Kristen Jacobson

Kristen Jacobson
University of Chicago | UC · Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience

Doctor of Philosophy

About

184
Publications
24,091
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
10,252
Citations

Publications

Publications (184)
Article
The decision to hospitalize a psychiatric patient against their will is an ethically and clinically complex problem. While there is variation in rates of involuntary hospitalization (IH) across different settings, we lack a tool to measure individual differences in IH decision-making. This study used a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate...
Article
Full-text available
This study reports on the feasibility and acceptability of a social justice infused service-learning (S-L) program to promote Black adolescent mental health and educational equity. We convened a community advisory board to help adapt and pilot test, via open trial mixed method design, an evidence-based service-learning program for Black middle scho...
Article
Full-text available
The Scarr-Rowe hypothesis proposes that the heritability of intelligence is higher in more advantaged socioeconomic contexts. An early demonstration of this hypothesis was Rowe and colleagues (Rowe et al., Child Dev 70:1151–1162, 1999), where an interaction between the heritability of verbal intelligence and parental education was identified in ado...
Preprint
The Scarr-Rowe hypothesis proposes that the heritability of intelligence is higher in more advantaged socioeconomic contexts. An early demonstration of this hypothesis was Rowe and colleagues (1999), where an interaction between the heritability of verbal intelligence and parental education was identified in adolescent siblings in Wave I of the Nat...
Article
Full-text available
The effectiveness of parenting on child outcomes may be dependent on other contextual factors. To date, few studies have focused on the potential moderating effect of maternal stress on the relationship between parenting and youth externalizing behaviors. This study extends prior work by assessing how the relationship between parenting and youth ou...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Secondary traumatic stress is highly prevalent among nurses, especially among nurses working within the emergency department (ED). Reducing healthcare worker secondary traumatic stress is important for ensuring the delivery of high quality, safe patient care. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a secondary traum...
Article
There is abundant evidence for pro-White color bias across the social psychology literature. In human–animal interaction work, black dog syndrome (BDS) refers to preference toward lighter-colored dogs over black dogs, leading to differences in rates of euthanasia and adoption. BDS has received mixed support in prior studies. Results from studies ex...
Article
Objective To examine clinical and sociodemographic differences between psychiatric patients suspected of malingering and non-malingering controls in an urban emergency department (ED) setting. Methods We used retrospective chart review to compare 57 psychiatric patients suspected of malingering with 195 date-matched controls. We examined evidence...
Article
Full-text available
Minority youth, because of structural, ecological, and societal inequalities, are at heightened risk of reporting depression and experiencing negative sanctions associated with delinquency. Sociological theories suggest that greater exposure to ecological risk factors at the peer, family, school and community levels are associated with elevated rat...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Low vitality is a common symptom of testosterone deficiency; however, clinical trial results remain inconclusive regarding the responsiveness of this symptom to hormone replacement. Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine if the relationship between circulating testosterone levels and vitality would be moderated by the CAG...
Article
Full-text available
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is known to persist, eliciting early medical co-morbidity, and accelerated aging. Although PTSD diagnosis has been found to be associated with smaller volume in multiple brain regions, posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms and their associations with brain morphometry are rarely assessed over long periods of time....
Article
Objective To test the hypothesis that individual differences in episodic memory and verbal fluency in cognitively normal middle-aged adults will predict progression to amnestic MCI after 6 years. Method The cohort analyzed here included 842 male twins who were cognitively normal at baseline (M=56 years), completed measures of episodic memory and v...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives: First, we test for differences in various cognitive abilities across trajectories of body mass index (BMI) over the later life course. Second, we examine whether genetic risk factors for unhealthy BMIs—assessed via polygenic risk scores (PRS)—predict cognitive abilities in late-life. Methods: The study used a longitudinal sample of Viet...
Article
This study reports on the conceptualization of activation, and the development and psychometrics of the Community Violence‐Prevention Activation Measure (CV‐PAM). The CV‐PAM was adapted from the Patient Activation Measure (PAM; Hibbard et al., 2004, Health Serv Res, 39, 1005–1026; Hibbard et al., 2005, Health Serv Res, 40, 1918–1930) for use among...
Preprint
Full-text available
Objective Test the hypothesis that individual differences in episodic memory and verbal fluency in cognitively normal middle-aged adults will predict progression to amnestic MCI after 6 years. Method The analysis sample included 842 male twins who were cognitively normal at baseline (M=56 years), completed measures of episodic memory and verbal fl...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence strongly suggests that being overweight or obese at midlife confers significantly higher risk for Alzheimer's disease and greater brain atrophy later in life. Few studies, however, examine associations between longitudinal changes in adiposity during early adulthood and later brain morphometry. Measures of body mass index (BMI) were collec...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence regarding the effects of pet ownership and related variables on youth socioemotional development is mixed. Inconsistencies across studies may be due to a variety of factors, including the use of different outcomes measured across studies, small potential effect sizes, and use of selected samples. In addition, studies have not systematicall...
Article
Full-text available
Multiple executive functions (EFs) are associated with trait anxiety and depression symptoms, but it is unclear how genetic and/or environmental factors account for these associations and whether they are explained by general variance underlying multiple EFs (i.e., common EF). In this study, 1,207 male twins completed seven EF tasks and measures of...
Article
Full-text available
Mounting evidence suggests that measures of phonemic fluency and semantic fluency are differentially associated with other cognitive and health phenotypes, but few studies have examined their shared and unique variance, especially using genetically-informative designs. In this study, 1464 middle-aged twins completed six fluency subtests at up to tw...
Article
Introduction Longitudinal testing is necessary to accurately measure cognitive change. However, repeated testing is susceptible to practice effects, which may obscure true cognitive decline and delay detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods We retested 995 late-middle-aged men in a ∼6-year follow-up of the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Ag...
Article
Animal and human research suggests that testosterone is associated with hippocampal structure and function. Studies examining the association between testosterone and either hippocampal structure or hippocampal-mediated cognitive processes have overwhelmingly focused on the effects of testosterone alone, without considering the interaction of other...
Article
Full-text available
Research on executive functions (EFs) has revealed that individual differences in general EF abilities are highly correlated across the first few decades of life, especially at the level of genetic influences. Our work has also provided evidence for substantial heritability of this Common EF factor in midlife, but it remains unclear whether individ...
Article
Full-text available
Background and Objectives Childhood socioeconomic status (cSES) is found to predict later-life cognitive abilities, yet the mechanisms underlying these associations remain unclear. The objective of this longitudinal study was to examine the direct and indirect paths through which cSES influences late midlife cognitive outcomes. Research Design and...
Article
Catatonia is under-diagnosed in psychiatric settings. No studies have explored the under-diagnosis of catatonia in general hospitals. The authors conducted a retrospective chart review using DSM-5 criteria to diagnose catatonia in medical inpatients between 2011 and 2013. Of 133 case subjects meeting DSM-5 criteria for catatonia retrospectively, 79...
Article
Full-text available
Background: People living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) are approximately twice as likely to be depressed compared with HIV-negative individuals. Depression is consistently associated with low antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, an important step within the HIV care continuum related to HIV disease progression and overall health. O...
Article
Physically healthy, adult, same-sexed twins (n = 287) from a population-based twin cohort underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to identify fronto-limbic brain regions significantly associated with lifetime history of aggression. MRI scans used a 3D magnetization-prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo (MP-RAGE) sequence, for...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Research on executive functions (EFs) has revealed evidence for general abilities that underlie performance across multiple EF tasks and domains. This Common EF factor is highly stable in adolescence through young adulthood, correlates with other important cognitive abilities, and is explained largely by genetic influences. However, lit...
Article
Objectives: Sleep quality affects memory and executive function in older adults, but little is known about its effects in midlife. If it affects cognition in midlife, it may be a modifiable factor for later-life functioning. Methods: We examined the association between sleep quality and cognition in 1220 middle-aged male twins (age 51-60 years)...
Preprint
BACKGROUND People living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) are approximately twice as likely to be depressed compared with HIV-negative individuals. Depression is consistently associated with low antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, an important step within the HIV care continuum related to HIV disease progression and overall health. One...
Article
Objective: This study examined patterns of change in adiposity across four decades starting in young adulthood as well as associations between change and midlife cardiometabolic outcomes. Methods: BMI was assessed at ages 20, 40, 56, and 62 years in 977 male veterans from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging. Age 62 (range 56-66) cardiometabolic...
Article
Full-text available
In this longitudinal study we examined the stability of general cognitive ability (GCA), as well as heterogeneity and genetic and environmental influences underlying individual differences in change. We investigated GCA from young adulthood through late midlife in 1,288 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging participants at ages ?20, ?56, and ?62 years. T...
Article
Although commonly linked to psychiatric disorders, catatonia is frequently identified secondary to neurological and general medical conditions (GMCs). The present study aimed to characterize the diagnostic workup of cases of catatonia in a general hospital setting. The authors performed a retrospective chart review of 54 cases of catatonia, over 3...
Article
A diminished capacity to reason about one's own or others’ mood states (part of emotional intelligence, EI) may impair one's ability to respond to threat or frustration, leading to aggression and/or impulsivity. In this study, 1544 adult subjects completed the Trait-Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), an assessment of perceived EI, in order to examine how atte...
Article
Objective: Metabolic syndrome, a clustering of risk factors including insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, central obesity, and hypertension, increases risk for cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. The etiology of the risk factors' cohesion remains unclear. How genetic and environmental influences explained co-occurrence of metabolic syndrom...
Article
Full-text available
Episodic memory is a complex construct at both the phenotypic and genetic level. Ample evidence supports age-related cognitive stability and change being accounted for by general and domain-specific factors. We hypothesized that general and specific factors would underlie change even within this single cognitive domain. We examined 6 measures from...
Article
This study examined whether exposure to community violence was related to sexual risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample of young adults and if there were gender or racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. The analytic sample for this study was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and was composed of...
Article
Background Poor pulmonary function is associated with mortality and age-related diseases, and can affect cognitive performance. However, extant longitudinal studies indicate that early cognitive ability also affects later pulmonary function. Despite the multifaceted nature of pulmonary function, most longitudinal studies were limited to a single in...
Article
Objective In an effort to address earliest detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), we examined hippocampal volumes and atrophy in middle-aged males to explore neuroanatomical support for different neuropsychological definitions of MCI. Methods 460 men ages 51-60 underwent neuropsychological testing and an MRI. MCI was defined according to fi...
Article
Full-text available
Episodic memory change is a central issue in cognitive aging, and understanding that process will require elucidation of its genetic underpinnings. A key limiting factor in genetically informed research on memory has been lack of attention to genetic and phenotypic complexity, as if "memory is memory" and all well-validated assessments are essentia...
Article
Despite an extensive literature, the “g” construct remains a point of debate. Different models explaining the observed relationships among cognitive tests make distinct assumptions about the role of g in relation to individual tests and specific cognitive domains. Surprisingly, these different models and their corresponding assumptions are rarely t...
Article
Attachment theory has become a key framework for understanding responses to and consequences of trauma across the life course. We predicted that more severe post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms at age 37 years would be associated with insecure attachment at age 55 and with worse PTS symptoms 24 years later at age 61, and that age 55 attachment woul...
Article
Elevated blood pressure (BP), a heritable risk factor for many age-related disorders, is commonly investigated in population and genetic studies, but antihypertensive use can confound study results. Routine methods to adjust for antihypertensives may not sufficiently account for newer treatment protocols (i.e., combination or multiple drug therapy)...
Article
Age-related changes in testosterone are believed to be a key component of the processes that contribute to cognitive aging in men. The APOE-ε4 allele may interact with testosterone and moderate the hormone's association with cognition. The goals of the present study were to examine the degree to which free testosterone is associated with episodic m...
Article
Full-text available
Backgound Identifying mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in midlife could improve early identification of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Also, AD is highly heritable, but the heritability of MCI has not been established. We estimated prevalence rates, association with premorbid general cognitive ability (GCA) and heritability for different definitions of n...
Article
Full-text available
This paper explores whether dog behavioral characteristics predict the quality of the relationship between dogs and their owners (i.e., owner attachment to dog), and whether relations between dog behavior and owner attachment are moderated by demographic characteristics. In this study, N = 92 children and N = 60 adults from 60 dog-owning families c...
Article
Purpose: The current study compared longitudinal relationships between college education and patterns of heavy drinking from early adolescence to adulthood for Caucasians and African-Americans. Methods: We analyzed data from 9,988 non-Hispanic Caucasian and African-American participants from all four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of A...
Article
Full-text available
The present study examined moderating effects of impulsivity on the relationships between promotive factors from family (family warmth, parental knowledge), school (school connectedness), and neighborhood (neighborhood cohesion) contexts with delinquency using data collected from N = 2,978 sixth to eighth graders from 16 schools surrounding a major...
Article
Background: Testosterone regulates numerous physiological processes, and evidence suggests that it plays a critical role in male aging. It has yet to be determined whether the heritability of testosterone varies in accordance with its diurnal rhythm. Similarly, it is unclear whether changes in testosterone level throughout the day are genetically...
Article
Poor sleep quality is a risk factor for a number of cognitive and physiological age-related disorders. Identifying factors underlying sleep quality are important in understanding the etiology of these age-related health disorders. We investigated the extent to which genes and the environment contribute to subjective sleep quality in middle-aged mal...
Article
This study examined whether promotive factors (future expectations, family warmth, school attachment, and neighborhood cohesion) moderated relationships between community violence exposure and youth delinquency. Analyses were conducted using N = 2,980 sixth to eighth graders (Mage = 12.48; 41.1% males) from a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomic...
Article
We examined shared and distinct genetic influences among standard measures of pulmonary functions: ratio of forced expiratory volume at 1 s to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) and percent predicted values for forced expiratory volume at 1 s (FEV1%p), forced expiratory flow (FEFmax%p), and maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV%p) in 978-1,048 middle-ag...
Article
There is growing evidence that pet ownership and human-animal interaction (HAI) have benefits for human physical and psychological well-being. However, there may be pre-existing characteristics related to patterns of pet ownership and interactions with pets that could potentially bias results of research on HAI. The present study uses a behavioral...
Article
Full-text available
The goals of the study were to determine the extent to which the underlying structure of different types of well-being was multidimensional and whether well- and ill-being were influenced by similar or different genetic and environmental factors. Participants were 1226 male twins ages 51-60, from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging. Measures includ...
Article
The current study examined gender and racial/ethnic (Hispanics, non-Hispanic Caucasians, non-Hispanic African Americans, and non-Hispanic Asians) differences in developmental trajectories of alcohol use, heavy drinking, smoking, and marijuana use from early adolescence to young adulthood using a nationally representative sample. Participants from t...
Article
The hippocampus expresses a large number of androgen receptors; therefore, in men it is potentially vulnerable to the gradual age-related decline of testosterone levels. In the present study we sought to elucidate the nature of the relationship between testosterone and hippocampal volume in a sample of middle-aged male twins (average age 55.8 years...
Article
The current study examined the main effects of hostile attributional bias (HAB) and negative emotional responding on a variety of aggressive behaviors in adults, including general aggression, physical aggression, relational aggression, and verbal aggression. Effects of both externalizing (anger) and internalizing (embarrassment/upset) negative emot...
Article
Full-text available
To examine how genes and environments contribute to relationships among Trail Making Test (TMT) conditions and the extent to which these conditions have unique genetic and environmental influences. Participants included 1,237 middle-aged male twins from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging. The Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System TMT included vis...
Article
Associations between early life maltreatment, social information processing (SIP) and aggression in childhood and adolescence have been widely documented. Few studies have examined the importance of childhood maltreatment independent of SIP in the etiology of adult aggression. Furthermore, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment on the SIP-agg...
Article
Previous studies show that children with psychopathic traits may be less responsive to parenting. Although harsh/inconsistent parenting is associated with increased problem behaviors in children low on psychopathic traits, children high on psychopathic traits show consistently high levels of problem behavior regardless of negative parenting. Modera...
Article
Full-text available
Adult romantic attachment styles reflect ways of relating in close relationships and are associated with depression and negative emotionality. We estimated the extent to which dimensions of romantic attachment and negative emotionality share genetic or environmental risk factors in 1,237 middle-aged men in the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA...
Article
Hypertension is a risk factor for cognitive decline, but the mechanisms underlying the effects of hypertension on cognition, particularly in midlife, are unclear. We examined whether hypertension modifies genetic influences on individual differences in cognition. Nine cognitive domains and general cognitive ability were assessed in a sample of 1,23...
Article
Recent evidence indicates that social contact is related to similarities in weight gain over time. However, no studies have examined this effect in a twin design, in which genetic and other environmental effects can also be estimated. We determined whether the frequency of social contact is associated with similarity in weight change from young adu...
Article
Prior research suggests that individuals with particular personality traits, like negative emotionality, are at greater risk for adverse health outcomes. Despite bivariate associations between negative emotionality, depressive symptoms and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA axis), few studies have sought to understand the biological pathw...
Article
Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) is important for its association with immune system function and health outcomes. The characterization of the genetic and environmental contributions to daily DHEAS concentrations is thus important for understanding the genetics of health and aging. Saliva was collected from 783 middle-aged men (389 complete p...