Characteristics of Adolescents Who Intervene to Stop the Risky & Dangerous Behavior of Their Friends

Adolescents value protecting friends from harm and report that they do intervene as bystanders in friends' risky and dangerous behavior. Moreover intervention can be effective in reducing such behaviors. 

The Protection-Risk Framework was used to explain bystander intervention. There were 962 students from 13 Australian high schools (mean age at time 1=13.44 years) surveyed in their 9th grade and again 1-year later when students were in 10th grade. 

We found that protective factors of self-efficacy, support, prosocial models, social control, and ease of opportunity related to greater intervening behavior after 12-months. Among those who reported that they had intervened in a 3-month period, a cumulative measure of protective factors was associated with their reports of intervening. Risk factors were non-significant predictors after accounting for earlier, time 1, bystander intervening behavior and demographic factors. 

The findings highlight potential mechanisms to promote adolescents' looking out for their friends and provide an assessment over time of bystander behavior. The theory-guided inquiry into such behavior provides a foundation on which to better develop our understanding of benefits to adolescent friendship in the injury field.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/9MYDBL

By:  Buckley L1, Chapman RL2.

• 1University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, University of Michigan, 2901 Baxter Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety-Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, 130 Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia. Electronic address: lisadb@umich.edu.au.
• 2Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety-Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, 130 Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia.
• Accid Anal Prev. 2016 Mar;88:187-93. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2015.12.023. Epub 2016 Jan 19. 

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The Effect of Peers on HIV Infection Expectations among Malawian Adolescents

Malawian adolescents overestimate their HIV infection risk. Understanding why they do so is important since such overestimation is likely to be linked to later-life outcomes. 

This study focuses on the influence peers have on HIV infection expectations. I use novel school-based survey data collected in Malawi between October 2011 and March 2012 (n = 7910), which has more reliable measures of peers' HIV infection expectations than other studies. I employ a combined instrumental variables/fixed effects methodology designed to addresses several methodological challenges in estimating peer effects, including self-selection of friends, the issue of unobserved environmental confounders, and the bi-directionality of peer effects. Several tests are conducted in order to assess the robustness of the specifications. 

Results suggest that a one-percentage-point increase in the mean probabilistic expectation of HIV infection among peers increases an adolescent's own subjective expectation of infection by an average of 0.65 percentage points. 

This paper shows that peer influence is greater for males than for females. Results also suggest that the peer effects on HIV infection expectations are only statistically significant among those lacking more complete knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/VBwKYO

By:  Kim J1.

• 1Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: jinhokim@ssc.wisc.edu.
• Soc Sci Med. 2016 Jan 26;152:61-69. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.036.

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Ask a Homo: How Can an Openly Gay Man Best Support His Closeted boyfriend?

Via:  http://goo.gl/npjSCs  By:   https://twitter.com/jbryanlowder

Staying in the ‘Sweet Spot’: A Resilience-Based Analysis of the Lived Experience of Low-Risk Drinking & Abstention among British Youth

Objective: The aim of this study was to understand how and why young people drink less or not at all when with their peers. Understanding the subjective experiences of moderate or non-drinkers may help identify protective processes facilitating resilience to cultural norm and influences that encourage excessive alcohol consumption among young people.

Design: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 moderate- or non-drinkers aged 17–25 years (13 young women) living in South East England. Interviews explored recent experiences of social situations and encounters that did or did not involve alcohol. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Results: Analysis identified six conceptually coherent themes clustering within a superordinate theme of a healthy experience of moderate alcohol use or abstention: ‘the sweet spot’. These themes were: feeling good in the body, feeling like you can be who you are, feeling like you belong, making a free choice, enjoying the moment, and feeling safe and secure.

Conclusions: This resilience-based analysis showed how non-drinking and moderate-drinking may be experienced as a positive and proactive choice. Understanding the subjective experiences of young people may aid development of specific, realistic interventions to promote moderate drinking and abstention among young people in drinking cultures.

Below:  The ‘sweet spot’ cluster and themes

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/02UuLd

By:   Rebecca Graber, a , * Richard de Visser, a Charles Abraham, b Anjum Memon, c Angie Hart, d and Kate Hunt e

^aSchool of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK

^bUniversity of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK

^cDivision of Primary Care and Public Health, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Brighton, Falmer, UK

^dCommunity University Partnership Programme, University of Brighton, Falmer, UK

^eMRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

^* Corresponding author. Email: ku.ca.xessus@rebarG.R

 

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What’s in a Friendship? Partner Visibility Supports Cognitive Collaboration between Friends

Not all cognitive collaborations are equally effective. We tested whether friendship and communication influenced collaborative efficiency by randomly assigning participants to complete a cognitive task with a friend or non-friend, while visible to their partner or separated by a partition. Collaborative efficiency was indexed by comparing each pair’s performance to an optimal individual performance model of the same two people. The outcome was a strong interaction between friendship and partner visibility. 

Friends collaborated more efficiently than non-friends when visible to one another, but a partition that prevented pair members from seeing one another reduced the collaborative efficiency of friends and non-friends to a similar lower level. 

Secondary measures suggested that verbal communication differences, but not psychophysiological arousal, contributed to these effects. Analysis of covariance indicated that females contributed more than males to overall levels of collaboration, but that the interaction of friendship and visibility was independent of that effect. 

These findings highlight the critical role of partner visibility in the collaborative success of friends.

Below:  Bird’s eye view of the four experimental conditions (friendship X partner visibility)

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/sis50y

By:

Allison A. Brennan

Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

James T. Enns

Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Intra-Group Stigma: Examining Peer Relationships among Women in Recovery for Addictions

This grounded theory study explores how women with histories of addiction perceive stigma while in treatment. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women participating in a residential drug treatment center. 

Previous research has found that support from peers during recovery can be critical to managing illnesses. In fact, researchers have postulated that peers can be a more effective form of support than even family. This study extends existing literature indicating that peer support systems can be supportive, however they can also can be perceived as negative support that impose stigmas. 

Findings reveal that women perceive stigmas due to how various types of drug use violate societal expectations and conflict with notions of deservingness. Specifically, the “hard users” (i.e., women who use heroin or crack cocaine) perceive stigmas regarding how their drug use violates norms of womanhood. 

Moreover, the “soft users” (i.e., those who use alcohol or marijuana) perceive stigmas that their drug use is considered undeserving of support. 

This paper explores the factors that contribute to stigma amongst populations who potentially face marginalization from larger society. Implications for treatment and group work are discussed.

Table 1

Description of Study Participants (N = 30)

Participant*	Age	Race/Ethnicity	Education	Drug Type	Months in Recovery	Charge
Amy	29	Caucasian	In college	Marijuana	36	Drug trafficking
Gloria	39	African American	10th grade	Crack cocaine	20	Solicitation & Possession
Evelyn	27	African American	11th grade	Marijuana	10	Retail theft
Tanya	37	African American	In college	Crack cocaine	48	Retail theft
Debra	32	African American	GED	Marijuana	12	Forging checks
Jane	30	Latina	In college	Crack cocaine	36	Possession
Leah	31	African American	12th grade	Heroin	17	Residential burglary & Unlawful use of controlled substance
Lena	25	African American	12th grade	Crack cocaine	13	Possession
Nicki	40	African American	9th grade	Crack cocaine	19	Possession
Valencia	47	African American	In college	Crack cocaine	24	Possession
Delila	32	Latina	9th grade	Crack cocaine	30	Possession
Tammy	23	Caucasian	10th grade	Crack cocaine	18	Delivery with intent to sell
Katty	25	African American	11th grade	Crack cocaine	30	Possession & Residential burglary
Amelia	28	Caucasian	11th grade	Heroin	21	Possession
Pamela	31	African American	10th grade	Heroin	19	Retail theft
Vanya	31	African American	GED	Alcohol	27	Retail theft
Lisa	33	Latina	10th grade	Crack cocaine	15	Possession
Sheila	29	Caucasian	9th grade	Marijuana	17	Possession
Anne	34	African American	GED	Heroin	9	Possession
Kimba	42	African American	GED	Heroin	32	Intent to distribute
Delinda	42	African American	11th grade	Crack cocaine	9	Retain theft & Solicitation
Tamara	46	Caucasian	HS Grad**	Alcohol	24	Fraud
Danny	33	Caucasian	HS Grad	Crack cocaine	28	Possession
Talia	34	Latina	11th grade	Crack cocaine	20	Retail theft
Charlene	48	African American	9th grade	Crack cocaine	16	Solicitation
Hope	52	African American	10th grade	Heroin	24	Possession
Sheryl	43	African American	9th grade	Heroin	11	Burglary & Intent to sell
Sharon	35	African American	12th grade	Alcohol	15	DWI & Manslaughter
Jamila	32	Caucasian	B.A.	Heroin	26	Possession
Star	25	African American	12th grade	Marijuana	13	Possession & Intent to sell

*All names have been changed

**High School Graduate

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/3eQrox

By:  Alana J. Gunn, PhD1 and Kelli E. Canada, PhD2

¹National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.

²University of Missouri

Correspondence and Request for Reprints: Alana Gunn, PhD, 2705 Pearsall Avenue, Bronx, NY 10469, Email: moc.liamg@310190nnuglA, (646) 765-1213

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A Peer Support Scale for Adults Treated for Psychoactive Substance-Use Disorder: A Rasch Analysis

The literature suggests that peer support is protective of relapse for adults treated for substance-use disorder. However, to our knowledge there is no standard measure of peer support. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to use Rasch analysis to assess a 13-item peer support scale used in a group of adults treated for primary psychoactive substance-abuse disorder. The participants (n = 408) are adults who were discharged from an inpatient substance-abuse treatment program from five successive years, 2004-2009. Overall, it is acceptable to surmise that items 1-12 are part of the same dimension for the 13-item scale. Given the prominence of therapeutic communities as a mode of primary treatment and the importance of peer support, it is important to both the academic and treatment communities to have a standard way to measure peer support. The scale presented here can be useful for this purpose.

We asses a peer support scale for those treated for substance abuse.We examine characteristics of the peer support scale.We provide an option to measure peer support for those treated for substance abuse.

...Given the prominence of therapeutic communities as a mode of primary treatment, it is important to both the academic and treatment communities to have a standard way to measure peer support. The scale presented here can be useful for this purpose.

The psychometric properties of the instrument showed that the person reliability score is low (0.50); however, increasing the length of the test could potentially enhance the person reliability score. Another noteworthy finding is that it is clear from the infit and outfit coefficients that item 13 exhibits a high degree of variation from the model prediction than is commonly accepted. Similarly, the exact match measures indicate a high degree of randomness. Given the questionable face validity of the item to treatment success and failure, it would be appropriate to recode item 13 or potentially remove it all together. Doing so will almost certainly improve the reliability statistics for the extreme and nonextreme measures. This finding caused us to look back in the literature and it is unclear if having friends that go to substance-abuse treatment is either protective or not for relapse. Therefore, the results show that it is hard to tell how to code item 13 and it may need to be coded differently.

Another improvement that could be made to the scale would be to collapse categories 2 and 3 or to collapse categories 3 and 4. This would eliminate three of the four disordered categories and potentially enhance the usability of the scale.

Additionally, participants had some difficulty differentiating between the choices rarely and sometimes. In the future, the scale should have clearer definitions for response categories and should include specific periods for the items (ie, the number of times in a month or within a certain period of time). By giving better anchors to the descriptions of the response categories, the observed average statistic orderings could be enhanced...

  

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/lZqIrZ

By: Mazurek KD1, Ciesla JR1.

• 1College of Health and Human Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA. 

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Peer Supporter Experiences of Home Visits for People with HIV infection

This study’s purpose was to explore the experiences of peer supporters regarding their work in a home visit program for people with HIV infection.

A qualitative descriptive study was conducted using focus groups. Participants were 12 HIV-positive peer supporters conducting home visits with people living with HIV/AIDS in South Korea. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

Six major themes emerged: feeling a sense of belonging; concern about financial support; facing HIV-related stigma and fear of disclosure; reaching out and acting as a bridge of hope; feeling burnout; and need for quality education. The study findings indicate that although peer supporters experience several positive aspects in the role, such as feelings of belonging, they also experience issues that make it difficult to be successful in the role, including the position’s instability, work-related stress, and concerns about the quality of their continuing education.

The findings suggest that to maintain a stable and effective peer supporter program, such positions require financial support, training in how to prevent and manage stress associated with the role, and a well-developed program of education and training...

Support from the home visit service was not enough, but it was great help for me, especially when I was cut off from my family and society and sick. I felt embraced by peer supporters. It helped me to cope with difficulties, to regain my health including emotional stability, and to transform myself as a peer supporter.

Full article at: http://goo.gl/cwJlH4

By: Han Ju Lee,1 Linda Moneyham,2 Hee Sun Kang,3 and Kyung Sun Kim4

1Department of Nursing, Sangmyung University, Cheonan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea

2School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

3Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

4Gyeonggi Branch, Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS, Anyang, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

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