No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

College students are engaging in high rates of behavior related to risk of infection from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). A cognitive-behavioral skills training program for heterosexual college females focused on sexual assertiveness skills and the reduction of risk-related behaviors was designed and evaluated and compared to an education-only program. Forty-three heterosexual female undergraduates completed pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up assessments of: 1) HIV/STD-related knowledge, beliefs, and social norms, 2) sexual, alcohol, and drug-related behaviors (self-reports and monitoring), and 3) sexual assertiveness role-plays (videotaped). The participants were randomly assigned to the education-only group (control) and the education-plus skills training group (experimental). The focus of the skills training was on rehearsal of positive behavioral, cognitive, and social alternatives to risk-related behaviors with an emphasis on specific coping strategies. Analysis of covariance on posttest and follow-up scores, using pretest scores as covariates, showed that skills training participants compared to education only participants scored higher on sexual assertiveness skills, specific knowledge of HIV infection, and self-efficacy to perform lower risk sexual behaviors. Skills training compared to education-only participants also reported less frequency of drug use and unprotected oral sex. Self-efficacy and HIV infection knowledge score differences between groups were maintained at 1- month follow-up, although the lower reported frequency of high risk behaviors was not maintained. However, at follow-up consumption of four or more alcoholic beverages on one occasion was reported as less by the skills training participants and the overall reported frequency of high risk behaviors also was reported as approaching significantly less at follow-up by skills training participants. Effective and ineffective aspects of this program as well as the key issue of personal vulnerability and other barriers and facilitators of behavior change are discussed. / Ph. D.

Bulimia has recently emerged as an increasing threat to the health of young women in Western society. Though thought by some to be primarily prompted by psychological and physiological instabilities, this research attempts to explore the association between bulimic symptoms and the external pressures to conform to accepted standards of excessive thinness. It is noted that the bulimia trend primarily appears among the population which is overwhelmingly targeted by messages promoting the ideals of success through excessive beauty and thinness. Therefore, this study explores the relationships among several variables: the level of pressure felt by young, achievement-oriented women to control their weight in order to accomplish their goals; the level of difficulty experienced in achieving weight control; and the presence of bulimic symptoms. The sample for this study was taken from five undergraduate sociology courses at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The research found that among women who held career, social, and family relationships to be of high priority, the pressure to be thin in order to succeed in these areas, along with the difficulty experienced by the respondent in achieving weight loss, was positively associated with the appearance of bulimic attitudes and behaviors. Analysis of responses of males in the study did not produce significant findings with regard to the relationships between bulimic symptoms, the pressure to lose weight to achieve goals, and the difficulty in controlling one's weight. This study concludes that the unrealistic expectations imposed on young women in Western culture regarding their bodily appearance, and the difficulty in adhering to these expectations, have a direct impact on the appearance of bulimia in young achievement-oriented women. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study is to investigate the disappearance of crude fiber and lignin from the digestive tracts of healthy young college women consuming a self-selected diet.

The purpose of this study is to determine the thiamine values of college women using Najjar and Holt's "fasting hour test."

The purposes of this study are as follows: 1. To measure, compare, and evaluate the level of self-esteem of college women in two colleges. 2. To show the relationship of certain background factors to dominance-feeling in college women.

The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of crude fiber in the diet and the laxation rate of college women consuming self-selected diets.

Since early 1983, the incidence and prevalence of heterosexually transmitted AIDS among women have increased at an alarming rate. However, due to the conceptualization of AIDS as a "gay male" disease, little research attention has been devoted to the prevention of HIV infection among women. The purpose of the current intervention was to test the utility of extending a behavioral social influence/diffusion of innovation approach to a group of heterosexual women. A randomized experimental field design was used to compare a community intervention (AIDS education materials plus the training of individuals identified as key opinion leaders to serve as peer behavior change agents) with a comparison intervention (AIDS education materials alone). The study was conducted at a small liberal arts college for women. Two dormitories were randomly assigned to either an intervention or comparison condition. Twenty-four women, living in the intervention dormitory, were identified as key opinion leaders among their female peers. These key opinion leaders then received information concerning the basic epidemiology of AIDS and other STDs, misconceptions about the transmission of AIDS/STDs among heterosexual women, gender constraints that impact health behavior change among women, and practical risk reduction strategies. Opinion leaders also received training in specific conversation skills to endorse HIV-protective behavior and to convey a change in normative sexual behavior to women living in the intervention dormitory. At pre- and post-intervention, 580 surveys were collected from both the intervention and comparison dormitories. Using an anonymous identification code, survey data were matched for 192 comparison and intervention participants. The major dependent variables included (a) AIDS/STD risk behavior knowledge, (b) perceived risk, (c) perception of peer norms for HIV-risky and HIV-protective behaviors, (d) stage of health behavior change, (e) intentions to practice safer sex, (f) socially and sexually assertive behavior, (g) HIV-risky sexual behavior, and (h) alcohol and drug use. Condom-taking behavior provided a nonreactive measure of behavioral intentions. A number of direct training effects were found for the key opinion leaders, including an increase in AIDS/STD risk behavior knowledge, conversation skills, and empathic assertion. However, there was no change in behavioral intentions, stage of change, perceptions of peer norms for HIV-protective behavior, or reported HIV-risky behavior. Analysis of covariance on posttest scores, using pretest scores as covariates, showed that, relative to the comparison participants, the intervention participants increased their AIDS/STD risk behavior knowledge and the number of AIDS/STD related peer conversations. No other treatment effects due to diffusion of innovation were found. The rate of risky sexual behavior for the intervention period was relatively low. However, descriptive statistics revealed a pattern of HIV-risky behavior in the current sample suggesting that HIV/STD risk may increase over time as a function of unprotected vaginal and oral intercourse and serial monogamy. The implication of these findings are discussed in terms of future interventions targeting heterosexual women. / Ph. D.