Keep the Faith Not the Guilt: Demonization of Sex Workers

Previous research shows that religiosity and attitudes about sexual topics are strongly correlated and typically negative. That is, as religiosity increases, views toward sexual topics tend to become more conservative or generally more negative in valence. However, current research also suggests that one’s sexual guilt may be the mediating influence in the relationship between religiosity and negative sexual attitudes. The present study seeks to replicate and extend research that examined the extent to which an individual\u27s religiosity and sexual guilt influence their perspective of pornography and sex workers (Study 1). To replicate this (Study 2), a survey containing relevant measures will be distributed to undergraduate participants as well as individuals from Amazon.com’s MTurk

Spending Floors in Gifted Education Services

For nearly two decades, the state of Texas mandated gifted education services and provided funding to public school districts. One policy that was unique to the state is the mandatory minimum spending. This research examines how these mandatory minimum spending floors influence spending in public school districts within the state and how that influence varies across locales. Our findings provide evidence that rural public school districts in Texas were more likely to operate near to the mandatory state minimum spending for gifted education than non-rural public school districts. In particular, rural public school districts allocated 50% of the funds towards gifted education programming as suburban public school districts when the minimum spending floors was accounted for. The results should provide caution to policy makers on the possible ramifications of removing spending floors on gifted education programming in rural public school districts

Parental Rejection and Peer Acceptance: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Bias

Understanding what influences peer attachments is vitally important. Consistent with organizational/transactional theory, we examined the roles of emotional dysregulation and cognitive bias, in the relationship between parental rejection and peer acceptance. Early adult participants reported their perception of parental acceptance/rejection in childhood and current levels of emotional, cognitive, and social wellbeing. Results replicate findings that the quality of a parent-child relationship relates to psychological functioning, including one’s ability to regulate emotions, understand others’ emotions and intentions, and form quality relationships. However, maladaptive cognitions mediate the relationship between parental and peer acceptance

CAN IT BE DONE? EXAMINING STEREOTYPE THREAT WITH FAKE STEREOTYPES

Stereotype threat refers to the risk of conforming to a stereotype regarding a group one belongs to. This threat has been heavily studied with negative stereotypes on performance-based tasks (e.g., math), and encompasses the anxiety one may feel due to being associated with the negative stereotype (Steele & Aronson, 1995). The present project sought to expand upon current literature in several ways. First, this project sought to assess whether fake stereotypes elicit stereotype threat like real stereotypes do. Second, this project examined whether fake stereotype threat works with positive stereotypes as well as negative. Third, this study examined how group identification influenced the effects of stereotype threat. This was accomplished via a controlled experiment with random assignment. It was expected that stereotype threat would work with fake stereotypes, and that performance would vary based on which stereotype the participant was presented with (positive or negative). Additionally, it was expected that identification would exacerbate the effects of stereotype threat on the performance-based task. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between stereotype conditions on reading comprehension performance, and that there was no moderating effect of identification

The delivery of recreation programs: Students gain entry level management skills through service learning

Service learning is a well-established pedagogy within higher education. Specifically, service learning allows students to engage in 'real world' activitites to practice skills and reflect upon their own competence. To enhance the effectiveness of service learning, instructors need to consider a multitude of learning influences. This study adhered to the tenants of the Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986; Schunk, 2004) to engage students in service learning activities related to entry level administrative competencies. Data analysis included a content analysis of reflection papers to determine how many times competencies expected of entry level recreation professionals were mentioned. Students percieved the acquisition of competencies consistent with entry level competencies identified within the recreation industry. Results contribute to the development of effective assignments to facilitate the acquisition of desired professional competencies

Are objective measures of sleep and sedentary behaviours related to low back pain flares?

Final peer-reviewed manuscript[Abstract] Risk factors for low back pain (LBP) flares have been considered about self-reported measures. This case–crossover study aimed to investigate whether (1) objective measures of physical activity and sleep were associated with the risk of experiencing LBP flares and (2) these associations differed for flares defined as pain 2 or more points greater than average pain over the period using an 11-point Numerical rating scale (0-no pain and 10-worst pain imaginable) (pain-defined flare: PDF) and flares identified by participants according to a broader definition that considered emotions or coping (self-reported flare [SRF]). We included 126 participants who had experienced LBP for >3 months. Physical activity and sleep were monitored for 28 days using wearable sensors. Occurrence of flares (PDF or SRF) was assessed daily using a smartphone application. Data on exposure to risk factors 1, 2, and 3 days preceding PDF or SRF were compared with nonflare control periods. Conditional logistic regression determined association between each factor and flares. Data show that day-to-day variation in physical activity and in-bed time are associated with the risk of LBP flares, but associations differ depending on how flare is defined. Longer in-bed time increased the risk of PDF but not SRF. Although physical activity was not associated with the risk of PDF, greater sedentary behaviour increased the risk of SRF and being more physically active decreased the risk for SRF. These results highlight the potential role of targeting sleep and physical activity in interventions to prevent LBP flares and indicate that risk factors differ depending on how LBP flares are defined.Centre of Research Excellence (Australia); APP1091302Centre of Research Excellence (Australia); APP1079078National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia; PH—APP1102905National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia; MF—APP114359

Effect of a consumer-focused website for low back pain on health literacy, treatment choices, and clinical outcomes: randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: The internet is used for information related to health conditions, including low back pain (LBP), but most LBP websites provide inaccurate information. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of internet resources in changing health literacy or treatment choices. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the MyBackPain website compared with unguided internet use on health literacy, choice of treatments, and clinical outcomes in people with LBP. METHODS: This was a pragmatic, web-based, participant- and assessor-blinded randomized trial of individuals with LBP stratified by duration. Participants were randomly allocated to have access to the evidence-based MyBackPain website, which was designed with input from consumers and expert consensus or unguided internet use. The coprimary outcomes were two dimensions of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (dimension 2: “having sufficient information to manage my health;” dimension 3: “actively managing my health;” converted to scores 1-100) at 3 months. Secondary outcomes included additional Health Literacy Questionnaire dimensions, quality of treatment choices, and clinical outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 453 participants were recruited, and 321 (70.9%) completed the primary outcomes. Access to MyBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use on primary outcomes (dimension 2: mean difference −0.87 units, 95% CI −3.56 to 1.82; dimension 3: mean difference −0.41 units, 95% CI −2.78 to 1.96). Between-group differences in other secondary outcomes had inconsistent directions and were unlikely to be clinically important, although a small improvement of unclear importance in the quality of stated treatment choices at 1 month was found (mean difference 0.93 units, 95% CI 0.03 to 1.84). CONCLUSIONS: MyBackPain was not superior to unguided internet use for health literacy, but data suggest some short-term improvement in treatment choices. Future research should investigate if greater interactivity and engagement with the website may enhance its impact. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12617001292369; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=372926 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2018-02751

Mammalian Pathogenesis and Transmission of Avian Influenza A(H7N9) Viruses, Tennessee, USA, 2017

Infections with low pathogenicity and highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H7N9) viruses affected poultry in 4 states in the southeastern United States in 2017. We evaluated pathogenicity and transmission of representative viruses in mouse and ferret models and examined replication kinetics in human respiratory tract cells. These viruses can cause respiratory infections in mammalian models