Examining the role of parental self-regulation in family physical activity: A mixed-methods approach

Physical activity (PA) is essential for good health. However, parents risk becoming less active because of the demands of parenting. This has consequences for children as parents are role models. The present study used a mixed-methods approach to explore parental self-regulation associated with PA. Data were collected from 36 parents with preschool-aged children. They were interviewed about their PA and their family’s PA. Parents also completed PA and self-regulation questionnaires and wore an accelerometer for five days. Qualitative data were examined using an inductive approach to thematic analysis. It showed that parents felt that they had limited time for personal PA. Mothers’ self-regulation was driven by an ethic of care and subjective norms, whereas fathers’ self-regulation was driven by beliefs about the importance of autonomy. Nevertheless, both parents saw caring for their children as the main priority. Quantitative data were examined using multiple regression analyses. Results showed that different self-regulatory behaviours predicted the PA of mothers and fathers. Which predictors were significant depended on the type of activity and how it was measured. The findings warrant longitudinal research that would enable the effect of family dynamics on self-regulation associated with PA to be assessed.     

Juggling roles and expectations: dilemmas faced by women talking to relatives about cancer and genetic testing

Health professionals do not inform their patients’ kin about BRCA1/2 test results or genetic testing without their written consent. Thus, the onus is on women attending genetic counselling to talk to relatives about the family history and their potential increased risk. This communication process within the family is largely unexplored and provides the focus of the present study. Fifteen healthy women attending a genetics clinic for predictive testing were interviewed prior to receiving their test result and again 6 months later. A grounded theory approach was used. Findings illustrate the dilemmas women faced in juggling social roles and expectations, which had an impact on communication within the family in the context of predictive genetic testing. Tensions between responsibilities towards themselves and others and their fulfilment of social roles had an impact on who women informed and on how they did so. These factors should be considered when assigning patients the role of information provider.     

Expertise differences in a video decision-making task: Speed influences on performance

Video clips of different speeds were used in a simulation of decision-making in Australian football to test the effects on decision accuracy and decision time. Elite and sub-elite and novice Australian footballers watched videos in six speeds (0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 times normal speed). Participants responded by using a mouse-click to indicate where they would pass the ball for that particular video clip. The elite and sub-elite groups also rated each clip for how ‘game-like’ the decision-making felt. The elite group was significantly more accurate than the sub-elite and novice groups, and the sub-elite group was more accurate than the novice group. Within-speed analysis showed the elite group excelled at the faster video speeds. The use of speeded video delineated clear expertise differences between the groups at the 1.5 speed. Elite and sub-elite players identified the 1.25 and 1.5 speeds as most ‘game-like’ for decision-making. These results show that athletes perceive moderately speeded video as more game-like. Speeded video is further speculated to have allowed elite athletes to perform more automatically, with a faster processing efficacy, a key characteristic of elite performance. This study suggests the use of speeded video as a potential new research paradigm to explore expertise and a viable method for future training interventions for decision-making.     

Training Addiction Counselors to Implement an Evidence-Based Intervention: Strategies for Increasing Organizational and Provider Acceptance

One barrier to widespread public access to empirically supported treatments (ESTs) is the limited availability and high cost of professionals trained to deliver them. Our earlier work from 2 clinical trials demonstrated that front-line addiction counselors could be trained to deliver a manualized, group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (GCBT) for depression, a prototypic example of an EST, with a high level of adherence and competence. This follow-up article provides specific recommendations for the selection and initial training of counselors, and for the structure and process of their ongoing clinical supervision. We highlight unique challenges in working with counselors unaccustomed to traditional clinical supervision. The recommendations are based on comprehensive feedback derived from clinician notes taken throughout the clinical trials, a focus group with counselors conducted 1 year following implementation, and interviews with key organization executives and administrators.     

How people think “if only …” about reasons for actions

When people think about how a situation might have turned out differently, they tend to imagine counterfactual alternatives to their actions. We report the results of three experiments which show that people imagine alternatives to actions differently when they know about a reason for the action. The first experiment (n = 36) compared reason – action sequences to cause – effect sequences. It showed that people do not imagine alternatives to reasons in the way they imagine alternatives to causes: they imagine an alternative to an action more than an effect, and to a cause more than a reason. The second experiment (n = 214) and the third experiment (n = 190) both show that different sorts of reasons have different sorts of effects on how people imagine alternatives to actions. People imagine an alternative to an action (the protagonist went to a ball) less often when they know the reason for the action was an obligation (he had to participate in fundraising) compared to when they know about a weaker reason (he wanted to meet a famous violinist) or no reason. The second experiment shows the effect for a social obligation and the third experiment replicates and extends it to a health obligation. We interpret the results in terms of the possibilities that people keep in mind about actions and their reasons.     

A China–New Zealand comparison of forgiveness

The present study examined the practice of forgiveness among participants from China (N = 172) and New Zealand (N = 91). We tested a theoretical model describing the relationships between collectivism, individualism, and forgiveness. Participants from China were more collectivistic and less individualistic than were participants from New Zealand. Overall, participants from New Zealand were more forgiving than were participants from China. Collectivism was positively related to decisional forgiveness in Chinese participants. Decisional forgiveness independently predicted conciliatory behaviour among participants from China, but this was not the case for participants from New Zealand. Thus, the hypothesized model received qualified support.     

Participant recruitment methods and statistical reasoning performance

Optimal Bayesian reasoning performance has reportedly been elusive, and a variety of explanations have been suggested for this situation. In a series of experiments, it is demonstrated that these difficulties with replication can be accounted for by differences in participant-sampling methodologies. Specifically, the best performances are obtained with students from top-tier, national universities who were paid for their participation. Performance drops significantly as these conditions are altered regarding inducements (e.g., using unpaid participants) or participant source (e.g., using participants from a second-tier, regional university). Honours-programme undergraduates do better than regular undergraduates within the same university, paid participation creates superior performance, and top-tier university students do better than students from lower ranked universities. Pictorial representations (supplementing problem text) usually have a slight facilitative effect across these participant manipulations. These results indicate that studies should take account of these methodological details and focus more on relative levels of performance rather than absolute performance.     

The prevention of depressive symptoms in rural Australian women

Two interventions aimed at preventing depressive symptoms in women living in Western Australian rural communities were evaluated against a no‐intervention control condition. The standard intervention was based upon traditional cognitive‐behaviour treatments for depression; the experimental intervention was based upon prevention strategies derived from the learned helplessness model of depression (e.g. Peterson, Maier, & Seligman, 1993 ). Seventy‐six women were randomly assigned to either the standard or the experimental group, and a further 20 women formed a no‐intervention control group. The standard group showed a reduction in depressive symptoms at post‐test, but no effects at 6‐week or 6‐month follow‐ups. In contrast, a reduction in depressive symptoms did not appear for the experimental group until the 6‐week follow‐up at which time a less depressive attributional style was also evident; these effects were even more pronounced at the 6‐month follow‐up. The no‐intervention control group showed no changes across time. It is argued that these results support the applicability of prevention strategies based on the learned helplessness model to this population. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Validity of the Cognitive Representations of Hypertension Scales (CRHTN)1

Leventhal and Diefenbach's (1991) self‐regulatory theory is discussed in explaining the dynamic nature of “how” and “what” people think about hypertension and how this information is different according to severity of hypertension. Using a sample of hypertensive adults who had controlled and uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) status, the factor structure of the Cognitive Representations of Hypertension (CRHTN) scales, an instrument based on self‐regulatory theory of Leventhal & Diefenbach, is examined through exploratory, confirmatory, and multigroup factor analyses. Results indicate that a 5‐factor model is representative of theoretical constructs of disease label or symptoms, consequences, and controllability. The model accurately fits observed data for outpatients with controlled and uncontrolled BP status. Results provide support for an understanding of individuals’ cognitive structuring of disease‐specific attitudes, beliefs, and self‐management skills.