Anxiety sensitivity and panic reactivity to bodily sensations: Relation to quit-day (acute) nicotine withdrawal symptom severity among daily smokers making a self-guided quit attempt.

The current investigation explored the main and interactive effects of panic attacks in response to laboratory-induced bodily sensations and anxiety sensitivity in predicting acute nicotine withdrawal symptoms among daily smokers making a self-guided quit attempt. Participants were 99 daily smokers (58% women; Mage = 28.4 years, SD = 11.7) who completed a battery of questionnaires, a voluntary hyperventilation challenge, and a measure of nicotine withdrawal symptoms 12 hr after making a self-guided quit attempt. Results indicated that the interaction of anxiety sensitivity and panic responsivity to the challenge predicted quit-day nicotine withdrawal symptom severity above and beyond the main effects (p     

Changes in smoking behaviors from late childhood to adolescence: Insights from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

Objective: To examine smoking behaviors in Canadian youth from late childhood to adolescence. By following participants from as young as 10 and 11 years, the authors proposed to identify distinct developmental pathways of smoking acquisition. Design: Growth mixture modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories of smoking among 10- to 17-year-old participants of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Main Outcome Measures: Developmental trajectories of trying smoking, smoking frequency, and smoking intensity. Results: Five developmental trajectories related to smoking frequency were identified, of which 2 were acquisition patterns that led to daily smoking at age 16-17, and 3 were experimentation patterns that led to nonsmoking at age 16-17. The largest variability in changes in smoking behavior over time was the reported level of smoking frequency. Conclusion: Analysis showed that there is more than 1 way in which Canadian children and adolescents acquire smoking behaviors over time. The authors were able to differentiate patterns of experimentation from patterns of acquisition. Whereas experimentation has been generally considered as 1 of the stages in the smoking acquisition process leading to regular smoking, these results indicate that experimentation can be described as a distinct process in itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social norms and the expression and suppression of prejudice: The struggle for internalization.

The authors studied social norms and prejudice using M. Sherif and C. W. Sherif's (1953) group norm theory of attitudes. In 7 studies (N=1, 504), social norms were measured and manipulated to examine their effects on prejudice; both normatively proscribed and normatively prescribed forms of prejudice were included. The public expression of prejudice toward 105 social groups was very highly correlated with social approval of that expression. Participants closely adhere to social norms when expressing prejudice, evaluating scenarios of discrimination, and reacting to hostile jokes. The authors reconceptualized the source of motivation to suppress prejudice in terms of identifying with new reference groups and adapting oneself to fit new norms. Suppression scales seem to measure patterns of concern about group norms rather than personal commitments to reducing prejudice; high suppressors are strong norm followers. Compared with low suppressors, high suppressors follow normative rules more closely and are more strongly influenced by shifts in local social norms. There is much value in continuing the study of normative influence and self-adaptation to social norms, particularly in terms of the group norm theory of attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the associations among severity of injunctive drinking norms, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related negative consequences: The moderating roles of alcohol consumption and identity.

This study examined a range of injunctive norms for alcohol use and related consequences from less severe behaviors (e.g., drinking with friends) to more severe behaviors (e.g., drinking enough alcohol to pass out), and their relationship with alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative consequences among college students. In addition, this research aimed to determine whether these relationships between injunctive norms and consequences were moderated by alcohol consumption and level of identification with the typical same-gender college student. A random sample (N = 1,002) of undergraduates (56.9% women) completed a Web-based survey that was comprised of measures of drinking behavior, perceived approval of drinking behaviors that ranged in severity (i.e., injunctive norms), and level of identification with the typical same-gender college student. Results suggest that the association between negative consequences and injunctive drinking norms depend on one's own drinking behavior, identification with other students, and the severity of the alcohol use and related consequences for which injunctive norms are assessed. Findings are discussed in terms of false consensus and false uniqueness effects, and deviance regulation perspectives. Implications for preventive interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nicotine dependence subtypes among adolescent smokers: Examining the occurrence, development and validity of distinct symptom profiles.

To increase understanding of the etiology and epidemiology of nicotine dependence among adolescent smokers, the present study examined the occurrence and development of distinct nicotine dependence symptom profiles in a sample of adolescent smokers. A total of 25 secondary schools throughout the Netherlands participated in a 1-year longitudinal study. Multiple dimensions of nicotine dependence were assessed, at two time points, among 641 adolescents (aged 14–17 years) who were classified as smokers. Results showed 4 distinct, yet stable, nicotine dependence subtypes that could be characterized by quantitative as well as qualitative differences. The symptom profiles were similar for males and females but differentially associated with previously identified correlates of nicotine dependence, namely parental smoking, peer smoking, and depressive mood. Finally, differential links of the 4 subtypes were found with regard to smoking uptake and cessation. The finding of qualitative different subgroups of adolescent smokers may have important implications for intervention efforts regarding nicotine dependence and smoking cessation. Such efforts may need to be tailored to the specific subgroups’ needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathway to health: Cluster-randomized trail to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among smokers in public housing.

Objectives: Examine the effectiveness of an intervention to increase fruits and vegetables (FV) consumption among smokers. Design: Cluster-randomized trial of 20 public housing developments; 10 randomly assigned to an FV intervention and 10 to a smoking cessation intervention. Main outcome measures: Usual (past 7 days) and past 30 days change in daily FV intake at 8 weeks and 6 months postbaseline. Results: Greater increases were seen in the FV group. At Week 8 and Month 6, the FV group had consumed 1.58 (p = .001) and 0.78 (p = .04), respectively, more daily FV servings in the past 7 days than the cessation group. At the same time points, the FV group had consumed 3.61 (p = .01) and 3.93 (p = .01), respectively, more FV servings in the past 30 days than the cessation group. Completing more motivational interviewing sessions (p = .02) and trying more recipes (p = .02) led to significantly greater increases at Month 6 among FV participants. Conclusions: Motivational interviewing counseling and lifestyle modification through trying out healthy recipes may be effective in helping a high-risk population increase their FV intake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial adjustment among cancer survivors: Findings from a national survey of health and well-being.

Objective: The current study examined whether cancer survivors showed impairment, resilience, or growth responses relative to a sociodemographically matched sample in four domains: mental health and mood, psychological well-being, social well-being, and spirituality. The impact of aging on psychosocial adjustment was also investigated. Design: Participants were 398 cancer survivors who were participants in the MIDUS survey (Midlife in the United States) and 796 matched respondents with no cancer history. Psychosocial assessments were completed in 1995–1996 and 2004–2006. Main Outcome Measures: Outcomes including self-report measures of mental health and mood, psychological well-being, social well-being, and spirituality. Results: Findings indicated that cancer survivors demonstrated impairment relative to the comparison group in mental health, mood, and some aspects of psychological well-being. Longitudinal analyses spanning pre- and postdiagnosis clarified that while mental health declined after a cancer diagnosis, poorer functioning in other domains existed prior to diagnosis. However, survivors exhibited resilient social well-being, spirituality, and personal growth. Moreover, age appeared to confer resiliency; older survivors were more likely than younger adults to show psychosocial functioning equivalent to their peers. Conclusion: While younger survivors may be at risk for disturbances in mental health and mood, cancer survivors show resilience in other important domains of psychosocial adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What predicts good relationships with parents in adolescence and partners in adult life: Findings from the 1958 British birth cohort.

This study drew on data from the National Child Development Study to explore the role of father involvement and mother involvement at age 7 in father-child and mother-child relations at age 16, and the role of closeness to father and closeness to mother at age 16 in quality of relationship with partner at age 33. Closeness to mother was associated with closeness to father, intact family structure and academic motivation, and closeness to father with closeness to mother, early father involvement, less emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence, male gender and academic motivation. Closeness to father at age 16 was more strongly related to level of father involvement at age 7 for daughters than for sons and to closeness to mother for sons than for daughters. Marital adjustment at age 33 was related to good relationships with siblings, mother, and father at age 16; less current psychological distress; female gender; and educational attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The development of verbal memory in childhood and adolescence: Findings from the Munich Longitudinal Study.

The authors assessed developmental changes in verbal memory from the beginning of elementary school to late adolescence on the basis of data from the Munich Longitudinal Study. Major issues concern the stability of individual differences in strategy use as well as interrelationships among different components of verbal memory and the impact of educational context on verbal memory development. Long-term stability of strategic memory was low to moderate in late childhood and adolescence. Interrelations among the verbal memory components were also moderate and did not change much over time. Unexpectedly, no impact of educational context was found. Overall, individual differences in verbal memory performance develop very early in life and are relatively unaffected by differences in educational experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trajectories and determinants of alcohol use among LGB young adults and their heterosexual peers: Results from a prospective study.

Lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (LGBs) are at increased risk for alcohol use during young adulthood, but the mechanisms remain inadequately understood. The aim of the present study was to examine the trajectories and determinants of alcohol use among LGB young adults who were sampled prospectively. The sample included 111 LGB individuals (47 women and 64 men) and 2,109 heterosexuals (1,279 women and 830 men), who were assessed at three time points: during the summer after their senior year of high school and during the fall and spring of their freshman year of college. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that lesbians consumed more alcohol than their heterosexual peers during high school, whereas gay men increased their alcohol use at greater rates than heterosexual men during the initial transition to college. Positive alcohol expectancies and social norms mediated this relation for both men and women. The results extend the generalizability of these processes and highlight the importance of considering normative social-cognitive influences in the development of alcohol use among LGB young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in psychosis: Findings from a first-admission cohort.

This study examined the lifetime prevalence of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their demographic, diagnostic, and trauma-related correlates in a clinical cohort of 426 patients with a first psychiatric admission for psychosis. The prevalence of trauma exposure was 68.5%. Female gender and substance abuse were risk factors for trauma exposure. The prevalence of PTSD was 14.3% in the full sample and 26.5% in those with trauma exposure. PTSD was less prevalent in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and was twice as common in women. Other significant risk factors were younger age and trauma exposure that was repeated and ongoing or that involved childhood victimization. The findings highlight the importance of systematically ascertaining trauma histories in patients with psychotic disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition.

Reviews the book, The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition by Neil McKinnon Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (2007). In 1969, Neil Agnew and Sandra Pyke published the first edition of The Science Game, a 182-page survey of the major components of what they call the game of "sciencing," a game, they claim, that "like all other games of consequence, is a mixture of art, enterprise, and invention held loosely together by man-made rules." Using the same quirky but engaging style as in the original, in the seventh and latest edition, Agnew and Pyke dedicate a full 471 pages to the task, tackling a host of topics bearing on the activities of science, ranging from the strengths and weaknesses of humans' cognitive capacity for problem solving to debates in the philosophy of science regarding the nature of knowledge. Although this most recent edition elaborates on many of the same themes presented in earlier versions, it is much grander in scope and includes a number of new features, including the introduction of a central theme and memory aid throughout the book (i.e., a puzzle-solving theme), the inclusion of statements of chapter goals, and chapter-end summaries and self-test quizzes. The Science Game provides a fairly comprehensive set of "sound bites" pertaining to the techniques, procedures, and conventions adopted by social science researchers and is accessible to either students encountering these topics for the first time or more advanced students in need of a refresher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in social support among retirees and workers: Findings from the Normative Aging Study.

Cross-sectional differences between retirees and workers in the importance of coworkers as a source of support, as well as in general quantitative support (social networks and frequency of interaction) and qualitative support (confidants and the perceived reliability of support) were examined. The sample consisted of 1,513 older men (mean age?=?61), participants in the Normative Aging Study. Half (56%) were working, and the rest were retired. Slightly fewer retirees than workers reported coworker friends, especially among those who were long-term retirees or who did not work at all in retirement. Whereas similar findings were seen with quantitative support, workers and retirees reported nearly identical levels of qualitative support. However, retirees almost never discussed personal problems with former coworkers. The relevance of these findings for the convoy construct is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectancy effects in social stereotyping: Automatic and controlled processing in the Neely paradigm.

This research attempted to extend the classic cognition study, Neely (1977), to the domain of social stereotypes. Neely demonstrated the existence of automatic and controlled processing in the same paradigm and the differing effects these processes have on accessing category information. The current research extended these findings by using social groups and stereotypes as stimuli, rather than nonsocial categories. Participants were told to expect characteristics of the Black stereotype following the prime CHINESE, characteristics of the Chinese stereotype following the prime BLACK, and characteristics of the criminal stereotype following the prime CRIMINAL. These expectancies were true most of the time. Participants then completed a lexical decision task in which SOA was manipulated (250 vs. 2,000 ms). Participants responded faster to semantically related targets (i.e., stereotypes) in the 250-ms SOA condition, regardless of their explicit expectancies. In the 2,000-ms SOA condition, participants responded faster to expected targets than to unexpected targets, regardless of whether or not the targets were semantically related to the primes. When the data from the two conditions were combined, the expectancy effect remained whereas the semantic relation effect did not. Results are discussed in terms of the automatic and controlled processing of social stimuli, and the importance of understanding expectancies in social stereotyping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment: Predicting strain in academic employees in the United Kingdom.

The Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model of job stress has gained support in predicting strain, mainly in heterogeneous groups of employees. This study tests several hypotheses relating to the ERI model in a homogenous occupational group: academic employees working in universities in the United Kingdom. Based on previous research findings, it is argued that this model is likely to reflect current working conditions and concerns in this sector. Eight hundred forty-four academic employees (59% male) completed questionnaires assessing the ERI components (i.e., efforts, rewards, and overcommitment), psychological and physical symptoms, job satisfaction and leaving intentions. Significant main effects of high efforts, low rewards, and high overcommitment were found for all strain outcomes. Some evidence was found for the hypothesized two-way and three-way interactions. The pattern and strength of the predictors of strain varied considerably, with the models accounting for between 14% and 43% variance in strain outcomes. The validity of the ERI model as a predictor of a broad range of strain outcomes in academic employees in the United Kingdom has been confirmed. How the findings might be used to inform interventions to increase well-being in academic employees is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: A field experiment in Rwanda.

Can the media reduce intergroup prejudice and conflict? Despite the high stakes of this question, understanding of the mass media's role in shaping prejudiced beliefs, norms, and behavior is limited. A yearlong field experiment in Rwanda tested the impact of a radio soap opera featuring messages about reducing intergroup prejudice, violence, and trauma in 2 fictional Rwandan communities. Compared with a control group who listened to a health radio soap opera, listeners' perceptions of social norms and their behaviors changed with respect to intermarriage, open dissent, trust, empathy, cooperation, and trauma healing. However, the radio program did little to change listeners' personal beliefs. Group discussion and emotion were implicated in the process of media influence. Taken together, the results point to an integrated model of behavioral prejudice and conflict reduction that prioritizes the communication of social norms over changes in personal beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived social isolation makes me sad: 5-year cross-lagged analyses of loneliness and depressive symptomatology in the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study.

We present evidence from a 5-year longitudinal study for the prospective associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms in a population-based, ethnically diverse sample of 229 men and women who were 50–68 years old at study onset. Cross-lagged panel models were used in which the criterion variables were loneliness and depressive symptoms, considered simultaneously. We used variations on this model to evaluate the possible effects of gender, ethnicity, education, physical functioning, medications, social network size, neuroticism, stressful life events, perceived stress, and social support on the observed associations between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that loneliness predicted subsequent changes in depressive symptomatology, but not vice versa, and that this temporal association was not attributable to demographic variables, objective social isolation, dispositional negativity, stress, or social support. The importance of distinguishing between loneliness and depressive symptoms and the implications for loneliness and depressive symptomatology in older adults are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal analysis of the relationship between changes in smoking and changes in drinking in a community sample: The Winnipeg Health and Drinking Survey.

Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol are positively correlated in cross-sectional studies of the general population. However, it is unclear whether changes in quantity of drinking over time are related to changes in amount of smoking over time. This investigation examined, with structural equation modeling, the relationship of changes in drinking to changes in smoking over 2 years among 344 adults who reported cigarette smoking and alcohol use at baseline in 1989-1990 or at follow-up in 1991-1992 or both. Surprisingly, no significant relationships were found between changes in smoking and changes in drinking. This lack of effect suggests that changes in the quantity or intensity of drinking and of smoking are not related in any important way in nonclinical populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)