Among Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) the current study aimed to quantitatively assess changes in religious coping and social support over time via linear growth modeling (LGM). BWLWH (N = 276) provided longitudinal survey data on demographics, religious coping, and social support across fourteen study visits (between 2019 and 2024) at three-month intervals in the Southeastern United States. Religious coping and social support mean scores fluctuated over time and were relatively high at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. LGM showed that religious coping significantly increased over time for participants with high religious coping at baseline, while social support's change over time was not statistically significant. Findings may inform clinical practice by providing data that demonstrates the dynamic (vs static) nature of religious coping especially in the temporal context of COVID-19. Future research may expand knowledge on religious coping among BWLWH and may be used to enhance interventions for BWLWH.

Assessing measurement invariance and the interplay of discrimination, microaggressions, and resilience among Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) across time utilizing latent class and repeated measure analysis may provide novel insights. A total of 151 BWLWH in a southeastern U.S. city completed surveys focused on multiple forms of microaggressions and discrimination (race, gender, sexual orientation, or HIV-related) and resilience factors (social support, self-efficacy, post-traumatic growth) at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. To capture the psychosocial domains of discrimination, microaggressions, and resilience, three latent factors were developed and measured across three time points. Latent class analysis was also conducted to identify and compare meaningful subgroups based on varying levels of discrimination, microaggressions, and resilience reported. Three latent classes were created. MI testing suggested that measurement invariance was partially met (established metric invariance and scalar invariance), and it is possible to compare factor means of discrimination, microaggressions, and resilience across time. Latent factor mean scores of microaggressions and discrimination decreased after 3 and 6 months and increased for resilience after 6 months and varied over time across the three latent classes identified. The subgroup with the lowest level of discrimination and microaggressions and the highest level of resilience reported at baseline, experienced increases in resilience after months 3 and 6. Clinical interventions, research, and policies aimed at promoting resilience and reducing structural and social barriers linked to racism, sexism, HIV stigma, and classism are needed to improve the health and well-being of BWLWH.

Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) face adversities associated with lower HIV medication adherence, viral non-suppression, and mental health symptoms (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) such as trauma/violence, racism, HIV-related discrimination/stigma, and gender-related stressors. We developed the first intervention based in cognitive behavioral therapy and culturally congruent coping for BWLWH to increase medication adherence and decrease PTSD symptoms by enhancing resilience, self-care, engagement in care, and coping for trauma, racism, HIV-related discrimination/stigma, and gender-related stressors. A pilot randomized control trial was conducted with BWLWH and histories of trauma who were at risk for their HIV viral load remaining or becoming detectable (i.e., below 80

Quantile regression has become common in applied economic research. Recently, these methods have been adapted for use with the stochastic frontier model. However, the composed nature of the error term is ignored, drawing into question if a “stochastic” quantile frontier is actually estimated. Here we demonstrate that a particular distributional pair is consistent with the intent of these earlier proposals but is not in fact a quantile estimator. An interesting feature of this distributional pairing is that both distributions can be asymmetric. We further discuss the identification and practical issues associated with this framework.

Despite the disproportional impact of HIV, Black individuals are benefiting the least from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Motivational interviewing (MI) for PrEP uptake (MI-PrEP) is a two-session culturally tailored intervention incorporating MI strategies to improve PrEP motivation and uptake among cisgender Black women. A pilot randomized control trial was conducted in the Southeastern United States, and 41 women were randomized to MI-PrEP (session 1 with PrEP psychoeducation and MI and session 2 with MI and light case management) or enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU; two sessions of PrEP psychoeducation [videos explaining PrEP]). Women completed one follow-up assessment (1 month after visit 2). Measures captured primary (motivation [via contemplation and readiness ruler] and PrEP uptake via medical records) and secondary outcomes (e.g., PrEP knowledge, barriers to PrEP, and speaking to a provider about PrEP). Difference-in-differences analyses comparing MI-PrEP with ETAU as well as t-tests for within-group changes over time were conducted. Women who completed MI-PrEP (90.5% retained) compared with ETAU (100% retained) had a significantly higher likelihood of speaking to a provider about PrEP (OR = 4.42e7, CI [8.55e6, 2.29e8], DiD = 17.60, se = 0.84, p < 0.001). Within the MI-PrEP group, women had significant increases in PrEP prescription, knowledge, and motivation/contemplation, and significant decreases in financial resources as a PrEP barrier and medical mistrust (MMT). ETAU had within-group increases in PrEP prescription and speaking to a provider, no changes in motivation and MMT, and increases in specific barriers to care (e.g., transportation). MI-PrEP shows promise, and a large-scale study may be beneficial to further assess efficacy and examine implementation.

Moving away from hazardous areas may be an important adaptive response under intensifying climate change, but to date such movement has been controversial and conducted with limited government or private-sector support. Research has emphasized resident perspectives on mobility, but understanding how professionals view it may open new avenues to shape future outcomes. Based on 76 interviews with professionals involved in climate responses in South Florida, we evaluate perceptions of adaptation goals, the potential role of climate mobilities in pathways supporting those goals, and associated constraints and enablers. The practitioners interviewed anticipate multiple types of climate mobilities will occur in the region, at increasing scales. Interviewees perceive climate mobilities at present, especially migration and gentrification where climate plays some role, as causing distributional inequities and financial and sociocultural disruptions, and they view existing adaptive strategies as best serving those who already have adequate resources, despite practitioners’ personal commitments to social justice goals. Although many practitioners feel prepared for their own, limited roles related to climate mobilities, they judge the region as a whole as being unprepared to support the retreat they see as inevitable, with a need for a more ambitious long-term transition plan. Achieving this need will be difficult, as practitioners indicate that climate mobilities remain hard to talk about politically. Nevertheless, interviewees believe some households are already considering moving in response to climate risks. Discussions of climate mobilities, through interviews and far beyond, may encourage more mindful choices about and engagement in climate-driven transformations.

OBJECTIVE:Compared to non-Black women, Black women in the United States are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV, living with HIV, and have suboptimal HIV outcomes, disparities largely linked to structural and psychosocial factors that may impact mental health.METHOD:151 Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study completed baseline assessments between October 2019 and January 2020 in the Southeastern United States. Measures captured microaggressions (gendered-racial, HIV, and Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer), "macro" discrimination acts (gender, race, HIV, sexual orientation), resilience factors (self-efficacy, trait resilience, posttraumatic growth, positive religious coping, and social support), and mental health (depressive symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and posttraumatic cognitions). Four structural equation models were estimated with latent discrimination (LD), latent microaggression (LM), and latent resilience (LR) as predictors and depressive symptoms, PTSD symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions, and latent mental health (LH) as outcomes. Indirect pathways from LD and LM via LR and LR as a moderator were estimated.RESULTS:Models fit well based on indices. There were significant direct pathways from LM and LR to depressive symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions, and LH and a significant direct pathway from LM to PTSD symptoms, but not from LD to any mental health outcome. Indirect pathways were not significant. However, LR moderated the relationships between both LM and LD with PTSD symptoms.CONCLUSION:Intersectional microaggressions and resilience factors may play key roles in BWLWH's mental health. Research is needed to examine these pathways overtime and provide opportunities to improve mental health and HIV outcomes among BWLWH. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives. To examine the effects of within-neighborhood and neighboring characteristics on discrimination, stigma, mental health, and HIV outcomes among Black women living with HIV (BWLWH). Methods. A total of 151 BWLWH in a southeastern US city provided baseline data (October 2019‒January 2020) on experienced microaggressions and discrimination (race-, gender-, sexual orientation-, or HIV-related), mental health (e.g., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder), and HIV outcomes (e.g., viral load, antiretroviral therapy adherence). Neighborhood characteristics by census tract were gathered from the American Community Survey and the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Spatial econometrics guided the identification strategy, and we used the maximum likelihood technique to estimate relationships between a number of predictors and outcomes. Results. Within-neighborhood and neighboring characteristics (employment, education, crime, income, number of religious organizations, and low-income housing) were significantly related to intersectional stigma, discrimination, mental health, HIV viral load, and medication adherence. Conclusions. Policy, research, and interventions for BWLWH need to address the role of neighborhood characteristics to improve quality of life and HIV outcomes. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(S4):S433-S443. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306675).

Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) in the U.S. face microaggressions based on race, gender, HIV-status, and sexual orientation. We examined changes in daily microaggressions and related distress among 143 BWLWH in Miami, FL. Microaggression-related distress increased from 52% at baseline/October, peaked at 70% during the holidays (November/December), declined to 55% in March when COVID-19 social distancing began, and peaked to 83% in June/July 2020 during widespread Black Lives Matters protests. Baseline viral suppression was associated with lower microaggressions across the 9-months. Microaggression-related distress may change due to social context and research is needed on microaggressions and viral load overtime.

In an increasingly integrated global market, the nature and extent of spatial interdependence is one key factor influencing firms' location decisions. Spatial interdependence often manifests itself in the form of agglomeration or congestion effects, not just within a country but also in a region. Using Chinese and US overseas investment data, this study presents empirical evidence on the role that neighbouring countries (third-country effects) play in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to a host country. The study's findings show that there is evidence of spatial interdependence both for Chinese and USA FDI flows to African countries. For both countries, the third country effects come through either explanatory variables (including market size, domestic credit, trade costs and the share of service sector), error term or the amount of FDI in neighbouring countries. The findings also show that there is more robust evidence that, unlike Chinese FDI, the US FDI takes into account the market potentials of not just a host country but also that of a neighbouring country in making investment location decisions.

Societies were underprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also the case for climate change. Art may have a greater role to play in advancing societal resilience across these different categories of shocks and risks. In this Intervention, we deploy and evaluate art as a social practice supporting societal responses to sea level rise and its impacts. Our evaluation is focused on the ways in which the open-ended, deliberately unusual juxtaposition of art and science can accelerate fundamental adjustments in responding to complex climate risks such as climate mobility threats, under simultaneous stressors such as COVID-19. Through art, we explore science–society interactions, using Miami as a globally relevant case study. Our critique identifies outcomes of the perhaps radically interdisciplinary approach, including the integration, passion, and dialogue enabled and enriched through art.

Using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data for Ethiopia (2006 and 2011) and Kenya (2007 and 2013), this study empirically investigates the role of exports and foreign ownership in influencing firm-level efficiency. We use the stochastic frontier analysis to estimate a Cobb–Douglas production function with inefficiency introduced in the error term. We control for heterogeneity across firms by including firm size, type of industry, innovation activity, and employees’ characteristics in estimating the inefficiency equation. The results of the study show that, in both Ethiopia and Kenya, exporting helps firms lower technical inefficiency, whereas the share of foreign ownership has the expected positive sign but not statistically significant. The results also confirm that, in both countries, smaller firms and firms that employ temporary workers for a longer period tend to be less efficient. For Kenyan firms, years of work experience of managers help to lower technical inefficiency. However, innovation activities within a firm tend to raise technical inefficiency. For Ethiopian firms, years of work experience of managers do not lower inefficiency, and innovation activities do not appear to affect firms’ technical inefficiency. Our findings suggest that, even within Africa, not all policy tools result in similar outcomes. We conclude that policy-makers in Ethiopia and Kenya should look into implications of relevant respective variables of interest in designing appropriate industrial policy to improve firm efficiency in their industrialization endeavors.

In an attempt to expand the manufacturing sector, several African countries have been providing incentives to attract foreign investors. Some Chinese and U.S firms have responded to these incentives by have investing in several African countries. However, not all African countries received a big influx of Chinese and U.S investments. Anecdotes and some descriptive statistics suggest that host country natural resource endowment and market potential are among the factors that may have influenced the location choice of Chinese and U.S. firms, respectively, within Africa. In increasingly integrated global, regional, and local markets, interconnectedness or neighboring countries is also another key factor affecting location decisions. This has manifested in the form of agglomeration or congestion effects as well as cost of production differentials across countries. Using Chinese and U.S overseas investment data, this study presents empirical evidence on how neighboring countries are important, in addition to traditional determinants, in attracting FDI to a host country. Our findings show that there is evidence of spatial interdependence for Chinese and U.S. FDI flows to African countries. For investment from both countries the third country effect comes through explanatory variables (including market size, trade cost, share of wage workers, access to electricity, and share of service sector), although there is stronger evidence for the case of U.S than Chinese FDI. Unlike previous studies, the effect of the spatial lag effect losses its significance when other factors are controlled for the third country effects. Overall, there is evidence that, unlike Chinese FDI, U.S FDI seem to be market-seeking and takes into account neighboring countries’ economic situation to invest in in a host country.

Stationary point results on the normal-half-normal stochastic frontier model are generalized using the theory of the Dirac delta, and distribution-free conditions are established to ensure a stationary point in the likelihood as the variance of the inefficiency distribution goes to zero. Stability of the stationary point and "wrong skew" results are derived or simulated for common parametric assumptions on the model. We discuss identification and extensions to more general stochastic frontier models.

In the stochastic frontier model, we extend the multivariate probability statements of Horrace (J Econom, 126:335–354, 2005) to calculate the conditional probability that a firm is any particular efficiency rank in the sample. From this, we construct the conditional expected efficiency rank for each firm. Compared to the traditional ranked efficiency point estimates, firm-level conditional expected ranks are more informative about the degree of uncertainty of the ranking. The conditional expected ranks may be useful for empiricists. A Monte Carlo study and an empirical example are provided.