The Role of Gender and Sexuality in the Experience, Internalization, and Mental Health Correlates of Sexual Victimization Stigma.

The stigma associated with sexual victimization (SV) can add to the psychological burden on survivors. We compared experiences of SV and SV stigma by survivor gender and sexuality and evaluated the relevance of public and internalized sources of this stigma to their psychological functioning. An online survey containing measures of SV type (sexual harassment and assault), public SV stigma, internalized SV stigma (self-blame, self-shame, anticipated-shame), and psychological functioning (depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptomatology) was completed by 877 women and 211 men aged 18 to 66 years ( = 30.

Rumination and threat-biased interpretation mediate posttraumatic stress and growth responses to military stressors.

We examined the role of rumination and threat-biased interpretation in stress and growth responses to military stressors. Two online surveys were completed by 183 (survey 1) and 393 (survey 2) currently serving or retired military personnel. The surveys measured exposure to potential military stressors (exposure to combat, witnessing the consequences of war, and perceived moral injury), posttraumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS), posttraumatic growth (PTG), and personal wellbeing, with survey 1 including measures of rumination, and survey 2 including a measure of threat-biased interpretation.

Cognitive distortions mediate relationships between early maladaptive schemas and aggression in women and men.

Difficult childhood experiences can lead to the development of early maladaptive schemas (EMS) that cause emotional and behavioral problems later in life. The present study examined the role of cognitive distortions in mediating relationships between EMS and aggression in adults as a function of sex. Participants were 59 women (M  = 34.

Posttraumatic stress, visual working memory, and visual imagery in military personnel.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by disruptions to cognitive functioning. Two studies were conducted to examine the relevance of military-related PTSD to two cognitive functions - visual working memory and visual imagery. Participants were military personnel who reported their PTSD diagnosis history and completed a self-administered screening tool for PTSD, the PTSD Checklist - Military Version.

Evaluating an online self-distancing intervention to promote emotional regulation and posttraumatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: Three online studies were conducted to elucidate the role of emotional regulation (ER) in posttraumatic growth (PTG), evaluate the ability of an online self-distancing intervention to achieve ER, and test whether increasing the use of ER strategies promotes PTG.

Design: Cross-sectional (Study 1) and longitudinal randomized controlled trials (RCT) (Studies 2 and 3).

Method: In Study 1, 626 adults completed measures of ER, PTG, and psychosocial functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coming Out to Family and Friends in the Trans and Gender Diverse Context.

Despite the risks of rejection and discrimination, "coming out" can be an important psychological milestone for transgender (trans) and gender diverse people (TGD). We evaluated the dimensions of identity that predict coming out to family and friends, and the role of social support in explaining the psychosocial benefits associated with coming out. An online survey was completed by 951 TGD adults, 516 (54.

Growth from adversity in trans and gender diverse people of color.

Background: Trans-negativity and gender-based discrimination negatively impact on the wellbeing and mental health in transgender (trans) and gender diverse people (TGD). There is limited research on TGD people thriving under adversity, and no research to date has considered TGD people of color in this context.

Method: We used the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-X) to survey 125 TGD people of color and 625 white TGD adults (18 to 68 years old, M = 26.

Development of the Trans and Gender Diverse Social Anxiety Scale.

We develop and evaluate a Trans and Gender Diverse Social Anxiety Scale (TSAS) suitable for use with trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. We evaluate the TSAS on a sample of 171 TGD adults (40 transmen, 80 transwomen, and 51 gender nonbinary). We test the TSAS's construct validity against measures of perceived and enacted anti-trans stigma, and in comparison to a generic (i.

Factors influencing women's choice of weight-loss diet.

We developed a typology of eight minimally overlapping weight-loss diet methods and used it to survey 151 women dieters on their choice of diet in the previous 12 months, their motivations to diet, and their eating disorder symptomatology. Canonical correlations revealed a potentially problematic "thin, quick, and easy" association of methods and motives, as well as a more healthful "thin, natural, life-style" association. Both featured the pursuit of thinness but not health.

Ecological Model of Australian Indigenous Men's Health.

This study was designed to examine the health behaviors as well as the enablers and barriers to health behaviors among Indigenous Australian men. One hundred and fifty Indigenous Australian men in rural, regional, and urban locations were interviewed about their health behaviors. The results revealed several themes of importance: (a) role of community activities, (b) the Indigenous man as a leader and role model, (c) negative impact of discrimination/racism, (d) importance of partner and family, (e) positive and negative role of peer relationships, (f) central role of culturally appropriate health care facilities, and (g) association between employment and health care problems.

Increased left hemisphere impairment in high-functioning autism: a tract based spatial statistics study.

There is evidence emerging from Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) research that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with greater impairment in the left hemisphere. Although this has been quantified with volumetric region of interest analyses, it has yet to be tested with white matter integrity analysis. In the present study, tract based spatial statistics was used to contrast white matter integrity of 12 participants with high-functioning autism or Aspergers syndrome (HFA/AS) with 12 typically developing individuals.

Avatar body dimensions and men's body image.

Two online surveys examined the significance of the visual analogues, or 'avatars', men (total N=266) create and use online. Two-dimensional (adiposity×muscle) somatomorphic matrices revealed that avatars are generally thinner than their creator's actual body and similar to their ideal, but more muscular than either their actual or ideal. Men's ratings of the importance of their avatar's appearance correlated with their actual weight and muscle concerns, and disparity between their avatar and actual body dimensions predicted their offline context body change concerns additional to that accounted for by disparity between their ideal and actual bodies.

A test of the resource security and the body mass index reference point hypotheses of body dissatisfaction amongst adolescents in eight countries.

Objective: This study aimed to identify cultural-level variables that may influence the extent to which adolescents from different cultural groups are dissatisfied with their bodies.

Design: A sample of 1730 male and 2000 female adolescents from Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Tonga, Tongans in New Zealand, China, Chile, and Greece completed measures of body satisfaction, and the sociocultural influences on body image and body change questionnaire, and self-reported height and weight. Country gross domestic product and national obesity were recorded using global databases.

Brief report: maltreatment in childhood and body concerns in adulthood.

Objective: We examined the relationship between maltreatment in childhood and body concerns in adulthood.

Method: A community sample of 156 women and 143 men completed measures of maltreatment - frequency of sexual abuse, physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and emotional neglect - in childhood. They also reported current dissatisfaction with body weight and shape and drive for thinness and drive for muscle.

Promoting fit bodies, healthy eating and physical activity among Indigenous Australian men: a study protocol.

Background: Overall the physical health of Indigenous men is among the worst in Australia. Research has indicated that modifiable lifestyle factors, such as poor nutrition and physical inactivity, appear to contribute strongly to these poor health conditions. To effectively develop and implement strategies to improve the health of Australia's Indigenous peoples, a greater understanding is needed of how Indigenous men perceive health, and how they view and care for their bodies.

Primary and secondary control over eating behaviors.

The relationships between subjective control, body image, and eating behaviors were examined within the framework of the Optimization in Primary and Secondary Control model (OPS model; Heckhausen, 1999). This model characterizes control as an adaptive and strategic process in which the target of control includes internal as well as external states, and in which the purpose is either to facilitate goal pursuit by engaging with the goal or managing the consequences of goal failure by disengaging from the goal. A convenience sample of 180 Australian women (age: M=26.

The relationship between dissociation and binge eating.

Despite research findings demonstrating a relationship between dissociation and binge eating, the psychological processes that may underlie this association remain unclear. The present study examined 2 potential explanations: (a) that dissociation disinhibits behavioral control over eating and (b) that dissociation interferes with self-awareness and undermines body image. A total of 151 female university students completed measures of dissociation, body dissatisfaction, impulsivity, internalization of the thin ideal, body comparison, and binge eating.

Acculturation, body image, and eating behaviours in Muslim-Australian women.

The relationship between western acculturation, body dissatisfaction, and eating behaviours was examined in a sample of 101 Muslim-Australian women between 18 and 44 years of age (M=27.3, SD=7.5).

Implications of accuracy, sensitivity, and variability of body size estimations to disordered eating.

The current study was conducted to investigate the relationships between body size estimations and disordered eating symptomatology. The method of constant stimuli was used to derive three measures of self-perceived body size in 93 women: (1) accuracy of body size estimations (body image distortion); (2) sensitivity in discriminating body size within blocks of trials (body image sensitivity); and (3) variability in making body size estimations between blocks of trials (body image variability). Participants also completed measures of disordered eating.

Motivational processes associated with unhealthy body change attitudes and behaviours.

Objective: The relationship between approach-avoidance motivational processes and unhealthy body change attitudes and behaviours was investigated.

Method: Self-reported sensitivity to rewards (SR) and sensitivity to punishments (SP) were measured for a convenience sample of 130 women, aged 18 to 40 years, along with measures of disordered eating symptomatology and exercise dependence.

Results: Together, SR and SP significantly predicted variance in drive for thinness (21%), bulimia (17%), and obligatory exercise (7%).

Emotional reactions following exposure to idealized bodies predict unhealthy body change attitudes and behaviors in women and men.

Objective: We explored the extent to which changes in emotional states following exposure to images of idealized bodies predict unhealthy body change attitudes and behaviors in women and men, and whether particular psychological traits mediate these effects.

Method: One hundred thirty-three women and 93 men were assessed for unhealthy attitudes and behaviors related to body weight and muscles using the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), the Obligatory Exercise Questionnaire, and the strategies to increase muscles subscale of the Body Change Inventory. Psychological traits assessed included body dissatisfaction (EDI-2), internalization of the thin/athletic ideal (Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3), body comparison (Body Comparison Scale), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II), and identity confusion (Self-Concept Clarity Scale).

A 'rubber-hand' illusion reveals a relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change.

The 'rubber-hand' illusion, in which individuals misattribute tactile sensations felt by their hand to a rubber prosthetic hand that they see being stimulated, was employed to examine the relationship between perceptual body image and unhealthy body change in 128 volunteers. Variance in unhealthy body development in males (22%) and in bulimic symptomatology in both females and males (10%), was explained by susceptibility to the illusion. The illusion, which is relatively free from cognitive and emotional 'contamination', could be used to identify individuals most responsive to therapies designed to correct inaccurate body perceptions-individuals whose perceptual body image is malleable.

The role of local grouping and global orientation contrast in perception of orientation-modulated textures.

We explored the contribution to perception of orientation-modulated textures of visual processes selective either for orientation contrast or orientation grouping. To distinguish between these two processes we manipulated the axis of local grouping of texture elements independently of the direction of global orientation modulation. The general question posed was whether visibility of texture structure (measured as threshold for discriminating spatial-frequency of texture structure) is dependent on the magnitude of orientation contrast, strength and direction of local grouping, or some combination of the two.

On the perceived location of global motion.

We measured the effects of coherent motion of one set of dots on the perceived location of Gaussian envelopes formed by luminance modulation of a second set of dots. Perceived shifts in envelope location in the direction of coherent motion were obtained even when the dots forming the envelopes did not physically move in the direction of coherent motion. In such cases, perceived shifts coincided with stimulus configurations that permitted motion integration of the envelope dots with the coherently moving dots, for example, when envelope dots moved in random directions as opposed to being static.