A Matter of Perspective: An Exploratory Study of a Theory of Mind Autism Intervention for Adolescents.

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the capacity to make attributions of mental states such as thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of others. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder are often characterized by delayed or impaired Theory of Mind development and poor social skills. A positive correlation between Theory of Mind skills and social skills exists, but effective interventions that generalize these skills have proven to be a challenge in the field.

Older Adults' Internet Use for Health Information: Digital Divide by Race/Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status.

Building upon literature suggesting low Internet use among racial/ethnic minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, this study examined how race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) influence the Internet use for health information, addressing both independent and interactive effects. Using data from 17,704 older adults in the California Health Interview Survey, logistic regression models were estimated with race/ethnicity (Whites, African Americans, Latinos, and Asians), SES index, and the interaction between race/ethnicity and SES index. Overall, approximately 40% of participants were Internet-users for health information.

Sixteen-month evaluation of depressive symptomatology in older adults.

We examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms over time in a sample of community-residing older adults at baseline, 2 months, 6 months, and 14 months. The nonprobability sample (N = 222) was 90% female, 87% Caucasian, 15% Hispanic, and 12% African American with an average age of 75 years. If depressive symptoms had been measured at only one time, 19% of the sample would have scored above the cutoff versus 39% scoring above the cutoff when measured at all 4 periods.

The cognitive consequences of envy: attention, memory, and self-regulatory depletion.

In a series of 4 experiments, we provide evidence that--in addition to having an affective component--envy may also have important consequences for cognitive processing. Our first experiment (N = 69) demonstrated that individuals primed with envy better attended to and more accurately recalled information about fictitious peers than did a control group. Studies 2 (N = 187) and 3 (N = 65) conceptually replicated these results, demonstrating that envy elicited by targets predicts attention and later memory for information about them.

Symptom management of affective and cognitive disturbance with a group of cancer survivors.

Unlabelled: Cancer survivors 65 years of age and older experience treatment-induced memory impairments. However, clinicians do not intervene for these cognitive problems. This article describes the findings from a pilot study of a memory versus health training intervention and its adaptability for cancer survivors for symptom management.

The SeniorWISE study: improving everyday memory in older adults.

We tested whether at-risk older adults receiving memory training showed better memory self-efficacy, metamemory, memory performance, and function in instrumental activities of daily living than participants receiving a health promotion training comparison condition. We followed participants for 26 months. The sample was mostly female (79%) and Caucasian (71%), with 17% Hispanics and 12% African Americans; average age was 75 years, and average education was 13 years.

Health-training intervention for community-dwelling elderly in the SeniorWISE Study.

This article describes the outcomes of a psychosocial intervention that tested whether health training could improve health and functional ability in a group of community-residing elderly persons. The health-training intervention consisted of eight 90-minute lecture and discussion classes conducted twice a week for 1 month. In 3 months following the posttest, an additional four booster sessions were delivered once per week for 1 month.

Differential benefits of memory training for minority older adults in the SeniorWISE study.

Purpose: Cognitive training improves mental abilities in older adults, but the benefit to minority elders is unclear. We conducted a subgroup analysis of subjects in the SeniorWISE (Wisdom Is Simply Exploration) trial to examine this issue.

Design And Methods: SeniorWISE was a Phase 3 randomized trial that enrolled 265 nondemented community-dwelling older adults aged 65 years and older between 2001 and 2006.

Cultural orientation as a moderator of the relationship between Chinese American adolescents' discrimination experiences and delinquent behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among Chinese American adolescents' discrimination experiences, cultural orientations, and delinquent behaviors. Data were collected from three hundred and eleven Chinese American adolescents (58% girls) and their parents when the adolescents were 7th or 8th graders and again 4 years later. The data analyses demonstrated that adolescents' perceptions of discrimination and victimization experiences were significantly related to their delinquent behaviors conditionally based upon their cultural orientation.

The revised direct assessment of functional status for independent older adults.

Purpose: The original version of the Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS), a measure of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), was found to have a ceiling effect in older adults living independently in the community. This suggested that the tasks measured, although relevant, do not require full use of this population's abilities, and thus, the instrument may not be sensitive to the early decrements in IADLs that can signal initial cognitive impairment and may not detect improvements in IADLs over time, which is especially important in intervention research.

Design And Methods: By removing items with little to no variation and adding more difficult subscales that emphasized medication management skills, we designed the DAFS-Extended (Direct Assessment of Functional Status-Revised [DAFS-R]) to be more challenging for elders living independently.

Alcohol use and older adults: A little goes a long way.

We examined the relationships between alcohol use, cognitive and affective variables, and the potential differential benefits of training for older adults drinkers and non-drinkers who participated in a randomized trial implemented between 2001-2006. Participants, who were living independently in the community, were randomly assigned to either twelve hours of memory training or health promotion classes. Outcomes included depression, health, cognition, verbal, visual, memory, and performance-based IADLs.

Memory performance and mild cognitive impairment in Black and White community elders.

Background: Deficits in memory performance are often nonspecific predictors of cognitive decline and may portend a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Objective: We examined age, depression, education, gender, memory complaints, and race as related to memory performance because memory is a fundamental criterion from which MCI is evaluated.

Methods: The study recruited Black and White adults, > or = 70 years of age, who lived in the community, spoke English, and were screened for no cognitive impairment.