Our Research
Welcome to our Research Team page! Our Team at UMKC examines several aspects of health related to social cognition, with a particular focus on recovery following a cardiovascular event.
We've examined causal attributions and their effects on health
status, the trajectory of self-efficacy over two years in cardiac
rehabilitation patients, and how stress and poverty affect psychosocial
reserves following a heart attack.
Our team is currently working on the following projects:
Motivational Interviewing to
Increase Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation and Medication
Adherence: This pilot intervention study uses
a brief telephone-based motivational interview to increase medication
adherence and participation in cardiac rehabilitation among cardiac
patients at our partner hospital,
Truman Medical Center.
Validation of a Measure of Cardiac
Self-Blame:
This project collects data from
cardiac patients on their beliefs regarding the causes of their
cardiovacular events. Currently, most researchers in this area use
single-items to assess behavioral and characterological self-blame
attributions. The scale we are validating is 14 items, and we will
be assessing its predictive ability with health outcomes in the near
future among cardiac rehabilitation patients.
In addition, our team members have worked on the following
research presentations during the past few years:
(you can click on the hyperlinked titles to
open PDFs of our posters)
Symptoms of anxiety and healthy behaviors mediate associations between
perceived discrimination, optimism, social support, and health-related
quality of life among Hispanic Americans with low income.
(poster presented at 2015 APS Convention).
Religious coping, depressive symptoms, and adherence to health
recommendations in cardiac rehabilitation patients.
(poster
presented at 2015 SBM Conference)
Examination of the reliability and validity of the Cardiac Self-Blame
Attributions (CSBA) scale.
(poster presented at the 2015 SBM
Conference)
Barriers to completing cardiac rehabilitation among patients at an
urban safety-net hospital.
(poster presented at the 2015 SBM
Conference)
Factor structure of the Beck Anxiety Inventory among cardiac
rehabilitation patients: Longitudinal measurement invariance.
(poster presented at the 2014 SBM Conference)
And, our team members have published the
following articles over the past few years:
(you can click on hyperlinked titles to go to
sites where our articles can be accessed)
Bennett, K.K., Clark, J.M.R., Harry, K.M., & Howarter, A.D. (2016). Causal attributions following a cardiac event: Short- and long-term differences in health outcomes. Health Psychology Open. DOI: 10.1177/205510291663266.
Harry, K.M., Bennett, K.K., Clark, J.M.R., Howarter, A.D., & Eways, K.R. (2015). Self-blame attributions and symptom experiences in cardiac rehabilitation patients. North American Journal of Psychology, 17 (3), 541-554.
Bennett, K.K., Buchanan, D.M., Jones, P., & Spertus, J.A. (2015). Socioeconomic status, cognitive-emotional factors, and health status following myocardial infarction: Testing the Reserve Capacity Model. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38 (1), 110-121.
Howarter, A.D., Bennett, K.K., Barber, C.E., Gessner, S.N., & Clark, J.M.R. (2014). Exercise self-efficacy and symptoms of depression after cardiac rehabilitation: Predicting changes over time using a piecewise growth curve analysis. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 29 (2), 168-177.
Bennett, K.K., & Marte, R.M. (2013). Patient attributions for cardiac events: Predictors of physical and psychological recovery. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, 660-672.
Howarter, A.D., & Bennett, K.K. (2013). Perceived discrimination and health-related quality of life: Testing the Reserve Capacity Model in Hispanic Americans. Journal of Social Psychology, 153 (1), 62-79.
Bennett, K.K., Howarter, A.D., & Clark, J.M.R. (2013). Self-blame attributions, control appraisals, and distress among cardiac rehabilitation patients. Psychology and Health, 28 (6), 637-652.
Bennett, K.K., Buchanan, J., & Adams, A.D. (2012). Social-cognitive predictors of intention to vaccinate against the human papillomavirus in college-age women. Journal of Social Psychology, 152 (4), 480-492.
Bennett, K.K., Adams, A.D., & Ricks, J.M. (2012). Pessimistic attributional style and cardiac symptom experiences: Self-efficacy as a mediator. North American Journal of Psychology, 14 (2), 293-306.
Please contact us with any questions!