Previous researchers have used the attitudes toward lesbians and gay men (ATLG) scale (Herek, 1988) and reported their own reliability coefficients and validity measures, but research on this subject is scarce in Chile. In order to determine if ATLG scale was a reliable and valid instrument in our country, we adapted and examined the psychometrics properties using a sample composed of 142 psychology and economics undergraduate students. This study found the ATLG scale to be reliable (a = .90) and valid for the Chilean population and is a recommended instrument for measuring attitudes toward gay men and lesbians.

Heart rate variability (HRV) in women has been related independently to endogenous sex hormones, hormone replacement therapy, menopause, menstrual cycle, body mass index (BMI), and physical conditioning. However, the joint influence of all these factors has not been reported. The present study describes the relation between circadian variation HRV and assesses its association with BMI, age, and menstrual cycle in healthy young women. A multivariable analysis was performed to estimate the predictive variables involved in SDNN, pNN50, and rMSSD profile, using the classification and regression tree (CART) and the logistic regression models. It was found that the first predictive variable was age, which divided women in two groups: >29.5 years old and <29.5 years old. In the case of the SDNN, the second predictive variable was BMI; the highest values were observed in women younger than 23 years old, with a BMI less than 19.82 kg/m2 and during the follicular phase of her menstrual cycle. For pNN50 and rMSSD the second predictive variable was menstrual cycle for women younger than 29.5 years old. Thus, in this group of women, age was a major determinant of cardiac autonomic nervous modulation followed by the BMI. HRV may be better understood using a multivariable analysis that could mimic physiological conditions.

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La homofobia persiste en muchas sociedades occidentales, incluida la chilena. Solo recientemente se han desarrollado estudios psicosociales que evalúan la homofobia y su impacto sobre la vida de las minorías sexuales. En este artículo se exponen los hallazgos más recientes relativos al tema. Asimismo, este artículo constituye un llamado a investigar el prejuicio y sus efectos en las minorías sexuales desde una perspectiva más comprehensiva y no desde una postura individualista, que considera la homosexualidad como un "problema" y no atiende a la función social del prejuicio, esto es, sostener y legitimar el dominio de unos grupos sobre otros.Palabras clave: homofobia, calidad de vida, psicosocial, Chile Homophobia still exists in many Western societies, including the Chilean one. Only recently psychosocial studies have been conducted to assess homophobia and its impact on the life of sexual minorities. This paper deals with the latest findings on this issue. Moreover, the paper is a call for studying prejudice and its effects on sexual minorities from a more comprehensive perspective, not from an individualistic standpoint that considers homosexuality as a "problem", without paying attention to the social function of prejudice, that is, sustain and legitimize the dominance of some groups over others.Keywords: homophobia, quality of life, psychosocial, Chile Los Cambios Socioculturales en el Mundo Occidental y en ChileEn el mundo occidental, incluida América Latina, la articulación particular de las relaciones entre los géneros ha generado una histórica desigualdad entre hombres y mujeres, divergencia que ha beneficiado preponderantemente a los hombres heterosexuales (Barrientos, 2003;Viveros, 2001). No obstante, según diversos autores (Bozon, 2001;Connell, 2002; HaavioMannila, Kontula & Rotkirch, 2002;Inglehart & Baker, 2000;Weeks, 1993), la llegada de transformaciones socioculturales globales habría contribuido a modificar progresivamente las normas y valores de las sociedades occidentales en el sentido de un mayor individualismo, equidad en las relaciones entre géneros y un aumento de los valores seculares y auto-expresivos (Barrientos, 2003). Estas mutaciones sociales y culturales están generando: (a) una progresiva secularización del sexo, (b) una liberalización de las actitudes sexuales y un mayor énfasis en los derechos sexuales, (c) un incremento de la diversidad de las formas de vida doméstica y (d) una orientación de la sexualidad hacia el hedonismo, el placer y la recreación (Christopher & Sprecher, 2000;Haavio-Mannila et al., 2002).Sin embargo, persiste un conjunto de inequidades que afectan las relaciones de género y que en América Latina son sostenidas por el machismo y el marianismo (Cianelli, Ferrer & Jaime Barrientos Delgado y Manuel Cárdenas Castro, Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile.Este artículo forma parte del Proyecto FONDECYT 1110423 "Homofobia y efectos psicosociales en la calidad de vida de homosexuales en Chile: hacia un modelo comprensivo".La corre...

Particulate air pollution has been related with cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality. Recent studies have shown that an increase in particulate matter (PM) 2.5 ambient concentrations was associated with a decrease in heart rate variability (HRV) in the elderly with cardiovascular conditions, which could increase the risk of death. In order to assess if this association could also be observed in young adults, we studied 40 young healthy residents of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) who underwent 13 h Holter electrocardiographic and PM 2.5 personal monitoring. HRV was evaluated in time domain: the standard deviation of normal RR intervals (SDNN) and the percentage of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals larger than 50 ms (pNN50). In multivariate analysis with mixed effects models, a significant negative association of pNN50 with PM 2.5 accumulative exposure was found. An increase in 30 mg/m 3 of the average PM 2.5 personal exposure in the previous 2 h decreased the pNN50 in 0.08% (P ¼ 0.01). This observation revealed an acute effect related to environmental exposure to PM 2.5 with regard to HRV in normal youngsters. The long-term health consequences of this association in young healthy adults remain to be clarified.