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Sexual victimization (SV) history is common among college students and has many adverse effects on health, but little is known about whether these effects are explained by everyday stress and coping. Further, most studies conflate between- and within-person effects, limiting our understanding of distinct trait- versus state-level pathways. To address these gaps, we examined the multilevel association of SV history with contemporary positive and negative affect and somatic symptoms via daily control appraisals and coping (problem-focused, meaning-focused, and avoidance) with daily stressors. Online daily diary surveys assessed stress, appraisals, coping, affect, and somatization among 261 undergraduates with and without SV history over 11 consecutive days. Between- and within-person differences in appraisals, coping, affect, and somatic symptoms were examined using multilevel covariance modeling in a causal system, testing daily stressor type as a moderator of within-person effects. Across days, SV history was indirectly linked only to average positive affect via meaning-focused coping, with no other between-person indirect effects. At the within-person level, greater negative affect was experienced in the context of interpersonal stress, driven by greater problem-focused coping, greater positive affect was experienced in the context of academic stress, driven by greater control appraisals, and less positive and negative affect were experienced in the context of intrapersonal stress, driven by lower control appraisals and less problem-focused coping. SV may influence daily stress processes at multiple levels, depending on stressor type. Appraised control and active coping are potentially important but understudied ways in which SV history informs contemporary stress management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: LatinX youth in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by HIV and STIs, commonly attributed to a lack of diagnostic testing and regular physician consultations to address sexual health. These disparities have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This meta-analysis seeks to assess the efficacy of behavioral interventions among LatinX youth in the U.S. that aim to increase engagement in sexual health services (i.e., STI/HIV testing, physician consultations)., Content: Following PRISMA guidelines, seven electronic databases were searched. We systematically extracted data with a coding form, and effect sizes were obtained from each study on HIV/STI testing outcomes and physician consultation. Moderator analyses were run for demographic and intervention characteristics., Summary and Outlook: Of nine included studies, the interventions created a small-to-moderate effect on increased engagement of sexual health services ( d + =0.204, 95 % CI=0.079, 0.329). Moderator analyses showed that interventions including the following characteristics were most efficacious at facilitating care services: community-based or online setting, access to diagnostic testing, social media/remote components, parental involvement, and longer session duration. This meta-analysis provides informative results regarding behavioral interventions that have proven efficacious in facilitating engagement in sexual health services among LatinX youth. Most prominently, interventions that are remote or through social media, community-based, and incorporated parents had large positive effects. These findings prove useful for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation and provide guidance for targeting LatinX youth to engage them in sexual health services as primary and secondary STI and HIV prevention., (© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.)

Objective: To provide an updated review of the efficacy of behavioral interventions to reduce sexual risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among adolescents., Design: We searched electronic databases, leading public health journals, and the document depository held by the Synthesis of HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction Project. Studies that fulfilled the selection criteria and were available as of December 31, 2008, were included., Setting: Studies that investigated any behavioral intervention advocating sexual risk reduction for HIV prevention, sampled adolescents (age range, 11-19 years), measured a behavioral outcome relevant to sexual risk, and provided sufficient information to calculate effect sizes., Participants: Data from 98 interventions (51,240 participants) were derived from 67 studies, dividing for qualitatively different interventions and gender when reports permitted it., Main Outcome Measures: Condom use, sexual frequency, condom use skills, interpersonal communication skills, condom acquisition, and incident sexually transmitted infections (STIs)., Results: Relative to controls, interventions succeeded at reducing incident STIs, increasing condom use, reducing or delaying penetrative sex, and increasing skills to negotiate safer sex and to acquire prophylactic protection. Initial risk reduction varied depending on sample and intervention characteristics but did not decay over time., Conclusions: Comprehensive behavioral interventions reduce risky sexual behavior and prevent transmission of STIs. Interventions are most successful to the extent that they deliver intensive content.

Background: Meta-analyses of antidepressant medications have reported only modest benefits over placebo treatment, and when unpublished trial data are included, the benefit falls below accepted criteria for clinical significance. Yet, the efficacy of the antidepressants may also depend on the severity of initial depression scores. The purpose of this analysis is to establish the relation of baseline severity and antidepressant efficacy using a relevant dataset of published and unpublished clinical trials., Methods and Findings: We obtained data on all clinical trials submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the licensing of the four new-generation antidepressants for which full datasets were available. We then used meta-analytic techniques to assess linear and quadratic effects of initial severity on improvement scores for drug and placebo groups and on drug-placebo difference scores. Drug-placebo differences increased as a function of initial severity, rising from virtually no difference at moderate levels of initial depression to a relatively small difference for patients with very severe depression, reaching conventional criteria for clinical significance only for patients at the upper end of the very severely depressed category. Meta-regression analyses indicated that the relation of baseline severity and improvement was curvilinear in drug groups and showed a strong, negative linear component in placebo groups., Conclusions: Drug-placebo differences in antidepressant efficacy increase as a function of baseline severity, but are relatively small even for severely depressed patients. The relationship between initial severity and antidepressant efficacy is attributable to decreased responsiveness to placebo among very severely depressed patients, rather than to increased responsiveness to medication.