HIV-related stigma in African and Afro-Caribbean communities in the Netherlands: manifestations, consequences and coping

HIV-related stigma in African and Afro-Caribbean diaspora communities in the Netherlands was investigated. Interviews with HIV-positive and HIV-negative community members demonstrated that HIV-related stigma manifests as social distance, physical distance, words and silence. The psychological consequences of HIV-related stigma among those diagnosed with HIV reported were emotional pain, sadness, loneliness, anger, frustration and internalised stigma. The social consequences included decreased social network size, limited social support and social isolation, and resulted from not only enacted stigma but also self-imposed social withdrawal. Also, poor treatment adherence was a health-related consequence. People living with HIV employed both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of stigma. Problem-focused coping strategies included selective disclosure, disengagement, affiliating with similar others, seeking social support and, to a lesser extent, activism. Emotion-focused strategies included distraction, positive reappraisal, religious coping, external attributions, disidentification and acceptance. HIV-related stigma clearly permeates African and Afro-Caribbean communities in the Netherlands, and should be targeted for intervention.     

Substance use and partner violence among urban women seeking emergency care

Growing evidence suggests intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance misuse are co-occurring problems that disproportionately affect low income urban women seeking care in emergency departments (EDs) and represent leading causes of injuries that result in ED visits. This paper examines temporal bidirectional associations between different types of drug and alcohol use and different types of IPV in a longitudinal study of a representative sample of 241 low-income urban women receiving emergency care from an ED in the Bronx, New York. After adjusting and matching for sociodemographics and potentially confounding multilevel risk and protective covariates, women who reported using heroin in the prior 6 months at Wave 1 were twice as likely as nonheroin-using women to indicate any physical, injurious, or sexual IPV at subsequent waves and were 2.7 times more likely to indicate experiencing an injury from IPV at subsequent waves. Crack or cocaine use in the past 6 months at Wave 1 was associated with an increased likelihood of injurious IPV and severe verbal abuse at subsequent waves. Findings also suggested that sexual IPV was significantly associated with subsequent use of crack or cocaine. The multiple bidirectional associations found linking these problems underscore the need for conducting routine screening for IPV and substance misuse among women in low-income urban EDs, and for improving linkages to services that will ultimately reduce the risk of morbidity, disability, and mortality related to these co-occurring problems.     

'Getting into the spirit': Alcohol-related interpretation bias in heavy-drinking students

Alcohol misuse is characterized by patterns of selective information processing. The present study investigated whether heavy- compared with light-drinking students, show evidence of an alcohol-related interpretation bias to ambiguous, alcohol-related cues. Toward this aim, participants were asked to create continuations for ambiguous, open-ended scenarios that provided either an alcohol-related or neutral context. Results showed that heavy-drinking students generated more alcohol continuations for ambiguous alcohol-related scenarios than light-drinking students. This result was independent of the coding method used, with an interpretation bias found when continuations were coded by either participants themselves or by two independent raters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Predictors of risk for smoking relapse in men and women: A prospective examination

The current study examined whether prequit trait negative mood and smoking motives have different predictive patterns of smoking relapse in men and women. Thirty-three female (mean age ± SEM: 34.9 ± 2.5) and 38 male (mean age ± SEM: 37.1 ± 2.3) smokers interested in smoking cessation completed forms on smoking history, negative mood (i.e., depression, anxiety, and anger), stress, and smoking motives. Participants also provided samples for measurement of cotinine and carbon monoxide. Then, they set a quit date and were required to abstain from smoking at least for 24 hours. Participants were followed up for 12 months postcessation to measure their smoking status. Cox proportional hazard models revealed that motivation to reduce craving was a unique predictor of smoking relapse in men, while depressive mood, anxiety, anger, and perceived stress were predictive of time to relapse among women. These findings remained significant after statistically controlling for smoking-related variables, providing preliminary evidence that different factors may be associated with nicotine withdrawal and smoking relapse in men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Apathy in frontotemporal dementia: behavioral and neuroimaging correlates

We investigated the occurrence of goal-directed motivational change in the form of apathy in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), particularly those with behavioral variant social and executive deficits (bvFTD). Standardized behavioral inventory was employed to survey and compare apathy ratings from patients and caregivers. In cases of bvFTD, apathy ratings were further related to measures of social cognition, executive function, and atrophy on brain MRI. Results indicated that caregivers rated bvFTD patients as having significantly elevated apathy scores though patient self-ratings were normal. Caregiver and self-ratings of FTD samples with progressive nonfluent aphasia and semantic dementia did not differ from healthy controls and their informants. In the bvFTD sample, caregiver apathy scores were not correlated with general cognitive screening or depression scores, but were significantly correlated with social cognition and executive function measures. Voxel-based morphometry revealed that apathy ratings in bvFTD were related to prominent atrophy in the right caudate (including the ventral striatum), the right temporo-parietal junction, right posterior inferior and middle temporal gyri, and left frontal operculum- anterior insula region. Findings suggest that bvFTD is associated with a significant breakdown in goal-directed motivated behavior involving disruption of cortical-basal ganglia circuits that is also related to social and executive function deficits.     

Does power magnify the expression of dispositions?

Conventional wisdom holds that power holders act more in line with their dispositions than do people who lack power. Drawing on principles of construct accessibility, we propose that this is the case only when no alternative constructs are activated. In three experiments, we assessed participants' chronic dispositions and subsequently manipulated participants' degree of power. Participants then either were or were not primed with alternative (i.e., inaccessible or counterdispositional) constructs. When no alternatives were activated, the responses of power holders--perceptions of other people (Experiment 1), preferences for charitable donations (Experiment 2), and strategies in an economic game (Experiment 3)--were more in line with their chronically accessible constructs than were the responses of low-power participants. However, when alternatives had been activated, power holders' responses were no longer more congruent with their dispositions than were the responses of low-power participants. We propose a single mechanism according to which power increases reliance on accessible constructs--that is, constructs that easily come to mind-regardless of whether these constructs are chronically or temporarily accessible.     

Face structure predicts cooperation: men with wider faces are more generous to their in-group when out-group competition is salient

Male facial width-to-height ratio appears to correlate with antisocial tendencies, such as aggression, exploitation, cheating, and deception. We present evidence that male facial width-to-height ratio is also associated with a stereotypically male prosocial tendency: to increase cooperation with other in-group members during intergroup competition. We found that men who had wider faces, compared with men who had narrower faces, showed more self-sacrificing cooperation to help their group members when there was competition with another group. We propose that this finding makes sense given the evolutionary functions of social helpfulness and aggression.     

The relationship between cognitive function and life space: the potential role of personal control beliefs

We examined the relationship of cognitive and functional measures with life space (a measure of spatial mobility examining extent of movement within a person's environment) in older adults, and investigated the potential moderating role of personal control beliefs. Internal control beliefs reflect feelings of competence and personal agency, while attributions of external control imply a more dependent or passive point of view. Participants were 2,737 adults from the ACTIVE study, with a mean age of 74 years. Females comprised 76% of the sample, with good minority representation (27% African American). In multiple regression models controlling for demographic factors, cognitive domains of memory, reasoning, and processing speed were significantly associated with life space (p < .001 for each), and reasoning ability appeared most predictive (B = .117). Measures of everyday function also showed significant associations with life space, independent from the traditional cognitive measures. Interactions between cognitive function and control beliefs were tested, and external control beliefs moderated the relationship between memory and life space, with the combination of high objective memory and low external control beliefs yielding the highest life space (t = -2.07; p = .039). In conclusion, older adults with better cognitive function have a larger overall life space. Performance-based measures of everyday function may also be useful in assessing the functional outcome of life space. Additionally, subjective external control beliefs may moderate the relationship between objective cognitive function and life space. Future studies examining the relationships between these factors longitudinally appear worthwhile to further elucidate the interrelationships of cognitive function, control beliefs, and life space.     

Examining mental health symptoms in male and female incarcerated juveniles

Varying risk factors for both incarceration and mental health diagnoses have been identified for female juveniles, highlighting the need for gender-specific assessments and treatment protocols. The purpose of this study is to determine how the prevalence rates of mental health symptoms differ in male and female juvenile offenders. It was hypothesized that the prevalence rates would be greater for females than males. This study found significant differences between males and females on several clinical scales. These findings are consistent with past studies that have identified differences in mental health symptoms between genders.