Accurate assessment of sleep-wake patterns is important for sleep researchers and clinicians. Actigraphs are low-cost, non-intrusive, wrist-worn activity detectors used to estimate sleep-wake patterns in a natural environment for several nights. Although actigraphy shows good sensitivity (sleep detection), it has consistently demonstrated poor specificity (wakefulness detection while lying in bed relatively motionless). Because insomnia is characterized by wakefulness in bed, actigraphy may not be a valid objective measure of wakefulness for this group. It is possible that refinement of actigraphy software settings for sleep/wake algorithms might improve specificity. The current studies investigated this hypothesis by comparing wake parameters from 48 combinations of actigraphy settings to determine which sleep/wake algorithms best inform insomnia diagnosis and treatment. In the first study, none of the 48 actigraphy setting combinations consistently discriminated between adults with insomnia (n = 69) and non-insomnia (n = 80) on all three wake parameters, and no setting clearly discriminated between groups for the composite variable, total wake time. Similarly, in the second study, no setting combinations consistently discriminated between adults treated for insomnia (n = 18) and controls with untreated insomnia (n = 26) on all three wake parameters. Although two setting combinations discriminated between groups for the composite …

Marijuana is the second most commonly used substance in the US. A growing literature suggests that socially anxious individuals use marijuana to manage their symptoms in social situations, which may explain why they are also more likely to experience problems. Unfortunately, the majority of the literature is based on research conducted with adult samples or the co-occurrence of diagnoses in adolescent samples. The proposed study sought to test the link between social anxiety (SA) and proxies for ‘real-time' marijuana use behaviors (i.e., use willingness) as well as use-related problems among adolescents. Participants were 69 adolescents (15-17; 55% female) recruited from the community reporting any lifetime marijuana use. Participants were randomly assigned to a novel social rejection or neutral laboratory task and completed measures of SA, marijuana use frequency, and related problems. Consistent with adult findings, main effects of SA and experimental condition on marijuana use willingness were expected to be qualified by an interaction in which the greatest marijuana use willingness would occur among high SA youth post-rejection (H1), SA would be positively related to marijuana use problems (H2), and among adolescents in the rejection condition, marijuana use willingness would be positively correlated with use problems (H3). Only H2 was …

The transition to college is marked by poorer eating behaviors. The Theory of planned behavior (TPB) represents a promising tool for predicting eating behaviors through the examination of attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention (INT). Despite prior application of the TPB, there exist several key methodological issues in the literature addressing eating behaviors. The present study utilized an enhanced dietary assessment methodology, the ASA24 dietary recall, and a short-term prospective design to assess the healthy eating behaviors of emerging adults in college. Dietary recalls of 68 participants (average age = 20.76 years; 70.6% female; 70.6% non-Hispanic, 48.5% White, 22.10% Black/African American, 13.20% Asian) were analyzed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010 scoring system. Results revealed that very few college students are meeting recommended dietary guidelines. Linear regression indicated that the indirect TPB variables (ATT, SN, and PBC) were related to INT (F[3,64] = 19.67, p < .001), although SN did not account for unique variance. Further, the direct TPB variables (INT and PBC) were related to HEI-2010 scores (F[2,65] = 4.00, p = .023); however, only PBC accounted for significant variance. Overall, findings suggest that more favorable attitudes relate to intention, but only perceived behavioral …

Our sample consisted of 116 adults aged 18 and older, recruited from college and community settings. Participants were currently in a romantic relationship and endorsed the sudden and/or violent death of a family member, close friend, or romantic partner. We hypothesized that: 1) prolonged grief is associated with poor dyadic functioning; 2) social support moderates the relationship between prolonged grief and dyadic functioning; 3) religious coping moderates the association between prolonged grief and dyadic functioning. Results indicated that prolonged grief was not significantly related to dyadic functioning, and neither social support nor religious coping moderated this association.