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.     

Mental model construction in linear reasoning: Evidence for the construction of initial annotated models

According to the mental model theory, reasoners build an initial model representing the information given in the premises. In the context of relational reasoning, the question arises as to which kind of representation is used to cope with indeterminate or multimodel problems. The present article presents an array of possible answers arising from the initial construction of complete explicit models, partial explicit models, partial implicit models, a single "isomeric" model, or a single annotated model. Predictions generated from these views are tested in two experiments that vary the problem structure and the number of models consistent with the premises. Analyses of the premise processing times, answering times and accuracy show that the annotated model yields the best fit of the data. Implications of these findings for the mental model theory as developed for relational reasoning are discussed.     

Locus of control and achievement in child psychiatric inpatients

The relationship between the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973) and academic achievement was examined in a sample of 66 child psychiatric inpatients. Previous studies had suggested that this measure correlated with achievement in normal samples (Nowicki & Strickland, 1973) but not in populations of male juvenile offenders (Little & Kendall, 1978). The product-moment correlation between the Nowicki-Strickland Scale and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test was significant. However, when the effect of IQ was controlled for in a partial correlation, there was no significant correlation. Discussion focuses on the relationship between these results and other findings in the area of locus of control, intelligence, and achievement.     

Family demographics of clinically referred children: What we know and what we need to know

Published empirical studies were reviewed to establish family demographics of clinically referred children and adolescents. Data on parental marital status were collected from studies of referred and nonreferred children and adolescents in six empirical journals. Data on family socioeconomic status (SES) and child race or ethnicity were also collected. Based on 86 studies that presented parental marital status, 56.4% of clinically referred children and adolescents live with both their biological mother and biological father. Family SES data were difficult to summarize because of the different methods of presenting this information. When considering race and ethnicity, 86% of the children and adolescents in the clinical samples were Caucasian American. Of the studies that were originally reviewed, 80.4% did not include parental marital status and 36. 7% did not include SES, race, or ethnicity of the participants. There were no significant differences between journals in the rates of inclusion of family demographic data. In addition to revealing family demographic information about children and adolescents who participate in clinical research, these data highlight the lack of consistency in the presentation of family demographic data in published research. Suggestions are provided to help researchers colled and present meaningful family demographic data in clinical and nonclinical research with children and adolescents.This study was completed with support from the Division of Sponsored Research at the University of South Florida and preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R29 49601-02 to the first author. We express our gratitude to Georgetta Bosco and Tracy Burbine for their diligent data collection in the library.     

What makes depressed people feel worse?

Fifty English-speaking adults were asked in a brief open-ended interview, ‘When you're feeling depressed, what sorts of things can make you feel worse?’ Their responses were subjected to content analysis and frequency counts. The most frequent replies were: being alone (mentioned by 24% of Ss), inactivity (20%) and thinking about the problem that was getting them down (18%). The results are discussed from phenomenological, theoretical, historical, methodological and clinical points of view.     

Adolescents', parents', and teachers' distress over adolescents' behavior

This study evaluated adolescents', parents', and teachers' self-reported distress and wishes to change adolescents' emotional/behavioral problems in a sample of clinically referred adolescents. Parents reported being bothered more than adolescents or teachers by adolescents' internalizing behavior. Both parents and teachers rated adolescents' externalizing behavior as more bothersome than did adolescents. Adolescents were significantly less likely to want to change their behavior than were parents or teachers. In addition, adolescents were significantly more likely to want to change their internalizing problems than their externalizing problems. For all three informants, being bothered by adolescents' behaviors was strongly associated with a desire to change the behaviors. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.The authors wish to thank John Iriye and Alisa Waldman for their invaluable help as research assistants.     

Is writing affected by spelling performance and beliefs about spelling?

This study examined relations between self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs and spelling and writing performance. Perceptions about spelling and writing were assessed in 258 collegeage participants. Spelling performance was measured through a 50-item spelling test and writing performance by a holistically scored writing sample. The most highly correlated variables included spelling outcome expectancy and writing outcome expectancy, spelling selfefficacy and writing self-efficacy, spelling performance and spelling self-efficacy, and spelling and writing performance. A causal model relating perceptions, spelling performance, and writing performance was proposed and its appropriateness estimated. Direct effects on spelling were found for spelling self-efficacy, while spelling self-efficacy had indirect effects on writing performance and spelling had a direct effect on writing performance. The causal model was discussed in terms of changing conceptions of writing instruction and traditional views of the role of spelling as a necessary component of good writing.     

Relationship between bullying and scores on the Buss‐Perry Aggression Questionnaire among imprisoned male offenders

This study investigated the relationship between bullying and aggression among imprisoned male adult offenders. The participants were 70 imprisoned male offenders, who were classified using the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist (DIPC) as one of four ‘bully’ groups: pure bully, pure victim, bully/victim, or not involved. Participants also completed the Buss‐Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), a measure of aggression and hostility. The majority of the prisoners reported behaviors indicative of bullying, with 42.9 percent classified in the bully/victim group and 12.9 percent as pure bullies. 15.7 percent of participants were classified as pure victims, while 28.6 percent did not report any involvement in bullying. Bully/victims scored higher than participants who were not involved in bullying on the Hostility scale and Total score of the AQ. A number of correlations were found between the AQ scores and number of bully behaviors perpetrated. These suggested there is an overlap between the constructs measured by the AQ and type of bullying behaviors perpetrated. The number of bullying behaviors experienced was only correlated with the Hostility scale. The results are discussed in terms of previous research and their implications for theory and practice. Aggress. Behav. 31:1–11, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.