The dark side of Instagram: Predictor model of dysmorphic concerns

Background/ObjectiveDysmorphic concern are excessive preoccupation about one or several physical characteristics perceived as defects, usually unnoticeable by others. This study was intended to explore the relationship between Instagram use and dysmorphic concerns through appearance-related comparisons, ideas of reference and problems with emotion regulation, and find out whether this relationship is moderated by gender. Method: The sample was comprised of 796 participants (M_age = 22.49; SD = 3.56; 54% women). Results: The results showed a non-significant direct effect between Instagram use and dysmorphic concerns. However, the relationship between these variables was statistically significant through appearance-related comparisons, ideas of reference about “laughing, commenting” and difficulties in emotion regulation. Gender did not moderate any relationship. Conclusions: Men and women who made the most use of Instagram were equally vulnerable to dysmorphic concerns when they tended to compare their appearance with other users, had problems regulating their emotions, and showed interpretative biases related to the belief that others could make comments about them or laugh at them because of their imperfections. The implications of the study are discussed.     

Barriers to Condom Use and Safer Sex Talk among College Dating Couples

Using an open-ended questionnaire response format, this study examined self-generated barriers to condom use and safer sex talk among 119 heterosexual college dating couples at the University of New Mexico (total N=238). Data were collected from both members of these dyads. Reasons for abstaining from intercourse were also elicited. Several general response categories emerged including no perceived risk; spontaneity; deliberate choice; negative attitudes; and a lack of perceived self-efficacy for enacting condom use and safer sex discussion. Explanations for abstinence included religious/moral prohibitions; lack of readiness for intercourse; and a fear of being emotionally hurt. Few differences emerged across gender, ethnicity (Caucasian vs Hispanic), and prior sexual experience (participant had intercourse prior to current relationship vs did not). Selected reasons for not using a condom and/or discussing safer sex (e.g. partner is monogamous) were cross-validated with the self-reported behavior of the respondent's dating partner. In general, participants reasons for perceived non-risk were not supported by their partner's reported behavior. Implications of these findings for sexual risk reduction programs include: establishing realistic goals for safer sex behavior and talk within committed relationships, acknowledging the impact of passion on safer sex, and addressing knowledge gaps in risk perception.     

关于网络成瘾的心理学研究

网络成瘾指一种心理上对网络的依赖,其概念与药物成瘾既有相似又有差异。目前还缺乏编制精良、应用广泛的测量工具。多数研究采用调查的方法,严格的实验研究很少。一些研究者提出理论模型从心理层面对其进行解释,其中具代表性的有：Young提出的ACE模型,Davis的认知-行为模型,以及Grohol的阶段模型,分别探讨了网络依赖的发生与网络的致瘾特征,网络用户的个体特质以及外在环境之间的关系。     

Why Have We Been More Successful in Reducing Tobacco Use Than Violent Crime?

Tobacco control efforts have been associated with a significant reduction in the prevalence of tobacco use in the United States. Efforts to reduce the incidence of violent crime have been much less successful. This paper argues that progress on tobacco control stems from the existence of a clear, empirically based, and widely understood analysis of the tobacco problem that articulates (a) the harms associated with its use, (b) the causes of tobacco use, and (c) the programs and policies that could reduce tobacco use. This analysis has guided the development of a network of social organizations that have been advocating for policies and programs that are reducing tobacco use. In contrast, there is not a widely shared, cogent, and empirically based analysis of the problem of violent crime. As a result, efforts to combat violent crime are fragmented and it has proven difficult to generate support for preventive programs and policies. Substantial empirical progress has been made, however, on how violent crime could be prevented. That evidence is reviewed. It is argued that the articulation of this evidence is a critical first step for achieving widespread reduction in the incidence of violent crime. Communication of that evidence to audiences that matter will require that behavioral scientists become better organized to advocate for the adoption of empirically supported practices.     

The Latent Structure of Substance Use Among American Indian Adolescents: An Example Using Categorical Variables

Researchers frequently have only categorical data to analyze and cannot, for theoretical or methodological reasons, assume that the observed variables are discrete representations of an underlying continuous variable. We present latent class analysis as an alternative method of measuring latent variables in these circumstances. Latent class analysis does not require the assumptions of factor analyses about the nature of manifest and latent variables, but does allow the use of more precise model selection than techniques such as cluster analysis. We modeled the lifetime substance use of American Indian youth. The latent class model of American Indian teenagers' substance use had four classes: Abstaining, Predominantly Alcohol, Predominantly Alcohol and Marijuana, and Plural Substance. We then demonstrated the usefulness of this latent variable by using it to differentiate levels of several variables in a manner consistent with Social Cognitive Theory.     

The Relationship Between Family Factors and Adolescent Substance Use in Rural, Suburban, and Urban Settings

We tested the relationships and predictive power of family factors on rural, suburban, and urban adolescent substance use. A representative statewide survey of 11th grade students for gender, place of residence, and ethnicity was conducted. No significant differences were found between rural, suburban, and urban adolescents for substance use. For family sanction variables across all locations, adolescent substance involvement was significantly lower the more they perceived their families would stop them or care if they got drunk, smoked cigarettes, or used marijuana. Rural and suburban youth who reported that their parents talked to them about the dangers of smoking and getting drunk were less involved in substance use. While controlling for location, gender, and ethnicity, regression analyses showed that family sanctions against smoking cigarettes and marijuana explained a modest proportion of the variance in substance use. Finally, family talking about the dangers of cigarettes, family involvement in schools and belief that their families cared about them predicted lower substance use regardless of location, although minimal variance was explained. The findings have implications for social service providers regarding location settings, prevention, education, and intervention programming.     

Ways of coping with excessive drug use in the family: A provisional typology based on the accounts of 50 close relatives

This paper outlines an eight-fold typology of coping actions based upon a qualitative analysis of the accounts provided by 50 close relatives of people with drug problems. In a number of different ways relatives draw attention to the contrasts between these distinguishable ways of coping. Emphasis is placed upon the provisional nature of this typology and upon the compromises between, and combinations of, ways of coping that are often used by relatives in practice. Different ways of coping represent alternative choices for relatives, often explicitly expressed by them as difficult dilemmas. Links are suggested between the ways of coping identified here and those discussed in the literature on coping with other disorders and disabilities in the family, with ways of coping described in the general literature on coping with stress, and with types of social action appearing in general models of interpersonal behaviour. Implications for counselling close relatives of people with drug problems are also outlined.     

Tool use by naked mole-rats

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber, Rodentia: Bathyergidae) excavate extensive subterranean burrows with their procumbent incisors. Captive individuals often place a wood shaving or tuber husk behind their incisor teeth and in front of their lips and molar teeth while gnawing on substrates that yield fine particulate debris. This oral barrier may prevent choking or aspiration of foreign material. Consistent use of tools has rarely been reported in rodents. Received: 14 February 1998 / Accepted after revision: 9 April 1998     

Measuring Child Mental Health Status for Services Research

Epidemiological studies of the prevalence of mental health disorders typically contain multiple measures of mental health, using different instruments and different informants (child, parent, and interviewer). We used the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescents Mental Disorder (MECA) study of U.S. youth to assess the effects of employing a range of these measures in mental health services research. We examined the effect of including various measures of mental health status in regressions of income on mental health service use. The estimated effect of income on service use varied widely, depending on the measure of mental health status used. Some measures of mental health status have little explanatory power in service use regressions. Measures of mental health status based on parental assessment of impairment or need, such as the Columbia Impairment Scale, are less costly to collect and also have good explanatory power, but are more strongly correlated with income. The Non-Clinician Child Global Assessment Scale (NC-CGAS) performs best in terms of explanatory power and correlation with income. Higher income parents appeared to judge behaviors differently from lower income parents, so analyses based on measures derived from parental report may lead to an understatement of the effect of income on service use.     

Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children

We describe the attitudes and first use of alcohol by children, grades 3-6, who participated in the Bogalusa Heart Study, 1993-94. Questionnaire data reflected that more than one-third of the children had experimented with alcohol at the time of the study. The dominant environmental factor in experimentation was family modeling, and the dominant personal factor was curiosity, regardless of race, gender, or grade. Most children believed that alcohol use can lead to accidents, that drinking has negative social consequences, and that alcohol use hurts only if done to excess. Indications are that young children generally have negative attitudes regarding alcohol use, and that public and family alcohol education efforts need to be more specific about deleterious effects of even low levels of alcohol use in the young.