The group-based law enforcement mistrust scale: psychometric properties of an adapted scale and implications for public health and harm reduction research.

BACKGROUND: Negative encounters with law enforcement-direct and vicarious-fuel mistrust. When considered as part of the 'risk environment' in public health and harm reduction research, law enforcement mistrust may have broad implications. For example, fearing arrest may prevent someone from calling 911 when witnessing an overdose or lead to syringe-sharing and community spread of HIV. For people in the US who identify as Black or African American, these effects may compound, given the ways in which communities of color have been overpoliced. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometrics of an adapted scale of law enforcement mistrust-the Group-Based Law Enforcement Mistrust Scale (GBLEMS)-and evaluate its associations with racial and ethnic identity and experiences with law enforcement. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey took place in a small city in the Western United States where only 3% of the population is Black or African American. The sample included Black or African American and Hispanic and Latina women at risk of HIV, and members of their social networks, yielding a diverse sample across racial, ethnic, and gender identities (N = 219). The GBLEMS is a 12-item scale adapted from the Group-Based Medical Mistrust Scale (GBMMS; Thompson et al. 2004). The current analysis evaluated the psychometric properties of the GBLEMS (reliability, exploratory factor analysis) and its associations with demographics, other race-based constructs, and experiences with law enforcement. RESULTS: The GBLEMS demonstrated strong reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92) and exploratory factor analysis indicated that items loaded onto two factors-mistrust and disparities in treatment. There was also support for the scale's construct validity. As hypothesized, GBLEMS scores were higher among respondents who identify as Black or African American, and among those who reported other experiences of racial discrimination, medical mistrust, and negative encounters with law enforcement. CONCLUSIONS: This study yielded support for the reliability and validity of the GBLEMS as a multi-item, two-factor scale measuring group-based law enforcement mistrust. When framing public health and harm reduction research in terms of the risk environment, law enforcement mistrust may be important to measure as part of a comprehensive approach that addresses persistent racial disparities.

Judges' emotion: an application of the emotion regulation process model.

Courtrooms are often emotionally charged atmospheres where parties have a vested interest in the proceedings and their outcomes. Judges are exposed to a wide range of emotions and stressors in the course of their work. Though the ideal of a dispassionate judge persists, more empirical work is needed to identify how judges regulate their own emotional experience in court. Using Maroney and Gross typology of emotion regulation strategies, this study explored the self-reported use and preference of these strategies among a sample of U.S. judges. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, we found that judges reported using a variety of intrinsic (self-directed) and extrinsic (directed toward others) emotion regulation strategies, though judges reported using some strategies such as suppression more frequently than others. We also found that many of the strategies judges described matched a subset of the strategies described by Maroney and Gross supporting their typology.

Moral disengagement, locus of control, and belief in a just world: Individual differences relate to adherence to COVID-19 guidelines.

We examined relationships between moral disengagement, locus of control, and just world beliefs and adherence to COVID-19 containment measures. We predicted that these individual differences would be more influential for adherence than beliefs about the pandemic (e.g., its origins and one's perceived susceptibility to infection). COVID-19-related measures of these three individual differences were each significantly associated with adherence even after controlling for demographics and pandemic beliefs although beliefs about the severity of the virus and the benefits of containment measures also significantly related to adherence. Beliefs were associated with the individual difference measures and political orientation. Moral disengagement, the strongest individual difference predictor, was associated with lower support for each pandemic containment precaution (e.g., mask wearing). These results can be used to frame messages to increase adherence to public health measures.

The influence of cultural food security on cultural identity and well-being: a qualitative comparison between second-generation American and international students in the United States.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of cultural food insecurity on identity and well-being in second-generation American and international university students. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted from January-April 2020. Audio transcripts were analyzed using continuous and abductive thematic analysis. Students indicated that cultural foodways enhanced their well-being by facilitating their cultural/ethnic identity maintenance, connection, and expression. Conversely, cultural food insecurity diminished student well-being due to reduced cultural anchors, highlighting the importance of cultural food in this population. Universities that reduce cultural foodways barriers may mitigate cultural food insecurity for second-generation American and international university students. (100/100).

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A theory-driven tailored intervention developed in partnership with the community used evidence-based practices to (a) increase knowledge about colon cancer and screening and (b) assist patients in completing screenings. During the 16 months of delivery screening, patient navigators integrated into gastroenterology clinics met all goals, which included (a) enrolling an ethnically diverse group of participants ( N = 415) through inreach (clinic-referred patients who did not schedule appointments) and community outreach, (b) facilitating screening completions for 217 of the 358 (61%) patients identified as needing screening, and (c) obtaining satisfaction ratings from 89% of participants. A random sample ( N = 214) of nonnavigated patients matched on gender and age revealed no differences between navigated and nonnavigated patients on polyps detected. Navigated males (but not females) were significantly less likely than nonnavigated males to have either poor or only fair bowel preparation quality (odds ratio = .418, p = .020, 95% confidence interval [.197, .885]). Low-quality bowel preparation can lead to incomplete readings of the colon or cancelling a colonoscopy. This intervention demonstrates that evidence-based patient navigator programs are effective in increasing screening among a hard-to-reach population and improving bowel preparation quality for males.

Older adults' hemodynamic responses to an acute emotional stressor: short report.

UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Vascular and myocardial activation can each increase blood pressure responses to stressors, but vascular responses are uniquely associated with negative affect, pernicious coping processes, and cardiovascular risk. These hemodynamic correlates of coping in response to acute stressors have not been well characterized in older adults. METHODS: Adults 65 to 97 years of age (N = 74) either engaged in written disclosure about a distressing event (acute stressor) or wrote objectively about a neutral topic (control). Blood pressure, impedance cardiography, and affect measures were assessed at baseline and in response to writing. Moderating effects of age on affect, blood pressure, and vascular and myocardial responses to the acute stressor were tested using multiple linear regression models. RESULTS: Follow-up tests of Age × Writing Group interactions indicated that the expected effects of written disclosure on systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses were diminished with increasing age. Regardless of age, compared with neutral writing, written disclosure increased negative affect and vascular responses, but not myocardial responses. CONCLUSION: Blood pressure responses to an acute, emotionally evocative stressor were indistinguishable from blood pressure responses to a control condition among the eldest older adults in our sample. In contrast, characterizing the hemodynamic mechanisms of blood pressure responses revealed notable vascular effects of the acute, emotional stressor across a wide age range. Such characterization may be particularly useful for clarifying the psychophysiological pathways to older adults' cardiovascular health.

The impact that cultural food security has on identity and well-being in the second-generation U.S. American minority college students.

Food contributes to an individual's physical and mental well-being and expresses one's cultural identity through preparation, sharing, and consumption (i.e., foodways). Inadequate access to cultural foods can create cultural stress and affect one's identity and well-being. In particular, second-generation U.S. American student populations may have a higher risk for cultural stress due to being away from family, academic stress, environmental changes, and diminished financial stability to purchase cultural foods. Thus, an exploratory qualitative methodology was used to elicit information about second-generation U.S. Americans' food experiences to identify how cultural foods play a role in individual identity and how individual well-being is influenced by the presence or lack of cultural foods. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with second-generation American students at the University of Nevada, Reno, who self-identified as a cultural or ethnic minority. A standard thematic analysis was conducted. The authors identified that cultural food security influenced the ability to practice foodways, which tied Second-generation American students to their cultural identities. The absence of foodways led to anxiety and depression among students, amplifying the feelings of identity degradation. Second-generation American students discussed that the ability to practice their foodways improved multiple well-being components and led to feelings of happiness, decreased stress, warmth, better digestion, and a sense of belonging, comfort, and safety. College populations continue to grow and become more diverse, and with the increasing Second-generation American students, it is essential to improve the access and availability of cultural foods to improve their overall well-being. (245/250 words). Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12571-020-01140-w.

Identifying attentional deployment tactics in older adults' written narratives about emotionally upsetting events.

Essays about distressing events written by 58 older adults on three occasions (n = 174) were coded to identify how older adults responded when confronting an emotionally upsetting event. Participants limited the experience of negative emotion by transitioning from negative to positive aspects of the event within a writing session, and across sessions, switched writing topics and moved from writing about past events to current problems. The use of attentional deployment tactics was associated with lower negative affect. This study confirms results found in quantitative studies and uncovers new processes that promote emotion regulation.

Maintaining support in people with paralysis: what works?

Social support is a protective factor for well-being in the risk-and-resilience framework, yet people with paralysis report lower levels of support compared to people without paralysis. Rather than examine deficits, in this study, the authors conducted in-depth interviews with individuals who report high levels of social support to examine what sustains this protective factor. Because relationship equity affects social support, the authors also examined this. They selected participants who reported high levels of support from a survey sample of 299 U.S. adults experiencing some form of paralysis. Seventeen participants completed the in-depth interview. The importance of reciprocity, maintaining autonomy, and a positive outlook for sustaining support were themes identified in the content analysis. In their responses, people with high support emphasized that they do all they can to affect their environment positively, so that ideally, the only assistance that they cannot provide themselves is successfully obtained from others.

Social-ecological influences on interpersonal support in people with physical disability.

BACKGROUND: People with physical disability report lower amounts of emotional and informational social support compared with other populations but it is unclear how influences at the broader societal level impact support in this population. OBJECTIVE: To address this question, Berkman and Glass's social-ecological model was used to examine the influence of upstream factors on interpersonal support in people with physical disability. It was predicted that these factors would influence support even after controlling for the traditional measures linked to social support. METHODS: 331 adult participants with physical disability (43% female; mean age = 42.7; 88% White) completed an online cross-sectional survey measuring types and sources of social support, social integration, disability impact in social domains, environmental barriers, and relevant psychosocial variables such as depression. RESULTS: A hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that level of disability, perceived tangible support, social integration, depressive symptoms, environmental barriers, occupational independence, and having family or friends as primary support sources were significantly associated with perceived support at the final step (R(2) = .60, F(22, 255) = 17.68, p < .001). The social-ecological measures, environmental barriers and social integration, had the largest associations with interpersonal support. CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrate the importance of measuring distinct support constructs and how the broader social environment may matter more in interpersonal support perceptions for people with disability than typical measures studied in the literature. Improving environmental factors will help improve social support.

Usefulness of the food habits questionnaire in a worksite setting.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the validity and reliability of the 24-item Food Habits Questionnaire (FHQ) in a worksite setting. DESIGN: In a longitudinal design, subjects in a 9-month worksite intervention program completed the FHQ pre- and postintervention. A randomly selected subsample also completed 2 sets of 4-day food records. SETTING: Three locations within a multisite industrial equipment company. PARTICIPANTS: Subjects (N = 178) self-selected to participate in the program and completed the FHQ. Mean age was 40.7+/-10.6, 60% were male, and 82% were white, and there were 15 occupational categories. Thirty-two subjects completed 2 sets of 4-day food records. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To examine the validity and reliability of the FHQ total scale and subscales in a worksite setting with both men and women from varying socioeconomic levels. ANALYSIS: Cronbach a coefficient to estimate internal consistency for the total scale and the subscales, Pearson correlation coefficients to estimate test-retest reliabilities and criterion validity. RESULTS: For the 5 subscales, findings showed generally low internal consistency, moderate test-retest reliability, and low to moderate correlations with food record results. Psychometric properties for the total score of the FHQ included satisfactory internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The FHQ subscales did not perform well and need to be more fully developed. Therefore, the FHQ may best be used as a total scale score to indicate fat-related behaviors.