To better understand the impact of type 2 diabetes, the relationship between ethnicity, specifically Mexican/Mexican American ethnicity, and the disease must be further investigated. This study specifically examined the cognitive impact of type 2 diabetes. Data from the 2014 Health and Retirement Study was used to compare the cognitive functioning of non-Hispanic White (n = 10,658) and White Mexican/Mexican American (n = 847) individuals, age 50+ years, with and without type 2 diabetes. Serial 7's and immediate and delayed recall—hypothesized to be more negatively affected by type 2 diabetes and Mexican American status—was compared controlling for age, education, and depression. A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated significant main effects for race/ethnicity (F(3,11496) = 11.15, p < .001) and diabetes status (F(3,11496) = 3.15, p < .024), with Mexican Americans and those with diabetes having worse cognitive performance. There were significant effects for all covariates. A step-wise multiple regression indicated that education, age, depression, race/ethnicity and diabetes status accounted for a combined 28.4% of variance in a cognitive performance composite. Implications for assessment and treatment are discussed.

The current study examined associations between perceived family functioning, sibling relational dynamics, and individual's self-reported personal adjustment and internalizing problems among 8- to 11-year old children. Path analyses revealed significant direct effects between conflictual family functioning and children's psychological well-being (p < 0.05). Further, sibling conflict was found to indirectly affect these associations. Finally, significant interactions between family functioning and sibling dynamics were found suggesting that congruent relational dynamics at multiple levels of the family system had a cumulative impact on the child's well-being. Findings from the current study highlight the unique contributions of sibling relationships to the family and the child providing evidence for targeting the sibling relationship in clinical interventions and future family research.

The current study seeks to examine the relationships between perceptions of employee empowerment and perceptions of leadership, span of control, and industry type. Participants were gathered from an archival source employing a high school alumni e-mail group (n = 361) and a survey from 9 organizations (n = 647) and combined into a larger sample (n = 1008). The participants took Bodner's (2005) Assessment of Employee Empowerment and Assessment of Empowering Leadership instruments. Support was found to suggest that people report being less empowered than they believe that top management would report about them. Also, participants reported that their leader was less empowering than they believed top management would report about the leader. Span of control was found to impact perceptions of empowerment. Production workers reported feeling more empowered than workers in service industries. Participants did not report that leaders were more empowering if they were higher in the hierarchy (executive) than lower levels (coach, employee). Also, a respondent's position did not affect the relationship between job type and feelings of empowerment. This study suggests that the organizational design (span of control) and industry type may affect empowerment initiatives, while lower levels of the organization may view empowerment much differently …

People living with HIV/AIDS (PLH) struggle with depression. Recent research suggests that depression affects medical regimen adherence, disease progression, and risky sexual behaviors. The present study uses a stress and coping theory viewing HIV-related stigma and physical symptoms as stressors in PLH. Results suggest whereas symptoms and stigma consistently predict negative affect, positive affect, and overall depression, the role of optimism, pessimism, active coping, denial, and behavioral disengagement is not as clear. Pessimism and denial predict negative affect and depression. Optimism and behavioral disengagement predict depression and positive affect. Active coping only predicts positive affect. Focusing on positive and negative affect as distinct components that contribute to overall depression may help researchers develop interventions more effectively.

This study investigated if the use of a team feedback system resulted in peers perceiving a change in behavior. Personality variables such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion were examined as possible moderators. Self-ratings and peer ratings were collected from 164 individuals through the use of the Center for Collaborative Organizations' Team Feedback System. Using polynomial regression, it was determined that time 1 peer ratings predicted behavior change and the combination of conscientiousness variables moderated peer perceived behavior change.

Organizational change and development (OCD) has been studied by researchers to identify the effectiveness of change initiatives. Because of the broad scope of interventions in OCD, these studies have covered a range of areas including multiple interventions and the methodological rigor used by researchers. However, few have looked at organizational versus individual change within an organization, to examine whether individual change is more effective than organizational change. The purpose of this study is to determine if organizational change occurs in a top down or bottom up manner. A meta-analysis was conducted using 238 field experiments. Each study was coded for intervention and organizational outcome and for individual or organizational level variables. Effect sizes were calculated for each study, each level, and each level by intervention and outcome measure. Results indicate that while OCD interventions overall had a moderate effect size, the level of intervention or outcome was not a moderating variable.

Given the paucity of research that has been conducted on aggression in girls (see Keenan, Loeber, & Green, 1999, for a review), it is important to examine different behavioral manifestations of aggression that may be more prevalent among girls than boys, such as relational aggression (see Crick et al., 1999, for a review). Relational aggression consists of behaviors that harm others through damage to their peer relationships or the threat of such damage (e.g., spreading rumors about a peer so that others will reject him/her, social exclusion; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are a particular subset of youth who are at increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior (Henker & Whalen, 1999; Whalen & Henker, 1985). The purpose of the present study was to assess the prevalence of relational aggression among children with attention problems as compared to the general population. Gender differences in relational aggression were also examined. In the current study, participants included 91 3rd-5th grade public school students. Teacher ratings of aggressive behavior and attention problems were obtained. Parents also completed measures to assess attention problems and social-psychological adjustment. Contrary to prediction, results indicated children with attention problems were not more aggressive than children …

Power and effect size analysis are important methods in the psychological sciences. It is well known that classical statistical tests are not robust with respect to power and type II error. However, relatively little attention has been paid in the psychological literature to the effect that non-normality and outliers have on the power of a given statistical test (Wilcox, 1998). Robust measures of location exist that provide much more powerful tests of statistical hypotheses, but their usefulness in power estimation for sample size selection, with real data, is largely unknown. Furthermore, practical approaches to power planning (Cohen, 1988) usually focus on normal theory settings and in general do not make available nonparametric approaches to power and effect size estimation. Beran (1986) proved that it is possible to nonparametrically estimate power for a given statistical test using bootstrap methods (Efron, 1993). However, this method is not widely known or utilized in data analysis settings. This research study examined the practical importance of combining robust measures of location with nonparametric power analysis. Simulation and analysis of real world data sets are used. The present study found that: 1) bootstrap confidence intervals using Mestimators gave shorter confidence intervals than the normal theory counterpart …

Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, the first two breast cancer susceptibility genes identified, carry as much as an 85% lifetime risk of developing breast, ovarian or other cancers. Genetic testing for mutations in these two genes has recently become commercially available. There have been varying amounts of psychological distress noted among women with a family history of breast cancer. Distress has been observed to impact psychological functioning, activities of daily living, and the practice of breast cancer surveillance behaviors. Within the genetic screening process, psychological distress has been shown to impact the decision to undergo genetic screening, the comprehension and retention of risk assessment information, as well as affecting the subject following the receipt of the genetic test results. Little work has been done to examine predictors of distress within at risk subjects. This study examines psychological distress among 52 community women presenting for BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutation testing. Predictors of distress included family cancer history, education, age, Ashkenazi ethnicity, and Internality and Powerful Others Health Locus of Control. Vulnerable sub-groups of patients include younger women, women with higher levels of education and women of Ashkenazi ethnicity.

A model for health care utilization was applied to a sample of low income women. Demographic Predisposing, Psychosocial Predisposing, Illness Level, and Enabling indicators were examined separately for African American (n = 266), Anglo American (n = 200), and Mexican American (n = 210) women. Structural Equation Modeling revealed that for African American and Anglo American women, Illness Level, the only significant path to Utilization, had a mediating effect on Psychosocial Predisposing indicators. The model for Mexican Americans was the most complex with Enabling indicators affecting Illness Level and Utilization. Psychosocial Predisposing indicators were mediated by Illness Level and Enabling indicators which both directly affected Utilization. Implications of the results for future research are addressed.

Workplace stress has been found to be a causal agent of psychological distress consequences in employees. Chronic stressors have been well researched, in particular, role conflict, role ambiguity, and work overload have been extensively studied. A meta-analysis was conducted in order to aggregate past research to gain a better understanding of the impact these stressors have on the psychological distress consequences of depression, tension/anxiety, somatic complaints, and generalized feelings of stress. Only role ambiguity was found to be a significant contributor to psychological distress, in particular to feelings of depression and stress. In general, however, effect sizes for all three stressors were moderate to large. While chronic stressors have been well researched, acute stressors have been widely overlooked. Since research in this area is limited, the Daily Work Hassles Survey was developed and validated in order to analyze the role daily hassles play in the workplace. The survey yielded two factors, Interpersonal Hassles and Task Hassles. The former of which was found to be significantly related to the distress consequences of depression, tension/anxiety, somatic complaints, and general feelings of stress. The ultimate goal of this project was to compare chronic and acute stressors. Results from the daily hassles study were …