A conceptual model was tested in which the effects of mentoring relationships on adolescents' academic outcomes were hypothesized to be mediated partially through improvements in parental relationships. The parameters of the model were compared with those of an alternative, in which improved parental relationships were treated as an outcome variable rather than a mediator. The study included 959 young adolescents (M age = 12.25 years), all of whom applied to Big Brothers Big Sisters programs. The adolescents were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group and administered questions at baseline and 18 months later. The hypothesized model provided a significantly better explanation of the data than the alternative. In addition to improvements in parental relationships, mentoring led to reductions in unexcused absences and improvements in perceived scholastic competence. Direct effects of mentoring on global self-worth, school value, and grades were not detected but were instead mediated through improved parental relationships and scholastic competence. Implications of the findings for theory and research are discussed.

Contrasting predictors of depression among 101 men and 214 women providing care to spouses suffering from Alzheimer's Disease indicated that the sole predictor for husbands was ill health, whereas for wives less emotional investment was also predictive. While there were no significant predictors for burden among husbands, for wives, burden was associated with poorer health, less emotional investment, greater spouse impairment, and provision of more assistance with tasks.

Coping strategies used by 315 persons providing care to a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease were characterized as either emotion-focused (wishfulness, acceptance, intrapsychic) or problem-focused (instrumental). Models in which coping strategies were postulated as having mediator, moderator, and independent main effects were tested using multiple indexes of mental health. Wishfulness and intrapsychic strategies mediated the relationship between degree of stress and CES-D, Anxiety, and Depression. Wishfulness had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; intrapsychic strategies had a direct effect on Obsessive-Compulsive, Somatization, and Interpersonal Sensitivity; and instrumental strategies had a direct effect on Positive Affect. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that stressors and coping strategies explained between 12% and 40% of the variance on mental health indexes.

The relationships between well-being of 262 caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients and forgetful, asocial, and disoriented behaviors on the part of the impaired spouse were examined using three one-way MANOVAs. Results indicate that asocial and disoriented behaviors have linear relationships with levels of burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and the extent to which caregivers sacrificed aspects of their social life. Asocial behaviors were also linearly related to overall level of caregiver depression. Forgetful behaviors, on the other hand, have relationships with burden, specific mental health problems attributed to caregiving, and social change that are nonlinear. Data are interpreted in terms of the predictable course of Alzheimer's disease and associated role expectations.

There is new evidence that smokers of all ages benefit from cessation of smoking. Although most older smokers, like younger smokers, prefer to quit on their own, at the time this project was started, there were no materials or programs targeted to older smokers. Using the literature, focus groups with older smokers and a national survey of older smokers, we created Clear Horizons, a self-help guide for older smokers, and a telephone counseling protocol tailored to the needs of older smokers (age 50-74). Smokers were recruited from around the United States and assigned randomly to a control guide, Clearing the Air, Clear Horizons alone or Clear Horizons and two counselor calls. Follow-up of nearly 2000 smokers was conducted by telephone 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after delivery of the self-help guides. This report focuses primarily on results at 3 months because that was the measurement for reactions to the interventions. At the 3 month interview, those in the tailored interventions rated their guides more highly than did those in the control group. They also read more of their guides and were more likely to reread them. Quit rates were significantly higher among smokers who received a combination of the tailored guide and telephone counseling. At 3 months, the combination of the guide and telephone counseling was most effective in helping smokers to quit. By 12 months, both the tailored guide alone and the tailored guide and calls groups had higher quit rates than the control guide but were not statistically different from one another.