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The purpose of this study was to examine the associations among self-efficacy, perceived support, and physical activity in middle-aged and older married couples. A total of 116 middle-aged and older couples (M = 58.86 years, SD = 7.16, range 50-74) participated in the study. A dyadic approach to path modeling was taken. The final model indicated that for both husbands and wives, one's own self-efficacy was directly related to physical activity. In addition, husband self-efficacy was positively related to wive physical activity and indirectly related to wife physical activity through wife self-efficacy. Wife self-efficacy was indirectly related to husband physical activity via the level of husband perceived support. These results provide evidence for the importance of incorporating spousal characteristics in addition to individual characteristics when investigating physical activity during middle and later married life., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)

Social support and functional ability are related to a number of outcomes in later life among African Americans, including cognitive performance. This study examined how providing and receiving social support was related to fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities among aging African American adults after accounting for functional limitations, age, education, sex, income, and self-reported health. Data from 602 African American adults (M = 69.08, SD = 9.74; 25% male) were analyzed using latent variable modeling. Fluid ability was a second-order factor indicated by measures that assessed verbal memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and inductive reasoning. Crystallized ability was a first-order factor indicated by three measures that assessed vocabulary (Shipley Verbal Meaning Test and parts A and B of the ETS Vocabulary Test). Results indicated that the receipt of social support was negatively related to both fluid and crystallized abilities, while the provision of support was positively related to fluid and crystallized ability. Follow-up tests found that the receipt of support was more strongly related to fluid ability than crystallized ability. There was no significant difference regarding the relationship of provision of support with fluid ability compared to crystallized ability. Results discuss the importance of considering the social context of older adults when examining cognitive ability.

This study tests the associations of self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, perceived barriers, self-regulatory behaviors and social support with physical activity. Data from 116 married community-dwelling middle-aged and young-old couples (M = 58.86 years, SD = 7.16, range = 50 to 75) were collected via mail-in survey. The model indicated that self-efficacy was directly and indirectly related to physical activity through outcome expectancies, perceived barriers and self-regulatory behaviors. The results clarify the associations among the social cognitive constructs and physical activity, and suggest that interventions targeting multiple social cognitive constructs could increase the activity levels of middle-aged and young-old adults.

Introduction: Little research documents the experience of nurses caring for patients with COVID‐19 in the United States. This article explores the experience of nurses providing direct care to COVID‐19 patients to understand the working conditions and emotional impact of working in this pandemic on nurses. Methods: Data were gathered through an online survey distributed via snowball sampling in July 2020. The survey included an open‐ended question asking nurses to describe a personal experience providing care to a COVID‐19 patient. Researchers analyzed 118 responses using content analysis. Results: The experience of nurses providing care to patients with COVID‐19 was summarized into six themes: (1) feeling overwhelmed with the quantity of work (33.1%), (2) patient death (30.5%), (3) helplessness (23.7%), (4) absence of patient family presence and need for additional support (22.9%), (5) personal protective equipment (PPE) concerns regarding safety and how PPE can impair the nursing role (20.3%), and (6) lack of preparedness for the pandemic (16.9%). Conclusions: These findings suggest working directly with COVID‐19 patients is a significant psychological strain on nurses. Adequate personal and institutional support for nurses is needed to prevent and treat mental distress from working under these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Staff and equipment shortages and an easily transmissible virus make working in the COVID-19 pandemic demanding physically and psychologically. Nurses on the frontlines are particularly vulnerable to the adversity of working under these conditions, particularly with regard to mental health. Thus, understanding risk and protective factors for this vulnerable and essential group is critical for identifying potential targets of interventions. We had two aims for the current study: (a) to examine work functioning and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress (PTSD) among nurses who did and did not care for patients with COVID-19; and (b) to determine if resilience and social support moderate these relationships. Methods: For three weeks in July 2020, nurses across the United States were invited to participate in an online survey collecting data on demographics, resilience, social support, and screening measures of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and distracted practice. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression for each outcome measure. Conclusions: Our findings support a growing body of research reporting that nurses are experiencing mental health sequelae during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those providing direct care to patients with the virus. We found that compared to nurses who did not care for patients with COVID-19, those who did reported increased symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety. A novel contribution is our finding that nurses providing direct COVID-19 care also experienced increased levels of distracted practice, a behavioral measure of distraction linking to a potential impact on patient care. We also found that resilience and social support acted as moderators of some of these relationships. Fostering resilience and social support may help buffer the effects of providing care to patients with COVID-19 and could potentially decrease nurse vulnerability to developing psychological symptoms and impairment on the job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social support and functional ability are related to a number of outcomes in later life among African Americans, including cognitive performance. This study examined how providing and receiving social support was related to fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities among aging African American adults after accounting for functional limitations, age, education, sex, income, and self-reported health. Data from 602 African American adults (M = 69.08,SD = 9.74; 25% male) were analyzed using latent variable modeling. Fluid ability was a second-order factor indicated by measures that assessed verbal memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and inductive reasoning. Crystallized ability was a first-order factor indicated by three measures that assessed vocabulary (Shipley Verbal Meaning Test and parts A and B of the ETS Vocabulary Test). Results indicated that the receipt of social support was negatively related to both fluid and crystallized abilities, while the provision of support was positively related to fluid and crystallized ability. Follow-up tests found that the receipt of support was more strongly related to fluid ability than crystallized ability. There was no significant difference regarding the relationship of provision of support with fluid ability compared to crystallized ability. Results discuss the importance of considering the social context of older adults when examining cognitive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]