Acute Thoughts,Exercise Consistency,and Coping Self‐Efficacy1

One study purpose was to determine whether individuals classified with respect to consistency of exercise adherence and acute thinking tone differed on coping self‐efficacy, decisional struggle, exercise intention, and affect. A second study purpose was to examine whether coping self‐efficacy predicted struggle, intention, and affect. Participants were 160 healthy people (Mage = 25.6 years) exercising in fitness settings. Social cognitive, affect, and exercise consistency measures were obtained concurrently. A multivariate analysis indicated that positive thinkers experienced significantly lower decisional struggle and higher coping self‐efficacy compared to negative thinkers. Further, consistent exercisers experienced significantly lower decisional struggle and higher coping self‐efficacy, intention, and positive affect compared to inconsistent exercisers. Regression analyses indicated that coping self‐efficacy significantly predicted decisional struggle and intention.     

Gender-linked personality and mental health: The role of trait emotional intelligence

The present study examined the role of the emotion-related personality dimension, or trait emotional intelligence (EI), in the relationship between gender-linked personality (GLP) traits and internalizing mental health difficulties (IMHDs). GLP traits were measured as Agency and Communion, due to conceptual advantages over other semantic representations (e.g., masculinity, femininity) in the literature. IMHDs as the outcome variable were conceptualized as a latent composite of anxiety, stress, and emotion-oriented coping. A moderate relationship between Agency and IMHDs was fully mediated by trait EI. Trait EI also divided an overall non-significant effect of Communion on IMHDs into an indirect, protective effect via trait EI and a direct, adverse effect. The results suggest that Agency and Communion subsume different sets of trait EI facets, which may account for much of the differential protective effects of these GLP traits on IMHDs. Discussion focuses on implications of the results for sex differences in mental health.     

Fundamental Questions in Personality

The network perspective represents a novel contribution to personality theory by conceptualising personality traits as emerging from the mutual dependencies between fundamental and causal affective, behavioural, and cognitive components. We argue that incorporating a more nuanced biological and developmental perspective to causality and a more precise approach to affective, behavioural, cognitive and motivational components may serve to enrich the network perspective. Although the graphical approach to modelling personality is aesthetically pleasing, analytic techniques are not yet available to put network models to the (quantitative) test. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A bifactor model of negative affectivity: fear and distress components among younger and older youth

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children (PANAS-C) is a 27-item youth-report measure of positive affectivity and negative affectivity. Using 2 large school-age youth samples (clinic-referred sample: N = 662; school-based sample: N = 911), in the present study, we thoroughly examined the structure of the PANAS-C NA and PA scales and fit a bifactor model to the PANAS-C NA items. Our exploratory factor analytic results demonstrated that negative affectivity is comprised of 2 main components-NA: Fear and NA: Distress-specifically among older youth. A bifactor model also evidenced the best model fit relative to a unidimensional and second-order factor structure of the PANAS-C NA items. The NA: Fear group factor evidenced significant correspondence with external criterion measures of anxiety. However, the original PANAS-C NA scale evidenced equal (and in some cases greater) correspondence with criterion measures of anxiety. We thus recommend continued usage and interpretation of the full PANAS-C NA scale despite the identification of the fear and distress group factors underlying general negative affectivity. The identification of these fear and distress group factors nonetheless suggest that negative affectivity may be comprised largely of a fear and distress component among older youth. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to better understanding the structure of psychopathology across childhood development and informing the development of future treatments of negative emotions.     

Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Maladaptive Interpersonal Behavior in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Although most research conceptualizes emotion regulation as an internal process (i.e., intrapersonal), emotions are frequently regulated in an...     

Common factors in the enhancement of dyadic coping

Stress and coping are important constructs in understanding the dynamics of close relationships. Couple therapy and marital distress prevention approaches have become increasingly focused on these variables to gain knowledge of how stress and coping may impact the quality and stability of close relationships. In this paper, we outline couple's coping enhancement training (CCET) and the coping-oriented couple's therapy (COCT); both, couple interventions derived from stress and coping research. We address specific features of each approach and report data on their efficacy and effectiveness. We also examine both the common and specific factors that may play a role in the effectiveness of these approaches.