Rachael Sharman

Research shows a sharp increase in political polarization over the last two decades. While right-wing authoritarianism has received considerable academic attention, the psychological mechanisms of left-wing authoritarianism remain under-explored. This study used structural equation modeling to empirically test the factors that influence left-wing authoritarianism and its relationship with features of identity politics and psychological distress. Moral foundations theory was used to assess the moral concerns underlying left-wing authoritarianism. Participants from English-speaking countries (52.4% female, aged 18 to 85 years old) were recruited from various political groups on social media. The final sample (N = 299) voluntarily completed an online survey measuring left-wing authoritarianism, psychological distress, moral concerns, need for cognitive closure, and emotional reactivity. The final model explained 53% of the variance in left-wing authoritarianism and demonstrated that psychological distress indirectly affects left-wing authoritarianism through perceived grievance. However, perceived grievance had the strongest direct impact, providing support for the premise that perceived grievance, a feature of identity politics, constitutes a strong positive predictor of left-wing authoritarianism. Additionally, non-hypothesized mediating effects were observed from perceived grievance to the individualizing foundations and left-wing authoritarianism.

Sexual health, including sexual pleasure, is fundamental to holistic health and well-being, and is considered an area of priority health in Australia. Despite the importance of sexual functioning, women experience significant gaps in sexual well-being compared to men and often do not seek medical care or treatment. Health practitioners are central to the identification and treatment of sexual dysfunction, including fostering sexual well-being for patients. Despite this, minimal research has explored health practitioners' experiences in treating reports of unpleasant sex. This study aimed to explore health practitioners' experiences, responses, and confidence in treating patients presenting for unpleasant sexual experiences. An online, mixed-methods survey was completed by 96 participants. Thematic analysis identified 11 core themes. These themes included five patient centred themes (health risks, diverse sex acts, painful vaginal intercourse, relationship breakdown and violence, unwanted sex) and six health practitioner centred themes (communication and counselling, what is normal, ongoing care and follow up, emotional response, limited practical training, and highly prevalent). Participants described a complex sexual health landscape, with social contexts impacting women's sexual experiences and engagement in treatment. Additionally, health practitioners reported the need for a biopsychosocial approach to understanding and responding to unpleasant sexual experiences for patients, while simultaneously reporting limited education in this area. Findings reflect the need for health practitioners to be cognisant of matters related to sexual function, consent, coercion, client engagement, and treatment pathways, identifying a need for greater education and holistic approaches to sexual healthcare across medical settings.Sexual health, including sexual pleasure, is fundamental to holistic health and well-being, and is considered an area of priority health in Australia. Despite the importance of sexual functioning, women experience significant gaps in sexual well-being compared to men and often do not seek medical care or treatment. Health practitioners are central to the identification and treatment of sexual dysfunction, including fostering sexual well-being for patients. Despite this, minimal research has explored health practitioners' experiences in treating reports of unpleasant sex. This study aimed to explore health practitioners' experiences, responses, and confidence in treating patients presenting for unpleasant sexual experiences. An online, mixed-methods survey was completed by 96 participants. Thematic analysis identified 11 core themes. These themes included five patient centred themes (health risks, diverse sex acts, painful vaginal intercourse, relationship breakdown and violence, unwanted sex) and six health practitioner centred themes (communication and counselling, what is normal, ongoing care and follow up, emotional response, limited practical training, and highly prevalent). Participants described a complex sexual health landscape, with social contexts impacting women's sexual experiences and engagement in treatment. Additionally, health practitioners reported the need for a biopsychosocial approach to understanding and responding to unpleasant sexual experiences for patients, while simultaneously reporting limited education in this area. Findings reflect the need for health practitioners to be cognisant of matters related to sexual function, consent, coercion, client engagement, and treatment pathways, identifying a need for greater education and holistic approaches to sexual healthcare across medical settings.

A proportion of the Australian public remains sceptical about the reality of climate change, its causes, impacts and the need for mitigatory action. To date, scepticism research largely focuses on factors highly resistant to change, particularly socio-demographic and value factors. This mixed-methods study investigated whether more malleable psychological factors: locus of control; information processing style; and anti-reflexivity, predicted climate change scepticism above and beyond socio-demographic and value factors. A sample of 390 participants (Mean age = 41.31, standard deviation = 18.72; 230 male) completed an electronic survey. Using hierarchical regression, trust in forces of anti-reflexivity and external locus of control predicted impact scepticism. Decreased trust in forces of reflexivity also predicted attribution and impact scepticism. Finally, external locus of control predicted response scepticism. Key qualitative themes identified were, trust in alternative science; mistrust of climate science; belief in natural cycles; predictions not becoming reality; and ulterior motives of interested parties.

Objective:
Sexual health problems can be pertinent to psychological function/diagnosis and psychologists are key players in treatment and education regarding sexual health. Despite this, little evidence exists to determine if sexual dysfunction is explored during routine client intake interviews, when the client does not present with relationship difficulties, or from a specialist referral for sexual dysfunction. We aimed to explore psychologists’ decision-making around questioning of client sexual functioning through the lens of the Dual-Processing Model.

Method:
This qualitative study assessed 16 registered psychologists working within Australia who answered an online questionnaire around their beliefs and clinical experiences of sexual health practice.

Results:
Data was analysed using thematic analysis, revealing multiple themes favouring sexual health investigation. Main themes included risk management, relevance to clinical presentations, scope of practice, positive beliefs about asking, and competency beliefs. Primary barriers against sexual health investigation included perceived incompetence, organisational constraints, concerns around damaging rapport, sexual health not being relevant to the client’s needs, and perceptions around unethical practice.

Conclusions:
This paper challenged the applicability of the Dual Processing Model to psychological decision-making, and suggested personal biases influence Australian psychologists’ sexual health questioning.

Besides seeking social support, connecting with bereaved others, and maintaining relationships with the deceased, bereaved Facebook users may express their grief on Facebook to reduce their death anxiety. Notably, research has not yet explored the psychological outcomes of expressing grief on Facebook. This study undertook quantitative analysis of survey data from an initial community sample of 409 bereaved Facebook users (77.8% survey completion rate, n= 312; Mage = 34.46, SD = 12.38; 90% women) to ascertain whether expressions of grief on Facebook had negative psychological outcomes, and whether terror management theory (TMT) provided an appropriate lens for understanding Facebook grief expressions (FBGE). The aims of this study were three-fold: to clarify rates at which Facebook profiles of deceased users are deactivated, memorialized, unchanged, or managed; frequency and types of FBGE; and prevalence of/visitation to commemorative groups. Results-though insufficient to support TMT as an explanatory theoretical framework for FBGE-indicated that individuals who participated in FBGE reported higher anxiety and stress compared to bereaved individuals who did not express their grief on Facebook. Results provide a useful starting point for future research regarding online grieving behaviors and psychological wellbeing.

The Brief COPE is a widely used instrument to measure coping behaviours. However, the number of factors can vary across populations and the contexts in which they are utilised, raising concerns about the generalisability of the coping subscales from one study to another. The current study used participants who had experienced the Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand or the Queensland floods in Australia (N = 674), randomly divided into two equal groups. First, using principal components analysis (PCA), the following four coping factors were identified and explained 49% of the variance: problem-focused, emotion-focused, dysfunctional, and religious coping. Using the second group of participants, this factor structure was compared with previously published factor structures for the Brief COPE using confirmatory factor analysis and our disaster-affected sample. Using the published item parcels and factors, the best fit for our sample was the factors identified in our initial PCA, rather than that of other researchers, with some configurations having a poor fit or being inadmissible. Results indicate that the structure and item loadings for the Brief COPE do not generalise between studies and similarly named factors may include different items. Therefore, researchers should be mindful of the potential inconsistencies with the Brief COPE and the interpretation of coping behaviours across populations and contexts.

The focus of this qualitative study was on separated mother’s (N = 36) lived experiences of mothering in the context of post separation family violence and the Australian family law system. Thematic analysis of interviews was guided by a theoretical framework, this being the Three Planets Model. Analysis of the data resulted in two themes relating to mothering being identified. Firstly, that women demonstrated a mode of protecting rather than parenting indicating that mothering was often undertaken in isolation and fear, within an adversarial family law system, and in the presence of a perpetrator of family violence. The second theme related to the aftermath of separation and the long dark shadow cast by family violence. After having left a controlling and violent relationship, separated mothers reported that there was no opportunity to recover, nor to healthily extricate themselves from family violence, which resulted in cumulative harm not only for their wellbeing but also for their children.

Research evidence has shown that in childhood, a secure attachment to a reliable caregiver is important for future mental health and well-being. The theoretical and research basis for attachment theory continues to grow. As attachment theory has become more widely adopted there are challenges and opportunities both theoretically and in terms of its clinical use. Disordered attachment has been linked to psychopathology including internalising and externalising disorders. However, there are ongoing implications for researchers and clinicians as only the most extreme forms of attachment disorders are included in the current diagnostic systems. A wide range of reliable and validated observational assessments to classify attachment are available. Owing to the growing popularity of attachment-based interventions there is a need to develop assessments which are practical for use in clinical settings. The use of attachment-based parenting interventions in clinical settings is increasing as they have been found to be effective and relevant. This growth presents opportunities to further refine these interventions, so they are easy to deliver in clinical practice and tailored to different populations. Attachment-based interventions are being widely used in Australia, and this has led to a need to understand and adapt the theory, assessments, and interventions to this context. Attachment-based interventions demonstrate the importance of relationships and provide an important tool to support children and families. For psychologists here in Australia there are many opportunities to develop measures and interventions based on attachment theory that fit into the Australia context.

Objective: Sport-related concussion (SRC) is a multi-faceted issue that should be considered in context, with consideration for the biological, psychological, and sociocultural (i.e., biopsychosocial) factors which influence the incidence of injury in contact sports such as rugby union (rugby). Through the concurrent assessment of individual variables within a multi-measure cross-sectional research design, the current study aimed to contextualise the individual factors associated with SRC in male junior (ages 11-17 years) rugby. Method: Self-and parent-report measures were used to assess athletes' psychological and behavioural functioning. Sociocultural influences were considered in terms of duration of participation, involvement of immediate family, and participation in other sports. Biological measures included athlete age, BMI, aerobic fitness, and in-utero testosterone exposure (2D:4D). Results: Athlete age was positively correlated with concussion incidence, with adolescent (14-17-year-old) athletes 1.4 times more likely to report a history of SRC than pre-adolescent (11-13-year-old) athletes. Multi-sport participation and immediate family participation were found to positively predict SRC incidence. No psychological measures were identified as significant correlates to concussive injury, however, this may be due to the homogeneity of the sample scores. Conclusions: The concurrent assessment of biopsychosocial factors associated with SRC presents the opportunity for a comprehensive analysis of the injury context. The findings from this study suggest that SRC in junior rugby cannot be predicted using individual variables. Future research directions are discussed.