Caregivers as gatekeepers: Professional mental health service use among urban minority adolescents.

Mental illness among adolescents frequently goes untreated, especially among low income and ethnic minority families. We sought to examine parent and adolescent psychological factors influencing mental health service use among 120 urban adolescents (82% African American, Age 13-18 years, M = 14.29, SD = 1.52) who had access to mental health treatment through their community primary care setting. We utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the independent and combined associations among parent and adolescent variables hypothesized to be associated with the youth's engagement in mental health treatment. Results showed that more than half (63.6%) of youth with clinically significant levels of symptoms were not currently engaged in treatment or seeking mental health services. One latent variable emerged: caregivers' perceptions of adolescent mental health problems (consisted of youth psychological symptoms, youth functional impairment, and strain on caregiver). Together with caregivers' attitude toward professional help, these two caregiver-reported variables, but not adolescents' attitude, were associated with higher likelihood of service utilization among adolescents. Findings suggest caregivers functioned as the "gatekeepers" to mental health services. We discuss findings' implications for engaging youth in mental health services as well as study limitations and future directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Dyadic Perspective on Sexual Subjectivity and Romantic Relationship Functioning.

Sexual subjectivity is a central feature of healthy sexuality that is believed to shape and be shaped by relationship experiences. However, no studies have examined sexual subjectivity within a dyadic context. The current study examined partner similarity in sexual subjectivity within 75 heterosexual couples and associations with sexual relationship functioning using actor-partner interdependence models. Within couples, partners' scores were significantly correlated on three of five elements of sexual subjectivity and showed similar mean levels on four of the five elements. Men's and women's sexual self-efficacy were positively associated with their own sexual communication. Other associations varied by gender. Men's sexual body esteem and entitlement to self-pleasure predicted their reports of sexual relationship functioning, and women's entitlement to pleasure from partners and sexual reflection predicted their reports of relationship functioning. Few partner effects were observed. Findings suggest that partners' sexual subjectivity is relevant for dyadic functioning in emerging adulthood. Longitudinal research is needed to examine how experiences within and across relationships contribute to the development of sexual self-concepts and sexual functioning.

Effects of offender motivation, victim gender, and participant gender on perceptions of rape victims and offenders.

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine whether knowledge of the motivation of an offender can influence participant perceptions of victim and perpetrator responsibility for a sexual assault. In addition, the synergistic influence of victim gender and participant gender with offender motivation was explored. Participants were 171 men and women from a small Northeastern college exposed to a stimulus in which a rapist's motivation was varied as either sexual or violent. Participants were more certain that the stimulus described a rape, recommended a longer prison sentence for the offender, and assigned less blame to the victim when exposed to an offender motivated by violence as opposed to an offender motivated by sex. Offender motivation also interacted with participant gender and victim gender on participants' perceptions of victim blame and offender responsibility. The results suggest that an offender's motivation for rape can influence perceptions of the offender's and victim's responsibility for the assault.