Relationships Between University Students’ Gender and Physical Activity (PA) and Their Exercise Self-Schemas, Processing of PA-Related Information, and PA Decision-Making

In the current study, we investigated the effects of gender and regular physical activity (PA) on PA decision-making and speed of information processing. We enrolled 110 university students ( Mage = 20.91, SD =2.28 years) in an experiment involving two tasks and a questionnaire. One of the two tasks assessed how much participants agreed with presented PA words and phrases and the other task predicted behavior and responses to future situations. We collected and measured the participants’ choices and the time they took to make them. The questionnaire, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), consisted of exercise self-schema and PA questions. We conducted a 2 (gender: male or female) ×2 (regular PA or not) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and found statistically significant differences between variables as a function of participants’ gender (λ = .66, p < .001) and regular PA engagement (λ = .51, p < .001). In a regression analysis, we also found gender differences [males showed relationships between agreement with PA information and information processing speed for decisions on future behavior ( R 2 = .31, F = 12.50); females showed relationships between their exercise self-schema ( R 2 = .26, F = 18.18) and regular PA such that, in the non-regular PA group, exercise self-schema was related to reaction time in making decisions on future behavior ( R 2 = .29, F = 11.23), and in the regular PA group, agreement with PA information was related to reaction time for PA-related words, and agreement with non-PA information ( R 2 = .29, F = 8.91)]. These results highlight the need to consider participant characteristics when designing exercise interventions, and we present supplementary data regarding exercise self-schemas, decision-making, and the speed of processing PA information.

Sex/gender differences in interactions between sexual self-schema and monosexual vs. bisexual attractions

Sexual self-schema (SSS) – the cognitive frameworks that organize information about one’s own sexuality – are known to guide sexual attitudes and behaviors, and are thus likely to interact with the kinds of people to whom one is attracted (i.e., heterosexual, same-sex/gender, monosexual or bisexual patterns of attraction). Extending prior work highlighting differences in SSS between discrete sexual orientation identity groups, we investigated associations between multiple aspects of SSS and attraction patterns among 602 young adults with a range of sexual orientations. Generally, there were more similarities than differences in SSS across individuals with monosexual vs. bisexual patterns of attraction. However, a few significant effects emerged, with significant differences across sex/gender. For women, the greatest differences were seen between romantic self-schema in women with asexual vs. non-asexual patterns of attractions, while women with bisexual attractions were relatively similar to those with monosexual attractions (either exclusively heterosexual or same-sex/gender attracted). For men, however, the greatest differences were seen between open/liberal self-schema in exclusively same-sex/gender attracted men vs. either bisexual or heterosexually attracted men. Broadly, these findings point to subtle sex/gender differences in how bisexual attractions interact with one’s conceptualization of one’s sexual self. Also, a non-trivial portion (22%) of participants reported attractions to gender non-binary people, and these attractions significantly predicted different SSS, suggesting the need to measure attractions outside of the gender binary.

Coming Out, Distress and Identity Threat in Gay Men in the UK

Introduction Coming out as gay can be a psychologically challenging event, and recall of a negative coming out experience can initiate subsequent identity changes in gay men. We tested whether baseline levels of identity resilience and internalized homonegativity moderate these effects. Methods A between-participant experimental study, with an ethnically diverse sample of 333 gay men in the United Kingdom (UK), examined levels of contemporaneous identity threat of reflecting upon recollections of either a coming out experience that had a negative or a stabilizing effect on self-schema. Data were collected in 2020 and analyzed using multiple regression and path analysis. Results Path analysis showed that a model predicting level of identity threat after recall of a negative coming out experience fitted the data well. Identity resilience was negatively correlated with internalized homonegativity and distress during memory recall. Both distress and homonegativity correlated positively with identity threat. The relationship between recalling a negative coming out experience and distress was mediated by the perceived typicality of the recalled experience. Conclusions Through its effects on distress and internalized homonegativity, identity resilience reduces the threatening effect of recollecting a negative coming out experience upon contemporary identity. Policy Implications Offering gay men awareness of the social and psychological routes to raising identity resilience may be beneficial in reducing internalized homonegativity and the ongoing effects of remembered negative coming out experiences.

Sexuality in Different Phases of the Transition to Parenthood

The transition to parenthood brings changes in many areas of life, including the area of sexuality. The aim of this study was to examine differences in the frequency of sexual intercourse, sexual satisfaction and the sexual self-schema of participants in different stages of their transition to parenthood. The study involved men and women without children, those who were expecting their first child, and parents of six-month-old and one-year-old children (N = 650). The results showed that participants in different stages of transition to parenthood differed in the frequency of sexual intercourse, but not in their sexual satisfaction and sexual self-schema. Men and women without children and parents of one-year-olds reported more frequent sexual intercourse than those expecting their first child and parents of six-month-old children, although these differences were statistically significant only in the female sample. Men, compared to women, reported more frequent sexual intercourse and greater sexual satisfaction. The research results demonstrate the complexity of sexual functioning during the transition to parenthood and can be applied in providing psychosocial support during this period of life.

Association Between OLIG2 Gene SNP rs1059004 and Negative Self-Schema Constructing Trait Factors Underlying Susceptibility to Depression

Recent evidence has indicated that the disruption of oligodendrocytes may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression. Genetic factors are likely to affect trait factors, such as characteristics, rather than state factors, such as depressive symptoms. Previously, a negative self-schema had been proposed as the major characteristic of constructing trait factors underlying susceptibility to depression. Thus, the association between a negative self-schema and the functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1059004 in the OLIG2 gene, which influences OLIG2 gene expression, white matter integrity, and cerebral blood flow, was evaluated. A total of 546 healthy subjects were subjected to genotype and psychological evaluation using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Brief Core Schema Scale (BCSS). The rs1059004 SNP was found to be associated with the self-schema subscales of the BCSS and scores on the BDI-II in an allele dose-dependent manner, and to have a predictive impact on depressive symptoms via a negative-self schema. The results suggest the involvement of a genetic factor regulating oligodendrocyte function in generating a negative-self schema as a trait factor underlying susceptibility to depression.