Associations between insecure attachment and sexual experiences

Associations between insecure attachment and sexual experiences were tested in a sample of 328 college students. Variations in adult attachment previously have been shown to relate to sexual behaviors, with the current study extending earlier work by examining different sexual outcomes and by testing factors that may account for these relations. Avoidant attachment was expected to relate to engagement in casual sex (i.e., a greater number of sexual partners and lower percentage of partners within committed relationships), with less restrictive sexual beliefs mediating the relations. In contrast, anxious attachment was expected to relate to more unwanted but consensual sexual experiences, and to more negative affect about sexual experiences, with low self‐esteem mediating the relations. Results showed some support for the hypotheses. Avoidant attachment was related to the type (but not number) of sexual partners, with sexual beliefs mediating the relations. A greater number of unwanted but consensual sexual experiences related to anxious and avoidant attachment for women and to avoidant attachment for men. Anxiety related to negative affect for women and men, and self‐esteem served as a partial mediator of these relations.     

Children Exposed to the Arrest of a Family Member: Associations with Mental Health

The arrest of a parent or other family member can be detrimental to children’s health. To study the impact of exposure to the arrest of a family member on children’s mental health and how said association may change across developmental periods, we examined baseline data for children (birth through 11 years) entering family-based systems of care (SOC). Children exposed to the arrest of a family member had experienced significantly more 5.38 (SD = 2.59) different types of potentially traumatic events (PTE) than children not exposed to arrest 2.84 (SD = 2.56). Multiple regression model results showed that arrest exposure was significantly associated with greater behavioral and emotional challenges after controlling for children’s age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, caregiver’s education, parenting factors, and other PTE exposure. Further analyses revealed differences in internalizing and externalizing behaviors associated with arrest exposure across developmental levels. This study highlights some of the mental health challenges for children exposed to the arrest of a family member, while adding to our knowledge of how such an event affects children across different developmental periods. More trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate systems need to be in place at all levels to assist children and families experiencing arrest.     

Race-related stress, racial identity status attitudes, and emotional reactions of Black Americans

The current study explored the relationship between race-related stress, racial identity status attitudes and emotional states among 229 Black Americans. Canonical correlation analyses revealed a shared variate between emotions and racial identity status attitudes in which anger, depression confusion and tension were related positively to Conformity and inversely related to Internalization status attitudes. Implications for research are discussed.     

System justification and the defense of committed relationship ideology

A consequential ideology in Western society is the uncontested belief that a committed relationship is the most important adult relationship and that almost all people want to marry or seriously couple (DePaulo & Morris, 2005). In the present article, we investigated the extent to which the system justification motive may contribute to the adoption of this ideology. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined whether a heightened motive to maintain the status quo would increase defense of committed relationship values. In Study 3, we examined the reverse association, that is, whether a threat to committed relationship ideology would also affect sociopolitical system endorsement. As past research has found that the justification of political systems depends upon how much these systems are perceived as controlling, in Study 4 we tested whether the defense of the system of committed relationships would also increase when framed as controlling. Results from Studies 1-4 were consistent with our hypotheses, but only for men. In Study 5, using cross-cultural data, we sought to replicate these findings correlationally and probe for a cause of the gender effect. Results from more than 33,000 respondents indicated a relationship (for men) between defense of the sociopolitical system and defense of marriage in countries where the traditional advantages of men over women were most threatened. In Studies 6 and 7, we investigated when this gender difference disappears. Results revealed that when we measured (Study 6) or manipulated (Study 7) personal relationship identity rather than relationship ideology, effects also emerge for women.     

An Attributional Analysis of Emotional Reactions to Schizophrenia in Mexican and Anglo American Cultures1

The present study uses attribution theory to identify factors that may lead to unfavorable emotional reactions toward patients with schizophrenia and to highlight factors that may contribute to the observed inverse relationship between industrial status of a country and schizophrenia outcome. University students from Mexico and the U.S., 2 countries differing in industrial status, served as participants. Eighty-eight Mexicans from Guadalajara and 88 Anglo Americans from Los Angeles, California read vignettes of a patient described to meet DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia. In one vignette, the patient's disorder was characterized by predominantly positive symptoms (e.g., hallucinations, delusions), whereas in the other vignette negative symptoms (e.g., social withdrawal, apathy) predominated. In support of an attributional approach, negative symptoms were associated with greater perceived control than were positive symptoms. Correspondingly, negative symptoms were found to provoke more intense negative affect and less intense positive affect than were positive symptoms. Some national and gender differences were also found.     

Bare’ing it all for the Camera: Women’s Experience of Having Erotic Photographs Taken

One area in which a change in women’s sexual behavior has been observed is in the growing number of women who are having erotic photographs taken of themselves by professional photographers. The current research is an attempt to learn more about this unstudied phenomenon. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 women who have had erotic photographs taken by a professional photographer. The interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The women described the erotic photography experience as having positive implications, such as increased body esteem and feelings of empowerment, as well as giving the women the ability to see themselves as sexual and an opportunity to celebrate their bodies. Having erotic photos taken also provided women with the opportunity to create a sexual image in a photograph on their own terms. The findings provide insight into the changing nature of attitudes about women’s sexuality.     

Form follows function: Learning about function helps children learn about shape

Object functions help young children to organize new artifact categories. However, the scope of their influence is unknown. We explore whether functions highlight property dimensions that are relevant to artifact categories in general. Specifically, using a longitudinal training procedure, we assessed whether experience with functions highlights shape as important for categorization. Seventeen-month-olds were provided experience with novel categories of similarly shaped objects. In Study 1, the function group learned about the objects’ shape-based functions; a control group did not. In Study 2, 17-month-olds were trained on the same categories, but the objects’ shapes and functions were no longer causally related. Only the function group in Study 1 subsequently used shape reliably when categorizing novel objects. These results suggest that function is instrumental in establishing a ‘shape bias’ in early categorization and that it does so via conceptually based processes.     

National Trends in Prayer Use as a Coping Mechanism for Depression: Changes from 2002 to 2007

To analyze national trends in the use of prayer among individuals with depression, we adopted a cross-sectional design with data from the adult Alternative Medicine supplement of the National Health Interview Survey 2002 and 2007. Prayer use and depression were combined into 4 categories: (a) prayed in the past 12 months and depressed; (b) prayed in the past 12 months and not depressed; (c) never prayed but depressed; and (d) never prayed and not depressed. Chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regressions were performed to analyze group differences. All analyses were adjusted for the complex sample design and conducted in SAS-callable SUDAAN. Use of prayer for depression was steady at 6.9 % across time; however, general prayer increased significantly between 2002 and 2007 (40.2 vs. 45.7). Women, aged 50–64, unmarried, with high school education were more likely to use prayer while depressed compared to those who were neither depressed nor prayed. Lifestyle behaviors (e.g. alcohol, smoking, exercise) were also associated with prayer use and depression. Prayer use for depression remained steady with unique relationships occurring among those who smoke, use alcohol, and have irregular exercise. Individuals’ use of prayer as a potential complementary treatment for depression suggests that it is critical for mental and physical health treatment providers to be aware of the use of prayer as a coping resource.