Davina J French

• Australian National University

Objectives: To compare gender differences in alcohol use and the socioeconomic correlates of at-risk drinking among middle-aged and older adults in Australia, the United States (US) and South Korea. Method: Data were drawn from large nationally representative surveys of people aged 45 years and older, collected in 2006. Results: Rates of any drinki...

There are few data on self-harm in the general population, especially examining the roles of rumination and substance use. To evaluate the inter-relationships of rumination, self-harm, and potential mediating variables. A cohort with follow-up every 4 years involving a random sample of adults aged 20-24 and 40-44 years (at baseline) living in Austr...

Background: There are limited data on the impacts of alcohol use in older adults. We aimed to evaluate self-reported hospital admissions and falls against current Australian alcohol consumption guidelines. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal analysis of data from five Australian cohort studies. The study comprised 16,785 people aged 65 years or...

Objectives: We compared rates of smoking among those aged 45 years and older in Australia, the United States of America and South Korea, and examined cross-national gender differences in key socioeconomic differentials in smoking. Methods: We conducted weighted analyses on cross-sectional data from nationally representative surveys conducted in...

Objectives: To examine the determinants of self-rated health (SRH) in different age groups of older adults, including the oldest old. Methods: Variables assessing physical health, difficulty with self-care, depressive symptoms, and cognitive impairment were pooled and harmonized from three Australian longitudinal studies of ageing (N = 5,222). The...

Background Self-rated health is commonly employed in research studies that seek to assess the health status of older individuals. Perceptions of health are, however, influenced by individual and societal level factors that may differ within and between countries. This study investigates levels of self-rated health (SRH) and correlates of SRH among...

Using the goodness-of-fit hypothesis as a theoretical rationale, the current study examined whether stressor appraisals mediate the relationship between neuroticism and coping strategy use in the context of an anagram-solving task. One hundred and eight undergraduate students (65 female; 43 male) completed a neuroticism scale, attempted an anagram-...

Alcohol use disorders are associated with other mental health disorders in young adults, but there are few data on alcohol use and mental health outcomes in older adults, particularly the oldest old. This study examines the relationship between alcohol consumption and depressive symptoms. Data were collected from the Dynamic Analyses to Optimise Ag...

The positive relationship between wealth and wellbeing has received considerable attention over the last three decades. However, little is known about how the significance of wealth for the health and wellbeing of older adults may vary across societies. Furthermore, researchers tend to focus mainly on income rather than other aspects of financial r...

This pilot study examined relationships between neuroticism, appraisal, and coping in a sample of undergraduate students (N = 77) prior to sitting university exams. Results replicated previous findings that neuroticism is significantly correlated with avoidance coping and maladaptive forms of emotion focused coping (such as emotional venting), whil...

Research examining the relationship between neuroticism and coping has been limited by reliance on dispositional coping measures and/or retrospective reporting with long time-lags. The current experiment evaluated an anagram-solving task as a laboratory-stressor with which to examine neuroticism-related differences in situational coping. One hundre...

Research examining the relationship between neuroticism and coping has been limited by reliance on dispositional and retrospective methodologies. The current experiments evaluated the utility of a ball-throwing game used in ostracism research, as an experimental stressor with which to examine neuroticism-related differences in coping. Experiment 1...

To identify the time required by children with cystic fibrosis (CF), diabetes or asthma to complete daily treatment tasks and the hassle they experienced when completing these tasks. To compare parent and child reports of daily treatment time and hassle. To investigate the relationship between treatment time and hassle, and (i) children's health-re...

The aim of this study was to assess prospectively changes in the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of children and adolescents with diabetes, asthma or cystic fibrosis (CF). One hundred and twenty-two parents of children aged 10-16 years with asthma, diabetes, or CF were recruited from specialist paediatric clinics. Parents described their chil...

The aim of this study was to compare the self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQL) of children and adolescents with diabetes, asthma or cystic fibrosis (CF) with the HRQL of a large community sample, to assess the extent to which the HRQL of the children and adolescents with chronic illness changes over time, and to examine the consistenc...

The aim of study 1 was to develop a three-factor Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire (AAAQ), designed to assess mild and intense inclinations to drink, as well as inclinations to avoid drinking. The aims of study 2 were to cross-validate the AAAQ with an independent sample and to test the goodness-of-fit of three models of craving for a...

The General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) has been extensively validated with adults, but its validity with young adolescents is questionable. Further, the dimensionality of the survey remains in doubt. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare five competing models for the GHQ-12 using an adult sample (n = 235). The best model was then a...

Despite the recognition of leisure as a key concept in occupational therapy, there is limited evidence of the theoretical development of leisure within the occupational therapy literature. The wider literature makes claims about the relationship between leisure and health; however, little empirical support for the influence of leisure on wellbeing...

The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is a measure of current mental wellbeing that has been extensively validated with adults. The instrument has also been used with adolescents. (i) To assess the psychometric properties of the GHQ-12 among school students in grades 7-10; (ii) to validate it against other psychological tests; and (iii) to suggest...

Aggressive children show deficits and biases in their social information processing. Cognitions based on early experience and social schemas are also related to development and maintenance of aggressive behavior. Social reasoning can be linked to these aspects of social cognition, impacting on the situational cues individuals encode, their interpre...

Aggressive children show deficits and biases in their social information processing. Cognitions based on early experience and social schemas are also related to development and maintenance of aggressive behavior. Social reasoning can be linked to these aspects of social cognition, impacting on the situational cues individuals encode, their interpre...

Development and maintenance of mental health is a major requirement for successful adolescent transition. During this critical process of change, when many mental health concerns first manifest, it has been suggested that positive leisure experiences provide opportunities that support and promote adolescent development and mental health. This inves...

The development of Australian forms of the Childhood Asthma Questionnaires (CAQs) is reported. Focus group methods and psychometric analyses were used to establish the conceptual, semantic and technical equivalence of these forms with the UK versions. Both versions also provide for data collection from non-asthmatic youngsters. The internal consist...

A total of 164 primary school teachers from Perth, Western Australia anonymously completed a survey of their knowledge and attitudes about asthma. These teachers were active in assisting children with asthma management but most (91.5%) felt that they did not know enough about asthma. Attitudes toward children with asthma were positive; 97% agreed t...

This paper reports the internal consistency and reproducibility of the Childhood Asthma Questionnaires, measures of quality of life and symptom distress in paediatric asthma. A total of 535 children aged 4-16 years completed age appropriate forms of the questionnaire, over 1- or 3-week intervals. Pearson correlation coefficients between 0.63 and 0....

In an exploratory postal survey of 711 drivers stratified by age, sex, annual mileage, and accident involvement, decision-making style was measured using a Decision-Making Questionnaire (DMQ) and driving style was assessed using a Driving Style Questionnaire (DSQ). Responses to 21 items of the DMQ formed seven independent and internally coherent di...

Forty-eight drivers answered a set of written questions about their driving style and drove a pre-defined, mixed urban and motorway route under observation. For 20 drivers there was a second observer in the car to check on inter-observer reliability. Relationships were examined between self-reports of driver behaviour and observers' reports, and be...

A 10-item self-report scale for mild social deviance (the Social Motivation Questionnaire) was developed and used in a study examining the role of social deviance in traffic accident risk. The scale focused on self-serving behaviours which might directly or indirectly harm the interests of others. Data were obtained from 108 drivers taking part in...

Both driving speed and speed of detection of potentially hazardous events while driving have been found to correlate positively with accident rates across individuals. Alcohol ingestion is also known to increase risk of a traffic accident. This paper reports two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies: one on the effect of alcohol on driving speed...

This article considers methodological issues relevant to the study of differential crash involvement and reviews the findings of research in this area. Aspects of both driving skill and driving style appear to contribute to crash risk. Of the former, hazard-perception latency appears to play an important role, and this may be attributable to genera...