Sanford L. Braver

The measurement of clinical pain intensity: a comparison of six methods

&NA; The measurement of subjective pain intensity continues to be important to both researchers and clinicians. Although several scales are currently used to assess the intensity construct, it remains unclear which of these provides the most precise, replicable, and predictively valid measure. Five criteria for judging intensity scales have been considered in previous research: (a) ease of administration of scoring; (b) relative rates of incorrect responding; (c) sensitivity as defined by the number of available response categories; (d) sensitivity as defined by statistical power; and (e) the magnitude of the relationship between each scale and a linear combination of pain intensity indices. In order to judge commonly used pain intensity measures, 75 chronic pain patients were asked to rate 4 kinds of pain (present, least, most, and average) using 6 scales. The utility and validity of the scales was judged using the criteria listed above. The results indicate that, for the present sample, the scales yield similar results in terms of the number of subjects who respond correctly to them and their predictive validity. However, when considering the remaining 3 criteria, the 101‐point numerical rating scale appears to be the most practical index.

Volunteer bias in erotica research: Effects of intrusiveness of measure and sexual background

Volunteer characteristics and volunteer rates across several laboratory experiments of sexual arousal were compared. Conditions were created to assess which component of the experimental setting was responsible for low volunteer rates in experiments using genital measurement. Subjects were 324 male and 424 female undergraduate students who had volunteered for an experiment on sexuality and personality. After completing several measures of sexual experience and attitude, subjects received a written description of one of the following conditions and were asked if they wished to volunteer: (1) sexual film, (2) sexual film and subjective rating of arousal, (3) sexual film and assessment through forehead temperature, (4) sexual film and assessment with a device that was placed over the clothes and measured genital heat flow, (5) sexual film and assessment with the heat flow device while partially undressed, or (6) sexual film and assessment with the vaginal photoplethysmograph or penile strain gauge while partially undressed. Men were significantly more likely to volunteer than women, and volunteer rates for both men and women decreased significantly when and only when subjects were required to undress. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that both male and female volunteers were more sexually experienced, reported more exposure to erotic materials, and worried less about their sexual performance than nonvolunteers. No differences in volunteer characteristics occurred across the increasingly intrusive conditions for women while a few differences occurred for men. The present findings suggest that researchers should be cautious about discussing the generality of findings of studies involving exposure to a sexually explicit film alone as well as of experiments that involve self-report or physiological measures of sexual arousal.

Statistical Treatment of the Solomon Four-Group Design: A Meta-Analytic Approach

One of the causes of the underuse of the Solomon four-group design may be that the complete details for the statistical analysis have not previously been presented. The primary issue previously unaddressed was how to combine an analysis of the effect of the treatment in the posttest-only groups with the same effect in the pre- and posttest groups (after an earlier phase of the analysis has shown no evidence of pretest sensitization.) A meta-analytic solution for this problem is proposed, and the entire analysis is presented, complete with flowchart and example. It is shown that the analysis has adequate statistical power even if the total N is not increased from that of a posttest-only design, removing the last of the serious objections to the Solomon design.

Stability and quality of life events and psychological symptomatology in children of divorce

Studied the relations between postdivorce events and maladjustment of children of divorce using a two-dimensional model of events. One dimension concerned the stability of events and included whether they were increases, decreases, or the continuation of stable conditions. The second dimension was quality, and included whether they had a positive or negative valence. Two samples of children of divorce (ns = 142 and 64) ages 8-15 were studied. Childrens overall maladjustment as reported by children and parents were the criterion variables. Scores were derived from a life events schedule for children of divorce to assess the occurrence and stability of positive and negative divorce-related events. The relations between event scores and maladjustment were different when childrens self-reports and parent reports were used as criterion. In predicting childrens self-reported maladjustment (a) stable positive events but not changes in positive events were related to lower maladjustment (b) increased negative events were related to higher maladjustment, and (c) change for the worse was related to higher maladjustment. In predicting parent reports of childrens maladjustment, only the relations of the change for the worse score were replicated. Implications of the results for the design of preventive interventions and for the study of children in stressful situations are discussed.

Social support of children of divorce: direct and stress buffering effects.

This study examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of support from family adults, nonfamily adults, family children, and nonfamily children on the adjustment of 104 children of divorce. For childrens reports of adjustment, significant stress-buffering (i.e., Stress x Support) interactions for support from family adults and support from nonfamily adults occurred. The lower the level of social support, the stronger the positive relation between stress and adjustment problems. In addition, at high levels of stress, children with high support from nonfamily and family adults reported fewer adjustment problems than did children with low support. However, at the lowest level of stress, children with high support from nonfamily adults were significantly more poorly adjusted than were children with low support. For parental reports of childrens adjustment, support from family adults was marginally positively related to adjustment whereas support from nonfamily adults was inversely related to adjustment. Implications for intervention programs for children of divorce are discussed.

Organizational Status and Perceived Sexual Harassment: Detecting the Mediators of a Null Effect

Although power differentials are commonly believed to be central to sexual harassment experiences, prior empirical investigations have found no clear association between a perpetrator’s organizational status (as an index of his power) and perceptions by the victim that the perpetrator’s behavior constitutes sexual harassment. A model to explain this pattern as the result of two opposing mediators is forwarded and tested. Specifically, it was found that a harasser’s organizational status affects perceptions of his power, which increase a victim’s perceptions that the perpetrator’s behavior is harassing; however, it also was found that a harasser’s organizational status simultaneously affects perceptions of his social dominance, which decrease perceptions that his behavior is harassing. Thus, these mediators cancel each other, yielding a null finding when their effects are ignored. This finding supports both sociocultural and evolutionary models of sexual harassment perceptions and suggests that each can contribute to an understanding of sexual harassment experiences.

The prevalence of frequent binge eating and bulimia in a nonclinical

This study examined the prevalence of bulimia and frequent binge eating in female college students. Additionally, sex differences in binge eating and in labeling ones behavior as binge eating were assessed. All students in an introductory psychology course, 485 women and 327 men, were subjects. Of all students, 49% reported binge eating. Significantly more women than men reported binge eating and labeled their behavior as such. While 56% of the women reported binge eating, only 7.2% reported eight or more episodes per month. Approximately 4% of the women sampled fulfilled operationalized DSM-III criteria for bulimia.

Theory-based screening for prevention: Focusing on mediating processes in children of divorce

Prevention programs in mental health theoretically can benefit from selecting participants who have a greater likelihood of developing psychological problems because of their exposure to the putative mediators targeted for change in an intervention. Screening on mediators may increase statistical power to detect program effects, enhance the cost-effectiveness of intervention trials, and decrease the possibility of iatrogenic effects. The circumstances that optimize the strategy of screening on the basis of mediating variables are discussed, and data are presented to illustrate the development of a mediational selection strategy to identify families who might best benefit from a preventive intervention for children of divorce. In addition, we present evidence that adjustment problems for children experiencing a divorce, as with most mental health problems, are not the result of one specific factor, but are jointly determined by several mediating processes that occur subsequent to the divorce. The mediational selection strategy developed illustrates the utility of measuring a set of mediational processes central to conferring risk for mental health problems to children of divorce.

Evaluation of a preventive intervention for a self-selected subpopulation of children

Evaluated an experimental preventive intervention developed for children who perceived their parents as problem drinkers. The 8-session program was designed to improve childrens coping, self-esteem, and social competence, and modify alcohol expectancies which were specified as mediators of the effects of parental alcohol abuse on child mental health. Participants were 271 self-selected 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students in 13 schools. The children were randomly assigned to treatment or delayed treatment conditions and the program was given to three successive cohorts of students. A meta-analysis across three different cohorts indicated significant program effects to improve knowledge of the program content and the use of support- and emotion-focused coping behaviors for the full sample. A slightly stronger range of effects was found for a high-risk subsample.

Predictors of Enrollment and Retention in a Preventive Parenting Intervention for Divorced Families

Participation rates in parenting programs are typically low, severely limiting the public health significance of these interventions. We examined predictors of parenting program enrollment and retention in a sample of 325 divorced mothers. Predictors included intervention timing and maternal reports of child, parent, family, and sociocultural risk factors. In multivariate analyses, child maladjustment and family income-to-needs positively predicted enrollment, and higher maternal education and recruitment near the time of the divorce predicted retention. Findings have implications for the optimal timing of preventive parenting programs for divorcing families and point to the importance of examining predictors of enrollment and retention simultaneously. Editors’ Strategic Implications: Parent education researchers and practitioners may find the authors’ application of the Health Belief Model to be a useful organizing framework for improving engagement and retention.