Kim Shifren

Judgments about estrogen replacement therapy: the role of age, cognitive abilities, and beliefs.

This study investigated age, cognitive abilities, health beliefs, and other factors in womens judgments about effective treatments for menopause. Women (N = 102) ranging in age from 20 to 79 read a vignette about a woman facing a decision about Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) and then made judgments about what should be done. Participants also completed a battery of questions pertaining to ERT and cognitive abilities. Path-analytic techniques were used to determine the role of specific cognitive abilities and the representation of menopause and its treatment in making judgments about ERT treatments. Cognitive abilities had direct effects on treatment decisions. Education affected the number of perceived options for treatment. Age and education indirectly affected treatment decisions, operating through cognitive abilities. Factors related to the mental representation of menopause had no direct effects and few indirect effects on treatment decisions. Potential mechanisms that can help older adults compensate for declines in cognitive abilities in medical decisions are discussed.

Does early caregiving matter? The effects on young caregivers’ adult mental health

Limited information is available on the long-term effects of providing care for adults when caregiving begins in childhood in the United States. The current study provided an examination of the effects of youthful caregiving on the mental health of these persons when adults, and provided a description of their early family relations. Twenty-four individuals, 21 to 58 years old, were given brief phone interviews with semistructured questions about their early caregiving experiences, and then they completed questionnaires on their early caregiving experiences, mental health, and early parent–child relations. To be included, respondents must have provided primary caregiving assistance (i.e., bathing, feeding, etc.) for a parent or adult relative when the caregiver was under 21 years old. Results showed that the sample reported more positive mental health than negative mental health, though 42% had high depressive scores on the total CES-D. Individuals who reported fathers as too protective reported less current positive mental health. Early caregiving is not associated with poor mental health in adulthood for many young caregivers. However, some individuals do appear at risk of depression in adulthood.

Dynamic Factor Analysis Models With Time-Varying Parameters.

Dynamic factor analysis models with time-varying parameters offer a valuable tool for evaluating multivariate time series data with time-varying dynamics and/or measurement properties. We use the Dynamic Model of Activation proposed by Zautra and colleagues (Zautra, Potter, & Reich, 1997) as a motivating example to construct a dynamic factor model with vector autoregressive relations and time-varying cross-regression parameters at the factor level. Using techniques drawn from the state-space literature, the model was fitted to a set of daily affect data (over 71 days) from 10 participants who had been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. Our empirical results lend partial support and some potential refinement to the Dynamic Model of Activation with regard to how the time dependencies between positive and negative affects change over time. A simulation study is conducted to examine the performance of the proposed techniques when (a) changes in the time-varying parameters are represented using the true model of change, (b) supposedly time-invariant parameters are represented as time-varying, and (c) the time-varying parameters show discrete shifts that are approximated using an autoregressive model of differences.

Do cognitive processes predict mental health in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis

The purpose of the present study was to assess the hypothesis that intellectual functioning affects the mental health of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to assess the relative contributions of age, education, intellectual functioning, self-efficacy, and pain to mental health. It was hypothesized that individuals with rheumatoid arthritis who had higher intellectual functioning and higher self-efficacy would report better mental health than those with lower intellectual functioning and self-efficacy. One hundred twenty-one adults aged 34 to 84 with rheumatoid arthritis completed a battery of cognitive tasks, and multiple measures of self-efficacy, pain, and mental health, twice in 1 month. The data provided a good fit to the hypothesized model. Intellectual functioning was directly related to mental health and, also, indirectly related to mental health through self-efficacy and pain. Older individuals who performed poorly on cognitive tasks reported less self-efficacy, more pain, and poorer mental health than those individuals who performed well on cognitive tasks.

The relationship between instrumental and expressive traits, health behaviors, and perceived physical health

Relations between instrumental and expressive traits, health behaviors, and self-reported physical health were examined among young adults. Individuals (169 men, 167 women) completed two measures of instrumental and expressive traits, the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Ethnic background of the sample included 72% European Americans, 13% Latin Americans, 6% Asian Americans, 5% African Americans, less than 1% Native American, and 4% did not specify a particular category. Expressive traits from the BSRI, and expressive and instrumental traits from the PAQ were associated with health behaviors, after controlling for neuroticism. Neuroticism explained 43% of the variance in perceived physical health. Separation of individuals into four groups on the basis of instrumental and expressive traits showed that androgynous individuals reported significantly better health practices than other individuals providing support for the androgyny model.

Optimism, mental health, and quality of life: A study among breast cancer patients

Fifty one breast cancer patients participated in a cross-sectional study developed to assess the relation between their level of optimism, positive and negative mental health, and their quality of life. Patients were measured with the Life Orientation Test (LOT), the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and the Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC). T-tests revealed that these breast cancer patients reported more optimism than pessimism, more positive than negative mental health, and the majority of the sample reported doing well on each qualify life domain of the FLIC. As expected, individuals who reported more depressive symptoms also reported less qualify of life. Breast cancer patients who scored lower on pessimism showed more positive mental health, but they showed no relation to negative mental health. Women who scored higher on optimism reported better social and mental functioning on the FLIC than women who scored low on optimism.

Emerging adulthood in American and British samples: individuals' personality and health risk behaviors

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between instrumental and expressive traits, and health-related behaviors among individuals in emerging adulthood (18–25 years old) in two Western societies. Individuals (100 males, 100 females) in an American sample and a British sample (36 males, 75 females) completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, a measure of neuroticism, the Health Behaviors Inventory, and two measures of perceived physical health. As hypothesized, in support of the androgyny model, individuals in both samples who scored high on both instrumental and expressive traits reported better health practices (i.e. safety belt use, less smoking) than individuals who scored low on both sets of traits or high on only one set of traits, after controlling for neuroticism. As hypothesized, for both samples, neuroticism explained more variance in perceived physical health than the other personality traits.

WOMEN WITH HEART DISEASE: CAN THE COMMON-SENSE MODEL OF ILLNESS HELP?

Noncompliance with cardiac rehabilitation programs is a major concern for female coronary heart disease patients. In this article I argue for the use of the common-sense model of illness in developing interventions to increase compliance with cardiac rehabilitation programs among women with heart disease. First, the common-sense model of illness is discussed. Second, a personal narrative technique that addresses the key components of the common-sense model of illness is presented. I recommend that a modified version of the personal narrative technique be used to increase women’s compliance with cardiac rehabilitation programs because this technique is well suited for women’s health issues.

Instrumental and expressive traits and eating attitudes : a replication across American and British students

Abstract The present study examined the relationship between instrumental and expressive traits and attitudes linked to eating disorders across two Western societies. Two-hundred individuals in America and 111 individuals in Britain completed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI). Findings from the American sample supported the discrepancy hypothesis on the bulimia, drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction subscales of the EDI. Individuals low on instrumental traits reported more risky eating attitudes than those individuals high on instrumental traits. The British sample showed support for the discrepancy hypothesis as well for two of the three subscales, the drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction subscales of the EDI, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of the robustness of findings across cultures.

Optimism, well-being, depressive symptoms, and perceived physical health: a study among Stroke survivors

Abstract The investigation of the relation of positive personality characteristics to mental and physical health among Stroke survivors has been a neglected area of research. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between optimism, well-being, depressive symptoms, and perceived physical health among Stroke survivors. It was hypothesized that Stroke survivors’ optimism would explain variance in their physical health above and beyond the variance explained by demographic variables, diagnostic variables, and mental health. One hundred seventy-six Stroke survivors (97 females, 79 males) completed the Revised Life Orientation Test, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, two items on perceived physical health from the 36-item Short Form of the Medical Outcomes study, and the Identity scale of the Illness Perception Questionnaire. Pearson correlations, hierarchical regression analyses, and the PROCESS approach to determining mediators were used to assess hypothesized relations between variables. Stroke survivors’ level of optimism explained additional variance in overall health in regression models controlling for demographic and diagnostic variables, and mental health. Analyses revealed that optimism played a partial mediator role between mental health (well-being, depressive symptoms and total score on CES-D) variables and overall health.