Turning points and lessons learned: Stressful life events and personality trait development across middle adulthood.

The present research examined stressful life events and personality development across middle adulthood. Participants (N = 533) related the most stressful event they had experienced within the last 10 years, indicated whether they considered the event to be a turning point and/or lesson learned, and twice completed a comprehensive measure of traits defined by the five-factor model of personality; the stressful event occurred between these two assessments. Descriptions were coded to classify events into broad content domains based on the nature of the event. Prospectively, individuals high in Neuroticism perceived the event as a turning point; extraverts learned a lesson from it. Longitudinally, perceiving the event as a negative turning point was associated with increases in Neuroticism, whereas learning a lesson from the event was associated with increases in Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Characteristics of the events themselves were primarily unrelated to trait change. Across middle adulthood, personality trait change may be more strongly related to how individuals understand the stressful events in their lives rather than simply the occurrence of such events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

The study used a daily process design to examine the role of psychological resilience and positive emotions in the day-to-day experience of pain catastrophizing. A sample of 95 men and women with chronic pain completed initial assessments of neuroticism, psychological resilience, and demographic data, and then completed short diaries regarding pain intensity, pain catastrophizing, and positive and negative emotions every day for 14 consecutive days. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated that independent of level of neuroticism, negative emotions, pain intensity, income, and age, high-resilient individuals reported greater positive emotions and exhibited lower day-to-day pain catastrophizing compared with low-resilient individuals. Mediation analyses revealed that psychologically resilient individuals rebound from daily pain catastrophizing through experiences of positive emotion. Implications for research on psychological resilience, pain catastrophizing, and positive emotions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Repetitive thought (RT) involves frequent or prolonged thoughts about oneself and one’s world, encompassing discrete forms such as trait worry, rumination, processing, and reminiscing. These forms of RT can be described using 3 basic, underlying qualities: total propensity for RT of all types, valence (positive vs. negative content), and purpose (searching or uncertainty vs. solving or certainty). The adaptiveness of discrete forms with regard to health is likely to be related to these qualities, particularly valence and total propensity. The present study confirmed the model and identified the relationship of these qualities of RT to subjective psychological, physical, and cognitive health in older adults aged 60–94 (N = 179). As predicted, more negatively valenced trait RT was associated with worse psychological, physical, and cognitive health. More total propensity for RT was associated only with worse psychological health. Searching purpose was associated only with worse cognitive health. In turn, negatively valenced RT was predicted by poorer executive functions, suggesting that such functions may be important for directing this quality of RT. The valence of older adults’ RT is important insofar as it may contribute to their sense of good or ill health. However, the propensity for all kinds of RT to associate with poorer psychological health may reflect the co-occurrence of negative and positive RT, such as rumination and emotional processing. Although RT has not been extensively investigated in older adults, it appears to play an important role in their subjective health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Multiple studies suggest an association of marijuana use with increased rates of sexual risk behavior and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Most studies have focused on global associations of marijuana use with sexual risk outcomes and few have examined relevant cognitive variables. Adolescents in the juvenile justice system are at elevated risk for HIV/STDs and preliminary evidence suggests that marijuana is a potentially important cofactor for sexual risk behavior in this population. This study evaluated global, situational and event-level associations of marijuana use and sex-related marijuana expectancies with sexual risk outcomes in a large, racially diverse sample of adjudicated youth (n = 656, 66% male, mean age = 16.7 years). Cross-sectional and prospective analyses identified associations of marijuana use and dependence symptoms with sexual risk outcomes, including lower frequency of condom use and higher STD incidence. Stronger sex-related marijuana expectancies predicted greater intentions for and frequency of marijuana use in sexual situations. In event-level analyses that controlled for alcohol, marijuana use predicted a significantly decreased likelihood of condom use; this association was moderated by sex-related marijuana expectancies. Mediation analyses suggested that behavioral intentions partly accounted for the prospective association of expectancies with marijuana use before sex. These results provide further evidence that marijuana use is a potentially important cofactor for HIV/STD transmission in high-risk adolescents and suggest that cognitive factors could be important for characterizing this association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) attendance is predictive of increased abstinence for many problem drinkers and treatment referral to AA is common. Strong encouragement to acquire an AA sponsor is likewise typical, and findings about the benefits associated with social support for abstinence in AA support this practice, at least indirectly. Despite this widespread practice, however, prospective tests of the unique contribution of having an AA sponsor are lacking. This prospective study investigated the contribution of acquiring an AA sponsor using a methodologically rigorous design that isolated the specific effects of AA sponsorship. Participants were recruited from AA and outpatient treatment. Intake and follow-up assessments included questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and urine toxicology screens. Eligibility criteria limited prior treatment and AA histories to clarify the relationship of interest while, for generalizability purposes, broad substance abuse criteria were used. Of the 253 participants, 182 (72%) provided complete data on measures central to the aims of this study. Overall reductions in alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine use were found over 12-months and lagged analyses indicated that AA attendance significantly predicted increased abstinence. During early AA affiliation but not later logistic regressions showed that having an AA sponsor predicted increased alcohol-abstinence and abstinence from marijuana and cocaine after first controlling for a host of AA-related, treatment, and motivational measures that are associated with AA exposure or are generally prognostic of outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Current models of adolescent drinking behavior hypothesize that alcohol expectancies mediate the effects of other proximal and distal risk factors. This longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that the effects of parental alcohol involvement on their children’s drinking behavior in mid-adolescence are mediated by the children’s alcohol expectancies in early adolescence. A sample of 148 initially 9–11 year old boys and their parents from a high-risk population and a contrast group of community families completed measures of drinking behavior and alcohol expectancies over a 6-year interval. We analyzed data from middle childhood (M age = 10.4 years), early adolescence (M age = 13.5 years), and mid-adolescence (M age = 16.5 years). The sample was restricted only to adolescents who had begun to drink by mid-adolescence. Results from zero-inflated Poisson regression analyses showed that 1) maternal drinking during their children’s middle childhood predicted number of drinking days in middle adolescence; 2) negative and positive alcohol expectancies in early adolescence predicted odds of any intoxication in middle adolescence; and 3) paternal alcoholism during their children’s middle childhood and adolescents’ alcohol expectancies in early adolescence predicted frequency of intoxication in middle adolescence. Contrary to predictions, child alcohol expectancies did not mediate the effects of parental alcohol involvement in this high-risk sample. Different aspects of parental alcohol involvement, along with early adolescent alcohol expectancies, independently predicted adolescent drinking behavior in middle adolescence. Alternative pathways for the influence of maternal and paternal alcohol involvement and implications for expectancy models of adolescent drinking behavior were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)