Justify your love: testing an online STI-risk communication intervention designed to promote condom use and STI-testing

The efficacy of a tailored, web-based intervention communicating the risks of sexually transmitted infections (STI) for heterosexual young adults was examined in a randomised, controlled trial. The main aims of the relationship-oriented intervention were to influence risk perceptions and to promote (maintenance of) condom use and STI-testing among young adults who reported being recently engaged in a heterosexual relationship. The intervention addressed risk perceptions, attitudes, normative beliefs, self-efficacy and skills related to condom use and STI-testing. Outcomes were compared immediately after the intervention (N = 171) and 3 months later (N = 115) to a non-tailored intervention group and to a control group. Cognitive and behavioural outcomes showed that the tailored intervention was efficacious in influencing perceived susceptibility to STI and STI-testing intentions immediately after the intervention, and in reducing rates of unprotected sex at 3 months.     

Teaching about teaching sexuality and religion

Classroom instructors implementing pedagogical strategies for embodied learning about sexuality and religion need institutional support and assistance from colleagues and mentors to be successful. One means of providing institutional and peer support for classroom instructors is to host and lead a pedagogy workshop. Building on the work of Ott and Stephens on embodied learning and other articles and teaching tactics found throughout this issue of Teaching Theology and Religion, this article presents a sample design for a two‐hour workshop with faculty and/or graduate teaching assistants on the topic of teaching sexuality and religion. Non‐expert facilitators can lead this workshop and it is intended to start a conversation about pedagogy rather than to provide definitive answers to end the discussion. The goals are to demystify a taboo topic and to provide concrete strategies for teaching that will promote responsible engagement and a better‐integrated learning experience for students.     

Teaching about sexuality and veiling in Islam

This article proposes strategies for teaching about sexuality in Islam through student‐centered learning activities, such as self‐reflection, multimedia presentations, and small group discussions. We focus on a diversity of perspectives related to veiling in Islam. The approaches we describe help students deconstruct and reevaluate common U.S. cultural assumptions that equate veiling in Islam with the oppression of Muslim women. Through the use of Likert scale questionnaires and written reflection papers, we have found that students are able to acknowledge and distinguish a multiplicity of perspectives regarding veiling and sexuality in Islam after they have been introduced to academic scholarship on the history of veiling, and after they have had multiple opportunities to engage in small and large group discussions on the topic.     

Sex-role orientation and stereotypes about male-female sexuality

An experiment was conducted to examine the stereotypes about human sexuality held by persons of different sex-role orientations. Sex-typed and androgynous subjects were given bogus information about the sexual experience of another person. This other person was either a male or a female and either high or low in sexual experience. The subjects were then shown some erotic slides and asked to predict how sexually aroused the target person would be by viewing these stimuli. Additionally, the subjects were asked to rate the target person on traits of a sexual and evaluative nature. The results showed, as predicted, that the sexual experience of a female target influences how much sexual arousal is attributed to her. Female targets of high experience were attributed more arousal than inexperienced female targets. For male targets, no such difference was found. Ratings of the targets on an evaluative dimension revealed a double standard: Sexually experienced females were rated lower than were inexperienced females; no difference was found for male targets. In addition, sex-typed subjects tended to express more traditional stereotypes of sexuality than androgynous subjects. The influence that these stereotypes may have in guiding malefemale interactions is discussed.This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to Kansas State University. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of William Giffitt, and his helpful comments and suggestions.     

Self-efficacy as a moderator of the planning-behaviour relationship in interventions designed to promote physical activity

Individuals who lack perceived self-efficacy may benefit less from planning interventions because they fail to apply their plans when encountering situations that appear challenging. Thus, self-efficacy may operate as a moderator in relation to the effects of planning interventions on behaviour. This article reports from two experimental studies using cluster randomisation. Study 1 included 58 patients with diabetes who received a face-to-face action planning intervention to improve their physical activity levels. Study 2 targeted the roles of planning and self-efficacy for the maintenance of regular running and for relapse prevention in 187 active individuals over a 2-year period. The email-delivered intervention prompted specific goal setting and facilitated planning to mobilise social support to secure relapse prevention. Results of the two studies were consistent with a moderating effect of self-efficacy in relation to the planning-behaviour relationship. Individuals with high self-efficacy benefited from planning interventions. If a person lacks self-efficacy, planning may not effectively promote physical activity.     

Ways of reacting to communication failure in relation to the development of the child's understanding about verbal communication

Tested the hypothesis that explicit identification of message ambiguity as a reason for failure in referential communication could help young children to gain understanding about the need for unique reference in communicative acts, in both experimental and natural settings. In the experiment each of 47 children aged 5-2 to 6-5 selected and then described clothes for a doll so that the experimenter could choose matching items. Ambiguous instructions from the children were consistently responded to with one of three reactions by the experimenter: (1) she guessed an item, (2) she asked ‘Which one?’ waited and chose or (3) she made explicit why she could not make a unique choice on the basis of the child's message. Both before and after this manipulation children were assessed for their understanding that messages can be ambiguous and can cause communication failure. Children accorded the third treatment improved most both in understanding and in reducing the ambiguity of their messages. A similar assessment of understanding was made of 36 6-year-old children of whom recordings of interaction in the home had been made over several previous years. Children whose mothers had made explicit their lack of understanding of their child's utterances were more advanced than those whose mothers had not.     

Three contributions to understanding human sexuality

A critical review of three recent studies of sexuality is placed against the background of four groups that have, for the past decade, attempted to discern the most important facts—known or still to be discovered—about human sexuality. The books reviewed are:The Pleasure Bond by William H. Masters and Virginia Johnson;Christian, Celebrate Your Sexuality by Dwight Hervey Small; andMale Homosexuals: Their Problems and Adaptations by Martin S. Weinberg and Colin J. Williams.     

Family/media approach to HIV prevention: results with a home-based, parent-teen video program.

We describe the first study with a home-based HIV prevention video program for parents and young teenagers. The objectives of the program are to inform parents and teenagers about the causes and prevention of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases, to increase family problem-solving skills, and to increase teen problem-solving and assertiveness skills. The objectives pertain to the goals of increasing skills needed to help teenagers avoid or manage high-risk behaviors and situations. Forty-five families with at least one 12- to 14-year-old were randomly assigned to either experimental (receive video program) or control (no video) conditions in a pretest-posttest design. After 6 months (Follow-Up 1), the experimental and control families were reassessed. The control families next received the video program, and the control families were assessed again (Follow-Up 2). The results indicate increases in parent and teen knowledge and skills only with video viewing. Approaches to improving the video program, particularly with teenagers, are discussed.     

Interventions to reduce epilepsy-associated stigma

Epilepsy-associated stigma has long been recognized as a significant cause of psychosocial morbidity for people with epilepsy. This paper reviews the available literature addressing interventions aimed at reducing epilepsy-associated stigma and briefly discusses future that may assist in the development of effective interventions.     

Women's Opposition to Race-Targeted Interventions

Work on the correlates of opposition to race targeted interventions (ORTI) has neglected gender specific analysis. Given that women themselves have been subject to collective discrimination, this experience could conceivably offset or reduce the effect of standard predictors of ORTI in the case of women. The present study employs multiple regression analysis on national data from the General Social Survey. The results indicate that indicators of all three standard theoretical perspectives (self interest, stratification ideology, and prejudice) tend to be more predictive of female ORTI than male ORTI. The hypothesis that the collective experience of discrimination would offset standard predictors of ORTI is not supported. The model explains 36% of the variance of womens' ORTI and 21% of the variance in ORTI among men.     

Beliefs about female and male nonverbal communication

Participants (N= 441) rated from 1 to 10 how frequently or well they believed hypothetical women and men performed each of twenty nonverbal behaviors or skills. Women were believed to use more expressive and involved nonverbal behaviors than men, and to be more skilled at sending and receiving nonverbal messages. Men were believed to be louder and more interruptive, and to display more nervous, dysfluent behaviors. Ratings given to females by females were higher than were ratings in the other gender combinations for over half the variables, which may accurately describe female—female interaction. Perceived gender differences correlated positively with differences reported in observational studies, indicating that beliefs about nonverbal gender differences were generally accurate. The authors wish to thank Tom Leahy for his assistance in data collection.     

Risk communication and worry about breast cancer

Feedback concerning breast cancer risk was provided to 59 college-aged women who were overestimating their personal risk. In a 2 (Absolute Risk Feedback; yes or no) ×?2 (Comparative Risk Feedback; yes or no) design, women completed a brief risk questionnaire and then received both, one, or neither kind of risk feedback. Absolute information reduced estimates of vulnerability, although not to the levels suggested by the feedback. Absolute feedback had no effect on worry about breast cancer, but worry was lower for women who learned that they were no more at risk than other, similar women.     

Cognitive beliefs about male sexuality: The impact of gender roles and counselor perspectives

Two studies are presented which examine stereotypie beliefs about males and their sexuality through the use of the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale (SAMSS). In the first study, the relationship between the SAMSS and two gender role measures were examined. The results revealed that the restrictive emotionality aspect of the masculine role was strongly associated with stereotypic beliefs about male sexuality. Other gender role preferences and behaviors were also found to be positively associated with conventional performance approaches to male sexuality. In the second investigation, counseling trainees were asked to describe how mentally healthy adult men and women would respond to the Stereotypes About Male Sexuality Scale. The responses of both male and female intraining counselors indicated that they expected mentally healthy males: (a) to reject inhibited, control, and constant readiness approaches to the expression of male sexuality and (b) to express greater disagreement toward defining male sexuality exclusively in terms of sexual intercourse and toward viewing males as inherently knowledgeable about sex. These results thus provide evidence for the importance of the SAMSS and a cognitive approach to the study of male sexuality.William E. Snell, Jr., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Southeast Missouri State University. Sharyn S. Belk is a Ph.D. candidate in social-personality psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Raymond C. Hawkins II, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist at the Austin Regional Clinic in Austin, Texas.Portions of these data were presented at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, and at the XXIII International Congress of Psychology, Acapulco, Mexico.