Forced Sexual Experiences and Sexual Situation Self‐Efficacy Among South African Youth

Nearly 20% of South African youth experience forced or coerced sexual intercourse. Understanding the factors associated with forced sex is important for informing prevention programs aimed at reducing sexual violence and HIV and AIDS. Multilevel regression models test the association between sexual situation self‐efficacy and forced sex among 2,893 South African adolescents. Findings suggest that youth are more likely to experience forced sex after periods of time when their levels of self‐efficacy are lower than their average levels of self‐efficacy. Furthermore, youth who are lower on their self‐efficacy compared to their peers are more likely to experience forced sex. Implications for prevention research are discussed.     

Lurking Behavior in Online Psychosocial Discussion Forums: Theoretical Perspectives and Implications for Practice

Improving outcomes of telebehavioral psychoeducation requires rethinking program design when delivered wholly or partially for self-directed participation. Discussion forum participation often follows the “90-9-1 Rule” where 90% of participants lurk, rather than contribute content. A theoretical perspective on the behavior can help explain its adaptive functions, as well as the threats that this behavior poses to the lurker. Implications for practice require program redesign that actively links individual skills training and group-based discussion. The proposed linking design can synergize individual and group participation to support the development of mutual aid, as well as greater interaction with psychoeducation content and materials.     

Evaluating the Nature of the Still‐Face Effect in the Double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face Paradigm Using Different Comparison Groups

The current study explored two possible comparison groups for the double Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face (FFSF) paradigm to evaluate their effects on infant behavior and different hypotheses about the nature of the Still‐Face (SF) effect, an effect not fully understood. Mothers and their 4‐month‐old infants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, a double FFSF group (Group_FFSF, n = 44), a control, semi‐structured play group (Group_Story, n = 46), or a control, unstructured play group (Group_Play, n = 28). As hypothesized, Group_FFSF infants exhibited the classic SF response (decreased positive affect and gaze to mother; increased negative affect) and Group_Play infants showed an increase in negative affect over episodes. Contrary to expectations, Group_Story infants displayed a similar, but less intense, pattern of behavior as Group_FFSF. Taken together, the findings indicate that multiple episodes of face‐to‐face play exceeded 4‐month‐olds' regulatory capacities and that infants are sensitive to shared communicative intentions and violations of social expectations, whether these violations are negative or positive in nature.     

Prenatal Reflective Functioning and Accumulated Risk as Predictors of Maternal Interactive Behavior During Free Play,the Still‐Face Paradigm,and Two Teaching Tasks

This study examined whether prenatal reflective functioning (RF) was related to mothers’ interactive style across contexts with their 6‐month‐old infants (M age = 6.02 months, SD = 0.41, 54% boys), and to what extent quality of prenatal RF could account for the influence of accumulated risk on maternal interactive behavior. Accumulated risk was defined as the sum‐score of a selection of risk factors that have been associated with suboptimal infant development. Mother–infant dyads (N = 133) were observed during free play, two teaching tasks, and the Still‐Face Paradigm (SFP). Better prenatal RF was associated with more positive maternal behavior in all settings and less negative behavior during teaching and SFP reengagement. Accumulated risk and prenatal RF predicted shared variance in maternal interactive behavior (with unique predictive effects observed only for RF on sensitivity during teaching and SFP play, and for accumulated risk on sensitivity and positive engagement during SFP play, and internalizing‐helplessness during SFP reengagement). Accumulated risk had an indirect effect on maternal sensitivity during teaching and SFP play through prenatal RF. These findings suggest not only that RF may be targeted prenatally to improve mother–infant interactions, but also that enhancing RF skills may ameliorate some of the negative consequences from more stable perinatal risk factors that influence parent–child interactions.     

The FARSEEING real-world fall repository: a large-scale collaborative database to collect and share sensor signals from real-world falls

Background

Real-world fall events objectively measured by body-worn sensors can improve the understanding of fall events in older people. However, these events are rare and hence challenging to capture. Therefore, the FARSEEING (FAll Repository for the design of Smart and sElf-adaptive Environments prolonging Independent livinG) consortium and associated partners started to build up a meta-database of real-world falls.

Results

Between January 2012 and December 2015 more than 300 real-world fall events have been recorded. This is currently the largest collection of real-world fall data recorded with inertial sensors. A signal processing and fall verification procedure has been developed and applied to the data. Since the end of 2015, 208 verified real-world fall events are available for analyses. The fall events have been recorded within several studies, with different methods, and in different populations. All sensor signals include at least accelerometer measurements and 58 % additionally include gyroscope and magnetometer measurements. The collection of data is ongoing and open to further partners contributing with fall signals. The FARSEEING consortium also aims to share the collected real-world falls data with other researchers on request.

Conclusions

The FARSEEING meta-database will help to improve the understanding of falls and enable new approaches in fall risk assessment, fall prevention, and fall detection in both aging and disease.

     

Underestimating Protection and Overestimating Risk: Examining Descriptive Normative Perceptions and Their Association with Drinking and Sexual Behaviors

Individuals who engage in risky sexual behavior face the possibility of experiencing negative consequences. One tenet of social learning theory is that individuals engage in behaviors partly based on observations or perceptions of others’ engagement in those behaviors. The present study aimed to document these norms–behavior relationships for both risky and protective sexual behaviors, including alcohol-related sexual behavior. Gender was also examined as a possible moderator of the norms–behavior relationship. Undergraduate students (n = 759; 58.0% female) completed a Web-based survey, including various measures of drinking and sexual behavior. Results indicated that students underestimate sexual health-protective behaviors (e.g., condom use and birth control use) and overestimate the risky behaviors (e.g., frequency of drinking prior to sex, typical number of drinks prior to sex, and frequency of casual sex) of their same-sex peers. All norms were positively associated with behavior, with the exception of condom use. Furthermore, no gender differences were found when examining the relationship between normative perceptions and behavior. The present study adds to the existing literature on normative misperceptions as it indicates that college students overestimate risky sexual behavior while underestimating sexual health-protective behaviors. Implications for interventions using the social norm approach and future directions are discussed.     

Longitudinal Consistency in Self-Reported Age of First Vaginal Intercourse among Young Adults

We examined consistency in self-reports of age at first vaginal sex among 9,399 male and female respondents who participated in Waves III and IV (separated by approximately seven years) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Respondents were coded as consistent if they reported an age at first vaginal intercourse at Wave IV that was within one year of the age they reported at Wave III. Sociodemographic, behavioral, and cognitive predictors of consistency were examined using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Overall, 85.43% of respondents were able to provide consistent reports. Among both males and females, consistency was associated with age, years since first vaginal intercourse, race/ethnicity, and lifetime number of other-sex partners in final multivariate models. Respondents who were older and had more recently had their first sexual experience were more likely to be consistent. For females only, those who reported a history of nonparental, physically forced sex were less likely to be consistent. Most young adults consistently report age at first vaginal intercourse, supporting the credibility of retrospective self-reports about salient sexual events such as timing of first vaginal intercourse.