Youth Living with HIV as Peer Leaders

Community-based service providers often hire youth living with HIV (YLH) as peer leaders for delivering HIV education to uninfected adolescents. Life narratives were collected from 44 YLH during a hypotheses-generating two-year ethnographic study. About 30% of the youth were employed as peer educators. While 60% of the 44 youth had a lower-class background, only 23% of the peer leaders were lower class. One-fifth of the sample were female, but more than one-half of the peer leaders were female. After identifying and categorizing difficulties experienced by the peer leaders, a frequency count of each theme was conducted. Issues about professional boundaries were evident in 38.5% of the youth's narratives, indicating conflicts in their roles as peer leaders; 23% of the youth engaged in substance use and sexual behaviors that placed themselves and uninfected youth in their peer educator programs at risk; and 8% of the youth reported relapse while peer leaders. The observations suggest reconsideration or restructuring of existing peer-education models that employ YLH.     

Gender congruence in confirmatory and compensatory drinking.

The relationship between gender-stereotypical traits and drinking behaviors was examined in 422 university students via both positive and negative measures of masculinity and femininity. Two canonical variates summarized the underlying relationships. The 1st canonical variate indicated that both high negative masculinity and low positive femininity predicted alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. This behavior was labeled confirmatory drinking because it depicts a style of drinking that reinforces gender-stereotypical images about alcohol use; masculine characteristics are typically associated with high levels of alcohol consumption. The 2nd canonical variate indicated that both low positive masculinity and low positive femininity predicted problem drinking. This behavior was labeled compensatory drinking because drinkers often use alcohol to express their masculinity and femininity. The distinction between confirmatory and compensatory drinking has important implications for the development of more effective education and preventative strategies.     

Why are therapists indifferent to research?

In counselling and psychotherapy there is a serious research—practice gap. Why should research on the therapeutic process have such little impact? Five related factors are considered: (i) epistemology—reliance on experiential/personal knowledge; (ii) preciousness—reliance on nonaxiomatic truths; (iii) lack of theoretical rigour—looseness with which constructs are construed; (iv) non-Popperian logic—tendency to work within a theory and defend it; and (v) personalisation of theory—evaluation seen as criticism. The result is a proliferation of therapies rather than a refinement of therapy.     

Group Identity and Conflicting Expectations of the Future in Northern Ireland

Much of the conflict in Northern Ireland is based on investments in one of three opposing political futures possible for the region: remaining part of Britain, joining Ireland, or becoming independent. Speculative scenarios describing each of these futures were randomly assigned to equal numbers of Protestant and Catholic undergraduates in Northern Ireland, and their expectations regarding material and civic improvement for their ingroup and peace and reconciliation between the groups were assessed. Two dimensions of religious identity, measured by the Identity and Public subscales of Luhtanen and Crocker's (1992) Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES), moderated the differences between groups, but only for their expectations of peace and reconciliation. Stronger expectations of improvement for the ingroup were related to higher scores on the Public subscale, regardless of religion or the political future presented. Thus, group identity had a complex, context-dependent relationship to intergroup conflict.     

A Lesbian Feminist Subscale for the Feminist Perspectives Scale

In an attempt to increase the breadth offeminist perspectives assessed by the FeministPerspectives Scale (FPS2; Henley, Meng, O'Brien,McCarthy, & Sockloskie, 1998), we developed andpsychometrically evaluated a new subscale that assesses lesbianfeminist attitudes. As do the six other subscales of theFPS2, the Lesbian Feminist subscale includes 10attitudinal and 3 behavioral items. We conducted 3 studies with 287 respondents (58% EuropeanAmerican, 15% Latino, 13% Asian, and 6% AfricanAmerican); 88% were women and most were collegeeducated. Findings from these preliminary psychometricevaluations support the subscale's reliability (Cronbach'salpha = .91) and validity. We offer recommendations forthe scale's use and discuss its potentiallimitations.     

Role of Sexual Orientation and Gender-Related Traits in Disordered Eating

This study was designed to examine the role of both sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits in disordered eating attitudes and behavior, including body dissatisfaction. Self-report measures assessing negative and positive gender traits,body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, dietary restraint, and bulimic symptoms were administered to 266 participants (64 lesbians, 73 heterosexual women, 69 gay men, and 60 heterosexual men; 85% Anglo-Australian Caucasians, 15% Caucasians from Non-English-speaking backgrounds). Consistent with previous research, gay men scored significantly higher than heterosexual men on body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint, whereas lesbians scored significantly lower in comparison to the heterosexual women on body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, dietary restraint, and bulimia. For men, the additional amount of variance accounted by the gender traits was significantly higher than that accounted for by sexual orientation. For the women, the gender traits also accounted for an additional significant amount of variance; however, overall the amount of variance accounted for by sexual orientation was greater. However, for both men and women, irrespective of their sexual orientation, it was higher scores on negative femininity that predicted higher levels of disordered eating. These results are consistent with previous studies that have found support for the femininity hypothesis in disordered eating.     

The Effect of Social Context on Gender Self-Concept

In this study we re-examine the role of genderwithin the self-concept and challenge the assumptionthat our gender self-concept is static and consistentacross contexts. We used the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to measure masculinity and femininityacross six contexts. These six contexts were interactingwith same sex friends, interacting with other sexfriends, interacting at home, work, and school, and interacting in a social context where one doesnot know many people. Two hundred twenty-three femalesand 52 males from a large public university in theSoutheast participated in the study. A majority of the participants (76%) were Caucasian with 10%being Hispanic, 4% Asian, and 4% African American.Multivariate analyses of variance provided strongevidence for differences across contexts for both males and females. The results indicated that we aredynamic beings and those characteristics associated withgender are dynamic as well.     

The Prophylactic Mastectomy Dilemma: A Support Group for Women at High Genetic Risk for Breast Cancer

The goal of this pilot study was to test the usefulness of a six session psychoeducational support group for women at high genetic risk for breast cancer who were considering prophylactic mastectomy. The themes of the group sessions included overestimation of and anxiety about risk; desire for hard data; the emotional impact of watching a mother die of breast cancer; concerns about spouse reactions; self- and body image; the decision-making process; and confusion over whom to trust in decision making. Both the participants and the multidisciplinary leaders concluded that as a supplement to individual counseling, a support group is a beneficial and cost-effective treatment modality. Recommendations for the optimal format for such a group are described.     

A Patient's Perspective on Genetic Counseling and Predictive Testing for Alzheimer's Disease

The availability of genetic testing for Alzheimer's disease is anticipated to be widespread in the future. As an individual at risk with a family history of Alzheimer's disease, I discuss why I sought predictive tests and how I would use the information from such tests. I relay what I learned in my genetic counseling session, my response to the counseling process, and steps I have since taken. I discuss life planning, psychological and fear of discrimination issues from a patient's perspective.