Benita Jackson

Mediators of the Gender Difference in Rumination

Rumination is engaging in a passive focus on ones symptoms of distress and on the possible causes and consequences of these symptoms. Women are more likely than men to engage in rumination. This study examined whether gender differences in the following beliefs would mediate the gender difference in rumination: the controllability of emotions, the appropriateness of rumination as a coping strategy, responsibility for the emotional tone of relationships, and mastery over negative events. The sample was 740 community-dwelling adults between 25 and 75 years of age, who completed a survey by mail. The combination of beliefs about control of emotions, responsibility for the emotional tone of relationships, and mastery over negative events fully mediated the gender difference in rumination. Alternative hypotheses that the gender difference in rumination was due to gender differences in distress, emotional expressivity, and the tendency to give socially desirable answers were not supported.

Motivations to eat: Scale development and validation

Abstract Objective : To validate a measure of psychological motivations to eat based on a four-category model of motivations for alcohol use ( Cooper, 1994 ). Motivations specified by this model are: to cope with negative affect, to be social, to comply with others’ expectations, and to enhance pleasure. Method : In Study 1, 40 respondents were queried in an open-ended format about their reasons for eating; responses were content-coded to determine if they fit into the four theorized categories. In Study 2, an item pool was generated based on responses from Study 1, and random halves of a sample of 812 college students were used to test and then validate the hypothesized factor structure. Results : As expected, the final inventory yielded the four theorized categories. The factor structure was generally invariant across gender, and the resulting Motivations to Eat subscales uniquely predicted restrictive eating, bingeing, and purging. Discussion : Prior eating research has focused mainly on coping and compliance motivations. The present study identified four distinct motivations to eat that potentially are important for understanding healthy and disordered eating.

Linking Perceived Unfairness to Physical Health: The Perceived Unfairness Model

Can perceiving unfairness influence physical health? To address this question the authors propose the Perceived Unfairness Model, synthesized from psychological and epidemiological research. The model starts from the premise that perceiving unfairness, directed at beings to which the perceiver is emotionally attached, activates a cascade of psychological and physical processes. This cascade may be experienced by low or high status group members, and by the target or observer of the perceived unfairness. With repeated episodes, the effects of perceiving unfairness may accumulate and compromise physical health. Whether perceiving unfairness is potentially toxic or benign is a function of two key components of social location: identity relevance and helplessness to redress the unfairness. The authors conclude by discussing directions for developing the model.

The Impact of Social Contagion on Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: A Review of the Literature

In this review, we explore social contagion as an understudied risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents and young adults, populations with a high prevalence of NSSI. We review empirical studies reporting data on prevalence and risk factors that, through social contagion, may influence the transmission of NSSI. Findings in this literature are consistent with social modeling/learning of NSSI increasing risk of initial engagement in NSSI among individuals with certain individual and/or psychiatric characteristics. Preliminary research suggests iatrogenic effects of social contagion of NSSI through primary prevention are not likely. Thus, social contagion factors may warrant considerable empirical attention. Intervention efforts may be enhanced, and social contagion reduced, by implementation of psychoeducation and awareness about NSSI in schools, colleges, and treatment programs.

Pessimistic explanatory style moderates the effect of stress on physical illness

Explanatory style is a cognitive personality variable that reflects the tendency to explain bad events involving the self with causes that are internal to the self, stable across time, and global in effect. The attribution reformulation of helplessness theory predicts that stress coupled with a pessimistic explanatory style leads to negative outcomes, including physical illness, among at-risk individuals. This longitudinal study of 198 college students examined whether pessimistic explanatory style interacts with perceived stress to predict subsequent illness, even when controlling for baseline illness. Results confirmed this hypothesis.

Angry breathing: a prospective study of hostility and lung function in the Normative Aging Study

Background: Hostility and anger are risk factors for, or co-occur with, many health problems of older adults such as cardiovascular diseases, all-cause mortality, and asthma. Evidence that negative emotions are associated with chronic airways obstruction suggests a possible role for hostility in the maintenance and decline of pulmonary function. This study tests the hypothesis that hostility contributes to a faster rate of decline in lung function in older adults. Methods: A prospective examination was undertaken of the effect of hostility on change in lung function over time. Data are from the VA Normative Aging Study, an ongoing cohort of older men. Hostility was measured in 1986 in 670 men who also had an average of three pulmonary function examinations obtained over an average of 8.2 years of follow up. Hostility was ascertained using the 50-item MMPI based Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. Pulmonary function was assessed using spirometric tests to obtain measures of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). Results: Baseline pulmonary function differed between high and medium/low hostility groups (mean (SE) percent predicted FEV1 88.9 (18.5) v 95.3 (16.9) and FVC 92.5 (16.5) v 98.9 (15.9), respectively; p<0.01 for both). This overall association between higher hostility and reduced lung function remained significant after adjusting for smoking and education, although the effect size was attenuated for both FEV1 and FVC. Higher hostility was associated with a more rapid decline in lung function, and this effect was unchanged and remained significant for FEV1 in multivariate models but was attenuated for FVC. Each standard deviation increase in hostility was associated with a loss in FEV1 of approximately 9 ml/year. Conclusions: This study is one of the first to show prospectively that hostility is associated with poorer pulmonary function and more rapid rates of decline among older men.

The mediating effect of childhood abuse in sexual orientation disparities in tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence: results from the Nurses’ Health Study II

ObjectiveTo examine the mediating effect of childhood abuse on sexual orientation disparities in tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence.MethodsWe carried out analyses with data from over 62,000 women in the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study II cohort who provided information on sexual orientation, childhood abuse occurring by age 11, and tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence. We used multivariate regression analyses, controlling for confounders, to estimate the mediating effect of childhood abuse on the association between sexual orientation and tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence.ResultsLesbian and bisexual orientation and childhood abuse were positively associated with greater risk of tobacco and alcohol use during adolescence. For lesbians, the estimated proportion of excess tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence relative to use among heterosexual women that was mediated by abuse in childhood ranged from 7 to 18%; for bisexual women, the estimated proportion of excess use mediated by abuse ranged from 6 to 13%.ConclusionsElevated childhood abuse in lesbian and bisexual women partially mediated excess tobacco and alcohol use in adolescence relative to heterosexual women. Interventions to prevent child abuse may reduce sexual orientation disparities in some of the leading causes of cancer in women.

Self-objectification and depressive symptoms: Does their association vary among Asian American and White American men and women? §

Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) posits that viewing ones body as an object - i.e., self-objectification - increases depressive symptomatology. Though a handful of studies to date have found self-objectification and depressive symptoms correlated among White American women, few studies have examined whether this finding generalizes to other social groups. We examine whether self-objectification and depressive symptoms are associated among Asian Americans and White Americans in a college sample of women and men (N=169). Self-objectification and depressive symptoms were positively associated among White American women but not among White American men or Asian American men or women. These data suggest the parameters of Objectification Theory are circumscribed by both race/ethnicity and gender and self-objectification may put White women, in particular, at risk for depressive symptoms.

Does Harboring Hostility Hurt? Associations Between Hostility and Pulmonary Function in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in (Young) Adults (CARDIA) Study

OBJECTIVE To examine the cross-sectional association between hostility and pulmonary function (PF) and its consistency across race/ethnicity-gender groups. DESIGN Data were from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in (Young) Adults (CARDIA) cohort study (N=4,629). Participants were recruited from 4 metropolitan areas in the United States, ages 18-30 years at baseline in 1985-1986, approximately balanced across race/ethnicity (Black, White) and gender. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Main outcome measures were percent predicted values for forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC). RESULTS In full-sample multiple linear regression analyses, each 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in hostility was associated with a 0.66% decrease in FEV-sub-1 (p=.0002) and a 0.60% decrease in FVC (p=.0006). This inverse association of hostility with PF remained after controlling for age, height, current socioeconomic status (SES), participant smoking status, and asthma and is more consistent than that of smoking and PF. In stratified analyses, each 1 SD increase in hostility predicted statistically significant reductions in PF for Black women, White women, and Black men. For White men, hostility showed no statistically significant relation with PF, although the pattern relating hostility to PF was similar to the pattern in the other three groups. Further, both of the post hoc three-way interaction terms for hostility, race/ethnicity, and gender predicting FEV-sub-1 and FVC were nonsignificant. CONCLUSION PF was inversely associated with hostility across race/ethnicity and gender, independent of age, height, current SES, smoking, and asthma. On the basis of these cross-sectional findings, the authors hypothesize that higher hostility will predict a more rapid decline in PF.

Child Maltreatment’s Heavy Toll: The Need for Trauma-Informed Obesity Prevention

This paper is the product of a workshop on the topic of child maltreatment and obesity at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard that brought together the listed authors, who are experts across a number of relevant fields. Emerging research has highlighted childhood maltreatment and other psychological traumas as risk factors for obesity and related comorbidities.1–3 Although the high rate of obesity in the U.S. affects the entire population, those with histories of maltreatment—making up at least 30% of the population4,5—appear to be at greater risk. Unfortunately, childhood maltreatment is often overlooked as a risk factor for adult obesity, and efforts to prevent and treat obesity underutilize promising trauma-informed approaches. Likewise, clinical care for psychological trauma has unrealized potential as an opportunity for obesity prevention. The aims of this paper are to: raise awareness of the prevalence of childhood maltreatment; present current evidence of the child maltreatment–obesity association; highlight existing research on mechanisms; and suggest areas for additional research, including trauma-informed obesity interventions that warrant testing. Although this paper focuses on childhood maltreatment, particularly physical and sexual abuse, the presented information is potentially relevant to other types of early trauma, such as community violence and peer bullying.