Roughly 1 to 4% of the population engages in self-harm. Superficial self-harm is reported by more young women, than young men. Appropriate responses from family, friends, and other important individuals are a key ingredient in facilitating recovery. Non-therapists, such as family, friends, and school personnel often wish to assist young women who self-harm, but the problem is complex and they are often unsure of how to respond. Current studies primarily focus on the clinical interventions for self-harm, while very few have investigated the perspectives of the individuals who self-harm. This study investigated the perspectives of young women who self-harm in terms of who and what they perceive as helpful when attempting to deal with and/or reduce their self-harming behaviors. Results revealed that participants perceive their friends as the most helpful group. The most preferred helping behaviors included the following: having someone acknowledge the severity of their distress; talking about self-harm with someone who is nonjudgmental and lets them verbalize their feelings; and knowing someone is available.

INTRODUCTION. Assessing the participation experiences of young people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities (SIDD) in recreational activities is imperative to ensure these activities provide youth with optimal opportunities to develop skills needed for adulthood. Currently, no instrument accessible to youth with SIDD is available to asses these experiences. The Participatory Experience Survey (PES) and the Setting Affordances Survey (SAS) were developed to meet this need. METHOD. The PES was developed with input from a panel of youth with SIDD while they were participating in a summer program. A draft was then presented to three groups of stakeholders: parents of youth with SIDD, service providers, and experts in intellectual disability and/or program planning. After making revisions based on stakeholder feedback, cognitive interviewing was conducted with eight youth ages 14 – 22 with SIDD. Next, to examine feasibility of the PES, the survey was given to 10 youth with SIDD. After finalizing a draft of the PES based on youth feedback, questions for the SAS were written to align with topics on the PES. Finally, a program evaluation was conducted that provided an additional feasibility evaluation of the PES and SAS. RESULTS. Of the 24 initial questions on the PES, stakeholder groups identified 15 questions needing revision and suggested 7 additional questions. Youth feedback during cognitive interviewing identified 13 questions needing revisions and 4 needing removal. Changes were made to address three issues: word choice, understanding of concept, and questions relating to others. Administering the PES directly following an activity was found to be feasible, however, the length was shortened from 31 to 15 questions to provide an appropriate administration time (<5 minutes). CONCLUSION. The PES and the SAS proved to be relevant, accessible and feasible ways to assess the individual experiences of youth with SIDD in recreational settings and the affordances, measured objectively, of those settings. Use of these two measures may help programs to include young people with SIDD during program evaluations, resulting in better-structured, more supportive programs.

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<p>We evaluated the comparability of influenza-related events self-reported by research participants and their outpatient medical records using data collected from the Hutterite Influenza Prevention Trial. We also explored the implications of using data on influenza symptoms from both data sources, independently and in combination, as predictors of laboratory-confirmed influenza. Self-report of influenza symptoms, physician-diagnosed otitis media and antibiotics prescribed at outpatient consultations was collected from trial participants. Similar data were also collected by fax requests for medical record information to the medical facilities. We found lower rates of self-reported prevalence for fever, sore throat, earache and otitis media and higher rates of antibiotic prescriptions compared to the medical records. Total agreements between self-report and medical report of symptoms varied between 61% and 88%. Negative agreement was considerably higher than positive agreement for each symptom, except cough. Self report of otitis media was a very specific measure (93%), but had lower sensitivity (47%). Positive predictive value was moderate at 64% but negative predictive value was good at 86%. Self-reported antibiotic prescription was a highly sensitive measure (98%), but had low specificity (50%). Positive predictive value was high at 91% but negative predictive value was modest at 65%. Fever (on its own) and combined with cough and/or sore throat were highly correlated with laboratory-confirmed influenza for all data sources. The ILI surveillance definition of fever and sore throat, based on combined symptoms by both medical records and self report, was the best predictor laboratory confirmed influenza.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Physical activity improves health while combating the obesity epidemic. However, quantifying physical activity through self-report questionnaires or objective measures can provide varying results. The purposes of these studies were to determine if time, body mass index, or treatment assignment could affect the validity of physical activity measurements. The data were part of a larger physical activity promotion study conducted at the Miriam Hospital/Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island and in communities in Southeastern Massachusetts from 2002 to 2005. In this trial, 280 women, with a mean age of 47.1 years, were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: Choose to Move (n=93), Jumpstart (n=95) and Wellness (n=92). A randomly selected sub sample of participants simultaneously wore an ActiGraph accelerometer and completed a 3-Day Physical Activity Recall questionnaire at baseline, 3 months and 12 months. Body mass index and treatment assignment were also used in-group comparisons. The results indicated that all components of time, BMI and treatment assignment influenced the accuracy of self-reported measurements when compared to objective accelerometer data. Additional research is essential to uncover the independent aspects considered influential to these physical activity measurements to enhance study design and participant outcomes in future trials. / Kinesiology

Excessive alcohol consumption is a widespread concern among many college campuses. Most of the data on the prevalence and adverse consequences associated with college drinking are gathered from self-report surveys, which require respondents to have a knowledge of standard drink sizes. Unfortunately, the reliability and validity of these data are questionable because college students are typically unable to define or pour standard drinks. Efforts to improve college students’ self-reported alcohol consumption are warranted. Some researchers suggest that we can improve self-reports of alcohol consumption by providing college students with feedback on the accuracy of their standard drink free-pours (White et al., 2005). However, the evidence supporting the use of feedback to improve the validity of self-report is limited by aggregate data, lack of repeated measures, evaluation of only one type of beer, and no evaluation of the effects of feedback on observable behavior (e.g., free-pour). The current study replicated White et al. (2005) using a single-case design and repeated measures to examine the effects of feedback on college students’ self-report as well as their free-pours. Results showed feedback improved the accuracy of college students’ free-pours of standard servings of beer containing 5% alcohol by volume (ABV); however, this skill did not generalize to pouring standard servings of a higher ABV (8%) beer. Unlike White et al. (2005), the feedback had little effect on college students’ self-reported alcohol consumption. Future researchers should use a similar single-case design to evaluate if feedback on various types of alcohol (such as beer, wine, and liquor) systematically affects college students’ self-reports. If so, this feedback could potentially be used as a method to improve the reliability or validity of college students’ self-reported alcohol consumption, and potentially lead to more accurate evaluations of alcohol reduction interventions.

Stereotype threat is the threat of confirming a negative stereotype about a group with which a person identifies. Researchers have found that stereotype threat can result in underperformance in multiple domains, shifts in social behavior, and shifts in assessed implicit attitudes, the likelihood of which increases as an individual's concern about the domain of interest increases. According to theory, this threat can be "alleviated",thereby diminishing or eliminating its impact. In this project, over the course of two experiments, the impact of stereotype threat and stereotype threat-alleviation on explicit self-report measures are examined. In experiment one, white college student participants were exposed (or not) to an on-line task intended to elicit race-based stereotype threat. Differences in reporting style (i.e., bias) between the two groups on self-reported measures of race-related attitudes were examined. It was hypothesized that the group exposed to stereotype threat would endorse lower racism and lower stereotypicality (i.e., stereotypic "White" behaviors, attitudes, adjectives, and beliefs). The data provided only partial support for the hypothesis - the threat group reported significantly less stereotypicality than the non threat group. However, the groups were not statistically different on measures of racism or race and social policy. In experiment two, again examining white college students who participated on-line, a stereotype threat-alleviation task was added, and whether this diminished or removed bias was examined. It was hypothesized the threat group would endorse lower stereotypicality and racism than the non threat group and the group receiving the threat alleviation task. The findings from study one did not replicate in study two. Instead, contrary to predictions, across measures of racism and stereotypicality, it was the non threat group that consistently showed the lowest scores. Potential explanations for these findings are offered, including the possibility of having eliciting stereotype threat, cognitive dissonance, or both for the threat and non threat groups via their filler task. Finally, implications for assessing, broaching, and reducing stereotype threat in clinical and research applications are also discussed. / Ph. D.