This study examines the relationship between sport participation and perceptions of body size and weight-loss strategies among adolescent girls. Using a sample of 7,214 girls, ages 12–18 years, from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we find that girls who participate in stereotypically feminine sports are more likely to report feeling overweight, attempt to lose weight, and use multiple weight-loss strategies compared with nonathletes. We also find that the associations for weight loss, but not overweight perception, are generally weaker for non-White girls. These findings suggest that participation in stereotypically feminine sports, particularly for White girls, might exacerbate body image and dieting problems associated with dominant gender roles, but participation in stereotypically masculine sports does not.

Stigma against suicidal ideation and help-seeking is a significant barrier to prevention. Little detail is provided on what types of stigma interfere with help-seeking, how stigma is expressed, and how to reduce it. Five groups of two ethnically diverse community theatre programs were formed to analyze differences in Eastern Montana Caucasian and Native American adolescents and young adults’ experiences with stigma about mental illness and mental health treatment that affect help-seeking for suicidal thoughts and experiences. Over a ten-week period, a grassroots theatre project was used to recruit members from the same population as the audience to write and perform a play on suicide and depression (n = 33; 10 males, 23 females; 12 Native American, 21 Caucasian, ages 14–24). Using textual analysis, the community- and campus-based performance scripts were coded for themes related to stigma. Both ethnic groups reported that stigma is a barrier to expressing emotional vulnerability, seeking help, and acknowledging mental illness. We found that Caucasians’ experiences were more individually oriented and Native Americans’ experiences were more collectively oriented. Understanding the cultural bases of experiences with stigma related to mental health treatment for suicide is necessary to create educational programs to reduce stigma for diverse groups of adolescents and young adults.

Can gender-based diversity programs benefit everyone? We tested whether and how a broadening participation program intended to benefit women working within maledominated academic fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, may relate to job satisfaction for all who feel involved. Informed by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2012), we designed and tested a gender-diversity program that supported women faculty's psychological need for autonomy, relatedness, and competence through their involvement in five activities embedded in three "ADVANCE Project TRACS" (Transformation through Relatedness Autonomy and Competence Support) initiatives. Longitudinal repeated measures collected over 3 years from men and women tenure track faculty across disciplines show that for everyone, involvement with the program predicted a significant positive change in psychological need satisfaction. This change was associated with positive changes in job satisfaction over time. Results demonstrate the success of this particular program, and suggest that diversity programs that target one group can have wide-spread positive impacts on all who feel involved.

This article examines how differences in male and female views about intimate partner violence (IPV) contributed to divergent responses to a prevention campaign conducted in the western USA. The study examines focus groups (n = 22) and in-depth interview data (n = 13) collected during campaign development to shed light on quantitative results indicating that women (but not men) increased their perceived severity of domestic violence and awareness of services from pre-test to post-test, while male attitudes moved in the opposite direction. Results of the qualitative study provide the basis for the authors' conclusions about why reactions differed: (1) men's unwillingness to view abuse within a gender context limits men's ability to accept the inequity in statistically demonstrated male and female roles as perpetrators and victims; (2) male resentment of existing gender stereotypes contributed to a rejection of campaign messages that utilised gender prevalence statistics to depict images showing men as perpetrators and women as victims; and (3) victim blaming attitudes contributed to resistance to empathy for victims depicted in the campaign. The authors offer suggestions for future campaigns that foster agency among both perpetrators and survivors while confronting the structural barriers to enacting change.

Current COVID-19 messaging efforts by public health departments are primarily informational in nature and assume that audiences will make rational choices in compliance, contradicting extensive research indicating that individuals make lifestyle choices based on emotional, social, and impulsive factors. To complement the current model, audience barriers to prevention need to be better understood. A content analysis of news source comments in response to daily COVID-19 reports was conducted in Montana, one of the states expressing resistance to routine prevention efforts. A total of 615 Facebook comments drawn from Montana news sources were analyzed using the Persuasive Health Message Framework to identify perceived barriers and benefits of mask-wearing. A majority (63%) of comments expressed barriers, the most common of which were categorized as either misinformation about the virus or conspiracy theories. Benefits (46%) of mask-wearing were articulated as benefits to loved ones or people in one’s community or saving hospital space. This paper analyzes the implications of low perceived threat accompanied by low perceived efficacy of mask-wearing to make recommendations for future prevention efforts.