The role of gender and sexual experience in predicting adolescent condom use intentions using the theory of planned behaviour.

OBJECTIVES: To examine how the prediction of condom-related cognitions, intentions, and behaviour amongst adolescents may differ according to gender and sexual experience within a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) framework. METHODS: Adolescents (N = 306) completed questionnaires about sexual experience, condom use, TPB variables, perceived risk, and safe sex knowledge. RESULTS: Significant differences in TPB variables, perceived risk, and knowledge were found; males and sexually experienced participants were generally less positive about condom use. Twenty percent of the variance in attitudes was accounted for by four variables; specifically, female gender, no previous sexual experience, better safe sex knowledge, and greater risk perceptions were associated with more positive attitudes. The prediction of intentions separately amongst sexually experienced (R(2) = 0.468) and inexperienced (R(2) = 0.436) participants revealed that, for the former group, attitudes and subjective norms were the most important considerations. In contrast, among the inexperienced participants, attitudes and the gender-by-perceived risk interaction term represented significant influences. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that interventions designed to improve adolescents' intentions to use condoms and rates of actual condom use should consider differences in gender and sexual experience.

The influence of medical and psychological interventions on women's distress after miscarriage.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of medical and psychological interventions on women's distress after early miscarriage. METHODS: This was a prospective study of women attending for a routine scan at 10-14 weeks of gestation and found to have a missed miscarriage. An intervention group of 66 women had medical investigations to ascertain the cause of miscarriage, and at 5 weeks after the scan, they all had a medical consultation to discuss the results of the investigations. These 66 women were randomly allocated into a group which received further psychological counselling (MPC, n=33), and a group which received no psychological counselling (MC, n=33). They were compared to a control group of 61 women who received no specific postmiscarriage counselling. All participants completed preintervention and postintervention measures and 4-month follow-up questionnaires. RESULTS: The scores on the outcome variables decreased significantly with time for all three groups. In group MPC, compared to controls, there was a significantly greater decrease over time in the levels of grief, self-blame, and worry and, compared to MC group, a significantly greater decrease in grief and worry. In group MC, compared to controls, there was a significantly greater decrease in self-blame. In the MC and MPC groups, those with an identified cause of the miscarriage had significantly lower levels of anxiety and self-blame over time than those with a nonidentified cause. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological counselling, in addition to medical investigations and consultation, is beneficial in reducing women's distress after miscarriage. However, absence of an identifiable cause of miscarriage led to the maintenance of the initial anxiety levels, which should have otherwise decreased with time.

Familial pain models: the relationship between family history of pain and current pain experience.

Recent evidence has underscored the importance of parental models and vicarious learning in the etiology of pain behavior. The present study investigated the relationships between the number of familial pain models to which an individual has been exposed, the individual's reports of current pain experiences, and the role of gender. One hundred and twenty male and 168 female college students reporting occasional pain episodes completed the Parameters of Pain Questionnaire. Results indicated that a significant positive relationship exists between the number of pain models in an individual's familial environment and the frequency of his/her current pain reports. Additionally, pain models had a greater impact on females than on males. These findings are discussed in terms of vicarious learning and health locus of control processes.