Biomedical subjects

L Frazier

Publications and source records attributed to L Frazier.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Psychometric testing of the adolescent version of the Cook-Medley hostility scale.

Hostility, a phenomenon that has been linked to cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, is often measured by the Cook-Medley hostility (Ho) scale. Although there is an adolescent version of the Ho scale, it has had little testing with only Anglo-American samples. This pilot study tested the reliability and validity of the adolescent version of the Ho scale with a multiethnic sample of adolescents. Sixty adolescents participated. Reliability was measured using Chronbach's alpha. The Ho scale was correlated with the Speilberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (1988) scales to determine concurrent validity. A factor analysis assessed construct validity; content validity was assessed by analyzing tape-recorded descriptions of a circumstance that provoked anger, as remembered by each adolescent. Internal consistency reliability was .75. The hostility measure was most highly correlated with anger expression (r = .62, p = .000) and trait anger (r = .50, p = .000). The factor analysis generated three factors (suspicious alienation, cynical aggression and justified mistrust), that accounted for 34.5% of the variance. The content analysis resulted in five anger-provoking themes: aggression, unfulfilled personal expectations, mistrust/lying, criticism of effort, and rejection. The majority of items in the scale (74%) were related to one of the themes.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Object recognition by component features: are there age differences.

This study extended aspects of Biederman's (1987) recognition-by-components (RBC) theory to the analysis of age differences in the recognition of incomplete visually-presented objects. RBC theory predicts that objects are recognizable or recoverable under conditions of fragmentation if a sufficient amount of essential structural information remains available. Objects are rendered nonrecoverable by the omission or obstruction of essential structural features at vertices and areas of concavity. Fifteen young adults and 15 older adults participated in a study of the effects of amount (25%, 45%, 65%) and type of fragmentation (recoverable, nonrecoverable) on object naming. Age-related declines in recognizing incomplete objects were associated with the amount of fragmentation, but type of fragmentation did not affect the performance of older adults. For the young adults, accuracy of performance was affected by both amount and type of fragmentation, consistent with Biederman's RBC theory. These results were interpreted as suggesting that age-related declines in perceptual closure performance have to do with non-structural factors such as the ability to inferentially augment degraded or missing visual information.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Social influences, social norms, social support, and smoking behavior among adolescent workers.

PURPOSE: To examine the relationships between worksite interpersonal influences and smoking and quitting behavior among adolescent workers. DESIGN: The cross-sectional survey assessed factors influencing tobacco use behavior. SETTING: During the fall of 1998, data were collected from 10 grocery stores in Massachusetts that were owned and managed by the same company. SUBJECTS: Eligible participants included 474 working adolescents ages 15 to 18. Eighty-three percent of workers (n = 379) completed the survey. MEASURES: The self-report questionnaire assessed social influences, social norms, social support, friendship networks, stage of smoking and quitting behavior, employment patterns, and demographic factors. RESULTS: Thirty-five percent of respondents were never smokers, 21% experimental, 5% occasional, 18% regular, and 23% former smokers. Using analysis of variance (ANOVA), results indicate that regular smokers were 30% more likely than experimental or occasional smokers to report coworker encouragement to quit (p = .0002). Compared with regular smokers, never smokers were 15% more likely to report greater nonacceptability of smoking (p = .01). chi 2 tests of association revealed no differences in friendship networks by stage of smoking. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide evidence for the need to further explore social factors inside and outside the work environment that influence smoking and quitting behavior among working teens. Interpretations of the data are limited because of cross-sectional and self-report data collection methods used in one segment of the retail sector.

Adolescent↗