Sarah G. Hidalgo

Sexual communication holds an important role in young adults’ sexual decision-making and sexual satisfaction. Being able to communicate comfortably about sex has significant public health implicati...

In the past 30 years, there have been numerous positive body image and eating disorder prevention programs targeting youth developed for school-based settings. Frequently, teachers are used as interventionists to increase dissemination, decrease costs relative to researchers, and increase scalability. However, little is known about teacher concerns and barriers that may hinder successful uptake and implementation. The current study recruited a total of 269 teachers who consented to implement a universal body image and appearance-related bullying and teasing prevention program in their classrooms as part of a randomized controlled trial. Teachers expressed some worry that they may say the wrong thing, and concern about feeling uncomfortable teaching the program due to their own body dissatisfaction. Teacher’s ethnicity, gender, years teaching, dieting behaviors and other weight control behaviors, and self-efficacy were not associated with concerns related to teaching the curriculum. Teachers with lower body esteem reported higher concerns and anxiety related to teaching a body image curriculum. In free response items, teachers worried about handling student comments that were beyond the scope of the curriculum. Teacher self-efficacy was the only variable associated with the number of program sessions implemented. Findings suggest avenues to increase implementation.

Though differences in informant perceptions of family processes are associated with poorer health, few studies have examined discrepancies between father- and adolescent-report of family phenomena and their impact on adolescent mental health. This study examined how father and adolescent-reported parenting and the differences in their perceptions is related to adolescent mental health. Participants were 326 father–adolescent dyads (Fathers: M_age = 41.2; Adolescents: 7th grade students, M_age = 12.0, 48.5% female). Overall, analyses revealed significant main effects of father and/or adolescent report of father–adolescent conflict and harsh parenting on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Analyses revealed two instances in which discrepancies between father- and adolescent-report of family phenomena was related to adolescent mental health. Given the mixed nature of the findings based on the outcome reporter, the current study discusses implications for discrepancy research and future directions to better understand discrepant perceptions as useful information on their own. The parent clinical trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT03125291, Registration date: 4/13/2017).

Researchers have called for more psychometric research on body image assessment measures in children. The Body-Esteem Scale (BES) is a commonly used 24-item measure of self-evaluation of body image in youth, yet only one study has evaluated the psychometric properties of this measure in preadolescent children. The goal of the present study was to replicate and extend the original psychometric work on the BES by examining the factor structure, reliability, and convergent validity in a diverse sample of children ages 9-11 years old. Teachers who taught 4th- and 5th-grade students in the United States were invited to participate. A total of 556 students completed an online survey in their classrooms. Findings indicate a one-factor model best fits the data after eliminating three BES items. The BES had strong scale score consistency. Supporting the convergent validity of the BES, body-esteem scores were positively correlated with general self-esteem and body satisfaction scores, while negatively correlated with body dissatisfaction, engagement in appearance conversations, and social comparison scores. There were no significant group differences on mean BES scores between gender and grade level. Overall, the BES is suitable to assess the body esteem of preadolescent children. Future research needs to replicate these findings and examine the BES's ability to detect a change in body-esteem scores across time in youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous studies have shown that engagement strategies can help increase enrollment and initiation of families in evidence-based preventive programs under natural service delivery settings. However, little is known about factors that predict completion of these engagement strategies. This study aimed to examine predictors (i.e., perceived need, perceived barriers, and sociocultural context) of caregiver participation in an evidence-based engagement call strategy. This call was expected to increase initiation into a school-based, family-focused prevention program. In addition, this study examined engagement call completion as a predictor of program initiation among already enrolled families. Participants included ethnically diverse families recruited from three Title I schools (n = 413) who were randomized to receive the prevention program. Results showed that interparental conflict—an indicator of perceived need—was associated with an increased likelihood of completing the engagement call. Furthermore, caregivers from low-socioeconomic status (SES), foreign-born, Spanish-speaking, Hispanic families were more likely to complete the call relative to those from low- and mid-SES, US born, English-speaking, ethnically diverse families. Importantly, engagement call completion was associated with an increased likelihood of program initiation. These findings provide limited support that families with higher perceived needs are more likely to participate in an evidence-based engagement call strategy. Results suggested that the call strategy provides a promising way to reduce attrition from family prevention programs, which is commonly observed between enrollment and initiation. Project Number: R01 DA035855; Date of Registration: 06/15/2014.