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Background: A positive conception of sexuality among people with intellectual disabilities is crucial and relies on several social and interpersonal contexts. The goal of this study is to analyse the interaction and impact of three different contextual groups: individuals with intellectual disabilities, their parents, and professionals working with them. Methods: Survey data were collected from 330 people with intellectual disabilities attending occupational centres in eastern Spain, 330 parents, and 100 professionals. Results: Correlation and variance analyses of dyad-level data show significant differences among the three groups in all variables. Professionals perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have higher knowledge of socio-sexual norms than people with intellectual disabilities actually appear to be, but they are also more concerned about aspects related to this area of people with intellectual disabilities. Compared to people with intellectual disabilities and professionals, parents perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have lower sexual knowledge. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates inconsistent perceived knowledge of people with intellectual disabilities' socio-sexual norms and sexual knowledge among the three groups, leading to disparate levels of concern regarding people with intellectual disabilities sexuality. Thus, the need to collect information from different perspectives for more accurate reporting and the critical need for sex education programs that involve the target population, but also parents and professionals who frequently interact with people with intellectual disabilities are highlighted.

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). 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. 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A positive conception of sexuality among people with intellectual disabilities is crucial and relies on several social and interpersonal contexts. The goal of this study is to analyse the interaction and impact of three different contextual groups: individuals with intellectual disabilities, their parents, and professionals working with them. Methods: Survey data were collected from 330 people with intellectual disabilities attending occupational centres in eastern Spain, 330 parents, and 100 professionals. Results: Correlation and variance analyses of dyad‐level data show significant differences among the three groups in all variables. Professionals perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have higher knowledge of socio‐sexual norms than people with intellectual disabilities actually appear to be, but they are also more concerned about aspects related to this area of people with intellectual disabilities. Compared to people with intellectual disabilities and professionals, parents perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have lower sexual knowledge. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates inconsistent perceived knowledge of people with intellectual disabilities' socio‐sexual norms and sexual knowledge among the three groups, leading to disparate levels of concern regarding people with intellectual disabilities sexuality. Thus, the need to collect information from different perspectives for more accurate reporting and the critical need for sex education programs that involve the target population, but also parents and professionals who frequently interact with people with intellectual disabilities are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective treatment of HIV hinges upon maintaining adequate antiretroviral therapy adherence. Accurate, cost-effective measurement of medication adherence is needed to best respond to the HIV pandemic. The visual analogue scale (VAS) appears to be a simple and easy to use measure of adherence but the current literature on its use is mixed. This meta-analysis (1) describes VAS concordance with other measures of medication adherence and viral load; and (2) examines how research methods moderate the reported strength of the VAS-viral load relationship. Literature searches were conducted electronically and by hand with a total of 20 studies included in the present study. The VAS showed large strength associations with most other measures of adherence and a smaller association with viral load. More rigorous methodological quality significantly improved the VAS-viral load effect size. We conclude with optimization recommendations for VAS use in clinical practice and research design., Author(s): David J. Finitsis[sup.1] , Jennifer A. Pellowski[sup.1] , Tania B. Huedo-Medina[sup.1] , Matthew C. Fox[sup.1] , Seth C. Kalichman[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention, Department [...]

Due to a lack of controlled studies on HIV prevention interventions among Spanish adolescents, COMPAS, a five-session behavioral intervention, was developed and tested on Spanish adolescents aged 15-18. Participants included 827 adolescents from central, east and north Spain. Six hundred and seven students (M = 15.71 years) received the intervention. The control group consisted of 220 students (M = 15.78 years). The authors used self-report measures at two points in time to assess changes in HIV knowledge, HIV attitudes, perceived norms, and condom use intentions. Compared to the control group, the intervention group demonstrated improved outcomes with regard to HIV knowledge (d = 0.93) and HIV attitudes (d = 0.37), and maintained high levels of condom use intentions. The intervention's impact was greater in females and adolescents who were not sexually active. The findings suggest that COMPAS is an acceptable and feasible school intervention for reducing sexual risk among Spanish adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) in a sample of 1,708 Spanish children aged between 8 and 12 years. The SCAS was demonstrated to have satisfactory internal consistency with the Spanish sample, and factor analysis confirmed the six-factor original model. Convergent validity was supported by correlations with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children and the welfare dimension of the Child Health and Illness Profile-Children Edition. Low correlations between the SCAS and the Children's Depression Inventory supported the divergent validity. Analysis suggested that anxiety scores decrease with age, and girls reported higher scores than boys. Overall, the SCAS was shown to have good psychometric properties for use with Spanish children by clinicians and researchers.

Introduction: According to previous studies, when parents divorce it may increase the vulnerability of children to develop personal problems, such as lowering academic performance. This research examines the academic performance of Spanish children with divorced parents and its relation to academic self-concept and social anxiety. Method: The sample includes 342 boys and girls aged between 14 and 18 years, half (n = 171) with divorced parents, recruited from 15 schools in five counties of Spain. Participants provided information on the number of their courses evaluated as Excellent and Failure and completed the academic dimension of the Self-Description Questionnaire II and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents. Results: Compared to youth whose parents are living together, the results confirm that youth whose parents are divorced (a) failed more examinations, and (b) had a worse academic self-concept. A multiple regression analysis revealed that it is more likely to drop for adolescent children of divorced parents who are male, older, have worse school self-concept, and live with a stepparent. Discussion: Parental divorce is related to a worse academic performance in the Spanish adolescents. The findings suggest the importance of detecting, from the educational field, school problems in those adolescents whose parents have divorced to prevent the school failure and other associated problems. (Contains 3 tables.)

In meta-analysis, the usual way of assessing whether a set of single studies is homogeneous is by means of the Q test. However, the Q test only informs meta-analysts about the presence versus the absence of heterogeneity, but it does not report on the extent of such heterogeneity. Recently, the I[squared] index has been proposed to quantify the degree of heterogeneity in a meta-analysis. In this article, the performances of the Q test and the confidence interval around the I[squared] index are compared by means of a Monte Carlo simulation. The results show the utility of the I[squared] index as a complement to the Q test, although it has the same problems of power with a small number of studies.