People's perception of changes in their abortion attitudes over the life course: A mixed methods approach.

Research examining the extent that people's attitudes toward abortion vary across the life course is mixed. Some studies do not show a strong relationship between abortion attitudes and life stage, while others do find strong associations in both directions-older age associated with both more and less favorable attitudes toward legal abortion. Taken together, these findings suggest that individual attitudes toward abortion are static for some but malleable for others. Little is known about the prevalence, reasons, and directionality of attitude changes. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study investigates people's perceptions of whether, how, why, and for whom their abortion attitudes may have changed over their life course. We qualitatively investigated the reasons (e.g., experiences, life events) that triggered changes in respondents' abortion attitudes and quantitatively explored the sociodemographic factors associated with the perceived direction of those changes. The quantitative data come from a 2020 online survey completed by 1501 English and Spanish-speaking adults in the US. Qualitative data were collected from a subsample (n = 24) of the survey respondents who indicated interest in a follow-up in-depth interview. Our findings indicate that access to information and knowledge played an important role in changing abortion attitudes across a spectrum of support or opposition. For those who indicated becoming more opposed to abortion over time, experiencing parenthood was an important trigger for change and family/religious upbringing were key to shaping attitudes. For those who became more supportive of abortion over time, empathy for women was an important trigger for change and disagreeing with or distancing oneself from family/religious upbringing were key to shaping their attitudes. If attitudinal change occurs, becoming more supportive of abortion over the life-course is more common than becoming more opposed, however there are some nuances across age and gender. Understanding the different factors that influence attitudinal change regarding abortion has important implications for public opinion research and possible ramifications for abortion legality.

The Effects of Aberrant Responding on Model-Fit Assuming Different Underlying Response Processes.

Aberrant responding on tests and surveys has been shown to affect the psychometric properties of scales and the statistical analyses from the use of those scales in cumulative model contexts. This study extends prior research by comparing the effects of four types of aberrant responding on model fit in both cumulative and ideal point model contexts using graded partial credit (GPCM) and generalized graded unfolding (GGUM) models. When fitting models to data, model misfit can be both a function of misspecification and aberrant responding. Results demonstrate how varying levels of aberrant data can severely impact model fit for both cumulative and ideal point data. Specifically, longstring responses have a stronger impact on dimensionality for both ideal point and cumulative data, while random responding tends to have the most negative impact on data model fit according to information criteria (AIC, BIC). The results also indicate that ideal point data models such as GGUM may be able to fit cumulative data as well as the cumulative model itself (GPCM), whereas cumulative data models may not provide sufficient model fit for data simulated using an ideal point model.

People's knowledge of and attitudes toward abortion laws before and after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision.

Although media response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision was widespread in the United States, the extent to which people were aware of the Mississippi law leading to the decision, the Dobbs v. Jackson case, is unclear, as are the resulting effects of the decision on legal abortion. As such, we examined people's awareness of abortion legality prior to and after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision announcement, as well as the potential implications associated with the decision (i.e. overturning of Roe v. Wade). We also examined people's attitudes toward abortion legality, specifically focusing on 15 weeks' gestation to correspond with the Mississippi law that led to Dobbs v. Jackson. Data were collected across two studies at different times. In Study 1, a 15-minute survey was administered to IPSOS' KnowledgePanel (N = 1014) prior to the decision announcement. A shorter version of that survey was administered to a second sample using NORC's AmeriSpeak Omnibus panel (N = 1002). Nearly half of that sample (42.2%) completed the survey prior to the decision announcement. People were generally unaware of the Mississippi law, the Dobbs v. Jackson case, and implications associated with the decision (e.g. overturning Roe v. Wade). People generally endorsed abortion being legal at 15 weeks or later, but this varied by circumstance. We did not find meaningful effects of the decision announcement on people's knowledge and attitudes. Our findings suggest that the intense response to the decision from the media and people involved in the abortion movement may not represent the general public's reaction.

Perceptions of abortion access across the United States prior to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision: Results from a national survey.

CONTEXT: Abortion is common in the United States (US), although access is becoming more difficult for some. In addition to restrictive policies that ban most abortion, limit the number of providers and increase costs, barriers to access also include less supportive cultural climates and stigma related to abortion. Prior to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision of the United States Supreme Court, research suggested that people generally believed it was easy to access abortion, but this research did not examine the underlying factors that drive these perceptions. METHODS: In 2019, using data from closed and open-ended survey questions, we examined differences in people's assessment of abortion access within the state they reside and factors that influence those perceptions. We recruited English- and Spanish-speaking US adults (N = 2599) from Qualtrics' national panel using quota-based sampling to participate in a web-based survey. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine predictors of access perceptions across demographic characteristics and thematic analysis to analyze open-ended responses. RESULTS: Fifty-three percent of participants believed abortion was easy to access in their state. Spanish speakers and participants from legislatively "hostile" states were more likely to perceive access as difficult. Legality-related knowledge and pro-life identity were associated with perceiving abortion access as easy. CONCLUSIONS: Prior to Dobbs, participants' interpretation of the ease or difficulty of accessing abortion were subjective. Misconceptions about state abortion laws and the prevalence of providers were common, suggesting a need for more education about abortion laws, policies, and access.

Implementing a Standardized Effect Size in the POLYSIBTEST Procedure.

A study was conducted to implement the use of a standardized effect size and corresponding classification guidelines for polytomous data with the POLYSIBTEST procedure and compare those guidelines with prior recommendations. Two simulation studies were included. The first identifies new unstandardized test heuristics for classifying moderate and large differential item functioning (DIF) for polytomous response data with three to seven response options. These are provided for researchers studying polytomous data using POLYSIBTEST software that has been published previously. The second simulation study provides one pair of standardized effect size heuristics that can be employed with items having any number of response options and compares true-positive and false-positive rates for the standardized effect size proposed by Weese with one proposed by Zwick et al. and two unstandardized classification procedures (Gierl; Golia). All four procedures retained false-positive rates generally below the level of significance at both moderate and large DIF levels. However, Weese's standardized effect size was not affected by sample size and provided slightly higher true-positive rates than the Zwick et al. and Golia's recommendations, while flagging substantially fewer items that might be characterized as having negligible DIF when compared with Gierl's suggested criterion. The proposed effect size allows for easier use and interpretation by practitioners as it can be applied to items with any number of response options and is interpreted as a difference in standard deviation units.

An exploratory examination of attitudes toward illegal abortion in the U.S. through endorsement of various punishments.

OBJECTIVES: We examined people's (1) attitudes about abortion using an item from Pew Research Center (i.e., whether abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases, or illegal in all cases) and (2) support for different punishments if abortion were illegal in all cases for different people involved in the abortion-the pregnant person, their partner, an informant and the healthcare provider. STUDY DESIGN: We administered a web-based survey to 2,204 U.S. adults using quota-based sampling. Post-stratification weights were applied to the data so that the sample was comparable to U.S. benchmarks for gender, race, Hispanic ethnicity, age, education, and political affiliation. We compared endorsement of various punishments for a pregnant person, their partner, informant, and healthcare provider. Additionally, we compared the endorsement of these punishments across response options of Pew's abortion legality item. RESULTS: Overall, most of our sample indicated that abortion should be legal in most (34%) or legal in all scenarios (21%). However, if abortion were illegal in all circumstances, most of our sample supported some form of punishment for the pregnant person (72%-75%), their partner (65%-68%), and healthcare providers (70%-71%), but not informants (47%-49%). Among the endorsed punishments, therapy/education typically received the most support. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision and the subsequent overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion is illegal in a significant number of states and a punishable offense. Our findings suggest that current punishments associated with many of these laws are counter to public sentiment. IMPLICATIONS: Despite majority support for some punishment, the categories of "no punishment" or therapy/education had the most support. Given the lack of plurality or majority support for fines or incarceration, abortion laws including these punishments, including bounty-style laws passed in Texas and Oklahoma, may be out of step with public opinion.

A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding the Disconnection between Perceptions of Abortion Acceptability and Support for Roe v. Wade among US Adults.

The relationship between people's attitudes about abortion acceptability and the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade-two distinct but related issues-has not been rigorously explored. The authors used a mixed-methods approach for analyzing in-depth interviews to better understand how participants' feelings toward abortion acceptability are related to perceptions of whether abortion should be legal. The authors then assessed (1) correlations between abortion acceptability and different measures of support for Roe v. Wade, and (2) how the phrasing of survey items related to Roe v. Wade may evoke different responses via an online survey fielded in 2018. The study's qualitative results highlight that there is a disjuncture between people's moral feelings toward abortion and their attitudes toward abortion legality. The study's quantitative results further demonstrate that correlations between abortion acceptability and support for Roe v. Wade are moderate, and the differences in responses to the phrasing of survey items related to Roe v. Wade are moderated by knowledge. The authors recommend that when researchers develop survey items, they avoid ambiguities of abortion as a general construct, especially when public opinion measures on abortion are employed for research and the design of social and health policy and practice.

Assessing rigid modes of thinking in self-declared abortion ideology: natural language processing insights from an online pilot qualitative study on abortion attitudes.

INTRODUCTION: Although much work has been done on US abortion ideology, less is known relative to the psychological processes that distinguish personal abortion beliefs or how those beliefs are communicated to others. As part of a forthcoming probability-based sampling designed study on US abortion climate, we piloted a study with a controlled sample to determine whether psychological indicators guiding abortion beliefs can be meaningfully extracted from qualitative interviews using natural language processing (NLP) substring matching. Of particular interest to this study is the presence of cognitive distortions-markers of rigid thinking-spoken during interviews and how cognitive distortion frequency may be tied to rigid, or firm, abortion beliefs. METHODS: We ran qualitative interview transcripts against two lexicons. The first lexicon, the cognitive distortion schemata (CDS), was applied to identify cognitive distortion n-grams (a series of words) embedded within the qualitative interviews. The second lexicon, the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), was applied to extract other psychological indicators, including the degrees of (1) analytic thinking, (2) emotional reasoning, (3) authenticity, and (4) clout. RESULTS: People with polarized abortion views (i.e., strongly supportive of or opposed to abortion) had the highest observed usage of CDS n-grams, scored highest on authenticity, and lowest on analytic thinking. By contrast, people with moderate or uncertain abortion views (i.e., people holding more complex or nuanced views of abortion) spoke with the least CDS n-grams and scored slightly higher on analytic thinking. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest people communicate about abortion differently depending on their personal abortion ideology. Those with strong abortion views may be more likely to communicate with authoritative words and patterns of words indicative of cognitive distortions-or limited complexity in belief systems. Those with moderate views are more likely to speak in conflicting terms and patterns of words that are flexible and open to change-or high complexity in belief systems. These findings suggest it is possible to extract psychological indicators with NLP from qualitative interviews about abortion. Findings from this study will help refine our protocol ahead of full-study launch.

Reevaluating the SIBTEST Classification Heuristics for Dichotomous Differential Item Functioning.

A simulation study was conducted to investigate the heuristics of the SIBTEST procedure and how it compares with ETS classification guidelines used with the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. Prior heuristics have been used for nearly 25 years, but they are based on a simulation study that was restricted due to computer limitations and that modeled item parameters from estimates of ACT and ASVAB tests from 1987 and 1984, respectively. Further, suggested heuristics for data fitting a two-parameter logistic model (2PL) have essentially went unused since their original presentation. This simulation study incorporates a wide range of data conditions to recommend heuristics for both 2PL and three-parameter logistic (3PL) data that correspond with ETS's Mantel-Haenszel heuristics. Levels of agreement between the new SIBTEST heuristics and Mantel-Haenszel heuristics were similar for 2PL data and higher than prior SIBTEST heuristics for 3PL data. The new recommendations provide higher true-positive rates for 2PL data. Conversely, they displayed decreased true-positive rates for 3PL data. False-positive rates, overall, remained below the level of significance for the new heuristics. Unequal group sizes resulted in slightly larger false-positive rates than balanced designs for both prior and new SIBTEST heuristics, with rates less than alpha levels for equal ability distributions and unbalanced designs versus false-positive rates slightly higher than alpha with unequal ability distributions and unbalanced designs.

Abortion vs. Sexual Assault: People's Perceptions of Kavanaugh's Nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Public reaction to Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States initially centered around abortion. However, approximately two months after the nomination, sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh were made public. We examined the extent that people's perceptions of Kavanaugh's stance on abortion and people's attitudes toward whether Kavanaugh committed sexual assault were associated with perceptions of Kavanaugh as a good Supreme Court justice. Data were collected from English- and Spanish-speaking participants (N = 2,883) in the United States via Qualtrics' panel. Using an exploratory hierarchical regression approach, we found that people's perceptions of whether Kavanaugh committed sexual assault was a stronger predictor of their attitudes toward Kavanaugh's quality as a Supreme Court justice [F(1,2855) = 1736.54, p < .001] than people's perceptions of him regarding abortion, after controlling for demographic characteristics and participants' abortion identity (e.g., identifying as pro-life, pro-choice). That sexual assault was a stronger predictor could suggest the importance of sexual assault regarding opinions of Supreme Court justices or potential over inflation of abortion as a salient issue. Researchers should investigate the saliency of sexual and reproductive health issues in relation to Supreme Court nominees.

Translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches as a component of health research and practice: A discussion and taxonomy of popular translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches.

Multilanguage surveys are a vital component of comparative public health science. And, with dozens of tools available to guide the translation and design process, an open dialogue about key translation frameworks and design approaches and their strengths and limitations is needed. Herein, we briefly summarize the application and use of several popular translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches. Our purpose is to draw attention to the complexities of multilanguage surveys by noting how the most appropriate framework or approach is entirely dependent on the context of a specific study. We conclude with a call encouraging the adoption of frameworks and approaches that value high degrees of cultural input, ideally among a large team of culture, language, and subject matter experts. And, as the implemented translation framework or questionnaire design approach may hold implications for the quality and validity of data, we also call on editors to create recommendations that encourage disclosure of the translation framework(s) and/or questionnaire design approaches guiding multilanguage surveys.

Applicability of a Salient Belief Elicitation to Measure Abortion Beliefs.

Objectives: Salient belief elicitations (SBEs), informed by the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA), are used to identify 3 sets of beliefs - behavioral, control, and normative - that influence attitudes toward a health behavior. SBEs ask participants about their own beliefs through open-ended questions. We adapted a SBE by focusing on abortion, which is infrequently examined through SBEs; we also included a survey version that asked participants their views on what a hypothetical woman would do if contemplating an abortion. Given these deviations from traditional SBEs, the purpose of this study was to assess if the adapted SBE was understood by participants in English and Spanish through cognitive interviewing. Methods: We examined participants' interpretations of SBE items about abortion to determine if they aligned with the corresponding RAA construct. We administered SBE surveys and conducted cognitive interviews with US adults in both English and Spanish. Results: Participants comprehended the SBE questions as intended. Participants' interpretations of most questions were also in line with the respective RAA construct. Conclusions: SBE survey questions were comprehended well by participants. We discuss areas in which SBE questions can be modified to improve alignment with the underlying RAA construct to assess abortion beliefs.

Postsynaptic cutaneous vasodilation and sweating: influence of adiposity and hydration status.

INTRODUCTION: Obesity and hypohydration independently affect postsynaptic endothelial function, but it is unknown if hypohydration affects lean and obese individuals differently. PURPOSE: To examine the effect of hypohydration on postsynaptic cutaneous vasodilation and sweating in men with high and low adiposity (HI- and LO-BF, respectively). METHODS: Ten males with LO-BF and ten with HI-BF were instrumented for forearm microdialysis when euhydrated and hypohydrated. Changes in cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC) with intradermal infusion of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) and methacholine chloride (MCh) were assessed. Local sweat rate (LSR) was simultaneously assessed at the MCh site. At the end of the last dose, maximal CVC was elicited by delivering a maximal dose of SNP for 30 min to both sites with simultaneous local heating at the SNP site. The concentration of drug needed to elicit 50% of the maximal response (EC50) was compared between groups and hydration conditions. RESULTS: When euhydrated, EC50 of MCh-induced CVC was not different between LO- vs. HI-BF [- 3.04 ± 0.12 vs. - 2.98 ± 0.19 log (MCh) M, P = 0.841]. EC50 of SNP-induced CVC was higher in euhydrated HI- vs. LO-BF (- 1.74 ± 0.17 vs. - 2.13 ± 0.06 log (SNP) M, P = 0.034). Within each group, hydration status did not change MCh- or SNP-induced CVC (P > 0.05). LSR was not different between groups or hydration condition (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest reduced sensitivity of endothelium-independent vasodilation in individuals with high adiposity when euhydrated. However, hypohydration does not affect cutaneous vasodilation or local sweat rate differently between individuals with low or high adiposity.

A Study of Reverse-Worded Matched Item Pairs Using the Generalized Partial Credit and Nominal Response Models.

The generalized partial credit model (GPCM) is often used for polytomous data; however, the nominal response model (NRM) allows for the investigation of how adjacent categories may discriminate differently when items are positively or negatively worded. Ten items from three different self-reported scales were used (anxiety, depression, and perceived stress), and authors wrote an additional item worded in the opposite direction to pair with each original item. Sets of the original and reverse-worded items were administered, and responses were analyzed using the two models. The NRM fit significantly better than the GPCM, and it was able to detect category responses that may not function well. Positively worded items tended to be more discriminating than negatively worded items. For the depression scale, category boundary locations tended to have a larger range for the positively worded items than for the negatively worded items from both models. Some pairs of items functioned comparably when reverse-worded, but others did not. If an examinee responds in an extreme category to an item, the same examinee is not necessarily likely to respond in an extreme category at the opposite end of the rating scale to a similar item worded in the opposite direction. Results of this study may support the use of scales composed of items worded in the same direction, and particularly in the positive direction.

Effect of hypohydration on thermoregulatory responses in men with low and high body fat exercising in the heat.

It is unclear whether men with low body fat (LO-BF) have impaired thermoregulation during exercise heat stress compared with those with high body fat (HI-BF) when euhydration (EU) is maintained. Furthermore, in LO-BF individuals, hypohydration (HY) impairs thermoregulatory responses during exercise heat stress, but it is unknown whether this occurs in HI-BF counterparts. The purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that men with HI-BF have impaired thermoregulatory responses to exercise heat stress and that HY further exacerbates these impairments vs. LO-BF. Men with LO-BF [n = 11, body mass (BM) 73.9 ± 8.5 kg, BF% 13.6 ± 3.8] and HI-BF (n = 9, BM 89.6 ± 6.9 kg, BF% 30.2 ± 4.1), in a randomized crossover design, performed 60 min of upright cycling in a hot environment (40.3 ± 0.4°C, relative humidity 32.5 ± 1.9%) at a metabolic heat production rate of 6 W/kg BM and finished exercise either euhydrated (EU; 0.3 ± 1.2 vs. 0.3 ± 0.9% BM loss) or HY (-2.5 ± 1.1 vs. -1.7 ± 1.5% BM loss). Changes in rectal temperature (ΔTrec), local sweat rate (ΔLSR), and cutaneous vascular conductance (ΔCVC; %max) were measured throughout. When EU, LO-BF and HI-BF had similar CVC and LSR responses (P > 0.05); however, LO-BF had a lower ΔTrec vs. HI-BF (0.92 ± 0.35 vs. 1.31 ± 0.32°C, P = 0.021). Compared with EU, HY increased end-exercise ΔTrec in LO-BF (0.47 ± 0.37°C, P < 0.01) but not in HI-BF (-0.06 ± 0.29°C, P > 0.05). HY, compared with EU, did not affect ΔLSR and ΔCVC in either group (P > 0.05). We conclude that, when euhydrated, men with HI-BF have a greater increase in Trec vs. LO-BF but similar CVC and LSR. HY exacerbates increases in Trec in LO-BF but not HI-BF. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: This is the first known investigation to compare thermoregulatory responses to exercise heat stress between men with high and low body fat (BF) in a physiologically uncompensable environment while simultaneously examining the confounding influence of hydration status. Both groups demonstrated similar sweating and cutaneous vasodilatory responses when euhydrated, despite vast differences in rectal temperature. Furthermore, in contrast to low BF, individuals with high BF demonstrated similar increases in core body temperature when either euhydrated or hypohydrated.

Unidimensional IRT Item Parameter Estimates Across Equivalent Test Forms With Confounding Specifications Within Dimensions.

When constructing multiple test forms, the number of items and the total test difficulty are often equivalent. Not all test developers match the number of items and/or average item difficulty within subcontent areas. In this simulation study, six test forms were constructed having an equal number of items and average item difficulty overall. Manipulated variables were the number of items and average item difficulty within subsets of items primarily measuring one of two dimensions. Data sets were simulated at four levels of correlation (0, .3, .6, and .9). Item parameters were estimated using the Rasch and two-parameter logistic unidimensional item response theory models. Estimated discrimination and difficulty were compared across forms and to the true item parameters. The average unidimensional estimated discrimination was consistent across forms having the same correlation. Forms having a larger set of easy items measuring one dimension were estimated as being more difficult than forms having a larger set of hard items. Estimates were also investigated within subsets of items, and measures of bias were reported. This study encourages test developers to not only maintain consistent test specifications across forms as a whole but also within subcontent areas.

Effects of 28-Day Beta-Alanine Supplementation on Isokinetic Exercise Performance and Body Composition in Female Masters Athletes.

Beta-alanine (BA) supplementation increases exercise performance due to increases in the intramuscular lactate buffer, carnosine. Females are more sensitive to these increases and results are further pronounced in trained individuals. Baseline intramuscular carnosine levels also naturally decrease with age; therefore, trained older females may experience augmented benefits from BA supplementation. However, the ability of BA to increase lower-body isokinetic strength (ISO) in female masters athletes (MA) is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal effects of BA supplementation on ISO, handgrip strength (HG), and body composition in female MA cyclists. Twenty-two subjects participated in this double-blind randomized study. Subjects were randomized into 2 groups (placebo [PLA] = 8 g dextrose; BA = 800 mg + 8 g dextrose) and supplemented 4 times per day for 28 days. ISO, HG, and body composition were evaluated at baseline and at the same day/time each week over the 28-day intervention. No differences existed between groups at baseline or at the 7, 14, and 21 days time points for any variables (p > 0.05). When evaluating ISO (isokinetic) after 28 days, total work performed during the final third of the assessment (24.0 vs. -16.8% change) in flexion and average peak torque (5.4 vs. 2.9% change) in extension were significantly increased from baseline in BA compared with PLA (p ≤ 0.05). No differences existed for HG or body composition after supplementation. Twenty-eight days of BA supplementation increased peak torque and work completed, indicating BA improves lower-body exercise performance in female MA.

Differential Item Functioning in rehabilitation research.

Measurement is critical to Rehabilitation practice and research. To provide effective services and to have valid research results, it is imperative to have valid and reliable assessment tools. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is a statistical procedure which better enables us to assess both the validity and the results of measurement instruments. As such, it is a methodology that can be very beneficial to the field of Rehabilitation. The purposes of this article are to (a) explain the fundamental principles and components of DIF, (b) discuss the practical implications of DIF for the Rehabilitation discipline, and (c) provide an example of DIF implementation and interpretation of results.