Affective Processes as Potential Pathways Between Intimate Relationship Quality and Perceived Health

Intimate relationship quality has been linked to diverse health outcomes ranging from subjective clinical endpoints like perceived health to objective clinical endpoints like mortality. In major theories of relationship functioning and physical health, affective processes have been consistently presented as a plausible mediator, such that high relationship quality would be thought to impact affective processes directly and to buffer the impact of stress on negative affect generation. However, limited research to date has investigated to what extent changes in relationship quality may impact health via changes in affective processes. In the present study, data on relationship satisfaction, positive and negative affect, perceived health, and stress exposure were collected from couples before and after participating in an online self-help program based on principles of integrative behavioral couple therapy. Paired t-tests were conducted to examine changes in relational and individual functioning, and the SPSS macro MEMORE was used to evaluate a 2-instance repeated-measures path analysis model, wherein changes in perceived health were modeled as occurring via changes in relationship satisfaction and negative affect (i.e., serial mediation). Finally, Steiger&rsquo;s test for equality of dependent correlations was used to test the hypothesis that negative affect and stress exposure would be less strongly correlated post-intervention relative to pre-intervention. Results of the paired t-tests indicated significant increases in relationship satisfaction and decreases in negative affect for both women and men, and significant increases in perceived health for men. Results of the path analyses indicated that improvement in relationship satisfaction was associated with decrease in negative affect for women, but there was not a significant serial mediation effect for either women or men. The between-person association of stress exposure and negative affect was significantly stronger at post-intervention relative to pre-intervention for both men and women, contrary to expectations. Results partially support theories of intimate relationships and health, by suggesting that improving relationship satisfaction can have a positive impact on affective processes. However, there may not be a corresponding short-term impact on perceived health. Continued research is needed to elucidate how and for whom changing relationship satisfaction and affective processes may impact different aspects of health.</p

Media multitasking is associated with altered processing of incidental, irrelevant cues during person perception

Abstract Background Media multitasking (MMT)—using and switching between unrelated forms of media—has been implicated in altered processing of extraneous stimuli, resulting in performance deficits. Here, we sought to extend our prior work to test the hypothesis that MMT might be associated with enhanced processing of incidental environmental cues during person perception. Method We tested the relationship between individual differences in MMT and person perception, by experimentally manipulating the relevance of environmental cues that participants could use to make trait and personality judgements of an unfamiliar social target. Relevant environmental cues consisted of neat or messy arrangements of the target’s belongings, whereas irrelevant cues consisted of similarly neat or messy arrangements of the testing room in which participants viewed a video of the target. Results In general, relevant cues affected ratings of the target’s conscientiousness. Additionally, and consistent with our hypothesis, there was a significant interaction between irrelevant cue condition and MMT, such that high media multitaskers more readily incorporated irrelevant environmental cues into their evaluations of the target’s conscientiousness. Conclusions These results suggest that high media multitaskers are more responsive to irrelevant environmental cues, which in turn can lead them to form inaccurate impressions of others

Family Communication With Teens at Clinical High-Risk for Psychosis or Bipolar Disorder

Previous research has found that family problem-solving interactions are more constructive and less contentious when there is a family member with bipolar disorder compared with schizophrenia. The present study extended this research by examining whether family problem-solving interactions differ between clinical high-risk (CHR) stages of each illness. Trained coders applied a behavioral coding system (O'Brien et al., 2014) to problem-solving interactions of parents and their adolescent child, conducted just prior to beginning a randomized trial of family-focused therapy. The CHR for psychosis sample included 58 families with an adolescent with attenuated positive symptoms, brief intermittent psychosis, or genetic risk and functional deterioration; the CHR for bipolar disorder sample included 44 families with an adolescent with "unspecified" bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder and at least one first or second degree relative with bipolar I or II disorder. When controlling for adolescent gender, age, functioning, and parent education, mothers of youth at CHR for psychosis displayed significantly more conflictual and less constructive communication than did mothers of youth at CHR for bipolar disorder. Youth risk classification did not have a significant relationship with youths' or fathers' communication behavior. The family environment among help-seeking adolescents may be more challenging for families with an adolescent at CHR for psychosis compared with bipolar illness. Accordingly, families of adolescents at clinical high-risk for psychosis may benefit from more intensive or focused communication training than is required by families of adolescents at clinical high-risk for bipolar disorder or other mood disorders. (PsycINFO Database Recor

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used