Delay between recruitment and participation impacts on preinclusion attrition.

Despite being a common aspect of psychological research, the impact of delay between recruitment and active participation on dropout rates has received little research attention. This is probably due to the intuitive sense that longer delays will increase the dropout rate. Preinclusion attrition diminishes sample sizes and may threaten data representativeness. One hundred and two university undergraduates were recruited to participate in a short, one-off study via Short Message Service (SMS). Upon receipt of an SMS indicating consent to participate, the researchers delayed sending the study questions for one day, one week, one month, or two months. Delay was significantly associated with response rate with an 80% response rate in the one-day delay condition, 56% at one week, and 42% at one month. No responses were received in the two-month delay condition. This research confirms that the delay between recruitment and active participation impacts on preinclusion attrition when conducting research via SMS.

Rumination, substance use, and self-harm in a representative Australian adult sample.

BACKGROUND: There are few data on self-harm in the general population, especially examining the roles of rumination and substance use. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the inter-relationships of rumination, self-harm, and potential mediating variables. METHOD: A cohort with follow-up every 4 years involving a random sample of adults aged 20-24 and 40-44 years (at baseline) living in Australia. The survey included items on three common forms of self-harm. Other measures included rumination, Goldberg Anxiety and Depression scales, substance use, coping style (Brief COPE), and demographic risk factors. RESULTS: The sample comprised 2,184 women and 1,942 men with 287 self-harm cases (7.0%). Depression and coping style were significant mediators of rumination on self-harm for men, with depression being the only robust mediator for women. For males, age and education were also significantly associated, while for women, age, smoking, trauma, and sexual abuse were significant. CONCLUSIONS: Men and women differ on mediators of self-harm.

Process-oriented guided-inquiry learning improves long-term retention of information.

Many chemistry educators have adopted the process-oriented guided instructional learning (POGIL) pedagogy. However, it is not clear which aspects of POGIL are the most important in terms of actual learning. We compared 354 first-year undergraduate psychology students' learning in physiological psychology using four teaching methods: control, POGIL, POGIL without reporting [no report out (NRO)], and POGIL run by untrained graduate students [new facilitator (NF)]. Student activities were identical across POGIL variations and highly similar for control. Participants' knowledge was evaluated before (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 2 wk later (followup). Control and POGIL groups showed no improvement at posttest, whereas NRO and NF groups both recalled more material than at pretest (P = 0.002 and P < 0.0005, respectively). In a surprise test 2 wk later, control (P < 0.0005), NRO (P = 0.03), and NF (P < 0.0005) groups recalled less than at posttest. The POGIL group showed the smallest drop in knowledge (P = 0.05). Importantly, the control group's knowledge was below pretest levels (P < 0.0005), whereas the POGIL, NRO, and NF groups' knowledge was not. Self-assessment of knowledge was consistent across groups at pretest, but POGIL participants had the lowest confidence at posttest and 2 wk later. At followup, the control, NRO, and NF groups showed greater confidence in their knowledge than the POGIL group (P = 0.03, P = 0.002, and P = 0.004, respectively). POGIL and its variations appear to consolidate existing knowledge against memory decay even when student confidence does not match performance.

Rumination and reminiscence in older adults: implications for clinical practice.

Reminiscence is proposed as an important activity for well-being in late life but recent reviews highlight the differential outcomes of this behavior. If older adults engage in reminiscing as a natural process, but do so with a ruminative style of thinking, it may actually be detrimental to successful development and well-being. This project explored the relationship between rumination, reminiscence, mood, and psychosocial development. One hundred and fifty community dwelling older adults completed measures assessing these variables. As expected, increased rumination was related to increased depressed mood. Fifty-four of the participants completed a follow-up measure of depressed mood. Rumination also accounted for follow-up depressed mood beyond that explained by time-1 mood. The interaction between rumination and reminiscing significantly predicted future depressed mood after controlling for main effects and baseline mood. Further, this interaction significantly predicted overall psychosocial development. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Evaluation of a Short Message Service diary methodology in a nonclinical, naturalistic setting.

Particularly suited to repeated measures in naturalistic settings, Short Message Service (SMS) is garnering increasing attention as a viable method of data collection. The current study explored issues of practical importance for the development of this methodology, including factors impacting on attrition and compliance, and participant perception of SMS. Using a business-card-sized questionnaire key, 98 university students were sent prompt SMS messages nightly for a week. Completion and compliance were very high in all participants who responded to at least one prompt SMS; those who responded at least once (n=63) responded to 83 percent of all seven prompts, with 95 percent of responses containing appropriate alphanumeric answers to all questions. However, a time lag between recruitment and participation was associated with a failure to commence the diary study. Participants reported positive perceptions of SMS privacy and convenience.

Ruminative thought style and depressed mood.

Recent research has suggested that the measure most commonly used to assess rumination, the Response Style Questionnaire (RSQ; L. D. Butler & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994), may be heavily biased by depressive symptoms, thereby restricting the scope of research exploring this construct. This article offers a broader conceptualization of rumination, which includes positive, negative, and neutral thoughts as well as past and future-oriented thoughts. The first two studies describe the development and evaluation of the Ruminative Thought Style Questionnaire (RTS), a psychometrically sound measure of the general tendency to ruminate. Further, the scale is comprised of a single factor and shows high internal consistency, suggesting that rumination does encompasses the factors mentioned. The final study involved a longitudinal diary investigation of rumination and mood over time. Results suggest that the RTS assesses a related, but separate, construct than does the RSQ. RTS scores predicted future depressed mood beyond the variance accounted for by initial depressed mood whereas RSQ scores did not. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Normative data on cognitive measures of depression.

The assessment of cognition and cognitive change is important for case conceptualization, monitoring the efficacy of specific interventions, and evaluating treatment outcome in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Unfortunately, a paucity of normative data exists on cognitive measures used for psychotherapy outcome research in depression, and little information is available to guide a practitioner's understanding of the magnitude and clinical significance of a patient's cognitive change. This article presents normative data on 6 self-report instruments that assess negative and positive automatic thoughts, hopelessness, cognitive biases and errors, and dysfunctional attitudes. Normative data were derived from studies published from the date of inception of a given cognitive index to the year 2000. Recommendations for the use of these normative data are provided.