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In this non-empirical article, which is intended as a decision-making resource for researchers, we identify issues surrounding data integrity that commonly arise in online survey research and we propose remediation strategies based on challenges we encountered during a particular pilot study as well as our collective experience with conducting online survey research. Using the metaphor of an onion, we peel off the layers of this complex problem, synthesize the various available strategies used across disciplines, and propose some novel ones based on our perspective as psychologists. Corresponding to this multi-layered problem, we propose multi-layered solutions to prevent illegitimate responding—by both humans and non-humans (robots or “bots” for short)—from compromising the quality of data collected via online survey research. The first layer entails strategic item selection and protective programming in survey development. The second layer involves astute advertising and recruitment tactics to minimize illegitimate responses during survey dissemination. The third layer includes algorithms and other mechanisms to identify suspicious responses for possible exclusion during data verification. When we peel off the layers and reach the core problem of illegitimate responses to online surveys—financial incentives—we will propose ways of navigating respondent reimbursement to mitigate their inadvertent harmful impacts on the research process. By proposing these solutions, we aim to protect the integrity of scientific inquiry in psychology, especially given how often this method is used in the discipline.

Environments that are hostile to one or more marginalized groups are known to have a negative effect on the mental health and well‐being of both targets and observers. Anti‐fat attitudes have been well documented in medical education, including the use of derogatory humor and discriminatory treatment toward higher‐weight patients. However, to date, it is not known what effect observing weight stigma and discrimination during medical school has on medical students' psychological health and wellbeing, sense of belonging, and medical school burnout. The present study surveyed a total of 3994 students enrolled across 49 US medical schools at the start of their first year and at the end of their fourth year. Participants reported the frequency with which they had observed stigmatizing and discriminatory behaviors targeted at both higher‐weight patients and higher‐weight students during their four years of medical school. Observed weight stigma was prevalent, and was associated with worse psychological and general health, reduced medical school belonging and increased medical school burnout. The indirect effects of observed weight stigma on medical school burnout, via belonging, psychological health, and general health, were statistically significant in the sample as a whole, but were more pronounced in higher‐weight students. This effect may be explained, in part, by the relationship between observed stigma and medical school belonging. Higher levels of observed stigma were associated with reduced feelings of belonging in higher‐weight but not normative‐weight students. Top‐down institutional culture change is needed to rectify this situation, which is detrimental to both students and patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across three studies people miscategorised transgender individuals through degendering (abstention of pronouns) and misgendering (using gender inconsistent pronouns). Participants described and evaluated an individual who either disclosed a transgender identity or did not in an interpersonal context. In Study 1 (N = 203), men were more likely to misgender a woman who identified as transgender (vs. did not) and were less likely to explicitly categorise her as a woman. In Studies 2 (N = 600) and 3 (N = 593), participants were more likely to misgender and degender transgender women and men (vs. controls). In Study 3, participants who learned a person's pronoun were less likely to degender transgender women. However, providing pronouns did not result in significantly less misgendering overall, nor did it mitigate the degendering of transgender men. Misgendering was a stronger predictor of social connectedness and social categorisation (Study 1) than explicit gender inconsistent categorisations. Misgendering is an insidious indirect form of miscategorisation, more strongly predicting negative social consequences than direct explicit categorisation. While listing one's pronouns mitigates some pronoun disparities, it is not a cure-all for degendering and misgendering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars have long studied circumstances that shape prejudice, inquiry into factors associated with long-term prejudice reduction has been more limited. Using a 6-year longitudinal study of non-Black physicians in training (N = 3,134), we examined the effect of three medical-school factors—interracial contact, medical-school environment, and diversity training—on explicit and implicit racial bias measured during medical residency. When accounting for all three factors, previous contact, and baseline bias, we found that quality of contact continued to predict lower explicit and implicit bias, although the effects were very small. Racial climate, modeling of bias, and hours of diversity training in medical school were not consistently related to less explicit or implicit bias during residency. These results highlight the benefits of interracial contact during an impactful experience such as medical school. Ultimately, professional institutions can play a role in reducing anti-Black bias by encouraging more frequent, and especially more favorable, interracial contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious institutions, which contribute to understanding of and mobilization in response to illness, play a major role in structuring social, political, and cultural responses to HIV and AIDS. We used institutional ethnography to explore how religious traditions-Catholic, Evangelical, and Afro-Brazilian- in Brazil have influenced HIV prevention, treatment, and care at the local and national levels over time. We present a typology of Brazil's division of labor and uncover overlapping foci grounded in religious ideology and tradition: care of people living with HIV among Catholics and Afro-Brazilians, abstinence education among Catholics and Evangelicals, prevention within marginalized communities among Evangelicals and Afro-Brazilians, and access to treatment among all traditions. We conclude that institutional ethnography, which allows for multilevel and interlevel analysis, is a useful methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to shed light on the mental health of a unique group of medically transitioning transgender adolescents: those who had made a binary social transition during childhood and who, in general, had not experienced substantial gender-incongruent puberty., Methods: Study participants were part of a broader longitudinal study comprising 3 groups: transgender youth, their cisgender siblings, and unrelated cisgender peers. Using multilevel models, we compared self-reported and parent-reported levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among transgender youth at 3 stages: before youth had begun puberty blockers; after they had begun blockers; and after they had begun hormone therapy. We also compared age-based mental health trajectories in transgender and cisgender youth., Results: In this sample of transgender youth who sought and received gender-affirming medical care, participants experienced stable and relatively low levels of psychological distress across stages of medical transition and across time. There was one exception: transgender girls showed increased, followed by decreased, parent-reported depressive symptoms over time. In contrast, cisgender girls showed increases in internalizing symptomatology (with the exception of parent-reported anxiety) as they got older, and cisgender boys showed decreased self-reported anxiety and increased, followed by decreased, parent-reported depressive symptoms. By mid-adolescence, levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among transgender girls and transgender boys generally fell between those of cisgender girls and cisgender boys., Discussion: Results demonstrate that transgender youth who are socially and medically supported in their gender identity can experience stable and positive mental health throughout the notoriously challenging developmental period of adolescence., (Copyright © 2024 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)