Divining Structural Factors Related to Intervention Success or Failure: Cultural Sexism versus Other Macro-Level Factors

This article provides commentary on a spatial meta-analysis published by Price and colleagues (2021); it provides valuable preliminary evidence that a dimension of cultural sexism can countervail efforts for psychotherapy to succeed in samples that focus on girls aged four to 18. Our own study reveals cultural sexism to be markedly associated with at least three macro-level factors: cultural tightness, historical slaveholding (and by implication racism), and sex education inclusiveness. The fact that cultural sexism can be so well predicted by these factors is additional evidence that cultural sexism is real, yet it also suggests caution in interpreting these effects as merely reflecting cultural sexism. Surely, the reality is more complex. Thus, we believe that understanding effects of interventions at the macro level requires a more extensive model, one that incorporates objective measures of sexism beyond markers such as income, income inequality, poverty, and education, and meaningfully theorizes about how such dimensions might interact. For example, sexism is logically more pernicious to the extent that a culture is tight; nation-level changes such as same-sex marriage would seem to have considerable potential to improve mental health for affected individuals; finally, media avenues also are a potentially extremely powerful force as these easily cross artificial spatial boundaries. Our findings further suggest that understanding the structural policy components of cultural sexism, of which this essay is merely a beginning, could inform future interventions to improve the psychological health outcomes for adolescent girls. Along these lines, the same meta-analytic framework could be used to assess the success of psychotherapy interventions not only for girls but also boys and others, especially those at the intersection of stigmatized identities (e.g., sexual minorities of color). The results from such models promise to point the way to improved therapies. As a final note, consider again that all of the factors we have discussed here are correlational. The very factors that appear to undercut therapeutic success may be the factors that make individuals more susceptible to mental health problems in the first place. Individuals have needs left wanting or even worsened by the local cultures that envelope them, a prediction that at least one ecological model makes. Thus, interventions might succeed in the sense that a young person comes to develop self-worth and perhaps even to experience lower anxiety levels. An intervention might thus succeed in the very short term—because needs are so deep—yet fail in the long run because surrounding networks are so strongly countervailing

Influences of Social Power and Normative Support on Condom Use Decisions: A Research Synthesis

A meta-analysis of 58 studies involving 30,270 participants examined how study population and methodological characteristics influence the associations among norms, control perceptions, attitudes, intentions and behaviour in the area of condom use. Findings indicated that control perceptions generally correlated more strongly among members of societal groups that lack power, including female, younger individuals, ethnic-minorities and people with lower educational levels. Furthermore, norms generally had stronger influences among younger individuals and among people who have greater access to informational social support, including males, ethnic majorities and people with higher levels of education. These findings are discussed in the context of HIV prevention efforts

Health behavior change models for HIV prevention and AIDS care: practical recommendations for a multi-level approach

Despite increasing recent emphasis on the social and structural determinants of HIV-related behavior, empirical research and interventions lag behind, partly because of the complexity of social-structural approaches. This article provides a comprehensive and practical review of the diverse literature on multi-level approaches to HIV-related behavior change in the interest of contributing to the ongoing shift to more holistic theory, research, and practice. It has the following specific aims: (1) to provide a comprehensive list of relevant variables/factors related to behavior change at all points on the individual-structural spectrum, (2) to map out and compare the characteristics of important recent multi-level models, (3) to reflect on the challenges of operating with such complex theoretical tools, and (4) to identify next steps and make actionable recommendations. Using a multi-level approach implies incorporating increasing numbers of variables and increasingly context-specific mechanisms, overall producing greater intricacies. We conclude with recommendations on how best to respond to this complexity, which include: using formative research and interdisciplinary collaboration to select the most appropriate levels and variables in a given context; measuring social and institutional variables at the appropriate level to ensure meaningful assessments of multiple levels are made; and conceptualizing intervention and research with reference to theoretical models and mechanisms to facilitate transferability, sustainability, and scalability

Initial Severity and Antidepressant Benefits: A Meta-Analysis of Data Submitted to the Food and Drug Administration

Kirsch and colleagues show that, in antidepressant trials, there is a greater difference in efficacy between drug and placebo amongst more severely depressed patients. However, this difference seems to result from a poorer response to placebo amongst more depressed patients

A probabilistic analysis of argument cogency

This paper offers a probabilistic treatment of the conditions for argument cogency as endorsed in informal logic: acceptability, relevance, and sufficiency. Treating a natural language argument as a reason-claim-complex, our analysis identifies content features of defeasible argument on which the RSA conditions depend, namely: change in the commitment to the reason, the reason’s sensitivity and selectivity to the claim, one’s prior commitment to the claim, and the contextually determined thresholds of acceptability for reasons and for claims. Results contrast with, and may indeed serve to correct, the informal understanding and applications of the RSA criteria concerning their conceptual dependence, their function as update-thresholds, and their status as obligatory rather than permissive norms, but also show how these formal and informal normative approachs can in fact align

Visualizing the Influence of Social Networks on Recovery:A Mixed-Methods Social Identity Mapping Study with Recovering Adolescents

BackgroundSocial recovery capital (SRC) refers to resources and supports gained through relationships and is vital to adolescent addiction recovery. Much is known about how substance use relates to social networks, but little is known about how other dimensions of social networks influence recovery (e.g., network size/exposure, degree of conflict). MethodsThis mixed-methods study sampled 28 adolescents who received treatment for alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorder (14-19 yrs.: 71% male; M=17.32 yrs., SD=1.33; White 82%): 20 were recovery high school (RHS) students. Adolescents completed a social identity map for addiction recovery (SIM-AR), survey, and interview. Qualitative data were content analyzed and the data from the SIM-AR were quantified. ResultsOn average, participants reported belonging to five having 5 distinct groups (Range, 2-9; SD=1.63; M=27.89 people, SD = 20.09) in their network. Of their social network connections, on average, 51% drank alcohol and 46% used other substances. Larger networks involved more conflict (r=0.57). Participants were more likely to spend more time with groups that had greater proportions of non-substance usinge members; these relationships were stronger for RHS than for non-RHS students. Qualitative analyses revealed that youth reported their recovery-oriented groups as supportive, yet some felt their substance-using friends also supported their recovery.DiscussionSIM-AR was a useful measurement tool, and, through qualitative interviews, we identified unique aspects of youth’s social networks important for further examination. Research with recovering youth should examine SRC-related elements within their networks including relationship quality, belonging, and conflict, in addition to the substance use behaviors of network members. <br/

Run Scenarios for the Linear Collider

Scenarios are developed for runs at a Linear Collider, in the case that there is a rich program of new physics.Comment: 12 pages, 10 tables, Latex; Snowmass 2001 plenary repor