Aim: The goal of this research was to assess the influence of adult attachment, personality, and cultural orientation on social distancing and attitudes toward COVID-19 mitigation interventions. Methods: Survey data was collected across two samples (N-MTurk = 201, N-snowball = 242) in the US from April 29 to May 11, 2020. Adult attachment was assessed via the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-Short Form (ECR-S; Wei, M., Russell, D. W., Mallinckrodt, B., & Vogel, D. L. (2007). The experiences in close relationship scale (ECR)-short form: Reliability, validity, and factor structure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 88(2), 187-204), personality was assessed via the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI; Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504-528), cultural orientation was assessed via the Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale (Triandis, H. C., & Galfand, M. J. (1998). Converging measurement of horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 118-128), and social distancing and attitudes toward mitigation interventions were assessed via self-report measures developed for this assessment. Results: In the MTurk sample, agreeableness (beta =.19) and conscientiousness (beta =.26) predicted positive mitigation intervention attitudes. Agreeableness (beta =.24) and vertical collectivism (beta =.25) positively predicted social distancing, while attachment anxiety (beta = -.32) and vertical individualism (beta = -.32) negatively predicted social distancing. In our snowball sample, residing primarily in New York, openness (beta =.18) and horizontal collectivism (beta =.16) predicted positive intervention attitudes, while horizontal individualism (beta = -.20) predicted negative attitudes. Social contact in this sample was low and not associated with predictor variables. In both samples, mitigation attitudes and social distancing were only moderately correlated.

Despite the established safety and effectiveness of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, vaccine hesitancy has contributed to preventable COVID-19-related deaths. In this paper we focus on how systemic inequity plays a contributing role in vaccine hesitancy. A bulk of research suggests that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a problem in marginalized communities. This literature may seem inconsistent with research on other vaccine preventable diseases, which identifies the prevalence of vaccine refusal in wealthy populations within wealthy countries. As such, we discuss existing research on the factors motivating vaccine hesitancy at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. We propose a novel model for understanding the differential pathways to vaccine hesitancy from systemic inequity. Specifically, we identify the impact of systemic disadvantages (e.g., poverty, race, lack of access to quality healthcare) on feelings of fear and mistrust of public health authorities, which, in turn, lead to increased vaccine hesitancy. Alternatively, systemic advantages (e.g., wealth, high quality healthcare) can lead to decreased perceptions of disease risk and heightened feelings of superiority to public health authorities, attitudes that also result in increased vaccine hesitancy. Further we identify strategies for combating vaccine hesitancy among both advantaged and disadvantaged populations and highlight significant gaps in the literature and directions for future research.

Non-pharmaceutical interventions are one of the major tools to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Information about these behaviors is disseminated by messaging campaigns. However, people differ in their responses to persuasive messages. Here, we examine whether cultural orientation is associated with adherence to recommended COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Participants (n = 443, 201 from the United States via Amazon Mechanical Turk and 242 from Central New York via a convenience, snowball sample) completed an online survey during April and May 2020. Cultural orientation was measured via the Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism Scale. Adherence to limiting social contact was self-reported. Multi-level Poisson regression assessed the association between cultural orientation and social contact behaviors. Those high in horizontal individualist characteristics had a positive association with increased social contact behaviors (RR: 2.20, 95%CI: 1.97-2.47, p<0.001). Those high in vertical collectivist characteristics had a negative association with those behaviors (RR: 0.59, 95%CI: 0.52-0.67, p<0.000). We found an association with cultural orientation and adherence to social contact behaviors during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, effective public health messages to promote adherence to preventative behaviors should be tailored to horizontal individualists, those least likely to engage in recommended behaviors.

The present study evaluates longitudinal trajectories of adult romantic attachment during adulthood using latent growth curve modeling. We also tested how observed family interactions were related to trajectories of attachment-related anxiety and avoidance from ages 25 to 31 years (on average). Stability coefficients for attachment variables across 6 years were around .50. Growth modeling results suggested that people tend to become less anxious as they mature into adulthood and that there were individual differences in changes during this period. Although family interaction quality in the adolescent years predicted levels of romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance in young adulthood, this association did not extend to changes in attachment between the ages of 25–31 years. Overall, it seems that attachment variables demonstrate some degree of consistency over time even as the average trend is for declines in anxiety. Moreover, adolescent interactions with parents were not strong predictors of changes in attachment during adulthood. This is consistent with the view that family relationships during adolescence are associated more strongly with the stable components of attachment rather than dynamic aspects in adulthood.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic exposed the inadequacy of infectious disease surveillance throughout the US and other countries. Isolation and contact tracing to identify all infected people are key public health interventions necessary to control infectious disease outbreaks. However, these activities are dependent upon the surveillance platform to identify infections quickly. A robust surveillance platform can also reinforce community adherence to behavioral interventions such as social distancing. In situations where contact tracing is feasible, all suspected cases and contacts of confirmed cases must be tested for a SARS-CoV-2 infection and effectively isolated. At the community level wastewater surveillance can identify areas where transmission is or is not occurring, and genetic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 can help to elucidate the intensity of transmission independent of the number of known cases and hospitalizations. State and county public health departments should improve the infectious disease surveillance platform whilst the public is practicing social distancing. These enhanced surveillance activities are necessary to contain the epidemic once the curve has been sufficiently flattened in highly burdened areas, and to prevent escalation in areas where transmission is minimal.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the world in early 2020, many country leaders endorsed social distancing policies to reduce transmission. Public face masking policies, however, were only endorsed by a few countries in eastern Asia until recently. Herein, we review the theory and evidence behind public face masking and social distancing. We find a complete absence of adequate randomized trials for social distancing and only a few for public masking, but similar levels of evidence that both interventions could work to reduce the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Given the similar levels of evidence, it is strange that social distancing was promoted in the absence of public face masking policies, particularly so with the detrimental emotional, social, and economic side effects that social distancing entails. In the future, possible interventions to combat pandemic illness should be evaluated against the entire body of evidence rather than upon the absence or presence of adequate randomized trials.

Erectile dysfunction is a major complication affecting the quality of life of patients and partners after radical prostatectomy. Evolving evidence suggests that early penile rehabilitation may provide better erectile function after surgery. Phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE-5) inhibitors are routinely considered a first-line treatment option in most algorithms for penile rehabilitation owing to their efficacy, ease of use, wide availability and minimal morbidity. Tadalafil is a long-acting, potent PDE-5 inhibitor for erectile dysfunction, with demonstrated effect in animal studies at preserving penile smooth muscle content and prevention of fibrosis of cavernosal tissue. This article evaluates the existing literature on tadalafil and critically analyzes its impact on erectile function following radical prostatectomy.

In two studies, we examined how romantic attachment style relates to women's sexism toward men. Specifically, we applied structural equation modeling and mediation analyses to the responses of over 500 self-reported heterosexual women. Study 1 included 229 women who answered questionnaires tapping attachment anxiety and avoidance, ambivalent sexism toward men, romanticism, and interpersonal trust. We conducted Study 2 as a replication, changing questionnaire order to gauge the robustness of results, using a new sample of 273 women. In general, women's attachment anxiety predicted ambivalent sexism (both benevolence and hostility) toward men, whereas women's attachment avoidance predicted univalent hostility (and lower benevolence) toward men. Romanticism mediated attachment style's relationship to benevolence toward men, whereas lower interpersonal trust mediated attachment's relationship to hostility toward men. The results suggest that, for women (as for men), sexist attitudes toward members of the other sex have roots in attachment style and associated worldviews. Better understanding of women's ambivalence toward men in romantic relationships may help to inform marital therapy.

The authors present an integrative account of how attachment insecurities relate to sexism. Two studies showed that attachment avoidance predisposes men to endorse hostile but to reject benevolent sexism (BS), whereas attachment anxiety predisposes men toward ambivalent (both hostile and benevolent) sexism. The authors also tested predicted mediators, finding that men's social dominance orientation (a competitive intergroup ideology) mediated the avoidance to hostile sexism link. In addition, romanticism (an idealized interpersonal ideology) mediated attachment insecurity to BS links: (a) Avoidant men tended to reject romanticism (i.e., were cynical about romance) and, in turn, were likely to reject BS, whereas (b) anxious men tended to endorse romanticism (i.e., were idealistic about romance) and, in turn, likely to endorse BS. The authors conclude that men's sexism stems in part from dispositional attachment working models, both directly and through the interpersonal and intergroup ideologies they generate.

According to attachment theory, attachment style derives from social experiences throughout the life span. The authors tested this expectation by examining associations between the quality of observed interaction patterns in the family of origin during adolescence and self-reported romantic attachment style and observed romantic relationship behaviors in adulthood (ages 25 and 27). Family and romantic relationship interactions were rated by trained observers from video recordings of structured conversation tasks. Attachment style was assessed with items from D. W. Griffin and K. Bartholomew's (1994a) Relationship Scales Questionnaire. Observational ratings of warmth and sensitivity in family interactions were positively related to similar behaviors by romantic partners and to attachment security. In addition, romantic interactions characterized by high warmth and low hostility at age 25 predicted greater attachment security at 27, after controlling for attachment security at age 25. However, attachment security at age 25 did not predict later romantic relationship interactions after controlling for earlier interactions. These findings underscore the importance of close relationships in the development of romantic attachment security but do not indicate that attachment security predicts the quality of interactions in romantic relationships.