Multilevel facilitators of pediatric asthma outcomes: The role of caregiver self-efficacy.

Objective: Caregivers' self-efficacy for managing their child's asthma appears to influence their success with managing their child's disease. We examined how caregiver self-efficacy operates in the context of multilevel social-environmental support factors to shape asthma outcomes.

Method: Caregivers of children (< 18 years old) with asthma completed surveys at baseline (T1) and 3 months later (T2).

Testing a Population-Based Outreach Intervention for Ovarian Cancer Survivors to Encourage their Close Relatives to Consider Genetic Counseling.

Background: Most relatives of women with ovarian cancer are unaware of their increased risk for cancer and their eligibility for genetic counseling. State cancer registries offer a platform to communicate about inherited risk to this population.

Methods: We conducted a two-arm randomized trial to test a theory-based communication intervention-Your Family Connects (YFC)-compared to the standard Georgia Cancer Registry (GCR) contact.

Managing children's asthma: what role do caregivers' mental representations of trigger and symptom management behaviors play?

Objective: Pediatric asthma management is challenging for parents and guardians (hereafter ). We examined (1) how caregivers mentally represent trigger and symptom management strategies, and (2) how those mental representations are associated with actual management behavior.

Methods: In an online survey,  = 431 caregivers of children with asthma rated 20 trigger management behaviors and 20 symptom management behaviors across 15 characteristics, and indicated how often they engaged in each behavior.

I don't know my child's asthma risk: evidence against satisficing as an explanation for 'don't know' responses.

Several studies suggest that "don't know" (DK) responses to risk perception items may represent meaningful expressions of uncertainty about disease risk. However, researchers are often discouraged from including a DK response option in survey items due to concerns about respondents overusing it to minimize cognitive effort-a phenomenon often referred to as . Our objective was to investigate whether patterns of DK responses to risk perception survey items were consistent with satisficing behavior.

How are mental representations of asthma triggers and symptoms related to interpersonal risk perceptions? A psychometric investigation of caregivers of children with asthma.

Objective: Parents and guardians (hereafter ) make decisions for their children's medical care. However, many caregivers of children with asthma struggle to understand their child's illness. We used the psychometric paradigm to investigate how caregivers conceptualize, or , asthma triggers and symptoms and how these representations are linked to perceived asthma exacerbation risk.

Exploring Caregiver Interest in and Preferences for Interventions for Children With Risk of Asthma Exacerbation: Web-Based Survey.

Background: Maintaining control of asthma symptoms is the cornerstone of asthma treatment guidelines in the United States. However, suboptimal asthma control and asthma exacerbations among young people are common and are associated with many negative outcomes. Interventions to improve asthma control are needed.

Linking cognitive and affective heuristic cues to interpersonal risk perceptions and behavior.

People often use cognitive and affective heuristics when judging the likelihood of a health outcome and making health decisions. However, little research has examined how heuristics shape risk perceptions and behavior among people who make decisions on behalf of another person. We examined associations between heuristic cues and caregivers' perceptions of their child's asthma risk, the frequency of caregivers' asthma management behaviors, and child health outcomes.

Caregiver Perceptions of Change in Pediatric Asthma Control During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: Although several indicators suggest that pediatric asthma control in the United States improved early in the pandemic, other indicators suggest not. Missing are reports from caregivers of the experiences of their children with asthma early in the pandemic.

Methods: Using the PP-ACT and other measures that we specifically constructed for our research, we conducted a cross-sectional national survey of US caregivers of children with asthma (N=595) to examine perceived change in their child's asthma control and changes in reports of ED visits and use of emergency relief medicine and controller medicine pre-pandemic (January to March 2020) versus early-pandemic (June to September 2020).

Interpersonal comparison among caregivers of children with asthma.

We examined the extent to which caregivers of children with asthma used -a novel comparison process that parallels social comparison and temporal comparison-to form judgments about their child. Using semi-structured interviews adapted from the McGill Illness Narrative Interview, we examined the interpersonal comparisons that caregivers of a child with asthma ( = 41) made regarding their child. Interpersonal comparisons influenced caregiver thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Waiting for medical test results: A delay discounting approach.

Rationale And Objective: Delay discounting is the devaluation of an outcome as a function of delay until receiving that outcome. In two studies, we used a delay discounting approach to examine how wait times for a medical diagnosis can affect people's decision to undergo medical testing.

Methods: In Study 1 (N = 151), participants rated the likelihood they would get tested for a severe and a mild disease with wait times ranging from 0 to 180 days (within persons).

Towards emplaced understandings of risk: How caregivers of children with asthma identify and manage asthma-related risk across different places.

In the United States, pediatric asthma is distributed geographically across lines of racialized segregation. We draw on emplacement, or the theory that embodied experiences and the material world are mutually informed, to situate such geographic trends within the narratives of 41 caregivers of children with asthma. Results suggest that caregivers identified and managed asthma-related risk with regard to the relational and structural conditions of three categories of locations: (1) houses, (2) neighborhoods, and (3) schools and other childhood institutions.

Psychometric properties and predictive validity of the PP-ACT.

Objective: The Parent Proxy Asthma Control Test (PP-ACT) is a self-report measure of asthma control completed by caregivers on behalf of a child. We examined the psychometric properties and the reliability and predictive validity of the PP-ACT.

Methods: We conducted two studies (one cross-sectional, one longitudinal over three months) that surveyed caregivers ( = 1622) of children with asthma.

How do embodied experiences of asthma influence caregiver conceptual models?

Rationale: Many studies propose that patients', caregivers', and children's asthma management practices may diverge from biomedical recommendations because their understandings of asthma (i.e., conceptual models) are different from biomedical perspectives.

Examining commonsense epidemiology: The case of asthma.

Commonsense epidemiology-how lay people think about diseases and their causes and consequences-can influence how people respond. We examined three lay epidemiological beliefs about 20 triggers and 19 symptoms among 349 caregivers of children with asthma. Our findings contradicted the (perceived prevalence and seriousness correlate negatively).

Guidelines for Conducting Virtual Cognitive Interviews During a Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged researchers working in physical contact with research participants. Cognitive interviews examine whether study components (most often questionnaire items) are worded or structured in a manner that allows study participants to interpret the items in a way intended by the researcher. We developed guidelines to conduct cognitive interviews virtually to accommodate interviewees who have limited access to the internet.

Self-Esteem in 60 Seconds: The Six-Item State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES-6).

With 20 items, the State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) can be cumbersome in settings that demand efficiency. The present research created an efficient six-item version of the SSES that preserves score reliability and validity and its three-dimensional structure: social, appearance, and performance self-esteem. Item response theory and confirmatory factor analyses identified the "best" six items-two from each dimension (Study 1).

Perceptions of comparative optimism and perceptions of career success: Experimental evidence for a bidirectional effect.

Audiences generally view people who display more (versus less) comparative optimism more favorably. We explored whether audiences view a target who displays comparative optimism as more professionally successful, and conversely, whether they view a target who is more professionally successful as more comparatively optimistic. In Study 1, participants estimated the career success of a target that varied in level of comparative optimism.

Belief in a Loving Versus Punitive God and Behavior.

We examined the extent to which beliefs in a loving God and punitive God correspond with self-reported behavior in an online, longitudinal survey involving three waves of data collection, each separated by 6 months. Adolescents (N = 760) reported the extent to which they believed in a loving God and a punitive God (Times 1 and 3) and reported their engagement in benevolent (helping and forgiveness) and aggressive behavior (Times 2 and 3). Participants strongly endorsed a loving God but not a punitive God.

Powerful audiences are linked to health information avoidance: Results from two surveys.

Objective: We examined the extent to which community members avoid medical information that they may very much want, yet fear that others may use to harm them.

Methods: In two online studies, we surveyed participants (N = 659) about their experiences with insurer and employer harm, past avoidance of medical information, intentions to avoid medical information, and reasons for avoiding medical information. Study 2 was a conceptual replication of Study 1 with some minor variations.

The role of powerful audiences in health information avoidance.

Background: Although people may want to learn information, concerns about how audiences (persons or entities privy to one's behavior or information) might respond may motivate people to avoid information that audiences could use to threaten resources or harm them.

Purpose: We examined whether powerful audiences prompt health risk information avoidance.

Methods: We tested in two studies (N = 843 adults 25 and older, 75% White) the influence of different audiences on medical information avoidance.

Understanding the Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms that Underlie Proxy Risk Perceptions among Caregivers of Asthmatic Children.

Objective: Medical decisions made on behalf of another person-particularly those made by adult caregivers for their minor children-are often informed by the decision maker's beliefs about the treatment's risks and benefits. However, we know little about the cognitive and affective mechanisms influencing such "proxy" risk perceptions and about how proxy risk perceptions are related to prominent judgment phenomena.

Methods: Adult caregivers of minor children with asthma ( N = 132) completed an online, cross-sectional survey assessing 1) cognitions and affects that form the basis of the availability, representativeness, and affect heuristics; 2) endorsement of the absent-exempt and the better-than-average effect; and 3) proxy perceived risk and unrealistic comparative optimism of an asthma exacerbation.

Gun attitudes on campus: United and divided by safety needs.

All people share a need for safety. Yet people's pursuit of safety can conflict when it comes to guns, with some people perceiving guns as a means to safety and others perceiving guns as a threat to safety. We examined this conflict on a U.

Developing a scale to assess health regulatory focus.

Rationale: Regulatory focus (i.e., focus on motivation to achieve gains or avoid losses and non-gains) is used to tailor health behavior change interventions, improving efficacy, but is currently assessed by scales that are not health-specific and may capture a version of the construct that is not ideally matched to the rationale for tailoring.

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.

Automatic attitudes and health information avoidance.

Objective: Early detection of disease is often crucially important for positive health outcomes, yet people sometimes decline opportunities for early detection (e.g., opting not to screen).