Age differences in a sample of state vocational rehabilitation clients with traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To examine the relations among age, neuropsychological functioning, and vocational rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Study Design and Participants: Prospective study of 78 adults (18-57 years) who qualified for services with the Missouri Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), based on a history of TBI followed from enrollment to case closure. Group differences based on age were examined for neuropsychological and vocational outcome with multivariate analysis of variance and nonparametric methods. Main Outcome Measures: Neuropsychological test data and DVR data regarding vocational placement. Results: Age-related differences were present for a measure of mental flexibility, isolated demographic characteristics, and 1 DVR service category. Contrary to hypotheses, there were no age-related differences in vocational outcome. Conclusions: In contrast to hospital-based samples, age does not appear to be a negative indicator for individuals admitted to a state DVR program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primary- and secondary-control strategies in later life: Predicting hospital outcomes in men and women.

Community-dwelling individuals (n = 143, 73-98 years old) were assessed to consider if their use of task-specific control strategies predicted hospital outcomes in the subsequent 2 years. The authors were interested in whether men and women facing health-induced task restrictions benefited equally from the use of primary- and secondary-control strategies. Gender interacted with primary-control strategies; men's more frequent use of these proactive strategies generally related to fewer hospital admissions. Gender also interacted with secondary-control strategies; women's more frequent use of compensatory (self-protective) strategies corresponded to fewer hospital admissions and shorter hospital stay durations. Taken together, our findings suggest that men benefit by adopting certain primary-control strategies and women benefit by adopting certain compensatory secondary-control strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in the study of stress and coping in rehabilitation settings.

The purpose of this article is to assist rehabilitation researchers in making decisions about the design and conduct of stress and coping research. The authors offer a selective review of the stress and coping literatures, with a focus on rehabilitation-specific work. The authors first address stress, focusing on different definitions and on how it relates to adaptation, and then consider coping, focusing on the levels at which coping operates, its relation to features of the situation, and its influence on adjustment. The authors urge researchers to collect additional data, including assessing changes over time, and to examine multiple aspects of stressful experiences to better capture the complexity of stress and coping processes. Researchers should specify the nature of the coping construct used, use assessment methods clearly linked to the facet of the coping construct being examined, and investigate specific mechanisms by which coping influences rehabilitation outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Barrier self-efficacy and physical activity over a 12-month period in men and women who do and do not attend cardiac rehabilitation.

Objectives: Two primary objectives were to examine (a) changes in physical activity (PA) over a 12-month period in people living with cardiac disease who did not attend cardiac rehabilitation (CR), and (b) the role of barrier self-efficacy in explaining these changes from a gender perspective. A secondary objective was to examine whether attending CR (or not) moderated the gender-barrier self-efficacy relationship with PA. Design and Setting: Participants (N=801) completed a questionnaire in the hospital and at 2, 6, and 12 months after hospitalization, as well as a telephone-administered 7-day PA recall at 2, 6, and 12 months. Main Outcome Measures: PA and barrier self-efficacy. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling showed significant declines in PA over time, which were especially pronounced for women. Moreover, the association between barrier self-efficacy and PA became significantly weaker over time, especially for women. This trend was similar for participants who did and did not attend CR. Conclusion: Interventions that focus on increasing barrier self-efficacy in people living with heart disease after hospitalization will likely equally benefit men and women in the short term but may disproportionately benefit men in the longer term regardless of participation in CR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Well-being and organizational attitudes in alternative employment: The role of contract and job preferences.

This study focuses upon the heterogeneity in the contemporary workforce in relation to well-being and organizational attitudes. This heterogeneity may concern (a) the specific type of contract (permanent full-time vs. alternative arrangements; e.g., permanent part-time, fixed-term, and on-call work), (b) job and contract preferences, or (c) specific combinations of contract type and preferences. The authors argue that working in alternative employment, but also being in a nonpreferred contract or job may imply stress and, hence, strain (i.e., poor well-being). This may lead to withdrawal from the organization (i.e., poor organizational attitudes). A combination of the stressors may strengthen these effects. Analyses of questionnaire data from Sweden collected in 2004 (N = 716) reveal that preferences, particularly preferences for the job and partly also for the contract, were associated with the outcomes. Contract heterogeneity was not informative for well-being, while it was for differences in reported organizational attitudes. Type of employment contract interacted with job and contract preferences: for permanent full-time workers, job preferences displayed stronger associations with well-being and attitudes than for workers in alternative employment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of performance anxiety in the development and maintenance of sexual dysfunction in men and women.

The current study evaluated the association between attitudes toward sex, stress, relationship quality, performance anxiety, and sexual dysfunction among 157 men (114 dysfunctional, 43 functional) and 186 women (84 dysfunctional, 102 functional). The results demonstrate that the main factors related to all types of sexual dysfunction among men were attitudes toward sex, conflict in their relationship, and performance anxiety. For women, the main factors related to all types of sexual dysfunction were attitudes toward sex, relationship quality, and performance anxiety. These results demonstrate the central role of performance anxiety in either the development or maintenance of sexual dysfunction among both men and women. Clearly, this is an area that has to be considered in any treatment program for sexual dysfunction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are changes in blood pressure and total cholesterol related to changes in mood? An 18-month study of men and women.

The authors investigated the within-person association of reported mood with blood pressure and total cholesterol (TC) levels, each assessed 4 times over an 18-month period in 128 men and 154 women. Change over time in tense arousal was significantly positively associated with changes over time in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) but not TC. A change in hedonic tone was significantly associated with SBP (an increase in negative affect was associated with an increase in SBP) but not with DBP or TC. There were no sex differences in associations of mood with SBP or TC. However, increases in tense arousal and negative affect were significantly associated with an increase in DBP for women but not men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)