Associations of Psychological Inflexibility with Exercise Self-Efficacy and Fatigue Severity among Individuals Seeking Treatment for Weight-Related Behaviors

Rates of obesity are continuing to rise, contributing to several negative health outcomes and economic burden. Past work suggests that individuals with greater body mass index (BMI) are more likely to report feeling fatigue and are less likely to follow an exercise regimen, which may lead to weight-related problems. Psychological inflexibility, a rigid thinking style in which individuals attempt to over-control psychological reactions to discomfort, may be an underrecognized explanatory factor underlying greater fatigue and lower rates of exercise among individuals with weight-related concerns. The aim of the current study was to explore the relationship between psychological inflexibility and both exercise self-efficacy and fatigue severity among adults seeking treatment for weight-related behaviors. The current study is a secondary analysis and included 162 treatment-seeking adults who attended a baseline appointment for a larger randomized-controlled trial for weight-related behaviors. Results indicated that greater psychological inflexibility was significantly related to greater fatigue severity and lower exercise self-efficacy. These results provide initial empirical evidence that psychological inflexibility may be an important individual difference factor in terms of fatigue and exercise beliefs among adults seeking treatment for weight-related behaviors

The Association Between Body Mass Index and Anxious Arousal, Depressive, and Insomnia Symptoms Among World Trade Center Responders

Elevations in body mass index (BMI) among World Trade Center (WTC) responders may be associated with poor mental health outcomes. The current study examined the association of BMI with anxious arousal, depressive, and insomnia symptoms among this group. Participants were 412 WTC responders (89.4% male, Mage = 55.3 years, SD = 8.66) who completed health monitoring assessments (self-report and objective) as part of the Long Island site of the WTC Health Program (LI-WTC-HP). Results suggested BMI was statistically significant only in relation to anxious arousal (sr2 = .02, p = .008), after accounting for age and sex. The current study suggests that weight management programs may aid in promoting additional benefits for WTC responders by reducing anxious arousal symptoms as a function of reduced BMI

Personalized Feedback for Smokers with Elevated Anxiety Sensitivity

Objective: Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disability. The majority of smokers report a desire to quit and most make a serious quit attempt each year. Unfortunately, more than 95% of cessation attempters relapse within 6 months. Clinical and laboratory studies have identified negative affect as a potent precipitant of relapse and more severe smoking behavior. Yet, limited brief, accessible treatments exist to address the range of negative affective symptoms. One promising, integrative approach to address this need is to focus on underlying transdiagnostic processes that capture negative mood states and are related to smoking. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the tendency to fear anxiety-related sensations, is a core transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders and other emotional disorders, and is also related to smoking maintenance and relapse. Progress has been made in developing intensive, integrated treatments that address AS in the context of smoking treatment. However, limited efforts have focused on developing brief (single session) interventions for AS and smoking. The current study was conducted to develop, refine, and test a brief, integrated personalized feedback intervention (PFI) for smoking and AS. Method: Participants (N=95; 63.2% male; Mage = 46.20 years, SD = 10.90) included general smokers in the early stage of quitting who received either a single session, computer-delivered PFI or smoking treatment as usual. The primary aims focused on examining the effects of PFI on (1) quit attempts, (2) cigarette reduction, and (3) trajectories of affective vulnerability assessed at 2- and 4-week follow-ups. Results: Results indicated 48.3% of participants at 2-week follow-up and 53.4% at 4-week follow-up engaged in a self-defined quit attempt. Substantial smoking reduction was observed in 21.8% and 28.4% of participants at 1-week post-baseline and 1-week pre 4-week follow-up. Treatment condition did not significantly predict quit attempt or smoking reduction. PFI had a significant effect on symptoms of anxiety arousal over time (β = -.32, p = .04). Conclusions: Current data provide preliminary evidence for the utility of a PFI to encourage behavior change related to smoking and address physical manifestations of anxiety. The effects, however, were limited in magnitude. Nevertheless, the initial ‘signal’ observed in this small trial provides a strong rationale for continued work within this domain.Psychology, Department o

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE SMOKING CONSEQUENCES QUESTIONNAIRE ACROSS SEX AND DURING SMOKING CESSATION TREATMENT

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States. There has been a growing interest to understand cognitive processes that may influence smoking. One promising cognitive process linked to smoking behavior is smoking outcome expectancies. Although there is no standard instrument for assessing smoking outcome expectancies, perhaps the most commonly used instrument is the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire (SCQ). Despite the wide use of this measure, little work has been devoted to examining its psychometric properties and no work has examined its construct stability across sex or during smoking cessation treatment. Therefore, the current study aimed to replicate and extent psychometric testing of the SCQ by examining the assumed multi-factor structure, reliability, convergent/discriminant validity, and predictive validity, as well as assessing measurement invariance across sex at baseline, quit week, 1-month follow-up, and 3-month follow-up and longitudinal measurement invariance among baseline, quit week, 1-month follow-up, and 3-month follow-up with a sample of treatment seeking daily cigarette smokers. Results indicated that the originally proposed four-factor SCQ does not adequately explain covariance among items, particularly across the Negative Consequences and Positive Reinforcement/Sensory Satisfaction subscales. Using item reduction techniques, adequate model fit was obtained for a refined, four-factor solution. Construct validity of the refined measure was demonstrated, however limited predictive validity was observed. Finally, although measurement invariance was not appropriate to examine across the full measure, the original SCQ Negative Reinforcement/Negative Affect Reduction and Appetite-Weight Control subscales demonstrated measurement invariance across sex at two time points, as well as longitudinally across two time points. Overall, the present findings provide initial evidence for an item reduced model structure of the SCQ and suggests divergent model structures across sex.Psychology, Department o

The moderating role of smoking amount per day on the relations between anxiety sensitivity, smoking dependence, and cognitive–affective aspects of smoking among treatment seeking smokers

The current study examined the moderating effects of smoking amount per day on the relation between anxiety sensitivity and nicotine dependence, cigarette smoking outcome expectancies, and reasons for quitting smoking among 465 adult, treatment-seeking smokers (48% female, Mage = 36.6, SD = 13.5). Smoking amount per day moderated the relation between anxiety sensitivity and nicotine dependence, smoking expectancies for negative consequences and appetite control as well as intrinsic reasons for quitting. However, no moderating effect was evident for negative reinforcement expectancies. The form of the significant interactions indicated across dependent variables lower levels of smoking amount per day suppressed the relation between anxiety sensitivity and smoking related dependent variable, such that the positive relation of anxiety sensitivity to smoking dependence and cognitive–affective aspects of smoking is weaker in heavier smokers and more robust in lighter smokers

Testing a motivational model of delivery modality and incentives on participation in a brief alcohol intervention.

Objectives: The current research evaluated delivery modality and incentive as factors affecting recruitment into a personalized normative feedback (PNF) alcohol intervention for heavy drinking college students. We also evaluated whether these factors were differentially associated with participation based on relevance of the intervention (via participants\u27 drinking levels). Method: College students aged 18–26 who endorsed at least one heavy drinking episode and one alcohol-related consequence in the past month (N = 2059; 59.1% female) were invited to participate in a PNF intervention study. In this 2 × 2 design, participants were randomized to: (1) complete the computer-based baseline survey and intervention procedure remotely (i.e., at a time and location of their convenience) or in person in the laboratory, and (2) receive an incentive ($30) for their participation in the baseline/intervention procedure or no incentive. Results: Consistent with hypotheses, students were more likely to participate when participation occurred remotely (OR = 1.87, p \u3c .001) and when an incentive (OR = 1.64, p = .007) was provided. Moderation analyses suggested that incentives were only associated with higher recruitment rates among remote participants (OR = 2.10, p \u3c .001), consistent with cognitive evaluation theory. Moreover, heavier drinkers were more likely to participate if doing so remotely, whereas drinking was not associated with likelihood of participation among in-person participants. Discussion: The present results showed a strong selection bias for participation in a web-based intervention study relative to one in which participants were required to participate in person. Results have implications for researchers recruiting college students for alcohol interventions

Social Anxiety and Cannabis-Related Impairment: The Synergistic Influences of Peer and Parent Descriptive and Injunctive Normative Perceptions

OBJECTIVES: Cannabis users, especially socially anxious cannabis users, are influenced by perceptions of other\u27s use. The present study tested whether social anxiety interacted with perceptions about peer and parent beliefs to predict cannabis-related problems. METHODS: Participants were 148 (36.5% female, 60.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) current cannabis users aged 18-36 (M = 21.01, SD = 3.09) who completed measures of perceived descriptive and injunctive norms, social anxiety, and cannabis use behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regressions were employed to investigate the predictive value of the social anxiety X parent injunctive norms X peer norms interaction terms on cannabis use behaviors. RESULTS: Higher social anxiety was associated with more cannabis problems. A three-way interaction emerged between social anxiety, parent injunctive norms, and peer descriptive norms, with respect to cannabis problems. Social anxiety was positively related to more cannabis problems when parent injunctive norms were high (i.e., perceived approval) and peer descriptive norms were low. Results further showed that social anxiety was positively related to more cannabis problems regardless of parent injunctive norms. CONCLUSIONS: The present work suggests that it may be important to account for parent influences when addressing normative perceptions among young adult cannabis users. Additional research is needed to determine whether interventions incorporating feedback regarding parent norms impacts cannabis use frequency and problems