This study examines how civilian workers managed stress at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, after the 1991 Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) selected the post for closure. The post shut down operations in September 1995, two years ahead of the schedule mandated by related legislation. After the closure announcement in April 1991, a number of events further compounded the problem of base closure. First, there was a deep recession in New England. Second, general downsizing of the federal government and of the Department of Defense, in particular, severely decreased potential job opportunities for many workers. These events created a climate of stress at Fort Devens. At the same time closure was announced, Fort Devens made available to all civilian employees the opportunity to attend a lifestyle management course called Fit to Win, the purpose of which was not stress management but better fitness through exercise and proper nutrition. This study examines how employees coped with the stress of losing their jobs at Fort Devens, and to what degree the Fit to Win program was an effective tool in helping them manage their stress. Qualitative research methods were used. A case study with in-depth interviewing was the primary mode of inquiry. The study was composed of a purposeful sample of six civilian Fort Devens employees who also attended the Fit to Win course of instruction. In addition to taped and transcribed interviews, an interviewer's journal was also used to conduct the research. The findings suggest that Fit to Win is an effective lifestyle management program. All of the participants thought the course content was sound and the results were worthwhile. Those individuals who fully engaged in the program, theoretically and in application, reaped the greatest rewards. The findings also suggest that Fit to Win has varied impact on participants: temporary, permanent, and no change. Additionally, the findings suggest that a lifestyle management program comprised of exercise and nutritional guidance can effectively help individuals to cope with stress. Furthermore, the findings suggest that Fit to Win education can be a vehicle for successful transition from stress management to lifestyle management, or improved wellness.

Adolescents exposed to violence and life threat often experience symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One would think that adolescent males are exposed to more violence and therefore would demonstrate higher rates of PTSD, however, higher rates of PTSD and distress symptoms have been found in females. Rates of exposure, psychological factors and cognitive style may mediate the experience of violence in children and adolescents. Attention to these variables might help to clarify whether there is a difference across sex in the experience of PTSD. This study examined a sample of male and female adolescents who reported exposure to community violence, in order to determine whether the males in the sample report more exposure to violence and less PTSD symptomatology, and to explore the contribution of coping strategies, cognitive developmental style, and type of victimization to differential experience of PTSD symptoms. Results indicate that male adolescents may not experience greater exposure to violence, and they meet criteria for PTSD less often than female adolescents. Differences across sex in coping strategies appear to be related to this phenomenon. The data failed to support the idea that differential experience of sexual victimization across sex is related to the difference in PTSD diagnostic status; however, this area deserves further study. Support for a relationship between cognitive style and sex as a factor in differential experience of PTSD was neither supported nor invalidated. Initial data indicate a range of cognitive styles. more sophisticated research regarding trauma recovery process is required to further explore these phenomena.

Interpersonal relationships are among the most important contributors to health and well-being. This dissertation investigates how and why relationships confer such benefits and proposes that relationships function as dynamic regulatory systems that enable people to cope effectively with challenging situations and pursue important goals. Across five Chapters, this work reveals the role of relationships in scaffolding effective individual self-regulation, dyadic coregulation (how partners dynamically modulate each other’s responses and regulate as a unit), and developmental regulation (adaptation to age-related challenges across the lifespan), particularly in the context of social support interactions. Chapter 1 introduces past research on the importance of social relationships, summarizes the rationale for focusing on social support interactions as a key context in which interpersonal regulation occurs, and presents an overview of the research and methods discussed in this dissertation. Chapter 2 investigates the role of social support in promoting effective self-regulation by conceptualizing, validating, and testing a new theoretical construct, Regulatory Effectiveness of Social Support (RES). RES proposes that recipients benefit from social support to the extent that it addresses their motivations to understand and manage their situation. In eight studies and a meta-analysis, this chapter reveals that receiving social support higher on RES predicts downstream outcomes that are important for effective self-regulation. Chapter 3 examines how social support interactions give rise to dyadic coregulation—dynamic coupling of partners’ physiological states. Results from this chapter demonstrate that social support interactions may be a context in which such coregulation is especially likely to occur, in order to help partners return to an equilibrium of responding, and underscore the importance of considering how dyads regulate as a single, interdependent unit. Chapter 4 presents preliminary evidence for how coregulation among older couples might influence developmental regulation. This chapter shows how between-dyad differences in coregulation processes in turn predict individual self-regulation processes in the face of a stressor. Chapter 5 synthesizes findings across chapters and highlights new avenues for future research. Overall, these findings suggests important self- and coregulatory implications of social support interactions, which may be a crucial mechanism through which interpersonal relationships influence health and well-being over time.

The transition to college is marked by poorer eating behaviors. The Theory of planned behavior (TPB) represents a promising tool for predicting eating behaviors through the examination of attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and intention (INT). Despite prior application of the TPB, there exist several key methodological issues in the literature addressing eating behaviors. The present study utilized an enhanced dietary assessment methodology, the ASA24 dietary recall, and a short-term prospective design to assess the healthy eating behaviors of emerging adults in college. Dietary recalls of 68 participants (average age = 20.76 years; 70.6% female; 70.6% non-Hispanic, 48.5% White, 22.10% Black/African American, 13.20% Asian) were analyzed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010 scoring system. Results revealed that very few college students are meeting recommended dietary guidelines. Linear regression indicated that the indirect TPB variables (ATT, SN, and PBC) were related to INT (F[3,64] = 19.67, p < .001), although SN did not account for unique variance. Further, the direct TPB variables (INT and PBC) were related to HEI-2010 scores (F[2,65] = 4.00, p = .023); however, only PBC accounted for significant variance. Overall, findings suggest that more favorable attitudes relate to intention, but only perceived behavioral control consistently relates to actual healthy eating behavior.

Individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms often struggle with heightened sensitivity and arousal in response to perceived threats. Moreover, interpersonal dysfunction in GAD has become increasingly a focus of empirical investigation and treatment, given the possibility that responses to social interactions may contribute to GAD symptom maintenance. Laboratory studies and cross-sectional trait assessments of interpersonal problems comprise most of our understanding of interpersonal dysfunction in GAD. However, how GAD symptoms interact with perceived interpersonal threats to predict affective responses (increased arousal, lower valence) within daily life remains poorly understood. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine effects of in vivo social perceptions on state affect, and how GAD symptoms may moderate those relationships. Participants (N = 161) completed baseline measures of trait GAD and depression symptoms (as a covariate). Then participants completed 30 social interaction surveys over the subsequent 10 days. In each survey, participants rated interaction partners’ dominant, cold, and immoral behavior (each conceptualized as interpersonal threats) as well as their own arousal and valence in response to the behavior. Multilevel modeling analyses of between- and within-person effects revealed that mean perceptions of cold and immoral behavior predicted higher arousal and lower valence as hypothesized, whereas mean perceived dominance unexpectedly predicted only lower valence. All within-person fluctuations in social perceptions predicted both higher arousal and lower valence. Regarding the moderating effects, GAD symptoms unexpectedly buffered the effect of average perceived cold behavior on valence and strengthened the effect of average perceived immoral behavior on valence. These results provide a deeper understanding of how social perceptions may contribute to affect in naturalistic interactions, and add to the literature on interpersonal correlates of GAD symptoms.

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As a nonprofit located in a nonprofit-dense region in Roanoke, Virginia, Blue Ridge Literacy is among many other organizations competing for similar funding. This qualitative research project explores the reasons why donors give, why they support Blue Ridge Literacy, and what they think their future priorities for giving might be. By examining data from 15 qualitative interviews, this research is able to examine what BRL donors care about and offer suggestions for donor engagement strategies.

In the current climate in which it seems like popular media determines normality, it is not surprising to find that reality television, especially programs geared towards elective cosmetic surgery, are correlated with the decision making processes associated with actually pursuing cosmetic surgery. Research suggests that attitudes towards cosmetic surgery have changed dramatically due to the public's exposure to reality makeover shows; these shows have increased the popularity of such procedures and have highlighted and implied that cosmetic surgery is associated with little pain and risk. In this study, I sought to determine if attitudes toward cosmetic surgery vary as a function of ethnicity and gender, as well as examine the influence of the media on openness to pursuing cosmetic surgery. Examining how others view those who pursue elective cosmetic surgery and the variables associated with those who obtain cosmetic surgery will shed light on the processes associated with the decision to pursue the procedures.

Statement of purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore through in-depth interviewing the impact of childhood experiences on secondary teachers who were raised in alcoholic homes, and to raise the awareness of school administrators and secondary teachers about the characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoAs). This research examined how those experiences influenced teachers' feeling of self, their interpersonal relationships, and their lives in the school workplace. The process. Thirty-three teacher volunteers were drawn from three large secondary schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. All participants were asked to be interviewed about their childhood experiences, supply family background data, take an Attitude Audit Questionnaire, and a Gregorc Style Delineator. All participants' names were coded to protect the rights and welfare of the volunteers. Their principals were asked to identify which teachers on their staff were the most controlling, which teachers viewed the world in terms of black or white, who were the most sensitive to criticism, the most isolated, the most responsible, and who most desperately want to please. The findings. Of the thirty-three volunteers, twenty-six teachers self-disclosed in their interviews that they had grown up in a home where there was at least one parent who was a problem drinker. Those ACoAs were affected by their childhood experiences and continue to use past survival tactics in their adult lives. Data suggests that these adults experience problems in interpersonal relationships with their peers and their supervisors. These teachers did not respond in positive ways to their principals, appeared more serious than their colleagues, less trusting of their supervisors, and were more rigid in their attitudes and behaviors than non-ACoA teachers in the study. Conclusions. ACoA teachers work in the secondary schools of Massachusetts, and they exhibit similar symptoms and behaviors to ACoAs in other professions. Data suggests that a significant number of ACoAs may exist in every secondary school. If so, large numbers of ACoAs in a secondary school could negatively effect teacher morale in that school.