Predictors and moderators of outcomes of HIV/STD sex risk reduction interventions in substance abuse treatment programs: a pooled analysis of two randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: The objective of the current study was to examine predictors and moderators of response to two HIV sexual risk interventions of different content and duration for individuals in substance abuse treatment programs. METHODS: Participants were recruited from community drug treatment programs participating in the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network (CTN). Data were pooled from two parallel randomized controlled CTN studies (one with men and one with women) each examining the impact of a multi-session motivational and skills training program, in comparison to a single-session HIV education intervention, on the degree of reduction in unprotected sex from baseline to 3- and 6- month follow-ups. The findings were analyzed using a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model. RESULTS: Severity of drug use (p < .01), gender (p < .001), and age (p < .001) were significant main effect predictors of number of unprotected sexual occasions (USOs) at follow-up in the non-zero portion of the ZINB model (men, younger participants, and those with greater severity of drug/alcohol abuse have more USOs). Monogamous relationship status (p < .001) and race/ethnicity (p < .001) were significant predictors of having at least one USO vs. none (monogamous individuals and African Americans were more likely to have at least one USO). Significant moderators of intervention effectiveness included recent sex under the influence of drugs/alcohol (p < .01 in non-zero portion of model), duration of abuse of primary drug (p < .05 in non-zero portion of model), and Hispanic ethnicity (p < .01 in the zero portion, p < .05 in the non-zero portion of model). CONCLUSION: These predictor and moderator findings point to ways in which patients may be selected for the different HIV sexual risk reduction interventions and suggest potential avenues for further development of the interventions for increasing their effectiveness within certain subgroups

Understanding and reducing workplace discrimination

Even more than 50 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination toward a number of groups in employment settings in the United States, workplace discrimination remains a persistent problem in organizations. This chapter provides a comprehensive review and analysis of contemporary theory and evidence on the nature, causes, and consequences of discrimination before synthesizing potential methods for its reduction. We note the strengths and weaknesses of this scholarship and highlight meaningful future directions. In so doing, we hope to both inform and inspire organizational and scholarly efforts to understand and eliminate workplace discrimination

Affective Antecedents and Consequences of Revealing and Concealing a Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual Identity

This study examined affect as it relates to the identity management (IM) experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) workers. We integrate IM theories and evidence (Chaudoir & Fisher, 2010; Pachankis, 2007) within the framework of affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) to predict relationships among mood, identity management, and emotion at work. LGB participants rated aspects of positive and negative affect each work morning and immediately following IM situations at work over 3 weeks, making it possible to examine within-person changes and next-day consequences of IM. Our results provided little support for the notion that LGB workers\u27 IM behaviors are driven by affect. However, there do appear to be affective consequences of IM behaviors. After concealment, participants experienced diminished positive affect and increased negative affect; in contrast, revealing was associated with increased positive affect and diminished negative affect. Additionally, these immediate affective consequences of identity management continued into the following day for some facets of affect. We examine these findings as they relate to the identity management and affect literatures, thereby building new insights into their intersections

Recognizing Victimhood

The category of victimhood resonates deeply with many contemporary struggles for recognition without, however, receiving similar attention by political theories of recognition. Many “struggles for recognition” are fought with explicit reference to massive injustice that have ceased without having been publicly recognized as injustices. The state responses to claims for the recognition of victimhood mirror, I will argue, the state’s dominant conceptions of justice and injustice. In many cases, the state affirms its conceptions of injustice and moral innocence through the selective recognition of victims. For example, the U.S. government has granted Japanese-Americans interned during the Second World War an apology and modest reparations. Demands for apologies and compensation for slavery have been met with uneasy quasi-apologies and moral indifference. The Canadian government has recently announced reparations for Aboriginals who were subjected to the cruel and degrading residential schooling practice. At the same time, reparation demands by Chinese-Canadians who had to pay a “head tax” based on their ethnicity have been turned down by Ontario courts. Who is a victim? Do victims need or deserve recognition? And what would the state’s proper recognition of victims entail? This paper argues that political theories of recognition can be successfully mobilized to understand and critique the politics that underlie claims to victimhood as well as state responses to such claims

Reconciling justice and attribution research to advance climate policy

International audienceThe Paris Climate Agreement is an important step for international climate policy, but the compensation for negative effects of climate change based on clear assignment of responsibilities remains highly debated. From both a policy and a science perspective, it is unclear how responsibilities should be defined and on what evidence base. We explore different normative principles of justice relevant to climate change impacts, and ask how different forms of causal evidence of impacts drawn from detection and attribution research could inform policy approaches in accordance with justice considerations. We reveal a procedural injustice based on the imbalance of observations and knowledge of impacts between developed and developing countries. This type of injustice needs to be considered in policy negotiations and decisions, and efforts strengthened to reduce it