Journal of Health Psychology

This study explored the woman’s experience of her partner’s erectile dysfunction (ED) focusing particularly on sexual experiences, relationship satisfaction, and communication. One hundred women completed a semi-structured interview, providing information about how ED impacted her relationship with her partner. For some women, there was a sense of hopelessness and frustration surrounding their sex lives, while for others, her partner’s ED had led to efforts towards increasing non-physical intimacy and sexual communication. These findings demonstrate the importance of the relationship, including communication between the partners, in a women’s experience of her partners’ ED.

This study investigated the influence of individual differences in people’s dispositional avoidance orientation on the persuasive effects of low- and high-threat messages promoting moderate drinking. First, participents (N = 99) individual differences in avoidance orientation were assessed, after which they were provided with either high- or low-threat messages about the consequences of drinking too much alcohol. The primary outcome measures were information acceptance, attitude and intention. Results showed that participants low in avoidance orientation were more likely to be persuaded by the low-threat message, whereas participants high in avoidance orientation were more likely to be persuaded by the high-threat message.

We examined a temperament-driven construct in relation to broad patterns of somatic behavior among young females (N = 215, 18-23 years). A multidimensional construct, socio-affective vigilance (SAV), encompassing affective, behavioral, and cognitive traits, along with sensitivity to sensory stimuli (low threshold), were used as predictors. SAV positively predicted somatic behavior and a low sensory threshold was associated with somatic complaints over and above SAV effects. A multidimensional construct, coupled with a low threshold, could underlie a vulnerability to somatization. These findings create a more comprehensive view of the temperament-somatization link by predicting a pattern of somatic behavior rather than individual symptom complaints.

The aim of this study was to examine whether chronic patients’ subjective health can prospectively predict optimism through illness representations, as well as whether this relation depends on health levels. A sample of 97 cardiac patients participated in the two phases of the study. Subjective health predicted optimism with several illness representations serving as mediators. These relations were, however, conditional on the values of subjective health. Such findings suggest that the interplay between patients’ subjective health, illness representations, and optimism seems to function rather as a complex circuit system, than as a process of simple cyclical feedbacks.

While psycho-medical understandings of ‘eating disorders’ draw distinctions between those who ‘have’/‘do not have’ eating disorders, feminist poststructuralist researchers argue that these detract from political/socio-cultural conditions that invoke problematic eating and embodied subjectivities. Using poststructuralist discourse analysis, we examine young women’s talk around food and eating, in particular, the negotiation of tensions arising from derogating aspects of hetero-normative femininities, while accounting for own ‘feminine’ practices (e.g. ‘dieting’) and subjectivities. Analysis suggested that eating/dieting was accounted for by drawing upon neo-liberalist discourses around individual choice; however, these may obscure gendered, classed and racialized power relations operating in local and wider contexts.

This article compares the self reported health of a sample of 9854 Spanish and Portuguese adolescents aged 11–15 years using an integrated measure of health, which takes account of positive and negative factors that affect overall feelings of health and wellbeing. This improved measure supports the emergence of health agendas that aim to make wellbeing improvements in populations through a combination of both the promotion of positive protective factors and the need to deal with those risk factors that inhibit individuals, communities and populations to attain good health.

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which perceptions of surface-level (i.e. age, ethnicity, physical condition) and deep-level (i.e. attitudes, beliefs, values) similarity, as assessed shortly after group formation, predict participants’ subsequent attendance behaviors within postnatal physical activity classes. Women (N = 136) enrolled in 21 postnatal exercise classes participated in this prospective observational study. Perceptions of surface-level similarity, in particular with regard to other group members’ ages, predicted women’s subsequent adherence to their respective exercise classes. The results of this study suggest that perceptual similarity may have noteworthy implications for mothers’ involvement within postnatal physical activity classes.

The objective of this study was a transcultural comparison regarding illness-related causal and control attributes using a survey of healthy Germans in Germany, Spaniards in Spain and Spaniards in Germany. Each group contained 100 persons, matched according to sex, age and education. Germans showed more pronounced internal causal as well as control beliefs while Spaniards in Germany showed fatalistic attribution and Spaniards in Spain placed more emphasis on social aspects. It was possible to correctly assign over 75 percent of persons to a group depending on their characteristics in terms of causal and control attributions. Considerations of cultural and migration-related factors regarding public health appear especially promising.

Little longitudinal research exists on the relationship between exercise self-determination and stage of change. This study investigated how self-determined motivation changes in patients with type 2 diabetes (N = 175) as they moved through the stages of change over a six-month exercise trial. Hierarchical linear modelling revealed that patients who progressed through the stages of exercise change had an overall increase in self-determined motivation, while non-progressors experienced a reduction in self-determined motivation from three to six months. These results indicate that individuals engaging in regular exercise at six months maintain initial increases in self-determined motivation. Findings are discussed in light of self-determination theory.

No Indonesian studies have addressed the relationship between chronic illness and depression. Using simultaneous equation modeling, this study modeled the joint dependency of depression and chronic illness. The findings showed that the odds of having at least two chronic health conditions increase with the level of depression and individuals with at least two chronic health conditions have higher odds of being in a higher depression category. The health benefits of education are greater among Indonesian women after controlling for mobility, age, marital status, and smoking. Policies directed toward reducing gender differences in education are crucial to reduce persistent health inequalities.

This article examined moderators of the association between BMI and unhealthy weight control behaviors suggested by the Dual Pathway Model among 4,529 adolescents from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey. An obese classification was associated with unhealthy weight control behaviors for boys and girls. Low life satisfaction, high negative affect, and body size dissatisfaction were associated with unhealthy weight control behaviors among boys as was low life satisfaction for girls. Among girls, healthy weight classification, coupled with low negative affect or body size satisfaction, was protective against unhealthy weight control behaviors. Improved self-care may decrease obesity and unhealthy weight control behaviors.

We investigated critical belief-based targets for promoting the introduction of solid foods to infants at six months. First-time mothers (N = 375) completed a Theory of Planned Behaviour belief-based questionnaire and follow-up questionnaire assessing the age the infant was first introduced to solids. Normative beliefs about partner/spouse (β = 0.16) and doctor (β = 0.22), and control beliefs about commercial baby foods available for infants before six months (β = −0.20), predicted introduction of solids at six months. Intervention programs should target these critical beliefs to promote mothers’ adherence to current infant feeding guidelines to introduce solids at around six months.

The nominal group technique generates quantitative data through a process of experts ranking items of interest. This article focuses on the additional collection of qualitative data from nominal groups with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, used to explore the influences on prioritizing treatment outcomes. Across all groups, the top five outcomes with the highest importance scores were identified as: pain; joint damage; fatigue; activities of daily living; and mobility. Qualitative findings showed that the personal impact of RA influenced decisions on how to rank specific outcomes through four domains: disease impact; adaptation to illness; external resources and stressors; and social expectations.

We used qualitative interviews to explore the influences on first sexual intercourse among 10 young women who had sexual debut within a year of enrolling in the university. University culture of sexual permissiveness and pressure from sexually experienced friends and male partners were the main factors influencing sexual debut. Ambivalence and a range of coercive behaviours characterized first sex. Participants were unprepared for sex and lacked power in deciding the timing and circumstances of first sex resulting in physical and emotional pain and regret. Interventions should address the risks of first sex among students in institutions of higher learning.