DESCRIPTION COMING SOON

This research project involved a survey of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) adults at Pensacola Beach during Memorial Day weekend. The survey examined the relationship between participants’ experience with anti-gay prejudice and discrimination and self-reported mental and physical health status. In addition, the survey assessed disclosure of sexual orientation to others and internalization of homophobia as possible mediators of a relationship between health status and anti-gay prejudice and discrimination.

DESCRIPTION COMING SOON

Okaloosa AIDS Support and Informational Services, Inc. (OASIS), a community-based, AIDS service organization in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, sponsors an annual conference for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.  This consumer-based event, known as the Positive Living Conference, draws approximately 300+ attendees from more than a dozen states for a weekend full of workshops, panel presentation, seminars, and social events aimed at empowering individuals infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.  The conference provides state of the art information on HIV transmission, prevention, and treatment topics as well as support and encouragement form others.  Participants at the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Positive Living Conferences completed measures of quality of life, HIV treatment knowledge, and satisfaction with conference events. Relationships between knowledge, satisfaction, and quality of life among persons living with HIV/AIDS have been examined.

Voter turnout has ranged from only 52-62% of eligible voters for the past ten presidential elections.  While the political science literature offers a wealth of information related to predictors of candidate preferences of voters, limited information is available in the psychological or political science literature regarding prediction of those who vote versus those who don’t vote.  This prospective project examines several factors that may be used to predict intentions to vote and actual voting behavior in a sample of several hundred college students:

• the role of the relative importance of a variety of policy issues and personal characteristics of the candidates
• measures of religious affiliation, religious commitment, and attendance at religious services
• beliefs about voting, social norms about voting, and perceived control over voting

Shortly after the election, a follow-up will assess actual voting behavior.

Transgender individuals are persons whose subjective experience of gender identity is incongruent with their anatomical or assigned sex.   As sexual minorities, transgender individuals often report the experience of prejudice and discrimination.  Social psychology theories suggest that contact with others who are dissimilar to oneself may reduce negative stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.  This project tested the impact of live, interpersonal contact with transgender individuals on college students’ attitudes toward transgender individuals.  Forty-five students in a human sexuality course were randomly assigned to one of two conditions following a baseline assessment of attitudes toward transgender individuals:  a live, panel presentation by transgender individuals followed by a lecture presentation on transgender issues or a lecture presentation on transgender issues followed by a live, panel presentation by transgender individuals.  Significantly greater reductions in negative attitudes toward transgender individuals were found following the live panel presentation than the lecture presentation.

Although there are several standardized measures of attitudes toward other sexual minorities (e.g., gay and lesbian individuals), extensive review of the literature reveals only one published, psychometrically-sound measure of attitudes toward transgender individuals.  The Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) contains some very strong items and may not capture more subtle negative attitudes and beliefs.  The Attitudes Toward Transgender Individuals Scale (ATTIS) was developed in an effort to address this gap, by adapting items from standardized homophobia scales and including items specific to common stereotypes about transgender people.  The ATTIS was administered to approximately 100 college students along with several standardized measures to assess construct validity.  Factor analytic derivation of scales will be performed and internal consistency will be assessed.

The Transtheoretical Model asserts that behavior change occurs in a sequence of stages that vary as a function of intention to change and commitment to change efforts.  Individuals are thought to move from the earliest stage where there is no intention to change (pre-contemplation) through to a stage of thinking about changing (contemplation) to a stage of planning to change (preparation) to a stage of attempting to change (action) to a final stage of new, habitual behavior (maintenance).  This theory has been found to apply to a wide range of behaviors and it may apply to women’s efforts to change behaviors related to their vulnerability to sexual assault, such as using the buddy system or monitoring drinks for the introduction of date rape drugs.  A ten item scale assessing women’s readiness to change behaviors related to vulnerability to sexual assault was administered to approximately 200 college-age women to assess its reliability and validity.