Understanding the dynamics of mental health of recently resettled refugees is an essential component of any comprehensive resettlement program, yet establishing the components of a successful and acceptable mental health intervention is an elusive task. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 resettled refugees from five countries who had received treatment for depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, or anxiety. Themes generated from the interviews emphasized the need for strong group-based social support as well as a focus on practical needs such as acquiring and maintaining employment, language and literacy training, and access to care.

Background: Sexting is an increasingly common phenomenon among adolescents and young adults. Some studies have investigated the role of personality traits in different sexting behaviors within mainstream personality taxonomies like Big Five and HEXACO. However, very few studies have investigated the role of maladaptive personality factors in sexting. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and experimental (i.e., sharing own sexts), risky (i.e., sexting under substance use and with strangers), and aggravated sexting (i.e., non-consensual sexting and sexting under pressure) across 11 countries. Methods: An online survey was completed by 6093 participants (Mage = 20.35; SDage = 3.63) from 11 different countries which covered four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America). Participants completed the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire and the 12-item Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sharing own sexts was positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Narcissism. Both risky and aggravated sexting were positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. Conclusions: The present study provided empirical evidence that different sexting behaviors were predicted by Dark Triad Personality Traits, showing a relevant role of Machiavellianism in all kinds of investigated sexting behaviors. Research, clinical, and education implications for prevention programs are discussed.

Serostatus disclosure is an important component of secondary HIV prevention with potential benefits for both the individual by experiencing increased social support and society by reducing HIV transmission risk behaviors. This cross-sectional study assessed disclosure patterns to sex partners, family members, and friends by sociodemographic and HIV-related factors among an urban, Midwestern U.S. HIV clinic population ( n =809); a majority of whom were African American and male with a mean age of 41 years. Almost three quarters ( n =596) of the sample was currently receiving HIV therapy, with 68% ( n =404) successfully suppressing their HIV viral loads. Among sexually activity individuals, 97% reported disclosing their serostatus to sex partners. This high rate of disclosure to sex partners suggests that social desirability may play a role in this self-reported measure. Approximately half of the sample ( n =359) disclosed to at least one family member and 60% ( n =474) disclosed to at least one friend. Disclosing to family members occurred more often among participants who were unemployed and endorsed depressive disorder symptoms ( p <0.05 for all). Disclosing to friends occurred more frequently among women, Caucasians and those who completed higher levels of education ( p <0.001 for all). HIV disclosure and disease severity were unassociated. Given the chronic nature of HIV care, additional research is needed to develop interventions to facilitate timely disclosure of HIV serostatus.

Many variables explain the link between intimate partner violence (IPV) and its impact on women’s mental health. This proposition is mostly from samples drawn from battered women’s shelters, batterer intervention programs (BIPs), emergency rooms, and medical clinics. We know little about the psychological well-being of women who report abuse to police departments. This study used data from case records of women who experience IPV and sought help from a city police station located in the southwest United States. These case records were examined to identify how sociodemographic characteristics of age, ethnicity, marital status, financial dependence, resources of social support, and coping strategies related with type and number of IPV incidents as well as mental health symptoms. The sample consisted of 154 women, majority of whom experienced physical violence (70.1%), sexual violence (9.1%), emotional violence/stalking (14.9%), and combined, that is, reporting more than one (5.8%). Approximately 67.5% of the women reported some mental health symptoms. Social support and coping strategies significantly distinguished women’s experience of mental health symptoms. Unexpectedly, the current data indicate that women who scored higher in perceived social support significantly reported more mental health symptoms. Coping strategies mediated the relationship between IPV and mental health symptoms. The findings suggest that availability of coping resources may mitigate repeated IPV and modify the impact of mental health. In discussing prevention and intervention efforts with women who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing IPV, practitioners can help women employ empowering coping strategies that are built on their resilience. In addition, mental health professionals working with the police, especially in community policing setting, can achieve promising outcomes for women experiencing violence.

Although Black adolescents have reported a lower prevalence of substance use relative to non-Hispanic Whites, Black youth are disproportionately affected by adverse social outcomes. Social scientists have highlighted that using a framework that includes perceived peer prejudice and teacher discrimination as social determinants of adolescent risk behaviors is essential to fully understanding substance use behaviors in adolescents. However, this area of research remains underdeveloped. This study examined whether and to what extent perceived peer prejudice and teacher discrimination affect binge drinking and marijuana use by Black (n = 514) and non-Hispanic White (n = 2,818) adolescents using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Wave 2, Public Use dataset. Findings suggest that peer prejudice increased the risk of substance use in non-Hispanic White youth only, whereas experiences of teacher discrimination increased the risk of substance use in both Black and non-Hispanic White youth. The study's limitations are noted, and implications for future research are discussed.