Race-Based Stress in White Adults: Exploring the Role of White Racial Identity Status Attitudes and Type of Racial Events

The impact of racial experiences on Whites has been underresearched and has rarely been considered traumatic. To understand these experiences, it is important to consider variation in one's orientation to their racial group (i.e., racial identity) and the type of racial encounter. Using a White adult sample and hierarchical cluster analysis, the authors found that reactions to race-based encounters were associated with varying levels of psychological distress and well-being and racial identity statuses. Clinical implications are discussed. El impacto de las experiencias raciales en personas blancas no ha sido suficientemente investigado y en raras ocasiones ha sido considerado traumático. Para comprender estas experiencias, es importante considerar la variación en la orientación de cada individuo hacia su grupo racial (es decir, la identidad racial) y el tipo de encuentro racial. Usando una muestra de personas adultas blancas y un análisis jerárquico de clústeres, los autores hallaron que las reacciones a los encuentros raciales estaban asociadas a niveles variables de malestar psicológico, así como de estados de bienestar e identidad racial.     

Use of the gait deviation index for the evaluation of patients with Parkinson's disease

The authors aimed to determine whether the Gait Deviation Index (GDI) could be feasible to characterize gait in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and evaluate outcomes of levodopa treatment. Twenty-two PD participants were evaluated with clinical examination and 3-D quantitative gait analysis (GDI was calculated from gait analysis) in 2 states (OFF and ON) after taking levodopa. Twenty age-matched healthy participants (CG) were included as controls. The GDI value in the OFF state was 83.4 ± 11.5 (statistically different from CG) while clinical scales demonstrated a moderate-severe gait impairment of these patients. Significant improvements are evident from clinical scores and by GDI values in the ON state. The mean GDI for the ON state (GDI(ON): 87.9 ± 10.4) was significantly higher than in for the OFF state (GDI(OFF): 83.4 ± 11.5), indicating a global gait improvement after the treatment. The results show that GDI has lower value as an indicator of pathology in PD patients than in quantifying the effects of levodopa treatment in PD state.     

Neuroticism, extraversion, goals, and subjective well-being: Exploring the relations in young, middle-aged, and older adults

The positive association between intrinsic, as opposed to extrinsic, goal importance and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) is well-documented. However, less is known whether these associations are consistent across age groups and when simultaneously considering personality traits. Structural equation models conducted with young, middle-aged, and older adults indicated that neuroticism was negatively related to SWB across age groups, while extraversion and intrinsic goal importance held age-differential associations: Extraversion was related to SWB in the two younger age groups, whereas in older adults only an indirect effect emerged via intrinsic goal importance. Intrinsic goal importance was related to SWB among young and older adults but not among middle-aged adults. These results underscore the importance of age-differential associations in determinants of SWB.     

Self-Construal and Psychological Wellbeing in Scottish and Italian Young Adults

The present study investigated the role of self-construal in explaining psychological wellbeing in two European countries. Eight hundred and fifteen Italian and Scottish students completed measures of life-satisfaction, optimism, subjective happiness and a scale measuring interdependent and/or independent self-construal. We obtained three main findings. First of all, scores on the scales of psychological wellbeing were positively associated with scores on the independent scale and independence was found to be the factor that best explained variance in psychological wellbeing. Second, and contrary to our prediction, the Italian group had significantly higher scores for the independence scale than Scots. Third, gender was found to have a significant effect with regard to interdependence of self, life satisfaction, and optimism.     

The Influence of Television and Film Viewing on Midlife Women's Body Image,Disordered Eating,and Food Choice

A recent trend in screen media is the casting of older women who have bodies that are the shapes and sizes of younger women. These aging beauties can be found in shows such as Cougar Town and Desperate Housewives. It was predicted that heavy viewers of these media would report stronger eating disorder symptomatology, greater body ideal discrepancies, and stricter food choices than light viewers. Participants were 166 midlife women (M: 44.57 years) who completed an online questionnaire that asked about body ideals, disordered eating, food choices, and exposure to aging beauty programming. Results demonstrate that media exposure was associated with stronger reports of disordered eating, greater discrepancies between actual body size and both women's ideal body size as well as perceptions of how others wanted them to look, and stricter food choices when around other people. Ideal self-discrepancies mediate the association between aging beauty media and disordered eating symptomatology. Our study builds on extant work related to media consumption, body concerns, and eating behaviors among a non–college-aged sample.     

The Double Bind of Siblings in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Siblings have been found to be perhaps the greatest source of social risk for adolescent substance abuse, particularly when the relationship is close. But, close sibling relationships are also linked to an array of important developmental and lifelong protective benefits. Sibling closeness simultaneously poses considerable risks and benefits. These conflicting findings suggest opposite treatment directions, or a “double bind” for practice. That sibling closeness risks contagion suggests treatment that aims to decrease sibling closeness. On the other hand, the many lifelong and protective benefits of close sibling relationships suggests increasing sibling closeness when possible. Family-based treatment is recommended for adolescent substance abuse, but offers little explicit direction for involving siblings in general, and none for this double bind. This paper untangles and translates the extant literature into preliminary practice guidelines; the Sibling Substance Abuse Treatment Matrix. Important variations related to gender, and age-spacing are considered. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.