Alcohol expectancies and motives in a substance abusing male treatment sample.

Although prior research has demonstrated the utility of both alcohol expectancies and drinking motives in the prediction of alcohol use and problems, the specific relationship between these domains has not been examined in a clinical sample. One-hundred, forty-seven veterans on an inpatient substance abuse unit completed questionnaires measuring alcohol expectancies and alcohol motives and provided information on their alcohol consumption and related problems. Covariance structure modeling was used to test four theoretically competing models. Findings indicated that: (1) motives mediate the effects of expectancies on use and problems and expectancies do not exert an independent influence on consumption and alcohol problems and (2) contrary to past findings, alcohol use only partially mediates the relationship between enhancement motives and alcohol problems.

Strategic physician communication and oncology clinical trials.

PURPOSE: Clinical trials are the primary means for determining new, effective treatments for cancer patients, yet the number of patients that accrue is relatively limited. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between physician behavior and patient accrual to a clinical trial by videotaping the interaction. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-eight patient-physician interactions involving 12 different oncologists were videotaped in several clinics at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute (Tampa, FL). The purpose of each interaction was to present the possibility of a clinical trial to the patient. A coding system, the Moffitt Accrual Analysis System, was developed by the authors to code behaviors that represented both the legal-informational and social influence models of communication behavior. Thirty-two patients agreed to participate in the clinical trial. RESULTS: Videotaping was found to be a viable, valid, and reliable method for studying the interaction. Physicians who were observed to use both models of influence were found to enroll more patients. Thus, patients were more likely to accrue to the trial when their physician verbally presented items normally included in an informed consent document and when they behaved in a reflective, patient-centered, supportive, and responsive manner. Discussion of benefits, side effects, patient concerns and resources to manage the concerns were all associated with accrual. CONCLUSION: This research has implications for modifying physician behavior and, thus, increasing the numbers of patients accruing to oncology clinical trials.

Body image, social comparison, and eating disturbance: a covariance structure modeling investigation.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of appearance-based social comparison processes as a possible mediational link between developmental factors (negative social feedback, i.e., teasing about appearance; biological status, i.e., early physical maturation) and levels of body dissatisfaction, eating disturbance, and global psychological functioning. METHOD: In this study of 173 female undergraduates, covariance structure modeling (CSM) was used to examine direct and mediational relationships among these variables. RESULTS: Appearance-based social comparison mediated the effect of appearance-related teasing on body image and eating disturbance; body image mediated the effect of teasing on eating disturbance; eating disturbance had a direct effect on overall psychological functioning. DISCUSSION: Implications for devising and testing other theoretical models are discussed.

Effectiveness of the direct product versus confirmatory factor model for reflecting the structure of multimethod-multirater job performance data.

Most job-related decisions are based on information concerning the nature of structure of work. For example, the extent to which certain aspects of the job are separable and critical for successful performance often serve as inputs to an organization's performance management and compensation systems. Because the information needs to be as veridical as possible, it is common to have this information provided on multiple perspectives of the job and from multiple sources. This multimethod-multirater structuring of job data is typically analyzed to determine such things as convergent and discriminant validity. It is imperative that the user select the correct model for these analyses, as each approach makes very different assumptions about the composition of the data. The authors describe the 2 most common approaches-the additive and direct product models. Data from 7 different jobs are analyzed. The researchers argue the direct product model provides a better representation of the data.

Development of body image, eating disturbance, and general psychological functioning in female adolescents: covariance structure modeling and longitudinal investigations.

OBJECTIVE: Covariance structure modeling (CSM) and longitudinal analyses were used to identify a possible causal sequence for factors that might lead to the development of body image and eating disturbance in adolescent females. METHOD: In Study 1, subjects were measured for level of obesity, perceived weight status, maturational timing, history of being teased about weight/size, body image, eating disturbance, and global psychological functioning. Study 2 was a systematic replication of Study 1 using different indices of body image and a more comprehensive assessment of eating disturbance. In Study 3, subjects from Study 1 were reassessed at a 3-year follow-up. RESULTS: The findings from Study 1 indicated that level of obesity and perceived weight, but not maturational timing, had a directional influence on the other variables. In addition, teasing history was significantly related to the development of body image and eating disturbance. CSM and path analyses with Studies 2 and 3 data generally replicated and extended the results from Study 1. DISCUSSION: These findings offer important insights into possible causal sequences for the development of body image and eating disturbance.

Covariance structure models of expectancy.

Antecedent variables under the broad categories of genetic, environmental and cultural influences have been linked to the risk for alcohol abuse. Such risk factors have not been shown to result in high correlations with alcohol consumption and leave unclear an understanding of the mechanism by which these variables lead to increased risk. This study employed covariance structure modeling to examine the mediational influence of stored information in memory about alcohol, alcohol expectancies in relation to two biologically and environmentally driven antecedent variables, family history of alcohol abuse and a sensation-seeking temperament in a college population. We also examined the effect of criterion contamination on the relationship between sensation-seeking and alcohol consumption. Results indicated that alcohol expectancy acts as a significant, partial mediator of the relationship between sensation-seeking and consumption, that family history of alcohol abuse is not related to drinking outcome and that overlap in items on sensation-seeking and alcohol consumption measures may falsely inflate their relationship.