically sound studies, reliable immune alterations included lowered proliferative response of lymphocytes to mitogens (effect size rs?=?.24–.45), lowered natural killer cell activity (r?=?.28), and alterations in numbers of several white blood cell populations (rs?=?.11–.77). Immune alterations were greater in both older and hospitalized samples. There was also evidence of a linear relation between intensity of depressive affect and indicators of cellular immunity. Estimates of sample sizes needed to detect reliable effects for each immune outcome are provided. How neuroendocrine mechanisms or health practices might link depression to immunity is discussed, and design features needed to better understand these pathways are specified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review.

Self-disclosure plays a central role in the development and maintenance of relationships. One way that researchers have explored these processes is by studying the links between self-disclosure and liking. Using meta-analytic procedures, the present work sought to clarify and review this literature by evaluating the evidence for 3 distinct disclosure-liking effects. Significant disclosure-liking relations were found for each effect: (1) People who engage in intimate disclosures tend to be liked more than people who disclose at lower levels, (2) people disclose more to those whom they initially like, and (3) people like others as a result of having disclosed to them. In addition, the relation between disclosure and liking was moderated by a number of variables, including study paradigm, type of disclosure, and gender of the discloser. Taken together, these results suggest that various disclosure-liking effects can be integrated and viewed as operating together within a dynamic interpersonal system. Implications for theory development are discussed, and avenues for future research are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of relapse prevention: A meta-analytic review.

Although relapse prevention (RP) has become a widely adopted cognitive-behavioral treatment intervention for alcohol, smoking, and other substance use, outcome studies have yielded an inconsistent picture of the efficacy of this approach or conditions for maximal effectiveness. A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of RP and the extent to which certain variables may relate to treatment outcome. Twenty-six published and unpublished studies with 70 hypothesis tests representing a sample of 9,504 participants were included in the analysis. Results indicated that RP was generally effective, particularly for alcohol problems. Additionally, outcome was moderated by several variables. Specifically, RP was most effective when applied to alcohol or polysubstance use disorders, combined with the adjunctive use of medication, and when evaluated immediately following treatment using uncontrolled pre–post tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious involvement and mortality: A meta-analytic review.

A meta-analysis of data from 42 independent samples examining the association of a measure of religious involvement and all-cause mortality is reported. Religious involvement was significantly associated with lower mortality (odds ratio?=?1.29; 95% confidence interval: 1.20–1.39), indicating that people high in religious involvement were more likely to be alive at follow-up than people lower in religious involvement. Although the strength of the religious involvement–mortality association varied as a function of several moderator variables, the association of religious involvement and mortality was robust and on the order of magnitude that has come to be expected for psychosocial factors. Conclusions did not appear to be due to publication bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional style in depression: A meta-analytic review.

Conducted a meta-analysis of the attribution–depression relation in studies appearing in the clinical, social, personality, and educational literatures. In 104 studies involving nearly 15,000 Ss, several attributional patterns had reliable associations with depression scores. For negative events, attributions to internal, stable, and global causes had a reliable and significant association with depression. Studies in which the attribution factors of ability and luck were measured also showed a reliable association with depression. Ability and luck attribution factors for positive events were also associated with depression. The relations for positive events, however, were weaker than the corresponding ones for negative events. In general, these patterns of relations were independent of a number of potential mediators suggested by authors in this literature, including the type of S studied (psychiatric vs college student), the type of event about which the attribution is made (real vs simulated), the depression measure used, or the publication status of the research report. Conclusions are compared with those of other reviews. Implications for attributional models of depression are discussed. (81 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurocognition in first-episode schizophrenia: A meta-analytic review.

Compromised neurocognition is a core feature of schizophrenia. Following Heinrichs and Zakzanis’s (1998) seminal meta-analysis of middle-aged and predominantly chronic schizophrenia samples, the aim of this study is to provide a meta-analysis of neurocognitive findings from 47 studies of first-episode (FE) schizophrenia published through October 2007. The meta-analysis uses 43 separate samples of 2,204 FE patients with a mean age of 25.5 and 2,775 largely age- and gender-matched control participants. FE samples demonstrated medium-to-large impairments across 10 neurocognitive domains (mean effect sizes from ?0.64 to ?1.20). Findings indicate that impairments are reliably and broadly present by the FE, approach or match the degree of deficit shown in well-established illness, and are maximal in immediate verbal memory and processing speed. Larger IQ impairments in the FE compared to the premorbid period, but comparable to later phases of illness suggests deterioration between premorbid and FE phases followed by deficit stability at the group level. Considerable heterogeneity of effect sizes across studies, however, underscores variability in manifestations of the illness and a need for improved reporting of sample characteristics to support moderator variable analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between stress and depression in first onsets versus recurrences: A meta-analytic review.

S. M. Monroe and K. L. Harkness (see record 2005-02750-005) reviewed the empirical evidence supporting R. M. Post's (see record 1992-43211-001) kindling model, which suggests the 1st episode of depression is more likely to be preceded by major stressors than are subsequent episodes. Their review highlighted the diverse interpretations of Post's premise in the current literature and the changes in research methods that have contributed to this interpretive shift. The authors conducted a meta-analysis (N=13 studies) to test Post's premise that integrated early and recent research and examined potential moderators. A proportion difference effect size was used. Results indicated that 1st onsets of depression were more likely than recurrences to be preceded by severe life events, supporting Post's premise. The moderator analyses suggested that support may be most evident in patient samples and may vary according to age and gender, with less support for Post's premise evidenced in younger samples and in women. Although these results are preliminary, as the analysis included a small number of studies, they suggest that future research should further examine factors that influence the stress-depression relationship with successive recurrences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived discrimination and health: A meta-analytic review.

Perceived discrimination has been studied with regard to its impact on several types of health effects. This meta-analysis provides a comprehensive account of the relationships between multiple forms of perceived discrimination and both mental and physical health outcomes. In addition, this meta-analysis examines potential mechanisms by which perceiving discrimination may affect health, including through psychological and physiological stress responses and health behaviors. Analysis of 134 samples suggests that when weighting each study’s contribution by sample size, perceived discrimination has a significant negative effect on both mental and physical health. Perceived discrimination also produces significantly heightened stress responses and is related to participation in unhealthy and nonparticipation in healthy behaviors. These findings suggest potential pathways linking perceived discrimination to negative health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods.

The authors tested a model of antecedents and outcomes of newcomer adjustment using 70 unique samples of newcomers with meta-analytic and path modeling techniques. Specifically, they proposed and tested a model in which adjustment (role clarity, self-efficacy, and social acceptance) mediated the effects of organizational socialization tactics and information seeking on socialization outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, intentions to remain, and turnover). The results generally supported this model. In addition, the authors examined the moderating effects of methodology on these relationships by coding for 3 methodological issues: data collection type (longitudinal vs. cross-sectional), sample characteristics (school-to-work vs. work-to-work transitions), and measurement of the antecedents (facet vs. composite measurement). Discussion focuses on the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic review of social, self-concept, and behavioral outcomes of peer-assisted learning.

Meta-analysis was used to examine social, self-concept, and behavioral effects of peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students. An electronic search of PsycINFO and ERIC databases resulted in 36 relevant PAL studies. Overall, effect sizes were small to moderate across the 3 outcome variable domains. Both social and self-concept outcomes were positively correlated with academic outcomes. Specific PAL components--student autonomy, individualized evaluation, structured student roles, interdependent group rewards, and same-gender grouping--were related to effect sizes. PAL interventions were more effective for low-income versus higher income, urban versus suburban-rural, minority versus nonminority, and Grades 1-3 students versus Grades 4-6 students. Results suggest that PAL interventions that focus on academics can also improve social and self-concept outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prominent consequences of role stress: A meta-analytic review.

Role stress has received a lot of research attention in psychological, sociological, and organizational studies over the last several decades. Based on a literature review of about 300 journal articles, this article examines prominent consequences of role stress. Specific focus is on researching differences in relationships between facets of role stress (i.e., role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload) and frequently cited consequences using techniques of meta-analysis. Findings indicate that each role stress facet has a different relationship with the eight consequences studied. Role stress research can benefit from looking at each facet individually in addition to role stress generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in occupational stress: A meta-analytic review.

Meta-analysis was performed on 15 studies that examined sex differences in occupational stress. Contrary to previous qualitative literature reviews, these results indicate that there are no sex differences in experienced and perceived work stress. Moderator analyses were conducted. Because null results were obtained, a discussion of empirical and theoretical shortcomings in the sex-occupational stress literature was presented for consideration by future researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elevated blood pressure and personality: A meta-analytic review.

A meta-analysis of 295 relevant effect sizes obtained from 25,469 participants confirmed expectations that elevated blood pressure (BP) and essential hypertension (EH) would be associated with lower affect expression but with more negative affectivity and defensiveness. The strongest associations occurred for defensiveness and measures of anger and affect expression linked to an interpersonal context(s). However. a number of other factors also were found to moderate associations of BP with personality measures, including awareness of BP status, gender, occupation, and diastolic versus systolic BP assessment. Given these moderators, the authors conclude that a traditional view of personality causing EH is untenable and that. not incorporating multifactorial, synergistic approaches is likely to obscure associations of personality–behavior with EH. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culturally adapted mental health intervention: A meta-analytic review.

There is a pressing need to enhance the availability and quality of mental health services provided to persons from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups. Many previous authors have advocated that traditional mental health treatments be modified to better match clients' cultural contexts. Numerous studies evaluating culturally adapted interventions have appeared, and the present study used meta-analytic methodology to summarize these data. Across 76 studies the resulting random effects weighted average effect size was d = .45, indicating a moderately strong benefit of culturally adapted interventions. Interventions targeted to a specific cultural group were four times more effective than interventions provided to groups consisting of clients from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Interventions conducted in clients' native language (if other than English) were twice as effective as interventions conducted in English. Recommendations are provided for improving the study of outcomes associated with mental health interventions adapted to the cultural context of the client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational interviewing for smoking cessation: A meta-analytic review.

Objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) is a treatment approach that has been widely examined as an intervention for tobacco dependence and is recommended in clinical practice guidelines. Previous reviews evaluating the efficacy of MI for smoking cessation noted effects that were modest in magnitude but included few studies. The current study is a comprehensive meta-analysis of MI for smoking cessation. Method: The meta-analysis included 31 controlled trials with an abstinence outcome variable. Studies with nonpregnant (N = 23) and pregnant samples (N = 8) were analyzed separately. Results: For nonpregnant samples, combined results suggest that MI significantly outperformed comparison conditions at long-term follow-up points (dc = .17). The magnitudes of this result represented a 2.3% difference in abstinence rates between MI and comparison groups. All analyses investigating the impact of moderating participant, intervention, and study design characteristics on outcome were nonsignificant, with the exception of studies including international, non-U.S. samples, which had larger effects overall. Several subgroups of studies had significant combined effect sizes, pointing to potentially promising applications of MI, including studies that had participants with young age, medical comorbidities, low tobacco dependence, and, consistent with clinical practice guidelines, low motivation or intent to quit. Effects were smaller among pregnant samples. In addition, significant combined effect sizes were observed among subgroups of studies that administered less than 1 hr of MI and among studies that reported high levels of treatment fidelity. Conclusions: The results are interpreted in light of other behavioral approaches to smoking cessation, and the public health implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child witnesses to domestic violence: A meta-analytic review.

This meta-analysis examined 118 studies of the psychosocial outcomes of children exposed to interparental violence. Correlational studies showed a significant association between exposure and child problems (d? = -0.29). Group comparison studies showed that witnesses had significantly worse outcomes relative to nonwitnesses (d? = -0.40) and children from verbally aggressive homes (d? = -0.28), but witnesses' outcomes were not significantly different from those of physically abused children (d? = 0.15) or physically abused witnesses (d? = 0.13). Several methodological variables moderated these results. Similar effects were found across a range of outcomes, with slight evidence for greater risk among preschoolers. Recommendations for future research are made, taking into account practical and theoretical issues in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)