Life satisfaction among older adult, long-term cancer survivors: A comparison of Black with White survivors.

OBJECTIVE: This paper proposes and evaluates a model of the relative importance that cancer-related health factor along with other health factors have for the self-rated health and life satisfaction of older adult, long-term cancer survivors. The data are examined in the context of important racial differences in health and life satisfaction along with other covariates including gender and education. METHOD: This research utilizes regression-based path analysis to examine data from a sample of 321 older (age 60+), long-term (5+ years since diagnosis) cancer survivors. Respondents were randomly selected from the tumor registry of a major university hospital cancer center from among those with breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer. Blacks were oversampled to provide the analytic power to make racial comparisons among cancer survivors. RESULTS: Bivariate analysis indicates that there is a consistent pattern of Black/White differences in both cancer-related and general health characteristics as well as life satisfaction among older cancer survivors. Moreover, the results suggest that race is an important predictor of older survivors' health characteristics. These, in turn, explain significant variance in both self-rated health and life satisfaction, that is, attributed to Black/White differences in these predictors. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical health and social service providers need to be aware of the importance of both general health and cancer-related health factors when working with minority long-term cancer survivors as these have implications for their overall quality of life.

Factors Affecting Perceptions of Disability and Self-Rated Health Among Older Adult, Long-Term Cancer Survivors.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines the relative importance of cancer-related and noncancer illness factors as they predict the health quality of life among older adult, long-term cancer survivors. Specifically, it examines the effects that continuing cancer symptoms and comorbidities have on functional difficulties and how they in turn affect perceptions of disability and self-rated health. METHOD: Data from an National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded, tumor registry-based 10-year study of 321 older adult (age 60+), long-term (5+years post diagnosis) survivors of breast colorectal and prostate cancer are examined using regression analyses. RESULTS: The analyses documented the independent effects of both cancer-related and age-related health factors as they contribute to explaining functional difficulties, perceptions of disability and self-rated health. Gender and racial differences in health quality of life were also identified. DISCUSSION: The findings suggest that geriatricians, geriatric nurses, and clinical gerontologists who work with cancer survivorsneed to be aware of the ways in which both cancer and noncancer illness factors work together in producing threats to health quality of life through the extent and nature of functional impairments.

Structural transitions and oligomerization along polyalanine fibril formation pathways from computer simulations.

The results of a computer simulation study of the aggregation kinetics of a large system of model peptides with particular focus on the formation of intermediates are presented. Discontinuous molecular dynamic simulations were used in combination with our intermediate-resolution protein model, PRIME, to simulate the aggregation of a system of 192 polyalanine (KA(14) K) peptides at a concentration of 5 mM and a reduced temperature of T* = 0.13 starting from a random configuration and ending in the assembly of a fibrillar structure. The population of various structures, including free monomers, beta sheets, amorphous aggregates, hybrid aggregates, and fibrils, and the transitions between the structures were tracked over the course of 30 independent simulations and averaged together. The aggregation pathway for this system starts with the association of free monomers into small amorphous aggregates that then grow to moderate size by incorporating other free monomers or merging with other small amorphous aggregates. These then rearrange into either small beta sheets or hybrid aggregates formed by association between unstructured chains and beta sheets, both of which grow in size by adding free monomer chains or other small aggregates, one at a time. Fibrillar structures are formed initially either by the stacking of beta sheets, rearrangement of hybrid aggregates or association between beta sheets and hybrid aggregates. They grow by the addition of beta sheets, hybrid aggregates, and other small fibrillar structures. The rearrangement of amorphous aggregates into beta sheets is a critical and necessary step in the fibril formation pathway.

Youth development program participation and intentional self-regulation skills: contextual and individual bases of pathways to positive youth development.

The present research used data from Grades 8, 9, and 10 of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents, in order to better elucidate the process through which the strengths of youth and the ecological resources promoting healthy development (such as out-of-school-time programs) may contribute to thriving. We examined the relationship between adolescents' self-regulation skills (selection, optimization, and compensation) and their participation in youth development (YD) programs across Grades 8 and 9 in predicting Grade 10 PYD and Contribution. Results indicated that while self-regulation skills alone predicted PYD, self regulation and YD program participation both predicted Contribution. In addition, Grade 8 YD participation positively predicted Grade 9 self regulation, which, in turn, predicted Grade 10 PYD and Contribution. We discuss how the alignment of youth strengths and resources within the environment may promote positive youth development.

Constructing positive futures: modeling the relationship between adolescents' hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation in predicting positive youth development.

Intentional self regulation and hopeful expectations for the future are theoretically-related constructs shown to lead to positive youth development (PYD). However, the nature of their relationship over time has not been tested. Therefore, this study explored the associations between hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation in predicting positive developmental outcomes. Participants were in Grades 7, 8, and 9 of the 4-H Study of PYD (N = 1311), a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents. A cross-lagged panel analysis using Structural Equation Modeling assessed the relations among hopeful future expectations and intentional self regulation across time in predicting PYD. Results indicated that earlier hopeful expectations for the future may be influential for later intentional self-regulation abilities, although both constructs were strong predictors of PYD in middle adolescence. We discuss implications for research and practice of hopeful expectations in adolescents' constructions of their positive futures.

The relationship between adolescents' news media use and civic engagement: the indirect effect of interpersonal communication with parents.

Using data from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development, a longitudinal study involving U.S. adolescents, multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to evaluate whether news media use is predictive of a set of civic indicators (civic duty, civic efficacy, neighborhood social connection, and civic participation) for youth in Grades 8, 9, and 10, via an indirect effect of interpersonal communication about politics with parents. The proposed model had a good fit within each grade. News media use was predictive of interpersonal communication with parents and in turn, interpersonal communication was predictive of civic duty, civic efficacy, neighborhood social connection, and civic participation. The cross-group comparison of the structural model suggests that the predictive qualities of news media use and interpersonal communication are comparable across grades. The role of media use and interpersonal communication in fostering civic development and socialization as well as implications for future research are discussed.

Why missing data matter in the longitudinal study of adolescent development: using the 4-H Study to understand the uses of different missing data methods.

The study of adolescent development rests on methodologically appropriate collection and interpretation of longitudinal data. While all longitudinal studies of adolescent development involve missing data, the methods to treat missingness that have been recommended most often focus on missing data from cross-sectional studies. The problems of missing data in longitudinal studies are not described well, there are not many statistical software programs developed for researchers to use, and there are no longitudinal empirical examples involving adolescent development that show the extent to which different missing data procedures can yield different results. Data from the first three waves of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development were used to provide such an illustration. The sample contains 2,265 participants (56.7% females) who were in Grade 5 at Wave 1, in Grade 6 at Wave 2, and in Grade 7 at Wave 3, and varied in race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, rural-urban location, and geographic region. The results showed that three missing data techniques, i.e., listwise deletion, direct maximum likelihood (DirML), and multiple imputation (MI), did not yield comparable results for research questions assessing different aspects of development (i.e., change over time or prediction effects). The results indicated also that listwise deletion should not be used. Instead, both DirML and MI methods should be used to determine if and how results change when these procedures are employed.

Use of missing data methods in longitudinal studies: the persistence of bad practices in developmental psychology.

Developmental science rests on describing, explaining, and optimizing intraindividual changes and, hence, empirically requires longitudinal research. Problems of missing data arise in most longitudinal studies, thus creating challenges for interpreting the substance and structure of intraindividual change. Using a sample of reports of longitudinal studies obtained from three flagship developmental journals-Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and Journal of Research on Adolescence-we examined the number of longitudinal studies reporting missing data and the missing data techniques used. Of the 100 longitudinal studies sampled, 57 either reported having missing data or had discrepancies in sample sizes reported for different analyses. The majority of these studies (82%) used missing data techniques that are statistically problematic (either listwise deletion or pairwise deletion) and not among the methods recommended by statisticians (i.e., the direct maximum likelihood method and the multiple imputation method). Implications of these results for developmental theory and application, and the need for understanding the consequences of using statistically inappropriate missing data techniques with actual longitudinal data sets, are discussed.

Problematics of Time and Timing in the Longitudinal Study of Human Development: Theoretical and Methodological Issues.

Studying human development involves describing, explaining, and optimizing intraindividual change and interindividual differences in such change and, as such, requires longitudinal research. The selection of the appropriate type of longitudinal design requires selecting the option that best addresses the theoretical questions asked about developmental process and the use of appropriate statistical procedures to best exploit data derived from theory-predicated longitudinal research. This paper focuses on several interrelated problematics involving the treatment of time and the timing of observations that developmental scientists face in creating theory-design fit and in charting in change-sensitive ways developmental processes across life. We discuss ways in which these problematics may be addressed to advance theory-predicated understanding of the role of time in processes of individual development.

More than child's play: variable- and pattern-centered approaches for examining effects of sports participation on youth development.

The authors used data from Grades 5 through 7 of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development to assess relations among sports participation, other out-of-school-time (OST) activities, and indicators of youth development. They used a mixture of variable- and pattern-centered analyses aimed at disentangling different features of participation (i.e., intensity, breadth). The benefits of sports participation were found to depend, in part, on specific combinations of multiple activities in which youths participated along with sports. In particular, participation in a combination of sports and youth development programs was related to positive youth development and youth contribution, even after controlling for the total time youths spent in OST activities and their sports participation duration. Adolescents' total time spent participating in OST activities, duration of participation in sports, and activity participation pattern each explained a unique part of the variance in some of the indicators of youth functioning. These findings suggest the need for future research to simultaneously assess multiple indices of OST activity participation.

Nuances in early adolescent developmental trajectories of positive and problematic/risk behaviors: findings from the 4-H study of positive youth development.

Using data from the first three waves of data (Grades 5, 6, and 7) from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), the authors assessed among 1,184 youth (58.5% female) the patterns of change associated with indicators of PYD and of risks/problem behaviors. Results indicated that five PYD trajectories represent change across grades, four trajectories were associated with indicators of internalizing problems, and three trajectories were associated with indicators of externalizing problems. Although theoretical expectations associated with the study of both child and adolescent resilience and PYD led to the expectation that most youth across the early adolescent period would show change marked by the coupling of increases in PYD and decreases in risk/problem behaviors, only about one-sixth of all youth in the sample manifested this particular pattern of change. Other youth remained stable over time, showed increases in PYD and risk, and declined in PYD. The multiplicity of patterns of conjoint trajectories for PYD and risks/problem behaviors constitutes a challenge for both developmental theory and applications aimed at enhancing resilience and positive development among adolescents.