This study assessed personal attitudes and perceptions of societal attitudes toward condom carriers, with a focus on the role of gender. Although prior research suggests that sexually active women in society are looked down upon, there has been little investigation as to whether this view remains pertinent today, and whether this remains the case at the individual—as opposed to societal—level. Participants were female undergraduate students who read vignettes describing either a male or female condom carrier. They then rated the condom carrier’s character and provided estimates of how their peers would rate the same individual. The young women in our sample did not negatively judge female condom carriers; in fact, they viewed a female condom carrier more favourably than a male condom carrier. Similarly, they endorsed beliefs that other women in society (i.e., their female peers) would not differently rate a condom carrier based on gender. However, women believed that their male peers would be significantly more critical of a female, as opposed to a male, condom carrier. The relation to ambivalent sexism is discussed, as well as the implications that these findings may have on an individual’s own beliefs and practices surrounding condom use.

BackgroundMotivation and engagement are important factors associated with therapeutic outcomes in cognitive training for schizophrenia. The goals of the present report were to examine relations between objective treatment engagement (number of sessions attended, amount of homework completed) and self-reported motivation (intrinsic motivation and perceived competence to complete cognitive training) with neurocognitive and functional outcomes from cognitive training.MethodsData from a clinical trial comparing two cognitive training approaches in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders were utilized in the current report (n = 38). Relations were examined between baseline intrinsic motivation, perceived competence, homework completion, and session attendance with improvements in neurocognition, functional competence, and community functioning.ResultsNumber of sessions attended (r = 0.38) and time doing homework (r = 0.51) were significantly associated with improvements in neurocognition. Homework completion was associated with change in community functioning at a trend-level (r = 0.30). Older age was associated with greater treatment engagement (β = 0.37) and male biological sex was associated with greater self-reported motivation (β = 0.43). Homework completion significantly mediated the relationship between session attendance and neurocognitive treatment outcomes.ConclusionsObjective measures of treatment engagement were better predictors of treatment outcomes than subjective measures of motivation. Homework completion was most strongly related to treatment outcomes and mediated the relationship between session attendance and treatment outcomes, suggesting continued engagement with cognitive stimulation may be an especially important component of cognitive remediation programs. Future research should examine methods to improve homework completion and session attendance to maximize therapeutic outcomes.

No abstract