Kristin L. Moilanen

Objective: This study aimed to examine whether the association between job quality and health can be explained by its effects on other social determinants of health (SDOH). Methods: We ran hybrid path analyses using data from two waves of a national survey of middle-aged adults to test direct and indirect effects of T1 job quality on health outcomes at T2, through effects on T2 housing, health care, social, and money challenges. Results: Poor job quality predicted housing, health care, social, and money challenges in all models. Indirect effects of T1 poor job quality emerged for T2 physical health–related quality of life via housing challenges, T2 drug misuse via housing and health care challenges, and T2 depressive symptoms via housing and social challenges. Conclusions: Results support job quality as an upstream issue that can affect health through its impact on other SDOH.

The present study explored whether social support buffered associations between individual economic and non-economic chronic stressors and community disadvantage and past month substance use in middle adulthood. We analyzed survey and census tract data from a national sample of N = 1541 adults ages 40–61 (56.4% women and 31.3% men). High economic and chronic stressors and low social support were associated with high substance use, but tests of moderation did not support the buffering hypothesis. Instead, the combination of individual economic stressors and community disadvantage was linked to elevated substance use.

Purpose To examine a comprehensive list of demographic, substance use, economic, and social factors associated with suicidal ideation (SI) among middle-aged adults. Methods Cross-sectional data were obtained from a national sample of middle-aged adults between February and November 2022. The study’s final sample include 1,337 respondents who represented the adult population of persons aged 40–60 years in the United States. Bivariate and multivariate statistics were employed to identify significant factors associated with past year SI, including the examination of factors associated with single SI and multiple instances of SI in the past year. Results Of the sample, 140 (10.4%) reported SI in the past year. Among those, more than half (60.0%, n = 84) reported SI multiple times in the past year. Multivariable logistic regression indicated that those who reported a lower standard of living compared to their parents/caregivers (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.62), were a gender minority (aOR 7.06), engaged in concurrent substance use (aOR 3.29), or were unemployed (aOR 1.80) had significantly higher odds of past year SI, whereas higher social support was protective against SI (aOR 0.69). Multinomial regression found that concurrent substance use, unemployment, and having a lower standard of living than their parents/caregivers predicted repeated past year SI whereas higher social support was protective against multiple SI experiences (aOR 0.65). Conclusion Middle-aged adults reporting concurrent substance use, lower social support, unemployment and were gender minority had higher odds of past year SI. These findings underscore the need to develop public health and clinical interventions tailored to these highest-risk middle-aged adults in order to prevent suicide.

The present study describes changes in young adults' sexual behaviors during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Latent class growth analyses (LCGAs) conducted with four waves of data collected between July 2019 to May 2020 in N = 775 college students (Mage = 18.61, SD = 0.33; 50.3% female, 90.2% White) revealed the presence of high- and low-risk classes in separate models for oral, vaginal, and anal sexual risk taking. As anticipated, vaginal and oral risk taking declined in spring 2020. Membership in high-risk trajectories was attributable to high COVID-19-related financial problems, early sexual debut, low self-control, and being in a romantic relationship. Other COVID-19 factors and demographic control variables were not linked to trajectory membership. Thus, while many young adults' sexual risk taking changed during the early pandemic, their perceptions of and experiences with COVID-19 were not predictive of sexual risk trajectory membership.

This study evaluated the validity of a revised measure of positive and negative psychosocial consequences of partnered sexual behaviors (Vasilenko et al., 2012) in a sample of 254 college students (85% women; 88% European American) aged 18–22 years (M = 19.48, SD = 1.22). Confirmatory factor analysis of a broad array of psychosocial consequences (e.g., feelings of satisfaction, emotional intimacy) indicated two subscales corresponding to positive and negative consequences. These factors demonstrated acceptable short-term stability, as well as construct validity in relation to several measures of sexual health and contextual factors (e.g., type of partner) that are logically related to psychosocial consequences of sex. The results suggest that this modified measure is sufficiently reliable and valid as an assessment of common consequences of sexual encounters. The findings also provide novel information on the individual, situational, and relational correlates of positive and negative consequences.

Objectives: This study examined associations between young adults’ psychological characteristics and psychosocial consequences of sex, and whether risky sexual encounters mediated these associations. Methods: College students (N = 265; M_age = 19.49) completed questionnaires concerning risky sexual relationships, behaviors, situations, and psychosocial consequences during their most recent encounter and over the last year. Results: Sexual restraint indirectly predicted positive consequences of the most recent encounter via risky sexual behaviors. Sexual restraint and permissiveness predicted positive and negative consequences over the past year via risky relationships. Conclusions: Psychological characteristics may influence the likelihood of risky sexual encounters, thereby influencing consequences.

Development in multidimensional self-regulation is important because it can be leveraged to enable healthy long-term adjustment. This four-wave study investigated longitudinal associations between two domains of adolescent self-regulation, specifically its cognitive (e.g., planning and decision-making) and emotional components (e.g., control of negative emotions). Participants included 500 adolescents (52% female; T1 M_age = 13.31 years; 76% White; average yearly family income > 100,000 USD). A random-intercepts cross-lagged panel model revealed that, once trait-level longitudinal stability in each regulatory component was controlled, there were small cross-lagged effects from cognitive self-regulation to later emotional self-regulation. Findings warrant additional future research that describes adolescents’ multidimensional self-regulation development and its antecedents, in part by appropriately distinguishing between intra- and inter-individual effects.