Every 73 seconds another person in America is sexually assaulted. For my senior practicum, I worked at Sexual Assault Resource Center, which provides advocacy and support services, including crisis intervention and counseling, for survivors of sexual violence. My goals for my time with SARC included developing knowledge and skills related to being a trauma therapist, learning about how a nonprofit operates, and gaining an understanding of sex education and sexual violence prevention programs. As a Sexual Assault Advocate and Education and Prevention Intern at SARC, my primary responsibilities involved engaging in community outreach events, delivering educational workshops, and presenting prevention curriculum in schools. As a result of my participation, I became interested in researching school-based prevention strategies and programs aimed at reducing sexual violence, as well as their focus areas, strengths, and limitations. My research and practicum experience reframed the way I viewed prevention work, provided insight into effective prevention strategies, and reminded me of why I believe so strongly in early prevention education to reduce sexual violence.

Previous research has examined men’s health in relation to women’s functioning and compared morbidity and mortality rates among specific subgroups of men using demographic features. More recent research expands these approaches by also examining how men’s thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors influence health-related attitudes and behaviors. The endorsement and internalization of masculinity is generally associated with more negative health behaviors and engagement in fewer health-protective behaviors. However, research to date does not offer a clear and consistent conceptualization of those specific masculine norms that might facilitate or act as a barrier to men adopting healthier behaviors. The current study examines data from 376 men between the ages of 18 and 25 to determine whether health-risk and protective behaviors are predicted by specific masculine norms, when controlling for demographic variables. Findings suggest men’s endorsement of specific masculine norms predicted more health-protective than health-risk behaviors, although the proportion of the variance explained by specific masculine norms was higher for health-risk behaviors than health-protective behaviors. Demographic variables also predicted both health-risk and protective factors. Results from the current study are presented within the context of two previous studies (Levant & Wimer, 2014; Levant, Wimer, & Williams, 2011), highlighting both similarities and additional contributions. Results provide a strong rationale for considering the influence of masculine norms on men's health behaviors, especially within the context of health promotion, prevention, and intervention programs by healthcare providers and clinicians.

This study examines the impact of female inmate participation in a facilitator-led group on psychosocial (anxiety, depression, self-esteem) and spiritual well-being. A convenience sample of 36 women (21 intervention, 15 comparison) was recruited from a women's prison in the Northeast. Participants in the groups described positive outcomes in the interviews and in the quantitative measurements of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Trends in the data, however, indicated an additional differential effect related to program involvement for depression and anxiety scores. The spirituality scores were high at all times for both groups, with slight increases over the period of the study.

BACKGROUND: Women veterans are generally less healthy than their nonveteran female counterparts or male veterans. Accumulating evidence suggests there may be barriers to women veterans’ access to and use of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) care. OBJECTIVE: To document perceived and/or actual barriers to care in a nationally representative sample of women veterans and examine associations with VHA use. DESIGN: Cross-sectional telephone survey. PARTICIPANTS: Women who are current and former users of VHA from VA’s National Registry of Women Veterans. MEASUREMENTS: Assessments of perceptions of VHA care, background characteristics, and health service use. RESULTS: Perceptions of VHA care were most positive regarding facility/physical environment characteristics and physician skill and sensitivity and least positive regarding the availability of needed services and logistics of receiving VHA care ( M =0.05 and M =−0.10; M =−0.23 and M =−0.25, respectively). The most salient barrier to the use of VHA care was problems related to ease of use. Moreover, each of the barriers constructs contributed unique variance in VHA health care use above and beyond background characteristics known to differentiate current users from former VHA users (Odds ratio [OR]=4.03 for availability of services; OR=2.63 for physician sensitivity and skill: OR=2.70 for logistics of care; OR=2.30 for facility/physical environment). Few differences in barriers to care and their association with VHA health care use emerged for women with and without service-connected disabilities. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight several domains in which VHA decisionmakers can intervene to enhance the care available to women veterans and point to a number of areas for further investigation.

Health disparities in racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. are strongly associated with variations in tobacco use and accessibility as well as the quality of health care. Each year minorities in this country experience at least 60,000 excess deaths (deaths beyond what would be expected if they had the same sex and age-adjusted rates as the white population). Differences across groups can range up to 10 or more years in life expectancy or 20 or more years of limitations on healthy normal functioning. There is an increasing body of scientific evidence indicating that health disparities among racial/ ethnic groups in the U.S. are strongly associated with variations in tobacco use as well as differences in the quality and accessibility of prevention and treatment. This paper will focus on (1) what is known about health disparities related to tobacco use, (2) what the differences are in smoking patterns that may contribute to health disparities, (3) other factors that help to account for health disparities, and (4) suggestions for smoking prevention and cessation efforts specific to diverse populations. These findings help in conceptualizing the problem of tobacco related health disparities and exploring how to proceed in addressing the problem. It is important to note that the causes and cures of health disparities in the United States must be understood in the larger context of economic disparities and racism as well as variations in cultural practices and biological risk factors that are known to influence various epidemiological patterns. Analysis of this larger context has led to recommendations for a community change approach to reducing health disparities and for recognition of existing strengths in minority communities when developing health policies. A recent Institute of Medicine (2002) report concludes quite forcefully, “...differences in treating heart disease, cancer,

This study examined the association between gender-role ideology (scores on a nonegalitarian-egalitarian attitudinal dimension) and features of intimate partner aggression, with attention to how this relationship varied as a function of gender. Undergraduates from a large northeastern urban university (N = 250) completed measures of relationship quality, gender-role ideology, psychological abuse, psychological victimization, physical abuse, physical victimization, and attitudes toward aggression. Controlling for relationship quality, significant interactions between gender and gender-role ideology were found for all dependent variables. For men, the association between ideology and aggression was consistently negative; for women, the pattern of relationships was more variable. Results suggest that the inclusion of gender may be needed to provide a clearer, more representative picture of the association between gender-role ideology and partner aggression.

Traditional methods for analyzing trends in longitudinal data have typically emphasized average group change over time. In this article, we propose multilevel, regression-based methods for examining inter-individual differences in intra-individual change and apply these methods to research in trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The outcome or dependent variable of interest is reconceptualized as an index of dynamic change reflecting the trend, or trajectory of an individual's PTSD symptom severity scores across time. A basic statistical model is presented, and analyses and findings are demonstrated with an existing database used in previously published studies. The methods offer promise for future study of the natural course of PTSD chronicity or recovery, risk and resilience factors that influence individual growth or decline, and critical timepoints for intervention.

Within the Veterans Health Administration, it has become increasingly important to assess health-care workers' attitudes toward and beliefs about female patients, sensitivity to the unique needs of female patients, and knowledge about women veterans and the programs and services available to them. The current study describes the development of the Gender Awareness Inventory-VA, an instrument that assesses 3 components: gender-role ideology, gender sensitivity, and knowledge among health-care staff. Data were drawn from various samples of Veterans Health Administration employees in a large geographical region (overall N > 1,100; nationally, this population includes roughly 37% minorities). In a series of psychometric inquiries, evidence for reliability and validity was established, and preliminary evidence was provided for the instrument's underlying factor structure.

ABSTRACT In response to the growing number of women within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), along with the challenge of meeting their health-care needs in a historically male-focused setting, VHA has supported a variety of research projects aimed at evaluating and improving the status of women's health and health-care experiences. While these efforts have primarily focused on aspects of care such as the availability and accessibility of services and the provision of timely care, this study focused on the contribution of interpersonal aspects of care. Specifically, staff gender awareness, conceptualized as health-care workers' gender-role ideology or attitudes, gender sensitivity, and knowledge was examined. Findings revealed both strengths and weaknesses in domains of staff gender awareness and significant relationships between staff demographics and gender awareness components.