Social and Temporal Comparisons Made by Individuals Living With HIV Disease: Relationships to Adherence Behavior1

When faced with the uncertainty of serious illness, individuals cope by comparing themselves to other people (social comparisons) and to other times in their lives (temporal comparisons). Participants were 44 individuals being treated for HIV who completed questionnaires measuring comparisons, adherence, and self‐efficacy; 34 also completed qualitative interviews that were coded for comparisons. High levels of comparison to worse‐off others, worse‐off past selves, and better‐off future selves were prevalent. Comparisons to worse‐off others resulting in positive affect were associated with greater medication adherence; comparisons to better‐off others resulting in negative affect were related to worse adherence. Self‐efficacy to adhere mediated the relationship between comparison and adherence. Individuals who are uncertain about treatment outcomes may engage in social comparison to gain specific knowledge about adherence.     

Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: Introduction to the Special Issue

This issue of the Journal of Genetic Counseling is devoted to direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. The 15 articles in this special issue address practice considerations for genetic counselors and other health care professionals; the benefits and limitations of DTC genetic testing; consumer and provider attitudes towards and experience with DTC testing; and the roles and educational needs of genetic counselors and other health care providers in providing and interpreting DTC genetic testing. In this introduction to the special issue, we provide a brief background on DTC genetic testing, summarize the important contribution of the articles included in this issue, and outline the essential work that still needs to be done as genetic counselors are increasingly engaged in discussions, education, and research about DTC genetic testing.     

An Exploration of Genetic Counselors’ Needs and Experiences with Prenatal Chromosomal Microarray Testing

Because of the higher yield over traditional chromosomal analysis, chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) is being used increasingly in prenatal diagnosis. Unfortunately, the clinical implication of many copy number variants found on prenatal CMA is uncertain, complicating genetic counseling. Recognizing that uncertain results will be encountered frequently as more of the genome is assayed prenatally, we set out to understand the experiences and needs of genetic counselors when counseling patients about uncertain prenatal microarray results, their comfort with various aspects of prenatal genetic counseling, and their interest in additional education and training about prenatal microarray testing. We first interviewed 10 genetic counselors about their experiences of providing pre- and post-test genetic counseling about prenatal CMA. Based on the findings from the counselor interviews, we developed items for a survey to assess the prevalence of genetic counselors’ attitudes towards, experience and comfort with, and educational needs regarding prenatal CMA. Based on surveys completed by 193 prenatal genetic counselors, we found that when there is an uncertain CMA result, only 59 % would be comfortable providing genetic counseling and only 43 % would be comfortable helping a patient make a decision about pregnancy termination. Being less comfortable was associated with seeing fewer patients having prenatal CMA testing. Respondents expressed a high degree of interest in additional education about prenatal CMA and counseling about uncertain results. Further genetic counselor education and training aimed at improving counselors’ personal comfort with uncertain results and communicating about them with patients is needed.     

The Long Arm of an Unsupportive Work-Family Culture in Work Organizations: Crossover to the Partner’s Work-Family Balance Satisfaction in Dual-Earner Couples

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This study analyzes how an unsupportive organizational work-family culture experienced by one employed parent at work can cross over to their partner and...     

Online health communication about human genetics: perceptions and preferences of internet users.

Unprecedented advancements in human genetics research necessitate keeping the public abreast of new information, applications, and implications and the Internet represents an important method of communicating with the public. Our research used cross-sectional self-report survey data collected from a diverse convenience sample of 780 Internet users in two states. Multivariate regression analysis explored the relationships between experiences, perceptions, and preferences for online health and genetics communication. Online health information seeking was associated with previous genetic information seeking, comfort with online genetic communication, perceived risk for genetic abnormality, being female, and having more education. Comfort with online genetics communication was associated with a preference for online genetic information, previous online health and off-line genetics information seeking, having a healthy lifestyle, believing in the positive impact of human genetics research, and being female. Perceiving online health information to be accurate was associated with preferring the Internet for genetics communication, being older, less educated, and perceiving Internet use as anonymous. Preferring online genetics communication to other communication channels was associated with perceiving online health information as accurate, being comfortable receiving online genetics information, having lower intrinsic religiosity, and being male. The implications of findings for Web-based health message design are discussed.     

The effects of labeled and unlabeled praise upon lower and middle class children

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of two types of content of praise, labeled and unlabeled, with lower and middle class children. Following two brief observation periods designed to assess differences in the frequency with which lower and middle class mothers employed labeled and unlabeled praise, each mother played the marble-in-the-hole game with her child. Half of the mothers in each group were given labeled and half were given unlabeled praise statements to make contingent upon their child dropping marbles in a particuler hole. The results indicated that the children were more responsive to labeled than to unlabeled praise. The mothers from the two socioeconomic groups did not differ in the frequency with which they employed labeled and unlabeled praise in the initial observation periods.