JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH最新文献

Messages designed to improve healthy eating habits are all around us, often aiming to change our attitudes and perceptions toward specific eating behaviors so that we will adopt better habits. This study provides a test of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to better understand the impact of influence messages on healthy eating. This longitudinal cohort study examined the TRA within two systems of change: (1) when attitudes and (2) subjective norms were influenced by messages to increase fruit/vegetable consumption and prevent meal skipping. Participants were assigned randomly to one of three messages: (1) no-message control group, (2) attitude message, and (3) subjective norm message. For fruit/vegetable consumption, when attitude or subjective norm changed, TRA's predictions were not consistent with the data. With no change present, TRA's predictions were consistent with control group data. These results were not replicated with skipping meals. The only model to predict accurately participants' skipped meals was a simple causal string (attitudes impacted intentions which predicted behavior). Persuasive messages can influence healthy eating behavior, but the mechanism is not consistent with TRA predictions. Also, using messages to influence healthy eating subjective norms proved difficult.

This study investigated the effect of residual arousal on perceived positive and negative emotion, and the relationship between the valence of emotion and cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory reactivity. A total of 74 participants were randomly assigned to either a Residual Arousal (exercise-induced) group or a No Residual Arousal (no exercise) group. Following the arousal manipulation, participants watched a video that elicited positive emotion and a video that elicited negative emotion. Within-person differences revealed greater discrepancies between participants’ reports of positive and negative emotions in response to the videos, indicating that residual arousal caused stronger positive and negative emotions. With regard to physiological reactivity, participants in the No Residual Arousal group exhibited lower heart rate, respiration amplitude, and heart rate variability (LF/HF ratio) during the negative video than during the positive video, suggesting that the positive and negative videos had different influences on physiology. These results support the hypothesis that autonomic activation may be nonspecific with regard to the genesis of emotion, but once a person becomes emotional, physiological reactivity may differ between emotions.

The purpose of this study was to see if a person's level of commitment to religion moderates the relationship between forgiveness by God and waist/hip ratios. The data come from a nationwide probability survey of adults of all ages (N = 2,453). Interviewers measured respondents' waist and hip circumference. Questions were administered to assess how often people feel they have been forgiven by God and how deeply they are committed to their faith. Controls were established for several different aspects of religion (i.e., church attendance, private prayer, and religious affiliation) as well as select demographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, education, race, residential location, and marital status). Forgiveness by God is associated with less favorable waist/hip ratios, but only among study participants who are less committed to their faith. A set of supplementary analyses were performed using the frequency of moderate exercise as an outcome. The findings suggest that forgiveness by God is associated with less frequent exercise, but only among study participants who are less committed to their faith. The findings add greater credence to the literature on the relationship between religion and health because they are based on biological measures.

Somatization disorder is a biopsychosocial-based, stress-induced disorder involving multiple physical ailments with no medical explanation. The teaching profession is characterized as very stressful, making teachers at risk of developing somatization disorder. This study examined somatization disorder in a K-12 teacher population. A total of 2,988 teachers from 46 Texas districts responded to a comprehensive online occupational health survey. Somatization disorder was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire. Univariate analyses were conducted between teachers with and without somatization disorder to identify specific relationships with demographic variables, occupational variables, perceived stress, Axis I psychopathology, and physical health. A logistic regression was developed to identify the variables most strongly associated with the presence of somatization disorder in a teacher population. Analyses showed that female teachers are 3.3 times more likely to develop somatization disorder. Compared to Caucasians, African American teachers are 3.9 times and Hispanic teachers are 2.0 times more likely to develop somatization disorder. Moreover, higher levels of stress, poorer physical quality of life, major depression, panic and anxiety disorder were significantly related with somatization disorder (p < .05). Higher levels of stress and poorer physical and mental health are among the psychosocial and demographic factors associated with somatization disorder in public school teachers.

This paper summarizes a review of articles that have explored the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), brain infractions, and cognitive dysfunction. The anomalies in brain hemodynamics, brain atrophy, and cognitive dysfunction resulting from OSA are reviewed. The effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on the reversibility of structural and neurobehavioral deficits is also presented. The articles were selected based on a systematic search on PubMed and Medline databases using the key words “sleep apnea, OSA, hypoxia, sleep fragmentation, cerebral hemodynamics, metabolism, brain structure, cognition, memory, quality of life, neuropsychological deficits, and CPAP treatment.” The review suggests that OSA-mediated brain hemodynamics and brain atrophy are concomitant with cognitive dysfunction. It is concluded that OSA results in cerebral hemodynamic instability, hypoxia, and sleep fragmentation which appear to be the major contributing factors to the brain structural changes and cognitive deficits. Furthermore, the reviewed studies indicate that CPAP treatment may partially reverse or diminish the adverse effects of OSA on the brain structure and function. Additional investigations are urgently needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of the effects of OSA on the brain and the efficacy of CPAP therapy for brain protection.

This study examined the response of an organization's members to subversive leadership and the undermining of the CEO. When the top-management team is in conflict, there is a lack of leadership from the highest levels within the organization. The lack of leadership is likely to produce extraordinary stress throughout the firm, and become a health-risk factor for the organization's members, especially the CEO. After exposure to this undermining, we hypothesize that organizational members will lose trust in the leadership and will have lower job satisfaction, as well a higher intent to leave the organization. The findings indicated that individuals, within the subversive-leadership environment, have lower job satisfaction and higher intent-to-leave the organization. Furthermore, the individual's emotional intelligence level does mediate the relationship between trust in the leadership and job satisfaction, but does not mediate intent-to-leave.

Child temperament has been shown to be biologically based and heritable; however, genetic association studies of temperament have been fairly inconclusive, and the role that parental depressive symptoms play is largely unexplored in this context. The relationship between parent depressive symptoms and the child temperament dimensions of fear and activity level (AL) were examined in 100 sibling pairs 2.5–5.5 years of age and their mothers. Parent reports of child temperament and parent self-reports of depressive symptoms were obtained from families, as well as DNA samples from each child during their lab visit. Associations between the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) polymorphism 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 and the phenotypic variables were also explored. Parent depressive symptoms were significantly related to higher child AL, but minimally associated with fear outcomes. More powerful regression analyses revealed that parent depressive symptoms, child gender, and child age predicted child AL, but only child gender and age predicted child fear. In our exploratory candidate gene analyses, the low-expressing genotypes of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism predicted child fearfulness, but not child AL. Our phenotypic findings indicate that a child with at least one parent with depressive symptoms is more likely to have higher AL, and results of the initial genetic analyses show that the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism is associated with child fearfulness. Future research employing larger samples, observational assessments, and related child behavioral maladjustment measures will further clarify these findings.

This study examined whether children follow unique victimization trajectories during elementary school and whether these paths predict differential psychological and physical health outcomes during high school. Participants included 1,073 children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Peer victimization was assessed in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 9th grades, and psychological and physical health outcomes (e.g., depression, loneliness, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, physical health markers, and health habits) were measured in the 9th grade. Growth mixture modeling revealed three groups: non-victims (n = 886), persistent victims (n = 52), and escaped victims (n = 70). Generally, persistent victims experienced poorer physical functioning and health, higher levels of psychological maladjustments, and poorer health habits (i.e., sleep problems, disordered eating) compared to non-victims. Using case–control matching, escaped victims and non-victims did not differ on health behaviors and most physical health measures, with the exception of adiposity. Escaped victims experienced higher levels of psychological issues than non-victims comparable to those observed in persistent victims. These findings underscore the heterogeneity of both victimization experiences and health outcomes following aversive peer experiences.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of message framing strategies and approach avoidance trait moderators on health communication intervention messages aimed at encouraging adaptive coping among parents of those children with eating disorders (PCEDs). Parents of children with eating disorders (N = 108) were randomly assigned in a three-condition (gain frame, loss frame, and control) online message pretesting experiment. Outcome measures included decisional balance (Transtheoretical Model) and behavioral intentions. Gain frames were more beneficial in promoting adaptive behaviors among PCEDs, as loss frames were often harmful. Findings are qualified by approach/avoidance moderator interactions. Formative research benefits from incorporating experimental pretesting methods. Interventions using framed messages should consider relevant personality traits that serve as moderators to behavior adoption.