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Evaluated college women enrolled in a strength training class before and after completion of the class, using a combination of physical fitness measures, to determine the relationship between strength training and body image. Strength training generally did not substantially change participants' weight, percentage of fat, or circumferences. Most women felt more toned up, better about themselves, more confident, healthier, and more positive about their body at the end of class. (SM)

Shows how one can combine a large-scale planned variation experimental design and multilevel analysis to address research questions that go beyond the issue of overall treatment effectiveness. Uses data from a simulated field experiment to describe the multilevel models that can be used. (SLD)

Describes procedures that can be used to summarize the effect of schools when interactions between school practice and student background exist. Applies these procedures to a fairly realistic school effects dataset. Highlights the importance of considering differential school effectiveness rather than using a single quantitative indicator. (SLD)

Uses data from an evaluation of an alternative teacher certification program to illustrate the value and use of multilevel models to examine site-to-site outcome differences data from multisite evaluations, showing how a traditional analysis approach can overlook effective interventions and miss important links between program implementation and outcomes. (Author/SLD)

Cultural stereotypes that equate aging with decreased competence and increased forgetfulness have persisted for decades. Stereotype threat (ST) refers to the psychological discomfort people experience when confronted by a negative, self-relevant stereotype in a situation where their behavior could be construed as confirming that belief. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of ST on memory performance in older adults over 24 months. The ST levels on average significantly declined, or improved in the memory training, but not the health training group. Although not significant at the.01 level, the bivariate correlation indicated that change in ST was moderately related to change in verbal memory, suggesting the possibility that improvements (or reductions) in ST may be related to increases in verbal memory scores. We discovered that the unique contribution of ST into the memory performance of healthy older adults offers a possible malleable trait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a source of worry for many, but older adults have been identified as more vulnerable to serious cases and may therefore feel more concerned about the virus. We assessed whether COVID-19 worry was related to indicators of mental health and preparedness for future care, in an adult lifespan sample. An online study (n = 485; age 18–82, M = 49.31, SD = 15.39) included measures of COVID-19 worry, depression, general anxiety, health anxiety, hostile and benevolent ageism, preparedness for future care, and demographic information. Age and living alone were positively associated with greater COVID-19 worry, as were health anxiety, general anxiety, benevolent ageism, and preparedness for future care needs via gathering information. A significant interaction indicated that among individuals reporting lower health anxiety, greater preference for gathering information was positively associated with greater COVID-19 worry; however, for individuals having high health anxiety, gathering information about future care was not related to COVID-19 worry, as their COVID-19 worry levels were moderately high. Older age was associated with greater COVID-19 worry, perhaps in response to the much publicized greater risk for negative outcomes in this population. In spite of this specific concern, indicators of older adults' continued mental health emerged. Preparedness for future care is also highlighted, as well as clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) disproportionately affects Mexican Americans, however, reasons underlying this health disparity remain unknown. Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a risk factor for AD and may contribute to AD pathogenesis. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between T2D and AD blood biomarkers among Mexican Americans and non‐Hispanic Whites. Methods: This study analyzed baseline data from the Health and Aging Brain Study: Health Disparities (HABS‐HD) that investigated AD differences among Mexican Americans and non‐Hispanic White. HABS‐AD participants were excluded from this study if they had missing data or were outliers (z‐scores >|4|) on a given AD biomarker (N = 1,552 for Aβ42/40 ratio, 1,570 for t‐tau, and 1,553 for NfL). AD biomarkers included plasma Aβ42/42 ratio, total tau (t‐tau), and neurofilament light (NfL) analyzed using Simoa. Predictors were blood glucose, HbA1c, and T2D diagnosis. Data were analyzed with regression analyses controlling for covariates (e.g., demographics, smoking, BMI, health status, diseases, cognition) and treating missing predictor data using Bayesian MCMC estimation. Results: Mexican Americans differed significantly from non‐Hispanic Whites in age (66.6±8.7 vs. 69.5±8.6), sex (64.9% female vs. 55.1%), education (9.5±4.6 vs. 15.6±2.5), blood glucose (113.5±36.6 vs. 99.2±17.0), HbA1c (6.33±1.4 vs. 5.51±0.6), T2D diagnosis (35.3% vs. 11.1%), Aβ42/40 ratio (.051±.012 vs..047±.011), t‐tau (2.56±.95 vs. 2.33±.90), and NfL (16.3±9.5 vs. 20.3±10.3). The models with the covariates and predictors accounted for 6% (p<.001), 15% (p<.001), and 36% (p<.001) of the variation in Aβ42/40 ratio, t‐tau, and NfL, respectively. Blood glucose, HbA1c, and T2D diagnosis were not related to Aβ42/40 ratio and t‐tau but explained 3.7% of the variation in NfL (p<.001). Among non‐Hispanic Whites, blood glucose, HbA1c, and T2D diagnosis were negatively (b = ‐0.09, p<.01, β = ‐0.26), not (b = 0.34, p =.71, β = 0.04), and positively (b = 3.32, p<.01, β = 0.33) associated with NfL, respectively. In contrast, blood glucose and T2D diagnosis were not, while HbA1c was positively (b = 2.31, p<.001, β = 0.26), associated with NfL among Mexican Americans. Conclusion: Blood glucose, HbA1c, and T2D may contribute to differences in NfL levels, but not Aβ42/40 ratio and t‐tau, in an ethnicity‐specific manner. Future studies are needed to corroborate our findings in longitudinal cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In intervention studies having multiple outcomes, researchers often use a series of univariate tests (e.g., ANOVAs) to assess group mean differences. Previous research found that this approach properly controls Type I error and generally provides greater power compared to MANOVA, especially under realistic effect size and correlation combinations. However, when group differences are assessed for a specific outcome, these procedures are strictly univariate and do not consider the outcome correlations, which may be problematic with missing outcome data. Linear mixed or multivariate multilevel models (MVMMs), implemented with maximum likelihood estimation, present an alternative analysis option where outcome correlations are taken into account when specific group mean differences are estimated. In this study, we use simulation methods to compare the performance of separate independent samples t tests estimated with ordinary least squares and analogous t tests from MVMMs to assess two-group mean differences with multiple outcomes under small sample and missingness conditions. Study results indicated that a MVMM implemented with restricted maximum likelihood estimation combined with the Kenward–Roger correction had the best performance. Therefore, for intervention studies with small N and normally distributed multivariate outcomes, the Kenward–Roger procedure is recommended over traditional methods and conventional MVMM analyses, particularly with incomplete data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]