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Previous studies have suggested the impact of intervention fidelity on the management and prevention of chronic diseases; however, little is known about the effect of the contributing determinants (at multiple levels of influence) that can impact health-related interventions intending to improve the health status of Hispanic adolescents with overweight or obesity. The current study aimed to assess whether fidelity (i.e., dosage and quality of the program delivery), acculturation (i.e., orientation to the American culture, retention of Hispanic cultural values), and individual-level socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., income, education) predict changes in family processes (e.g., parent control), which in turn may affect adolescent health-related outcomes including body mass index (BMI), physical activity, dietary intake, and adolescents' health-related quality of life. A pathway analysis model was utilized to explore the study variables among 140 Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads randomized to Familias Unidas Health and Wellness (FUHW) intervention. Results indicated that fidelity was significantly associated with changes in parent-adolescent communication, parent monitoring, limit-setting, and control. Parents' education was associated with changes in parent limit-setting, and parent Hispanicism was associated with changes in parent limit-setting and discipline. The examination between family processes and adolescent health outcomes revealed that parents' higher discipline and improved communication with their adolescents were significantly associated with improved adolescents' quality of life, and parent control was positively associated with physical activity and negatively associated with BMI in adolescents. Our findings demonstrated the significant contribution of intervention fidelity and participants' characteristics in parenting strategies leading to adolescents' health outcomes to prevent obesity-related chronic diseases. Future research is needed to investigate the effect of environmental and organizational factors on the delivery of the intervention materials.

Background: There is an established link between depression and drug use among adolescents. This relationship holds true for Hispanic youth, for whom familial relationships are especially impactful toward health outcomes. Purpose: Our purpose was to examine the relationships between family functioning and adolescent and parent depressive symptoms, and the indirect effects of depressive symptoms on the relationship between family functioning and adolescent drug use. Methods: Participants were 231 Hispanic adolescents (52.9% female, M[subscript age] = 13.90 ± 1.37) and their parents (93.0% female, M[subscript age] = 43.24 ± 6.64) enrolled in an RCT. Data on depressive symptoms, drug use, and family functioning were collected and a latent variable was specified using four indicators of family functioning (positive parenting, monitoring, communication, and involvement). A structural equation model approach was utilized. Results: Youth family functioning predicted youths' depressive symptoms which predicted their own drug use. Youths' depressive symptoms mediated the relationship between youth family functioning and drug use. Discussion: Findings suggest that adolescents' perceptions of family functioning plays a role in preventing depressive symptoms and drug use among Hispanic youth. Translation to Health Education Practice: Teaching students of the role that family support and depressive symptoms play in the manifestation of drug use may be an effective approach to preventing drug use.

Objective: To examine a) whether college students' eating behaviors are different by students' sex and/or body mass index (BMI) categories and b) the correlations between college students' eating behaviors and the degree to which they rely on internal bodily signals for food intake. Participants: Undergraduate college students 18-24 years old at a public university located in South Florida. Methods: Eligible students answered questionnaires to examine interoception, intuitive eating, and eating behaviors including emotional eating, restrained eating, cognitive restraint, external eating, and uncontrolled eating. Pearson correlation and independent t test were used (significance: p < 0.05). Results: Females reported lower interoception, intuitive eating, and higher emotional eating than males. Students with lower BMI had higher intuitive eating and lower restrained eating. Interoception was positively correlated with intuitive eating and negatively correlated with emotional, uncontrolled, restrained, and external eating. Conclusion: College students who have a better connection with their bodily signals have healthier eating behaviors and lower BMI.

Background: Mood change, lack of self-regulation, and eating in the absence of hunger cues are exacerbating determinants in college weight gain; however, the association between these factors is not known. Purpose: This study aimed to examine the correlation between mood change, intuitive eating, and self-regulation of food intake among college students. Methods: This cross-over study included 60 undergraduate college students 19.8 ± 1.43 years old (62.1% females, 74.2% Latinx). Students had two visits, one week apart. Participants completed intuitive eating and mood questionnaires. Participants watched an emotional movie, then participated in a buffet style lunch calorie compensation trial. Food intake was measured using plate waste. Self-regulation was measured objectively using compensation indices (COMPX). Results: Self-regulation was significantly affected by both mood change and intuitive eating. Gender was found to significantly impact this model; however, Body Mass Index did not seem to have a significant effect. Discussion: College students who rely on physiological cues of hunger and satiety and are less affected by environmental elements, seem to be able to regulate their intake better, and maintain healthier weight. Translation to Health Education Practice: Teaching students to rely on bodily signals of hunger and satiety may be an effective approach to maintaining healthy weight.

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Background: Nursing faculty may have concerns about unfair advantages and inflated examination grades when students take an examination late. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare make-up examination scores with on-time examination scores to determine whether scores were higher in students who took an examination late. Methods: A descriptive, comparative study using retrospective examination scores from a large nursing program was analyzed. Late examination scores were compared with the student's individual on-time examination average and the class's average of on-time examination scores. Results: A total of 156 examinations were taken late. There were no statistically significant differences between students' late examination scores when compared with the student's on-time examinations or the class average of the examination. Conclusion: Students do not appear to gain an advantage when taking an examination late. Findings may assist faculty in developing policies for taking make-up examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing educational programs have been charged with increasing the diversity of the nursing workforce; however, this depends on having a diverse and qualified applicant pool to select from. To determine the effects of student losses over time on nursing program diversity. Descriptive longitudinal study. Progression of all students from a single university enrolled as pre-nursing majors from 2012 to 2016 (N = 2498) was tracked over seven key checkpoints during a seven-year time period. Slightly more than half of the students (57%) were lost prior to nursing program application, which occurred at the end of the sophomore year. Losses were higher for minority students (70%), those requiring remedial coursework (65%), and first-generation students (62%). Older students, those with a prior degree, and those who started in another major were more likely to persist through some, but not all, of the checkpoints. Pre-nursing program losses significantly decreased the diversity of the remaining nursing applicant pool, particularly for African American students. Losses were highest during the freshman level Anatomy and Physiology course. Nursing education programs need to develop early intervention programs to support diverse students during the critical pre-nursing period to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background It is not known if standard nursing actions are tailored to patient preferences for comfort measures during End of Life (EOL) care. Objectives Determine the effect of a brief teaching intervention on student care of EOL patients. Design Pre-test/post-test intervention design. Settings Two large public universities and one smaller private Catholic institution (all in the United States [U.S.]). Participants 471 nursing students attending class as part of their required nursing curriculum. Methods A previously developed aggressiveness of nursing care scale was modified to determine students' behavioral intentions for the care of the EOL patient before and after a standardized lecture. The lecture was designed to help students recognize that nursing care priorities for the EOL patient may need to be different than for other patients in order to provide the best quality of remaining life. Results Nursing students prior to the lecture had aggressiveness of care scores similar to those of experienced staff nurses, and were more likely to provide more aggressive care to younger patients without DNR orders than to older patients with a DNR order. Following the lecture, aggressiveness of nursing care scores decreased significantly for all EOL patients, and students reported similar behavioral intentions for all EOL patients, regardless of patient age or code status. Student age was marginally related to change in behavior following the lecture. Prior experience in caring for a dying patient or relative did not have a significant effect on aggressiveness of care scores before or after the lecture. Conclusions This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a brief teaching intervention to help student nurses take patient preferences and needs into consideration when selecting nursing interventions for the EOL patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current cyberinfrastructure is changing the way scientists and engineers interact and work using digital technologies. In particular, online experimentation systems are revolutionizing how scientists and engineers collect data, simulate physical behaviors, and perform experiments. This study explores the role of virtual, local and remote laboratories in supporting students' abilities to conduct experiments with dynamic systems and observe their frequency response. We compare three different technologies that afford students access to conduct experiments and perform computer simulations through local and remote laboratories. Our sample consisted of 57 students from three groups of the same course, offered in subsequent semesters. The results suggest that students increased their understanding of frequency response of dynamic systems with each of the learning tools. Similarly, students reported positive perceptions about the use of these tools, but they identified computer simulations as being easier to use. Although students' perceptions of the acquisition of conceptual knowledge through the different experiences varied significantly across experiments, results are inconclusive as to what specific tool--or sequence of tools they favored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the role of acculturation in preventing depressive symptoms among sexual minority youth. This study examined the impact of bidimensional acculturation (i.e. Americanism-adherence to mainstream cultural values and Hispanicism-adherence to heritage cultural values) on the trajectory of adolescent depressive symptoms and differences among Hispanic sexual minority youth (HSMY) and Hispanic non-SMY. We examined the trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms and parent and adolescent acculturation across 36-months and regressed the slope of the trajectory of depressive symptoms on the slope of the trajectory of parent and adolescent Hispanicism and Americanism among the overall sample ( N  = 456), HSMY ( n  = 85; 20%), and Hispanic non-SMY ( n  = 339; 80.0%). For the overall sample and Hispanic non-SMY, adolescents' own Hispanicism and Americanism and parent Americanism buffered adolescent depressive symptoms. There were no significant associations between adolescent or parent Hispanicism or Americanism and HSMY depressive symptoms, however, the effect sizes for HSMY were larger than those of the overall sample and Hispanic non-SMY, suggesting that the study was underpowered to detect statistical significance with the limited sample size. Americanism and Hispanicism may mitigate depressive symptoms among Hispanic youth, speaking to the importance of biculturalism in Hispanic families.

Health risk behaviors continue to disproportionately affect Hispanic youth. Despite the existence of successful family and school-based interventions, there is a need for developing and testing individually-based preventive interventions that are easily accessed and widely disseminated. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a prototype (proof of concept) for an individual-level mobile application (app), informed by Hispanic parents and adolescents, to prevent/reduce drug use and sexual risk behaviors among Hispanic youth. An iterative user-centered approach was used to inform the development of the app prototype via focus groups with 66 participants ( n = 46 adolescents, n = 20 parents). A coding team analyzed data from the focus groups and identified major themes. The coding team summarized interview data into sub-categories that yielded five intervention modules for Hispanic adolescents, three more than originally proposed (i.e., drug use and sexual risk behaviors): (1) effective communication, (2) depression, (3) sexual health, (4) drug use, and (5) mindfulness. A mobile application for health risk behaviors can be used as an additional preventive tool to decrease the existing behavioral health disparities among Hispanic youth. Incorporating a user-centered approach to inform development is important for including the needs and voices of this population.

Objective: Cancer- and cancer treatment-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is reported by many women with breast cancer (BC). Distress tolerance (DT) refers to both the perceived capacity and behavioral act of withstanding uncomfortable/aversive/negative emotional and/or physical experiences. Poor DT has been associated with worse cognitive performance, including executive dysfunction. Importantly, DT can be improved through psychological interventions. However, DT research in cancer has been limited. This study aimed to examine the relationship between DT and CRCI in women with BC., Method: Women with nonmetastatic BC ( n = 107, age ≥ 50 years) were recruited between 2016 and 2023, post BC surgery (54.2% lumpectomy and 38.3% mastectomy) but prior to adjuvant therapy, completed the Distress Tolerance Scale and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Scale, self-report measures of DT and CRCI, respectively. Hierarchical linear regression was used to test the associations between the DTS-Total Score (DTS-T) and CRCI on the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive subscales., Results: DTS-T was significantly associated with perceived cognitive impairment (CogPCI, p = .015), perceived cognitive abilities (CogPCA, p < .001), and quality of life impact (CogQOL, p = .010), after controlling for age and days since surgery. DTS-T explained 12%, 27%, and 12% of the variance in CogPCI, CogPCA, and CogQOL, respectively., Conclusion: Women with BC with greater ability to tolerate distress reported less CRCI, including less CogPCI, less CogQOL, and better CogPCA. Future directions should involve the use of objective measures of CRCI and longitudinal testing of its association with DT. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

We aimed to examine whether (a) parents' childhood family mealtime experiences (CFM) (e.g., mealtime communication-based stress) and parents' socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., education level) predict parents' health-related parenting strategies (e.g., discipline), (b) health-related parenting strategies for eating and physical activity predict youth's health-related outcomes (e.g., dietary intake), (c) parenting strategies mediate the relationship between CFM and youth outcomes. A path model was used to examine the above-mentioned relationships. Data were obtained from the baseline assessment of a randomized clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a family-based intervention to promote quality diet and increase physical activity. Participants were 280 Hispanic youth (52.1 % female, M age  = 13.01 ± 0.83) with unhealthy weight (M Body Mass Index %tile  = 94.55 ± 4.15) and their parents (88.2 % female, M age  = 41.87 ± 6.49). Results indicated that childhood mealtime communication-based stress and mealtime structure were positively associated with control. Appearance weight control was positively associated with monitoring, discipline, limit-setting, and reinforcement. Parental mealtime control had positive associations with discipline, control, and limit-setting. Emphasis on mother's weight was positively associated with reinforcement. We also found positive associations between parental monitoring and youth's physical QOL and between parental discipline and fruits and vegetables intake. No mediating effect was found. Findings demonstrated significant effects of parents' childhood experience on parenting strategies, which in turn was associated with the youths' health-related outcomes. These results suggest the intergenerational effects of parent's childhood experience on their youth's health-related outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This study aimed to 1) examine the relationship between dietary intake and cancer prevention nutrition recommendations among Hispanic families, 2) differences in daily dietary intake by acculturation category and nativity (US born vs non-US born) status. Baseline data was used from a randomized clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of an obesity preventive intervention in Hispanic youth. Participants were 280 Hispanic parents (11.8% males, 88.2% females, M age =41.87 ± 6.49; M Body Mass Index (BMI) =30.62 ± 5.68) and their adolescents (47.9% males, 52.1% females, M age =13.01 ± 0.83; M BMI Percentile =94.55 ± 4.15). Intake of added sugar, dairy, whole grains, and fruits/vegetables were obtained. Participants were categorized into four acculturation categories based on Berry's acculturation model: Marginalization, Integration, Separation, and Assimilation. Results indicated that sugar intake was significantly higher than the recommendations among all adolescents' cultural categories but not in parents. Among adolescents the consumption of whole grains was lower in integration and assimilation, dairy was lower in integration, separation, and assimilation, and fruits/vegetables was lower among marginalization, integration, and assimilation categories than the recommendations. Parents' daily intake of whole grains, dairy, and fruits/vegetables were significantly lower than the recommendations across all the acculturation categories. Participants did not meet the healthy recommendations for cancer prevention regardless of their acculturation and nativity status.

Energy compensation indices are commonly used to examine self-regulation of food intake in children. However, previous studies failed to consider children's ability to self-regulate under complete autonomy. This study examined self-regulation of food intake among young children and the effect of calorie manipulation on food/nutrient intake using an unlimited lunch buffet paradigm. Participants were 66 children (M age  = 6.14, SD = 1.15 years; 68.2% male; 89.4% Latinx; 59.1% overweight/obese [OV/OB]). Children participated in a crossover research trial, one week apart. Participants consumed 2 different types of preloads followed by an ad-libitum lunch during each trial. A compensation index (COMPX) was calculated to identify the level of self-regulation in food intake. Food/nutrient intake was compared between both sessions. Results indicated OV/OB children showed poorer self-regulation compared to healthy weight children (t = 2.19, p = 0.032; Hedges' g = 0.55). There were significant differences in food intake/selection between OV/OB and healthy weight groups. OV/OB children consumed a higher amount of calorie, fat, and cholesterol after the high energy preload compared to healthy weight children (d's range: 0.31-0.48). Our findings support differences between the amount of self-regulation between normal and OV/OB children as well as the items they select in order to compensate., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine self-regulation of food intake among college students., Design: Randomized cross-over study completed between September and November, 2019., Setting: A large public university, Florida International University in South Florida., Participants: A total of 60 undergraduate college students, mean age of 19.8 ± 1.43 years old, 62% female, 74% Hispanic, 76% White., Intervention(s): Participants attended 2 trials 1 week apart. During each visit, students were offered a preload drink (either 0 or 210 kcal) followed by a buffet-style lunch. Food intake was estimated using weights and pictures of the plates before and after eating and was compared between the 2 sessions., Main Outcome Measure(s): Self-regulation by calculating compensation indices (COMPX) and their correlation with students' body mass index (BMI)., Analysis: Intake differences were examined using Welch and t tests. Regression analysis was used to assess correlations., Results: Students exhibited the ability to calorie compensate when intake is manipulated with a mean COMPX of 95.57 ± 71.19. No score was perfect. There was a significant correlation between BMI and COMPX scores (F = 10.71, P < 0.001, r 2  = 0.292). Food choices differed between different BMI categories., Conclusions and Implications: Participants showed some degree of self-regulation, which suggests opportunities for creating effective interventions to improve health status and promote a more sustainable method to control consumption among college students., (Copyright © 2021 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)