Most studies of widowhood have focused on reactions during the first few years postloss. The authors investigated whether widowhood had more enduring effects using a nationally representative U.S. sample. Participants were 768 individuals who had lost their spouse (from a few months to 64 years) prior to data collection. Results indicated that the widowed continued to talk, think, and feel emotions about their lost spouse decades later. Twenty years postloss, the widowed thought about their spouse once every week or 2 and had a conversation about their spouse once a month on average. About 12.6 years postloss, the widowed reported feeling upset between sometimes and rarely when they thought about their spouse. These findings add to an understanding of the time course of grief.

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What is already known? Past research has found evidence that patterns of childhood overweight are impacted by socioeconomic status through psychosocial factors like parenting and depression. This evidence is often limited to individual points in time where neglectful, permissive, and authoritarian parenting and higher levels of maternal depression are associated with higher levels of overweight status among children from infancy to adolescence. However, little research has linked together whether the children who receive non-authoritative parenting and are overweight in infancy are the same children who are overweight in adolescence. WHAT DOES THIS STUDY ADD?: • Evidence for 3 different prototypes of BMI percentile growth over the course of childhood approaching adolescence. • Adds complexity re the influence of parenting styles as an influence on patterns of weight gain. • Buttresses existing research as to early and lasting effects of SES on patterns of BMI.

The study of within-person change lies at the core of developmental research. Theory and empirical data suggest that many of these developmental processes are not linear. We describe a broad class of multilevel models that allows for nonlinear change — nonlinear mixed models. To demonstrate the utility of these models, we present a nonlinear mixed model analysis of adjustment to conjugal loss. Coming from a perspective of the individual as a regulatory system, our model predicts a faster rate of adjustment immediately following the loss and diminished adjustment as time since the loss increases, approaching an equilibrium level of well-being. This model allows us to estimate various aspects of the adjustment trajectory and individual differences in these trajectories, including multiple ways that pre- and post-loss factors can explain variability in the adjustment process. The model provides new insights into an important phenomenon that cannot be gleaned from linear models and other methods of trajectory analysis. We discuss the strengths and limitations of this type of analysis relative to other methods.

A lucid dream occurs when a dreamer knows that he or she is dreaming while continuing to dream. Many people practice lucid dreaming to promote personal growth, including enhanced creativity and self-esteem. However, such benefits are evidenced by anecdotal reports and correlational studies rather than controlled experiments. Further, this existing evidence is confounded by the fact that most lucid dreaming procedures involve two supporting practices-dream journaling and a mindfulness exercise called reality checking-that may be independently associated with personal growth. Our study asked whether successfully inducing lucid dreams leads to personal growth above and beyond journaling and mindfulness using an experimental design. In a sample of undergraduates (N ϭ 32), we assessed psychological well-being and personal growth longitudinally and compared participants assigned to lucid dream training to a group that only learned journaling and mindfulness practices and a third group that did not learn any techniques. We found no significant differences between the groups on indicators of personal growth on average. However, successful lucid dreamers had higher life satisfaction and selfesteem, as well as lower stress the day after lucid dreaming, compared with unsuccessful lucid dreamers.