Kathryn Greene

Messages Influencing College Women's Tanning Bed Use: Statistical versus Narrative Evidence Format and a Self-Assessment to Increase Perceived Susceptibility

Understanding the effect of messages and other influences on health decision-making has the potential to decrease risky behavior such as tanning bed use. This study explores the effect of type of evidence, self-assessments of risk for skin cancer, and personality factors on intention to use and use of tanning beds among Caucasian female college students. Specifically, it targeted the perceived susceptibility component of the Health Belief Model and its impact on intention to tan as well as changes in actual tanning behavior. College students (N=141) in the southeast United States read randomly assigned messages and self-assessments, filled out surveys, and were later contacted for a follow-up telephone survey. The statistical message was rated higher on information value and also resulted in decreased intention to tan, decreased tanning behavior, and increased perceived susceptibility to skin cancer. The narrative message, in contrast, increased perceptions of realism and also worked to decrease intentions to tan. Additionally, the self-assessment manipulation resulted in increased susceptibility and decreased intention to tan and post tanning behavior. Personality factors explained small portions of variance. Key limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.

Perceived HIV-related Stigma and HIV Disclosure to Relationship Partners after Finding Out about the Seropositive Diagnosis

The present study examined how perceived HIV-related stigma (how much HIV-infected persons believe that the public stigmatizes someone with HIV) influences both reasons for and against HIV disclosure and self-reports of HIV disclosure to a friend, intimate partner and a parent. The research participants were 145 men and women living with HIV. They were asked to recall when they first learned about their HIV diagnosis. Then they indicated how much specific reasons might have influenced disclosing or not disclosing about the HIV diagnosis to a friend, intimate partner and a parent. Findings, based on the total sample, indicated that perceived HIV-related stigma was associated with the endorsement of various reasons against disclosing to a friend and a parent, including concerns about self-blame, fear of rejection, communication difficulties and a desire to protect the other person. Perceived HIV-related stigma was not associated with the endorsement of any reasons for disclosing to a friend, intimate partner or a parent, including catharsis, test other’s reactions, duty to inform/educate, similarity and a close/supportive relationship with the other. In addition, perceived HIV-related stigma predicted self-reports of disclosure to a parent but not to a friend or intimate partner. Specific reasons for and against self-disclosure predicted HIV disclosure based on the type of relationship with the potential disclosure recipient. The data analyses were also stratified by gender; these results were, with some exceptions, consistent with the findings with the total sample. The research introduces scales that quantify individuals’ reasons for HIV disclosure and/or nondisclosure.

Gentlemen don't speak: communication norms and condom use in bathhouses

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) focuses on attitudes, norms, behavior, and intentions in explaining a behavior. This study provides a qualitative, detailed description of TRA components applied specifically to condom use for STD prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM) in bathhouses. Using a detailed, semi-structured interview guide, MSM acknowledged an existing norm for condom use for all anal intercourse and reported perceiving that bathhouse sexual partners were more likely to be infected with HIV and other STDs than men met in other settings. They also, however, reported a norm for silence in bathhouse public areas; this norm facilitated efficient and anonymous sexual encounters but precluded the ability to negotiate condom use verbally. Condom use lapses were generally attributed to this silence norm. Norms regarding silence appeared more strongly related to condom use than attitudes toward condom use. Implications for prevention, practical applications, and future research are discussed.

Predicting exposure to and liking of media violence: a uses and gratifications approach

The uses and gratifications tradition posits individual needs for stimulation, for information, vary systematically. These needs may, in turn, affect what media sources, and other stimuli, various individuals access. This study used a survey design (N = 610) to examine the relationship between several key personality factors, media exposure and liking, and risk‐taking behavior. Overall, it was found that sensation seeking, verbal aggressiveness, argumentativeness, and instrumental androgyny were positively associated with exposure to violent films and horror movies and to a lesser extent real crime and violent television. However, these personality factors did not consistently predict liking of these genres suggesting that individuals may be seeking excitement and aggression (gratifications sought) in these genres but are not necessarily satisfied (gratifications obtained) by these mediated forms. In addition, even after controlling for these personality factors, exposure to these various forms of violent media was directly related to self‐reported violent behavior and risky behavior.

Domestic Violence in Lesbian Relationships

Abstract Increasingly, therapists and researchers have focused attention on domestic violence in lesbian relationships. To date, however, most research has described the incidence and types of physical violence and abuse. The present study sought to explore predictors of domestic violence in lesbian relationships. Lesbian participants filled out a survey measuring physical violence and physical aggression as well as relational and personality variables. Results indicated that lesbians do report some degree of domestic violence, characterized more often by physical aggression than by physical violence. Physical aggression was best predicted by fusion, followed by self-esteem and independence. For physical violence, however, control was the most important predictor, followed by independence, self-esteem and fusion. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Expected versus actual responses to disclosure in relationships of HIV‐positive African American adolescent females

Ten HIV‐positive African American adolescent females were interviewed regarding disclosure of their HIV infection in various relationships. Communication Boundary Management (Petronio, 1991) provided a framework for understanding disclosure patterns in these relationships. Participants described expected (n = 113) and actual (n = 94) responses to disclosing an HIV diagnosis. The findings indicate that expected response and the target of disclosure affect adolescents’ disclosure decisions. Participants expected targets of disclosure to respond as follows: experience negative emotional reactions, provide support, treat them differently, tell others, or were unsure of a targets response. On the basis of these findings, five themes were identified related to actual responses to disclosure of HIV infection: different treatment, negative emotional reaction, received support, target told others, and treated no differently. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Role of Transportation in the Persuasion Process: Cognitive and Affective Responses to Antidrug Narratives

This study examined transportation effects of first- and third-person narratives as well as the role of transportation in the persuasion process. In particular, the authors evaluated the role of transportation in affecting cognitive and affective responses. Last, they addressed the relation between (a) cognitive and affective responses and (b) antidrug expectancies. Participants were 500 undergraduate students at a large northern university in the United Kingdom who were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: first- or third-person narratives on cocaine use. The results demonstrated that there was no difference between first- and third-person narratives in terms of transportation. However, overall, greater transportation was associated with more favorable cognitive responses, and more favorable cognitive response was associated with stronger anticocaine expectancies. In terms of affective responses, results indicated the mediating role of sadness and contentment in the association between transportation and anticocaine expectancies. In particular, increased transportation was associated with greater sadness and lower contentment. Lower sadness and contentment were associated with stronger anticocaine expectancies. Important theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.

Disease-Related Stigma

Abstract This study explores the prevalence of AIDS and cancer stigma as influenced by attitude toward homosexuality, religiosity, authoritarianism, and androgyny. This study used a quasi-experimental survey design (N = 485) to examine attitude toward people with AIDS and cancer, and interaction with people with AIDS and cancer. Negative attitudes toward homosexuality, high religious intensity and ideology, high authoritarianism, and low expressive emerged as factors related to more negative attitudes toward people with AIDS and unwillingness to interact with people with AIDS. Attitudes toward people with cancer were generally not related to the variables. Findings explore how to campaign efforts to reduce existing negative attitudes toward AIDS and homosexuality, given that gay men with AIDS are especially stigmatized. Implications and directions for future research are discussed, especially for interventions.

A test of the theory of reasoned action in the context of condom use and AIDS

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) was employed as a framework for understanding adolescents’ behavior that could put them at risk for contracting AIDS. The TRA focuses on the role of subjective norms and attitudes toward behavior to predict behavioral intentions and risk‐avoidance behavior (condom use). Adolescent participants (N = 492) in three groups (8th grade, 11/12th grade, and early college) filled out questionnaires. Results supported Ajzen and Fishbeins contentions regarding the role of attitude and subjective norms, but subjective norms also functioned as a predictor of attitudes. Additional evidence indicated models by gender and sexual experience were different. For sexually active adolescents, attitude was a better predictor of both behavioral intentions and condom use than subjective norms, but for sexually inactive adolescents, subjective norm was a better predictor. For male adolescents, subjective norm was a better predictor of both behavioral intentions and condom use than attitude, bu...

Appropriateness of disclosure of HIV testing information: The perspective of PLWAs

Abstract This paper explores perceptions of the appropriateness of disclosure of HIV testing information from the perspective of people living with HPV/AIDS (PLWAs). A systems framework, communication boundary management, is employed as a theoretical approach. Seventy‐seven HIV‐positive individuals responded to a questionnaire asking if they thought particular individuals (also labeled targets or recipients) should have access to results of HIV tests. Results indicated PLWAs created three grouping of recipients based on perceptions of who should have access to this information. As expected, participants reported most desire for access to results of HIV testing information to the immediate family subsystem (e.g., spouses, fathers), next most to the extended family (e.g., aunts, grandfathers), and least access to non‐family (e.g., employers, teachers); actual disclosure patterns were similar. HIV‐positive individuals also reported there should be less overall disclosure of HIV testing information than other...