On average participants in behavioral weight loss interventions lose 8 kilograms (kg) at 6 months, but there is marked variability in outcomes with some participants losing little or no weight. Individuals with difficulties with internal disinhibition (i.e., eating in response to emotions or thoughts) typically lose less weight in such programs and may require an innovative, specialized approach. This pilot study examined the preliminary acceptability and efficacy of a 24-week acceptance-based behavioral intervention for weight loss amongst overweight and obese adults reporting difficulty with eating in response to emotions and thoughts. Participants were 21 overweight or obese men and women (mean age=52.2±7.6 years; baseline mean body mass index=32.8±3.4). 86% completed the 6-month program and a 3-month follow-up assessment. Ratings of program satisfaction averaged 4.9 on a 5-point scale. Multilevel modeling analyses indicated participants lost an average of 12.0 kg (SE=1.4) after 6 months of treatment and 12.1 kg (SE=1.9) at 3-month follow-up, thus exceeding the weight losses typically seen in behavioral treatment programs. Decreases in internal disinhibition and weight-related experiential avoidance were found at 6-months and 3-month follow-up. Greater decreases in weight-related experiential avoidance were associated with greater weight loss at the end of the program (r=.64, p=.002), suggesting a potential mechanism of action. Although there have been a few preliminary studies using acceptance-based approaches for obesity, this is the first study to specifically target emotional overeaters, a subgroup that might be particularly responsive to this new approach. Our findings provide initial support for the feasibility, efficacy and acceptability of this approach for this subgroup of participants. Further study with longer follow-up, a more diverse sample, and comparison to a standard behavioral program is clearly warranted.

College students are at particular risk for sexual assault victimization, yet research tends to focus on women as victims and men as perpetrators. The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the prevalence, context, and predictors of sexual assault victimization among college students. Results showed that women were significantly more likely to have been sexually assaulted in a 2-month time period, but the context of victimization varied little by gender. Victimization was predicted by sexual orientation, time spent socializing and partying, and severe dating violence victimization for men and by year in school, time spent on the Internet, drinking and using drugs, and being a stalking and dating violence victim for women. Results are discussed in the context of routine activities theory and implications for prevention and future research.

While the majority of research on dating violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) in college students has focused on heterosexual students, victimization rates among sexual minority students are the same or higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts. The current study sought to explore sexual minority college students' perceptions of the prevalence of DV and SA, risk and protective factors, and barriers to seeking help, using focus groups. A total of 14 sexual minority students ranging in age from 18 to 24 participated across 2 focus groups. Findings suggest the majority of the students perceived DV and SA among sexual minority individuals to be less common compared to their heterosexual counterparts and to be less common on their campus compared to other colleges and universities. Students' reflections about risk and protective factors overlapped with those previously established among heterosexuals as well as factors unique to the sexual minority community. Students identified societal, community, and psychological-level barriers related to help-seeking. We provide recommendations for practice based on the current findings (e.g., colleges could expand current educational material about DV and SA to include more recognition of these issues for sexual minority students). (PsycINFO Database Record

Reasons for the decrease in abstinence in DT after treatment discontinuation and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This study sought to address underserved victims of sexual violence by examining reports of sexual violence, substance use, and help-seeking events among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) and heterosexual college students. There were 2,790 students (2,482 heterosexual students and 308LGBQ students) across 4 years who completed an online, anonymous survey measuring self-reports of sexual violence, substance use, and help-seeking. Chi-square analyses and Fisher's exact tests were conducted to determine differences in reports of sexual violence between LGBQ and heterosexual participants. Events reported by LGBQ students were significantly more likely to involve threatened sexual intercourse and sexual contact while intoxicated as compared to events reported by heterosexual students. Similar low rates of help-seeking following a sexual violence event were found among LGBQ and heterosexual victims, with most victims citing that the event was not serious enough to warrant help. LGBQ victims were significantly more likely to report that they did not seek help because they thought they would be blamed. Both LGBQ and heterosexual college students would benefit from education on issues of sexual violence, particularly the relationship between substance use and consent.

Despite the negative outcomes associated with sexual assault (SA), dating violence (DV), and stalking victimization, many victims, particularly college students, do not seek help for these crimes. To date, the majority of help-seeking research has focused on one form of victimization, despite substantial evidence that many victims experience more than one form of interpersonal violence. In addition to consideration of such polyvictims, intervention efforts to increase help-seeking to improve victim outcomes may benefit from a clearer understanding of overlapping predictors of help-seeking across victimization types. Using the health belief model (HBM) as a guiding framework, the current study examined predictors of help-seeking for SA, DV, and stalking in a college student sample. Data were collected via a multiyear anonymous email survey of general health and well-being. Demographic predictors of help-seeking and severity indicators informed by the HBM were evaluated across violence types. In addition to replicating previous work, results provided support for the HBM, such that a number of severity indicators, particularly those representing overlap across victimization types, predicted help-seeking at the multivariate level. Results also provide new evidence for overlap of barriers to help-seeking across violence types, with victim's belief that the incident was not serious enough the most commonly reported reason for not seeking help across all three types of victimization. This overlap may provide opportunities for consolidating prevention and intervention efforts across victimization types.

The utility of distress tolerance (DT) as a transdiagnostic marker of psychopathology has been limited to date by a lack of consensus on how to measure DT. Closer examination of the measures used to capture the DT construct are needed for enhancing our understanding of extant and future DT research. Consistent with prior research, multi-modal assessment in a sample (n = 144) of undergraduate students revealed weak associations between self-report and behavioral measures of DT. Qualitative analyses of reported reasons for quitting the behavioral measures revealed variability in participants’ subjective experiences when performing these tasks. However, those who reported reasons consistent with the DT construct (e.g., to escape discomfort) did not show the hypothesized associations between self-report and behavioral measures. Results provided preliminary support for the importance of clarifying contextual factors (i.e., subjective reasons for quitting) when assessing DT, and suggested that self-report and behavioral measures of DT may indeed be capturing meaningfully distinct constructs for many individuals. Further implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Objective: Emerging evidence suggests that bystander prevention programs are promising interventions for decreasing sexual violence (SV) and dating violence (DV) on college campuses, yet there have been no experimental evaluations to date comparing such programs with other programs. The objective of the current study was to test whether a bystander program was better than a traditional psychoeducation violence prevention program. Method: We present an exploratory experimental evaluation of a bystander prevention program compared with a traditional psychoeducation program. Results: Both programs improved rape myth acceptance and knowledge scores. There was also a trend suggesting the bystander group improved in bystander efficacy over time, with a slight decrease in bystander efficacy for the traditional psychoeducation group. Conclusions: Current findings suggest that the modified bystander program may be an effective prevention program; however, it is unclear whether it is superior to other approaches.