Matching Methods for Selection of Participants for Follow-Up

This work examines ways to make the best use of limited resources when selecting individuals to follow up in a longitudinal study estimating causal effects. In the setting under consideration, covariate information is available for all individuals but outcomes have not yet been collected and may be expensive to gather, and thus only a subset of the comparison participants are followed. Expressions in Rubin and Thomas (1996) Rubin, D. B. and Thomas, N. 1996. Matching using estimated propensity scores, relating theory to practice.. Biometrics, 52: 249–264. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] show the benefits that can be obtained, in terms of reduced bias and variance of the estimated treatment effect, of selecting comparison individuals well matched to those in the treated group compared with a random sample of comparison individuals. We primarily consider nonexperimental settings but also consider implications for randomized trials. The methods are illustrated using data from the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore Prevention Program, which included data collection from age 6 to young adulthood of participants in an evaluation of 2 early elementary-school-based universal prevention programs.     

Post-Christendom,Post-Constantinian,Post-Christian … Does the Label Matter?

The demise of Christendom is of fundamental significance in understanding the present and future relationship between the churches and European culture. Attempts to develop post-Christendom perspectives are hindered by linguistic and conceptual confusion. This article explores misleading implications of the terms ‘post-Constantinian’ and ‘post-Christian’ and argues for the consistent use of the term ‘post-Christendom’. Use of the terms ‘Christendom’ and ‘post-Christendom’ has been criticised for failing to differentiate between different kinds of Church–state partnerships, some of which may be less problematic than others. This article acknowledges such historical differences but argues that there is an underlying ideological unity susceptible of being described and investigated under these labels. It argues further that attempts to promote a benign expression of Christendom as a possible future for Europe are unwise. It summarises the transitions occurring as Europe journeys beyond Christendom and argues for creative engagement with post-Christendom as an opportunity for ecclesial renewal.     

Athletes' perceptions of how cognitive interference during competition influences concentration and effort

Abstract

This paper investigates athletes' perception of the relationship between cognitive interference and its effects on concentration and effort during sport performance. The sample consisted of 115 volleyball players that took part in a national university tournament. Three different kinds of thoughts were investigated: ‘performance worries’, ‘situation-irrelevant thoughts’, and ‘thoughts of escape’. Path analysis was used to examine the relationships. All kinds of thoughts were reported to be detrimental to concentration, whereas different patterns of associations emerged between different thoughts and subsequent effort. ‘Performance worries’ were reported to be related to increases in effort for athletes holding higher goal attainment expectancies and decreases in effort for athletes holding lower goal attainment expectancies. ‘Thoughts of escape’ were reported to be related to decreases in effort, while no significant relation between ‘situation irrelevant thoughts’ and effort emerged. Results stress the importance of further examining the role of interfering thoughts athletes experience during competition.     

Males' Reactions to Participating in Research on Dating Violence Victimization and Childhood Abuse

Childhood abuse and dating violence victimization are prevalent and devastating problems. Although there has been an abundance of research on these topics in recent years, researchers and institutional review boards often struggle with determining whether asking respondents questions on previous violence will result in increased emotional distress or other negative research outcomes. Empirical data are therefore needed that examine the research reactions of individuals who participate in research on childhood abuse and dating violence. This study examined this topic among a sample of male college students (N?=?193). Results showed that victims of childhood sexual abuse had more negative emotional reactions and victims of physical dating violence had more negative perceived drawbacks to research participation than nonvictims. However, victims and nonvictims did not differ on positive research reactions. These findings suggest that there are few differences between victims and nonvictims on research reactions.     

Drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating in men: The role of set shifting difficulties and weak central coherence

Set shifting difficulties and weak central coherence are information-processing biases associated with thinness-oriented eating and body image pathology in women. However, little is known about the relationship between these processing biases and muscularity-oriented eating and body image pathology. We investigated whether set shifting and central coherence were uniquely related to the drive for muscularity and muscularity-oriented disordered eating in a sample of 91 male undergraduates. Participants completed the Wisconsin Card Sort Test, the Matching Familiar Figures Task, the Drive for Muscularity scale, and a modified Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire. Results indicated that set shifting difficulties and weak central coherence were both uniquely positively associated with the drive for muscularity, and that set shifting difficulties were uniquely positively associated with muscularity-oriented disordered eating. Results are discussed with regard to the male experience of body image and eating pathology, and in regard to muscle dysmorphia.     

Attentional capture by emotional faces in adolescence

Poor decision making during adolescence occurs most frequently when situations are emotionally charged. However, relatively few studies have measured the development of cognitive control in response to emotional stimuli in this population. This study used both affective (emotional faces) and non-affective (letter) stimuli in two different flanker tasks to assess the ability to ignore task-irrelevant but distracting information, in 25 adults and 25 adolescents. On the non-emotional (letter) flanker task, the presence of incongruent flanking letters increased the number of errors, and also slowed participants’ ability to identify a central letter. Adolescents committed more errors than adults, but there were no age-related differences for the reaction time interference effect in the letter condition. Post-hoc testing revealed that age-related differences on the task were driven by the younger adolescents (11-14 years); adults and older adolescents (15-17 years) were equally accurate in the letter condition. In contrast, on the emotional face flanker task, not only were adolescents less accurate than adults but they were also more distracted by task-irrelevant fearful faces as evidenced by greater reaction time interference effects. Our findings suggest that the ability to self-regulate in adolescents, as evidenced by the ability to suppress irrelevant information on a flanker task, is more difficult when stimuli are affective in nature. The ability to ignore irrelevant flankers appears to mature earlier for non-affective stimuli than for affective stimuli.     

Vividness of visual imagery and source memory for audio and text

Two groups of high and low vivid imagers heard an audiotape of a crime, read an account of it with both correct and new information, then took recognition and source memory tests. While listening and reading, both groups were told to attend carefully, but one was also instructed to form visual images of the scene. Recognition memory accuracy was greater for material from the text only than from the audio only, whereas source memory accuracy was greater for audio than for text. For source memory of text, high imagers performed more poorly than low imagers under imagery instructions. These results replicate previous work and extend it from an initial film source to an audio source. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of message framing on behavioral prevalence assumptions

Based on attribution theory and the logic of conversational norms, we predicted that image‐based health communications can alter prevalence estimates for health behaviors. In two studies, participants were exposed either to a positively‐framed or negatively‐framed communication advocating for specific health behaviors. As predicted, participants who read a health communication rated healthy behaviors as less common when positive attributes were associated with healthy choices than when negative attributes were associated with unhealthy choices. The second study revealed that this pattern was most pronounced among participants who reported initial uncertainty about behavioral norms. These findings suggest that positively‐framed influence attempts can promote prevalence assumptions that work against the influence attempt. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.