AIDS Education and Prevention 22(5): 417-429 Cross-sectional data were collected on a sample of 259 gay and bisexual, male-identified individuals as part of a larger study of the psychosocial functioning of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. Analyses considered differences between HIV-positive and HIV-negative men in relation to active and religious coping strategies; avoidant coping strategies (specifically, illicit drug use); and the psychosocial states of anxiety, hostility, and depression in relation to self-reported HIV-status of the participants. As compared with HIV-negative men, the HIV positive participants indicated a greater likelihood of engaging in illicit substance use within the previous 3 months, as well as higher levels of both active and religious coping strategies. Illicit substance use also was found to be related to higher levels of depression, anxiety, and hostility. A multivariate model indicated a significant difference in substance-based and active coping strategies among the men surveyed, with persons with a self-reported HIV-positive serostatus endorsing higher levels of both strategies. These results and their implications for prevention and future research are discussed, rooted in the understanding that a complex reality for coping is often enacted by HIV-positive men.
Coping, Drug Use, and Religiosity/Spirituality in Relation to HIV Serostatus among Gay and Bisexual Men
Preventing AIDS through Live Movement and Sound: Efficacy of a Theater-Based HIV Prevention Intervention Delivered to High-Risk Male Adolescents in Juvenile Justice Settings
AIDS Education and Prevention 22(5): 402-416
Strategies Used by Community-Based Organizations to Evaluate Their Locally Developed HIV Prevention Interventions: Lessons Learned from the CDC’s Innovative Interventions Project
AIDS Education and Prevention 22(5): 387-401 Community-based organizations (CBOs) play an important role in health promotion efforts and the delivery of HIV prevention interventions for at-risk minority populations. CBOs may also develop their own interventions but often lack the capacity or funds to rigorously evaluate them. The Innovative Interventions project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded three CBOs to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of interventions they had developed and were delivering to Black women, Black men who have sex with men (MSM), and adolescent males in juvenile justice settings, respectively. The evaluation results have been reported elsewhere. This article describes operational issues that the CBOs identified as being particularly salient to their evaluations and the strategies they developed to address the issues and successfully complete their evaluations. These issues included the development of organizational capacity to conduct a rigorous outcome evaluation, difficulties with recruitment and retention of evaluation participants, and the use of process monitoring data to improve intervention delivery. The strategies described in this article can be used by CBOs when evaluating their locally developed HIV prevention interventions and may be of interest to funding agencies and researchers that collaborate with CBOs to evaluate their interventions.
Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed., 2 vols.). Edited by Susan T., Fiske Daniel T., Gilbert and Gardner, Lindzey 2010 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 29(8): 945-948
Recognition of Scrupulosity and Non-Religious OCD by Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Jews
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 29(8): 930-944 Perceptions of psychological symptoms may be influenced by religiousness, particularly when symptom presentation is shaped by a socio-religious context. We therefore examined whether among Jews, Orthodox affiliation was related to recognition of scrupulosity as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Seventy Orthodox and 23 non-Orthodox Jews were randomized to view one of two matched vignettes describing religious or non-religious OCD. Whereas Orthodox Jews were equally likely to recognize both vignettes as OCD, non-Orthodox Jews were less likely to recognize the religious than the non-religious presentation as OCD. Furthermore, Orthodox Jews were equally likely to recommend professional treatment for both scrupulosity and non-religious OCD, whereas non-Orthodox Jews were less likely to recommend professional treatment for scrupulosity compared to non-religious OCD. These findings may suggest that familiarity with Orthodox practices increases sensitivity to distinctions between scrupulosity and normative religion, thereby increasing recognition of the need for professional treatment.
Context Moderates the Effects of an Expressive Writing Intervention: A Randomized Two-Study Replication and Extension
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 29(8): 903-929 Contextual factors may influence the efficacy and outcomes of psychological interventions. Two studies experimentally examined the effects of context on an expressive writing intervention by manipulating both the investigator’s legitimate authority and the location of writing. Students (Study 1; n = 76) and community volunteers (Study 2; n = 63) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups (high or low authority crossed with laboratory or home writing location) or to a control condition. Experimental groups wrote about stressful experiences and the control group wrote about time management, for 20 minutes on 3 consecutive days. These studies produced divergent, but complementary, results. Study 1 demonstrated a strong effect of writing location but no clear effects of legitimate authority. In contrast, Study 2 found no statistically reliable effects for location but demonstrated effects for legitimate authority and an interaction between location and authority manipulations for depressive symptoms. These findings provide experimental support for the view that context moderates the effectiveness of expressive writing. They also suggest that context effects common to nearly all interventions can influence efficacy and may uniquely depend on sample characteristics.