Dental Visits Mediate the Impact of Smoking on Oral Health.

Objectives: We explored the mediational relationships among smoking, dental visits, and oral health in a longitudinal study.

Methods: We selected a sample of adult residents of rural communities of North Central Florida and followed them for 3 years (final N = 1170). We examined the impact of smoking on oral health across time and conducted mediation analysis to quantify the effect of dental visits on the relationship between smoking and poor oral health.

Education differences in cancer fatalism: The role of information-seeking experiences.

Cancer fatalism is the belief that cancer is uncontrollable and lethal. Individuals with less education are more likely to hold fatalistic beliefs about cancer, but the mechanism accounting for the relationship is unknown. We tested whether negative health information seeking experiences explain this relationship.

The reliability of psychological instruments in community samples: A cautionary note.

Although researchers norm and validate measures of psychological constructs largely on educated samples, they often use these instruments more broadly, assuming generalizability. We examined whether the assumption of generalizability is warranted. We administered three commonly used psychological measures-the Behavioral Activation/Behavioral Inhibition Scale, the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire, and the Need for Cognition Scale-to a community sample (N = 332) with limited education.

Spontaneous self-affirmation is associated with psychological well-being: Evidence from a US national adult survey sample.

Emerging evidence suggests that individuals spontaneously self-affirm, by reflecting on values and strengths, in response to daily threats. We examined the prevalence and demographic and well-being correlates of spontaneous self-affirmation in the general population. Participants ( n = 3185) completed the cross-sectional, nationally representative 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4, Cycle 3), and answered questions about spontaneous self-affirmation, demographic factors, well-being, and affect.

Avoiding cancer risk information.

Rationale: Perceived risk for health problems such as cancer is a central construct in many models of health decision making and a target for behavior change interventions. However, some portion of the population actively avoids cancer risk information. The prevalence of, explanations for, and consequences of such avoidance are not well understood.

Associations of spontaneous self-affirmation with health care experiences and health information seeking in a national survey of US adults.

Objective: Self-affirming--such as by reflecting on one's strengths and values--reduces defensiveness to threatening information, reduces negative effects of stereotype threat and promotes prosociality. These outcomes may promote physical health, highlighting a need to examine the role of self-affirmation in medical and health contexts.

Design: Data were collected as part of the nationally representative, cross-sectional, 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey.

Predicting Scheduling and Attending for an Oral Cancer Examination.

Background: Oral and pharyngeal cancer is highly treatable if diagnosed early, yet late diagnosis is commonplace apparently because of delays in undergoing an oral cancer examination.

Purpose: We explored predictors of scheduling and attending an oral cancer examination among a sample of Black and White men who were at high risk for oral cancer because they smoked.

Methods: During an in-person interview, participants (N = 315) from rural Florida learned about oral and pharyngeal cancer, completed survey measures, and were offered a free examination in the next week.

Determinants of First-Time Cancer Examinations in a Rural Community: A Mechanism for Behavior Change.

Objectives: After conducting a media campaign focusing on the importance of oral and pharyngeal cancer (OPC) examinations, we assessed mechanisms of behavior change among individuals receiving an OPC examination for the first time.

Methods: We used data from 2 waves of telephone surveys of individuals residing in 36 rural census tracts in northern Florida (n = 806). The second survey occurred after our media intervention.

Message framing for health: moderation by perceived susceptibility and motivational orientation in a diverse sample of Americans.

Objective: The present study examined how gain- and loss-framed informational videos about oral health influence self-reported flossing behavior over a 6-month period, as well as the roles of perceived susceptibility to oral health problems and approach/avoidance motivational orientation in moderating these effects.

Method: An age and ethnically diverse sample of 855 American adults were randomized to receive no health message, or either a gain-framed or loss-framed video presented on the Internet. Self-reported flossing was assessed longitudinally at 2 and 6 months.

Theory of Planned Behavior explains gender difference in fruit and vegetable consumption.

A gender difference in fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) is widely documented, but not well understood. Using data from the National Cancer Institute's Food Attitudes and Behavior Survey, we assessed the extent to which gender differences in FVI are attributable to gender differences in constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Females reported more favorable attitudes and greater perceived behavior control regarding FVI than males, and these beliefs mediated the observed gender difference.

Dispositional mindfulness moderates the effects of stress among adolescents: rumination as a mediator.

Recent research has demonstrated that higher levels of mindfulness are associated with greater psychological and physical health. However, the majority of this research has been conducted with adults; research is only beginning to examine the effects of mindfulness among adolescents. Further, research into adolescent mindfulness has typically conceptualized mindfulness as a unidimensional phenomenon and has not yet examined multidimensional models of mindfulness that have emerged in the adult literature.

Framing flu prevention--an experimental field test of signs promoting hand hygiene during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic.

Objective: During the 2009-2010 H1N1 flu pandemic, many institutions installed alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispensers in public settings in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. Yet, usage of these dispensers remained low.

Method: Point-of-use reminder signs were designed to emphasize four theoretically grounded health beliefs: perceived susceptibility, social norms, consequences of the behavior framed as gains, and consequences of the behavior framed as losses.

Sheltering the self from the storm: self-construal abstractness and the stability of self-esteem.

Self-construal abstractness (SCA) refers to the degree to which people construe important bases of self-esteem in a broad, flexible, and abstract rather than a concrete and specific manner. This article hypothesized that SCA would be a unique predictor of self-esteem stability, capturing the degree to which people's most important bases of self-worth are resistant to disconfirmation. Two studies using a daily diary methodology examined relationships between SCA, daily self-esteem, and daily emotions and/or events.