Healthy Eating Index-C is compromised among adolescents with body weight concerns, weight loss dieting, and meal skipping

The objective was to describe weight concerns, dieting, and meal skipping of adolescents and to determine associations with the Healthy Eating Index-C (HEI-C). Data, that were collected using the Food Behaviour Questionnaire, revealed that participants (male=810, female=1016) in grades 9/10 reported weight concerns (n=518), dieting (n=364), and skipping breakfast (n=498), lunch (n=252), and/or dinner (n=129). Of those dieting or weight concerned (n=602), 61% were healthy weight and of those not dieting or weight concerned (n=1224), 13% were overweight/obese. The ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that HEI-C was likely to be rated lower among those weight concerned and dieting (p<.001), and among those that skipped the breakfast meal (p<.001). The current study identified inappropriate weight concerns and dieting that compromised diet quality and has implications for future intervention and policy development.     

Designing Health Communications: Harnessing the Power of Affect,Imagery, and Self‐Regulation

We review recent advances in self‐regulation theory and research, highlighting implications for communication strategies aimed at persuading individuals to adopt health‐protective behaviors. We focus on the role of affect and imagery processes in health persuasion, reviewing research on how fear arousal and imagery influence health information processing and decision‐making. Despite ongoing controversy over the use of fear‐arousing appeals, considerable empirical evidence supports their efficacy. Such threat appeals can backfire, however, if they fail to address key aspects of self‐regulation processes. Research on the cognitive and emotional influences of imagery and other concrete‐perceptual stimuli points to strategies for integrating them into health persuasion efforts. Mental simulation techniques represent another promising avenue for communications aimed at fostering health behavior change. New directions of inquiry include research on appeals that arouse emotions other than fear (e.g., positive emotions), more nuanced applications of fear arousal in communications, and applications for computer‐based and Internet communications.     

An Integrative Analysis of Person–Organization Fit Theories

This study provides an integrative analysis of three approaches to person–organization (P–O) fit theory and measurement: values congruence and personality congruence (supplementary fit measures), and work environment congruence (a needs–supplies fit measure). Commensurate measures of each aspect of fit were collected from 105 employees in six organizations in the western United States. Values congruence and work environment congruence were both related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but personality congruence was not. All three fit measures were related to employees' intent to remain with their employer, although this effect was generally mediated by satisfaction and commitment. When multiple fit measures were used in a single analysis, values congruence and work environment congruence had the strongest and most consistent effects on the outcome measures. These results suggest a revised, multidimensional model of P–O fit.     

You still feel different: the experience and meaning of women's self‐injury in the context of a lesbian or bisexual identity

This article reports an intensive qualitative study of the subjective experience and meaning of self‐injury for 16 women who identified as lesbian or bisexual and who had deliberately self‐injured on repeated occasions. In individual interviews, the women talked about their experiences of self‐injury and the role it played in their lives as lesbian or bisexual women. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to elicit themes arising within their accounts. These highlighted a number of ways in which social and contextual factors contributed to the development of self‐injury. Although many of these factors seemed applicable to any woman who self‐injures, there were some aspects that were specific to the experience of lesbian and bisexual women. In addition, the women's accounts raised a number of important issues about the way in which mental health services respond to lesbian and bisexual women who self‐injure. It is argued that self‐injury can be understood as a coping response that arises within a social context characterized by abuse, invalidation, and the experience of being regarded as different or in some way unacceptable. These factors are especially salient in the lives of women, and they emerge particularly strongly as part of the experience of women who are developing a lesbian or bisexual identity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theory‐Based Determinants of Youth Smoking: A Multiple Influence Approach1

This study tested a broad array of determinants of smoking grounded in general social psychological theories, as well as personality and social development theories. Using data from 2,004 middle school students, all proximal and distal determinants significantly predicted smoking in the hypothesized direction. Further, hierarchical logistic regressions showed that intention to smoke, positive and negative attitudes toward smoking, impediments to smoking, self‐efficacy to resist smoking, parent norms, and academic success most strongly predicted current smoking. Hierarchical linear regressions suggested that parental relatedness, maladaptive coping strategies, depression, and low academic aspirations most strongly predicted susceptibility to smoking for those who had not yet smoked a cigarette. Global expectancies were the strongest predictor of susceptibility in low socioeconomic status students. These findings may guide the development of future theory‐based interventions that produce the greatest reductions in youth smoking.     

Reducing assaults on an acute psychiatric unit using a token economy: a 2‐year follow‐up

Token economies are an effective way of changing various behaviors including acquiring new skills, reducing undesired behaviors, reducing aggression, increasing treatment compliance, and improving psychiatric unit management. This study examines the long‐term effect of a token economy on an acute care, inpatient psychiatric unit. The two years following the implementation of a unit based token economy are compared with the 12 months prior to implementation. The results show a significant reduction in total assaults as well as fewer staff injuries resulting in loss of time from work. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Accreditation Standards for University and College Counseling Centers

The accreditation standards outlined in the article are used by the International Association of Counseling Services as the basis for the formal accreditation of college and university counseling programs throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia. They reflect the program elements and practice standards that are deemed essential in a counseling center that provides high‐quality services to students.     

Latino/as, Asian Americans, and the Black–White Binary

This paper aims to contribute toward coalitionbuilding by showing that, even if we try tobuild coalition around what might look like ourmost obvious common concern – reducing racism –the dominant discourse of racial politics inthe United States inhibits an understanding ofhow racism operates vis-à-vis Latino/as andAsian Americans, and thus proves more of anobstacle to coalition building than an aid. Theblack/white paradigm, which operates to governracial classifications and racial politics inthe U.S., takes race in the U.S. to consist ofonly two racial groups, Black and White,with others understood in relation to one ofthese categories.I summarize and discuss the strongestcriticisms of the paradigm and then develop twofurther arguments. Together these argumentsshow that continuing to theorize race in theU.S. as operating exclusively through theblack/white paradigm is actuallydisadvantageous for all people of color in theU.S., and in many respects for whites as well(or at least for white union households and thewhite poor).     

Assessment and treatment of hoarding in an individual with dementia

The authors used a reinforcer assessment to evaluate possible interventions for hoarding in an older individual with dementia. The most preferred condition from the assessment (sorting activity) was compared to a staff developed treatment involving item removal and redirection. Hoarding was reduced during both interventions with a greater reduction in the sorting condition. The behavioral reductions were maintained during schedule thinning of social interactions and follow-up.     

Acceptability of interventions for aggressive behavior in long-term care settings: comparing ratings and hierarchical selection

Fifty-six active treatment team members in long-term nursing care facilities completed an online survey assessing treatment acceptability of modern behavioral, pharmacological, and sensory interventions. A traditional treatment acceptability rating scale was compared to treatment selections in a paired-options format. Unlike earlier research, there were no significant differences in acceptability between the 3 interventions on the traditional rating scale. However, ratings and selections were significantly correlated for behavioral and pharmacological interventions. The clinical significance of such relations and the implications for the use of treatment ratings is discussed.