Stress Exposure and PTSD in a Cross-Sectional Residential Substance Use Treatment Sample.

Background: Aim 1 of this cross-sectional, observational study with people in residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) was to document stress exposure. Aim 2 was to assess potential sociodemographic and health differences based on probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) status. Aim 3 was to assess relative contributions of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-congruent versus DSM-incongruent stressors (Criterion A vs non-Criterion A) to mental and physical health.

Historical Mortality Dynamics on the Baja California Peninsula : Marriage, Mining Booms, Migration, and Infectious Disease.

Historical demographic research shows that the factors influencing mortality risk are labile across time and space. This is particularly true for datasets that span societal transitions. Here, we seek to understand how marriage, migration, and the local economy influenced mortality dynamics in a rapidly changing environment characterized by high in-migration and male-biased sex ratios.

Women's subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters.

While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence is lacking. We tested whether subsistence activities-incorporating market integration-are associated with fertility in 10,250 women from 27 small-scale societies and found considerable variation in fertility. This variation did not align with group-level subsistence typologies.

A pilot test of Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD in residential substance use treatment.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly comorbid with substance use disorders (SUD) and can impede SUD recovery. Residential SUD treatment is a crucial opportunity to address PTSD. However, PTSD treatment is lacking in residential SUD care.

Adult sex ratios: causes of variation and implications for animal and human societies.

Converging lines of inquiry from across the social and biological sciences target the adult sex ratio (ASR; the proportion of males in the adult population) as a fundamental population-level determinant of behavior. The ASR, which indicates the relative number of potential mates to competitors in a population, frames the selective arena for competition, mate choice, and social interactions. Here we review a growing literature, focusing on methodological developments that sharpen knowledge of the demographic variables underlying ASR variation, experiments that enhance understanding of the consequences of ASR imbalance across societies, and phylogenetic analyses that provide novel insights into social evolution.

The content and structure of reputation domains across human societies: a view from the evolutionary social sciences.

Reputations are an essential feature of human sociality and the evolution of cooperation and group living. Much scholarship has focused on reputations, yet typically on a narrow range of domains (e.g.

NDVI predicts birth seasonality in historical Baja California Sur, Mexico: adaptive responses to arid ecosystems and the North American Monsoon.

Birth seasonality is a phenomenon whereby populations can be characterized by a single month or season in which births peak. While non-human animal research suggests that seasonal birth-pulses are related to variation in climate and local energy availability, social scientists debate the mechanisms responsible for it in humans. Here we investigate the role of precipitation, temperature, and energy availability on seasonal conception and birth pulses using a historical dataset from the Baja California peninsula - a hot, arid desert that experiences seasonal climatic fluctuations associated with the North American Monsoon.

Was Cinderella just a fairy tale? Survival differences between stepchildren and their half-siblings.

The death of a parent, particularly the mother, is linked to a suite of negative outcomes across the life-course. Compounding concerns for child outcomes are expectations of poor treatment by step-parents after parental remarriage. Indeed, folk tales of step-parental abuse abound cross-culturally and are embedded into stories taught to children.

Effects of family planning on fertility behaviour across the demographic transition.

The adoption of contraception often coincides with market integration and has transformative effects on fertility behavior. Yet many parents in small-scale societies make decisions about whether and when to adopt family planning in an environment where the payoffs to  have smaller families are uncertain. Here we track the fertility of Maya women across 90 years, spanning the transition from natural to contracepting fertility.

Mind-mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind-mindedness a relational construct?

Mind-mindedness is a measure of the tendency to represent significant others in internal state terms and is central to supportive parent-infant relationships. The two studies reported here explored whether mind-mindedness generalizes to representations of unknown individuals, using a novel task that assessed individual differences in adults' tendency to interpret others' behavior with reference to their internal states: the Unknown Mother-Infant Interaction Task (UMIIT). We compared UMIIT performance with measures of mind-mindedness from (a) adults' descriptions of close friends and partners (Study 1, N = 96) and (b) mothers' appropriate versus nonattuned comments on their infants' internal states (Study 2, N = 56).

Male survival advantage on the Baja California peninsula.

A consistent finding from contemporary Western societies is that women outlive men. However, what is unclear is whether sex differences in survival are constant across varying socio-ecological conditions. We test the universality of the female survival advantage with mortality data from a nineteenth century population in the Baja California peninsula of Mexico.

The role of dispersal and school attendance on reproductive dynamics in small, dispersed populations: Choyeros of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Individuals from small populations face challenges to initiating reproduction because stochastic demographic processes create local mate scarcity. In response, flexible dispersal patterns that facilitate the movement of individuals across groups have been argued to reduce mate search costs and inbreeding depression. Furthermore, factors that aggregate dispersed peoples, such as rural schools, could lower mate search costs through expansion of mating markets.

The Effects of Prolonged Exposure on Substance Use in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use Disorders.

Despite research demonstrating the benefit of exposure-based therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with co-occurring substance use disorders, there remains a strong clinical expectation that this treatment will exacerbate substance use or other psychiatric symptoms. The present study evaluated within-session and session-to-session changes in (a) craving and use of substances for a range of drug classes and (b) symptoms of PTSD and other psychiatric distress in a sample of 44 SUD patients who received prolonged exposure (PE) therapy for PTSD. Visual analog scales showed no within-session increases in craving, except for cocaine, within Session 8.

Preventing Relationship Abuse Among College Students: A Controlled Trial of the Skills for Healthy Adult Relationships () Program.

Intimate partner violence (IPV), which includes emotional, physical, and sexual violence in casual/dating and committed relationships, occurs at disproportionately high rates among college students. Prevention in college-age years is developmentally crucial, as college is associated with IPV risk. Relationship skills training has shown preliminary efficacy in decreasing IPV among college students.

Marriage dynamics in old Lower California: ecological constraints and reproductive value in an arid peninsular frontier.

It is commonly expected that natural selection will favor earlier reproduction, yet ecological constraints can force people to delay marriage. Furthermore, humans demonstrate sex-specific preferences in marriage partners - with grooms normally a few years older than their brides; however, the age at which individuals marry can influence the spousal age gap. We investigate factors influencing age at first marriage and age difference at marriage using nineteenth-century historical demographic data from Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Sex ratios at birth vary with environmental harshness but not maternal condition.

The sex ratio at birth (SRB) may be patterned by maternal condition and/or environmental stressors. However, despite decades of research, empirical results from across the social and biological sciences are equivocal on this topic. Using longitudinal individual-level data from a US population during the interwar period (1918-1939), inclusive of three distinct eras (Spanish Flu, Roaring '20 s, and the Great Depression), we evaluate predictions from two theoretical frameworks used to study patterning in SRB - (1) 'frail males' and (2) adaptive sex-biased investment theory (Trivers-Willard).

The Development and Evaluation of a Statewide Training Center for Home Visitors and Supervisors.

This paper informs practice in community-based home visiting workforce development by describing the development and evaluation of a university-based training certificate program for home visitors and supervisors. The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation (ISF; Wandersman et al., 2008) guides our conceptualization and paper organization.

Working Memory Training for Adolescents With Cannabis Use Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Adolescent cannabis use is associated with working memory impairment. The present randomized controlled trial assigned adolescents ages 14 to 21 enrolled in cannabis use treatment to receive either working memory training (experimental group) or a control training (control group) as an adjunctive treatment. Cognitive function, drug use, and other outcomes were assessed before and after training.

Long-Term Quality of Life Assessment After Successful Endoscopic Vacuum Therapy of Defects in the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract Quality of Life After EVT.

Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that anastomotic leakages and perforations of the upper gastrointestinal tract (uGIT) can be treated successfully with endoscopic vacuum therapy (EVT). So far, no data is available regarding the long-term quality of life (QoL) after successful EVT of defects in the uGIT.

Methods: We present a prospective survey on long-term Qol of 52 patients treated by EVT for defects of the uGIT.