Posters & Presentations

Older adults have a disproportionally high rate of completed suicide as compared to the general population, but relatively little is known about the extent to which coping styles and beliefs serve as protective factors against suicide in this population.

We had a group of community-dwelling older adults complete questionnaires on coping, reasons for living, and suicidal ideation. Some of the findings include:

- Suicidal ideation had a significant negative relationship with both problem- and emotion-focused coping and a significant positive relationship with dysfunctional coping.

- Suicidal ideation had a significant negative relationship with survival and coping beliefs, responsibility to family, child-related concerns, and total reasons for living score and a significant positive relationship with fear of suicide.

The findings suggest that a full assessment of coping styles and reasons for living should be part of a thorough evaluation of at-risk older adults. Future research should test the extent to which interventions that bolster coping skills and reasons for living reduce suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors.

A substantial literature has documented that sexual abuse relates to suicidal behaviors but relatively less is known about resilience to suicide, especially cognitive deterrents to suicide.

The present study investigated the effects of a history of sexual victimization on reasons for living. Female participants (N = 138; M age = 24.4 years, SD = 7.3 years; range = 18 to 53 years; 79% Caucasian) completed the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) and the Reasons For Living (RFL) Inventory. According to SES responses, participants were classified into 5 mutually exclusive groups: no victimization, sexual contact, sexual coercion, attempted rape, and rape. ANOVAs showed that degree of sexual victimization had a significant effect on the RFL Total scale and 2 subscales (Survival and Coping Beliefs; Moral Objections). The general pattern was that mean RFL scores in the no victimization group were significantly higher than the mean scores in the sexual coercion and rape groups.

An implication is that having a history of sexual victimization, especially sexual coercion and rape, limits one’s later reasons for not committing suicide. Bolstering these modifiable deterrents to suicide should be part of suicide prevention efforts among at-risk women.

Last week I successfully proposed my thesis project titled, "Coping Strategies, Suicidal Risk, and Protective Factors Against Suicide in Older Adults." The goals of this study are to investigate coping abilities in older adults and how those relate to suicidal ideation and cognitive deterrents to suicide. We've already begun data collection and hope to have the study completed by the end of the year. Thank you to my committee (Daniel L. Segal, Ph.D., Frederick L. Coolidge, Ph.D., and Brian Yochim, Ph.D.) for all of their thoughtful comments and questions.

As part of our clinical training at the CU Aging Center, we are required to give an "evidence-based practice" presentation to the other staff members. According to the APA, evidence-based practice in psychology is "the integration of the best available research with clinical expertise in the context of patient characteristics, culture, and preferences." That is, both research and clinical skills are used in the practice of psychotherapy. Inspired by a client with whom I worked earlier this year, I chose to discuss complicated bereavement, which is being considered for inclusion in the next edition of the DSM.

The UCCS Gerontology Center sponsors a seminar series for students, faculty, and community members. Today, David McCabe, Ph.D. of Colorado State University presented the results of a study on memory and executive functioning across the lifespan.

Dr. McCabe used the analogy, "age is to memory as time is to rust." Basically, age does not cause memory loss, rather memory loss is caused by some underlying variable (associated with age). A few hypotheses for why episodic memory (memory for events) decines with age include reduced working memory capacity, processing speed, executive function, and general fluid intelligence.

The findings of Dr. McCabe's study suggest that tests of executive function and working memory capacity measure a common construct, which he calls "Executive Attention." Executive attention was found to be more closely related to episodic memory than processing speed or general fluid intelligence, implying that problems with episodic memory are due to executive dysfunction in older adults.

As a Research Assistant at Lighthouse International, I worked on a support group intervention study. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a telephone support group in reducing symptoms of depression in individuals caring for an older relative or friend with vision impairment, an often overlooked population.

I was the facilitator of the support group sessions and led two groups with five participants each. In the start-up phase of the project, I created many of the materials used in the program, which covered topics such as enhancing communication, dealing with emotional issues, and handling stressful situations. My colleagues and I presented the results of this study at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in August 2007.