OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the 24 character strengths in Peterson and Seligman's (2004) model on quality of life in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), controlling for more commonly investigated biopsychosocial variables including resilience, social support, personality traits, depression, fatigue, and disability. METHOD Six hundred and 24 individuals with

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Little is known about romantic relationship adjustment or perceptions of relationship quality (e.g., commitment and trust) among sexual minority persons with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to explore if collective self-esteem, disability adjustment, attachment styles, and cultural humility served as unique correlates and predictors of relationship adjustment and relationship

OBJECTIVE Chronic pain is one of the most common and interfering symptoms experienced by people with MS. There is an opportunity to shift the paradigm from interventions delivered after pain has become chronic to early, proactive interventions to alter the impact of MS-related pain. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a remotely delivered single-session group intervention to modify the

Purpose/Objective: Despite the increasingly high number of individuals who survive burns and the documented impairments in functioning across psychological, work, sexual, and interpersonal domains, there has been a dearth of research investigating connections between pain and functioning in these domains after burn injury. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationships among

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine perceived sleep-related impairment in caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Specifically, we examined the relationship between caregiver-perceived sleep-related impairment and different aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and explored whether these relationships were moderated by the perceived level of everyday

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to describe the development and validation of a personal growth scale in caregiving partners of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHOD Two studies were conducted: one to identify possible constructs and items, and another to and examine the instrument's psychometric properties. Study 1 consisted of focus groups of 39 partners of patients with MS, expert

Objective/Purpose: The objective of this article is to provide information about the ways in which the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may affect the ongoing public health issue of violence against people with disabilities and how rehabilitation psychologists and other providers can address these concerns in their practice. METHOD This article reviews the literature on violence against people

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Individuals diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) often experience decreased quality of life (QoL), in part attributable to fatigue, depression (Benedict et al., 2005), and cognitive dysfunction (Cutajar et al., 2000). Beyond these well-established predictors, the positive trait of gratitude-attentiveness to positive features in one's life-has predicted QoL in the context of other

The Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES) is a tool utilized with individuals with brain injury, neurocognitive disorders, and other mixed populations to quantify and characterize apathy in adults. The scale "treats apathy as a psychological dimension defined by simultaneous deficits in the overt behavioral, cognitive, and emotional concomitants of goal-directed behavior." It has three versions: self-rated

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Positive disability identity has been proposed as a protective factor against disability-related stressors. Personal disability identity (PDI) refers to positive self-concept as a person with a disability. The most widely used measure of PDI captures disability affirmation and disability acceptance (Hahn & Belt, 2004). The current study examined the association between PDI (i.e.,

PURPOSE Self-regulatory efficacy (SRE) is a psychological resource necessary for cardiac rehabilitation (CR) exercise adoption and maintenance. A 2008 review of self-efficacy for CR exercise identified the need for more high-quality research on SRE. The present review had 4 purposes: (a) to review the characteristics of empirical SRE and CR exercise research since 2008; (b) to examine the quality of

OBJECTIVE The objective of the current study was to examine the driving performance of young drivers with a history of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared with an uninjured control group. The impact of cell phone related distraction (conversation and texting) and executive functioning (EF) were also explored. METHOD Individuals aged 16-25 years with (n = 19) and without (n = 19)

PURPOSE In the context of geriatric rehabilitation, 2 quality of life (QoL) facets are of particular importance: a behavioral, more objective facet, and an emotional, more subjective facet. This study looked at changes in these 2 QoL facets during rehabilitation, their relationship to each other and potential mediating processes. DESIGN Ninety-two geriatric patients were assessed by the geriatric assessment

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE This study aimed to describe the perceived stress levels and coping mechanisms related to COVID-19, and whether coping is related to well-being in people with self-reported chronic conditions and disabilities. Research Method/Design: A cross-sectional survey design was implemented. The total number of participants were 269 individuals with self-reported disabilities and chronic conditions

OBJECTIVE This study investigates whether the adult attachment styles of support partners in a cardiac rehabilitation context predict their use of overprotective support strategies, and whether such overprotection in turn predicts lower self-efficacy and poorer program attendance in cardiac rehabilitation patients. RESEARCH METHOD Participants were 69 partner-patient dyads, mostly older adults (mean

OBJECTIVE People with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) report greater emotion dysregulation, which is associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety, and reduced quality of life. Given the transdiagnostic significance of emotion dysregulation, the current study was designed to assess the feasibility and treatment effects of mindfulness meditation in reducing emotion dysregulation for PwMS. METHOD

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was 2-fold: (a) to evaluate whether perception of work ability is associated with employment status in a sample of combat-exposed veterans, and (b) to determine whether the same sets of variables that are associated with employment status are also associated with perception of work ability. Research Method/Design: In this cross-sectional study, veterans (N

Purpose/Objective: The purpose of this study is to estimate the occurrence of low health literacy among caregivers of people with traumatic brain injury (TBI), and to evaluate associations of health literacy with caregiver health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and perceptions of the caregiving role. Research Method/Design: The TBI-CareQOL measurement system assesses important self-reported outcomes

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to examine the association between characteristics of persons with traumatic brain injury (PwTBI) and perceived sleep-related impairment of the caregivers. METHOD Fifty-two dyads (n = 23 civilians, n = 29 service members/veterans [SMVs]) were enrolled. Caregivers completed the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Sleep-Related Impairment computer

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to examine the associations among posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), sleep quality, pain interference, and quality of life in combat veterans. METHOD Veterans (N = 289, 86.51% male) completed the Mid-Atlantic MIRECC Assessment of Traumatic Brain Injury, the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5, and measures of sleep quality

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Individuals with visual impairments, including transition-age youth, have much lower employment rates than their peers without disabilities. We conducted a systematic review to examine the factors that predict employment in American youth with visual impairments. Research/Method: We used a three-pronged approach to identify articles via databases search, hand search, and ancestral

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to assess how neurobehavioral symptoms following traumatic brain injury (TBI) may differ based on gender and the experience of nightmares. Research Method/Design: This cross-sectional study of community-dwelling adults ≥ 3 months post-TBI (n = 110) assessed differences in neurobehavioral symptoms between women (n = 41) and men (n = 69) by experience of

BACKGROUND The study aim was to develop and psychometrically assess an instrument to measure clinician attitude and competence in understanding violence affecting women with disabilities. METHOD Data were collected from 419 clinicians with a master's degree or higher. Once collected, data was split randomly into two equal groups. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the first half of the data

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Members of minority groups may face stress as they navigate between their native culture and the dominant culture. No measure exists for evaluating acculturative stress among deaf individuals in the United States. The current study examined the psychometric properties of a modified version of the 24-item Social Attitudinal Familial and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (SAFE;

Rehabilitation psychology is based on foundational principles that can guide us toward health equity among disabled and nondisabled communities. We summarize the literature on disparities in the disability community and underscore the urgency to address underlying inequities to eliminate disparities. We include examples of population-level interventions that promote equity in the disability community

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Health care providers' attitudes of marginalized groups can be key factors that contribute to health care access and outcome disparities because of their influence on patient encounters as well as clinical decision-making. Despite a growing body of knowledge linking disparate health outcomes to providers' clinical decision making, less research has focused on providers' attitudes

OBJECTIVE Caregivers for individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) can experience high burden, which underlies the importance of examining the needs of caregivers to be able to support them in the caregiving role. The current study aims to assess the relationships among PD symptoms and four measures of caregiver quality of life (QOL; i.e., personal and social activities, anxiety and depression, self-care

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to develop a publicly available, psychometrically sound item bank and short forms for measuring resilience in any population, but especially resilience in individuals with chronic medical conditions or long-term disability. RESEARCH METHODS A panel of 9 experts including disability researchers, clinical psychologists, and health outcomes researchers developed a

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Persons with Huntington's disease experience stigma because of their gene status. Whereas perceived stigma has been found to impact quality of life, it is unknown how different health domains (i.e., physical, emotional, cognitive, and social) are associated with feelings of stigma. In addition, stigma research has been limited by the use of cross-sectional analyses. The current study

PURPOSE This study was designed to investigate the equivalency and factor structure of the patients and significant others' version of pain catastrophizing scales in patients with chronic pain and their spouses who are not in pain. METHOD Participants were 142 married couples in which 1 spouse reported chronic musculoskeletal pain. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to compare 4 models of pain

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE This study investigated the type and recency of the pain experience recalled (i.e., pain referent) by a healthy group and a chronic/recurrent pain group when they responded to the trait version of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS). We also aimed to disentangle the influence of trait personality factors and state oriented pain-related cognitive processes on PCS scores. Research

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to examine the BIS-BAS model of chronic pain. This model posits that 2 neurophysiological systems-the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitized to and activated by punishment cues and the behavioral activation system (BAS) sensitized to and activated by reward cues-make independent and concurrent contributions to 2 domains of pain-related function:

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present qualitative study was to explore how people living with spinal cord injury (SCI) conceptualize 2 factors believed to contribute to perceptions of injustice (i.e., severity/irreparability of loss and blame/sense of unfairness) and identify specific sources that contribute to these perceptions. Research Method/Design: To assess perceived injustice, the 12-item

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Caregivers are vital to our health care system and its sustainability, yet extensive literature has recognized caregivers' vulnerabilities for experiencing financial, physical, and emotional difficulties-compromising the sustainability of their services. The risks associated with being a caregiver are not well-defined and warrant further exploration to guide national health initiatives

OBJECTIVE Cognitive impairments are a devastating consequence of acquired brain injury (ABI) in children. Current pediatric tools for assessing cognitive impairments are generally time intensive and applicable only to a restricted age span. The National Institutes of Health Toolbox-Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) is a standardized, tablet-based cognitive assessment that has been normed across the life

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE This article describes the initial factor exploration of disability identity and preliminary psychometric characteristics based on an adult self-report tool. Disability was defined broadly, and the sample included individuals with visible and/or hidden disabilities across many disability groups (i.e., physical, intellectual, learning, mental illness). METHOD Items were developed (n

BACKGROUND Health disparities are avoidable differences that disproportionately impact certain groups. Health equity demands attention to social determinants of health (SDOH), particularly for people with disabilities who often have poorer outcomes and face more health inequities than nondisabled peers. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop a Social Determinants of Health Index for people

OBJECTIVE Performance-based tests of functional capacity are rarely used in research on mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI), but they may function as a link between cognitive impairment and real-world functioning. We sought to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning and performance-based functional capacity, as measured by the University of California San Diego Performance-Based

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Coping With Disability Difficulties Scale (CDDS), a scale to measure the coping strategies used by people with disabilities to face the disability-related difficulties (caused by both disability itself and by stigma) they encounter in their daily lives. METHOD/DESIGN An initial pool of 110 items was developed

OBJECTIVE Unintentional injuries such as road traffic injuries constitute a major facet of health and disability in low- and middle-income countries. Survivors of moderate or severe unintentional injuries are at risk of psychological distress, although many people show resilience during recovery. This article describes the experience and contributing factors of psychological distress and resilience

OBJECTIVE To examine the association among body composition, defined as the percentage of body fat mass (BF) and lean mass (LM), bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD) in the human body and the presentation of symptoms (i.e., fatigue, pain, depression, anxiety, and poor sleep quality) in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). DESIGN The present study is a secondary analysis of baseline

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE This commentary demonstrates the need for culturally adapted interventions to support informal caregivers (care partners) of adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), proposes and supports an evidence-based intervention, Problem-Solving Training (PST), uniquely suitable for cultural adaptation for Latinx care partners, and describes several considerations and concrete suggestions

OBJECTIVE Caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently experience anxiety related to the caregiver role. Often this is due to a caregiver's perceived need to avoid people and situations that might upset or "trigger" the care recipient. There are currently no self-report measures that capture these feelings; thus, this article describes the development and preliminary validation

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE To examine the influence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity on the health-related quality of life of caregivers providing care to service members/veterans (SMV) following a TBI. Research Method/Design: Thirty caregivers (90.0% female; 70.0% spouse; age: M = 39.5 years, SD = 10.7) of SMVs who sustained a mild, moderate, severe, or penetrating TBI were recruited from Walter Reed

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Spiritual well-being has been associated with better quality of life outcomes in caregivers, but the associations among the care recipient's functional status, the caregiver's spiritual well-being, and the caregiver's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is unknown. Research Method/Design: The study examined the Spiritual Well-Being Scale in caregivers of persons with traumatic

PURPOSE Caregivers of service members/veterans (SMVs) encounter a number of barriers when navigating the military health care system. The purpose of this study was to develop a new measure to assess potential caregiver frustration with the systems of care and benefits in the United States Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. METHOD The TBI-CareQOL Military Health Care Frustration measure was

OBJECTIVE To examine the effectiveness of the Therapeutic Couples Intervention (TCI) on caregiver needs and burden after brain injury. RESEARCH METHOD Individuals with brain injury and their intimate partners/caregivers (n = 75) participated in a 2-arm, parallel, randomized trial with a waitlist control. The TCI consisted of 5 2-hr sessions, with a sixth optional session for parents. The Family Needs

PURPOSE Family disruption is often an indirect consequence of providing care for a person with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This article describes the development and preliminary validation of a Family Disruption scale designed for inclusion within the TBI-CareQOL measurement system. METHOD/DESIGN Five hundred thirty-four caregivers of persons with TBI (service member/veteran n = 316; civilian n =

OBJECTIVE The Traumatic Brain Injury Caregiver Quality of Life (TBI-CareQOL) is a patient-reported outcome measurement system that is specific to caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans (SMVs) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This measurement system includes 26 item banks that represent both generic (i.e., borrowed from existing measurement systems) and caregiver-specific components

OBJECTIVE Neuropsychological assessment plays a key role in characterizing and detecting cognitive impairment after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Rey Tangled Line Test (RTLT), an understudied neuropsychological assessment thought to be capable of detecting visual processing deficits, was examined to determine which cognitive abilities may contribute to performance on the test in participants with

PURPOSE The current study examined the validity of scores from the sitting time item on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) in a sample of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). METHOD Persons with MS were recruited through the distribution of printed letters to a random sample of 1,000 persons from the North American Research Committee on MS registry. Two hundred

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE Alexithymia refers to reduced emotional awareness and is associated with higher levels of burden and disability in adults with chronic pain. Limited research has examined alexithymia in adolescents with chronic pain. The current study aimed to (a) determine whether alexithymia was higher in adolescents with (vs. without) chronic pain and (b) examine the relationship between alexithymia

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE The DePaul Symptom Questionnaire (DSQ) is a widely used instrument that assesses common symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The DSQ has strong psychometric properties; however, it consists of 99 items, and the energy limitations and cognitive difficulties experienced by individuals with ME and CFS may hinder their ability to easily complete

PURPOSE Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) may experience both positive (posttraumatic growth, PTG) and negative (posttraumatic depreciation, PTD) psychological changes following the injury. PTG and PTD were assessed using the 10-item short form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF) and 10 matched negatively worded items for PTD (selected from the PTGI-42) within the Swiss Spinal Cord

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship of cognitive status to employment outcomes at 1-year post moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), using a brief telephone-administered instrument. Research Method/Design: Prospective longitudinal study in which 320 people with moderate-severe TBI, all employed at injury, were enrolled during inpatient rehabilitation and evaluated at 1-year postinjury

OBJECTIVE To describe and characterize the lifetime history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) among active duty soldiers returning from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq. METHOD Data were extracted from a larger parent study that was conducted at two large United States Army bases between 2009 and 2014 during Post-Deployment Health Assessment. The sample included 1,060 soldiers who sustained at least

OBJECTIVES Although many Iraq/Afghanistan warzone veterans report few problems with adjustment, a substantial proportion report debilitating mental health symptoms and functional impairment, suggesting the influence of personal factors that may promote adjustment. A significant minority also incur warzone-related traumatic brain injury (TBI), the majority of which are of mild severity (mTBI). We tested

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE To determine the rate of insomnia among active-duty soldiers with and without a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research Method and Design: Data were extracted from the All Army Study (AAS), a cross-sectional, self-report survey completed by a representative sample of 21,499 U.S. Army soldiers from 2011 to 2013 as part of the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers

OBJECTIVES This study investigated reciprocal associations between meaning in life and physical quality of life (QOL) in the rehabilitation context. It was hypothesized that a higher level of meaning in life at Time 1 (T1) would predict better physical QOL at Time 2 (T2), and that better physical QOL (T1) would predict a higher level of meaning in life (T2). RESEARCH METHOD This longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE Sleep disturbance is a key behavioral health concern among Iraq and Afghanistan era veterans and is a frequent complaint among veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Currently, it is unclear whether sleep disturbance is a core sequelae of mTBI or if it may be related to other behavioral health conditions that are commonly present in postdeployment veterans. The purpose