HIV‐Related Behaviors Among Prison Inmates: A Theory of Planned Behavior Analysis1

Prison inmates have high prevalence rates for both HIV and AIDS, creating a great need for HIV prevention efforts. We tested the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in 3 domains: intention to engage in condom use when released, intention to not share tattoo equipment in prison, and intention to not share needles or tattoo equipment when released. A total of 478 inmates (87% male) completed TPB and sexual and needle‐use risk behavior measures. TPB constructs accounted for a significant variance in intention to use condoms among African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian inmates, though the strength of the relationships differed by ethnicity. The TPB was less successful for intention to share tattooing equipment and not to share needles or tattoo equipment after release.     

Information-motivation-behavioral skills model-based HIV risk behavior change intervention for inner-city high school youth.

This study assessed the effects of 3 theoretically grounded, school-based HIV prevention interventions on inner-city minority high school students' levels of HIV prevention information, motivation, behavioral skills, and behavior. It involved a quasi-experimental controlled trial comparing classroom-based, peer-based, and combined classroom- and peer-based HIV prevention interventions with a standard-of-care control condition in 4 urban high schools (N = 1,532, primarily 9th-grade students). At 12 months postintervention, the classroom-based intervention resulted in sustained changes in HIV prevention behavior. This article discusses why both of the interventions involving peers were less effective than the classroom-based intervention at the 12-month follow-up and, more generally, suggests a set of possible limiting conditions for the efficacy of peer-based interventions.     

Sexual Peak: Socially Shared Cognitions About Desire,Frequency, and Satisfaction in Men and Women

Is a man’s sexual peak earlier than a woman’s? Three studies were conducted to examine (a) whether the perception that men achieve their sexual peak at a younger age than do women is shared across individuals of different ages and sexes, (b) whether sexual peak is defined differently for men and women, and (c) whether differences between definitions contribute to differences in the age at which men and women are perceived to reach sexual peak. Study 1 suggested that participants believed that females reach their sexual peak at an older age than do males. Study 2 indicated that the defining feature of sexual peak for males was sexual desire and for females was sexual satisfaction. Study 3 suggested that predictions of male sexual peak coincided with participants’ predictions of male age of highest desire and frequency, but not satisfaction, and that female sexual peak coincided with participants' predictions of female age of highest satisfaction but not frequency or desire. Discussion focuses on potential reasons for differences between the perception of male and female sexuality, as well as the social and evolutionary importance of each of the dimensions of sexuality for both males and females.     

Who is buying bioethics research?

Growing ties to private industry have prompted many to question the impartiality of academic bioethicists who receive financial support from for-profit corporations in exchange for ethics-related services and research. To the extent that corporate sponsors may view bioethics as little more than a way to strengthen public relations or avoid potential controversy, close ties to industry may pose serious threats to professional independence. New sources of support from private industry may also divert bioethicists from pursuing topics of greater social importance, such as the needs of medically underserved communities. To inform ongoing debates about the financing of bioethics and its transparency to those concerned about potential sources of bias, we examined funding disclosures appearing in original research reports in major bioethics journals. Reviewing research published over a 15-year period, we found little evidence that for-profit corporations are influencing bioethics research directly. Instead, we found evidence that a great number of organizations, both public and private, support bioethics research. These findings suggest that worries about the cooption of bioethics research by a few interested stakeholders are greatly overstated and undersupported by available data.     

Validation and predictive utility of the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire for Eating Disorders (SATAQ-ED): internalization of sociocultural ideals predicts weight gain

A widely used measure of societal influences on body image and eating disturbances—the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) was validated in women with eating disorders. The original SATAQ and measures of convergence and divergence were administered to 165 eating disordered inpatients. Factor analyses were conducted to determine the underlying structure of the SATAQ. Convergent validity, diagnostic category norms and the predictive utility of the revised SATAQ were examined. Factor analyses indicated three factors: Internalization, Awareness, and Success. Internalization significantly predicted treatment success after controlling for admission BMI and drive for thinness. The revised SATAQ-ED measures multiple aspects of societal influence, predicts short-term outcome, and can be a useful tool for evaluating potential outcome and treatment efficacy.     

Arousal, processing, and risk taking: consequences of intergroup anger

Intergroup emotions theory (IET) posits that when social categorization is salient, individuals feel the same emotions as others who share their group membership. Extensive research supporting this proposition has relied heavily on self-reports of group-based emotions. In three experiments, the authors provide converging evidence that group-based anger has subtle and less explicitly controlled consequences for information processing, using measures that do not rely on self-reported emotional experience. Specifically, the authors show that intergroup anger involves arousal (Experiment 1), reduces systematic processing of persuasive messages (Experiment 2), is moderated by group identification (Experiment 2, posttest), and compared to intergroup fear, increases risk taking (Experiment 3). These findings provide converging evidence that consistent with IET, emotions triggered by social categorization have psychologically consequential effects and are not evident solely in self-reports.     

Every time you go away: changes in affect, behavior, and physiology associated with travel-related separations from romantic partners

This study investigated changes in day-to-day affect, behavior, and physiology (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity) associated with temporary physical separations from romantic partners (such as those brought about by work-related travel). Daily diaries and measures of salivary cortisol were collected from 42 couples over a 21-day period that was timed to coincide with a naturally occurring 4- to 7-day separation. There were significant changes from preseparation to separation and from separation to reunion in the quality of partners' interactions, their positive and negative affect, sleeping problems, subjective stress, physical symptoms, and cortisol levels. Separation and reunion effects were generally more pronounced in homebound partners, partners with high attachment anxiety, and partners who had less contact with each other during the separation. Separation and reunion effects were not moderated by relationship length, relationship satisfaction, how often couples underwent separations, or the presence of children in the home. The results are discussed with respect to the role of daily proximity and contact between partners for day-to-day affective and physiological regulation.     

MMPI-2 characteristics of transsexuals requesting sex reassignment: comparison of patients in prehormonal and presurgical phases

To assess psychopathology in transsexuals at different phases of sex reassignment, we administered the Spanish adaptation of the MMPI-2 (Avila-Espada & Jiménez-Gómez, 1999) to 107 male-to-female and 56 female-to-male transsexuals. Except for the Mf scale, mean T scores from the Clinical scales were within the normal range and did not differ between sexes. Male-to-female transsexuals seeking sex-reassignment hormonal therapy, but not female-to-male patients, scored significantly higher on the Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Schizophrenia, and Social Introversion scales than patients seeking sex-reassignment surgery. The results show that the majority of patients were free of psychopathology. Transsexuals in the initial phases of sex reassignment may experience more distress than in later phases; however, these results are unlikely to reflect clinically relevant differences.