Implementing Housing First Across Sites and Over Time: Later Fidelity and Implementation Evaluation of a Pan-Canadian Multi-site Housing First Program for Homeless People with Mental Illness

This article examines later fidelity and implementation of a five‐site pan‐Canadian Housing First research demonstration project. The average fidelity score across five Housing First domains and 10 programs was high in the first year of operation (3.47/4) and higher in the third year of operation (3.62/4). Qualitative interviews (36 key informant interviews and 17 focus groups) revealed that staff expertise, partnerships with other services, and leadership facilitated implementation, while staff turnover, rehousing participants, participant isolation, and limited vocational/educational supports impeded implementation. The findings shed light on important implementation “drivers” at the staff, program, and community levels.     

Perceptions of Divine Figures Among Polish People Struggling with Homelessness or Alcohol Addiction

This study aimed to investigate antecedents of positive perceptions of divine agents and the optimistic assumption that the world is meaningful, basically good and trustworthy, as found in Polish men and women who struggle with homelessness or alcohol addiction. In the largely understudied groups of people who were homeless (n = 111) or alcohol addicted (n = 120), we confirmed that communal orientation is a consistent precursor of beliefs in supernatural agents such as God, the Devil and angels, as well as positive perceptions of both God and guardian angels. The antecedents of basic trust varied across participant groups. However, among them were positive attitudes toward God, communal orientation, and a deferring problem-solving style. Additionally, we found asymmetric links between perceptions of divine agents and both duration of addiction and duration of therapy in the addicted group. The former was related to a less positive perception of guardian angels and less perceived collaboration with God, whereas the latter was linked to a more positive perception of angels and more collaboration with God in problem-solving. We discuss the significance of a positive concept of divine beings for people who are homeless or alcohol addicted.     

Identity Distress Among Youth Exposed to Natural Disasters: Associations with Level of Exposure,Posttraumatic Stress,and Internalizing Problems

Identity distress involves intense or prolonged upset or worry about personal identity issues including long-term goals, career choice, friendships, sexual orientation and behavior, religion, values and beliefs, and group loyalties. Research suggests that trauma exposure and subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may negatively affect identity development and psychological adjustment. However, little is known about their specific associations with identity distress and internalizing problems among disaster-exposed adolescents. This study aimed to examine these associations in a sample of 325 adolescents (60% female; 89% African American) who experienced a major natural disaster and its aftermath. The results indicated that identity distress was positively associated with age, hurricane exposure, PTSD symptoms, and internalizing problems. Linear regression analyses also showed that identity distress was uniquely associated with internalizing symptoms and that there was an indirect effect of hurricane exposure on identity distress via PTSD symptoms. PTSD symptoms moderated the link between identity distress and internalizing symptoms, with a significant positive slope found for youth with more PTSD symptoms. Findings were generally consistent with previous work and predictions, and they add to the extant knowledge about identity distress by providing data on the linkages among disaster exposure, posttraumatic stress, and internalizing problems in adolescents.     

Affective and Behavioral Changes Following Exposure to Traumatic Events: the Moderating Effect of Religiosity on Avoidance Behavior Among Students Studying Under a High Level of Terror Event Exposure

The goals of this study were to examine the development of affective and behavioral changes following exposure to traumatic events among Israeli students studying under a high level of terror event exposure and to assess the effects of religiosity on those changes development. A questionnaire was administered to 770 students in the Ariel University Center in Judea and Samaria. Higher levels of terror exposure were associated with higher levels of avoidance behavior, subjective feelings of insecurity, and emotional distress. Higher religiosity moderated avoidance behavior, even when controlling for the level of objective exposure to terror events exposure, but had no influence on subjective sense of insecurity, or the level of emotional distress. These findings suggest that religiosity moderates behavioral changes development after traumatic event exposure mainly by reducing avoidance behavior.     

Anxiety as a Predictor of Age at First Use of Substances and Progression to Substance Use Problems Among Boys

This study examined associations of generalized and social anxiety with (1) age at first use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana and (2) interval from first use to first problem use of each substance. Participants were 503 males who comprised the youngest cohort (first assessed in the first grade) of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a longitudinal community-based study of boys. Annual assessments of generalized and social anxiety, delinquency, and substance use from first grade through high school were included. Both types of anxiety predicted earlier first use of alcohol and tobacco, and generalized anxiety predicted earlier first use of marijuana. Both types of anxiety predicted the progression from first use to problems related to marijuana. The effect of generalized anxiety tended to be significant above and beyond the effect of delinquency, while the effect of social anxiety on risk for first use of substances was not. Overall, the associations between anxiety and substance use and related problems depend on the class of substance and the type of anxiety.     

Exposure to Media Images of Female Attractiveness and Concern with Body Weight Among Young Women1

Despite the popular belief that the thinstandard of female attractiveness currently presented inthe media is a primary contributor to the high level ofconcern with body weight among women, experimental studies have not shown that exposure to mediaimages increases women's weight concern. Threeexperiments are reported demonstrating that exposure tomedia images does often result in increased weightconcern among women, but that body dissatisfaction, astable personality characteristic, is a moderator ofvulnerability to this effect. Although most womenreported higher weight concern when exposed to media vs. neutral images, women with low initial bodydissatisfaction did not. In addition, this researchsuggests that negative effects on weight concern mayresult from even passive exposure to media images, but that exposure to realistic attractivenessis less likely to cause increased weight concern. Theethnicity of the participants in these studies reflectedthat of the local population, with over 90% white. The nonwhite participants primarily belonged toone of the following groups; Asian, Pacific Islander,Latino.     

Exposure to music with prosocial lyrics reduces aggression: First evidence and test of the underlying mechanism

Previous research has predominantly focused on negative effects of music exposure by demonstrating that listening to antisocial music increases aggression and aggression-related variables. The present research tests the idea that listening to prosocial (relative to neutral) music decreases aggressive outcomes. In fact, five studies revealed that prosocial music exposure decreased aggressive cognition, affect, and behavior. Mediational analyses showed that the effect of music condition on aggressive behavior was accounted for by differences in aggressive affect. Implications of these results for the predictive validity of the general learning model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of media exposure on social tendencies are discussed.     

Unable to be a Human Being in Front of Other People: A Qualitative Study of Self-Isolation Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in China

In China, acute stigma accompanying an HIV diagnosis can lead to self-isolation. In a cultural setting where family relationships are highly valued and contribute critically to well-being, such self-isolation can thwart HIV self-management and engagement in medical care, and so heighten risk for health disparities. To understand this phenomenon, we conducted individual in-depth interviews with 34 persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLwHA) in Shanghai and Beijing. Inductive content analysis revealed a range of forms of self-isolation motivation, beliefs, and behaviors influenced by: 1) internalized stigma and desire to avoid discrimination; 2) HIV-related factors such as HIV knowledge and disease progression; and 3) familial factors such as a sense of responsibility and family members’ reactions. Based on a proposed framework centering on dialectical family influences (whereby PLwHA are pushed away from, yet pulled toward the family fold), implications for provision of multidisciplinary care in medical settings are considered, including culturally appropriate strategies to decrease health disparities.     

Description of a Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Substance Use and Related Risk and Increase Positive Parenting among Urban Mothers with Alcohol and Other Drug Problems

The abuse of alcohol and other substances by mothers raising adolescent children has serious adverse effects on family functioning and youth outcomes, and on mothers’ own health and adaptation. Mothers who are also HIV-infected face additional challenges. In the present report, we describe a multi-session intervention conducted in individual sessions for mothers with alcohol and other substance use problems who are raising adolescent children. We outline the primary components of the intervention and include case studies and examples of exercises and tools. We found that engagement with the intervention and high rates of attendance were facilitated by tapping into mothers’ desires to improve their relationships with their adolescent children, the use of a harm reduction approach toward substance use, and intensive outreach. We also discuss lessons learned in the course of implementing and evaluating the intervention.