Predicting Early Sexual Activity with Behavior Problems Exhibited at School Entry and in Early Adolescence

Youth who initiate sexual intercourse in early adolescence (age 11–14) experience multiple risks, including concurrent adjustment problems and unsafe sexual practices. The current study tested two models describing the links between childhood precursors, early adolescent risk factors, and adolescent sexual activity: a cumulative model and a meditational model. A longitudinal sample of 694 boys and girls from four geographical locations was utilized, with data collected from kindergarten through high school. Structural equation models revealed that, irrespective of gender or race, high rates of aggressive disruptive behaviors and attention problems at school entry increased risk for a constellation of problem behaviors in middle school (school maladjustment, antisocial activity, and substance use) which, in turn, promoted the early initiation of sexual activity. Implications are discussed for developmental models of early sexual activity and for prevention programming.

Relationship between Trauma and Risky Behavior in Substance-Abusing Parents Involved in a Family Dependency Treatment Court

This exploratory study examined participants in a Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC), designed for substance-abusing parents whose children were removed from the home. Twenty-five participants were interviewed one year after FDTC enrollment to assess retrospectively the relationship between trauma history and risky behaviors. Treatment compliance rates were found to be high, and most participants had negative urinalysis results. Qualitative analyses revealed that approximately half of the participants attributed decreases in risky behaviors to the FDTC program. This study increases understanding of the effect of substance abuse and trauma on high-risk behaviors and might help to improve services for substance-abusing parents involved in the child welfare system. Finally, the future success of reducing child abuse and neglect and parental substance use could hinge on the partnership between judicial and substance abuse treatment through FDTCs. Findings from this exploratory pilot study should be replicated with more representative and larger samples.     

Negative urgency and risky sexual behaviors: A clarification of the relationship between impulsivity and risky sexual behavior

How does impulsivity relate to risky sexual behavior? Whereas some research has attempted to answer this question in terms of global impulsivity, past research has demonstrated the need to conceptualize impulsivity as a multifaceted trait (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). Research has been mixed as to which facets of impulsivity predict risky sexual behavior. The major aim of this project was to further the understanding between the five facets of impulsivity (positive urgency, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, sensation-seeking, and lack of perseverance) and risky sexual behavior. This study used a longitudinal design and showed that risky sex was highest among people who act rashly on the basis of negative emotion (negative urgency) and who crave novel, exciting situations (sensation seeking). These findings add to a growing body of literature on the importance of different facets of impulsivity in predicting risky sexual behavior.     

Neural mechanisms of social influence

The present investigation explores the neural mechanisms underlying the impact of social influence on preferences. We socially tagged symbols as valued or not – by exposing participants to the preferences of their peers – and assessed subsequent brain activity during an incidental processing task in which participants viewed popular, unpopular, and novel symbols. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) differentiated between symbols that were and were not socially tagged – a possible index of normative influence – while aspects of the striatum (the caudate) differentiated between popular and unpopular symbols – a possible index of informational influence. These results suggest that integrating activity in these two brain regions may differentiate objects that have become valued as a result of social influence from those valued for non-social reasons.     

Implementing Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) With Preteen Children Displaying Problematic Sexual Behavior

Problematic sexual behavior (PSB) is a fairly common presenting concern among preteen children with histories of trauma. Unfortunately, relatively little information about these concerns are provided in training programs and clinicians often report lacking the skills and confidence to intervene when PSB is present. Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), on the other hand, is a well-known and well-validated intervention for children who experienced maltreatment and trauma. Current evidence-based treatment techniques for PSB are primarily cognitive-behavioral in nature and easily delivered within the standard TF-CBT protocol. This paper reviews the empirical and theoretical premises of evidence-based treatment techniques for PSB and discusses how the clinician can implement them within the context of TF-CBT, while maintaining fidelity to the TF-CBT protocol. Conducting an assessment to determine the appropriateness of this form of treatment is examined as well as recommendations on addressing safety issues that may be identified during assessment.     

Modifying Children's Responses to Unsecured Firearms and Modifying the Keeping and Storage of Firearms in Families of Elementary School Children: A Possible Role for Child Behavior Therapy

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the literature on young children (children under 13) at-risk of firearms injuries, and outlines potential strategies for reducing the disproportionate rate of firearms accidents among low-income children. The available evidence suggests that this problem stems from risky gun storage practices common in low-income homes keeping guns for protection, and these practices, in turn, are a response to high rates of crime victimization and fears of crime. The role that child behavior therapy could assume to reduce the risk of firearm injury to young children and other persons due to these unsafe storage practices is the primary focus of this paper.     

Development and Refinement of a Targeted Sexual Risk Reduction Intervention for Women With a History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with sexual risk behavior in adulthood. Traditional sexual risk reduction interventions do not meet the unique needs of women who have been sexually abused. In the current paper, we describe the four-stage process we followed to develop and refine a targeted sexual risk reduction intervention for this population. First, initial quantitative work revealed that the intervention should address how maladaptive thoughts related to traumatic sexualization, trust, powerlessness, and guilt/shame (traumagenic dynamics constructs) influence current sexual behavior. Second, qualitative interviews with 10 women who reported a history of CSA (M age = 34 years; 90% African American) as well as current sexual risk behavior provided support for targeting maladaptive thoughts associated with these traumagenic dynamics constructs. Third, based on the qualitative and quantitative results, we developed a 5-session, group-delivered intervention to address the maladaptive thoughts that occurred as a result of CSA, as well as the cognitive-behavioral determinants of sexual risk behavior. This intervention drew heavily on cognitive behavioral techniques to address cognitions associated with CSA and the links between these cognitions and current sexual risk behavior. Techniques from trauma-based therapies, as well as motivational techniques, were also incorporated into the intervention. Finally, we refined the intervention with 24 women (M age = 33 years; 79% African American), and assessed feasibility and acceptability. These women reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention. The resultant intervention is currently being evaluated in a small, randomized controlled trial.     

Implicit Motives and Sexual Conservatism as Predictors of Sexual Behaviors

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to provide an assessment of the relationship between the two most important implicit motives and the most frequently studied sexual behaviors. A community sample of 102 men and 92 women completed measures of implicit power and affiliation-intimacy motives, sexual conservatism, social desirability, and sexual behavior. For men, high power motivation was positively associated with the number of sexual partners and the frequency of sex. There was an interaction between sexual conservatism and power motivation in women. For women low in sexual conservatism, high power motivation was positively associated with the number of sexual partners and with earlier initiation to intercourse and oral sex. There were few associations between affiliation-intimacy motivation and sexual behaviors; however, women high in this motive reported later initiation to oral sex.     

Knowledge,beliefs, peer norms,and past behaviors as correlates of risky sexual behaviors among college students

Abstract

HIV/AIDS knowledge, age at onset of sexual activity, perceptions of personal risk and peer norms were explored as correlates for risky sexual behaviors among college students. Ninety-nine male and 185 female college students completed a 66-item questionnaire. A majority reported being sexually active with most in mutually monogamous relationships or not currently in a sexual relationship. Multiple regression correlation analyses showed knowledge about HIV/AIDS to be very high but that this knowledge did not independently relate to the extent of risky behaviors. Perceptions of risk were positively related to number of partners and single-time partners but not condom usage. In contrast to previous studies, perceived peer norms did not independently relate to behaviors. Instead, age at first intercourse was found to have substantial overlap with current perceptions, attitudes, and likelihood for engaging in risky behaviors. The necessity for including previous behaviors in analyses of the impact of attitudes and perceived norms on behavioral intentions is discussed.     

从临床视角看性观念转变与性医学发展的辩证关系

从临床视角看待性观念的转变所产生的性现象的特点,从哲学角度探讨其与性医学发展的辩证关系。认为在分析性现象的历史状况时,要用客观的和科学的观点去辩证看待,性观念转变所表现的性现象作为一个大的系统的整体,其三个子系统相互联系,相互作用,在性医学的分科和诊治研究中,一定程度上起到了很重要的推动作用。新的性观念在不断出现,未来性现象的发展将给性医学的发展带来更加崭新的机遇和挑战。     

Sexual and Physical Abuse Among Adolescent Girls with Disruptive Behavior Problems

We examined the prevalence and age of onset of physical and sexual abuse in a clinic-referred sample of adolescent girls, as well as differences in diagnoses and symptoms among abused and non-abused girls. Forty-nine girls (aged 13–17 years) with disruptive behavior were interviewed along with their primary caretaker. Data were gathered through both a structured interview with the girl and her parent, as well as self and parent-report questionnaires. Findings indicated that the prevalence of Conduct Disorder (CD) and Major Depression were higher for abused girls. Somatoform Pain Disorder was significantly less likely for physically abused girls, compared to girls who were both physically and sexually abused. Of CD symptoms, truancy was twice as high for the physically and sexually abused group, compared to the prevalence for non-abused girls. Internalizing symptoms were also highest for the dual abuse group. Onset graphs show that the onset of sexual abuse usually occurred at an earlier age than the onset of physical abuse. Abused girls showed an earlier age of onset of CD symptoms. Results indicated that the experience of combined types of abuse is associated with a poorer psychiatric prognosis.     

Confirmation Bias and the Sexual Double Standard

In contemporary Western societies it is widely believed that there is a sexual double standard such that men are rewarded for sexual activity, whereas women are derogated for sexual activity. This pervasive belief may result in a confirmation bias such that people tend to notice information that confirms the double standard and fail to notice information that refutes it. Two studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. In both studies, participants read vignettes about a target man or a woman that contained an equal number of positive and negative comments regarding the target's sexuality. Participants recalled more information consistent with the double standard than inconsistent with it.     

Normative and idiosyncratic measures of positive and negative affect in sport

Objectives: The purposes of the study were to: (a) ascertain the degree of similarity amongst normative and idiosyncratic measures of affect; (b) test the notion of reversal effects on the functional impact and the hedonic tone of emotions; (c) analyse the differences on the intensity of facilitating-positive, facilitating-negative, inhibiting-positive, and inhibiting-negative performance emotion content categories, and (d) test whether competitive trait anxiety intensity could predict pre-performance normative or idiosyncratic negative affect intensity.Design: A cross-sectional study design was employed using normative and idiosyncratic measures of affect.Methods: Experienced male soccer and volleyball players (N =124) were individually assessed. Normative scales were the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) used as a sport-specific trait measure of competitive affect, and the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) administered for the assessment of competitive trait anxiety. Idiosyncratic affect occurring prior to or during optimal and poor competitions was identified in the conceptual framework of the Hanin's Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) model (Hanin, Y.L. (1997). Emotions and athletic performance: Individual zones of optimal functioning model. European Yearbook of Sport Psychology, 1, 29–72).Results: Findings revealed low overlap amongst the PANAS items and the idiosyncratic items, reversal effects on the functional impact and the hedonic tone of emotions, higher level of positive affect associated with optimal performance when compared with all other affect categories, and lower levels of facilitating-negative category when compared with the facilitating-positive. Moreover, sport trait anxiety intensity was found to predict negative affect intensity as assessed by the PANAS normative scales and by the idiosyncratic items. For idiosyncratic affect, however, significant differences emerged only when comparing individuals with very high or very low anxiety symptoms.Conclusions: Idiosyncratic affect scales together with normative scales are recommended for research and applied purposes. The functional impact as well as the hedonic tone of emotion items need to be examined according to individual perception.     

Parental Bonding and Its Effect on Adolescent Substance Use and Sexual Debut

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among parental bonding factors and the early onset of sexual behaviors and substance use. Significant differences were found in the levels of care among the parental status groups and among the ages of onset for alcohol use.     

Correct Responses and the Priority of the Normative

The ‘Wrong Kind of Reason’ problem for buck-passing theories (theories which hold that the normative is explanatorily or conceptually prior to the evaluative) is to explain why the existence of pragmatic or strategic reasons for some response to an object does not suffice to ground evaluative claims about that object. The only workable reply seems to be to deny that there are reasons of the ‘wrong kind’ for responses, and to argue that these are really reasons for wanting, trying, or intending to have that response. In support of this, it is pointed out that awareness of pragmatic or strategic considerations, unlike awareness of reasons of the ‘right kind’, are never sufficient by themselves to produce the responses for which they are reasons. I argue that this phenomenon cannot be used as a criterion for distinguishing reasons-for-a-response from reasons-for-wanting-to-have-a-response. I subsequently investigate the possibility of basing this distinction on a claim that the responses in question (e.g. admiration or desire) are themselves inherently normative; I conclude that this approach is also unsuccessful. Hence, the ‘direct response’ phenomenon cannot be used to rule out the possibility of pragmatic or strategic reasons for responses; and the rejection of such reasons therefore cannot be used to circumvent the Wrong Kind of Reason Problem.

Predicting Risky Sexual Behavior: the Unique and Interactive Roles of Childhood Conduct Disorder Symptoms and Callous-Unemotional Traits

Conduct disorder (CD) symptoms and callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been shown to be uniquely associated with risky sexual behavior (RSB) in adolescence and early adulthood, yet their interactive role in predicting RSB remains largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate the predictive value of CD symptoms and CU traits, as well as their interaction, on several RSB outcomes in adolescence and early adulthood. A total of 683 participants (41.7 % female, 47.4 % African American) were followed annually and self-reported age of first sexual intercourse, frequency of condom use, pregnancy, contraction of sexually transmitted infections, and engagement in sexual solicitation from grade 7 to 2-years post-high school. CD symptoms predicted age of first sexual intercourse, condom use, and sexual solicitation. CU traits predicted age of first sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Their interaction predicted a composite score of these RSBs such that CD symptoms positively predicted the composite score among those with high levels of CU traits but not among those with low levels of CU traits. The current findings provide information regarding the importance of both CD symptoms and CU traits in understanding adolescent and early adulthood RSB, as well as the benefits of examining multiple RSB outcomes during this developmental period. These findings have implications for the development and implementation of preventive efforts to target these risky behaviors among adolescents and young adults.     

Predictors of mental distress and poor physical health among homeless women

Abstract

We tested a latent variable path model in which situational, personal, and social resources predicted several mediators and the key health outcomes of mental distress and poor physical health among 871 homeless women. Mental distress was predicted by risky sexual behavior, less social support, avoidant coping, less self-esteem, client abuse history, social support from deviant sources, less drug self-efficacy and health care utilization. Poor physical health was predicted by a client abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, fewer perceived rewards for drug use, higher perceived costs for drug use, and a doctor visit. Current risky sexual behavior was predicted by a parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, and more social support from deviant sources. Current drug use was predicted by parent drug abuse history, less drug self-efficacy, more social support from deviant sources and by high perceived costs for drug use. Implications of results for intervention and theory are discussed.     

人类性的生理需要及其满足的本质和意义

性活动源于性的需要.人类性的需要包括性的生理、心理和社会需要.性的生理需要是性的心理需要和社会需要的基础.性的生理需要可能是个体优化调节系统功能以维持内环境稳态的基本需要;性的活动能优化人体调节系统功能和人体整体层次的生理功能,从而提高人体对环境变化的适应能力.