BACKGROUND HIV-1 prevalence typically rises more rapidly at young ages in women than in men in sub-Saharan Africa. Greater susceptibility to infection on exposure in women is believed to be a contributory factor as is greater exposure to previously infected sexual partners of the opposite sex. We investigated the latter hypothesis using data from a field study in rural Manicaland, Zimbabwe. M...

Telomeres play a fundamental role in the protection of chromosomal DNA and in the regulation of cellular senescence. Recent work in human epidemiology and evolutionary ecology suggests adult telomere length (TL) may reflect past physiological stress and predict subsequent morbidity and mortality, independent of chronological age.Several different methods have been developed to measure TL, each ...

Associations between observed mother–adolescent interactions during a conflict task and adolescents’ information management strategies were examined in 108 primarily middle class, European-American adolescents (M = 13.80 years, SD = 1.52) and their mothers. Teens who communicated more clearly disclosed more about personal and multifaceted activities, lied less about personal activities, and eng...

This preliminary study examined the relationship between sex-role stereotypes of women and beliefs in rape myths among adolescents. A 35-item survey was completed by 211 female and males in eighth grade health classes. Findings indicate both females and males accept some rape myths and sex-role stereotyping of women. The data also indicated an association between belief in rape myths and sex-ro...

This preliminary study applied Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) to the sexual bullying of high school girls by boys. Seventy-five Year 9 boys responded to vignettes portraying sexual bullying in which gender was a more or a less salient feature of the social context described. As predicted, boys were more likely to engage in sexual bullying when gender was more salient. Masculine sex role was n...

Uganda has been hailed as a success story in the fight against HIV that has seen a reversal in prevalence from a peak of 15% in 1991 to about 6.5% currently Since 1992, the largest and most consistent declines in HIV have occurred among the 15-19-year-olds. While many studies have examined how key behavior changes (Abstinence, Be faithful and Condom use) have contributed to the decline in HIV p...

The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 laid out a bold, clear, and comprehensive definition of reproductive health and called for nations to meet the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. In the context of the ongoing review of the International Conference on Population and...

INTRODUCTION The leading method for prediction of growth hormone (GH) therapy effectiveness are multiple linear regression (MLR) models. Best of our knowledge, we are the first to apply artificial neural networks (ANN) to solve this problem. For ANN there is no necessity to assume the functions linking independent and dependent variables. The aim of study is to compare ANN and MLR models of GH ...

CONTEXT Fostering conventional goals is a key component of pregnancy prevention interventions for teenagers. However, research has not shown whether having goals independently influences sexual behavior, or whether the perception that pregnancy represents an impediment to achieving goals mediates any association. METHODS In 1999-2001, a racially mixed group of 351 sexually experienced female ...

BACKGROUND Prevalence rates of child maltreatment (CM) can differ substantially between countries and ethnicities. Reasons, however, are complex and not sufficiently understood. METHOD This epidemiological study examined prevalence and risk factors of various types of CM in a population-based representative sample of native and immigrant adolescents in Switzerland (N = 6,787). RESULTS The p...