Timing of dietary change in response to a telephone counseling intervention: evidence from the WHEL study

OBJECTIVE: Little is known about temporal patterns of diet change within interventions, nor about predictors of early and sustained successful change. Social-cognitive theory asserts that early successes in achieving behavior change increase self-efficacy, leading to longer-term success. DESIGN: The authors conducted exploratory cluster analyses using dietary data from the first month of the telephone counseling intervention of the Women's Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Change in dietary pattern at three early intervention timepoints. RESULTS: Three clusters were identified: Cluster 1 (25%) was close to meeting study goals at baseline, but still made major changes; Cluster 2 (49%) and Cluster 3 (26%) were not achieving study goals at baseline, but Cluster 2 made substantial immediate changes, while Cluster 3 changed their diet more gradually. Baseline demographic and behavioral variables were associated with cluster membership; however, the strongest predictors of cluster were self-efficacy, motivation, and approaches to study goals. Cluster membership predicted dietary pattern at 12 months. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that a one-on-one telephone counseling intervention that is intensive in the early weeks may maximize the level of change achieved in a study.     

A small-to-large unit progression in metaphonological awareness and reading?

The paper reports a series of studies of reading and metaphonological processing by children in their second year in primary school(aged 6 years). An earlier study had established that, in the first year of learning, performance was characterized by a small-unit approach in which graphemes and phonemes were emphasized. In the second year, reading became more sensitiveto the frequencies of rime structures in the lexicon. Capacity to generate word analogies for nonwords also showed increasing commitment to rime-based responses, and this trend was strongly linked to reading age. The present results suggest that a small-unit approach to reading is augmented by a large-unit approach as development proceeds. This trend was reflected in performance on a test of explicit phonological awareness. When asked to report the segment of sound shared by two spoken words, Primary 1 children were poor in reporting shared rimes but relatively adept in reporting shared phonemes. During Primary 2 there was an improvement in ability to report shared rimes, and this trend was also related to reading age. These results are discussed in relation to the influence of instruction and the nature of the orthography in determining the course of reading development.     

Adolescent girls' and boys' weight-related health behaviors and cognitions: associations with reputation- and preference-based peer status.

In this study, the authors examined associations between preference- and reputation-based peer status and weight-related behaviors and cognitions for both adolescent boys and girls. Sociometric measures of peer like-ability and peer-perceived popularity, as well as self-reported measures of body size, dieting behavior, and weight-related cognitions were collected from a sample of 441 adolescents in Grades 11 and 12. Results revealed weight-related cognitions for girls (concerning obesity) and boys (concerning musculature/fitness). Peer-perceived popularity, but not like-ability, was significantly associated with both boys' and girls' body size and dieting. Lower levels of popularity were associated with heavier body shapes for girls and with both thin and heavier body shapes for boys. Findings suggest that peer status is an important source of social reinforcement associated with weight-related behaviors and cognitions.     

Intervention to Strengthen Emotional Self-Regulation in Children with Emerging Mental Health Problems: Proximal Impact on School Behavior

A model for teaching children skills to strengthen emotional self-regulation is introduced, informed by the developmental concept of scaffolding. Adult modeling/instruction, role-play and in vivo coaching are tailored to children’s level of understanding and skill to promote use of skills in reallife contexts. Two-hundred twenty-six kindergarten—3rd grade children identified with elevated behavioral and social classroom problems from a population-based screening participated in a waitlisted randomized trial of the Rochester Resilience Project derived from this model. In 14 lessons with school-based mentors, children were taught a hierarchical set of skills: monitoring of emotions; selfcontrol/ reducing escalation of emotions; and maintaining control and regaining equilibrium. Mentors provided classroom reinforcement of skill use. Multi-level modeling accounting for the nesting of children in schools and classrooms showed the following effects at post-intervention: reduced problems rated by teachers in behavior control, peer social skills, shy-withdrawn and off-task behaviors (ES 0.31–0.47). Peer social skills improved for girls but not for boys. Children receiving the intervention had a 46% mean decrease in disciplinary referrals and a 43% decrease in suspensions during the 4-month intervention period. Limitations and future directions to promote skill transfer are discussed.     

PERCEPTIONS OF FEMALE/MALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: Familial and Personal Situations

A factor mediating attitudes toward female/male political candidates may be the potential effect of a candidate's private life. The impact of a familial situation on attitudes towards a hypothetical presidential candidate was investigated in Study 1. Although main effects for candidate sex and familial situation were found, our data did not support differential effects by candidate sex. In Study 2 the potential impact of a candidate's personal problem was examined. A male with past psychological problems was perceived as more electable than three of four female candidates. In both studies, male candidates were perceived as more likely to win the election than were female candidates.