Paul B. Badcock

The Social Risk Hypothesis of Depressed Mood: Evolutionary, Psychosocial, and Neurobiological Perspectives.

The authors hypothesize that depressed states evolved to minimize risk in social interactions in which individuals perceive that the ratio of their social value to others, and their social burden on others, is at a critically low level. When this ratio reaches a point where social value and social burden are approaching equivalence, the individual is in danger of exclusion from social contexts that, over the course of evolution, have been critical to fitness. Many features of depressed states can be understood in relation to mechanisms that reduce social risk in such circumstances, including (a) hyper-sensitivity to signals of social threat from others, (b) sending signals to others that reduce social risks, and (c) inhibiting risk-seeking (e.g., confident, acquisitive) behaviors. These features are discussed in terms of psychosocial and neurobiological research on depressive phenomena.

Demographic and Psychosocial Factors Associated With Psychological Distress and Resilience Among Transgender Individuals.

OBJECTIVES We examined the independent demographic and psychosocial factors associated with psychological distress and resilience among transgender men and women. METHODS Our data came from an online survey involving a national Australian sample of 169 transgender men and women in 2011. Survey questions assessed demographics; sources of support; contact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender peers; and experiences of victimization. We assessed the outcomes with the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale and the Brief Resilience Scale. RESULTS In all, 46.0% of the sample reported high or very high levels of psychological distress. Multivariable regression analyses identified considerably different independent factors for psychological distress and resilience. Younger age, feeling unable to turn to family for support, and victimization experiences were associated with greater psychological distress, whereas higher income, identifying as heterosexual, and having frequent contact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender peers were associated with greater resilience. CONCLUSIONS With different factors identified for psychological distress and resilience, these findings may help inform the development of tailored mental health interventions and resilience-building programs for this vulnerable population.

Design and methods of the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships

UNLABELLED Background This paper describes the methods and process of the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships. METHODS A representative sample of the Australian population was contacted by landline and mobile phone modified random-digit dialling in 2012-13. Computer-assisted telephone interviews elicited sociodemographic and health details as well as sexual behaviour and attitudes. For analysis, the sample was weighted to reflect the study design and further weighted to reflect the location, age and sex distribution of the population at the 2011 Census. RESULTS Interviews were completed with 9963 men and 10131 women aged 16-69 years from all states and territories. The overall participation rate among eligible people was 66.2% (63.9% for landline men, 67.9% for landline women and 66.5% for mobile respondents). Accounting for the survey design and adjusting to match the 2011 Census resulted in a weighted sample of 20094 people (10056 men and 10038 women). The sample was broadly representative of the Australian population, although as in most surveys, people with higher education and higher status occupations were over-represented. Data quality was high, with the great majority saying they were not at all or only slightly embarrassed by the questionnaire and almost all saying they were 90-100% honest in their answers. CONCLUSIONS The combination of methods and design in the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships, together with the high participation rate, strongly suggests that the results of the study are robust and broadly representative of the Australian population.

The lifetime experience of traumatic events is associated with hair cortisol concentrations in community-based children

Adversity early in life can disrupt the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) and increase risk for negative health outcomes. Recent research suggests that cortisol in scalp hair represents a promising measure of HPAA function. However, little is known about the relationship between early exposure to traumatic events and hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) in childhood, a critical period of HPAA development. The current study measured HCC in scalp hair samples collected from 70 community-based children (14 males, mean age=9.50) participating in the Imaging Brain Development in the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (iCATS). Data were also collected on lifetime exposure to traumatic events and current depressive symptoms. Lifetime exposure to trauma was associated with elevated HCC; however, HCC was not associated with current depressive symptoms. Consistent with some prior work, males were found to have higher HCC than females, although results should be treated with caution due to the small number of males who took part. Our findings suggest that hair cortisol may represent a biomarker of exposure to trauma in this age group; however, further study is necessary with a particular focus on the characterization of trauma and other forms of adversity.

Heterosexual experience and recent heterosexual encounters among Australian adults: the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships

UNLABELLED Current information about numbers of other-sex partners, experiences of different heterosexual behaviours and the recent heterosexual experiences among a representative sample of Australian adults is needed. It is not known whether these practices have changed between 2001-02 and 2012-13. METHODS Computer-assisted telephone interviews were completed by a representative sample of 9963 men and 10 131 women aged 16-69 years from all states and territories. The overall participation rate among eligible people was 66.2%. RESULTS Men reported more sexual partners than women, although the lifetime number of heterosexual partners reported by women increased significantly between 2001-02 and 2012-13. In 2012-13, 14.7% of men and 8.6% of women reported two or more sexual partners in the last year. Reporting multiple partners was significantly associated with being younger, being bisexual, living in major cities, having a lower income, having a blue-collar occupation and not being married. The proportion of respondents reporting ever having had oral sex or anal intercourse increased significantly since the last survey. At the last heterosexual encounter, 91.9% of men and 66.2% of women had an orgasm, oral sex was reported in only approximately one in four encounters and anal intercourse was uncommon. CONCLUSION There were increases between 2001-02 and 2012-13 in partner numbers among women and in the lifetime experience of oral and anal sex. The patterns of heterosexual experience in Australia are similar to those found in studies of representative samples in other countries.

Knowledge about and experience of sexually transmissible infections in a representative sample of adults: the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships

UNLABELLED Background Sexually transmissible infections (STIs) present a substantial public health burden, and are related to modifiable sexual behaviours. METHODS Computer-assisted telephone interviews were completed by a population-representative sample of 20 094 men and women aged 16-69 years. The overall participation rate among eligible people was 66.2%. Respondents were asked questions regarding their knowledge about, self-reported history of, and testing for STIs. RESULTS STI knowledge was better in women, the young, people of higher socioeconomic status, those with a variety of indicators of being at high STI risk and those with a history of receiving sex education in school. Approximately one in six men and women reported a lifetime history of an STI. A history of STI testing in the last year was reported by ~one in six (17%) women and one in eight men (13%) and higher rates of testing in women were reported in most high-risk groups. The highest rates of STI testing (61%) and HIV testing (89%) were reported in homosexual men. CONCLUSION Knowledge of STI-related health consequences and transmission is improving in Australians, and rates of STI testing were relatively high but were higher in women than in men. Further increases in testing rates in both sexes will be required to facilitate the early diagnosis and treatment of STIs, which is a cornerstone of STI control.

Adaptive social reasoning in depressed mood and depressive vulnerability

In this study we evaluate the evolutionary hypothesis that depressed states are associated with more adaptive reasoning about social risks, such as defeat or rejection. A total of 78 women were administered one of two mood inductions (depressed vs. neutral), followed by four Wason selection reasoning tasks (truth-detection, cheater-detection, and two social risk tasks addressing attachment and social competition risks). Those in the depressed mood condition gave significantly more correct responses on a task requiring participants to reason about social competition. There were no significant differences on performance for the other reasoning tasks between the two mood induction conditions. Furthermore, measures of two dimensions of depression prone personality (sociotropy and autonomy) were associated with less adaptive reasoning about social risks. These results suggest that mildly depressed states may indeed facilitate adaptive reasoning within certain domains, whereas vulnerability to depression may be associated with a relative impairment in reasoning about social risks.

Answering Schrödinger's question: A free-energy formulation

The free-energy principle (FEP) is a formal model of neuronal processes that is widely recognised in neuroscience as a unifying theory of the brain and biobehaviour. More recently, however, it has been extended beyond the brain to explain the dynamics of living systems, and their unique capacity to avoid decay. The aim of this review is to synthesise these advances with a meta-theoretical ontology of biological systems called variational neuroethology, which integrates the FEP with Tinbergens four research questions to explain biological systems across spatial and temporal scales. We exemplify this framework by applying it to Homo sapiens, before translating variational neuroethology into a systematic research heuristic that supplies the biological, cognitive, and social sciences with a computationally tractable guide to discovery.

Homosexual experience and recent homosexual encounters: the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships

UNLABELLED Background The aim of this study is to describe homosexual experience and characteristics of recent homosexual encounters among Australian adults and identify changes between 2001-02 and 2012-13. METHODS Computer-assisted telephone interviews were completed by a representative sample of 20094 men and women aged 16-69 years and the participation rate among eligible people was 66.2%. Respondents indicated the number of same-sex partners they had had in their lifetime and in the last 12 months. Those who reported any homosexual experience were asked the age at which this first occurred and about characteristics of the first and most recent homosexual encounter. RESULTS Reporting ever having same-sex experience was more common in women (13.5%) than in men (6.5%, P<0.001). Among these people, men reported more lifetime and recent same-sex partners than women (P<0.001). Same-sex experience was associated with some but not all indices of higher socioeconomic status. In men, it was associated with living in a major city (P=0.02) and in women, it was associated with younger (<30 years) age and with very low income (P<0.001). Men were younger than women at their first homosexual encounter (P=0.005). Women were more likely than men to have their first same-sex encounter with a regular partner. For women but not men, there was a significant increase in the proportion reporting same-sex experience since 2001-02. CONCLUSION Same-sex experience is not uncommon and is increasing in prevalence in young Australian women. The high number of same-sex partners among homosexual and bisexual men places them at greater risk of sexually transmissible infection.

Safer sex and condom use: findings from the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships

UNLABELLED Background It is important to have current and reliable estimates of the frequency and correlates of condom use among Australian adults. METHODS A representative sample of 20094 men and women aged 16-69 years, from all states and territories, completed computer-assisted telephone interviews. The overall participation rate among eligible people was 66.2%. RESULTS Although most respondents had used a condom at some time in their lives, fewer than half of those who were sexually active in the year before being interviewed had used a condom in that year. Condom use in the last year was associated with youth, speaking a language other than English at home, bisexual identity, greater education, residence in major cities, lower income and having multiple sexual partners in the last year. One-quarter of respondents used a condom the last time they had vaginal intercourse and one-sixth of these were put on after genital contact. Condom use during most recent vaginal sex was associated with youth, lower income, having sex with a non-regular partner and not using another form of contraception. Condom use appears to have increased between 2001-02 and 2012-13. CONCLUSION Consistent with other research, this study showed that condom use was strongly associated with partner type and use of other contraception. There may be a need to highlight among people with multiple sexual partners the fact that non-barrier methods of contraception do not offer protection against sexually transmissible infections. The finding that many condoms were applied after genital contact suggests a need to promote both use and correct use of condoms.