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Physical activity during adolescence is associated with positive health outcomes, yet only 26% of US middle and high school students report daily physical activity. Moreover, the number of high school students playing a sport is declining, with the largest decline in football. One reason for this decline in playing football may be increased attention to the risk of head injury. For public health, the decline is alarming because football offers a physical activity opportunity for millions of young people every year. In response, efforts have been made to institute measures to enhance the safety of football. The objective of this topical review was to review these measures and the data supporting their effectiveness. We conducted a search of scientific literature supplemented by a web search to identify safety measures. We used the Indiana University library electronic database, PubMed, and web browser searches with specific search terms. In addition to peer-reviewed studies, we searched news stories and reports from sport-related organizations. We summarized the measures and evaluations of effectiveness and categorized the measures by type (game rules, practice guidelines, equipment innovations, strategic initiatives) and target age group (elementary/middle school, high school, college, professional). We found that attempts are being made to improve the safety of football at all levels. However, many measures lack scientific evidence to support their effectiveness. Therefore, researchers need to systematically evaluate safety measures. By implementing evidence-based interventions, we can balance the public health risk of playing football versus the public health risk of continued declines in participation.

From this article, the reader should be able to Identify top 20 fitness trends for Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Recognize individual and unique fitness trends represented within Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, Mexico, Spain, and the United States

Citrus greening disease is caused by the pathogenCandidatusLiberibacter asiaticus, which is transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid,Diaphorina citri. There is no curative treatment or significant prevention mechanism for this detrimental disease that causes continued economic losses from reduced citrus production. A high quality genome ofD. citriis being manually annotated to provide accurate gene models required to identify novel control targets and increase understanding of this pest. Here, we annotated genes involved in glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and trehaloneogenesis in theD. citrigenome, as these are core metabolic pathways and suppression could reduce this pest. Specifically, twenty-five genes were identified and annotated in the glycolysis and gluconeogenesis pathways and seven genes for the trehaloneogenesis pathway. Comparative analysis showed that the glycolysis genes inD. citriare highly conserved compared to orthologs in other insect systems, but copy numbers vary inD. citri.Expression levels of the annotated gene models were analyzed and several enzymes in the glycolysis pathway showed high expression in the thorax. This is consistent with the primary use of glucose by flight muscles located in the thorax. A few of the genes annotated inD. citrihave been targeted for gene knockdown as a proof of concept, for RNAi therapeutics. Thus, manual annotation of these core metabolic pathways provides accurate genomic foundations for developing gene-targeting therapeutics to reduceD. citri.

Agentic and communal goal orientations are widely used to predict career interests. However, the number of dimensions that underlie measures of goal orientations remains unclear. Across two studies, using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and bifactor confirmatory factor analysis, we found that communal goal orientation was unidimensional. However, agentic goal orientations comprised a single global agentic factor that represents a competence dimension plus two domain-specific factors: dominance and self-direction. Structural equation modeling indicated that gender differences in goal orientations, as well as the indirect effects of gender on career interest via goal orientations, were small. However, goal orientations exhibited sizeable direct effects on career interests, with agentic dominance goals the strongest predictor of organizational fit (Study 1 with 318 U.S. college students) and career interests (Study 2 with 789 U.S. MTurk workers). Future studies should consider the multidimensional structure of agentic goals and examine how dominance goals may help us better understand gender differences, social roles, and career preferences.

The purpose of this study is to identify profiles based on the reasons adults have for being physically active. A secondary purpose was to examine how profiles differ on motivational regulation and physical activity (PA). A total of 1275 (46.5 ± 16.8 years) participants were solicited from a hospital-affiliated wellness center, social media promotions, and a research volunteer registry. The Reasons to Exercise (REX-2) scale, International PA Questionnaire, Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire-3, and demographic questionnaire were utilized to assess variables of interest with a cross-sectional survey. Using SPSS Version 26, K-cluster analysis was used to identify profiles based on the reasons for exercise that individuals identified as important. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to assess profile differences followed by ANOVA. Four profiles were derived based on reason for exercise scores: a multi-reason positive ( N = 361), a multi-reason negative ( N = 232), an autonomous-focused ( N = 259), and a control-focused cluster ( N = 382) ( p < .001). These unique clusters differed significantly ( p < .001) from each other with respect to motivation to be active and PA. The multi-reason positive cluster engaged in higher levels of total moderate and vigorous PA minutes/week compared to the other clusters. Therefore, adult’s motivation for PA may be likely to be affected by a combination of different informal goals and valuing a number of goals that are both extrinsic/controlling (e.g., to look good) and autonomous/intrinsic (e.g., to feel good), may promote greater autonomous motivation regulation and greater PA levels than highly autonomous/intrinsic goals alone.

USA Football established five levels-of-contact to guide the intensity of high school football practices. The objective of this study was to examine head impact frequency and magnitude by levels-of-contact to determine which drills had the greatest head impact exposure. Our primary hypothesis was that there would be an incremental increase in season-long head impact exposure between levels-of-contact: air100g) head impacts were more frequently observed during live and thud drills. Level-of-contact influences cumulative head impact frequency and magnitude in high-school football, with players incurring frequent, high magnitude head impacts during live, thud, and control. It is important to consider level-of-contact to refine clinical exposure guidelines to minimize head impact burden in high-school football.

PurposeUSA Football established five levels of contact (LOC) to guide the intensity of high school football practices. However, it remains unclear whether head impact exposure differs by LOC. The purpose of this study was to examine head impact frequency and magnitude by LOC in the overall sample and three position groups.MethodsThis longitudinal observational study included 24 high school football players during all practices and games in the 2019 season. Players wore a sensor-installed mouthguard that monitored head impact frequency, peak linear acceleration (PLA), and rotational head acceleration (PRA). Practice/game drills were filmed and categorized into 5 LOCs (air, bags, control, thud, live), and head impact data were assigned into 5 LOCs. Player position was categorized into linemen, hybrid, and skill.ResultsA total of 6016 head impacts were recorded during 5 LOCs throughout the season. In the overall sample, total number of impacts, sum of PLA, and PRA per player increased in an incremental manner (air

The objective of the study was to examine the association between diffusion MRI techniques [diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation/dispersion density imaging (NODDI)] and brain-injury blood biomarker levels [Tau, neurofilament-light (NfL), glial-fibrillary-acidic-protein (GFAP)] in high-school football and cross-country runners at their baseline, aiming to detect cumulative neuronal damage from prior seasons. Twenty-five football players and 8 cross-country runners underwent MRI and blood biomarker measures during preseason data collection. The whole-brain, tract-based spatial statistics was conducted for six diffusion metrics: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial/radial diffusivity (AD, RD), neurite density index (NDI), and orientation dispersion index (ODI). Diffusion metrics and blood biomarker levels were compared between groups and associated within each group. The football group showed lower AD and MD than the cross-country group in various axonal tracts of the right hemisphere. Elevated ODI was observed in the football group in the right hemisphere of the corticospinal tract. Blood biomarker levels were consistent between groups except for elevated Tau levels in the cross-country group. Tau level was positively associated with MD and negatively associated with NDI in the corpus callosum of football players, but not in cross-country runners. Our data suggest that football players may develop axonal microstructural abnormality. Levels of MD and NDI in the corpus callosum were associated with serum Tau levels, highlighting the vulnerability of the corpus callosum against cumulative head impacts. Despite observing multimodal associations in some brain areas, neuroimaging and blood biomarkers may not strongly correlate to reflect the severity of brain damage.

Hemipterans include some of the most important insect pests of agricultural systems and vectors of plant pathogens. The vector, Diaphorina citri (Asian citrus psyllid) belonging to the Psylloidae superfamily, is the primary target of approaches to stop the spread of the pathogen Ca. Liberibacter asiaticus that causes Huanglongbing or citrus greening disease. High quality genomic resources enable rapid functional discovery that can target disease transmission and control. The previous psyllid genome (Diaci v1.1) available in NCBI is missing 25% of the single copy markers conserved in other Hemipterans. Manual genome curation helped to identify a significant number of genome anomalies including misassemblies and missing genes. We present an improved and highly contiguous de novo assembly based on PacBio long reads followed by Dovetail Chicago and Hi-C based scaffolding. The current assembly (Diaci v3) has 13 chromosomal length scaffolds with a genome size of 475 Mb. This is the first report of a chromosomal length assembly in the Hemiptera order according to our knowledge. Full-length cDNA transcripts were sequenced with PacBio Iso-Seq technology from diseased and healthy tissue at multiple life stages. Iso-Seq along with diverse Illumina RNA-Seq expression data were used to predict 19,049 protein-coding genes in psyllid using MAKER annotation pipeline. We also generated a genome independent transcriptome with a comprehensive catalog of all genes in the psyllid. Gene-targeting technologies like RNAi, antisense oligos and CRISPR require accurate annotation of genes. Lack of closely related and well characterized model organisms coupled with the diversity of insect genomes impacts the quality of predicted gene models. We used the improved genomic resources to create a high-quality manually curated gene set for developmental, structural and immune pathways. All resources are available on https://citrusgreening.org/, a portal for all omics resources for the citrus greening disease research community. The high quality ACP genome assembly, annotation based on transcriptomics evidence, manual curation of critical pathways and a genome independent de novo transcriptome will provide a foundation for comparative analysis among genomes of agricultural pests and vectors in the Hemiptera.

Objective To compare the relative ability of patient self-assessments and clinician assessments of functional limitations for predicting hospitalizations for older adults with left ventricular dysfunction. Study Design Latent growth model analyses used secondary data from a clinical drug study, the Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction. Self-report and clinician-report data of patients' functional limitations were collected at baseline, and 6 weeks, 12 months, and 24 months postbaseline to assess the effects of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor versus placebo. Latent growth model analyses were used to assess the relative effect of baseline ratings and changes in these 2 ratings of patient functional limitations over the initial 2 years of the study (ie, the drug study component) as potential predictors of the number of hospitalizations occurring over 3 subsequent years. Results Data from 1099 patients aged 65+ years were analyzed. Both baseline patient assessments and changes in patient assessments of functional limitations were significant predictors of the number of subsequent hospitalizations (β = 0.119 and 0.273, respectively). This was not the case for clinician assessments. Moreover, baseline patient and clinician assessments of the patient's functional limitations were correlated at 0.42, indicating only a modest relationship between the 2 assessments. Conclusions These results demonstrate the greater utility of patient self-report measures for predicting hospitalizations. Incorporating patient-reported outcomes into clinical practice will expand understanding of the effect of diseases. Assessing changes in patient reports yields important insights into those patients more likely to have multiple admissions for heart failure.

Little is known about the specific sources and types of support that assist patients in alleviating stress and achieving positive recovery outcomes after a cardiac event. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of illness-related stress, emotional and tangible support from a significant other, and informational support from a health care provider on physical and psychological recovery outcomes in cardiac patients 8 weeks after their cardiac event. The sample consists of 220 cardiac patients. Data analysis uses structural equation modeling. Final fit indices were as follows: χ2( df = 110) = 156.169, comparative fit index = .963, Tucker—Lewis index = .949, and root mean square error of approximation = .044 suggesting an acceptable model. Illness-related stress has direct effects on depression, physical recovery, and activity levels. Partner emotional support has a direct effect on depression. The findings provide direction for developing social support interventions aimed at improving recovery outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to gauge the impact of social embarrassment on caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. Two hypotheses were tested: First, social embarrassment adds a unique component of distress to caregivers of Alzheimer's patients, controlling for other factors known to cause depression; second, the negativity of the embarrassment varies according to the caregiver's race/ethnicity. Using data from the Alzheimer's Disease Demonstration Grants to States program ( N = 1,183), the caregiver's perceived depression was regressed on culturally situated variables and a set of covariates that included characteristics of both caregiver and care receiver. Results indicate that social embarrassment exerts a substantial effect on caregiver depression, but the effect does not vary meaningfully across cultural groups. In addition to social embarrassment, the health of the caregiver, the certainty of the Alzheimer's diagnosis, and the caregiver's perceived duty to care all uniquely contribute to the caregiver's level of depression.

This study examined whether a reciprocal relationship exists between measures of self-assessed global health and depressive symptoms, net of covariates that included chronic illness, functional disability, education, income, gender, race, and age. Analyses of five waves of data from the Rand version of the Health and Retirement Survey (N=7,475), using an autoregressive, cross-lagged panel design, indicated that self-assessed overall health had a modest but statistically significant and consistent effect on depressive symptoms. In contrast, the level of depressive symptoms had a statistically nonsignificant effect on self-assessed health. There has been growing interest in identifying the factors that inform self-assessments of overall health. The present findings indicate that self-assessed global health is not simply a manifestation of depressed affect.

Objectives: To examine the potential facilitators of or deterrents to end-of-life planning for community-dwelling older adults, including personal (health-related and sociodemographic) and social (physician and family) influences. Design: In-person interviews with older adults, telephone interviews with physicians and family members. Setting: Cleveland, Ohio. Participants: Two hundred thirty-one adults aged 65 to 99 who were aging in place, 99 of their primary care physicians, and 127 of their family members. Measurements: Questions assessing older adults' discussions with others about end-of-life plans, implementation of advance directives, and physical (Older American Resources and Services) illness index and mental (Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire) health status. Results: Just fewer than half of older adults had executed an advance directive and discussed their wishes with others. Only personal characteristics of elderly individuals were related to end-of-life plans, with whites, unmarried individuals, and younger adults more likely to have made preparations. Older adults' health status, as evaluated by the patient, physician, and caregiver, did not relate to the tendency to have made advance care plans. Older adults' family members were much more likely to report knowledge of advance care plans than were physicians. Conclusion: These findings suggest that many physicians are not talking with their patients about their end-of-life wishes. Furthermore, the propensity to have such discussions may relate more to the personal preferences and level of comfort of patients, physicians, and family members than on the health status of the older adult.

Maintenance of functional health and high quality of late life are crucial concerns for gerontologists and health researchers, as rapidly growing numbers of very old adults face the challenges and opportunities of increasing longevity and frailty in the twenty-first century (Atchley, 1995; Institute of Medicine [IOM], 1991). The present formulation outlines how older adults of tomorrow can enhance their own quality of life through a broad array of proactive adaptations. By recognizing and accepting older adults’ right to, and preference for, proactive involvement in shaping their own destiny, we can make important strides toward facilitating elders’ successful ageing. Successful ageing, based on our model, is an attainable goal within reach of even those aged traditionally relegated to ranks of passive and stigmatized recipients of care.

A conceptual model was developed and tested that examined the relationships between respondent characteristics, stressors, psychological well-being measures, and intervening life domain appraisals. The model was tested using data from elderly members of a Detroit area HMO. An innovative focus of the study was comprehensive consideration of the array of stressors impinging on the elderly. Stressors examined included recent negative life events, cumulative life crises, living with an ill family member, and social isolation. Domain appraisals in the model concerned satisfaction with activities, relationships, health, and income. Support was found for the hypothesis that stressors affect well-being indirectly through domain satisfactions.

Caregiver burden is one of the most commonly used variables in caregiving research, both as a predictor and as an outcome. It has been suggested that caregiver burden can be measured in terms of discrete dimensions of well-being and that burden and well-being represent opposite sides of the same coin. The goal of this study was to explore this issue further by comparing commonly used dimensions of burden with parallel dimensions of well-being, both as outcome variables and as predictors of other outcomes, in a sample of caregivers. The findings suggest that burden may tap a unique domain of caregiving outcomes that is not represented by more objective indicators of these effects. Dismissing burden as an unnecessary or redundant construct seems premature.

A review of past research reveals apparent gaps in many current measures of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) including the Bradburn (1969) Affect Balance subscales popular among gerontologists and other social scientists. In many cases, the measures produce PA/NA correlations so high that some researchers claim subjective well-being is unidimensional. A viable alternative measure of positive and negative affect is the PANAS (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen 1988), which appears to distinguish clearly between these two emotional dimensions of subjective well-being. Unfortunately, however, only younger samples have served as subjects in research on the PANAS. Accordingly, the current study assessed the psychometric qualities of the PANAS applied to a sample of the old-old. Consistent with prior studies of younger samples, the results here clearly support the viability of the measure among the elderly. Of particular significance, the PA and NA dimensions appear completely independent of each other. More broadly, the results also support using the circumplex model of emotions when selecting mood adjectives to represent the affective dimensions of subjective well-being.

Most studies of decisions to curtail alcohol consumption reflect experiences of abusing drinkers. An exploratory sequential research design is used to explore the applicability of this research to the experience of nonabusing drinkers advised to curtail alcohol consumption after a hepatitis C diagnosis. A qualitative component identified 17 new decision factors not reflected in an inventory of factors based on synthesis of existing scales. Qualitative data were triangulated by supplementing semistructured interviews with Internet postings. A quantitative component estimated prevalence and association with current drinking of these new decision factors. Patients who quit drinking tended to attribute postdiagnosis drinking to occasional triggers, whereas patients who were still drinking were more likely to endorse rationales not tied to specific triggers.

Completion of first-line treatment is an important milestone for adults newly diagnosed with cancer. However, for many adults, the cancer experience of the 21st century does not end with the completion of initial treatment. Decreased functional status, distressing symptoms, and residual effects of treatment impact the daily lives of cancer survivors. Cancer has evolved into a chronic illness, in which a disease-free period may be followed by recurrent cancer. Researchers face challenges in the design and analysis of symptom management studies in recurrent disease. Residual effects can preclude a true "baseline" measurement of the symptom(s) of interest to the researcher. In addition, as cancer survivors age, they are more likely to have comorbid conditions that increase the likelihood of developing toxicities and residual symptoms that are specific to cancer treatments. Research studies of cancer-related symptoms in adults with recurrent disease pose many methodological challenges. Selection of appropriate study design, sample inclusion and exclusion criteria, measures of comorbidity and symptoms, and advanced analysis techniques are among the strategies proposed to address these methodological challenges.

This research focuses on the coping behavior of older adult, long-term cancer survivors. Specifically, it identifies the personal (including race and gender) and illness/treatment characteristics of survivors that are significantly associated with the use of specific coping styles: planning, acceptance, venting, denial and seeking social support. It also examines the mediating role that these forms of coping play in terms of psychological distress: anxiety, depression and cancer-related worries. Multivariate analysis of data from a random sample of 321 long-term survivors in a major cancer center tumor registry is used to address the above issues. The most prominent forms of coping used by long-term survivors were planning and acceptance; least used were venting and denial. Increased age was associated with lower use of all forms of coping, but cancer type was not. Denial as a form of coping was associated with higher anxiety, depression and cancer-related worries. While race was not found to be a significant predictor of coping style, it was a significant predictor of three dimensions of psychological distress, anxiety, depression and cancer-related worries, with African Americans exhibiting lower levels of distress than Whites. The relevance of these findings for health and social service practitioners is discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper examines the health care experiences of older adults over a five-year period, including continuity in care, changes in health insurance coverage, and satisfaction with care. Face-to-face interviews were conducted annually with 415 older adults (mean age = 84, range = 72–105), 100 of whom were originally health maintenance organization (HMO) subscribers and 315 of whom were receiving fee-for-service care. Several predictors of health care experiences were examined, including personal characteristics, health status and health care variables. Coverage type (HMO or fee-for-service) was the most consistent predictor. HMO subscribers were more likely than fee-for-service recipients to experience changes in insurance (both negative and positive changes) and discontinuity in physician care, although satisfaction with care did not vary among HMO and non-HMO members. Two-thirds of HMO subscribers and nearly one-third of fee-for-service recipients reported changes in insurance coverage over the five-year study period. In terms of perspectives on HMO care, the most frequently mentioned advantage of HMO care among those in HMOs was diminished costs, while fee-for-service subscribers did not believe there were any advantages to being in an HMO. Those not in HMOs viewed loss of physician choice and poor quality care as major disadvantages of HMOs. Results of this study demonstrate that older adults commonly experience changes in their health care coverage and physician care. They adapt to these changes through positive appraisals of the type of case they receive.

Background Falls are common in community-dwelling elderly persons and are a frequent source of morbidity. Simple indices to prospectively stratify people into categories at different fall-risk would be useful to health care practitioners. Our goal was to develop a fall-risk index that discriminated between people at high and low risk of falling. Methods We evaluated the risk of falling over a one-year period in 557 elderly persons (mean age 81.6) living in a retirement community. On the baseline interview, we asked subjects if they had fallen in the previous year and evaluated risk factors in six additional conceptual categories. On the follow-up interview one year later, we again asked subjects if they had fallen in the prior year. We evaluated risk factors in the different conceptual categories and used logistic regression to determine the independent predictors of falling over a one-year period. We used these independent predictors to create a fall-risk index. We compared the ability of a prior falls history with other risk factors and with the combination of a falls history and other risk factors to discriminate fallers from nonfallers. Results A fall in the previous year (OR = 2.42, 95% CI = 1.49-3.93), a symptom of either balance difficulty or dizziness (OR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.16-2.89), or an abnormal mobility exam (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.64-4.26) were independent predictors of falling over the subsequent year. These three risk factors together (c statistic =.71) discriminated fallers from nonfallers better than previous history of falls alone (c statistic =.61) or the symptomatic and exam risk factors alone (c statistic =.68). When combined into a risk index, the three independent risk factors stratify people into groups whose risk for falling over the subsequent year ranges from 10% to 51%. Conclusion A history of falling over the prior year, a risk factor that can be obtained from a clinical history (balance difficulty or dizziness), and a risk factor that can be obtained from a physical exam (mobility difficulty) stratify people into groups at low and high risk of falling over the subsequent year. This risk index may provide a simple method of assessing fall risk in community-dwelling elderly persons. However, it requires validation in other subjects before it can be recommended for widespread use.

Pain has been viewed as an important concomitant of late-life illness that can threaten the quality of life of older adults. In considering linkages between chronic physical illness and psychological distress in late life, the associations between reporting of pain and indices of depression have been extensively studied (Parmelee, 1994; Romano & Turner, 1985). Nevertheless, the role of pain in mediating the effects of ill health on functioning and psychological well-being has seldom been considered in a more comprehensive framework. Such a framework could organize our understanding of the biopsychosocial and ecological context of pain and consider its sequelae for both social and psychological well-being (Kahana & Kahana, 1996).

This research compared attitudes of 143 nursing home employees toward three hypothetical target groups of older adults: well elderly persons, physically ill elderly persons, and elderly persons with Alzheimer's disease. Staff provided successively less positive evaluations of physically ill elderly persons and elderly persons with Alzheimer's disease compared to well elderly persons. Age, education, and contact with grandparents differentially predicted positive evaluations toward well and physically ill older adults. Self-efficacy was a significant predictor of positive evaluations across all target groups. Findings suggest that interventions designed to increase staff members' feelings of self-efficacy may lead to more positive evaluations of elderly clients and, ultimately, improved quality of care.

The complex and controversial relationship of type A behavior to myocardial infarction and other illnesses may be mediated through health habits and illness behavior. We hypothesized that type A persons tend to reject the sick role, delay in seeking medical care, seek convenient medical care facilities, are impatient for recovery, return to work before they have fully recovered, and are less likely to engage in positive health habits. A cross-sectional survey was conducted at a large corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. A detailed questionnaire that examined health-promoting and illness behaviors was sent to 385 managers, 54% of whom responded. Models tested using path analysis supported the hypotheses that type A persons are more likely than are type B employees to reject the sick role, delay in seeking medical care, be impatient for recovery, and return to work before a full recovery. The study findings imply that type A employees may be less likely to miss work for minor illnesses, but they may be prone to adverse outcomes from illnesses that require early care or assumption of the sick role. The hypothesis that type A persons are less likely to engage in positive health-habits behavior was not supported.

Objectives We used McCubbin's Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation ( McCubbin, Thompson, & McCubbin, 2001) to examine how demographic factors, family stress, grandmother resourcefulness, support, and role reward affect perceptions of family functioning for grandmothers raising grandchildren, grandmothers living in multigenerational households, and grandmothers not caregiving for grandchildren. Methods A sample of 486 grandmothers completed a mailed questionnaire. We used structural equation modeling to (a) test the effects of demographic factors (i.e., grandmother's age, race, marital status, and employment), family stressful life events and strain, grandmother's resourcefulness, subjective and instrumental support, and role reward on perceptions of family functioning for each grandmother group; (b) evaluate differences in the measurement and structural models between the grandmother groups using multisample analysis; and (c) test the model on the full sample, coding for caregiver status. Results The models did not differ significantly by grandmother group; therefore we assessed the composite model using a multisample analysis. We found general support for the resiliency model and equivalence of the models across grandmother groups. Less support, resourcefulness, and reward, and more intrafamily strain and stressful family life events contributed to perceptions of worse family functioning. Discussion Findings demonstrate the importance of the quality of family functioning for grandmothers in all types of families.

There is a need to understand the variables that influence the illegal behavior of older persons, and whether these predictors differ from those of younger age groups. This article attempts to address these issues through a review of the relevant literature. An analysis of elderly-specific theories of crime provides few suggestions where one might anticipate different predictors for older versus younger persons. And a comparison of research on youths with results from surveys of the general population indicates that the causes and correlates of crime generally do not change as individuals grow older.

Principal components analysis and common factor analysis can provide similar results; however, to assume the results will be similar can lead to serious error. A simple example is provided to show how results can be substantially different.

In a study of older Alabamians, Klemmack and Roff (1984) identified fear of aging as both an important correlate of subjective well-being and an intervening process through which physical health influences well-being. The present study examined the possibility that fear of aging, as a reflection of personal worries (frequently designated as "negative affect"), is actually an indicator rather than a determinant of subjective well-being. According to this alternative explanation, fear of aging was essentially used to predict itself. A factor analysis of Klemmack and Roff's original data supported this alternative interpretation. As predicted, fear of aging items loaded as a factor with other indicators of "negative affect" and, thus, should have been designated as part of the dependent variable. Furthermore, and contrary to Klemmack and Roff's treatment of subjective well-being as unidimensional, the factor analysis indicated two additional dimensions of well-being--Happiness and Plans for the Future. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of subjecting items to factor analysis and related techniques when developing and validating constructs.