Demographic and behavioral factors associated with kratom use among U.S. college students.

Objective: Kratom use represents a growing risk for public health. The present study examined demographic and behavioral factors linked with kratom use. Participants: Participants were college students in the United States who participated in the 2019-2020 Healthy Minds Study. Methods: Participants completed survey-based assessment of kratom use and related demographic, behavioral, and mental health variables. Results: Kratom use was linked with being White, male or transgender/gender nonconforming, identifying as a sexual minority, use of alcohol or marijuana, and depressive symptoms. Kratom use was not uniquely linked to exercise or anxiety. Conclusions: The results of the present study can be used to inform initial targeting of efforts to reduce kratom use among college students.

Competition or Community? The Backstage Experience of Men in Bodybuilding Competitions.

Bodybuilding is an increasingly popular sport in the United States. Across fields of psychology, history, sociology, and anthropology, bodybuilding has been examined as being related to, or as manifestly being, a pathology. Extant work on men who are bodybuilders are often built on the assumption that narcissism, self-doubt, and insecurity are the driving forces for men's involvement. The present study sought to examine the experiences of eleven men who have competed in bodybuilding competitions. In contrast to the dominant academic discourse on bodybuilding as an embodiment of toxic masculinity or as a reaction to underlying feelings of inferiority, the study participants described friendly, supportive competition contexts. That such feelings were found backstage, as opposed to in a gym, strengthens the need for a more nuanced distinction between bodybuilding as a culture, and bodybuilding as a sport. This study disrupts dominant narratives of bodybuilding as pathological and contributes to work on the construction of gender and masculinity in sport. The present work suggests a scholarly approach to men's bodybuilding in an open and nuanced manner that does not focus on pathologizing bodybuilding or competition.

Parasocial Relationships and Depression Among LGBQ Emerging Adults Living With Their Parents During COVID-19: The Potential for Online Support.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth continue to be disproportionately at risk for depression. During COVID-19 social distancing, LGBQ youth who live with family may be more consistently exposed to potentially discriminatory family situations, and may receive reduced community and mental health support. However, the Internet offers opportunities to interact with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities by watching videos of, and developing one-way relationships-or parasocial relationships-with, LGBTQ media personalities on platforms such as YouTube. The current study explored how parasocial relationships with LGBTQ YouTubers may moderate the links between family support, loneliness, and depression symptoms among LGBQ emerging adults living with their parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 183 LGBQ emerging adults (age 18-23) was recruited from the United States in mid-July 2020. Results of a moderated mediation regression indicated that parasocial relationship strength moderated the links between family support and loneliness, and loneliness and depression symptoms. The associations between family support and loneliness, and between loneliness and depression symptoms, were weakened by high parasocial relationship strength. These findings contribute to understanding parasocial relationships' connections to well-being among marginalized groups during a crisis and highlight the potential of online solutions to emerging mental health disparities being experienced by LGBQ youth disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Psychosocial Barriers to Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Uptake: The Roles of Heterosexual Self-Presentation, Sexual Risk, and Perceived Peer PrEP Use.

Several challenges have emerged in ensuring uptake of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. By applying the health belief model, the present study assessed associations between novel psychosocial variables and PrEP use among gay and bisexual men. Logistic regression analyses indicated that heterosexual self-presentation, sexual risk, PrEP conspiracy beliefs, and perceived peer PrEP use were positively associated with PrEP use. Greater understanding of the psychosocial barriers to PrEP use for unique at-risk populations can facilitate the development of socially informed prevention strategies.

An Inductive Analysis of Young Adults' Conceptions of Femininity and Masculinity and Comparison to Established Gender Inventories.

This study provides an analysis of the content of feminine and masculine characteristics/behaviors described in writing by 366 young women and 289 young men from the U.S. Emergent characteristics/behaviors were placed into domains. For both femininity and masculinity, the domains of "physical differences related to sex" and "emphasized physical differences" emerged. For masculinity, additional domains were: "activities and interests focused on the body," "powerful or oriented toward power," and "emotion-control or emotionally-limited." For femininity, additional domains were "lacking power," "orientation to other people," and "emotional." We then compared the characteristics/behaviors and domains we discovered to gender inventories that are commonly used in the contemporary period. The masculine domains focused on physical differences, activities, and interests that emerged from the present study are mostly absent from these masculinity inventories. The domains focused on power and restricted emotion are evident in these inventories, but these inventories do not cover all of the characteristics within our domains. The feminine domains that emerged from the present study are more often covered in these inventories, but some of the specific feminine characteristics we found are not evident in these inventories. Results are discussed in terms of gender role theory, gender inequality, and potential application for qualitative and quantitative inquiries into the construction of gender.