Patterns of Sexual Behaviors in Young Men Who Have Sex With Men in Mexico

Recent research has documented the importance of understanding the multidimensional nature of sexual risk behavior. However, little is known about patterns of sexual behavior among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Mexico, men who are at greatest risk for HIV and sexually transmitted infections compared to other subpopulations in the country. This study applied latent class analysis to data from a large, HIV-negative sample of 18- to 25-year-old Mexican MSM recruited from a social and sexual networking website (N = 3,722) to uncover multidimensional patterns of sexual behaviors, partner factors, and protective behaviors, and examine how these were associated with health and well-being correlates. We selected a model with seven classes. The most common class included those who reported both insertive and receptive behaviors with more than one partner, but smaller groups of individuals were in classes marked by only insertive or receptive anal sex, romantic relationships, or sexual inactivity. Class membership differed by sexual orientation, age, depressive symptoms, alcohol problems, and self-acceptance, with individuals in a class marked by same-sex relationships generally reporting more positive outcomes. Findings suggest heterogeneity of behaviors among Mexican MSM and the possible efficacy of prevention messages tailored to individuals’ specific patterns of sexual behavior.     

Seeing Student/Teacher Relationships as Hidden Dramas of Personal Development

We suggest that a narrative structure is inherent in student/teacher relationships, and that teachers' artful shaping of relational stories between themselves and each of their students, most often unbeknownst to the students themselves, is key to the important personal development that takes place through schooling. From a detailed study of one such story, as it was consciously shaped over the course of an entire school year, we argue that the increased prevalence of a relational narrative paradigm of the teaching process would help both teachers and those who support their work attain a more authentically educative open-mindedness toward students, enabling them to see their roles somewhat less as general purveyors of intellectual instruction or psychological diagnosis, and more as unique facilitators of personal development.     

The Brief Accessibility,Responsiveness, and Engagement Scale: A Tool for Measuring Attachment Behaviors in Clinical Couples

Measuring attachment behaviors is relevant to creating secure couple relationships. This article seeks to test and examine the reliability and validity of the Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness, and Engagement (BARE) Scale—a practical measure of couple attachment–in a clinical sample. Couples took the BARE and other assessments measuring relationship functioning (self and partner reports of relationship satisfaction, relationship stability, positive and negative communication, and attachment styles). Results suggest that the BARE appears to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing couple attachment and can accurately predict and classify whether the couples belong in the clinical or nonclinical group, as well as their level of relationship satisfaction. Results also indicate attachment behaviors are related to relationship outcomes.     

How stock dependent flow rates may imply chaos in educational planning

"The aim of the present paper is to illustrate how extremely complex patterns may be generated in a simple model of educational planning. In particular, we will show that certain dependencies of the flow rates on the teacher/student ratio imply nonlinearities which are substantial enough to generate erratic behaviour of the time paths. The main message is that chaos in educational planning may result from assumptions which are indeed qualitatively realistic but which are quantitatively exaggerated." (SUMMARY IN FRE)     

Commitment,Forgiveness, and Relationship Self‐Regulation: An Actor Partner Interdependence Model of Relationship Virtues and Relationship Effort in Couple Relationships

Dyadic data from 679 committed couples were used to examine associations between commitment, forgiveness, and perceptions of partner's relationship self‐regulation (RSR) behaviors—that is effort and strategies that partners exert to maintain the relationship. We found that for both partners, higher self‐reports of commitment and forgiveness were associated with higher perceptions of their partner's RSR. For females, higher commitment and forgiveness were associated with higher male perceptions of her RSR, and higher male forgiveness was associated with higher female perceptions of his RSR. These findings demonstrate the importance of marital virtues and relationship work and give credence to the marital competence model of “other‐centeredness” by Carroll et al. (2006, Journal of Family Issues, 27(7), 1001). Clinical implications are discussed.     

Beliefs about alcohol and the college experience, locus of self, and college undergraduates’ drinking patterns

The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which locus of self (institutional versus impulse), measured using the Twenty Statements Test (TST), moderates the relationship between beliefs about alcohol and the college experience (BACE) and alcohol use among college undergraduates. Although the majority of our respondents listed more idiosyncratic personal characteristics and preferences than consensual social roles in response to the TST, the number of students classified as institutionals was notably higher than what has been reported within the literature. In opposition to our hypothesis that BACE would affect levels of alcohol consumption primarily among these individuals, our results indicated that the perception that alcohol use is integral to the college experience had a relatively minimal effect on drinking among respondents who defined themselves in terms of institutional roles. Moreover, multiple social roles themselves appeared to reduce the effects of BACE on levels of alcohol consumption. More impulse-oriented personal characteristics and preferences did not exhibit this moderating influence. Thus, our findings suggest that role occupation may be more important than locus of self in shaping students’ susceptibility to beliefs about drinking and college life.