Everarda G. Cunningham

The Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale: Examination of the Factorial Structure of a New Measure of Internalized Homophobia

The purpose of the study was to develop a short measure of internalized homophobia (IH), one that reflected contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality and included items designed to assess the domain of sexual comfort with gay men, a domain that has been notably absent from other measures of IH. The Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS) was informed by the Reactions to Homosexuality Scale (RHS) and the contention that currently available measures of IH were outdated in their assessment of the construct and/or failed to assess its covert manifestations. A geographically diverse sample of gay men completed an online questionnaire (N = 1,307), and the 677 respondents from the United States formed the sample for the study. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a single higher order construct of IH comprising the lower order factors of Public Identification as Gay, Sexual Comfort With Gay Men, and Social Comfort With Gay Men.

Enhancing Coping Resources in Early Adolescence Through a School-based Program Teaching Optimistic Thinking skills

This study examined the effectiveness of a universal school-based prevention program that was designed to increase coping resources in preadolescents through the modeling and teaching of optimistic thinking skills. School psychologists, together with classroom teachers, implemented an eight-week program in eight Year 5 and 6 class groups as part of the regular school curricula. One hundred and sixty children who participated in the program were compared to 135 children in 8 control groups on pre- and post-test questionnaires. Post-test responses show that children who participated in the program reported significant improvements in coping efficacy, and reductions in depressive attributions and use of the non-productive coping strategies of worry, wishful thinking, not coping, and ignoring the problem when compared to controls. These results support the feasibility of implementing low-cost, non-intrusive programs in school settings that address the emotional health of all young people. Support is also provided for theories that suggest attributions for events and coping efficacy influence the selection of coping strategies.

Social ideological influences on reported food consumption and BMI

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between ideological beliefs, perceptions of the importance of health behaviours, health attitudes, food consumption, and Body Mass Index (BMI). A behavioural model was hypothesized based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).MethodsA survey was conducted among shoppers aged between 40 and 70 years at Eastland Shopping Centre, Melbourne, Australia. The hypothesized model was tested with this empirical data (n = 410) for younger (n = 151) and older (n = 259) age groups using structural equation modelling.ResultsThe findings generally support the study hypotheses. For both groups, egalitarianism had a direct and positive influence on perceptions of the importance of health behaviours. Materialism and masculinity impacted negatively on health attitudes, which positively influenced importance of health behaviours. Perceptions of importance of health behaviours impacted positively on the consumption of healthy foods such as vegetables and fruits, but negatively on consumption of unhealthy foods including sweets and fats. However, BMI was significantly influenced by the consumption of unhealthy foods (e.g., sugar and fats) only for the younger age group. Hence, the associations between beliefs, attitudes, consumption behaviours, and BMI outcomes differed between younger and older age populations.ConclusionSocial ideological beliefs appear to influence health attitudes and thereafter, the consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods and BMI via different pathways.

Comparison of alternative estimation methods in confirmatory factor analyses of the general health questionnaire

This paper examines the implications of violating assumptions concerning the continuity and distributional properties of data in establishing measurement models in social science research. The General Health Questionnaire-12 uses an ordinal response scale. Responses to the GHQ-12 from 201 Hong Kong immigrants on arrival in Australia showed that the data were not normally distributed. A series of confirmatory factor analyses using either a Pearson product-moment or a polychoric correlation input matrix and employing either maximum likelihood, weighted least squares or diagonally weighted least squares estimation methods were conducted on the data. The parameter estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics provided support for using polychoric correlations and diagonally weighted least squares estimation when analyzing ordinal, nonnormal data.

Building resilience in early adolescence through a universal school-based preventive program

The development of effective coping resources, including positive thinking and an increased sense of self-efficacy, is related to enhancing resilience and healthy development in young people. A universal school-based prevention program that adapted techniques cognitive therapists use for depressed children, and directly based on the work of Seligman (1995), was implemented over a six-week period to whole·class gronps by classroom teachers within their regular school curricula. Learning was facilitated through the use of stories, cartoons, hypothetical examples, practice and role-plays. Fifty-eight Year 5 and 6 students from four schools in regional and rural Victoria completed pre- and post-program questionnaires on self-efficacy, coping and attributional style. Following program participation, children reported significant improvements in optimistic thinking and self-efficacy, as well as a reduction in the use of the non·productive coping strategies of worry, wishful thinking, not coping, and reliance on friends. These promising results provide evidence for the feasibility of implementing a low-cost, non-intrusive program that addresses the emotional well-being of all young people in school settings. The longer-term success and viability of any universal preventive programs may ultimately depend upon the extent to which such programs can be integrated into the mainstream curriculum practices of schools.

Social ideological influences on food consumption, physical activity and BMI

We investigated relationships between ideological beliefs (i.e., diaphanous body image and environmental concerns), food attitudes, evening meal patterns, physical activity, and Body Mass Index (BMI). A behavioural model was hypothesized based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. A survey was conducted among shoppers aged 40-70 years at Eastland Shopping Centre, Melbourne, Australia. The hypothesized model was tested among female baby boomers (n=547) for younger (n=245) and older (n=302) age groups using structural equation modeling. Findings showed that diaphanous body image had a direct and positive influence on negative food attitudes, which is likely to lead to higher BMI for both age groups. Body image beliefs were positively related to physical activity only for women aged 56-70 years. In contrast, among women aged 40-55 years, strong pro-environmental concerns suggested less consumption of both healthy (e.g., fruit and vegetables) and unhealthy (e.g., sugar and fats) foods. Moreover, strong pro-animal concerns resulted in higher BMI for the younger women. As expected, increased physical activity negatively influenced BMI. Importantly, the associations between ideological beliefs, attitudes, evening meal patterns, and BMI differed between younger and older female baby boomers.

Managing researcher development: ‘drastic transition’?

Academics are expected to write for publication and meet publication targets in research assessment processes. These targets are set by national bodies and institutions, and they can be daunting for academics at the start of a research career. This article reports on an intervention designed to address this issue, writer’s retreat, where academics simultaneously engaged with research assessment and developed writing projects. Using Gardner’s model of researcher development, an evaluation study showed that retreat participants quickly adopted the programmatic element, made some progress in the relational element, but made little or no progress with the personal element. This analysis shows that the structured, facilitated writer’s retreat is an effective method of researcher development, and points to specific areas where development did and did not occur. It shows that this new retreat format allows emerging researchers to negotiate their relationship with research assessment through writing, but it also identifies areas where further support is needed.

Bright Ideas: a school-based program teaching optimistic thinking skills in pre-adolescence

Research into the areas of depression and resilience suggests that an optimistic attributional style is a key factor in coping effectively with stressors and functioning adaptively despite adversity. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a program designed to increase positive thinking skills, through awareness and practice, to pre-adolescent children who have been identified as exhibiting a more pessimistic explanatory style. From a total of 110 Year 5 and 6 students, 38 students were selected to participate in the program because they exhibited a more pessimistic explanatory style. Program participants were administered the Childrens Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ) at pre-, post-, and 3-month post-program. Non-program participants completed the CASQ at pre- and 3-month post- program. Results indicated that program participants significantly improved their attributional style scores post program, and that these improvements were maintained at 3-month post-program follow-up. When attributional style difference scores at pre- and 3-month post program were compared, improved scores for program participants were significantly greater than changes in attributional style scores for those students who were not in the program. Given the links between attributional style, depression, and a range of behaviours, such promising results warrant further investigation into the effects of such a program on other outcome measures. The findings provide support for the benefits to be gained by developing positive attributional style during the pre-adolescent years.

Control Beliefs as Mediators of School Connectedness and Coping Outcomes in Middle Adolescence

The external and internal resources that individuals bring to the coping process have been the focus of increasing theoretical and empirical research. Within the framework of conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2002) this study examines the interplay between school-, teacher- and peer-connectedness, and mastery, coping self-efficacy and coping behaviours in a sample of 300 9th and 10th grade high-school students. Structural equation modelling analyses supported predictions that coping self-efficacy and mastery mediate the effects of school connectedness factors on the utilisation of nonproductive coping strategies. While coping self-efficacy partially mediated the relationships between school connectedness factors and productive coping behaviours, contrary to expectations this relationship was not partially mediated by mastery. These results support a cognitive mediational model of coping resources and may have implications for school-based intervention programs that promote positive coping in adolescence.

Psychometric Properties of the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire

The structure of the Childrens Attributional Style Questionnaire was examined for 359 children in Grades 5 and 6. Unsatisfactory internal consistency reliabilities ranged from .19 to .41 for the subscales and .54 for the overall measure. In addition, scree plots of the individual subscales resulted in a range of 2 to 4 factors per subscale and hence lacked evidence of unidimensionality.