Examination of an interventionist-led HIV intervention among criminal justice-involved female prisoners

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation, adherence and protocol fidelity for the Reducing Risky Relationships for HIV (RRR-HIV) study. The RRR-HIV study is a phase III trial of a randomized intervention to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk behaviors among incarcerated women in four US states: Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky and Rhode Island. The intervention consists of five interventionist-led prison-based group sessions and a sixth individual community-based session. Data on adherence, implementation, acceptability and fidelity of the intervention were obtained from forms completed after the five prison-based sessions by both the interventionist and participant. Data from the sixth session were collected by the interventionist. Of the 363 women recruited to date, 173 (47.6%) have been randomly allocated to the experimental RRR intervention, of which implementation measures were available for 162 (93.6%). Almost three-quarters of women attended all five sessions, each of which lasted a median of 90 minutes, indicating successful implementation of the protocol across multiple study sites. Interventionists and participants alike reported that all of the topics for each session were discussed, suggesting adherence to the protocol. In addition, protocol interventionists indicated that more than 95% of the women were engaged/involved, interested, and understood the materials presented, indicating high levels of acceptability among the participants and fidelity to the intervention protocols. The majority of participants also answered all of the post-test questions correctly, which is another strong indicator of the fidelity to the intervention. Results suggest that the RRR-HIV study has been successfully implemented across multiple study sites. Adherence to the protocol, as well as protocol fidelity and acceptability, were also strong, which is essential to establish prior to examining outcome data.     

Exploring the “Lost and Found” of Justice Theory and Research

Scientific interest in the nature of how people think about justice and fairness began approximately 70 years ago with Stouffer’s classic study on the American soldier. Since then there have been numerous theoretical frameworks and thousands of research studies conducted on what people perceive as fair and the consequences of making a fairness judgment. The goal of this article is to dig through the “lost and found” box of justice research in an attempt to re-examine where we have been, issues and ideas we may have forgotten, and to gain insight on directions we may want to go in the future. The key rediscovery of this review is that perspective matters. Specifically, how people interpret fairness depends critically on whether they are viewing a situation in terms of their material, social, or moral needs and goals. The implications of adopting a contingent theory of how people reason about fairness are discussed.

Risk Factor Models for Adolescent Verbal and Physical Aggression Toward Fathers

Using a French-Canadian population-based longitudinal data set, we examine the impact of socioeconomic factors (paternal education and family structure); inherent individual factors (child gender and developmental trajectories of physical aggression from early to later childhood, problematic substance use), family environment (concurrent parent-child involvement, parental problematic substance use), and prospective and concurrent parenting process variables (mean parental supervision at puberty, concurrent punishment practices) as predictors of adolescent-directed aggression against fathers (in the last 6 months). A childhood behavioral pattern characterized by physical aggression showed the highest risk of adolescent-directed verbal and physical aggression toward fathers, regardless of sex. In terms of parental practices, verbal (and not corporal) punishment in the last 6 months significantly predicted aggression toward fathers. A childhood life-course of violence is likely to culminate in aggression toward fathers during adolescence. Beyond this risk, it seems that harsh verbal punishment by parents builds up the odds of child-directed aggression against fathers.     

Reflections on Research Practice: Writing Difference

The opportunity to reflect on the research process and to openly discuss some of the questions arising from our practice as feminist scholars is relatively rare. In this article I outline some of the pleasures of doing qualitative research, as well as some issues that still trouble me after more than two decades of interviewing and writing about the working lives of women migrants.     

Managers’ Turnover in the Public Sector—The Role of Psychosocial Working Conditions

An important challenge for public organizations is to attract and retain skilled managers. The present study explores how profiles of psychosocial working conditions, assessed by the combination of managerial-specific job demands and job resources, longitudinally predict managers’ turnover intentions and actual turnover in Swedish municipalities. Considerable effects of managers’ psychosocial working conditions on turnover intentions but not on actual turnover were found. Thus, poor working conditions may result in psychologically detached managers in public organizations, which may have considerable and costly effects on both the organizations and the managers, in terms of decreased commitment, performance, and impaired health.     

Physical activity and adolescent female psychological development

This study explored the relationship between self-reported past and present physical activity levels and high school adolescent women's self-image, sense of mastery, gender role identity, self-perceived physical ability, and self-perceived attractiveness. The Offer Self-image Questionnaire and the Bem Sex Role Inventory were administered to 149 high school adolescent women who were categorized as either physically active, physically inactive, decreasing in physical activity, or increasing physical activity. Results indicated the physically active group members reported self-image and coping characteristics that were significantly more positive than those reported by the physically inactive group members. They also reported significantly more masculine and feminine characteristics and higher physical ability ratings than inactive group members. The decreased activity group did not differ from any of the other groups. These results suggest that physical activity in adolescence, in comparison with physical inactivity, is associated with healthier emotional expression and emotional control, and higher levels of perceived mastery and coping skills for adolescent women. A decrease in physical activity over the course of adolescence does not necessarily result in psychological distress for adolescent women.Received Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Michigan State University. Major interests are concepts of the self, psychological health, and developmental psychology.Received Ph.D. in sport psychology from The Pennsylvania State University. Current research interests include social cognitions in sport and physical activity and the role of sport and physical activity in adolescent development.