In applied research as well as in clinical practice, it is common to evaluate the change that patients experience as a consequence of the treatment they receive. Various methods designed to evaluate this change are reviewed in this study. This review has focused on a specific aspect that has not been given proper attention: the false positive rate. For this reason, a nonchange situation was simulated (pre-post design with no differences between pre and post) and the behavior of 8 different methods was evaluated in this scenario. Different distributions as well as different sample sizes were simulated. A thousand samples were created for each simulated condition. The percentage of times each method detected a change was obtained in order to evaluate the behavior of the selected methods. Because the simulated situation is a nonchange one, any change alert was considered as a false positive. Out of the 8 evaluated methods, the standardized individual difference and the confidence intervals of linear regression are the ones with the best performance. The remaining methods fail to correctly identify and reject sampling random fluctuations. In most cases there is a tendency to consider changes that respond only to random variations as statistically reliable. However, a simple modification related in reliability estimation allows a considerable improvement in the behavior of some methods.

Las minorías migrantes afrontan el estrés aculturativo con respuestas conductuales y cognitivas. Las fuentes de estrés de aculturación incluyen la discriminación, las diferencias socioculturales, la añoranza del origen y la ruptura familiar. Se entrevistaron a 853 inmigrantes peruanos y colombianos en Chile (51% mujeres, y edad M = 33.19; DE = 9.54). Se aplicaron escalas de estrés de aculturación y formas de afrontamiento. La distancia y añoranza familiar fue la principal fuente de estrés siendo mayor entre los colombianos, quienes usan más la movilidad individual, la distracción y las comparaciones sociales, mientras los peruanos internalizan más el estigma del inmigrante. Las comparaciones intergrupales y temporales se relacionaron con menor estrés de aculturación. Se discute la importancia de las formas de afrontar el estrés en minorías migrantes.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a global health problem, with sexual risk behaviors (SRB) being the main routes of spreading the virus. Evidence indicates that different psychological factors influence SRB (e.g., attitude towards condoms, sexual self-concept, sexual sensation seeking, knowledge of sexual risk behaviors, risk perception). This study proposes an explanatory model of sexual risk behaviors in young people and adults. The sample consisted of 992 young people and adults aged between 18 and 35 years. The model presented good levels of fit (X² = 3311.433, df = 1471, CFI = 0.964, TLI = 0.959, RMSEA = 0.036), explaining 56% of the variance of sexual activity with multiple partners, 77% of the inadequate use of protective barriers, and 58.8% of sexual activity under the influence of alcohol or drugs from a set of psychological factors in self-report measures. The details of the results offer novel contextual evidence for the prioritization of prevention-oriented psychosocial interventions.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are one of the populations most likely to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) worldwide. Sexual risk behaviors (SRB) are the main route of HIV transmission. Among the factors associated with SRB, internalized homophobia (rejection of one’s sexuality) is a risk factor unique for MSM. However, how this factor influences SRB is not clear. Therefore, the present study attempts to clarify the mechanism of action of the relationship between internalized homophobia on SRB based on the mediating effects of sexual self-concept. A study was conducted with 124 MSM living in Chile over 18 years of age (M = 24.4 and SD = 4.19). Through path analysis, it was observed that internalized homophobia has slight inverse effects on SRBs (multiple sexual partners and sexual activity under the influence of alcohol or drugs) when the sexual self-efficacy dimension acts as a mediating variable. These findings suggest that developing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns focused on MSM must highlight the development of a healthy sexual self-concept and address self-stigma.

Research on epistemic beliefs has been hampered by lack of validated models and measurement instruments. The most widely used instrument is the Epistemological Questionnaire, which has been criticized for validity, and it has been proposed a new instrument based in the Epistemological Questionnaire: the Epistemic Belief Inventory. The Spanish-language version of Epistemic Belief Inventory was applied to 1,785 Chilean high school students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in independent subsamples were performed. A three factor structure emerged and was confirmed. Reliability was comparable to other studies, and the factor structure was invariant among randomized subsamples. The structure that was found does not replicate the one proposed originally, but results are interpreted in light of embedded systemic model of epistemological beliefs.