British journal of health psychology
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Br J Health Psychol · Nov 2006
An electronic diary assessment of the effects of distraction and attentional focusing on pain intensity in chronic low back pain patients.
The present study examined the effects of a manipulation of attention to pain (i.e. attentional focusing vs. distraction) on pain intensity in daily life of patients with chronic low back pain. It was hypothesized that attentional focusing would lead to decreased pain intensity in high pain fearful individuals, whereas distraction from pain would be associated with decreased pain intensity in low pain fearful individuals. ⋯ A manipulation of attention to pain in daily life of patients with chronic low back pain proved difficult to accomplish. As the manipulation check was generally unsuccessful, no clear inferences about the underlying theory can be made. Future research within the field of pain treatments (e.g. in vivo exposure) might benefit greatly from electronic diary assessments studies.
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Br J Health Psychol · Sep 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialA validity and reliability study of the coping self-efficacy scale.
Investigate the psychometric characteristics of the coping self-efficacy (CSE) scale, a 26-item measure of one's confidence in performing coping behaviors when faced with life challenges. ⋯ The CSE scale provides a measure of a person's perceived ability to cope effectively with life challenges, as well as a way to assess changes in CSE over time in intervention research.
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Br J Health Psychol · Sep 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialAugmenting the theory of planned behaviour with the prototype/willingness model: predictive validity of actor versus abstainer prototypes for adolescents' health-protective and health-risk intentions.
The present research tested: (a) whether prototype perceptions and descriptive norms from the prototype/willingness model (PWM; Gibbons, Gerrard, Blanton, & Russell, 1998) enhance the prediction of adolescents' intentions to engage in health-protective and health-risk behaviours after variables from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) and past behaviour have been taken into account and (b) whether images of the type of person who engages in a health behaviour (actor prototypes) and images of the type of person who does not engage in a health behaviour (abstainer prototypes) have equivalent predictive validity. ⋯ The present research suggests that variables from the PWM, especially prototype similarity, enhance the predictive validity of the TPB. The findings also provide new evidence that acquiring the characteristics of both health and risk images may be goals among adolescents and suggest that both healthy and risky prototypes constitute useful cognitive targets for interventions.
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Br J Health Psychol · Sep 2006
Towards an idiothetic understanding of the role of social problem solving in daily event, mood and health experiences: a prospective daily diary approach.
Utilising D'Zurilla's (1986, 1990) transactional social problem solving model as the theoretical framework, the present study sought to examine the dynamics of the social problem solving process in relation to intraindividual experiences of events, mood, and physical health in daily life. ⋯ The data clarify the importance of social problem solving to within-person daily event, mood, and health experiences. The implications of these findings for contemporary transactional social problem solving models are discussed.
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Br J Health Psychol · May 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized controlled trial of smoking cessation for pregnant women to test the effect of a transtheoretical model-based intervention on movement in stage and interaction with baseline stage.
To examine whether, as predicted by the transtheoretical model (TTM), stage-matched interventions will be more effective than stage-mismatched interventions. ⋯ The TTM-based intervention was more effective in stage movement, but this could be due to its greater intensity. The failure to confirm that stage-matching was important casts doubt on the validity of the TTM in explaining smoking cessation behaviour in pregnancy.