Advertising Health Status in Male Sex Workers\u27 Online Ads

This brief report examines whether male sex workers mentioned any health concerns in their online ads. The analysis uses 203 male escorts\u27 online ads collected from America Online chat rooms in 2001/2002. The results indicate that only 25 percent of male escorts explicitly mentioned any health-related words or phrases in their ads. The results also show that whether a male escort mentioned health in their ad is correlated with the type of images they would like to portray and with the type of sex services they offer

The Complexity Of Individual And Socio-Cultural Ecology: Interaction Of Genes And Attachments On Intercultural Experience

In this age of globalization, sojourning is becoming an increasingly common experience. This prospective study sought to examine the differential effects of maternal, paternal and cultural attachments on young adults’ (n = 305) ability to adapt to a foreign culture. 258 control participants were included to demonstrate the uniqueness of cross-cultural adaptations. In addition, this study also looked at whether one’s genetic predisposition moderated the relationship between attachments and intercultural adjustment. Current findings suggest paternal and cultural attachments were of particular importance. These effects were not present if participants were not in a foreign culture. Furthermore, overprotectiveness of fathers was especially important to how difficult sojourners perceived the cross-cultural experience to be, but it was the care dimension that predicted whether having a difficult experience led to lower self-esteem when sojourners returned home. Lastly, individual’s genetic predispositions did moderate the effect of attachments on how much difficulties individuals experienced overseas.DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (NBS

The socioeconomic landscape of the exposome during pregnancy

Background: While socioeconomic position (SEP) is consistently related to pregnancy and birth outcome dis-parities, relevant biological mechanisms are manifold, thus necessitating more comprehensive characterization of SEP-exposome associations during pregnancy. Objectives: We implemented an exposomic approach to systematically characterize the socioeconomic landscape of prenatal exposures in a setting where social segregation was less distinct in a hypotheses-generating manner. Methods: We described the correlation structure of 134 prenatal exogenous and endogenous sources (e.g., micronutrients, hormones, immunomodulatory metabolites, environmental pollutants) collected in a diverse, population-representative, urban, high-income longitudinal mother-offspring cohort (N = 1341; 2009-2011). We examined the associations between maternal, paternal, household, and areal level SEP indicators and 134 ex-posures using multiple regressions adjusted for precision variables, as well as potential effect measure modifi-cation by ethnicity and nativity. Finally, we generated summary SEP indices using Multiple Correspondence Analysis to further explore possible curved relationships. Results: Individual and household SEP were associated with anthropometric/adiposity measures, folate, omega-3 fatty acids, insulin-like growth factor-II, fasting glucose, and neopterin, an inflammatory marker. We observed paternal education was more strongly and consistently related to maternal exposures than maternal education. This was most apparent amongst couples discordant on education. Analyses revealed additional non-linear as-sociations between areal composite SEP and particulate matter. Environmental contaminants (e.g., per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and micronutrients (e.g., folate and copper) showed opposing associations by ethnicity and nativity, respectively. Discussion: SEP-exposome relationships are complex, non-linear, and context specific. Our findings reinforce the potential role of paternal contributions and context-specific modifiers of associations, such as between ethnicity and maternal diet-related exposures. Despite weak presumed areal clustering of individual exposures in our context, our approach reinforces subtle non-linearities in areal-level exposures.Peer reviewe

Differential effects of prenatal psychological distress and positive mental health on offspring socioemotional development from infancy to adolescence: a meta-analysis

The impact of prenatal maternal mental health on offspring socioemotional development is substantial and enduring. Existing literature primarily focuses on the effects of psychological distress during pregnancy, emphasizing adverse child outcomes. Recent studies, however, highlight the unique impact of positive maternal mental health on child outcomes. To elucidate the differential associations of maternal psychological distress and positive mental health during pregnancy with child outcomes, we conducted a systematic literature search and random-effects meta-analyses on studies investigating the associations of prenatal maternal mental health with child socioemotional development. Our analyses, comprising 74 studies with 321,966 mother-child dyads across 21 countries, revealed significant associations of prenatal psychological distress with both adverse and positive child socioemotional outcomes. Notably, the effect sizes for the association of psychological distress with positive child outcomes were smaller compared to adverse outcomes. Positive prenatal mental health, on the other hand, was significantly associated with positive socioemotional outcomes but not adverse outcomes. This meta-analysis highlights the independence of negative and positive prenatal mental health constructs and their distinct relationships with child socioemotional development. The findings underscore the importance of considering the positive spectrum of maternal mental health and developmental outcomes to enhance our understanding of prenatal influences on child development. Systematic Review Registration:https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=335227, identifier CRD42022335227

Executive Functions of Six-Year-Old Boys with Normal Birth Weight and Gestational Age

Impaired fetal development, reflected by low birth weight or prematurity, predicts an increased risk for psychopathology, especially attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Such effects cut across the normal range of birth weight and gestation. Despite the strength of existing epidemiological data, cognitive pathways that link fetal development to mental health are largely unknown. In this study we examined the relation of birth weight (>2500 g) and gestational age (37–41 weeks) within the normal range with specific executive functions in 195 Singaporean six-year-old boys of Chinese ethnicity. Birth weight adjusted for gestational age was used as indicator of fetal growth while gestational age was indicative of fetal maturity. Linear regression revealed that increased fetal growth within the normal range is associated with an improved ability to learn rules during the intra/extra-dimensional shift task and to retain visual information for short period of time during the delayed matching to sample task. Moreover, faster and consistent reaction times during the stop-signal task were observed among boys born at term, but with higher gestational age. Hence, even among boys born at term with normal birth weight, variations in fetal growth and maturity showed distinct effects on specific executive functions

Ingroup-outgroup evaluations under threats to group’s distinctiveness and self’s social identity, and the moderating effect of social value orientation.

The current research aimed to investigate the effects on ingroup and outgroup evaluations when both the individual’s social identity and the individual’s ingroup are threatened simultaneously, as well as how individual differences in social value orientation moderates these ingroup-outgroup evaluations. Threats to ingroup and to the self were manipulated through false feedbacks. After manipulation, participants (N = 90) evaluated fellow NTU students of the same major of study as themselves (ingroup) and students of a different major of study (outgroup) on two measures. Results revealed that social value orientation significantly moderated the effects of threats to self and to ingroup on ingroup-outgroup evaluations in multiple ways, depending on social contexts and target of evaluation.Bachelor of Art

When threatened by own-group and others, to please or disengage?

Threats from both distinctiveness with the outgroup and prototypicality as an ingroup members were introduced, and the interacting effect of both threats along with ingroup identification on inter- and intra-group evaluations were investigated. Based on various social identity theories, it is predicted that under the above mentioned two threats, high identifiers are likely to show accentuated ingroup bias, whereas low identifiers have the highest tendency to leave the group through and is expressed through the lowered exertion of ingroup bias. The results, though weak, revealed support for the predicted hypothesis.Bachelor of Art

Evaluations of ingroup and outgroup as a function of threat moderated by procedural just world beliefs.

Ingroup and outgroup evaluations were investigated as a function of prototypicality threat and distinctiveness threat manipulations, with Procedural Just World beliefs as a moderator. Ninety university undergraduates were randomly assigned to 4 groups: high prototypicality-high distinctiveness, high prototypicality-low distinctiveness, low prototypicality-high distinctiveness, and low prototypicality-low distinctiveness. Participants were given bogus feedback on a bogus personality test. Levels of favouritism and derogation on both ingroup and outgroup were measured. Results supported that predictions of Brewer (1991, 2007)‟s optimal distinctiveness theory may only be reflective of public but not private manifestations of individuals‟ behaviours. In the present study, Procedural Just World beliefs failed to moderate the effects of social identity threats.Bachelor of Art

Cultural attachment : a new theory and method to understand cross-cultural competence

Cultural attachment theory postulates that the adaptive solution of acculturation is analogous to infants’ attachment to their caretakers, whereby forming secure attachment to the native and/or host cultures can help sojourners to cope with anxiety and stress and to gain a sense of safe haven. To test this theory, we recruited 57 Indonesian students who were studying in Singapore and measured their quality of cultural attachment in two ways: (a) self-reported cultural attachment styles with the native and host culture and (b) positive affective transfer from Indonesian (native) and that from Singaporean (host) cultural icons. The participants’ selfreported cultural attachment styles and identifications with the two cultures were differentially correlated with their positive affective transfers from the two cultural icons. Importantly, the participants’ self-reported attachment styles of native and host cultures and their positive affective transfer from the Indonesian (native) cultural icons were linked to better adjustment in the host culture (as indicated by less perceived discrimination and acculturation stress, and greater subjective well-being). Implications of these findings on cross-cultural competence were discussed