Depression in Cancer: the many biobehavioural pathways driving tumor progression

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is common among cancer patients, with prevalence rates up to four-times higher than the general population. Depression confers worse outcomes, including non-adherence to treatment and increased mortality in the oncology setting. Advances in the understanding of neurobiological underpinnings of depression have revealed shared biobehavioral mechanisms may contribute to cancer progression. Moreover, psychosocial stressors in cancer promote: (1) inflammation and oxidative/nitrosative stress; (2) a decreased immunosurveillance; and (3) a dysfunctional activation of the autonomic nervous system and of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Consequently, the prompt recognition of depression among patients with cancer who may benefit of treatment strategies targeting depressive symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, fatigue and sleep disturbances, is a public health priority. Moreover, behavioral strategies aiming at reducing psychological distress and depressive symptoms, including addressing unhealthy diet and life-style choices, as well as physical inactivity and sleep dysfunction, may represent important strategies not only to treat depression, but also to improve wider cancer-related outcomes. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of the intertwined biobehavioural pathways linking depression to cancer progression. In addition, the clinical implications of these findings are critically reviewed

Does self-efficacy crossover between mentors and proteges within mentoring dyads? :b examining the facilitating role of perspective taking in the crossover process

Advisors: Lisa Finkelstein.Committee members: Lacie Barber; Anne Britt; Amanda Durik; Amanda Ferguson; Alecia Santuzzi.Includes illustrations.Includes bibliographical references.Extensive research on mentoring shows that mentoring programs within organizational settings enhance various individual outcomes. The current dissertation specifically examined how mentors enhanced protege self-efficacy. Three studies were designed to investigate whether efficacy beliefs transfer from mentors to their respective proteges. The studies also focused on the conditions and the psychological processes that facilitated the transfer of efficacious beliefs between the members of the mentoring dyad. Drawing on social comparison theory, I proposed that when shared experience exists between mentors and proteges, proteges are able to take the perspective of their mentors. I further proposed that the perspective taking a protege engages in enables them to ascribe positive aspects of their mentor (i.e., efficacious beliefs) to themselves. Precisely, a protege's perspective taking bolsters the transfer of efficacious beliefs from the mentor to the protege. Study 1 and Study 2 adopted an experimental design (i.e., vignette study) and Study 3 adopted a survey design with proteges in an e-mentoring program. Results from all the three studies provided evidence for the transfer of efficacy beliefs from the mentor to the protege. The findings also supported the postulation that shared experience between the protege and the mentor facilitates perspective taking on behalf of the protege. Although the findings of the experimental studies showed that a protege's perspective taking moderated the positive transfer of efficacy beliefs from the mentor to the protege, the field study failed to replicate this finding. The current research's findings have implications for training and developing employees. Mentors are able to encourage proteges to attempt and pursue stretch goals or tackle challenges by instilling domain specific efficacy beliefs in them. The research findings also underscore the role of shared experience and psychological process such as perspective taking in making mentoring relationships efficient and effective.Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy

A preliminary study exploring moderating effects of role stressors on the relationship between Big Five personality traits and workplace cyberloafing

Cyberloafing—a type of counterproductive behavior—occurs when employees use the internet for personal use while at work. Past research shows that work role stressors (i.e., role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload) and Big Five personality traits (i.e., neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness) predict cyberloafing, but research has yet to explore interactions among these factors. The current study aimed to address this gap by examining whether work role stressors strengthen the relationship between personality and cyberloafing based on the Personal Resource Allocation (PRA) framework. In an online survey of employees from diverse occupations (N = 343), we replicated past work showing relationships among personality traits and cyberloafing. However, role conflict was the only stressor that predicted cyberloafing. Moderated multiple regression analyses suggested only three statistically robust findings in the expected direction: role conflict strengthening the positive association between neuroticism and cyberloafing, role conflict strengthening the negative association between agreeableness and cyberloafing, and role overload strengthening the negative association between conscientiousness and cyberloafing. Overall, this study implies mixed and somewhat weak support for PRA framework predictions, including a lack of consistency in a specific role stressor enhancing personality-cyberloafing relationships. Practical implications for personnel selection and employee training/development are also discussed

Enacting Effective Mentoring Behaviors: Development and Initial Investigation of the Cuboid of Mentoring

Our understanding of how to maximize the benefits of mentoring relationships for employee development has been limited by a vague understanding of what effective mentors are actually doing and how they are doing it. To begin to remedy this, we conducted one qualitative interview study of well-respected mentors to uncover the breadth and detail of their behaviors, and one quantitative study to see how a subset of these behaviors would be endorsed under two moderating conditions. Our qualitative study consisted of 28 interviews followed by detailed coding and analysis, and yielded a new framework of mentoring behaviors we named the cuboid of mentoring. This framework provides a rich set of behavioral statements that could be mined for research and practice purposes. Our quantitative investigation used a policy-capturing approach to investigate the extent to which experienced mentors endorsed mentoring objectives and behaviors under different conditions. This study showed that mentoring actions are purposeful, and the methodology demonstrates a paradigm for further study of boundary conditions of mentoring behaviors and supports conclusions from the qualitative study regarding how mentors think about the objectives and behaviors of mentoring

Cardiovascular and psychosocial risks among patients below age 50 with acute myocardial infarction

BackgroundDespite improvements in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease since the 1960s, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases among young people has remained the same for many years. This study aimed to compare the clinical and psychosocial attributes of young persons affected by myocardial infarction under the age of 50 years compared to middle-aged myocardial infarction patients 51-65 years old.MethodsData from patients with a documented STEMI or NSTEMI elevated acute myocardial infarction in the age groups up to 65 years, were collected from cardiology clinics at three hospitals in southeast Sweden. The Stressheart study comprised a total of 213 acute myocardial infarction patients, of which n = 33 (15.5%) were under 50 years of age and n = 180 (84.5%) were middle-aged, (51-65 years). These acute myocardial infarction patients filled in a questionnaire at discharge from the hospital and further information through documentation of data in their medical records.ResultsBlood pressure was significantly higher in young compared to middle-aged patients. For diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.003), systolic blood pressure (p = 0.028), and mean arterial pressure (p = 0.005). Young AMI patients had a higher (p = 0.030) body mass index (BMI) than the middle-aged. Young AMI patients were reported to be more stressed (p = 0.042), had more frequently experienced a serious life event the previous year (p = 0.029), and felt less energetic (p = 0.044) than middle-aged AMI patients.ConclusionsThis study revealed that persons under the age of 50 affected by acute myocardial infarction exhibit traditional cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, and higher BMI, and were more exposed to some psychosocial risk factors. The risk profile of young persons under age 50 affected by AMI was in these respects more exaugurated than for middle-aged persons with AMI. This study underlines the importance of the early discovery of those at increased risk and encourages preventative actions to focus on both clinical and psychosocial risk factors.Funding Agencies|Linkoeping University; Swedish AFA Insurance, Stockholm [160340]</p

Do prepubertal hormones, 2D:4D index and psychosocial context jointly explain 11-year-old preadolescents involvement in bullying?

Background: Bullying is a type of aggressive behavior that occurs repeatedly and intentionally in school environments and where there is a power imbalance. The main objective of this study was to analyze the association that hormones and the psychosocial context jointly have with bullying behavior. Method: Participants were 302 11-year-old preadolescents from the Gipuzkoan cohort of the INMA Project. Bullying was assessed using the Olweus Bully/victim Questionnaire. Prenatal sexual hormones were assessed by calculating 2D:4D ratio and in order to measure prepubertal testosterone and cortisol levels saliva samples were collected within a week of each other. Additionally, various psychosocial factors were evaluated: executive function, family context, school environment and social context. To analyze our complex hypothesis, six metamodels were tested using structural equation modeling. Results: In relation to victims, results showed that victimization was related to worse school environment perception in boys, and higher stress and conflict in the family in girls. In the case of their involvement in bullying as a bully, lower salivary cortisol levels, worse school environment perception and lower peers and social support was related to being more frequently involved as a bully in boys, while having more family stress and conflict was related with being a bully in girls. Conclusions: This approach makes it possible not only to explore the different biological and psychosocial factors affect bullying behavior, but also to explore associations between the predictor variables.Funding Agencies|Instituto de Salud Carlos III [FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, FIS-PI13/02187, FIS-PI18/01142, FIS-PI18/01237]; Department of Health of the Basque Government [2005111093, 2009111069, 2013111089, 2015111065, 2018111086]; Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa [DFG06/002, DFG08/001, DFG15/221, DFG 89/17]; Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture of the Government of the Basque Country; FEDER funds</p