Kevin J. Grimm’s research while affiliated with Arizona State University and other places

Background and Objectives Neurodegenerative diseases cause socioemotional changes that are commonly measured using laboratory-based assessments. However, these assessments can be labor, cost, and time intensive. We aim to establish the psychometric properties of a novel informant-rated measure, the Caregiver Assessment of Socioemotional Functioning (CASEF). Research Design and Methods Using three independent samples including 366 informal caregivers and their 366 care recipients with a variety of neurodegenerative diseases and 240 neurotypical individuals, we conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to establish the structural validity of the CASEF. Additionally, to establish convergent validity, we compared caregiver reports of socioemotional functioning to care recipients’ objective performance on a variety of laboratory measures of socioemotional functioning. Results The CASEF captured multiple aspects of care recipients’ socioemotional functioning, including the ability to (a) generate negative emotional responses (negative emotional reactivity), (b) generate positive emotional responses (positive emotional reactivity), (c) recognize others’ emotions (emotion recognition), and (d) control emotional responses (emotion regulation). Each factor was associated with a corresponding laboratory-based measure, except for emotion regulation, which instead corresponded to a clinician-rated measure of care recipient disinhibition. Discussion and Implications Findings suggest the CASEF is a psychometrically sound informant-report measure of socioemotional functioning in people living with neurodegenerative diseases and may be a valuable tool for identifying specific socioemotional impairments in the context of neurodegenerative disease.

Introduction There is limited understanding on how polygenic scores derived from genome-wide association studies of adult and child psychopathology may uniquely predict childhood traits. The current study took a developmental approach to examine the interplay between adult-based and child-based polygenic scores with family processes in predicting trajectories of externalizing behaviors from late childhood to early adolescence among racially-ethnically diverse youth. Method Data were drawn from the non-Hispanic White (N = 5,907), non-Hispanic Black (N = 1,694), and Hispanic youth (N = 2,117) from the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD) study. Parents reported on youth externalizing behaviors at baseline (T1, age 9/10), 1-year (T2, age 10/11), 2-year (T3, age 11/12), and 3-year (T4, age 12/13) follow-up assessments. Youth reported on parenting and family environment at T1 and provided saliva or blood samples for genotyping. Results Both polygenic scores for adult externalizing and childhood aggression predicted greater likelihood of following trajectories with higher externalizing behaviors. Among non-Hispanic White youth, polygenic scores also predicted greater family conflict, which in turn predicted higher externalizing behavior trajectories. Discussion Our findings indicated that both adult-based and child-based polygenic scores for externalizing behaviors are useful in predicting trajectories of externalizing behaviors, highlighting developmental continuity in genetic influences. Family processes, especially family conflict, play an important role in adolescent externalizing behaviors across racial-ethnic groups, suggesting the need to target family conflict in intervention efforts. Findings also highlight the importance of conducting research in diverse populations, including improving diversity in genetically informed studies.

Introduction: Suicide rates remain high among US military service member/veteran (SM/V) males with overall trends showing an upward trajectory. Several empirical studies and official US government reports show that interpersonal challenges can substantially increase suicide risk. One theory, the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (IPT), focuses thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, capability for suicide, and their interactions, as key contributors to suicide risk. Extant military studies are subscribed to specific subsamples and/or do not test the full theory. This has resulted in mixed findings or findings with limited generalizability. The current study addressed these limitations. Method: A convenience sample of 508 male SM/Vs completed self-report measures of lifetime suicide ideation, likelihood of making a future attempt, thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, capability for suicide, and demographics. Suicide ideation and risk was regressed on IPT variables, relevant interactions, and covariates. Results: The variance accounted for in suicide ideation and likelihood of a future attempt was 32% and 62%, respectively. Higher perceived burdensomeness was associated with suicide ideation, and higher thwarted belongingness had a marginally significant association with suicide ideation. The presence of suicide ideation and higher thwarted belongingness were associated with the likelihood of making a future attempt. Capability for suicide was not associated with the likelihood of making a future attempt. Discussion: Perceived burdensomeness, suicide ideation, and thwarted belongingness appear to individually create risk for future suicide behaviour among US military service members and veterans. Additional work is needed to establish comprehensive theories of suicide risk in this population.

Over the past several decades, middle-aged Americans have exhibited troubling trends of declining mental and physical health over successive cohorts. However, this trend has not been consistently observed in peer nations. It is an open question whether pain shows similar national disparities. We thus examine how self-reports of pain have historically changed in the U.S. during midlife, and how this compares to peer nations. We used harmonized data on pain from nationally representative longitudinal panel surveys from the U.S., 13 European nations, South Korea, and Mexico to directly quantify national similarities and differences in historical change in midlife pain. Our results corroborate earlier reports that midlife pain is higher amongst later-born cohorts in the U.S. Of note is that these historical increases emerged at earlier stages of midlife for later-born cohorts. A similar pattern of historical increases in pain was observed in Continental and Nordic Europe. In contrast, historical declines in pain were observed in England, Mediterranean Europe, South Korea, and Mexico. These results suggest there could be aspects of American midlife today that are exacerbating feelings of pain, and these aspects may be shared in some European nations but absent or less influential in other peer nations. Our discussion focuses on potential explanations for this pattern, such as population level discrepancies in health, differential use of health care services, and the inter/intrapersonal costs of westernization, as well as how pain is conceptualized across nations.

According to the Flynn effect, cognitive abilities have improved across the past decades. However, we know little about whether such historical improvements generalize to middle-aged adults and differ across nations. In this study, we used harmonized data on episodic memory from nationally representative longitudinal panel surveys including the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and China to compare historical change in age-related trajectories of episodic memory among middle-aged adults. Our sample included 89,775 participants aged 45 to 65 years who provided 272,876 observations over up to 20 years. Longitudinal multilevel regression models revealed that today’s middle-aged adults in the U.S. perform worse on episodic memory tests than their age peers in the past. In contrast, today’s middle-aged adults in most other countries perform better than did their peers in the past. At the same time, later-born cohorts of U.S. middle-aged adults exhibited a more favorable episodic memory trajectory than earlier-born cohorts, whereas this trend was not observed in most other countries. Cohort trends remained significant when controlling for socio-demographic indicators (gender, education) and health measures (grip strength, number of chronic diseases). Women and individuals with higher levels of education, higher grip strength and fewer chronic diseases exhibited better episodic memory performance, and the association of grip strength with episodic memory was stronger in later-born cohorts. Our findings suggest that countries differ in the extent and direction of historical change in episodic memory scores and trajectories. More research is needed to better understand why the Flynn effect in the U.S. seems to be reversed.

Caregivers for people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment often report sleep problems due to heightened vigilance concerning worrisome behaviors (e.g., falls, wandering) by their care recipients (CRs). Interventions are needed to help alleviate these issues and the associated sleep troubles for caregivers. One promising approach is to utilize scalable and affordable in-home technologies that monitor CR behaviors round-the-clock and alert caregivers to potentially dangerous situations. We conducted two randomized controlled trials with independent samples to determine whether People Power Caregiver (PPCg), a newly developed in-home monitoring and alerting system, benefitted caregivers’ sleep over a six-month period. Combining the two studies, a total of 162 primary caregivers of the CRs were randomly assigned to either an active condition (PPCg system fully activated) or a control condition (Study 1: water leak detection only; Study 2: waitlist control procedure). Caregivers self-reported their sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index at baseline, three-months, and six-months. Using latent growth modeling, caregivers in the control conditions reported significantly worsening sleep efficiency compared to caregivers in the active condition (Active: B = -0.30, SE(B) = 0.14; Control: B = 0.74, SE(B) = 0.12; Condition Effect on Linear Slope: p =.038). We observed a similar pattern with PPCg benefitting caregivers’ sleep duration; however, this result was not statistically significant (Condition Effect on Linear Slope: p =.105). These results suggest that in-home technologies such as PPCg may offer an effective way to help caregivers achieve healthy sleep as they contend with the demands of caregiving.

Empirical evidence has documented that later–born cohorts of middle–aged adults in the U.S. are reporting poorer mental and physical health than earlier–born cohorts. However, less is known about whether this is specific to the U.S. or generalizes to other nations and to what extent this is transpiring across self–report and objective indicators of physical health. Our study aims to describe the similarities and differences in historical change of midlife development in self–rated health, health conditions, and grip strength by using harmonized data from longitudinal panel surveys from the U.S. (HRS), Mexico (MHAS), 13 nations in Europe (ELSA, SHARE), South Korea (KLoSA), and China (CHARLS). Results from growth curve models revealed historical declines in self–rated health and grip strength (for both men and women), and historical increases in health conditions among middle–aged adults from the U.S. In contrast, historical improvements in self–rated health and fewer health conditions were observed for middle–aged adults in Mexico, Europe, South Korea, and China. Results for grip strength are more nuanced, with historical improvements among later–born cohorts of both men and women in Nordic Europe and South Korea and historical declines among both men and women in China. Our discussion focuses on better understanding these national differences in historical trends by considering how the dynamically changing historical context impacts ways of living and health care systems as well as considering the often-profound implications arising for psychological functioning and development at the individual and population level.