The SASSI‐3 Face Valid Other Drugs Scale: A Psychometric Investigation

The authors investigated the psychometric capabilities of the Face Valid Other Drugs (FVOD) scale of the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 (SASSI‐3; G. A. Miller, 1999). Internal consistency reliability estimates and construct validity factor analysis for 230 college students provided initial support for the psychometric properties of the SASSI‐3's FVOD scale.     

Implementing faculty computer literacy programs

A faculty computer literacy grant underwrote distribution and analysis of surveys of faculty computer use and expectations, publication of an extensive newsletter, seminars and workshops, and a computers-on-loan program in which faculty members could take out portable computers like library books. Survey results, successes, and failures are discussed.     

Writing and publishing instructional and research software

Many psychologists who currently use computers in research and instruction will eventually consider developing software of their own. Recommendations for structuring, writing, documenting, and possibly publishing software, as well as dealing with publishers, modifying programs, and converting syntax, are presented in hopes of stimulating the writing of new software.     

The role of optimism and engagement coping in college adaptation: A career construction model

From the perspective of the career construction theory (Savickas, 2005, 2013), adaptation is fostered by adapt-ability resources via the process of adapting. Using this model, the current research tested hypotheses representing the conceptual formulation that academic and psychological adjustments (i.e., adaptation) are associated with optimism (i.e., an adapt-ability resource) via engagement coping (i.e., adapting). These hypotheses were tested in a short-term multiwave study with a sample of incoming college undergraduates (N = 236). The resultant data were largely consistent with the study's hypotheses. In structural equation analyses optimism was shown to be a direct predictor of the greater use of engagement coping, and better psychological adaptation to college transition. Further, empirical tests of mediation revealed that the relationships of optimism with academic and psychological adaptation were mediated by engagement coping.     

“An Unchanging God in a Changing World”: Sexual Practice and Decision-Making among Christian Women in South Africa

Journal of Religion and Health - This study explored the relationship between sexual health and religion among young, Pentecostal Christian women navigating the transition to adulthood in...     

Role of Religion and Spirituality in Stress Management Among Nurses

Religion and spirituality play a significant role as coping resources under stressful circumstances. Nursing professionals confront with a variety of stressors repeatedly and are found to employ religious/spiritual coping techniques in managing the negative impact of work stress. The present review explores different religious and spiritual coping strategies utilized by nurses of different socio-cultural and religious backgrounds and highlights the importance of treating religion and spirituality as two separate entities in studying their stress-buffering effect. The MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PsycArticles databases and Google Scholar were searched from 2006 to 2017 with the key words nursing, stress, religious coping, religiosity and spirituality. Various notions of the divine/transcendent aspect of life have led to lack of consensus over a functional definition of religion as well as spirituality. This is found to be the core element of methodological inadequacy in studying individuals’ reliance on religion and spirituality during stress. Further, most of the existing measures do not adequately explore spirituality as a construct independent of religion. Measures should be more culture sensitive to discover culturally enriched religious practices and rituals adopted by individuals belonging to different socio-cultural milieu to overcome stress. The role of religion and spirituality in stress resilience, emotion regulation and burnout among nurses around the globe needs further empirical support. Multiple levels at which religious and spiritual coping may moderate/mediate the relationship between work stress and behavioral/emotional outcomes among human service personnel who face high emotional labor demands should be more comprehensively analyzed.     

Neighborhood Social Context and Individual Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposures Associated with Child Cognitive Test Scores

Childhood cognitive and test-taking abilities have long-term implications for educational achievement and health, and may be influenced by household environmental exposures and neighborhood contexts. This study evaluates whether age 5 scores on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R, administered in English) are associated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure and neighborhood context variables including poverty, low educational attainment, low English language proficiency, and inadequate plumbing. The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health enrolled African-American and Dominican-American New York City women during pregnancy, and conducted follow-up for subsequent childhood health outcomes including cognitive test scores. Individual outcomes were linked to data characterizing 1-km network buffers around prenatal addresses, home observations, interviews, and prenatal PAH exposure data from personal air monitors. Prenatal PAH exposure above the median predicted 3.5 point lower total WPPSI-R scores and 3.9 point lower verbal scores; the association was similar in magnitude across models with adjustments for neighborhood characteristics. Neighborhood-level low English proficiency was independently associated with 2.3 point lower mean total WPPSI-R score, 1.2 point lower verbal score, and 2.7 point lower performance score per standard deviation. Low neighborhood-level educational attainment was also associated with 2.0 point lower performance scores. In models examining effect modification, neighborhood associations were similar or diminished among the high PAH exposure group, as compared with the low PAH exposure group. Early life exposure to personal PAH exposure or selected neighborhood-level social contexts may predict lower cognitive test scores. However, these results may reflect limited geographic exposure variation and limited generalizability.     

Intra-individual variability in gait and in cognitive performance are not related in the elderly

As humans age, the amount of intra-individual variability (IIV) present in both their gait and their cognitive performance tends to increase. Both gait and cognitive IIV are associated with attentional control and with cerebrovascular disease, suggesting that the IIV in gait and cognitive function should be strongly correlated in the elderly. In this study temporal gait variability was determined from a 60-second period of walking. Cognitive variability was determined from two decision-time tasks assessing inhibition. Despite the presence of substantial amounts of gait and cognitive IIV in 71 elderly individuals, there were no significant correlations between measures of cognitive and gait IIV, suggesting that different factors drive IIV in the motor and cognitive performance of older individuals. These results are not consistent with the common cause theory of aging, which predicts that cognitive and sensorimotor performance should show related declines due to age-related disruption of a common neurological substrate.