Evaluation of a pragmatic trial of a collaborative school-based obesity prevention intervention in a low-income urban district.

Broader adoption of effective school-based obesity prevention interventions is critical to the success of ongoing efforts to address the childhood obesity epidemic. School-level barriers to adopting evidence-based interventions may be overcome by empowering school-level leaders to select appropriate intervention components. We used a quasi-experimental pragmatic trial design to evaluate a tailored obesity prevention intervention in 9 schools in a mid-sized urban school district in upstate New York from fall 2013 to spring 2016.

Mortality Risk Associated With Personality Facets of the Big Five and Interpersonal Circumplex Across Three Aging Cohorts.

Objective: To address the common reliance on the global Big Five domains in the personality and longevity literature, the present study examined mortality risk associated with subdimensions of Big Five domains as well as specific traits within the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) model of personality.

Methods: Data were drawn from three major longitudinal studies of aging that administered the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, a comprehensive measure of the Big Five, and comprised a total of 4223 participants. Item Response Theory models were used to generate latent trait scores for each of the 30 Big Five facets and eight scales from the IPC.

Perceived control and frailty: The role of affect and perceived health.

Mechanisms underlying prospective associations of perceived control with frailty and other health outcomes are not well understood. In the present study we used 3 waves of data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 2,127) to test potential psychological and biological pathways linking perceived control with frailty over an 8-year period, and whether 4-year change in control predicts frailty independent of initial control. Lower odds of increasing frailty were associated with higher initial levels of perceived control (odds ratio [OR] = .

Lifetime trauma, perceived control, and all-cause mortality: Results from the Midlife in the United States Study.

Objective: To investigate whether lifetime-trauma exposure predicts all-cause mortality and whether this association is mediated or moderated by perceived control.

Method: A sample of middle-aged and older adults (N = 4,961) who participated in the second wave of the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS) provided data. Lifetime trauma was operationalized using the reported number of potentially traumatic experiences spanning childhood through adulthood.

Associations of mindfulness with depressive symptoms and well-being in older adults: the moderating role of neuroticism.

Objective: To investigate whether observed interactions of mindfulness with the personality trait neuroticism extend to older adults and to aspects of psychological functioning other than depressive symptoms, and whether effects of mindfulness training in this population depend on levels of neuroticism.

Method: We performed a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for community-dwelling older adults. We investigated whether neuroticism moderates associations of dispositional mindfulness with various aspects of psychological and physical functioning at baseline, as well as effects of MBSR on these outcomes.

Brief report: How short is too short? An ultra-brief measure of the big-five personality domains implicates "agreeableness" as a risk for all-cause mortality.

Controversy exists over the use of brief Big Five scales in health studies. We investigated links between an ultra-brief measure, the Big Five Inventory-10, and mortality in the General Social Survey. The Agreeableness scale was associated with elevated mortality risk (hazard ratio = 1.

Social Relationships and Inflammatory Markers in the MIDUS Cohort: The Role of Age and Gender Differences.

Objective: To better understand age and gender differences in associations of social relationships with chronic inflammation.

Method: Using a sample of middle-aged and older adults ( N = 963) from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) biomarker project, we examined interactions of age and gender with structural and functional social network measures in predicting interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP).

Results: Significant interactions involving age and gender showed that social support was associated with lower IL-6 in older women, whereas perceived positive relationships and social integration were related to lower IL-6 in both men and women of advanced age.

Associations of Lifetime Trauma and Chronic Stress With C-reactive Protein in Adults Ages 50 Years and Older: Examining the Moderating Role of Perceived Control.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate whether high perceived control mitigates systemic inflammatory risk associated with traumatic and chronic stress exposures in older adults.

Methods: A sample of community-dwelling adults ages 50 years and older (N = 4779) was drawn from the Health and Retirement Study. Structural equation models tested interactions of lifetime trauma and chronic stress with mastery and perceived constraints predicting baseline levels and 4-year change in C-reactive protein (CRP).

Socioeconomic status, psychological resources, and inflammatory markers: Results from the MIDUS study.

Objective: Our objective was to investigate interactions of psychological resources and socioeconomic status (SES)-as well as potential gender differences and the explanatory role of childhood and adult stress exposures, health behaviors, and negative and positive affect-in predicting markers of systemic inflammation.

Method: We utilized a sample of adults from the Midlife Development in the U.S.

Socioeconomic Status Interacts with Conscientiousness and Neuroticism to Predict Circulating Concentrations of Inflammatory Markers.

Background: Socioeconomic health disparities research may benefit from further consideration of dispositional factors potentially modifying risk associated with low socioeconomic status, including that indexed by systemic inflammation.

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate interactions of SES and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality traits in predicting circulating concentrations of the inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP).

Method: Using a sample of middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS) biomarker project (N = 978), linear regression models tested interactions of each FFM trait with a composite measure of SES in predicting IL-6 and CRP, as well as the explanatory role of medical morbidity, measures of adiposity, and health behaviors.

Perceived Control Mediates Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Chronic Stress on Physical Frailty: Findings From the Health and Retirement Study.

Objective: To investigate the psychosocial etiology of physical frailty by examining the influence of chronic stress and perceived control.

Method: Using population-based samples of older adults from the Health and Retirement Study, this study employed structural equation modeling in cross-sectional (N = 5,250) and longitudinal (N = 2,013) samples to estimate the effects of chronic stress and socioeconomic status (SES) on baseline frailty and change in frailty status over 4 years and the extent to which perceived control mediates or moderates effects of chronic stress.

Results: Perceived control fully mediated effects of chronic stress and partially mediated effects of SES on both baseline frailty and change in frailty.

Predictors of older adults' technology use and its relationship to depressive symptoms and well-being.

Objective: To extend the empirical evidence regarding the predictors of older adults' use of information and communications technology (ICT) and to further examine its relationship to depressive symptoms and well-being.

Method: This cross-sectional study utilized a sample of community-dwelling older adults from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (N = 6,443). Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the effects of predictor variables on ICT use and the effects of use on depressive symptoms and well-being.