Dynamic Assessment of Narratives Among Navajo Preschoolers.

Purpose: This study examined whether the Predictive Early Assessment of Reading and Language (PEARL), a dynamic assessment of narratives that measures language comprehension and production, accurately classifies Navajo preschoolers with typically developing (TD) language or with language impairment (LI).

Method: Ninety 4- and 5-year-old Navajo preschoolers were identified as having LI or are TD (n = 45 each) via a 5-measure battery: parent report, teacher report, English narrative, independent educational plan, and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamental Preschool-Second Edition (Wiig, Secord, & Semel, 2004). Children completed a PEARL pretest, a narrative mediation phase providing principles of narrative structure, and a PEARL posttest.

Middle school peer reputation in high-achieving schools: Ramifications for maladjustment versus competence by age 18.

In an upper-middle class setting, we explored associations between students' peer reputation in Grades 6 and 7 with adjustment at Grade 12. With a sample of 209 students, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of peer reputation dimensions supported a 4-factor model (i.e.

Tests of Simple Slopes in Multiple Regression Models with an Interaction: Comparison of Four Approaches.

In multiple regression researchers often follow up significant tests of the interaction between continuous predictors X and Z with tests of the simple slope of Y on X at different sample-estimated values of the moderator Z (e.g., ±1 SD from the mean of Z).

Cognitive changes across the menopause transition: A longitudinal evaluation of the impact of age and ovarian status on spatial memory.

Cognitive changes that occur during mid-life and beyond are linked to both aging and the menopause transition. Studies in women suggest that the age at menopause onset can impact cognitive status later in life; yet, little is known about memory changes that occur during the transitional period to the postmenopausal state. The 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) model simulates transitional menopause in rodents by depleting the immature ovarian follicle reserve and allowing animals to retain their follicle-deplete ovarian tissue, resulting in a profile similar to the majority of perimenopausal women.

Incorporating husband influences into a model of physical activity among older women.

Background: Health behaviour models focus primarily on intrapersonal constructs (e.g., self-efficacy) which are good predictors of intention but less so of actual behaviour.

Undergraduate study in psychology: Curriculum and assessment.

The undergraduate curriculum in psychology profoundly reflects and shapes the discipline. Yet, reliable information on the undergraduate psychology curriculum has been difficult to acquire due to insufficient research carried out on unrepresentative program samples with disparate methods. In 2014, APA launched the first systematic effort in a decade to gather national data on the psychology major and program outcomes.

Psychosocial Vulnerability, Resilience Resources, and Coping with Infertility: A Longitudinal Model of Adjustment to Primary Ovarian Insufficiency.

Background: The infertility associated with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) presents significant emotional challenges requiring psychosocial adjustment. Few investigations have explored the longitudinal process of adaptation to POI.

Purpose: This longitudinal investigation tests a model of adjustment to POI that includes separate psychosocial vulnerability and resilience resource factors.

Daily social enjoyment interrupts the cycle of same-day and next-day fatigue in women with fibromyalgia.

Background: Fatigue is a debilitating symptom of fibromyalgia (FM) that has limited treatment options. Some evidence, however, has linked positive social engagement with reduced within-day fatigue.

Purpose: This study elaborated longitudinal within-day and across-day relations between FM fatigue and social enjoyment.

Navigating to new frontiers in behavioral neuroscience: traditional neuropsychological tests predict human performance on a rodent-inspired radial-arm maze.

We constructed an 11-arm, walk-through, human radial-arm maze (HRAM) as a translational instrument to compare existing methodology in the areas of rodent and human learning and memory research. The HRAM, utilized here, serves as an intermediary test between the classic rat radial-arm maze (RAM) and standard human neuropsychological and cognitive tests. We show that the HRAM is a useful instrument to examine working memory ability, explore the relationships between rodent and human memory and cognition models, and evaluate factors that contribute to human navigational ability.

Correcting injunctive norm misperceptions motivates behavior change: a randomized controlled sun protection intervention.

Objective: Despite long-standing social psychological research supporting the influence of injunctive norms (i.e., what is commonly approved or disapproved) on behavior, support for this influence on health behaviors is limited.

Estimating Latent Variable Interactions With Non-Normal Observed Data: A Comparison of Four Approaches.

A Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to investigate the robustness of four latent variable interaction modeling approaches (Constrained Product Indicator [CPI], Generalized Appended Product Indicator [GAPI], Unconstrained Product Indicator [UPI], and Latent Moderated Structural Equations [LMS]) under high degrees of non-normality of the observed exogenous variables. Results showed that the CPI and LMS approaches yielded biased estimates of the interaction effect when the exogenous variables were highly non-normal. When the violation of non-normality was not severe (normal; symmetric with excess kurtosis < 1), the LMS approach yielded the most efficient estimates of the latent interaction effect with the highest statistical power.

Neighborhood contexts and the mediating role of neighborhood social cohesion on health and psychological distress among Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents.

Background: Neighborhood social cohesion (NSC) may contribute to understanding how neighborhood contexts influence the physical and mental health of residents.

Purpose: We examined the relation of NSC to self-rated mental and physical health and evaluated the mediating role of NSC on relations between neighborhood socioeconomic status, ethnic composition, and health.

Methods: A sample of 3,098 Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents within 597 census tracts in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona rated their health, psychological distress, and their perceptions of NSC.

Integration of five health behaviour models: common strengths and unique contributions to understanding condom use.

The purpose of this research was to select from the health belief model (HBM), theories of reasoned action (TRA) and planned behaviour (TPB), information-motivation-behavioural skills model (IMB) and social cognitive theory (SCT) the strongest longitudinal predictors of women's condom use and to combine these constructs into a single integrated model of condom use. The integrated model was evaluated for prediction of condom use among young women who had steady versus casual partners. At Time 1, all constructs of the five models and condom use were assessed in an initial and a replication sample (n = 193, n = 161).

Cognitive and emotional factors associated with elective breast augmentation among young women.

The purpose of this research was to propose and evaluate a psychosocial model of young women's intentions to obtain breast implants and the preparatory steps taken towards having breast implant surgery. The model integrated anticipated regret, descriptive norms and image norms from the media into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Focus groups (n = 58) informed development of measures of outcome expectancies, preparatory steps and normative influence.

Planning bridges the intention-behaviour gap: age makes a difference and strategy use explains why.

Objective: This study examines age-differential association patterns between intentions, planning and physical activity in young and middle-aged individuals. The effectiveness of planning to bridge the intention-behaviour gap is assumed to increase with advancing age. We explore the use of behaviour change strategies that include selection, optimisation and compensation (SOC) as underlying mechanisms for age differences.

Perceived susceptibility measures are not interchangeable: absolute, direct comparative, and indirect comparative risk.

Objective: To provide an explanation of perceived susceptibility judgment that accounts for both inconsistencies among commonly used measures of perceived susceptibility (i.e., absolute risk, direct comparative risk, and indirect comparative risk) and their inconsistent relationships to disease risk factors.

A mediation analysis of the ATHENA intervention for female athletes: prevention of athletic-enhancing substance use and unhealthy weight loss behaviors.

Objective: To explain, through mediation analyses, the mechanisms by which ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Alternatives), a primary prevention and health promotion intervention designed to deter unhealthy body shaping behaviors among female high school athletes, produced immediate changes in intentions for unhealthy weight loss and steroid/creatine use, and to examine the link to long-term follow-up intentions and behaviors.

Methods: In a randomized trial of 1668 athletes, intervention participants completed coach-led peer-facilitated sessions during their sport season. Participants provided pre-test, immediate post-test, and 9-month follow-up assessments.

Improving training in methodology enriches the science of psychology.

Replies to the comment Ramifications of increased training in quantitative methodology by Herbet Zimiles on the current authors original article "Doctoral training in statistics, measurement, and methodology in psychology: Replication and extension of Aiken, West, Sechrest, and Reno's (1990) survey of PhD programs in North America". The current authors state that in their recent article, they reported the results of an extensive survey of quantitative training in all PhD programs in North America. They compared these results with those of a similar survey conducted 12 years earlier (Aiken, West, Sechrest, & Reno, 1990), and raised issues for the future methodological training of substantive and quantitative researchers in psychology.

The analysis of count data: a gentle introduction to poisson regression and its alternatives.

Count data reflect the number of occurrences of a behavior in a fixed period of time (e.g., number of aggressive acts by children during a playground period).

Doctoral training in statistics, measurement, and methodology in psychology: replication and extension of Aiken, West, Sechrest, and Reno's (1990) survey of PhD programs in North America.

In a survey of all PhD programs in psychology in the United States and Canada, the authors documented the quantitative methodology curriculum (statistics, measurement, and research design) to examine the extent to which innovations in quantitative methodology have diffused into the training of PhDs in psychology. In all, 201 psychology PhD programs (86%) participated. This survey replicated and extended a previous survey (L.

Osteoporosis prevention among young women: psychosocial models of calcium consumption and weight-bearing exercise.

Objective: To examine the putative determinants of two osteoporosis-preventive behaviors, calcium consumption and weight-bearing exercise, in 2 samples of young women (Sample 1, n = 202; Sample 2, n = 209). A common psychosocial model of both behaviors, comprising the health belief model and augmented with constructs drawn from social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior, was developed, tested, and replicated.

Design: A prospective 2-panel design was used.

Evaluating chronic pain impact among patients in primary care: further validation of a brief assessment instrument.

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Profile of Chronic Pain: Screen (PCP:S) in primary care. The PCP:S is a brief assessment device designed to gauge pain severity, interference, and emotional burden.

Design: Questionnaire survey with short-term reliability and validity follow-up.