Browsing by Subject "relationships"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Condom use as a function of new young adult relationship duration
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Harezlak, Jaroslaw; He, Fei; Hensel, Devon J.; Fortenberry, J. Dennis
    Objective: To find out how condom use in new relationships changes as a function of time, gender, as well as sexual and relationship satisfaction. Method: Participants in a larger study who reported at least one new partner during the 12-week study interval (N=115; 18-29 yrs; 48% women; 75% African American) completed weekly STI testing and 3x/day electronic diary collection assessing individual and partner-specific affect, daily activities, sexual behavior and condom use. We analyzed event-level condom use percentage and subject-level behavior response effects. Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) were used to estimate condom use probability accounting for within-subject and within-nested-partners correlations via random effects. Results: The average initial condom use in the new relationships was 62% for men and 46% for women. The plotted smooth shapes of the estimated condom use probabilities fitted using GAMMs were qualitatively similar for both sexes throughout the study period. The initial high condom use percentage was followed by a sharp decline during the first 1.5 weeks to 19% for men and 14% for women. The condom use rates stabilized at around 6% after 4 weeks in a new relationship. Women who reported high levels of relationship satisfaction exhibited marginally significant negative association with condom use probability (p-value=0.055). Sex satisfaction was not significantly associated with condom use when both the time trends and gender were taken into account. Conclusion: Condom use declines sharply for both males and females during the early stages of new relationships. Men use condoms more frequently than women in the early and middle stages of relationships. Relationship characteristics may also influence lower levels of condom use, especially among women.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Improv(ing) learning environments: How to Foster Belonging through Play
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Rossing, Jonathan P.
    Applied improvisation is a field in which practitioners apply the principles and practices of improvisational theater to enhance and transform relationships in real-world arenas. Applied improvisation practices have gained popularity in business and professional settings, including professional education such as medical school, law school, and management training. However, currently no research examines how applied improvisation might augment college learning environments by promoting greater student connection, focus, and presence. This research project examines how principles and practices of improvisation can be used to address two classroom challenges: 1) distraction or lack of focus/attention and 2) disengagement and disconnection from peers that hinders the development of a learning community. First, mental distractions hinder student engagement: from smart phones and online social networks to larger concerns such as academic anxieties (worrying about an upcoming test) or stresses in persona life (i.e. a troubled relationship). These distractions displace students’ attention from the immediate task of learning and limit their mental presence in class. Second, learning often remains a radically individual endeavor rather than a process of engaging with and supporting peers in a learning community. In response to these challenges, I have adapted improvisation games to use as “warm-up” activities in every class session throughout the semester. The goal is to understand whether applied improvisation promotes greater student focus and attention as well as foster connection and trust among learners, both of which result in a stronger learning community. These outcomes are particularly significant at a commuter campus where students find fewer opportunities to develop community and connection. This poster will report the results of a mixed-methods study featuring both quantitative and qualitative data. Results indicate that applied improvisation improves learning environment factors such as students’ sense of community, belonging, focus, and attention.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Investigation of a New Couples Intervention for Individuals with Brain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial
    (Elsevier, 2018) Backhaus, Samantha; Neumann, Dawn; Parrott, Devan; Hammond, Flora M.; Brownson, Claire; Malec, James; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
    d to (1) examine the efficacy of a treatment to enhance a couple’s relationship after brain injury (BI) particularly in relationship satisfaction and communication; and (2) determine couples’ satisfaction with this type of intervention. Design: Randomized Wait-list Controlled (WC) Trial. Setting: Midwestern outpatient BI rehabilitation center. Intervention: The Couples CARE intervention is a 16 week, 2-hour, manualized small group treatment utilizing psychoeducation, affect recognition and empathy training, cognitive and dialectical behavioral treatments (CBT, DBT), communication skills training, and Gottman’s theoretical framework for couples. Participants: Forty-four participants (22 persons with BI and their intimate partner) were randomized by couples to the intervention or WC group, with 11 couples in each group. Main Outcome Measures: Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS); Quality of Marriage Index (QMI); 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse communication questionnaire. Measures were completed by the person with BI and their partner at 3 time points: baseline, immediate post-intervention, 3-month follow-up. Results The experimental group showed significant improvement at post-test and follow-up on the DAS and the Horsemen questionnaire compared to baseline and to the WC group which showed no significant changes on these measures. No significant effects were observed on the QMI for either group. Satisfaction scores were largely favorable. Conclusion suggest this intervention can improve couples’ dyadic adjustment and communication after BI. High satisfaction ratings suggest this small group intervention is feasible with couples following BI. Future directions for this intervention are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Long-term Personal Relationships and Well-being
    (Elsevier, 2018-10) Gunderman, Richard B.; Bly, Danielle A.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Masculinity in Adolescent Males’ Early Romantic and Sexual Heterosexual Relationships
    (Sage, 2015-05) Bell, David L.; Rosenberger, Joshua G.; Ott, Mary A.; Department of Pediatrics, IU School of Medicine
    There is a need to understand better the complex interrelationship between the adoption of masculinity during adolescence and the development of early romantic and sexual relationships. The purpose of this study was to describe features of adolescent masculinity and how it is expressed in the contexts of early to middle adolescent males’ romantic and sexual relationships. Thirty-three 14- to 16-year-old males were recruited from an adolescent clinic serving a community with high sexually transmitted infection rates and were asked open-ended questions about their relationships—how they developed, progressed, and ended. Participants described a high degree of relationally oriented beliefs and behaviors related to romantic and sexual relationships, such as a desire for intimacy and trust. The males also described a more limited degree of conventionally masculine beliefs and behaviors. These beliefs and behaviors often coexisted or overlapped. Implications for the clinical care of similar groups of adolescents are described.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    MEASUREMENT OF CONSTRUCTS USING SELF-REPORT AND BEHAVIORAL LAB TASKS: IS THERE OVERLAP IN NOMOTHETIC SPAN AND CONSTRUCT REPRESENTATION FOR IMPULSIVITY?
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Coskunpinar, Ayca; Dir, Allyson L.; Cyders, Melissa A.
    Although highly emphasized in psychological research, there has been little empirical evidence examining the overlap in meaning for self-report measures and construct representation for behavioral lab tasks in most psy-chological constructs. Using the personality trait of impulsivity as an exam-ple, the authors completed a meta-analysis of 27 published research studies examining the relationship between these methods. In general, although there is a statistically significant relationship between multidimensional self-report and lab task impulsivity (r = 0.097), practically, the relationship is small. Examining relationships among unidimensional impulsivity self-report and lab task conceptualizations indicated very little overlap in self-report and behavioral lab task constructs. Significant relationships were found between lack of perseverance and prepotent response inhibition (r = 0.099); between lack of planning and prepotent response inhibition (r = 0.106), delay re-sponse (r = 0.134), and distortions in elapsed time (r = 0.104); between negative urgency and prepotent response inhibition (r = 0.106); and be-tween sensation seeking and delay response (r = 0.131). This little conver-gent validity evidence for impulsivity as measured by self-report and behav-ioral lab tasks could indicate that these two measures are assessing different constructs. If these are different constructs, referring to them in the litera-ture as “impulsivity” influences one to think of them as representing a uni-tary underlying construct, when, in fact, we may be measuring disparate constructs. When disparate measures are described using the same multidi-mensional moniker, little forward progress can be made in figuring out how a trait relates to a criterion of interest. Researchers should take care to specify which particular unidimensional constructs are operationalized with not only impulsivity, but with all traits. If self-report and lab task conceptu-alizations measure disparate aspects of impulsivity, we, as a field, should not expect large conceptual overlap between these methods.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    More comfortable online? Alexithymia and social media use
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Zarins, Sasha; Johnson, Monique; Ustymchuk, Nina; Tutrow, Kaylee; Konrath, Sara H.
    Abstract: Alexithymia includes difficulty identifying and describing emotions, limited imaginative ability, and a tendency to focus attention on external reality versus inner experience (Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 1991, 1997). Alexithymia is one feature of low emotional intelligence (Bar-on, 1996, 1997; Parker, Taylor, & Bagby, 2001). There has been limited, conflicting research on the topic of emotional intelligence and social media usage. For example, emotionally intelligent people tend to use Facebook more overall (Bektas, Toros, & Miman, 2014), but tend to use MySpace less for communicating with romantic partners (Dong, Urista, & Gundrum, 2008). Thus, we tentatively hypothesize that alexithymia may be associated with more social media usage because it may be more difficult for these individuals to form strong in-person relationships (Kauhanen, Kaplan, Julkunen, Wilson & Salonen, 1993). 938 online adults (72% female, Mean age=28.10, 84.8% Caucasian) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1993) and self-report measures of social media use as part of a larger study. The mean score on the TAS-20 was 44.88 (SD=10.55), with 82 (8.7%) participants having alexithymia (score >=61). Overall, total alexithymia was positively associated with total social media use, β=.06, p=.05. In terms of type of social media, total alexithymia was marginally associated with Facebook use and Instagram use, βs=.06, ps=.06, but was not associated with Twitter use, β=.03, p=.43. When examining active (posting) verse passive use (checking) of social media, total alexithymia was positively associated with active social media use (posting), β=.06, p=.04, but was not associated with passive social media use (checking), β=.05, p=.14. Alexithymia is associated with higher levels of certain types of social media. Future research should directly measure social media usage, rather than rely on self-report. But to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine question of how alexithymic people use social media.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item