Rebecca L Collins
Biographic Data
| ID | 103620 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rebecca L Collins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rebecca L |
| FAMILY NAME | Collins |
| SIGNATURE | COLLINS R L |
| AFFILIATIONS | RAND Corporation |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2459-2306 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 69 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 479 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 68 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Is Tickling a Reinforcer for Adult Rats
You are looked upon as a luxury tool’: Young Tanzanian women’s perception of community norms supporting partner violence during transactional sex ( kudanga )
a Swahili street term for a type of transactional sex practised in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Rooted in economic and gender disparity, transactional sex increases adolescent girls' and young women's vulnerability to HIV and gender-based violence. We sought to understand perceived community attitudes about kudanga, and how the internalisation of norms surrounding gender-based violence relate to the experiences of young women who practise kudanga. Us…
Emerging adults’ social media engagement & alcohol misuse: A multidimensional, person-centered analysis of risk
WhatsApp-propriate? Exploring "WhatsApp" as a Tool for Research Among Ghanaian Immigrants in the United States
Exploring differences in perceptions of gentrification, neighborhood satisfaction, social cohesion, and health among residents of two predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighborhoods (n = 60)
These findings suggest that while gentrification can bring much needed improvements to neighborhoods, it can also bring other disruptive changes that affect the health and wellbeing of existing residents
Police Bias and Low Relatability and Diet Quality: Examining the Importance of Psychosocial Factors in Predominantly Black Communities
How police bias and low relatability may contribute to poor dietary quality is poorly understood. In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from 2021 from a cohort of n = 724 adults living in predominantly Black communities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; these adults were mostly Black (90.6%), low-income (median household income $17,500), and women (79.3%). We estimated direct and indirect paths between police mistrust and dietary quality (me…
Changes in psychosocial wellbeing over a five-year period in two predominantly Black Pittsburgh neighbourhoods: A comparison between gentrifying and non-gentrifying census tracts
Gentrification often leads to changes within urban neighbourhoods. While redevelopment and investment may improve the built environment in gentrifying neighbourhoods, there may be disruptive impacts that affect health and wellbeing for existing residents. A growing body of literature explores the impact of gentrification on the psychosocial wellbeing of residents. This study sought to understand gentrification’s effects on three aspects of psycho…
Disparities in Use/Misuse of Specific Illicit and Prescription Drugs among Sexual Minority Adults in a National Sample
Background: Compared to heterosexual adults, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults have higher rates of any illicit drug use and any prescription drug misuse, yet disparities regarding specific drugs remain poorly characterized. Methods: We examined disparities by sexual identity and sex for 8 illicit and prescription drugs using 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data. Outcomes included past-year use/misuse of cocaine/crack, hall…
Do social isolation and neighborhood walkability influence relationships between Covid-19 experiences and wellbeing in predominantly Black urban areas
Multi-dimensional Profiles of Risk and Their Association with Obesity-Severity in Low-Income Black Women
Violent crime, police presence and poor sleep in two low-income urban predominantly Black American neighbourhoods
Objective To examine violent crime in relation to sleep and explore pathways, including psychological distress, safety perceptions and perceived police presence, that may account for associations. Methods In 2018, 515 predominantly Black American (94%) adults (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA) provided survey data: actigraphy-assessed sleep duration and wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO). We estimated pathways from violent crime (2016–2018) to sle…
Food Insecurity in a Low-Income, Predominantly African American Cohort Following the Covid-19 Pandemic
Objectives. To examine the impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on food insecurity among a predominantly African American cohort residing in low-income racially isolated neighborhoods. Methods. Residents of 2 low-income African American food desert neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were surveyed from March 23 to May 22, 2020, drawing on a longitudinal cohort (n = 605) previously followed from 2011 to 2018. We examined longitudinal trends in food…
Social Comparison, Judgment, and Behavior
This edited volume presents both classic and contemporary conceptual, empirical, and applied perspectives on the role of comparisons with other people—a core aspect of social life—that have implications for the self-concept, opinions, subjective and physical well-being, conformity, decision-making, group behavior, education, and social movements. The volume is comprised of original chapters, authored by noted experts, divided into three sections:…
An audit tool for longitudinal assessment of the health-related characteristics of urban neighborhoods: Implementation methods and reliability results
In this paper, we have described implementation methods, reliability results and lessons learned to inform future studies of change. We found the use of consistent methods allowed us to conduct reliable, replicable longitudinal assessments of the environment. Items that did not exhibit stability are less useful for detecting real change over time. Overall, the PHRESH direct observation tool is an effective and practical instrument to detect chang…
Do investments in low-income neighborhoods produce objective change in health-related neighborhood conditions
Improved Street Walkability, Incivilities, and Esthetics Are Associated with Greater Park Use in Two Low-Income Neighborhoods
Does state self‐control depletion predict relationship functioning and partner aggression? An ecological momentary assessment study of community couples
Intimate relationship functioning depends upon the ability to accommodate one's partner and to inhibit retaliatory and aggressive impulses when disagreements arise. However, accommodation and inhibition may be difficult when self‐control strength is weak or depleted by prior exertion of self‐control. The present study considered whether state self‐control depletion prospectively predicts male and female self‐reports of anger with partner and argu…
Social Marketing of Mental Health Treatment: California’s Mental Illness Stigma Reduction Campaign
Objectives. To understand the processes involved in effective social marketing of mental health treatment. Methods. California adults experiencing symptoms of probable mental illness were surveyed in 2014 and 2016 during a major stigma reduction campaign (n = 1954). Cross-sectional associations of campaign exposure with stigma, treatment overall, and 2 stages of treatment seeking (perceiving a need for treatment and use conditional on perceiving …
Medicare Beneficiaries With a Specialist as Their Personal Doctor Report Better Experiences With Care
BACKGROUND: Health plans often require that patients have a personal doctor. Older adults rely on specialists for much of their care and may use a specialist in this role, but little is known about how many or which Medicare beneficiaries use specialists as their personal doctor and how their care experiences differ from others'. OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence and characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries with a specialist as a personal doc…
Disparities in substance use behaviors and disorders among adult sexual minorities by age, gender, and sexual identity
Feasibility and acceptability of text messaging to assess daily substance use and sexual behaviors among urban emerging adults
Participants in this urban, resource-constrained sample found the daily text message methodology acceptable for reporting sensitive information. With rapid advancements in technologies and increased accessibility, text messaging remains a promising methodology for the study of daily processes in substance use and HIV risk behaviors. Keywords: text messaging; assessment; emerging adults; substance use; risky sex; mobile technology
Does opening a supermarket in a food desert change the food environment
What Matters Most to Whom: Racial, Ethnic, and Language Differences in the Health Care Experiences Most Important to Patients
BACKGROUND: Some aspects of patient experience are more strongly related to overall ratings of care than others, reflecting their importance to patients. However, little is known about whether the importance of different aspects of this experience differs across subgroups. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the aspects of health care most important to patients differ according to patient race, ethnicity, and language preference. RESEARCH DESIGN: In…
Diet And Perceptions Change With Supermarket Introduction In A Food Desert, But Not Because Of Supermarket Use
Placing full-service supermarkets in food deserts--areas with limited access to healthy food--has been promoted as a way to reduce inequalities in access to healthy food, improve diet, and reduce the risk of obesity. However, previous studies provide scant evidence of such impacts. We surveyed households in two Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, neighborhoods in 2011 and 2014, one of which received a new supermarket in 2013. Comparing trends in the two ne…
Healthy food access for urban food desert residents: Examination of the food environment, food purchasing practices, diet and BMI
Objective To provide a richer understanding of food access and purchasing practices among US urban food desert residents and their association with diet and BMI. Design Data on food purchasing practices, dietary intake, height and weight from the primary food shopper in randomly selected households ( n 1372) were collected. Audits of all neighbourhood food stores ( n 24) and the most-frequented stores outside the neighbourhood ( n 16) were conduc…
Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go
For better or worse: The impact of upward social comparison on self-evaluations
Upward social comparison is generally regarded as ego deflating, yet people often compare themselves with those whose abilities and attributes are better than their own. Upward comparison provides useful information, which may partially account for this behavior. Furthermore, it is proposed that upw
The affective consequences of social comparison: Either direction has its ups and downs
Research on social comparison processes has assumed that a comparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present two studies proposed and found that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study …
Self-esteem and direct versus indirect forms of self-enhancement
Two studies explored the relation between self-esteem and self-enhancement biases. It was proposed that people with high self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is directly linked to positive identities and outcomes, whereas people with low self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is indirectly linked to positive identities and outcomes. To test the hypothesis, we examined group favoritism as a f…
The Role of Emotion in Social Support Provision: Gender, Empathy and Expressions of Distress
Two studies examined the association between emotion-related factors and intentions to provide social support to a distressed peer. In both studies, providers' gender and their level of dispositional empathy were related to anticipated support provision. Women and persons high in trait empathy were more supportive than men and persons low in trait empathy. Consistent with predictions, the gender effect was largely mediated by that of empathy. Stu…
Women's Descriptions of Drinking in Bars: Reasons and Risks
Does opening a supermarket in a food desert change the food environment
Relationships between adolescent sexual outcomes and exposure to sex in media: Robustness to propensity-based analysis
Adolescent sexual health is a substantial problem in the U.S., and two recent studies have linked adolescent sexual behavior and/or outcomes to youths' exposure to sex in the media. Both studies had longitudinal survey designs and used covariate-adjusted regression analysis. Steinberg and Monahan (2010) reanalyzed data from one of these studies (Brown et al., 2006) using a propensity-score approach, arguing that this method better addresses the p…
The vividness effect: Elusive or illusory
Sex Without Disclosure of Positive HIV Serostatus in a US Probability Sample of Persons Receiving Medical Care for HIV Infection
Objectives. We estimated the proportion of HIV-positive adults who have any sexual contact without disclosure and the proportion of their sexual partnerships that involve unprotected sex without disclosure. Methods. We drew participants from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (n = 1421). Interviews assessed disclosure and sexual activities with up to 5 recent partners. Results. Overall, 42% of the gay or bisexual men, 19% of the heterose…
Sexual Assault Risks Among Gay and Bisexual Men
The goal of this study was to examine lifetime patterns of sexual assault and associated risks among a purposive sample of gay and bisexual men (N = 183; 18 to 35 years old, M = 24.3). Cross-sectional data were collected via written, self-administered questionnaires and face-to-face, event-based qualitative interviews. Alcohol severity scores indicated high rates of hazardous drinking (53.0%) and possible dependence (14.2%) among participants. On…
Are Adolescent Substance Users Less Satisfied with Life as Young Adults and if so, Why
Alcohol consumption and the occurrence and severity of aggression: An event‐based analysis of male to male barroom violence
Although a considerable body of experimental research supports the contention that alcohol facilitates aggression, some investigators have argued that these findings cannot be generalized to actual occurrences of aggression. Moreover, controversy continues concerning whether expectancies supporting alcohol's influence on aggression moderate the relationship. The present study is an event‐based examination of the relationship between alcohol consu…
Coping, Conflictual Social Interactions, Social Support, and Mood Among HIV‐Infected Persons
This study considers the interrelationships among coping, conflictual social interactions, and social support, as well as their combined associations with positive and negative mood. Research has shown that each of these variables affects adjustment to stressful circumstances. Few studies, however, examine this full set of variables simultaneously. One hundred forty HIV‐infected persons completed a questionnaire containing measures of coping, soc…
Substance Use and Early Marriage
Prior work indicates that substance use is related to adolescent marriage. We describe two different processes that may account for this relationship and hypothesize patterns of association that would be consistent or inconsistent with each. Using data from a study that followed west coast youth from 7th grade to young adulthood (N = 3,324), we assessed the effects of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in 7th and 10th grade on the probability …
Religiosity, Denominational Affiliation, and Sexual Behaviors Among People With HIV in the United States
This study sought to describe religiosity and denominational affiliation among the U.S. population living with HIV and to test whether either is associated with HIV-related sexual risk behaviors. A nationally representative sample of 1,421 people in care for HIV, 932 of whom reported recent sexual activity, was utilized. Religiosity was associated with fewer sexual partners and a lower likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex and in high-risk se…
Social cognitive processes mediating the relationship between exposure to television's sexual content and adolescents' sexual behavior
This study used multiple-group structural equation modeling to test a model explaining the association between exposure to televised sexual content and initiation of intercourse among an ethnically diverse national sample of 1,292 adolescents. The authors hypothesized, on the basis of social-cognitive theory, that exposure to televised sexual content would influence adolescents' safe-sex self-efficacy, sex-related outcome expectancies, and percei…
Food Insecurity in a Low-Income, Predominantly African American Cohort Following the Covid-19 Pandemic
Objectives. To examine the impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on food insecurity among a predominantly African American cohort residing in low-income racially isolated neighborhoods. Methods. Residents of 2 low-income African American food desert neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were surveyed from March 23 to May 22, 2020, drawing on a longitudinal cohort (n = 605) previously followed from 2011 to 2018. We examined longitudinal trends in food…
Patterns and Correlates of Deliberate Abstinence Among Men and Women With HIV/Aids
Objectives. We examined correlates of deliberate sexual abstinence among gay/bisexual men, heterosexual men, and women in a national probability sample of adults with HIV. Methods. Participants in the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS; n=1339) answered questions about oral, anal, or vaginal sexual intercourse in the past 6 months; those who reported none of these behaviors (n=415) were asked about their reasons for abstinence. Of the…
Improved Street Walkability, Incivilities, and Esthetics Are Associated with Greater Park Use in Two Low-Income Neighborhoods
Media Multitasking: Issues Posed in Measuring the Effects of Television Sexual Content Exposure
Adolescents who see more sexual content on television are more likely to initiate intercourse over the subsequent year. The present study hypothesized that use of the internet while watching television would moderate this relationship. Internet use might either strengthen or weaken the association between television-viewing and sex; various theories conflict in their predictions. A national sample of 1,762 12-17 year olds completed a telephone su…
WhatsApp-propriate? Exploring "WhatsApp" as a Tool for Research Among Ghanaian Immigrants in the United States
Changes in psychosocial wellbeing over a five-year period in two predominantly Black Pittsburgh neighbourhoods: A comparison between gentrifying and non-gentrifying census tracts
Gentrification often leads to changes within urban neighbourhoods. While redevelopment and investment may improve the built environment in gentrifying neighbourhoods, there may be disruptive impacts that affect health and wellbeing for existing residents. A growing body of literature explores the impact of gentrification on the psychosocial wellbeing of residents. This study sought to understand gentrification’s effects on three aspects of psycho…
Do investments in low-income neighborhoods produce objective change in health-related neighborhood conditions
Does state self‐control depletion predict relationship functioning and partner aggression? An ecological momentary assessment study of community couples
Intimate relationship functioning depends upon the ability to accommodate one's partner and to inhibit retaliatory and aggressive impulses when disagreements arise. However, accommodation and inhibition may be difficult when self‐control strength is weak or depleted by prior exertion of self‐control. The present study considered whether state self‐control depletion prospectively predicts male and female self‐reports of anger with partner and argu…
Social determinants of alcohol consumption: The effects of social interaction and model status on the self-administration of alcohol.
Personal involvement and the evaluation of group products
This research examined favouritism in group product evaluations as a function of personal involvement. After being divided into groups on an arbitrary basis, subjects worked at a group brainstorming task. Some subjects then assessed the merits of their own group's product relative to that of an outgroup's product, whereas other subjects assessed the merits of an ingroup's product relative to that of an outgroup's product. In both conditions, a si…
The vividness effect: Elusive or illusory
Self-esteem and direct versus indirect forms of self-enhancement
Two studies explored the relation between self-esteem and self-enhancement biases. It was proposed that people with high self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is directly linked to positive identities and outcomes, whereas people with low self-esteem engage in forms of self-enhancement in which the self is indirectly linked to positive identities and outcomes. To test the hypothesis, we examined group favoritism as a f…
A Better World or a Shattered Vision? Changes in Life Perspectives Following Victimization
Previous research has separately documented positive (Taylor, 1983) and negative (Janoff-Bulman, 1989) changes in beliefs following victimization. An integration of these literatures is proposed, considering the coping responses of the victim, the area of belief examined, and attributes of the victimizing event as mediators of change valence. Fifty-five cancer patients were interviewed concerning changes experienced in self-views, views of the wo…
The affective consequences of social comparison: Either direction has its ups and downs
Research on social comparison processes has assumed that a comparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present two studies proposed and found that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study …
Social comparison and the drive upward revisited: Affiliation as a response to marital stress
To test theoretical ideas derived from classic and recent social comparison theory, two studies examined affiliative tendencies as a response to marital problems among individuals varying in marital dissatisfaction. Study 1 ( n. = 632) showed that the higher the degree of marital dissatisfaction and the higher the uncertainty about how things are going in one's marriage, the stronger was the desire for affiliation (operationalized as the desire t…
The Role of Emotion in Social Support Provision: Gender, Empathy and Expressions of Distress
Two studies examined the association between emotion-related factors and intentions to provide social support to a distressed peer. In both studies, providers' gender and their level of dispositional empathy were related to anticipated support provision. Women and persons high in trait empathy were more supportive than men and persons low in trait empathy. Consistent with predictions, the gender effect was largely mediated by that of empathy. Stu…
For better or worse: The impact of upward social comparison on self-evaluations
Upward social comparison is generally regarded as ego deflating, yet people often compare themselves with those whose abilities and attributes are better than their own. Upward comparison provides useful information, which may partially account for this behavior. Furthermore, it is proposed that upw
Women's Descriptions of Drinking in Bars: Reasons and Risks
Health-related quality of life in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection in the United States: Results from the HIV cost and services utilization study
Coping, Conflictual Social Interactions, Social Support, and Mood Among HIV‐Infected Persons
This study considers the interrelationships among coping, conflictual social interactions, and social support, as well as their combined associations with positive and negative mood. Research has shown that each of these variables affects adjustment to stressful circumstances. Few studies, however, examine this full set of variables simultaneously. One hundred forty HIV‐infected persons completed a questionnaire containing measures of coping, soc…
A National Survey of Stress Reactions after the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks
BACKGROUND: People who are not present at a traumatic event may also experience stress reactions. We assessed the immediate mental health effects of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. METHODS: Using random-digit dialing three to five days after September 11, we interviewed a nationally representative sample of 569 U.S. adults about their reactions to the terrorist attacks and their perceptions of their children's reactions. RESULTS: For…
Fertility Desires and Intentions of HIV-Positive Men and Women
CONTEXT: HIV-positive men and women may have fertility desires and may intend to have children. The extent of these desires and intentions and how they may vary by individuals' social and demographic characteristics and health factors is not well understood. METHODS: Interviews were conducted from September through December 1998 with 1,421 HIV-infected adults who were part of the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study, a nationally representativ…
Substance Use and High-Risk Sex Among People with HIV: A Comparison Across Exposure Groups
Alcohol consumption and the occurrence and severity of aggression: An event‐based analysis of male to male barroom violence
Although a considerable body of experimental research supports the contention that alcohol facilitates aggression, some investigators have argued that these findings cannot be generalized to actual occurrences of aggression. Moreover, controversy continues concerning whether expectancies supporting alcohol's influence on aggression moderate the relationship. The present study is an event‐based examination of the relationship between alcohol consu…
Sex Without Disclosure of Positive HIV Serostatus in a US Probability Sample of Persons Receiving Medical Care for HIV Infection
Objectives. We estimated the proportion of HIV-positive adults who have any sexual contact without disclosure and the proportion of their sexual partnerships that involve unprotected sex without disclosure. Methods. We drew participants from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (n = 1421). Interviews assessed disclosure and sexual activities with up to 5 recent partners. Results. Overall, 42% of the gay or bisexual men, 19% of the heterose…
Watching Sex on Television Predicts Adolescent Initiation of Sexual Behavior
Background. Early sexual initiation is an important social and health issue. A recent survey suggested that most sexually experienced teens wish they had waited longer to have intercourse; other data indicate that unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are more common among those who begin sexual activity earlier. The American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that portrayals of sex on entertainment television (TV) may contribu…
Abuse in the Close Relationships of People With HIV
The Emotional and Behavioral Impact of Terrorism on Children: Results from a National Survey
To examine the emotional and behavioral impact of terrorism on children across the country, telephone interviews were conducted with a national probability sample of 395 parents of 5- to 18-year-old children from November 9 to 28, 2001. Parents reported on child emotional and behavioral reactions to terrorism, parent-child discussions about terrorism, and terrorism-related school activities. Thirty percent of parents reported more than 4 terroris…
Substance Use and Early Marriage
Prior work indicates that substance use is related to adolescent marriage. We describe two different processes that may account for this relationship and hypothesize patterns of association that would be consistent or inconsistent with each. Using data from a study that followed west coast youth from 7th grade to young adulthood (N = 3,324), we assessed the effects of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in 7th and 10th grade on the probability …
Does alcohol advertising promote adolescent drinking? Results from a longitudinal assessment
Aims To examine the relationship between exposure to different forms of alcohol advertising and subsequent drinking among US adolescents and assess whether exposure to an alcohol and drug prevention program mitigates any such relationship. Design Regression models with multiple control variables examined the relationship between exposure to alcohol advertising in grade 8 and grade 9 drinking for two groups of South Dakotan adolescents: (1) sevent…
Perceived discrimination in clinical care in a nationally representative sample of HIV-infected adults receiving health care
Isolating the Nexus of Substance Use, Violence and Sexual Risk for HIV Infection Among Young Adults in the United States
The Association of Partner Abuse with Risky Sexual Behaviors Among Women and Men with HIV/Aids
Psychology (56 works) · Medicine (48 works) · Social Psychology (36 works) · Demography (31 works) · Environmental health (29 works) · Developmental psychology (27 works) · Clinical Psychology (26 works) · Psychiatry (21 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Population (18 works)