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Objective: Assertive community treatment (ACT) teams provide outreach services to individuals coping with severe mental illness. Because such individuals are at increased risk for involvement with law enforcement, a model that integrates police officers into ACT teams (ACT-PI) was developed for ACT teams serving clients with or without forensic involvement. The goal of this study, conducted in British Columbia, was to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of the ACT-PI model.Methods: Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 ACT-PI clients (in 2017) and 22 ACT-PI staff (in 2018). Thematic analyses identified key themes related to the benefits and drawbacks of officer integration into the ACT-PI model.Results: Perceived benefits of police integration were opportunities for relationship building between officers and clients, improved safety, more holistic care due to embeddedness (i.e., effective interagency collaboration between police and health care providers), the prevention of future problems, and police officers' authority enhancing compliance. Perceived drawbacks included risk for legal consequences, stigma from police interaction, escalating distress of clients, low officer availability, and the risk for changing the nature of ACT teams.Conclusions: Participants reported that the model of officer integration into ACT-PI teams may improve both client and staff well-being. In some communities, and with certain precautions, ACT-PI may be a viable model for ACT teams serving clients with and clients without a history of forensic involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that technology can be used to enact intimate partner violence (IPV). However, less is known about how cyber dating abuse (CDA) is associated with psychosocial functioning, especially when accounting for other forms of frequently co-occurring IPV victimization. The current study sought to determine the unique associations of CDA victimization when controlling for multiple forms of in-person IPV victimization. Two hundred seventy-eight men and women between 17 and 25 years of age (M = 20.5, SD = 1.9) who were currently in an intimate relationship for at least 3 months participated in this study. Participants completed questionnaires about their IPV and CDA victimization, as well as a range of indices of psychosocial well-being. Experiencing CDA victimization was related to increased alcohol use for both men and women, and increased fear of partner for women, even after controlling for in-person IPV. For depression, perceived stress, relationship satisfaction, quality of life, social support, and post-traumatic stress, CDA victimization did not predict levels above in-person IPV victimization. Although these results suggest some unique associations between CDA victimization and aspects of psychosocial well-being that require further attention, they also highlight that CDA often occurs within a broader pattern of abuse that includes in-person IPV. These results suggest that the need for prevention and treatment for relationships that involve in-person abuse is still most salient, and that a narrow focus on CDA may limit the utility of prevention and treatment efforts. Further work is needed to integrate research on in-person and CDA victimization, rather than to create a new field of research and practice based solely on CDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies have revealed a dizzying array of coping techniques employed by persons living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Unfortunately, research has provided little insight into when and why individuals adopt or abandon particular coping strategies. Using a retrospective narrative approach, we explored how participants made sense of changes in their approach to coping over time. Shifts in coping strategies were associated with particular illness experiences that wrought new understandings of IBD and novel identity challenges. They followed a common processual form and were marked by a movement away from techniques of purification, normalization, and banalization toward the development of a more communicative body. This was accompanied by notable shifts in identity work. Notably, participants moved from a preoccupation with maintaining continuity and sameness to permitting their extraordinary bodies to occupy a place in their public and personal identities. Implications of this process for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People exhibit consistent leftward spatial biases across a variety of tasks. However, individuals with a native reading direction other than left-to-right (LTR) show an attenuation of the leftward bias. The current study used procedurally similar tasks to examine spatial ability and aesthetic preferences in LTR and right-to-left (RTL) groups. In the spatial task participants viewed a centred rectangle partially occluded by an overlapping circle and estimated the centre of the circle with a single mouse click. In the aesthetic task participants used the mouse to control a "virtual flashlight" to light images of abstract paintings in the most aesthetically pleasing way. Contrary to predictions, smaller errors were made for circles on the right and estimations were progressively less accurate as circle size increased in the spatial task. On the aesthetic task, light placements of LTR participants were biased to the left and significantly different from the slightly rightward placements of RTL participants. As predicted, when completing the aesthetics task amounts of time scanning left or right visual space were different between groups. Findings support the theory that directional scanning biases attenuate leftward lateral biases and further, the nature of the visuospatial task may vary the strength of lateral bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key criticism of research on intimate partner violence (IPV) is that a sole focus on physical or psychological acts of aggression fails to account for other forms of manipulative behavior that may have serious consequences for partner and family functioning. The current study examines coercive control, or behavior designed to constrain or compel an intimate partner in some way, in a longitudinal community sample of 98 heterosexual couples assessed in the third trimester of pregnancy as well as at 1 and 2 years postpartum. We found that the majority of couples reported at least some coercive controlling behavior during the transition to parenthood, that coercive control was highly bi-directional between partners, and that women were more likely than men to engage in coercive control before parenthood. Using multilevel actor-partner interdependence modeling, we found that women's coercive control predicted their own as well as men's perpetration of IPV across the transition to parenthood. Controlling for IPV perpetration by both partners, women's coercive control was longitudinally predictive of men's depression, harmful alcohol use, relationship dissatisfaction, poor co-parenting, low perceived parenting competence, and perceptions of toddler problem behavior. Men's coercive control was longitudinally predictive of women's relationship dissatisfaction and parenting stress, as well as women's perceptions of infant problem behavior. Men's coercive control was associated with their own use of ineffective parenting behavior. These findings suggest that coercive control is common in community samples during the transition to parenthood and that coercive control predicts lower early family functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The accuracy of self-reported driving exposure has questioned the validity of using self-reported mileage to inform research questions. Studies examining the accuracy of self-reported driving exposure compared to objective measures find low validity, with drivers overestimating and underestimating driving distance. The aims of the current study were to (1) examine the discrepancy between self-reported annual mileage and driving exposure the following year and (2) investigate whether these differences depended on age and annual mileage.Methods: Two estimates of drivers' self-reported annual mileage collected during vehicle installation (obtained via prestudy questionnaires) and approximated annual mileage driven (based upon Global Positioning System data) were acquired from 3,323 participants who participated in the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study.Results: A Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that there was a significant difference between self-reported and annual driving exposure during participation in SHRP 2, with the majority of self-reported responses overestimating annual mileage the following year, irrespective of whether an ordinal or ratio variable was examined. Over 15% of participants provided self-reported responses with over 100% deviation, which were exclusive to participants underestimating annual mileage. Further, deviations in reporting differed between participants who had low, medium, and high exposure, as well as between participants in different age groups.Conclusions: These findings indicate that although self-reported annual mileage is heavily relied on for research, such estimates of driving distance may be an overestimate of current or future mileage and can influence the validity of prior research that has utilized estimates of driving exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The present study explores the content of abortion provider stigma. Background: Abortion stigma extends beyond women who have abortions to abortion providers. Previous analyses of anti-abortion bills and rhetoric have revealed stereotypes of abortion providers as dangerous and less trustworthy than other health professionals. Methods: We present a thematic analysis of one-on-one interviews about attitudes toward abortion providers with Canadian individuals (N = 21) holding an anti-abortion stance. Results: We found participants held two kinds of beliefs about abortion providers: (1) providers are agentic and intentional actors and (2) providers are non-agentic victims of a larger system. While the former subtype of provider was viewed with hostility and disgust, the latter was viewed with pity, with participants suggesting that restriction of abortion would be beneficial for provider well-being. Conclusion: We document a new component of abortion provider stigma: the belief that abortion providers are harmed by abortion and that they are to be pitied for this. This ‘abortion harms providers’ attitude parallels recent anti-abortion arguments that abortion harms women. These stigmatising attitudes both construct the provider as untrustworthy and unable to properly care for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images of individuals posing with the left cheek toward the camera are rated as more emotionally expressive than images with the right cheek toward the camera, which is theorized to be due to right hemisphere specialization for emotion processing. Liberals are stereotyped as being more emotional than conservatives. In the present study, we presented images of people displaying either leftward or rightward posing biases in an online task, and asked participants to rate people's perceived political orientation. Participants rated individuals portrayed with a leftward posing bias as significantly more liberal than those presented with a rightward bias. These findings support the idea that posing direction is related to perceived emotionality of an individual, and that liberals are stereotyped as more emotional than conservatives. Our results differ from those of a previous study, which found conservative politicians are more often portrayed with a leftward posing bias, suggesting differences between posing output for political parties and perceived political orientation. Future research should investigate this effect in other countries, and the effect of posing bias on perceptions of politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People tend to exhibit a leftward bias in posing. Various studies suggest that posing to the left portrays a stronger emotion, whereas posing to the right portrays a more neutral emotion. Religions such as Christianity emphasize the role of strong emotions in religious experience, whereas religions such as Buddhism emphasize the calming of emotions as being important. In the present study, we investigated if the emphasis on emotionality of a religion influences the depiction of their religious figures. Specifically, we coded 484 paintings of Jesus and Buddha from online art databases for whether the deity exhibited a left bias, right bias, or central face presentation. The posing biases were analysed to discover whether paintings of Jesus would more frequently depict a leftward bias than paintings of Buddha. Jesus is more commonly depicted with a leftward bias than Buddha, and Buddha is more commonly depicted with a central face presentation than Jesus. These findings support the idea that the amount of emotionality that is to be conveyed in artwork influences the whether the subject is posed with a leftward bias. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: The number of autistic individuals attending college or university is increasing, yet graduation rates are low as postsecondary environments often fail to support autistic students' individual needs. Peer mentorship programs are emerging as a promising approach for providing individualized, one-on-one support to meet this service gap for autistic postsecondary students. However, no literature has systematically described these programs., Methods: We conducted a systematic review that described existing peer mentorship programs for autistic students in postsecondary education as well as their effectiveness., Results: Our search of five databases found nine unique programs that were evaluated in 11 peer-reviewed articles. Programs reported positive outcomes in various domains, which included social skills, academic performance, and sense of belonging. The evidence for these programs was primarily qualitative, sample sizes were small, and there was considerable heterogeneity in the format, provision, and goals of these programs, as well as the evaluation methods used., Conclusions: Overall, the state of the research related to the efficacy of peer mentorship programs for autistic students remains in its infancy, and further research is needed to quantify effectiveness and enable program comparisons., Lay Summary: Why was this review done?: The number of autistic individuals attending college or university is increasing, yet graduation rates are low as most colleges and universities do not have the neccessary accommodations to support this population. Several peer mentorship programs now exist to provide individualized, one-on-one support for autistic students at college or university. What was the purpose of the review?: While several programs exist, it is unknown how effective these programs are in improving the academic experience for autistic students. What did the researchers do?: We systematically reviewed research describing existing peer mentorship programs for autistic university/college students and their effectiveness. Our search of five databases revealed nine unique programs that were evaluated in 11 peer-reviewed articles. What were the results of the review?: Most peer mentorship programs reported positive outcomes in various areas, including social skills, academic performance, and a sense of belonging. However, many of the studies were quite different in their approach and how they evaluated success, thus making it challenging to compare the programs with one another. What do these findings add to what was already known?: The findings from our systematic review highlight that only a few studies related to peer mentorship programs exist. We need more research to quantify the effectiveness of peer mentoring programs for autistic college/university students. What are potential weaknesses of this review?: There were evident inconsistencies between evaluation methods and types of measurement across studies, and studies often had a small number of participants, which limited our ability to make conclusions about the impact of such programs. How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: This article provides a summary of the kinds of supports available to autistic adults within postsecondary settings, which may help autistic adults explore options for their own education. Advancing research in this area may improve the college/university experience for autistic adults in the future., Competing Interests: No competing financial interests exist., (Copyright 2021, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.)

Objective: The present study explores the content of abortion provider stigma., Background: Abortion stigma extends beyond women who have abortions to abortion providers. Previous analyses of anti-abortion bills and rhetoric have revealed stereotypes of abortion providers as dangerous and less trustworthy than other health professionals., Methods: We present a thematic analysis of one-on-one interviews about attitudes toward abortion providers with Canadian individuals (N = 21) holding an anti-abortion stance., Results: We found participants held two kinds of beliefs about abortion providers: (1) providers are agentic and intentional actors and (2) providers are non-agentic victims of a larger system. While the former subtype of provider was viewed with hostility and disgust, the latter was viewed with pity, with participants suggesting that restriction of abortion would be beneficial for provider well-being., Conclusion: We document a new component of abortion provider stigma: the belief that abortion providers are harmed by abortion and that they are to be pitied for this. This 'abortion harms providers' attitude parallels recent anti-abortion arguments that abortion harms women. These stigmatising attitudes both construct the provider as untrustworthy and unable to properly care for women.