Nancy DeCourville

Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Stress, and Social Support as Mediators of the Forgiveness-Health Relationship

ABSTRACT Structural equation modeling was used to test a model in which positive affect, negative affect, perceived stress, and social support were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between forgiveness and mental and physical health. Six hundred and twenty-three undergraduates completed a battery of self-report measures. Results of the analyses indicated that the forgiveness-health relation was mediated by positive affect, negative affect, stress, and the interrelationship between negative affect and stress. There was limited support for social support and the interrelationship between positive affect and social support as mediators. The results suggested that the relationship between forgiveness and health is mediated rather than direct. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Weight preoccupation, personality, and depression in university students: An interactionist perspective

This cross-sectional study investigated whether Becks (1983, 1987) cognitive personality traits of sociotropy and autonomy interacted with weight preoccupation in their contribution to depressed mood in women and men. Two hundred and fifty-one undergraduates were administered the revised Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), and the Restraint Scale (RS). Three separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses, with the BDI as the dependent variable, revealed a specific congruent interaction between weight preoccupation and personality. Specifically, weight-preoccupied women and men experienced depressed mood to the extent that they were characterized as more highly sociotropic. Further examination of weight preoccupation among men, in the direction of weight or muscle gain, revealed that the highest levels of depressed mood were experienced by highly sociotropic men who wanted to gain weight and muscle mass.

Investigating a four-pathway model of adult attachment orientation and health

We tested a model, derived from attachment theory, linking adult attachment orientation to health through four hypothesized intervening paths: affect, stress, social support, and health-risk behavior. Questionnaires were administered to 623 university students and 219 addiction treatment clients. In both samples, attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety dimensions were indirectly, rather than directly, related to lower subjective ratings of health. In both samples, data were consistent with the affect and stress pathways linking attachment to health. Results for the social support and health-risk behavior pathways were less robust. Results were consistent for male and female respondents. Findings are discussed in terms of attachment theory and the affect regulation processes linking attachment and health. Implications are considered, along with directions for future research.