Studying attitudes toward gender roles in Brazil is important for understanding their relationship with gender inequalities in social interactions. In this context, the present study examined the associations of attitudes toward women with ambivalent sexism, age, and gender. Study 1 (N = 224, mean age = 32.46 years) showed that gender moderated the association between age and attitudes toward women: among men, older age was associated with more traditional attitudes toward women (b = − 0.03, t = − 2.36, p = .02). In Study 2 (N = 261, mean age = 29.14 years), the regression model including age, gender, hostile sexism, and benevolent sexism was significant (F[4, 256] = 30.07, p < .001), with hostile and benevolent sexism significantly associated with attitudes toward women. Taken together, these findings indicate that ambivalent sexism is associated with attitudes toward women, whereas the associations involving age and gender differed across the two studies. These findings contribute to understanding gender-related attitudes in the Brazilian context and provide a basis for future research.
Older adults in Brazil’s Northeast live at the intersection of rapid aging and persistent disadvantage, which shapes how distress is experienced, expressed, and recognized. Whether screening conventions developed elsewhere hold here has rarely been tested. We evaluated the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) in older Northeastern Brazilians across three studies, integrating latent structure, item functioning, and score interpretation. Study 1 (n = 401) used polychoric exploratory factor analysis and two-parameter logistic item response theory. A four-factor solution (Depressive Affect, Somatic Anxious Complaints, Loss of Vital Energy/Cognitive Slowing, Hopelessness/Self-harm) fit well, with precision concentrated in the low-to-moderate range. Study 2 (n = 580) compared unidimensional, correlated four-factor, second-order, and bifactor models. The bifactor model fit best, supporting a strong general distress dimension, together with its four specific factors. Study 3 (n = 355) anchored SRQ-20 totals to a concurrent self-report reference (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, K10 ≥ 15) through ROC analyses. Discrimination was good (AUC = .84), and SRQ-20 ≥ 8 best balanced sensitivity and specificity, converging with the adult convention rather than with lower cutoffs proposed for older adults. Because the reference was itself a screener, this threshold is a screening rule, not a diagnostic boundary. Taken together, these findings support the SRQ-20 total score for scalable screening in Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) primary care and show that the portability of screening conventions can be examined rather than assumed.
Sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) face significant health disparities, largely due to chronic exposure to minority stressors that affect mental health. While research documents these harmful effects, few studies examine how discrimination influences emotional responses or the role of social support in mitigating these impacts. This study examined the relationships among minority stress, social support, and mental health outcomes in 567 SGMs who completed an online survey. Gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals reported the highest negative affect, with bisexual men and women also showing elevated negative affect. Symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression were most frequent among cisgender women (CISW) and GNC participants. Discrimination experiences were strongly associated with negative affect across gender-diverse groups, though this association extended to psychiatric symptoms only among transgender individuals, not among GNC participants, suggesting that factors beyond discrete discriminatory events may contribute to symptoms in this group. Mediation analyses revealed that social support significantly buffered the impact of negative affect on psychiatric symptoms for cisgender men and, specifically through family and significant-other support, for transgender individuals, but showed no significant indirect effect for CISW or GNC participants. GNC individuals appeared especially vulnerable, reporting both high negative affect and the lowest perceived social support among all groups. These findings suggest that SGM mental health outcomes depend on a complex interplay between minority stressors, affective responses, and symptoms, with the protective role of social support varying substantially across gender identity groups. The results underscore the importance of inclusive research, tailored interventions, and policies that account for the distinct stressors and support needs of the most vulnerable groups.
Eye-tracking studies have thoroughly explored developmental changes in reading acquisition, yet the connection between eye-movements and comprehension across development is less understood. This study compared reading comprehension, speed, and eye-movement behaviors in 21 fifth-graders and 29 adults (20 undergraduates, 9 faculty professors), all native Spanish speakers. Participants read age-appropriate expository texts while eye-tracking data were collected during their first read. Among children, better comprehension correlated with reading fluency (fewer fixations, fewer regressions, and longer saccades), highlighting fluency as a critical skill. In adults, stronger comprehension was linked to cognitive engagement and more attentive reading (slower reading speed, more fixations), indicating a shift to text-level processing. These findings suggest a developmental progression in comprehension-related skills: from reliance on fluency in children to more advanced post-lexical and integrative processes in adults. Eye movements reveal how low-level and high-level skills contribute differently to reading comprehension across developmental stages.
