We performed a series of meta-analyses examining the associations between coping and health-related outcomes in nonclinical adult samples. Results revealed that problem-focused coping was positively correlated with overall health outcomes, whereas confrontive coping, distancing, self-control, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, avoidance, and wishful thinking were each negatively correlated with overall health outcomes. Neither planful problem solving nor positive reappraisal was significantly associated with overall health outcomes in our analyses. However, type of health outcome (i.e., physical vs. psychological) and situational characteristics (i.e., stressor type, controllability, and duration) moderated many of the overall associations.

Although neurocognitive impairment is an established risk factor for medication non-adherence, standard neurocognitive tests developed for clinical purposes may not fully capture the complexities of non-adherence behavior or effectively inform theory-driven interventions. Prospective memory, an innovative cognitive construct describing one’s ability to remember to do something at a later time, is an understudied factor in the detection and remediation of medication non-adherence. This review orients researchers to the construct of prospective memory, summarizes empirical evidence for prospective memory as a risk factor for non-adherence, discusses the relative merits of current measurement techniques, and highlights potential prospective memory-focused intervention strategies. A comprehensive literature review was conducted of published empirical studies investigating prospective memory and medication adherence. Overall, reviewed studies suggest that prospective memory is an important component of medication adherence, providing incremental ecological validity over established predictors. Findings indicate that prospective memory-based interventions might be an effective means of improving adherence.

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The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996) is a widely used measure of depressive symptomatology originally authored in English and then translated to Spanish. However, there are very limited data available on the Spanish translation. This study compared the psychometric characteristics of the BDI-II in Spanish and English in a sample of 895 college students. The instrument was administered twice with a 1-week interval, either in the same language on both occasions or in a different language on each occasion. Results show strong internal consistency and good test-retest reliability in both languages. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the published English-language factor structure showed good fit with data from the Spanish instrument. Among bilingual participants who took the BDI-II in both languages, there was no significant language effect. These data provide initial evidence of comparable reliability and validity between the English and Spanish BDI-II in a nonclinical sample.

The authors examined the role of perceived family support and symptoms of depression as predictors of survival in a sample of 78 in-center hemodialysis patients. Cox regression analysis revealed significant effects for family support (p < .005), blood urea nitrogen (p < .01), and age (p < .005). The effect for depression was not significant. The Cox model indicated that a 1-point increase on the family support measure was associated with a 13% reduction in the hazard rate (i.e., mortality). Estimated 5-year mortality rates among low family support patients were approximately 3 times higher than estimated mortality for high support patients. Differences in patient adherence to the dietary and medication regimens failed to explain the significant effect of family support.